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72,959,651 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium%20laurate | Potassium laurate is a metal-organic compound with the chemical formula . The compound is classified as a metallic soap, i.e. a metal derivative of a fatty acid (lauric acid).
Synthesis
Potassium laurate can be prepared via a reaction of lauric acid and potassium hydroxide.
Physical properties
Soluble in water. Soluble in ethyl benzene.
Forms powder or light-tan paste.
Uses
The compound is used in the cosmetics industry as an emulsifier and surfactant.
Also used as a fungicide, insecticide, and bactericide.
References
Laurates
Potassium compounds | Potassium laurate | [
"Chemistry"
] | 121 | [
"Inorganic compounds",
"Inorganic compound stubs"
] |
72,959,682 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad%20control | In statistics, bad controls are variables that introduce an unintended discrepancy between regression coefficients and the effects that said coefficients are supposed to measure. These are contrasted with confounders which are "good controls" and need to be included to remove omitted variable bias. This issue arises when a bad control is an outcome variable (or similar to) in a causal model and thus adjusting for it would eliminate part of the desired causal path. In other words, bad controls might as well be dependent variables in the model under consideration. Angrist and Pischke (2008) additionally differentiate two types of bad controls: a simple bad-control scenario and proxy-control scenario where the included variable partially controls for omitted factors but is partially affected by the variable of interest. Pearl (1995) provides a graphical method for determining good controls using causality diagrams and the back-door criterion and front-door criterion.
Examples
Simple bad control
A simplified example studies effect of education on wages . In this thought experiment, two levels of education are possible: lower and higher and two types of jobs are performed: white-collar and blue-collar work. When considering the causal effect of education on wages of an individual, it might be tempting to control for the work-type , however, work type is a mediator () in the causal relationship between education and wages (see causal diagram) and thus, controlling for it precludes causal inference from the regression coefficients.
Bad proxy-control
Another example of bad control is when attempting to control for innate ability when estimating effect of education on wages . In this example, innate ability (thought of as for example IQ at pre-school age) is a variable influencing wages , but its value is unavailable to researchers at the time of estimation. Instead they choose before-work IQ test scores , or late ability, as a proxy variable to estimate innate ability and perform regression from education to wages adjusting for late ability. Unfortunately, late ability (in this thought experiment) is causally determined by education and innate ability and, by controlling for it, researchers introduced collider bias into their model by opening a back-door path previously not present in their model. On the other hand, if both links and are strong, one can expect strong (non-causal) correlation between and and thus large omitted-variable bias if is not controlled for. This issue, however, is separate from the causality problem.
References
Statistical concepts | Bad control | [
"Mathematics"
] | 495 | [
"Statistical concepts"
] |
72,959,724 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic%20signs%20by%20country | This article is a summary of traffic signs used in each country.
Road sign colours
Roads can be motorways, expressways or other routes. In many countries, expressways share the same colour as primary routes, but there are some exceptions where they share the colour of motorways (Austria, Liechtenstein, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden) or have their own colour (the countries comprising former Yugoslavia employ white text on blue specifically for expressways).
When it comes to motorways and route colours, the following schemes are adopted:
white-on-green (), white-on-blue (): employed in Albania, all countries of the former Soviet Union (except Estonia and Latvia), the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece (although Greek text is displayed in yellow), Italy, Liechtenstein, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, most of the Asian and American continents, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
white-on-blue (), black-on-white (freeway): employed in Austria, Estonia and Latvia.
white-on-green (), black-on-yellow (): employed in the countries of former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and North Macedonia).
white-on-green (), red-on-white (freeway): only employed in Denmark.
white-on-blue (), white-on-green (): employed in France, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Chile, Morocco, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
white-on-blue (), black-on-yellow (): employed in Germany and Norway.
black-on-yellow (): employed in Iceland (where there are no expressways or motorways).
white-on-blue for both (): employed in the Netherlands.
white-on-green for both (): employed in China and Sweden.
Local traffic road signs usually employ black text on white. Exceptions are the Czech Republic (yellow-on-black), Finland (white-on-black), Austria and Spain (white-on-green), as well as Denmark, Iceland and Poland (blue-on-white).
Tourist sighting signs usually employ white on some shade of brown. Detours use black on a shade of yellow or orange.
Typefaces
Typefaces used in road signage varies across countries. Usually a country will have a standardized typeface throughout the country. In some countries however, it is not unlikely to find other typefaces in use — as well as road signs with the wrong typeface printed by manufacturers who default on some other font. The following list show-cases what is the mostly standardized typeface of each country, outlining however significant variations.
Arial (Example), typically Arial Bold, is used exclusively in Azerbaijan and Mongolia, as well as in Laos for English text or Latin transliterations.
Arial Narrow is used in Estonia, with wider letter spacing.
Arial Black is frequently used in Algeria and Tunisia for Latin transliterations.
Arial, which was Microsoft's default typeface during 1992–2007 period, is often used as alternative to the standard typeface in Belarus, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Slovenia, Taiwan, Turkey and Ukraine.
ASV Codar (مثال) is used for Arabic text in Morocco.
Boutros Advertisers Naskh is used for Arabic text in Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
A condensed version of Boutros Advertisers is used in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq for Sorani text.
Caractères (Example) is used in France, as well as in Francophone Africa, Haiti and Monaco.
Clearview (Example) is used in some states in the United States, some provinces in Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines and Sri Lanka. It is used on urban roads in Israel.
DIN 1451 (Example) used in Germany, as well as in Brunei, the Czech Republic, Greece (on motorways), Latvia, Singapore, Syria, Vietnam (under the name Giaothong) and the SADC countries (of which Angola formerly using Transport, Madagascar formerly using Caractères and Namibia formerly using Highway Gothic)
Austria is a variant of DIN 1451 that was used in Austria until 2010.
Hungary does not use a defined typeface; however it resembles DIN 1451 closely (Example).
An older variant of DIN 1451 is used in Iraq for English text or Latin transliterations.
Fathi is the typeface used for Arabic text in Egypt.
Frutiger (Example) is used in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as for the numbers in Japan.
Gill Sans (Example) was used on road signs in East Germany in 1978–1990 before reunification, formerly using DIN 1451 like West Germany.
GOST 10807-78 (EXAMPLE/ПРИМЕР/მაგალითი/ՕՐԻՆԱԿ) is used in most countries formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Hangil and Panno (Example/예) are both used in South Korea.
Helvetica (Example) is used in Åland, Andorra, Luxembourg. It was formerly used in Japan and South Korea.
Cambodia and China use Helvetica for English texts or Latin transliterations.
Helvetica is used in Israel for English texts or Latin transliterations under the name Triumvirat.
Highway Gothic (Example), also known as FHWA Series, is the primary choice in the United States and most of the MUTCD-influenced countries, as well as Argentina (under the name Roadgeek 2000), Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, SICA countries and Uruguay. It was formerly used in Spain for motorway signs (under the name ).
China, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Thailand use Highway Gothic for English texts or Latin transliterations.
RWS (formerly ANWB), is the typeface used in the Netherlands, derived from Highway Gothic.
Two derivations of Highway Gothic are used in Turkey— (for motorways) and (for other roads).
Hiragino and Vialog (Example/例) are both used in Japan.
Medina Lt Bold is used for Arabic text in Israel.
(Example/Приклад) is used in Ukraine (using GOST 10807-78 until 2021).
Ruta CL (Example/Ejemplo) is used in Chile, formerly used Highway Gothic.
Sulekha TE Bold is used in Bangladesh, employing Transport for English text or Latin transliterations.
SNV (Example) is used in Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Romania, all countries of the former Yugoslavia. It was used in Switzerland until 2003.
Tamrurim, also known as Touring (דוגמא), is used in Israel for Hebrew text. For urban roads, Narkiss Tam is used instead.
Tern (Example) is used in Austria and Slovakia.
Tipografía México (Example/Ejemplo) is used in Mexico, formerly used Highway Gothic.
Traditional Arabic is used in Tunisia for Arabic text.
Traffic is the typeface used for Persian text in Iran.
Trafikkalfabetet (Example) is used in Norway.
Transport (Example) is used in the United Kingdom, as well as in Ireland, Iceland, Greece (on non-motorway signs), Anglophone Africa, Anglophone Caribbean (Lesser Antilles), Malta and Portugal.
An oblique variant (Example/Sampla) is used in Ireland for Irish text.
Additionally, the United Kingdom and Ireland have a separate typeface called Motorway to display route numbers on motorway signs. This font is also used for the numerals of route numbers as well as exit numbers in Portugal and Yemen.
Bangladesh, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Kuwait, Nepal, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen use Transport for English texts or Latin transliterations.
is a bolder variant of Transport used in Albania, Burundi, Italy, Lebanon, San Marino, Sierra Leone, the Vatican City and some parts of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. A condensed version——is also used.
LLM Lettering is used for expressways in Malaysia, derived from .
, also known as CCRIGE, is a bolder variant of Transport used in Spain and Equatorial Guinea.
Dansk Vejtavleskrift is a variant of Transport used in Denmark. It uses unique numerals as well as having wider letter spacing.
Tratex (Example) is used in Sweden and Åland.
Universal Grotesk (Example) was used in Czechoslovakia and continued to be used in Slovakia until 2014.
Finland does not use a defined typeface. It is regulated by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency.
Poland does not use a defined typeface, though digitized versions have been made.
Thailand does not use a defined typeface for Thai text—it is instead defined letter-by-letter by the .
In the city of Bangkok, another typeface is used, supplied by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. It notably makes use of open "heads" for letters.
The rest of the world usually employs Transport, Highway Gothic or Arial for the Latin text, and a sans-serif font for the non-Latin text which may or may not have a specific name. Libya has the peculiarity of sign-posting in Arabic only and employing no Latin text.
Some countries may prefer to write cities and town names in all-uppercase (among which: Albania, Bangladesh, Burundi, the Czech Republic, Finland, France and former colonies, Ireland for place names in English, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, China and North Korea, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sweden, all of the former Soviet Union except for Ukraine), others instead prefer to use normal mixed case names.
Africa
Generally, road signs in African countries closely follow those used in Europe, but most African countries have not ratified the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals.
Although the Trans-African Highway network exists, Trans-African route numbers are not signed at all in any African country, except Kenya and Uganda where the Mombasa–Nairobi–Kampala–Fort Portal section (or the Kampala–Kigali feeder road) of Trans-African Highway 8 is sometimes referred to as the "Trans-Africa Highway".
In member states of the Southern African Development Community, road signs are based on the SADC Road Traffic Signs Manual, a document designed to harmonise traffic signs in these countries. However, not all member states have adopted the SADC-RTSM, and those that have may not use all signs listed in the SADC-RTSM or may use regional variations.
Angola
Road signs in Angola are particularly modelled on the Portuguese road signs since Angola is a former Portuguese colony. Since the country is a member of the Southern African Development Community, road signs are going to be harmonised with the traffic signs in member states of the Community according to the SADC Road Traffic Signs Manual despite they are transitional in nature.
Botswana
Highway signs use white text on green backgrounds.
Burundi
Road signs in Burundi are similar in appearance to those used in Italy with certain distinctions. They are written in French in uppercase letters.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Road signs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are largely derived on the Belgian road signs since the DRC is a former Belgian colony. They are written in French.
Egypt
Road signs in Egypt are regulated under the Egypt Traffic Signs Manual (ETSM). They closely follow those used in the United Kingdom with certain distinctions. They are written in Arabic and English.
Eswatini
Mauritius
Road signs in Mauritius are regulated by the Traffic Signs Regulations 1990. They are largely derived from the British road sign system since Mauritius is a former British colony.
Namibia
Nigeria
Road signs in Nigeria do not differ greatly from those used in the rest of the African continent. However, it notably makes use of a yellow background for warning and prohibitory signs, as well as yellow text for the stop sign.
Sierra Leone
Road signs in Sierra Leone are similar in appearance to those used in Italy with certain distinctions. They are written in English in uppercase letters.
Somalia
Road signs in Somalia are similar in appearance to those used in Italy with certain distinctions. They are written in Arab and Somali.
South Africa
Tanzania
Uganda
Road signs in Uganda are largely derived from the British road sign system since the country is a former British colony.
Zambia
Asia
Road signs in Asia differ by country. Typically, Asian countries closely follow Europe in terms of road sign design, which means they are influenced by the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, though a number of countries' signage has been influenced from the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), for example Cambodia, Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Asian Highway Network signs are marked using white letters on a dark blue background. In Turkey and Russia, European route numbers are indicated using white characters on a green rectangle and are signposted; however this is not the case in many other Asian countries.
Armenia
Road signs in Armenia are similar in design to those used in the Soviet Union before its collapse in 1991 as the country was a Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991. Modern road signs used in Armenia generally maintain the same design as those used in Russia, with the exception that inscriptions on road signs are written in both Armenian and English, including the stop sign.
Azerbaijan
Road signs in Azerbaijan are similar in design to those used in the Soviet Union before its collapse in 1991 as the country was a Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991.
Bangladesh
Cambodia
In Cambodia, road signs are prescribed by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport. Cambodian road signage practice closely follows those used in Europe — with the exception of warning signs which follow the American MUTCD — matching these designs used in other Asian countries like Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
China
A variety of road signs are used in mainland China, specified in the Guobiao standard GB 5678–2009. Most road signs in China, like warning signs, appear to adopt the practices of the ISO standards not intended for use in traffic signage, which are ISO 3864 and ISO 7010.
Warning signs in China are triangular with a black border, yellow background and black symbol.
Mandatory signs generally follow European conventions (circular with red border/blue circle) with some local variations.
Direction signs have these colours:
Green for expressways
Brown for tourist attractions
Blue for other roads
Occasionally, black on white is used for directions to local facilities.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong's traffic signs are derived from the British road sign system, and are bilingual in English and Chinese (English on top, and traditional Chinese characters at the bottom).
Macau
Road signs in Macau are inherited from Portuguese road signage system prior to 1994/1998. Inscriptions are written in Chinese (traditional Chinese characters) and Portuguese.
Taiwan
Road signs in Taiwan are reminiscent of the early 1940s Japanese road signage, which was used in Japan itself until 1950. Overall, Taiwan is lenient towards European road signs in terms of design, but with some influences from road signs used in Japan and China, as well as the MUTCD for guide signs and temporary signs (amber rhombic warning signs).
Georgia
Road signs in Georgia are mostly inherited from those used in the former Soviet Union, but with some modifications in design. Inscriptions on road signs are usually written in Georgian and English.
India
Road signs in the Republic of India are similar to those used in some parts of the United Kingdom, except that they are multilingual. Most urban roads and state highways have signs in the state language and English. National highways have signs in the state language and English.
Indonesia
Iran
Road signs in Iran mainly follow the Vienna Convention. Text is written in Persian and English.
Iraq
Road signs in Iraq are regulated in Chapter 11 of the Highway Geometric Design Code. They are written in Arabic and English.
Israel
Road signs in Israel mainly follow the Vienna Convention, but have some variants. Many signs are trilingual, with text written in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
Japan
Road signs in Japan are either controlled by local police authorities under or by other road-controlling entities including Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, local municipalities, NEXCO (companies controlling expressways), under . Most of the design of the road signs in Japan are similar to the signs on the Vienna Convention, except for some significant variances, such as stop sign with a red downward triangle.
Kazakhstan
The design of road signs in Kazakhstan is largely based on that of the former Soviet Union. Inscriptions on road signs, including the names of settlements and streets, are usually written in two languages: Kazakh and Russian.
Korea
Both North Korea and South Korea developed their own road signage systems.
Road signs in South Korea are standardised and regulated by the Korean Road Traffic Authority. South Korean road signage closely follows those used in Europe, but with some influences from road signs in Japan. Similar to road signs of Poland and Greece, road signs are triangular, have a yellow background and a red border. Like other countries, the signs use pictograms to display their meaning.
Road signs in North Korea differ by locale. Most of the time, they tend to closely follow China in design (but identically), and some road signs are unique to North Korea (such as an exclamation mark drawn on another sign to indicate other dangers), so they never appear elsewhere. The font used for Latin letters appear to be the same as in China.
South Korea keeps close to the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals as South Korea is an original signatory. On the other hand, North Korea is not a signatory to the convention and instead designs its own signs, creating confusion.
Kuwait
Road signs in Kuwait are regulated under the Kuwait Traffic Signs Manual (KTSM). They closely follow those used in the United Kingdom with certain distinctions as well as Egypt and Qatar. They are written in Arabic and English.
Kyrgyzstan
The design of road signs in Kyrgyzstan is largely based on that of the former Soviet Union.
Laos
Malaysia
Mongolia
The design of road signs in Mongolia is largely based on that of the former Soviet Union, despite having never been part of it. Inscriptions on road signs are usually written in Mongolian and English.
Nepal
Pakistan
Philippines
Road signs in the Philippines are standardized in the Road Signs and Pavement Markings Manual, published by the Department of Public Works and Highways. Philippine road signage practice closely follow those used in Europe, but with local adaptations and some minor influences from the US MUTCD and Australian road signs. However, some road signs may differ by locale, and mostly diverge from the national standard. For example, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has used pink and light blue in its signage for which it has been heavily criticised.
Regulatory road signs are generally circular, and most warning signs take the form of a triangle. Since 2012, however, a more visibly distinctive design (taken from that used for school signs in the US) has been adopted for pedestrian-related signs: these consist of a fluorescent yellow-green pentagon with black border and symbol.
The Philippines signed the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals on 8 November 1968, and ratified it on 27 December 1973.
Russia
Road signs in the Asian part of Russia follow the Vienna Convention, specified in the GOST standard 52290-2004 (the Soviet Union was an original signatory to the convention, but only a few post-Soviet states are signatories to the convention). However, direction signs in the Asian part of Russia omit European route numbers (which are used in the European part), replaced by Asian route numbers, which are dark blue in background with white lettering, with a few exceptions. The same also apples to road signs used in Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Russia signed the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals on 8 November 1968 and ratified it on 7 June 1974.
Saudi Arabia
Road signs in Saudi Arabia are generally written in Arabic and English. A particular aspect of Saudi signage is that they indicate areas which are forbidden to non-Muslims in the cities of Mecca and Medina.
Singapore
Singapore's traffic signs closely follow British road sign conventions, although the government has introduced some changes to them.
Sri Lanka
Tajikistan
Thailand
Road signs in Thailand are standardised and are uniform throughout the country. Since the late twentieth century, Thai road signage practice closely follows the designs used in the United States, Europe and Japan. Road signs are often written in Thai language and display in metric units. In tourist areas, English is also used for important public places such as tourist attractions, airports, railway stations, and immigration checkpoints. Destinations on direction signage is written are written in both Thai and English.
Thailand signed the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals on 8 November 1968 but has yet to fully ratify it.
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Road signs in Turkmenistan are mostly based on those used in the Soviet Union before its dissolution in 1991. However, modern road signs in Turkmenistan are similar to those used in Turkey.
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Road signs in Uzbekistan are very similar in design to those used in the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991, as the country was a Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991, when it declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Modern road signs in Uzbekistan on the one hand follow modern road signs used in Russia from the GOST R 52290-2004 standard, but on the other hand follow road signs from European countries such as Spain, Germany and Italy.
Vietnam
Yemen
Road signs in Yemen are regulated under the Yemen Highway Design Standards (YHDS). They closely follow those used in Portugal with certain distinctions. They are written in Arabic and English.
Previously, the Colony of Aden (which later became South Yemen in 1967 prior to the Yemeni unification in 1990) used pre-Worboys road signs like many former British colonies.
Europe
The standardization of traffic signs in Europe commenced with the signing of the 1931 Geneva Convention concerning the Unification of Road Signals by several countries. The 1931 Convention rules were developed in the 1949 Geneva Protocol on Road Signs and Signals and a European Agreement supplementing the 1949 Protocol.
In 1968, the European countries signed the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic treaty, with the aim of standardizing traffic regulations in participating countries to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety. Part of the treaty was the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, which defined the traffic signs and signals. As a result, in Western Europe the traffic signs are well standardized, although there are still some country-specific exceptions, mostly dating from the pre-1968 era.
The principle of the European traffic sign standard is that certain shapes and colours are to be used with consistent meanings:
Triangular signs (black symbols on a white or yellow background) warn of dangers. The Vienna Convention additionally allows an alternative shape for such signs, namely a right-angled diamond – although in Europe this shape is regularly used only in Ireland.
Regulatory signs are round: those indicating a prohibition or limit are black on white (or yellow) with a red border; those giving a mandatory order are white on blue.
Informational and various other secondary signs are of rectangular shape.
The animals which may be depicted on warning signs include cattle, deer, ducks, elk, frogs, horses, sheep, monkeys (in Gibraltar), and polar bears (on Svalbard). The Convention allows any animal image to be used.
The signposting of road numbers also differs greatly, except that European route numbers, if displayed, are always indicated using white characters on a green rectangle. European route numbers are, however, not signed at all in the United Kingdom, Albania, Iceland and Andorra.
The Convention recommends that certain signs – such as "STOP", "ZONE", etc. – be in English; however, use of the local language is also permitted. If a language uses non-Latin characters, a Latin-script transliteration of the names of cities and other important places should also be given. Road signs in Ireland are bilingual, using Irish and English. Wales similarly uses bilingual Welsh–English signs, while some parts of Scotland have bilingual Scottish Gaelic–English signs. Finland also uses bilingual signs, in Finnish and Swedish. Signs in Belgium are in French, Dutch, or German depending on the region. In the Brussels Capital Region, road signs are in both French and Dutch. Signs in Switzerland are in French, German, Italian, or Romansh depending on the canton.
For countries driving on the left, the convention stipulates that the traffic signs should be mirror images of those used in countries driving on the right. This practice, however, is not systematically followed in the four European countries driving on the left – the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Malta and Ireland. The convention permits the use of two background colours for danger and prohibition signs: white or yellow. Most countries use white, with a few – such as Finland, Iceland, Poland and Sweden – opting for yellow as this tends to improve the winter-time visibility of signs in areas where snow is prevalent. In some countries, such as France or Italy, white is the normal background colour for such signs, but yellow is used for temporary signage (as, for example, at road works).
European countries – with the notable exception of the United Kingdom, where distances and lengths are indicated in miles, yards, feet, and inches, and speed limits are expressed in miles per hour – use the metric system on road signs.
European traffic signs have been designed with the principles of heraldry in mind; i.e., the sign must be clear and able to be resolved at a glance. Most traffic signs conform to heraldic tincture rules, and use symbols rather than written texts for better semiotic clarity.
Albania
Albanian road signs are predominantly based on the Italian sign system, hence both follow the same convention on road sign design set out by the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals.
Andorra
Road signs in Andorra are similar to those set out in the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals. Its direction signage is always white. Other signs, such as warning and regulatory, are identical to those used in Spain.
Unlike other European countries, route numbers are not always shown. This can cause problems for drivers from neighbouring European countries when trying to find an international destination.
Austria
Belarus
Road signs in Belarus are visually not much different from those neighboring post-Soviet countries like Russia and Ukraine. Inscriptions on road signs, including names of settlements, are written in Belarusian or Russian, most often in Belarusian.
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Croatian road signs follow the Vienna Convention (SFR Yugoslavia was the original signatory for Croatia, which is now a contracting party itself).
In the first years following Croatia's independence, its traffic signs were the same as in the rest of the former Yugoslavia. In the early 2000s, replacement of the yellow background of warning signs began, and new signs now use a white background.
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
While road signs in Greece do largely resemble those in use elsewhere in Europe, a notable exception to this is the use of a yellow background for warning signs.
Hungary
Iceland
Although Iceland is not a signatory to the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, road signs in Iceland follow the Vienna Convention guidelines. Warning and regulatory, specifically prohibitory, signs use a yellow background.
Ireland
Until the partition of Ireland in 1922 and the independence of the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland), British standards applied across the island. In 1926 road sign standards similar to those used in the UK at the time were adopted. Law requires that the signs be written in both Irish and English.
In 1956, warning road signs in the Republic were changed from the UK standard with the adoption of US-style "diamond" signs for many road hazard warnings. A number of regulatory signs were also introduced.
Directional signage is similar to current United Kingdom standards, in that the same colours and typefaces are used. However, Irish text is rendered in a unique oblique variant of the Transport typeface.
In line with the majority of Europe, Ireland uses the metric system, which has been displayed on directional signs based on the Worboys Committee standard since 1977 and, upon adopting metric speed limits, on speed limit signs since 2005.
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Road signs in Liechtenstein use the same design as those used in Switzerland.
Lithuania
Malta
Road signs in Malta use a mixture of British and Italian designs. As Malta drives on the left, some Italian signs are therefore mirrored to reflect this system. Information signs are often bilingual, displaying text English and Maltese.
Moldova
Road signs in Moldova are in some ways similar in design to those used in the Soviet Union before its dissolution in 1991. However, modern road signs in Moldova tend to follow those used in Romania.
Montenegro
Netherlands
Road signs in the Netherlands follow the Vienna Convention. Its directional signs are unique in that blue is the only colour used for the background, regardless of the classification of the road.
Information intended for cyclists always appear on white signs with red or green letters.
The Dutch RWS (formerly ANWB) typeface was replaced by a new font, named ANWB-Uu (also known as Redesign), on some signs in the country. The typeface was developed in 1997 and appeared on many signs but has been discontinued since 2015. The language of the signs is typically Dutch, though bilingual signs may be used when the information is relevant for tourists.
Norway
Poland
The road signs in Poland follow the Vienna convention. Poland uses yellow as the background colour for warning signs (an alternative allowed under the convention), rather than the much more widely adopted white.
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Road signs in Russia follow the Vienna Convention, specified in the GOST standard 52290-2004 (the Soviet Union was an original signatory to the convention, but only a few post-Soviet states are signatories to the convention).
European route numbers are signposted on direction signs in the European part of Russia, but are replaced by Asian Highway route numbers in the Asian part.
In February 2019, the traffic police has supported proposals for the introduction of reduced sizes of road signs. The idea was initiated by the Moscow government. They are planned to be installed throughout Russia after a successful experiment. The allowable size of signs will be reduced to in diameter, and in some cases to , which is almost half the current standard of .
Serbia
Slovakia
Modern road signs in use in Slovakia since 2019 are similar in design to those used in Germany, though the main difference is the typeface used. Road signs from before 2019 are permitted to be left in place until 2034.
Spain
Sweden
Road signs in Sweden mostly follow the Vienna Convention, though it notably uses yellow for the background of its warning and prohibitory signs. City names are written in uppercase letters.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Swiss road signs mostly follow the Vienna Convention with a few adaptations and exceptions. Distances and other measurements are displayed in metric units.
Bicycle and mountain bike routes, and routes for vehicle-like transport means are white text on falu red background.
Ukraine
Road signs in Ukraine broadly conform to European norms, and they are based on the road signage systems used consistently throughout the former USSR. They are written mostly in English and Ukrainian.
United Kingdom
Traffic signing in the UK conforms broadly to European norms, though a number of signs are unique to Britain and direction signs omit European route numbers. The current sign system, introduced on 1 January 1965, was developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s by the Anderson Committee, which established the motorway signing system, and by the Worboys Committee, which reformed signing for existing all-purpose roads.
The UK remains the only Commonwealth country to use imperial measurements for distance and speed, although "authorised weight" signs have been in metric tonnes since 1981 and there is currently a dual-unit (metric first) option for height and width restriction signage, intended for use on safety grounds. Additionally, kilometre signs are installed at intervals of indicating the distance from the start of the motorway.
Signs are generally bilingual in all parts of Wales (English/Welsh or Welsh/English), and similar signs are beginning to be seen in parts of the Scottish Highlands (Scottish Gaelic/English).
All signs and their associated regulations can be found in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions, and are complemented by the various chapters of the Traffic Signs Manual.
Gaelic-speaking Scotland
Wales
North America and Oceania
In North America (including Mexico) these colours normally have these meanings. These are standard but exceptions may exist, especially outside the US:
red with white for stop signs, yield, and forbidden actions (such as No Parking)
green with white letters for informational signs, such as directions, distances, and places
brown with white letters for signs to parks, historic sites, ski areas, forests, and campgrounds
blue with white symbols (or business logos) for rest areas, food, gasoline, hospitals, lodging, and other services
white with black (or red) letters for regulatory signs, such as speed limits (or parking)
yellow with black letters and symbols for warning signs, such as curves and school zones
orange with black letters for temporary traffic control zones and detours associated with road construction
purple for "lanes restricted to use only by vehicles with registered electronic toll collection (ETC) accounts", such as EZPass.
black with white letters or arrows for lane use.
The US Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) prescribes four other colours:
fluorescent yellow-green with black symbols for school zone, school bus stop, pedestrian, playground, and bicycle warning signs
fluorescent pink with black letters and symbols for incident management signs
coral and light blue, which are unassigned but reserved for potential future use.
Regulatory signs are also sometimes seen with white letters on red or black signs. In Quebec, blue is often used for public services such as rest areas; many black-on-yellow signs are red-on-white instead.
Many US states and Canadian provinces now use fluorescent orange for construction signs.
Highway symbols and markers
Every state in the U.S. and province in Canada has different markers for its own highways, but uses standard ones for all federal highways. Many special highways – such as the Queen Elizabeth Way, Trans-Canada Highway, and various auto trails in the U.S. – have used unique signs. Counties in the US sometimes use a pentagonal blue sign with yellow letters for numbered county roads, though the use is inconsistent even within states.
In Australia, the five states have alphanumeric markers for their own highways, based on the Great Britain road numbering scheme of 1963. Tasmania was the first state to implement this scheme in 1979. "M" roads signified motorways, "A" roads signified primary highways, "B" roads signified less significant roads and "C" roads linked smaller settlements. Western Australia never implemented the alphanumeric scheme, instead retaining the shield system.
Units
Distances are displayed using the metric system in all countries except for the United States, where English units are used. However, the MUTCD 2000 and 2003 editions developed by the Federal Highway Administration contain (but rarely used) metric versions of the signs, some of which do get used outside of the US, in particular, Belize and Guyana.
Languages
Where signs use a language, the recognized language/s of the area is normally used. Signs in most of the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are in English. Quebec uses French. In contrast, the New Brunswick, Jacques-Cartier, and Champlain bridges, in Montreal (as well as some parts in the West Island), use both English and French, and a number of other provinces and states, such as Ontario, Manitoba, and Vermont use bilingual French–English signs in certain localities. Mexico uses Spanish. Within a few miles of the US–Mexico border, road signs are often in English and Spanish in places like San Diego, Yuma, and El Paso. Indigenous languages, mainly Nahuatl as well as some Mayan languages, have been used as well.
In both Canada and Mexico, pictorial signs are common compared to the US, where some signs are simply written in English.
Typefaces
The typefaces predominantly used on signs in the US and Canada are the FHWA alphabet series (Series B through Series F and Series E Modified). Details of letter shape and spacing for these alphabet series are given in "Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices", first published by the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) in 1945 and subsequently updated by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). It is now part of Standard Highway Signs (SHS), the companion volume to the MUTCD which gives full design details for signfaces.
Initially, all the alphabet series consisted of uppercase letters and digits only, although lowercase extensions were provided for each alphabet series in a 2002 revision of SHS. Series B through Series F evolved from identically named alphabet series which were introduced in 1927.
Straight-stroke letters in the 1927 series were substantially similar to their modern equivalents, but unrounded glyphs were used for letters such as B, C, D, etc., to permit more uniform fabrication of signs by illiterate painters. Various state highway departments and the federal BPR experimented with rounded versions of these letters in the following two decades.
The modern, rounded alphabet series was finally standardized in 1945 after rounded versions of some letters (with widths loosely appropriate for Series C or D) were specified as an option in the 1935 MUTCD and draft versions of the new typefaces had been used in 1942 for guide signs on the newly constructed Pentagon road network.
The mixed-case alphabet now called Series E Modified, which is the standard for destination legend on freeway guide signs, originally existed in two parts: an all-uppercase Series E Modified, which was essentially similar to Series E, except for a larger stroke width, and a lowercase-only alphabet. Both parts were developed by the California Division of Highways (now Caltrans) for use on freeways in 1948–1950.
Initially, the Division used all-uppercase Series E Modified for button-reflectorized letters on ground-mounted signs and mixed-case legend (lowercase letters with Series D capitals) for externally illuminated overhead guide signs. Several Eastern turnpike authorities blended all-uppercase Series E Modified with the lowercase alphabet for destination legends on their guide signs.
Eventually, this combination was accepted for destination legend in the first manual for signing Interstate highways, which was published in 1958 by the American Association of State Highway Officials and adopted as the national standard by the BPR.
Uses of non-FHWA typefaces
The US National Park Service uses NPS Rawlinson Roadway, a serif typeface, for guide signage; it typically appears on a brown background. Rawlinson has replaced Clarendon as the official NPS typeface, but some states still use Clarendon for recreational signage.
Georgia, in the past, used uppercase Series D with a custom lowercase alphabet on its freeway guide signs; the most distinctive feature of this typeface is the lack of a dot on lowercase i and lowercase j. This was discontinued in 2012. More recent installations appear to include dots.
The Clearview typeface, developed by US researchers to provide improved legibility, is permitted for light legend on dark backgrounds under FHWA interim approval. Clearview has seen widespread use by state departments of transportation in Arkansas, Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. The Kansas Turnpike Authority has also introduced Clearview typeface to some of its newer guide signs along the Kansas Turnpike, but the state of Kansas continues to use the FHWA typefaces for signage on its non-tolled Interstates and freeways.
In Canada, the Ministry of Transportation for the Province of British Columbia specifies Clearview for use on its highway guide signs, and its usage has shown up in Ontario on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway in Toronto and on new 400-series highway installations in Hamilton, Halton and Niagara, as well as street signs in various parts of the province. The font is also being used on newer signs in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec.
It is common for local governments, airport authorities, and contractors to fabricate traffic signs using typefaces other than the FHWA series; Helvetica, Futura and Arial are common choices.
Australia
For road signs in Australia, this is covered by AS 1742 which is unofficially known as Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Australia, and it serves as a similar role to the FHWA MUTCD. As a result, road signs in Australia closely follow those used in America, but some sign designs closely follow the ones used in the United Kingdom.
Australian warning signs have a yellow diamond with a black legend, following America's practice. Australia remains the only country that still has the text-based version of the low-clearance signage. (Most other countries now use vertical arrows in between the clearance height.)
Australian temporary warning signs are rectangular, following the United Kingdom practice, but they differ from the British temporary warning signs by having a yellow, or an orange background instead.
Australian regulatory signs are similar to those used in America, except (at least since 1974) the speed limit signs which bear the red circle legend.
Canada
For road signs in Canada, the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) publishes its own Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Canada for use by Canadian jurisdictions. Although it serves a similar role to the FHWA MUTCD, it has been independently developed and has a number of key differences with its US counterpart, most notably the inclusion of bilingual (English/French) signage for jurisdictions such as New Brunswick and Ontario with significant anglophone and francophone population, a heavier reliance on symbols rather than text legends and metric measurements instead of imperial.
The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) also has historically used its own MUTCD which bore many similarities to the TAC MUTCDC. However, as of approximately 2000, MTO has been developing the Ontario Traffic Manual (OTM), a series of smaller volumes each covering different aspects of traffic control (e.g., regulatory signs, warning signs, sign design principles, traffic signals, etc.).
Central America
Road signs in Central American countries heavily influenced by US MUTCD but used metric units instead of imperial/US units and regulated under , a Central American equivalent to US MUTCD published by the Central American Integration System (SICA).
Mexico
Road signs in Mexico are influenced by road signs in America, and are published under Manual de Dispositivos para el Control del Tránsito en Calles y Carreteras. It serves as a similar role to the FHWA MUTCD, but is independently developed and has a number of key differences with the US counterpart, and the language used is Mexican Spanish. Like Canada but unlike America, Mexico had a heavier reliance on symbols than text legends, and metric measurements instead of imperial.
New Zealand
New Zealand road signs are generally influenced both by American and European practices.
Warning signs are diamond-shaped with a yellow background for permanent warnings, and an orange background for temporary warnings. They are somewhat more pictorial than their American counterparts. This is also true for Canadian and Mexican signage.
Regulatory signs also follow European practice, with a white circle with a red border indicating prohibitive actions, and a blue circle indicating mandatory actions. White rectangular signs with a red border indicate lane usage directions. Information and direction signs are rectangular, with a green background indicating a state highway, a blue background for all other roads and all services (except in some, where directional signage is white), and a brown background for tourist attractions.
Before 1987, most road signs had black backgrounds – diamonds indicated warnings, and rectangles indicated regulatory actions (with the exception of the Give Way sign (an inverted trapezium), and Stop sign and speed limit signs (which were the same as today)). Information signs were yellow, and direction signage was green on motorways and black everywhere else.
Papua New Guinea
Road signs in Papua New Guinea are standardised and closely follow those used in Australia with certain distinctions. They are written in English.
United States
Road signs in the United States are, for the most part, standardized by federal regulations, most notably in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and its companion volume the Standard Highway Signs (SHS). The MUTCD was most recently updated on 19 December 2023, when the 11th edition was released, and became effective on 18 January 2024, 30 days after publication. States have two years after the effective date to do one of the following options: adopt the revised MUTCD, adopt the revised MUTCD with a state supplement, or adopt a state-specific MUTCD.
Puerto Rico
Road signs in Puerto Rico share the same design as those used in the mainland United States, but with inscriptions in Spanish instead of English, since Spanish is an official language in Puerto Rico.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Road signs in Caribbean and Latin America vary from country to country. For the most part, conventions in signage tend to resemble United States signage conventions more so than European and Asian conventions. For example, warning signs are typically diamond-shaped and yellow rather than triangular and white. Some variations include the "Parking" and "No Parking" signs, which contain either a letter E or P, depending on which word is used locally for "Parking" (Spanish or , Portuguese ), as well as the Stop sign, which usually reads "Pare" or "Alto". Notable exceptions include speed limit signs, which follow the European conventions, and the "No Entry" sign, often replaced with a crossed upwards arrow.
Of all the countries in South America, only 4 countries Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela have signed the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals. Chile is also the only country in South America to have ratified this convention.
Argentina
Bolivia
Road signs in Bolivia are regulated by the Manuales Técnicos para el Diseño de Carreteras standard which is based on the United States' MUTCD (FHWA), Central America's Manuales Técnicos para el Diseño de Carreteras (SICA), Colombia's Manual de Señalización Vial (Ministry of Transport), and Chile's Manual de Carreteras. Thus, road signs used in Bolivia generally have many similarities to road signs used in the United States, Central America, Colombia and neighboring Chile.
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Traffic signs in Colombia are classified into three categories:
Warning signs
Mandatory signs
Information signs.
Warning signs are very similar to warning signs in United States. They are yellow diamond-shaped with a black symbol (the yellow colour is changed to an orange colour in areas under construction). In certain cases, the yellow colour is shifted to fluorescent yellow (in the School area sign and Chevron sign).
Mandatory signs are similar to European signs. They are circular with a red border, a white background and a black symbol. Stop sign and Yield sign are as European, except the word "Stop" is changed for "Pare" and the Yield sign has no letters; it is a red triangle with white centre.
Information signs have many shapes and colours. Principally they are blue with white symbols and in many cases these signs have an information letter below the symbol.
Cuba
Road signs in Cuba are very similar to those used in European countries and generally conform to the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals. On September 30, 1977, Cuba acceded to the Convention. Cuba still uses a circular STOP sign, with a triangle inside, which was used in the past in several European countries.
Ecuador
Road signs in Ecuador are regulated in Manual Básico de Señalización Vial and Reglamento Técnico Ecuatoriano. RTE INEN 004-1:2011. Señalización vial. Signs are similar in design to those used in the United States.
Ecuador signed the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals on November 8, 1968 but has yet to fully ratify it.
Guyana
Road signs in Guyana generally follow the same design as those in the United States and are based on the MUTCD with the exception that some signs are reversed since the country drives on the left. However, most of current signs found in Guyana, are non-compliant with MUTCD standards. Metric speed limit signs in km/h are found in Guyana, while in the United States such signs with speed limits in km/h are extremely rare, usually seen near the borders with Canada and Mexico, both of which use the metric system.
Haiti
Road signs in Haiti are standardized road signs closely following those used in France with certain distinctions. They are written in French and Haitian Creole.
Paraguay
Road signs in Paraguay are regulated in the Manual de Carreteras del Paraguay standard developed by the Ministry of Public Works and Communications ().
Peru
Road signs in Peru are regulated by the Manual de Dispositivos de Control del Tránsito Automotor para Calles y Carreteras, developed by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Peru. This standard is based on the United States' Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) developed by the Federal Highway Administration, Colombia's Manual de Señalización Vial and Chile's Manual de Señalización de Tránsito. As a result, road signs in Peru are similar in design to those used in the United States on one side and in neighbouring Chile and Colombia on the other side.
Suriname
Road signs in Suriname are particularly modelled on the signage system used in the Netherlands since Suriname is a former Dutch colony.
Venezuela
Road signs in Venezuela are regulated in Manual Venezolano de Dispositivos Uniformes para el Control del Tránsito and are based on the United States' MUTCD.
References
Road safety
Street furniture
Symbols | Traffic signs by country | [
"Mathematics"
] | 10,207 | [
"Symbols"
] |
72,962,218 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aura%20Matias | Aura C. Matias (born 11 September 1960) is a Filipino industrial engineer. Her academic research concerns ergonomics and human–computer interaction; she has also applied her expertise in industrial engineering to issues in the society of the Philippines including the quality of water services, and corruption in government agencies. She is a professor of industrial engineering and operations research at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she is the former dean of engineering and former executive director of the National Engineering Center.
Education and career
Matias was a student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering in 1982 and a master's degree in 1989. She went to Purdue University in the US for doctoral study in industrial engineering, completing her Ph.D. there in 1996. Her research there, conducted with Gavriel Salvendy, involved the development of a model for predicting carpal tunnel syndrome based on data collected from 100 women who used computer keyboards.
In 1998, she became one of the founders of the Philippine Institute of Industrial Engineers. In 2003 she helped found the Philippine Ergonomics Society.
As a faculty member at the University of the Philippines Diliman, she chaired the department of industrial engineering and operations research from 2004 to 2010. After two terms as dean of engineering, she stepped down as dean in 2016, returning to a regular faculty position.
Recognition
Matias was an awardee of The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service for 2004. She is a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology, elected in 2011.
References
External links
1960 births
Living people
21st-century Filipino engineers
Industrial engineers
Women engineers
University of the Philippines Diliman alumni
Academic staff of the University of the Philippines Diliman
Filipino women engineers
21st-century women engineers | Aura Matias | [
"Engineering"
] | 358 | [
"Industrial engineers",
"Industrial engineering"
] |
78,767,960 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2MASS%20J04202144%2B2813491 | 2MASS J04202144+2813491 (also known as Tau 042021) is an edge-on protoplanetary disk in the Taurus Molecular Cloud.
The star is hidden behind the edge-on disk. Early estimates found that it has a mass of 0.272 ±0.009 , but a later study did find a higher mass of 0.3–0.4 . The object is located on the western edge of the 130 parsec distant LDN 1495 cloud, which is part of the Taurus clouds. One study used CO emission to measure the radial velocity of the disk, which is similar to the radial velocity of the LDN 1495 cloud. The spectral type was measured to be M1 with the Hobby Eberly Telescope, making it a red dwarf. Emission lines from H-alpha and calcium are noted to be present in the spectrum. Ultraviolet excess is seen as an indicator for accretion. The star accretes at least 2x10−11 /year of gas from its surrounding protoplanetary disk. This was measured from hydrogen recombination lines originating in accretion shocks.
The protoplanetary disk
The disk was discovered in 2009 as an infrared excess object with Spitzer in Taurus and was resolved in the same work with I-band CFHT images. The disk blocks the light of the star, making it possible to observe the disk without a coronagraph. The radius of the disk was first measured at 2.5 arcseconds or 350 astronomical units (AU). The disk was classified as a class II disk, meaning the disk contains dust and gas, but is more evolved than class 0/I disks. The dust mass of the disk is estimated to be between 163 and 432 , depending on the model. Variability of the disk is seen from the optical to the mid-infrared.
The disk was first observed in carbon monoxide (CO) with the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. Archival ALMA observations showed a very edge-on disk with CO being at very high heights above the disk. The continuum showed a similar size as the optical, with a radius of 285 ±14 AU. The radius of the disk in CO was identified to be much larger at 609 ±18 AU. The gaseous disk was further analysed with ALMA CO observations. This new CO map does show that the disk extends up to 8 arcseconds or 1000 AU on the south (blueshifted) side. The north (redshifted) side is affected by nebulosity. This makes the disk much larger than in the optical and infrared. Previous works already showed strong evidence of strong dust settling. A study showed that dust particles up to ≥10 μm in size are coupled to the gas up to the disk surface. Particles larger than ≥100 μm are located around ten times closer to the mid-plane. The inner disk is detected in CO and water (H2O) emission with MIRI MRS. This emission originates from around 1 AU, but is scattered on dust particles up to 100 AU. MIRI MRS also detected resolved polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) in the disk, which is also seen in the unresolved Spitzer spectrum.
The jet
In 2014 observations with Hubble ACS were published. This observation detected a Herbig-Haro object with clumps in a jet and counter-jet, extending up to 8 arcseconds from the star. The jet is detected in a Hubble F606W image, tracing mainly H-alpha, but possibly also other emission lines. Additional emission lines of the jet were detected and resolved with MIRI MRS. These are ionized neon, iron, nickel, argon and sulfur. The jet was also observed with NIRSpec in ionized iron emission. The researchers measured a semi-opening angle of 4.9°±1.7° for the jet.
Disk wind
One major discovery was an X-shaped feature in 7.7 and 12.8 μm images. This was interpreted as a possible disk wind. Observations with MIRI MRS confirmed this feature as a disk wind. This observation detected molecular hydrogen (H2) in an X-shape. The H2 emission does show a semi-opening angle of 35°±5° and likely creates the X-shaped feature in the 7.7 and 12.8 μm images. The H2 outflow is interpreted as a magnetohydrodynamic wind (MHD wind) and has a gas mass of MH2≈5.4x10−7 , which means that the disk loses 6.5x10−9 /year. The disk wind in H2 emission was also observed with NIRSpec.
See also
List of resolved circumstellar disks
examples of other edge-on disks
Beta Pictoris (debris disks)
AU Microscopii (debris disks)
HD 15115 (debris disk)
Dracula's Chivito (protoplanetary)
Gomez's Hamburger (protoplanetary)
Proplyd 114-426 (protoplanetary)
References
Circumstellar disks
2MASS objects
Astronomical objects discovered in 2009
M-type main-sequence stars
T Tauri stars
Taurus (constellation) | 2MASS J04202144+2813491 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 1,084 | [
"Taurus (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
78,768,772 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester%20Society%20of%20Architects | The Manchester Society of Architects (MSA) is a professional society for architects in the Greater Manchester area, England.
The society is led by an elected President. The society organises activities such as lecture series. It also presents awards, including exhibitions, in locations such as the Albert Hall, Manchester.
Archives
The University of Manchester Library holds a Manchester Society of Architects Archive with material dating from 1859–1992. The Manchester Society of Architects Library holds important and rare books about the history of architecture.
Selected presidents
Alfred Darbyshire
Harry S. Fairhurst
Richard Knill Freeman
Arthur John Hope
Leonard Cecil Howitt
Richard Lane
George Tunstal Redmayne
Edgar Wood
See also
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
References
External links
MSA website
1865 establishments in England
Organizations established in 1865
Charities based in Manchester
Architecture organisations based in the United Kingdom | Manchester Society of Architects | [
"Engineering"
] | 168 | [
"Architecture stubs",
"Architecture"
] |
78,769,208 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P/2015%20PD229%20%28Cameron%E2%80%93ISON%29 | (Cameron–ISON) is a periodic comet that was initially thought to be an active centaur upon discovery. It orbits the Sun between Jupiter and Saturn once every 19.2 years, and has appeared to have made several close encounters with the giant planets from 1889 to 1949. The orbital period and low inclination mean this comet is classed as a Jupiter family comet. The comet appears to be about 13 miles across, which is bigger than most Jupiter family comets.
References
External links
Comets in 2015 | P/2015 PD229 (Cameron–ISON) | [
"Astronomy"
] | 100 | [
"Astronomy stubs",
"Comet stubs"
] |
78,769,289 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillingar%20effect | The hillingar effect or Arctic mirage is a mirage that occurs when cold air near the surface causes light rays to bend.
Light passing from an object through air to an observer always refracts, or bends, in the direction of increasing air density. Especially over cold ocean areas but also over snowfields or glaciers, air density can change with altitude so rapidly that the horizon appears to lift up like the edges of a saucer. Coastlines normally well below the horizon are raised up into view. Early Norsemen called these mirages hillingars.
References
Optics | Hillingar effect | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 115 | [
"Applied and interdisciplinary physics",
"Optics",
" molecular",
"Atomic",
" and optical physics"
] |
78,769,427 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eitaa%20Messenger | Eitaa Messenger () is an Iranian instant messaging (IM), VoIP service, and social media platform developed by the Idea of Today's Civilization Supporters Company. It is one of the most widely used messaging platforms in Iran, with more than 40 million users. Eitaa enables users to send text and voice messages, share images and videos, make voice and video calls, share files and locations, pay bills, and access services.
Eitaa is available on Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, and the web. Registration requires a mobile telephone number.
History
Eitaa was introduced as part of Iran's growing digital ecosystem, as a local alternative to international messaging platforms. Over the years, it has become a popular messaging app for millions of users in Iran, meeting the communication, business, and social networking needs of both domestic and international users. It was removed by Google Play and Apple store in 2022 along with many other Iranian platforms.
Features
Eitaa has a range of features designed for communication and user experience. These include text and voice messaging, multimedia sharing, voice and video calls, and file sharing. The platform also provides payment services for tasks such as paying bills, making purchases, and conducting transactions securely. Users can share their real-time location and access a variety of services through bots, including customer support and bill payments.
Message Exchange Bus (MXB)
Eitaa is connected to the Message Exchange Bus (MXB), which is a technology that connects major Iranian messaging platforms like Bale, Eitaa, Soroush, Rubika, Gap and iGap and enables users to send messages and files and more between these apps without needing a separate account for each one, offering communication regardless of the platform used. This system is instrumental in creating a unified messaging ecosystem in Iran and is created for the first time in Iran.
Social networking
Eitaa has some social networking features, including the ability for users to follow public accounts, participate in channels, share updates, photos, and videos. While the platform is widely adopted for social interaction, its features aim to meet a broad range of user needs, contributing to its growing use as a social platform.
Services
Banking Services
Eitaa offers banking features, including bill payments, account recharges, and other financial tasks. These services are integrated into the app, allowing users to perform various financial transactions.
Bots and AI
Eitaa includes AI-powered bots that assist with tasks such as subscription management, business services, and customer support. These bots are intended to automate certain processes within the app.
Removal from Amarican app stores
Eitaa was removed from both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, along with several other Iranian apps. This removal came as part of a broader action taken by these platforms to restrict access to apps from Iran. Despite this, Eitaa continues to be available through other app stores and to direct download, maintaining its user base.
See also
Bale
Rubika
Messaging apps
References
External links
Official website
Android (operating system) software
Instant messaging clients
Iranian social networking websites | Eitaa Messenger | [
"Technology"
] | 634 | [
"Instant messaging",
"Instant messaging clients"
] |
78,771,159 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%2073344 | HD 73344 is a star located in the constellation Cancer. It has a faint apparent magnitude of 6.9 and therefore can't be seen by the naked eye. It is located away based on parallax measurements. This star hosts three confirmed exoplanets.
Characteristics
HD 73344 is a F-type main-sequence star, a star hotter and brighter than the Sun that fuses atoms of hydrogen into helium at its core. It is 22% larger, 20% more massive and 80% more luminous, and its effective temperature is 448 degrees hotter, at . On the other hand, it is younger than the Sun, estimated to be between one and two billion years old, or one-fifth to two-fifths of the solar age. As a consequence, HD 73344 rotates quickly, taking nine days to rotate at its equator (the Sun's rotational period is of 25 days), and is much more active than the Sun.
Located at from Earth, HD 73344 has an apparent magnitude, that is, its brightness as seen from Earth, of 6.876. Therefore, it is too faint to be seen to the naked eye, and needs a small telescope or binoculars to be seen. Distance and apparent brightness allow the absolute magnitudethe star's brightness if seen at to be calculated at 4.2. This star has a nearly circular orbit around the Milky Way, a maximum distance of from the galactic plane and a distance from the Galactic Center varying from 6,880 to 8,840 parsecs ( to light-years) across its orbit.
Planetary system
There are three exoplanets orbiting HD 73344, all discovered in 2024 via multiple methods of detection: Transit, radial velocity and astrometry.
The planet's orbital periods range from two weeks to a decade and five years. They are all misaligned with each other: Planet b and c have a misalignment of at least 20 degrees, and planet d is misaligned with the inner planets' orbits, in contrast to the Solar System, where the planetary orbits are well aligned. There are two hypotheses that could explain the misalignment: A warped protoplanetary disk with misaligned inner and outer components, or dynamical encounters with two or more giant planets in the past.
HD 73344 b
HD 73344 b was the first exoplanet discovered in the system, detected via the transit method by S. Sulis and others. It is classified a sub-Neptune. This planet has around three times the size of Earth as determined by transit observations. Its mass is uncertain, estimated at times Earth's mass and believed to be no more than ten Earth masses. This implies a low density of , suggesting that its atmosphere is composed of volatile elements like hydrogen and helium. However, further observations are needed, including a more precise mass, to fully characterize its composition and reveal its true nature.
It is the closest exoplanet to HD 73344, completing an orbit every 16 days at an average distance of , less than half of the Mercury-Sun distance (0.31 AU). The proximity of its host star also mean it has a high temperature. Assuming a null albedo, the equilibrium temperature of HD 73344 b is estimated at , or if it is tidally locked. It has a low orbital eccentricity and appear to be misaligned with its star's spin axis.
HD 73344 c
HD 73344 c is a sub-Saturn planet, first identified by Sulis et al. 2024 (the same discoverers of planet b) via radial velocity observations and confirmed by Jingwen et al. some months later. Its mass, derived via radial velocity observations, is at least 110 Earth masses, equivalent to 0.37 Jupiter masses (), and no more than , as a mass greater than this would induce an unstable planetary system. Since HD 73344 c does not transit its host star, its radius cannot be measured.
This planet, like HD 73344 b, lies at a close distance to its host star, with an orbital period of 66 days and an average distance of 0.34 astronomical units, similar to Mercury. The orbital eccentricity is small, at , and the inclination is not precisely known, but is no less than 30° and is at least 20° different from planet b's inclination. The equilibrium temperature is estimated to be assuming a null albedo.
HD 73344 b and c are strongly coupled with each other and undergo nodal precession, meaning that their orbital inclinations vary over time, becoming sometimes misaligned with the host star's spin axis.
HD 73344 d
HD 73344 d is a Jovian planet, first identified in 27-year baseline radial velocity observations from multiple observatories, and later in Hipparcos-Gaia astrometric observations. Its mass, measured via astrometry, is two and a half times the mass of Jupiter.
This planet has a wide orbit around HD 73344, and if placed in our Solar System, would lie between that of Jupiter and Saturn, at 6.7 astronomical units. It takes 16 years to complete an orbit around HD 73344. HD 73344 d is therefore classified as a Jupiter analog due to their physical and orbital characteristics being similar.
See also
List of exoplanets discovered in 2024
Kepler-56, HAT-P-11 and Pi Mensae, other systems similar orbital architectures and misaligned orbits
Notes
References
F-type main-sequence stars
Planetary systems with three confirmed planets
Henry Draper Catalogue objects
Hipparcos objects
Cancer (constellation) | HD 73344 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 1,167 | [
"Cancer (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
78,772,358 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational%20toxicology | Computational toxicology is a multidisciplinary field and area of study, which is employed in the early stages of drug discovery and development to predict the safety and potential toxicity of drug candidates. It integrates in silico methods, or computer-based models, with in vivo, or animal, and in vitro, or cell-based, approaches to achieve a more efficient, reliable, and ethically responsible toxicity evaluation process. Key aspects of computational toxicology include the following: early safety prediction, mechanism-oriented modeling, integration with experimental approaches, and structure-based algorithms. Sean Ekins is a forerunner in the field of computational toxicology among other fields.
Historical development
The origins of computational toxicology trace back to the 1960s and 1970s when early quantitative structure–activity relationship, or QSAR, models were developed. These models aimed to predict the biological activity of chemicals based on their molecular structures. Advances in computational power during this period allowed for increasingly sophisticated simulations and analyses, laying the groundwork for modern computational approaches. The 1980s and 1990s saw the expansion of the field with the advent of molecular docking, cheminformatics, and bioinformatics tools. The rise of high-throughput screening technologies provided vast datasets, which fueled the need for computational methods to manage and interpret complex toxicological data.
In the early 21st century, the establishment of initiatives such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's, or EPA's, ToxCast program marked a significant milestone. ToxCast aimed to integrate computational and experimental data to improve toxicity prediction and reduce reliance on animal testing. During this time, advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence further transformed the field, enabling the analysis of large-scale datasets and the development of predictive models with greater accuracy. Today, computational toxicology continues to evolve, driven by innovations in omics technologies, big data analytics, and regulatory science. It plays a crucial role in risk assessment, drug development, and environmental protection, offering faster and more ethical alternatives to traditional toxicological testing.
References
Drug discovery
Toxicology | Computational toxicology | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology",
"Environmental_science"
] | 420 | [
"Toxicology",
"Life sciences industry",
"Drug discovery",
"Toxicology stubs",
"Medicinal chemistry"
] |
78,775,966 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3C%20382 | 3C 382 is a nearby broad-line radio galaxy located in the constellation of Lyra, located at a redshift of (z) 0.058. First discovered as an astronomical radio source in 1963 and identified with its optical counterpart in 1973, the galaxy is classified as a Fanaroff-Riley class II radio galaxy. Its X-ray luminosity is estimated to be in the band.
Description
The host galaxy of 3C 382 is an elliptical galaxy located in a rich environment. It contains a nucleus like other galaxies although it is described being bright and unsolved with a smooth galactic halo. In addition, the host is also found to be interacting with its companion, a large barred spiral galaxy located 85.1 arcseconds away with a position angle of 67.7°. There is a loop formed by the two long filaments connected to both galaxies.
Very Large Array radio imaging of 3C 382 shows the source has a wider extension of more than 2 arcmin. Its radio structure is double-lobed and it has a jet originating from its northern radio lobe which terminates at a hotspot region. The southern radio lobe of 3C 382 also has a hotspot region, but has no clear indication of a counterpart jet although detections of low polarization are present. Very-long-baseline interferometry observations at 8.4 GHz also showed the jet is extended.
A low-brightness tail can be seen in its eastern component leading back to the host galaxy. Furthermore, the northeast component's ridge line of 3C 382 shows a wiggle extending in a southwest direction from the outer hotspot, subsequently heading west and southwest again before joining the main component.
A large amplitude outburst was detected in 3C 382 in mid-1977 which lasted for a month on a time scale. Although its infrared flux was found to be constant during the outburst onset, it displayed increased levels at 2.28 µm in 1978. Furthermore, the extension of the spectral flux distribution flattened between the values of 2.20 and 10 µm. In 1985, EXOSAT observations detected another outburst in the galaxy where its medium and low energy spectra showed maximum to minimum variations of 120% and 110% respectively.
The supermassive black hole in 3C 382 is estimated to be based on a reverberation mapping. Parsec-scale disk wind was also detected by Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2009.
References
External links
3C 382 on SIMBAD
3C 382 on NASA/IPAC Database
382
Radio galaxies
Lyra
062082
32.55
2MASS objects
Active galaxies
Astronomical objects discovered in 1973 | 3C 382 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 549 | [
"Lyra",
"Constellations"
] |
78,777,427 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERMA%20model | PERMA is a model of psychological well-being developed by Martin Seligman. The mnemonic acronym stands for the five core elements of well-being: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. The model was introduced in Seligman's book Flourish (2011), and is now widely used in positive psychology interventions, organizational psychology, and development programs.
Definition and context
According to Seligman, for an element to be considered part of a well-being theory, it must possess three essential properties: it must contribute to well-being, be pursued by many people for its own sake rather than merely as a means to obtain other elements, and be defined and measured independently of the other elements, ensuring its exclusivity. Based on these criteria, Seligman developed the PERMA model, which consists of five elements:
Positive emotions include a wide range of feelings, not just happiness and joy. Included are emotions like excitement, satisfaction, pride and awe, amongst others. These emotions are frequently seen as connected to positive outcomes, such as longer life and healthier social relationships.
Engagement refers to involvement in activities that draws and builds upon one's interests. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains true engagement as flow, a feeling of intensity that leads to a sense of ecstasy and clarity. The task being done needs to call upon higher skill and be a bit difficult and challenging yet still possible. Engagement involves passion for and concentration on the task at hand and is assessed subjectively as to whether the person engaged was completely absorbed, losing self-consciousness.
Relationships are all important in fueling positive emotions, whether they are work-related, familial, romantic, or platonic. As Christopher Peterson puts it simply, "Other people matter." Humans receive, share, and spread positivity to others through relationships. They are important not only in bad times, but good times as well. In fact, relationships can be strengthened by reacting to one another positively. It is typical that most positive things take place in the presence of other people.
Meaning is also known as purpose, and prompts the question of "why". Discovering and figuring out a clear "why" puts everything into context from work to relationships to other parts of life. Finding meaning is learning that there is something greater than one's self. Despite potential challenges, working with meaning drives people to continue striving for a desirable goal.
Accomplishments are the pursuit of success and mastery. Unlike the other parts of PERMA, they are sometimes pursued even when accomplishments do not result in positive emotions, meaning, or relationships. That being noted, accomplishments can activate the other elements of PERMA, such as pride, under positive emotion. Accomplishments can be individual or community-based, fun- or work-based.
Measurement
Julie Butler and Margaret Kern created the PERMA-Profiler as a measure of the PERMA model. The profiler uses a set of 15 questions (three items per PERMA domain). In the second phase of research eight additional items were added, which assess overall well-being, negative emotion, loneliness, and physical health, resulting in a final 23-item measure. The answers range from 0 ("never") to 10 ("always").
References
Emotion
Psychological models
Psychological theories | PERMA model | [
"Biology"
] | 675 | [
"Emotion",
"Behavior",
"Human behavior"
] |
78,781,484 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41%20Sextantis | 41 Sextantis (HD 93903; HR 4237; 74 G. Sextantis), or simply 41 Sex is a spectroscopic binary located in the equatorial constellation Sextans. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.79, making it faintly visible to the naked eye under ideal conditions. The system is located relatively close at a distance of 310 light-years based on Gaia DR3 parallax measurements and it is drifting closer with a heliocentric radial velocity of approximately . At its current distance, 41 Sex's brightness is diminished by an interstellar extinction of 0.16 magnitudes and it has an absolute magnitude of +0.91.
The visible component has a stellar classification of kA3hA7VmA9, indicating that it is an Am star with the calcium K-lines of an A3 star, the hydrogen lines and effective temperature of an A7 main-sequence star, and the metal lines of an A9 star. Houk & Swift (1999) give a class of A2/3 III, indicating that it is an A-type star that has the characteristics of an A2 and A3 giant star. It has 2.23 times the mass of the Sun and a slightly enlarged radius 3.10 times that of the Sun. It radiates 32.6 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of , giving it a white-hue when viewed in the night sky. 41 Sextantis Aa is metal-deficient with an iron abundance 58.9% that of the Sun and it spins modestly with a projected rotational velocity of .
The companion's spectrum is very weak compared to the primary, but it is said to be either a late F-type star or an early G-type star. It has 105% the mass of the Sun and 1.3 times the radius of the Sun. It radiates 1.8 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere. It spins slowly with a projected rotational velocity of 10 km/s.
References
A-type main-sequence stars
Am stars
Spectroscopic binaries
Double stars
Sextans
Sextantis, 41
Sextantis, 74
BD-08 03018
093903
052980
4237 | 41 Sextantis | [
"Astronomy"
] | 470 | [
"Sextans",
"Constellations"
] |
78,781,580 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20147379 | HD 147379 (Gliese 617) is a wide visual binary between two red dwarfs in the deep northern constellation of Draco. The two stars are located approximately distant based on Gaia EDR3 parallax measurements, and approaching the Solar System at heliocentric radial velocities of −18.962 km/s and −18.36 km/s, respectively. The brighter primary star, HD 147379A, has an apparent magnitude of 8.9, too faint to be seen by the naked eye from Earth but visible using binoculars. The dimmer secondary, B, fluctuates in apparent magnitude between 10.69 and 10.74, making it observable via a telescope with an aperture of 35 mm or larger.
HD 147379A
HD 147379A (HIP 79755) is a red dwarf with a spectral type of M0.0V, about 58% the mass of the Sun, 57% the radius, and an age of . It emits just over a tenth of the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of . It has a high metallicity of [Fe/H]=, meaning it has an iron content somewhere around 45% higher than the Sun. It is also enriched in cobalt, but is depleted in calcium and titanium. The star shows slight variations in the TiO spectral lines.
Planetary system
In 2018, two teams independently reported the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting HD 147379A, both via the radial-velocity method. This was the first exoplanet found by the CARMENES survey. The planet, commonly referred to as HD 147379 b, has a minimum mass of 21.6 ± 1.1 , slightly more massive than Neptune (17.147 ). It orbits its host star once every 86.58 days at about a third of the distance from Earth to the Sun, placing it within the conservative habitable zone of the star, where liquid water could exist.
One of the teams that discovered HD 147379 b proposed another candidate planet, this one with a minimum mass of 27 and a 500-day period, orbiting at a distance of about 1 AU. However, a 2023 follow-up study did not detect such a signal. Instead, they detected a signal with a 12.3-day period, but discarded it due to the high chance of it being a false positive. Nevertheless, it is highly likely that a second planet exists interior to b's orbit.
HD 147379B
HD 147379B (HIP 79762) is a gravitationally bound companion to HD 147379A at a separation of 64.4 arcseconds, which corresponds to a distance of 693.4 AU.
This is a red dwarf with a spectral type of M3V, about 45% the mass of the Sun and 46% the radius. It has a "partially convective" structure, meaning that the outer convection zone does not reach down to the core, as opposed to "fully convective" stars weighing less than 0.35 that are convective throughout. It too has a high metallicity of [M/H]=, translating to a roughly 60% excess in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium compared to the Sun. At an effective temperature of , it radiates just 2.6% the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere. It rotates on its axis once every 40.4 days at a relatively slow projected equatorial velocity of 0.50 km/s.
It has a magnetic field that fluctuated in strength between 36-75 G between 2020-2022, approximately 100 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field (0.22-0.67 G) and similar to those of faster-rotating red dwarfs. The variations in strength are smaller than those seen in fully convective red dwarfs such as Gliese 1151.
In 1994, the star was reported to have a high likelihood (99%) of exhibiting long-term variability, albeit the author noted that this may be suspect. It was formally classified as a BY Draconis variable in 1997, receiving the variable-star designation EW Draconis.
References
Binary stars
Draco (constellation)
147379
079755
0617
M-type main-sequence stars
Planetary systems with one confirmed planet
BD+67 935
TIC objects
J16164280+6714196 | HD 147379 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 923 | [
"Constellations",
"Draco (constellation)"
] |
78,781,969 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/1889%20O1%20%28Davidson%29 | Comet Davidson, formal designation C/1889 O1, is a non-periodic comet that became visible to the naked eye in 1889.
Discovery and observations
Australian colonist John Ewen Davidson first spotted his comet through a telescope from his personal observatory on the night of 19 July 1889. By coincidence, it is also the day of its perihelion. He later reported his discovery to the Melbourne Observatory on 22 July 1889, noting it as a tail-less object now visible with the naked eye, located within the constellation Centaurus. The comet's nucleus was reported to be around magnitude 5.0–6.0, with a coma about 5 arcminutes in diameter.
By 24 July 1889, John Tebbutt reported that the comet brightened to magnitude 4.0, with its nucleus surrounded by an extensive coma. As the comet started to fade away in the following days, it was observed that its nucleus split into two fragments on 3 August 1889.
References
Notes
Citations
External links
Non-periodic comets
Near-Earth comets
Split comets | C/1889 O1 (Davidson) | [
"Astronomy"
] | 212 | [
"Astronomy stubs",
"Comet stubs"
] |
78,782,001 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darbinurad | Darbinurad is a investigational new drug that is being evaluated for the treatment of gout. It is a selective urate transporter 1 (URAT1) inhibitor that blocks the reabsorption of uric acid within the renal proximal tubule, thereby reducing serum uric acid concentrations.
References
Antigout agents
Benzonitriles
Carboxylic acids
Cyclopropanes
Pyridines
Thioethers | Darbinurad | [
"Chemistry"
] | 94 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Carboxylic acids",
"Functional groups",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs",
"Pharmacology stubs"
] |
78,782,099 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docirbrutinib | Docirbrutinib is an investigational new drug that is being evaluated for the treatment of cancer. It is a selective Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor that targets chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and other B-cell malignancies.
References
Antineoplastic drugs
Benzyl compounds
Cyclopropanes
Fluorobenzenes
Isoquinolines
Oxetanes
Primary alcohols
Pyrrolopyrimidines
Tetrahydropyridines | Docirbrutinib | [
"Chemistry"
] | 109 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs"
] |
78,782,496 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann%20English | Ann Marie English is an Irish Canadian scientist in bioinorganic chemistry and redox biology, recognized for her contribution to chemistry in Canada.
Education
English received a BSc from University College Dubin in Ireland in 1971 and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from McGill University in Canada in 1980.
Career
After graduation, English did post-doctoral research at California Institute of Technology as a research fellow in chemistry. Under the direction of Harry B. Gray, she conducted research on electron transfer of copper proteins. She began her academic career at Concordia University as assistant professor in 1982 and was promoted to full professor in 1994. Since 2018, she is Distinguished Professor Emerita and Honorary Concordia University Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Concordia University. She has mentored over 55 graduate students and 37 postdoctoral fellows and researchers.
Her research field is in heme-protein chemistry and biochemistry, including the effects of metal-induced oxidation on aging at the cellular level. She has published over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. With mass spectrometry being one of the techniques used in her research, she established the Centre for Biological Applications of Mass Spectrometry in 2003.
She was elected as Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada in 2014 and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Academy of Science in 2024.
Awards
2024 Eraldo Antonini Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines
2018 Fred P. Lossing Award from the Canadian Society for Mass Spectrometry
2018 Award for Graduate Mentoring from Concordia University
2017 Clara Benson Award from the Canadian Society for Chemistry
References
McGill University alumni
Alumni of University College Dublin
Women chemists
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Canadian women academics
Bioinorganic chemists
California Institute of Technology fellows
Academic staff of Concordia University
Canadian chemists | Ann English | [
"Chemistry"
] | 369 | [
"Bioinorganic chemistry",
"Bioinorganic chemists"
] |
78,783,480 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury%20in%20corn%20syrup | The presence of mercury in corn syrup was a health controversy that arose due to several studies that found that mercury residues in high-fructose corn syrups (HFCS) used in food products. This was significant due to the toxic nature of mercury and its association with learning disabilities and heart disease.
History of analyses
Three separate studies between 2009-2010 found mercury in high fructose corn syrup or food products containing high fructose corn syrup. The first major study was led by United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) whistleblower Renee Dufault, who began her research while serving as an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) at the FDA in 2004. Dufault left the agency to publish her findings, which were made public a year after she left the FDA. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) samples were collected by an FDA field investigator without warning from three separate corn refiners during the week of February 17-24, 2005. Of the twenty samples analyzed, mercury residues were found in nine and the results of the study were published in the peer reviewed journal Environmental Health in 2009.
In a follow-up study led by David Wallinga at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), fifty-five foods with HFCS listed as the first or second ingredient, were analyzed for mercury. Of the fifty-five products, mercury was detected in seventeen samples and the results were published in an institutional report in January 2009.
The third study was led by Karen Rideout at the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Canada in 2010. Rideout’s team collected nine Canadian national brand syrup products containing HFCS (known as glucose-fructose) as the first or second ingredient from major chain grocery stores in Vancouver. All of the samples collected by Rideout’s team were analyzed for mercury and concentrations ranged from 0.220 -1.92 ug/l.The results were peer-reviewed and published as a comment on the article published by Dufault and her collaborators in Environmental Health in 2010, a year after the Corn Refiners Association had claimed that there were no quantifiable levels of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup manufactured in US and Canada production facilities.
Known sources of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup
The presence of mercury in HFCS has been attributed to the use of mercury-grade caustic soda and mercury-grade hydrogen chloride in the corn syrup manufacturing process. Both chemicals are found to contain mercury residues when derived from the mercury-cell chlor-alkali chemical manufacturing process. Another source of the mercury residue in HFCS, however, is the routine application of mercuric chloride (0.01 M) on the corn during the starch extraction process.
References
Health-related lists
Mercury (element)
Food additives
Environmental health
Health risk
Toxicology
Chemical substances
Environmental impact of agriculture | Mercury in corn syrup | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Environmental_science"
] | 592 | [
"Toxicology",
"Materials",
"nan",
"Chemical substances",
"Matter"
] |
78,784,210 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liveness%20test | A liveness test, liveness check or liveness detection is an automated means of checking whether a subject is a real person or part of a spoofing attack.
In a video liveness test, users are typically asked to look into a camera and to move, smile or blink, and features of their moving face may then be compared to that of a still image. Artificial intelligence is used to counter presentation attacks such as deepfakes or users wearing hyperrealistic masks, or video injection attacks. The technique is used as part of know your customer checks in financial services and during facial age estimation.
Other forms of liveness test include checking for a pulse when using a fingerprint scanner or checking that a person's voice is not a recording or artifically generated during speaker recognition.
See also
Artificial intelligence content detection
Biometric spoofing
Electronic authentication
Identity verification service
Multi-factor authentication
Voice spoofing
Further reading
References
Deepfakes
Identity theft
Facial recognition
Biometrics | Liveness test | [
"Technology"
] | 198 | [
"Computer security stubs",
"Computing stubs"
] |
75,704,539 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.%20D.%20Hanawalt | J. Donald "Don" Hanawalt ( – June 26, 1987) was an American physicist who joined The Dow Chemical Company in 1931 and became a Corporate Vice President by 1953. He co-authored (with Harold W. "Sid" Rinn) an article titled, "The Identification of Crystalline Materials" which, along with a 1938 publication titled, Chemical Analysis by X-Ray Diffraction: Classification and Use of X-Ray Diffraction Patterns, are considered the foundations of powder X-ray diffraction as an analytical technique. The work is still in use today as part of the powder diffraction file (PDF) published by the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD), a non-profit scientific organization dedicated to collecting, editing, publishing, and distributing powder diffraction data for the identification of materials. The membership of the ICDD consists of worldwide representation from academe, government, and industry.
The ICDD presents an award bearing Hanawalt's name every three years to recognize distinguished, recent work in the field of powder diffraction in honor of his contributions.
References
Crystallographers
Diffraction
1900s births
1987 deaths
Year of birth uncertain | J. D. Hanawalt | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science"
] | 246 | [
"Spectrum (physical sciences)",
"Crystallography",
"Diffraction",
"Crystallographers",
"Spectroscopy"
] |
75,704,957 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepci%C3%B3n%20Campa%20Huergo | Concepción Campa Huergo (born 1951) is a Cuban medical researcher. She was the lead scientist in the development of VA-MENGOC-BC, the first vaccine against meningitis B, in 1989. For this work she received the World Intellectual Property Organization gold medal. She was subsequently elected to the 5th Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba in 1997.
References
1951 births
Cuban politicians
Vaccinologists
Living people
Medical researchers | Concepción Campa Huergo | [
"Biology"
] | 90 | [
"Vaccination",
"Vaccinologists"
] |
75,705,680 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatrype%20virescens | Diatrype virescens is a carbonaceous pyrenomycete in the family Diatrypaceae. It grows uniquely on the wood of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) in North America. Its growth structure is immersed, popping out from under the bark in scattered green fruiting bodies which soon fade to black.
Description
Diatrype virescens grows from under the bark, pushing it aside in a conspicuous manner. The fruiting body is yellowish-green, and ranges 2.5-4 mm in diameter. The color fades into brown and black and soon can look similar to Biscogniauxia marginata. There are usually several sulcate (grooved) ostioles per fruiting body.
Microscopic features are: "Asci clavate, p. sp. 35-40 × 4-6 μm. Ascospores (10)12-14 × 2.5-3 μm."
This fungus is found in North America growing only on Fagus grandifolia.
Distinguishing features
The green circular fruiting bodies with the black grooved ostioles popping out gregariously make D. virescens an easy to identify member of Diatrype.
Similar species
Biscogniauxia marginata is the most likely to be confused with older specimens of D. virescens that have lost their green colour. B. marginata can be distinguished by its larger size (3-8mm in diameter), and its tendency to grow on trees in the Rosaceae family rather than Fagus grandifolia.
References
Fungal plant pathogens and diseases
Xylariales
Fungi described in 1832
Taxa named by Lewis David de Schweinitz
Fungus species | Diatrype virescens | [
"Biology"
] | 344 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
75,706,314 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi%20Notebook | Pi Notebook is the trade name of a notebook produced by Japanese stationery manufacturer KING JIM and sold by Loft, which began selling the product in June 2017.
Overview
The notebook is characterized by its ruled lines, a series of pi (3.1415926535...) Originally, the product was forfeited. Still, when it was posted on X on March 14, 2017, Pi Day, it received a string of requests for commercialization and was released in June of the same year as a collaborative product with Loft.
History
Background to Launch
Pi Notebook was a project that came up at a meeting around 2016. The meeting aired on June 12, 2016, on TBS's TV program Gacchiri Monday! However, the project was abandoned before it went up for commercialization presentation.
However, the response was overwhelming when KING JIM posted it on Twitter along with a photo on March 14, 2017, Pi Day. As of March 17, three days after the tweet, the number of retweets exceeded 12,000. King Jim commented on the post, "We are always trying to create products with a free spirit. We hope this post conveys that atmosphere."
Then, a representative from Loft saw the tweet and contacted the company, which decided to commercialize the product on March 14. After that, King Jim's designers came up with the cover, details, and other designs.
Then, on June 19 of the same year, King Jim and Loft announced that they would commercialize the product in 2,000 copies each.
Post launch
On June 23, four days after it was announced that the book would go on sale, it was sold in advance at the Loft Net Store, an E-commerce site of Loft, and at Ginza Loft, which opened on the same day, for 314 yen excluding tax. The Ginza Loft sold a limited number of 314 copies and placed POP hand-drawn by King Jim's Twitter representative. The Loft online store, which began selling at 11:00 on the same day, sold out just 17 minutes later at 11:17, and the Ginza Loft also sold out within the day of its release.
Later, on July 25, the product went on sale at all Loft stores nationwide and at the Loft online store for 380 yen, excluding tax.
Following the massive success of the Pi notebook, on March 9, 2018, the company began selling its second product, the "Miscellaneous Ruled Notebook," in which "Japanese era name," "Ogura Hyakunin Isshu," "prime numbers," "country names," and "city names" are ruled lines in the notebook. Furthermore, at the "Stationery Festival 2020" event held at the Loft in July and August 2020, the company released its third series of notebooks, in which "Elemental Symbols," "New Japanese era name," and "Jōyō kanji " are ruled lines.
Reaction and Evaluation
In January 2018, Asahi Weekly interviewed Loft for its "Loft Heisei Hit Items," the Pi notebook was listed in the stationery category. In addition, the miscellaneous ruled notebooks released as the second version directly led to sales, with total sales exceeding 25,000 in the three months from its release to the end of May 2018.
Some believe even this rejected project led to commercialization because King Jim's official X account interacted daily with users and created a fan base.
Products
Pi notebook
Sales began in June 2017. It is available in two colors, green and white, inspired by blackboards and whiteboards, and is priced at 380 yen without tax each. It has 50 pages, is A5 in size, and has twin-ring binding. On the notebook's cover, in addition to pi, there are various circle-related mathematical formulas and figures.
The ruled lines of the notebook contain a series of pi numbers (3.1415926535...), which are not too conspicuous and are adjusted to a size where the numbers can be read. The numbers on a single page of this notebook amount to about 3,800 digits. Also, "3.14" is written in the date section.
Miscellaneous ruled notebooks
The second volume will be sold in March 2018, and the third in July 2020. The second volume's "Japanese era name" lists all the Japanese era names from Taika to Heisei, "Hyakunin Isshu" lists all the waka poems by 100 poets, "Prime Numbers" lists prime numbers from 2 to 5107, "Country Names" lists the 193 member countries of the United Nations as of May 2017, and "City Names" lists all Japanese city names in national, local public organization code order. The third volume includes "Elemental Symbols," "New Japanese era name," and "Jōyō kanji ".
Notes
Notebooks
Pi | Pi Notebook | [
"Mathematics"
] | 997 | [
"Pi"
] |
75,707,236 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin%27s%20Ghosts%3A%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Evolution | Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution is a nonfiction history of science book by British author Rebecca Stott. It was published in the United States in 2012 by Spiegel & Grau, the international version is subtitled differently: Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists. It is written in 12 distinct chapters that highlight persons that contributed to the pre-history of evolution by natural selection, published by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species in 1859. The book contains biographical sketches of 12 persons spanning from 344 BC to 19th century contemporaries of Darwin.
The book has received reviews from notable reviewers and was included on the New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books 2012 list.
Synopsis
Tho focus of each chapter is summarized in the table below.
References
2012 non-fiction books
History of science | Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution | [
"Technology"
] | 166 | [
"History of science",
"History of science and technology"
] |
75,707,726 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara%E1%B9%87a%20%28pa%C3%B1c%C4%81%E1%B9%85ga%29 | In Indian astronomy, a karaṇa is a half of a tithi. It is the duration of time in which the difference of the longitudes of the Sun and the Moon is increased by 6 degrees. A lunar month has 30 tithi-s and so the number of karaṇa-s in a lunar month is 60. These sixty karaṇa-s are not individually named. Instead, the originators of the concept have chosen 11 names to be associated with the karaṇa-s which means several karaṇa-s will be associated with the same name. Of these 11 names, four are fixed or immovables (or sthira-s) in the sense that they are associated with four unique karaṇa-s in a lunar month. These constant names are Śakuni, Catuṣpāda, Nāga and Kimstughna. The remaining seven names are variable or movable (or, cara-s) in the sense that there are several karaṇa-s associated with each of them. These names are Bava, Bālava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vaṇij and Vṛṣṭi.
Assignment of names
The four fixed names are assigned as follows:
{|
|-
| Kṛṣṇa pakṣa caturdasi second half
| :
| Śakuni
|-
| Amāvāsya first half
| :
| Catuṣpāda
|-
| Amāvāsya second half
| :
| Nāga
|-
| Śukla pakṣa pratipad first half
| :
| Kimstughna
|}
The fifty-six half tithi-s starting from Śukla pakṣa pratipad second half to Kṛṣṇa pakṣa caturdasi first half are given the variable names Bava, Bālava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vaṇij and Vṛṣṭi in a cyclical order. These names are repeated in the same order eight times so that the same name is assigned to eight different half tithi-s.
The fixed and variable names are assigned as in the following table.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Names of karaṇa-s
|-
! Pakṣa !! Tithi !! Half !! Name !! !! Pakṣa || Tithi !! Half !! Name
|-
| style="background: #BCD4E6;"|Śukla ||style="background: #BCD4E6;" | Pratipad ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| First || style="background: #BCD4E6;"|Kimstughna || || Kṛṣṇa || ... || ... || ...
|-
| ,, || ,,|| Second || Bava|| || ,,|| Ekādasi|| First || Bava
|-
| ,, || Dvitīya || First || Bālava || ||,,|| ,, || Second || Bālava
|-
| ,, ||,, || Second || Kaulava || || ,,||Dvādaśī || First || Kaulava
|-
| ,, ||Tṛtīya || First || Taitila || ||,,|| ,, || Second || Taitila
|-
| ,, || ,, || Second || Gara|| || ,,|| Trayodaśī|| First || Gara
|-
| ,, || Caturthi || First || Vaṇij || || ,,|| ,,|| Second|| Vaṇij
|-
| ,, || ,,|| Second || Vṛṣṭi || || ,,|| Caturdaśī || First || Vṛṣṭi
|-
| ,, || Pañcami || First || Bava || || style="background: #BCD4E6;"|,,|| style="background: #BCD4E6;"|,, ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| Second ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| Śakuni
|-
| ,, || ,,|| Second || Bālava || ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| ,, ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"|Amāvāsya ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| First || style="background: #BCD4E6;"|Catuṣpāda
|-
| ,, || ... || ... || ... || ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| ,, ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| ,, ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| Second ||style="background: #BCD4E6;"| Nāga
|}
Algorithm to determine the karaṇa
The name of the karaṇa at a particular moment on any given day can be determined by the following algorithm.
Let the longitudes of the Sun and the Moon be S and M respectively at a particular moment on a given day.
If M >= S, then D = M - S.
If M < S, then D = (M - S) + 360°.
Divide D by 6°. Let K be the quotient (an integer).
If K = 57, 58, 59, or 0 then the karaṇa is Śakuni, Catuṣpāda, Nāga, or Kimstughna in that order.
Otherwise, if K > 7, subtract the nearest multiple of 7 from K and let K be the resulting number.
Then the karaṇa at the particular moment is the K-th karaṇa in the list of seven variable karaṇa-s, namely, Bava, Bālava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vaṇij and Vṛṣṭi.
Karaṇa names in Malayalam
In the Malayalam astronomical literature, the eleven karaṇas are assigned names which are words for various animals. The English equivalents of the animal words representing the various karaṇas are given below.
{|
|-
|Karaṇa name
|
|Malayalam name
|
|Meaning of Malayalam
|-
|
|
|
|
|name in English
|-
| Śakuni
|
| പുള്ള്
|
| Shikra
|-
| Catuṣpāda
|
| നാൽക്കാലി
|
| Quadruped
|-
| Nāga
|
| പാമ്പ്
|
| Snake
|-
| Kimstughna
|
| പുഴു
|
| Worm
|-
| Bava
|
| സിംഹം
|
| Lion
|-
| Bālava
|
| പുലി
|
| Tiger
|-
| Kaulava
|
| പന്നി
|
| Pig
|-
| Taitila
|
| കഴുത
|
| Donkey
|-
|Gara
|
| ആന
|
| Elephant
|-
|Vaṇij
|
| പശു
|
| Cow
|-
| Vṛṣṭi
|
| പട്ടി
|
| Dog
|-
|}
Origin and history of the concept of karaṇa
Most probably the concept of karaṇa arose almost simultaneously with the concept of tithi. Tithi-s are related to lunar-days and lunar-days are similar in concept to solar days or sāvana days. A sāvana day is the duration of time from one sunrise to the next sunrise. Roughly one half of a sāvana day is the duration of time from sunrise to the next sunset and the other half is the duration of time from sunset to the next sunrise. Before the introduction of the modern concept of tithi, the concept of a lunar day was in vogue. It was the duration of time from one moon-rise to the next moon-rise. Similar to the division of a sāvana day, the lunar-day can also be divided into two halves: One half being the duration of time from moon-rise to the next moon-set (the lunar day time) and the other half being the duration of time from moon-set to the next moon-rise (lunar night time). The concept of karaṇa has originated in this division of the lunar day. Later, when the concept of tithi got established, the concepts of the lunar day time and lunar night time got replaced by the modern artificial concept of half-tithi-s. The works of the Vedāṅga period - Atharva Jyotiṣa and Ṛk-pariśiṣṭa mention the karaṇa-s. So the origination of the oncept of karaṇa-s can be traced to as early as the period of Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, that is, around 500 BCE.
See also
Nakshatra
Tithi
Nityayoga
Vāra
References
Calendars
Units of time
Astronomy in India
History of astronomy | Karaṇa (pañcāṅga) | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy",
"Mathematics"
] | 1,852 | [
"Calendars",
"Physical quantities",
"Time",
"History of astronomy",
"Units of time",
"Quantity",
"Spacetime",
"Units of measurement"
] |
75,707,763 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory%20Tague | Gregory Frank Tague (born 1957) is an American multidisciplinary literary scholar. He spent most of his career at St. Francis College. He is the founder of the scholarly journal ASEBL Journal and the literary journal Literary Veganism, and general editor for the publisher Bibliotekos.
Education and career
Tague was born in 1957 at Bay Ridge Hospital, Brooklyn. He attended Catholic schools and then St. Francis Preparatory School. He went on to study at Queens College, CUNY; initially earth and environmental science, but then English and American literature. He transferred to Brooklyn College due to the commute, graduating in 1979. He worked full-time in corporate law while at Brooklyn, and continued to work alongside his studies while he read for a Master of Arts at Hunter College, CUNY (graduating 1990); an MPhil at New York University (graduating 1996); and a PhD at New York University. His dissertation was supervised by Frederick R. Karl; it was called The process of the recovery of self in D. H. Lawrence, and accepted in 1998.
During his studies, Tague was an adjunct professor at St. Francis College. He was later hired as a tenure track professor at St. Francis, retiring in 2023 as a full professor in the Department of Literature, Writing and Publishing and the Interdisciplinary Studies program. Throughout his career, Tague's research has concerned moral character, consciousness, and moral behavior. He initially focussed on the English novel, bringing together literary studies and philosophy, but subsequently started to draw upon the biological sciences, including evolutionary biology. In his later career, his work moved towards animal ethics and environmental ethics.
Editorial projects
Literary Veganism
Tague is the founder and editor of the literary journal Literary Veganism: An Online Journal, which features prose, poetry, and fiction "by, for, and about vegans".
ASEBL Journal
ASEBL Journal was a peer-reviewed academic journal founded by Tague and published by St. Francis College. It published its first issue in 2007, and ceased regular publication in 2021 with volume 15. However, content is still published on the journal's website on an ad hoc basis.
In early editions, the initialism ASEBL signified the "Association for the Study of Ethical Behavior in Literature"; later, this became "Association for the Study of (Ethical Behavior) • (Evolutionary Biology) in Literature". In a "new departure" when regular publication of the journal stopped, ASEBL now stands for "animal studies ethical behavior literacy".
ASEBL Journal was indexed by EBSCOhost and the Modern Language Association.
Bibliotekos
With Fredericka A. Jacks, Tague is the general editor of the publishing website and micro publisher Bibliotekos. Bibliotekos has published a series of collections edited by Tague, as well as assorted interviews with and profiles of authors, articles on literary topics, and book reviews.
Selected publications
Author
Character and Consciousness: George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence (Phenomenological, Ecological, and Ethical Readings) (Academica Press, 2005)
Ethos and Behavior: The English Novel from Jane Austen to Henry James (Academica Press, 2008)
Making Mind: Moral Sense and Consciousness in Philosophy, Science, and Literature (Rodopi, 2014)
Art and Adaptation: A Primer from Notes (Bibliotekos, 2015)
Evolution and Human Culture: Texts and Contexts (Brill, 2016)
Art and Adaptability: Consciousness and Cognitive Culture (Brill, 2018)
An Ape Ethic and the Question of Personhood (Lexington Books, 2020)
The Vegan Evolution: Transforming Diets and Agriculture (Routledge, 2022)
Editor (scholarly)
Origins of English Literary Modernism, 1870-1914 (Academica, 2009)
Origins of English Dramatic Modernism, 1870-1914 (Academica 2010, with Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe)
Editor (literary)
Pain and Memory: Reflections on the Strength of the Human Spirit in Suffering (Bibliotekos, 2009)
Common Boundary: Stories of Immigration (Bibliotekos, 2010)
Battle Runes: Writings on War (Bibliotekos, 2011)
Being Human: Call of the Wild (Bibliotekos, 2012)
Puzzles of Faith and Patterns of Doubt: Short Stories and Poems (Bibliotekos, 2013)
References
External links
Personal website
Literary Veganism: An Online Journal
ASEBL Journal
Bibliotekos
1957 births
Living people
People from Brooklyn
St. Francis Preparatory School alumni
Brooklyn College alumni
Hunter College alumni
New York University alumni
St. Francis College faculty
American academics of English literature
Scholars of veganism
Animal ethicists
Environmental ethicists | Gregory Tague | [
"Environmental_science"
] | 970 | [
"Environmental ethicists",
"Environmental ethics"
] |
75,708,820 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauricio%20Resende | Mauricio G. C. Resende (born July 27, 1955 in Maceió, Brazil) is a Brazilian-American research scientist with contributions to the field of mathematical optimization. He is best known for the development of the metaheuristics GRASP (greedy randomized adaptive search procedures), and BRKGA (biased random-key genetic algorithms) as well as the first successful implementation of Karmarkar’s interior point algorithm.
He published over 180 peer-reviewed papers, the book Optimization by GRASP and co-edited five books, including the Handbook of Applied Optimization, the Handbook of Optimization in Telecommunications, the Handbook of Heuristics, and the Handbook of Massive Datasets. Additionally, he gave multiple plenary talks in international conferences and is on the editorial boards of several scientific journals.
Education
In June 1978, Mauricio G. C. Resende graduated from PUC-Rio with an Electrical Engineering degree with concentration in Systems Engineering. In August 1979, he earned a M.Sc. in operations research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Later, in August 1987, he earned a Ph.D. in operations research in at the University of California, Berkeley.
Career
Mauricio G. C. Resende is currently an INFORMS Fellow, holds a permanent member position of DIMACS at Rutgers University and is an affiliate professor at the University of Washington. Until December 2022, he worked at Amazon.com as a Principal Research Scientist in the Mathematical Optimization and Planning group. Previously, he was Lead Inventive Scientist at AT&T Bell Labs where he worked for over a quarter century.
References
Optimization algorithms and methods
Numerical analysis
1955 births
Living people | Mauricio Resende | [
"Mathematics"
] | 344 | [
"Computational mathematics",
"Mathematical relations",
"Approximations",
"Numerical analysis"
] |
75,708,944 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander%20Paseau | Alexander Christopher Paseau is a British philosopher of Greek and Belgian origin. He is Professor of Mathematical Philosophy at the University of Oxford and the Stuart Hampshire Fellow at Wadham College. He specializes in the philosophy of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion, and has made many well-known contributions to these fields.
He has been an Associate Editor of the journal Mind and has held Research Fellowships from the Mind Association and the Leverhulme Trust.
Research work
Paseau subscribes to a broadly realist conception of mathematical truth, stating in an interview that "mathematical truth is not tensed. Mathematicians discover mathematical truths; they don’t make them up". In the same interview, Paseau also maintains that "inductive reasoning is crucial for mathematical knowledge" and that "we can know a mathematical truth without ever having proved it".
Paseau also works on the subtraction argument for metaphysical nihilism. Paseau's view is discussed and defended by Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra in "The Subtraction Arguments for Metaphysical Nihilism: Compared and Defended".
Books
Mathematical Knowledge, co-editor with Mary Leng and Michael Potter, Oxford University Press 2007
Philosophy of Mathematics, (ed.), 5 volumes, Routledge 2017
One True Logic, with Owen Griffiths, Oxford University Press 2022
Indispensability, with Alan Baker, Cambridge University Press, 2023.
The Euclidean Programme, with Wesley Wrigley, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming
What is Mathematics About?, Oxford University Press, forthcoming
References
Academics of the University of Oxford
Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Princeton University alumni
Philosophers of mathematics
British philosophers of logic
British metaphysicians
British epistemologists
British philosophers of religion | Alexander Paseau | [
"Mathematics"
] | 381 | [
"Philosophers of mathematics"
] |
75,709,429 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelman-Rubin%20statistic | The Gelman-Rubin statistic allows a statement about the convergence of Monte Carlo simulations.
Definition
Monte Carlo simulations (chains) are started with different initial values. The samples from the respective burn-in phases are discarded.
From the samples (of the j-th simulation), the variance between the chains and the variance in the chains is estimated:
Mean value of chain j
Mean of the means of all chains
Variance of the means of the chains
Averaged variances of the individual chains across all chains
An estimate of the Gelman-Rubin statistic then results as
.
When L tends to infinity and B tends to zero, R tends to 1.
A different formula is given by Vats & Knudson.
Alternatives
The Geweke Diagnostic compares whether the mean of the first x percent of a chain and the mean of the last y percent of a chain match.
Literature
References
Estimation theory
Monte Carlo methods | Gelman-Rubin statistic | [
"Physics"
] | 182 | [
"Monte Carlo methods",
"Computational physics"
] |
75,710,678 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak%20Avigdor%20Orenstein | Yitzhak Avigdor Orenstein (; June 18, 1893 – May 23, 1948) was an Israeli politician, and the first rabbi of the Western Wall. He is widely considered in Israel to be a martyr in the founding of Israel.
Early life and education
Orenstein was born in Jerusalem as a descendant of the Rivlin family, to Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Orenstein and Shoshana Raizel, daughter of . As a child, he studied at various Yeshivas across Jerusalem, such as , run by the local Chabad chapter, being one of the first members of the school prior to its closure during the outbreak of World War I.
During the war, when the Yishuv in Jerusalem was stricken with various epidemics and food insecurity, he took part in missions on behalf of the needy and worked with the Committee for Aid to the Jews of Jerusalem. Using his Ottoman citizenship, he helped hide Jewish migrants of the Old Yishuv from the authorities by moving them out of the city and into the country for protection from conscription into the Ottoman army. In 1915, he married to Mushka Liba, daughter of Rabbi Ashker Yitzhak Weidman and Bluma Slonim, a fellow Ottoman Jew. She was a 5th generation descendant of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Zoref. On her mother's side, she was a descendant of Dovber Schneuri.
Adulthood and career
In 1919, Orenstein began publishing , a monthly magazine for the subjects of Torah and Eretz Yisroel, discussing literary topics as well as public affairs concerns. In 1925, he and his wife were founding members of the , which he again fled to during the 1929 pogroms. In 1929, he met with the Reichin Rebbe, who offered him a secretarial position in Riga, which he declined due to his declining interest in Europe.
In 1930, he was appointed by the Chief Rabbinate to the position of Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Places. He served in the position until the . Concurrently, he became a member of Colel Chabad, and helped aid poor Jewish families in Israel, eventually becoming a director of the organization. In 1940, he moved with his family to the Old CIty, where he and his wife took a more active role in the philanthropy of the city.
In 1945, he founded Midrash Shmuel Yeshiva, named after Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn; the president of the yeshiva was Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneersohn. Orenstein served as the Rosh Yeshiva and on the board with until its closure in 1948.
Death and family
During the Arab siege of the Old City during the 1948 War of Independence, Orenstein was responsible for the administrative affairs of all the residents of the Jewish Quarter. He and his wife worked devotedly to the safekeeping of the neighborhood. They were killed by artillery fire in the invasion and were put in a mass grave in the quarter. When the news of his death was received, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi set a telegram to David Ben-Gurion statying, "A great minister has fallen today in Israel." He and his wife were survived by two daughters and four sons, all whom took a role in the Israeli War of Independence.
In 1967, both Orenstein and his wife were transferred to the Mount of Olives Cemetery for a proper burial, and his name was engraved in the on Mount Herzl.
References
Sources
1893 births
1948 deaths
Jews from the Ottoman Empire
Politicians from Jerusalem
Hasidic rabbis in Mandatory Palestine
Clergy from Jerusalem
Deaths from explosion | Yitzhak Avigdor Orenstein | [
"Chemistry"
] | 740 | [
"Deaths from explosion",
"Explosions"
] |
75,711,077 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut%20a%C3%A9rotechnique | The Institut aérotechnique (IAT) is a French public research laboratory part of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, specializing in aerodynamic studies, located in Saint-Cyr-l'École (Yvelines).
The creation of this institute is thanks to an initiative of Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, also founder of the Aéro-Club de France. Its inauguration took place on July 8, 1911. It currently has several wind tunnels, some of which specialize in the automotive, railway and aerospace sectors. Concerning aeronautics, the laboratory has a partnership with the Institut polytechnique des sciences avancées.
References
External links
Official website
Research institutes in France
Research institutes established in 1911
1911 establishments in France
Aerodynamics
Aerospace engineering organizations | Institut aérotechnique | [
"Chemistry",
"Engineering"
] | 156 | [
"Aerospace engineering organizations",
"Aeronautics organizations",
"Aerodynamics",
"Aerospace engineering",
"Fluid dynamics"
] |
75,714,162 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick%20H.%20Scully | Patrick H. Scully was a Catholic priest and astronomer who served as a missionary in Cape Town and built the first Catholic parish church in South Africa.
Biography
After the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, the Colonial Office gave permission for a Catholic priest to be stationed in Cape Town. Irish priest Patrick H. Scully arrived in Cape Town on 1 January 1820, in the company of the bishop . On 13 February 1820, Scully opened a church in a repurposed store on Buitekant street, donated by a local Catholic, Philip Albertus. There he said Mass on Sundays and holy days at 11 AM. He initially ministered mainly to local Irish soldiers.
Rufane Shaw Donkin, the acting governor of Cape Town, approved a salary of £75 for Scully on 17 January 1821. In April 1821, Scully petitioned the burgher senate for land to build a proper church. The senate agreed, and Scully announced the planned construction in September. In November, the Cape Gazette announced that the plans for the church were available to view.
In 1821, the churchwardens of Cape Town wrote to Slater with a number of complaints about Scully. Scully, they said, only offered Mass on Sundays, gave infrequent and inaudible sermons, failed to follow up on home visits to parishioners, and was irregular in recording baptisms. They also claimed that Scully was breaking the law by baptizing slaves. In response, Slater told the churchwardens not to interfere in Scully's pastoral decisions.
Low donations from parishioners were a recurring problem. In 1821, the churchwardens attempted to raise funding for the parish by charging a fee for access to the sacraments. Scully continued to perform sacraments without their permission, and fired the sacristan when he attempted to interfere.
Lord Charles Somerset, the governor of Cape Town, returned from leave in December 1821 and stopped Scully's salary. Scully therefore looked for work elsewhere, and that same year, Fearon Fallows, head of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, wrote to John Barrow asking for approval to hire Scully as an assistant. Scully began work on 18 January 1822, and on 4 April 1822 the Board of Longitude sent their official approval for the decision to hire Scully at a salary of £100.
In a letter to Barrow, Fallows wrote of Scully:
Fallows also praised Scully in a letter to John Herschel, writing:
Construction began on Scully's church on 28 October 1822. Due to continuing funding issues, Scully took out a number of loans in 1823 to fund the ongoing construction of the church. He never paid interest on these loans, and they were the subject of extensive litigation after his departure. In March 1824, he began to say Mass in the unfinished chapel.
In July 1824, Fallows found Scully in bed with Fallows's 17-year-old maid. Due to the "improprieties" committed and the "violence of [Scully's] manner" when discovered, Fallows promptly dismissed Scully, who was also defrocked over the incident. Scully left the colony for London on 11 July 1824, aboard the Venus. Upon his departure, he entrusted the church he had built to two curators. He was succeeded as chaplain by Theodore Wagner. Fallows asked the Admiralty to continue Scully's salary for six months after his dismissal, but the request was declined, and Scully was formally dismissed on 5 October 1824.
References
Cape Colony people
19th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests
Laicized Roman Catholic priests
Astronomers
Date of birth missing
Place of birth missing | Patrick H. Scully | [
"Astronomy"
] | 724 | [
"Astronomers",
"People associated with astronomy"
] |
75,714,967 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremella%20mesenterella | Tremella mesenterella is a species of fungus in the family Tremellaceae. It produces yellowish to reddish brown, foliose, gelatinous basidiocarps (fruit bodies) and is parasitic on corticioid fungi (Peniophora species) on dead branches of broadleaf trees and shrubs. It was originally described from Canada.
Taxonomy
Tremella mesenterella was first published in 1999 by American mycologist Robert Joseph Bandoni and Canadian mycologist James Ginns based on collections from Canada and the United States on broadleaf trees.
Description
Fruit bodies are gelatinous, buff to ochre-yellow or pale reddish brown, up to 50 mm across, foliose to cerebriform (brain-like). Microscopically, the hyphae have clamp connections and the basidia are tremelloid (globose to subglobose, with vertical septa), 4-celled, 20 to 30 by 18 to 24 μm. Basidiospores are subglobose 12 to 15 by 10 to 12 μm.
Similar species
In North America, fruit bodies of the common and widespread species Tremella mesenterica are similar in appearance but typically bright golden yellow and can be distinguished microscopically by their differently shaped, ellipsoid spores measuring 10 to 16 by 6 to 9.5 μm. Fruit bodies of Naematelia aurantia are also golden yellow, but are parasitic on fruit bodies of Stereum species.
Habitat and distribution
Tremella mesenterella is a parasite on species of the corticioid genus Peniophora. Collections have typically been made on dead attached branches of Cornus (dogwood) and Salix (willow) species, less commonly on other broadleaf trees.
The type collection was from western Canada, but additional collections were made from southeastern USA. It is possible these represent two closely related but separate species.
References
mesenterella
Fungi of North America
Fungi described in 1999
Fungus species | Tremella mesenterella | [
"Biology"
] | 421 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
75,715,747 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hycroft%20Manor | Hycroft is a mansion in the Shaughnessy district of Vancouver. It was designed and built in 1909–12 by Thomas Hooper for Alexander Duncan McRae who was a businessman, farmer, politician and soldier. The internal plasterwork was sculpted by Charles Marega. During the Second World War, it was donated by McRae to be used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. In 1962, it was bought by the Canadian Federation of University Women who renovated it to be their clubhouse.
References
Heritage buildings in Vancouver | Hycroft Manor | [
"Engineering"
] | 104 | [
"Architecture stubs",
"Architecture"
] |
75,716,541 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central%20American%20gyre | The Central American gyre (CAG) is a broad and seasonal area of low pressure that occurs over the eastern Pacific Ocean and western Caribbean Sea. It primarily develops annually during the region's rainy season between May and November, and most commonly occurs during late spring (May–June) and early fall (October–November). CAGs are a type of monsoonal low and share similarities with monsoonal lows in other oceanic basins. The broad counterclockwise circulation of winds associated with CAGs is weak. CAGs may span across hundreds of miles, potentially covering parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean, southern Gulf of Mexico, and western Caribbean Sea.
CAGs are also slow-moving and can last on the order of days to weeks as they move over Central America and persistently generate inclement weather. Consequently, with the aid of the nearby ocean waters, CAGs can produce prolific amounts of rainfall over Central America, presenting a risk for flash floods and mudslides. The terrain of Central America may influence the development and organization of the showers and thunderstorms associated with CAGs. On average, precipitation associated with CAGs most commonly occurs along the coast of Central America. Tropical cyclones over the western Caribbean Sea and southern Gulf of Mexico may draw moisture from a nearby CAG, enhancing the amount of rainfall they produce. The presence of a CAG may also push rainfall associated with tropical cyclones in the southern Gulf of Mexico towards the south and west.
Development and structure
The prevailing winds across the tropical eastern Pacific and Atlantic tend to blow from the east. However, the emergence of northwesterly winds over Central America can lead to the development of a CAG as the climatological wind pattern is interrputed. CAGs arise more frequently in the fall than the spring when the easterly trade winds are more relaxed, with the frequency of CAGs maximized in October. This interruption of the climatological trade winds tends to occur more frequently during certain phases of the Madden–Julian oscillation when storms are more abundant over Central America. The weakening of easterlies can produce cyclonic flow over Central America and enable CAG formation. Localized vorticity produced by breaks in the Central American terrain such as the Chivela Pass, Gulf of Panama, and Gulf of Papagayo may also contribute to the evolution of CAGs. The rarity of CAGs during the summer is associated with the concurrent lack of northwesterly flow over the Gulf of Mexico. One analysis identified 47 CAGs occurring between 1980 and 2010, corresponding to roughly 1.5 CAGs per year.
Most CAGs exhibit a barotropic structure, occurring in tandem with an anticyclone in the upper-troposphere atop the gyre. This class of CAGs is associated with enhanced moisture and precipitation around the center of the gyre. Less frequently, a CAG may exhibit a baroclinic structure and occur in tandem with a trough in the upper-troposphere. The regions of anomalous moisture and precipitation associated with these CAGs are concentrated east of the gyre's center.
Influence on tropical cyclogenesis
CAGs consist of smaller vortices that rotate about the broader gyre. These localized areas of low pressure are associated with stronger thunderstorms and can generate pockets of higher vorticity. They often result from the interaction between the gyre and a passing tropical wave. A vortex may consolidate into a tropical cyclone in either the eastern Pacific or western Atlantic and detach from the gyre if the environment is conducive to tropical cyclone development. This occurs about once every other year on average, and tropical cyclone development occurs in tandem with around half of all CAGs. Tropical cyclogenesis typically occurs on the northeastern periphery of the gyre, with the resulting tropical cyclone tracking counterclockwise along with the flow about the gyre.
Due to the prevalence of CAGs either early or late in the hurricane season when sea surface temperatures are lower and upper-tropospheric winds are higher, the tropical cyclones associated with CAGs tend to be weaker than those occurring during the peak of the hurricane season. However, suitable conditions can facilitate the development of stronger storms; for example, Hurricane Michael made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane after forming in association with a CAG. CAGs can also help produce tropical cyclones in the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic simultaneously. In May and June 2020, a CAG contributed to the formation of Tropical storms Amanda and Cristobal in the eastern Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. The complex weather patterns associated with CAGs presents difficulties for weather models to predict tropical cyclone formation. The Global Forecast System operated by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction tends to erroneously depict the development of tropical cyclones in the western Caribbean in part due to the complexities associated with CAGs.
References
Tropical meteorology
Atmospheric dynamics
Types of cyclone | Central American gyre | [
"Chemistry"
] | 989 | [
"Atmospheric dynamics",
"Fluid dynamics"
] |
75,716,587 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differenced%20one-way%20doppler | Differenced one-way doppler (DOWD) is a method of spacecraft navigation. The process uses two TDRSS communications relay satellites receiving the same telemetry broadcast from a satellite. The Doppler shifts experienced by both TDRS satellites can be processed using ground equipment to generate trajectory estimates without the need for onboard GPS solutions. The Flight Dynamics Facility at GSFC provides this trajectory processing for NASA missions, though commercial software can also be used.
Before spacecraft GPS navigation was common, satellite navigation in Earth orbit required ground antennas or radar to follow a satellite's transponder signal and interpret range measurements, which could then be fed into a computer to determine the trajectory. The system continues to be in operation as of the third generation of TDRS satellites, which began operations in 2013.
The DOWD concept was described as early as 1980 and the capability was tested first on the WIND and NOAA-J satellite launches in 1994. While the trajectory estimates generated through DOWD for these tests were only marginally useful on their own, it was found that ground-based trajectory estimates were significantly improved by combining their results with the DOWD solution.
References
Satellite navigation
Doppler effects | Differenced one-way doppler | [
"Physics"
] | 240 | [
"Physical phenomena",
"Transport stubs",
"Astrophysics",
"Physical systems",
"Transport",
"Doppler effects"
] |
75,716,835 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/1999%20T1%20%28McNaught%E2%80%93Hartley%29 | C/1999 T1 (McNaught–Hartley) is a near-parabolic long-period comet, discovered by Robert H. McNaught and Malcolm Hartley at the Siding Spring Observatory in 1999.
Observations
Comet McNaught–Hartley was a magnitude 15 object upon discovery on October 7, 1999. Gas emissions were measured in x-ray light by the Chandra observatory (alongside C/1999 S4 (LINEAR)) between 8–14 January 2001. Observations of its coma between January 26 and February 5, 2001 show that the nucleus has a rotation period between 1 and 10 days.
Encounter with the Ulysses probe
Research published in 2004 found that the Ulysses spacecraft had likely detected ions from the comet tail of C/1999 T1. This was the spacecraft's second encounter with a comet tail, after Comet Hyakutake in 1996.
See also
Comet McNaught
References
External links
Non-periodic comets
Near-Earth comets | C/1999 T1 (McNaught–Hartley) | [
"Astronomy"
] | 189 | [
"Astronomy stubs",
"Comet stubs"
] |
75,717,171 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STARCOM%20%28communications%20system%29 | STARCOM, or the Strategic Army Communication System, was a communications network built and operated by the United States Army Signal Corps in the 1950s and 1960s. An early large-scale automated data network, the system provided central control of defense communications and data services within the continental United States and overseas. STARCOM was amalgamated into the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) in the early 1960s.
Description
STARCOM operated three major nodes, with further links to radio transmitting and receiving stations overseas. West Coast Relay was situated at Davis, California, Midwest Relay at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and East Coast Relay at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The system had a capacity of 275,000 messages per day, and could handle 5,000 concurrent messages. The system used punched tape as a recording system, which was then printed to terminals for reading. East Coast Relay was the largest and last node to be completed, beginning operation in December, 1960. Uniquely, East Coast Relay was linked to its associated radio transmitter and receiver sites in Woodbridge, Virginia and La Plata, Maryland, respectively, by a tropospheric scatter system. The East Coast Relay facility cost $20 million in 1959 (equivalent to $211 million in 2023), of which slightly more than $2 million went toward buildings and site preparation..
Links
West Coast Relay was primarily concerned with communications in the Pacific region, while East Coast Relay served Europe and the Caribbean. East Coast Relay was the primary control center, with redundancy built into the other two nodes. Additional secondary relay centers were established in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Fort Sam Houston, Fort Bragg, Fort Lee, Camp Pickett, and Fort Meade. The Seattle station provided a link to the related Alaska Communications System node in Anchorage. Midwest Relay provided service within the continental United States and linked the east and west coast stations.
Overseas primary relay stations were established in Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, Alaska, Eritrea, and Germany. Secondary overseas stations were provided in Okinawa, Taiwan, South Korea, Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, Germany, France, the Panama Canal Zone, and the United Kingdom.
Systems
Switching systems were provided by the Automatic Electric Company, printers by the Kleinschmidt Division of Smith-Corona-Marchand, and the East Coast troposcatter systems were provided by the Collins Radio Company.
Message transmission used a variety of means, including radio, coaxial cable, and wire systems operated by the Signal Corps and AT&T. Traffic was controlled by the STARCOM Switched Transceiver Network.
Fate
During the 1960s the system was absorbed into the DCA, which consolidated separate Army, Navy and Air Force systems. STARCOM was superseded by the DCA-operated AUTODIN system.
The Davis facility was decommissioned between 1967 and 1970 after AUTODIN and communications satellites superseded its function.
At East Coast Relay the STARCOM system was replaced with a major AUTODIN node, which was eventually one of the last AUTODIN centers to be phased out..
References
History of telecommunications in the United States
Military communications | STARCOM (communications system) | [
"Engineering"
] | 617 | [
"Military communications",
"Telecommunications engineering"
] |
71,410,644 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickerhamomycetaceae | The Wickerhamomycetaceae are a family of yeasts in the order Saccharomycetales that reproduce by budding. Species in the family have a widespread distribution.
Genus Wickerhamomyces used to be placed within Phaffomycetaceae family, until 2008 when it was separated and placed within its own order Wickerhamomycetaceae.
Beneficially, various Wickerhamomyces species have been used in a number of biotechnologically applications, such as in the environment, food, beverage industries, (including wine making, ) biofuel, medicine and agriculture.
Description
The fungi has asexual reproduction and that budding is multilateral on a narrow base. The cells are spherical, ovoid, or elongate in shape. Pseudohyphae and true hyphae (a long, branching, filamentous structure) are produced by some species. In sexual reproduction, it is found that the asci (spore bearing cell) may be unconjugated or show conjugation between a cell and its bud or between independent cells. Some species are heterothallic (species have sexes that reside in different individuals). Asci may be persistent or deliquescent and form one to four ascospores that may be hat-shaped or spherical with an equatorial ledge.
It can be found in soils, on plant material (such as phylloplane of rice,) and also as an opportunistic pathogen of humans and animals.
Genera
According to GBIF, and the United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service;
Figures in brackets are approx. how many species per genus.
Wickerhamomyces anomalus is normally found on plants, but has been found in sugar, dry salted beans, sauerkraut and in cucumber brines.
References
Other sources
Kurtzman, C. P., C. J. Robnett, and E. Basehoar-Powers. 2008. Phylogenetic relationships among species of Pichia, Issatchenkia and Williopsis determined from multigene sequence analysis, and the proposal of Barnettozyma gen. nov., Lindnera gen. nov. and Wickerhamomyces gen. nov. FEMS Yeast Res 8:939-54.
Yeasts
Saccharomycetes
Ascomycota families | Wickerhamomycetaceae | [
"Biology"
] | 491 | [
"Yeasts",
"Fungi"
] |
71,410,654 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom%27s%20second%20isotopy%20lemma | In mathematics, especially in differential topology, Thom's second isotopy lemma is a family version of Thom's first isotopy lemma; i.e., it states a family of maps between Whitney stratified spaces is locally trivial when it is a Thom mapping. Like the first isotopy lemma, the lemma was introduced by René Thom.
gives a sketch of the proof. gives a simplified proof. Like the first isotopy lemma, the lemma also holds for the stratification with Bekka's condition (C), which is weaker than Whitney's condition (B).
Thom mapping
Let be a smooth map between smooth manifolds and submanifolds such that both have differential of constant rank. Then Thom's condition is said to hold if for each sequence in X converging to a point y in Y and such that converging to a plane in the Grassmannian, we have
Let be Whitney stratified closed subsets and maps to some smooth manifold Z such that is a map over Z; i.e., and . Then is called a Thom mapping if the following conditions hold:
are proper.
is a submersion on each stratum of .
For each stratum X of S, lies in a stratum Y of and is a submersion.
Thom's condition holds for each pair of strata of .
Then Thom's second isotopy lemma says that a Thom mapping is locally trivial over Z; i.e., each point z of Z has a neighborhood U with homeomorphisms over U such that .
See also
References
Differential topology
Lemmas
Stratifications | Thom's second isotopy lemma | [
"Mathematics"
] | 350 | [
"Mathematical theorems",
"Stratifications",
"Topology stubs",
"Topology",
"Differential topology",
"Mathematical problems",
"Lemmas"
] |
71,411,187 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuj%20%28bathhouse%29 | A chuj is a traditional Mayan bathhouse. It is a sweat bath or steam bath. Traditional chuj had stone walls and live sod roofs. Today, some chuj are made out of adobe bricks or cinder blocks instead.
Each family would build their own chuj near their house. A chuj has no windows. Inside, the bathers heat rocks until they are hot. Then they throw water onto the rocks to make steam. The bathers lie down on wooden beds. Users believe that the chuj cleans the body, spirit, and mind.
References
Hygiene
Society of Guatemala | Chuj (bathhouse) | [
"Engineering"
] | 122 | [
"Architecture stubs",
"Architecture"
] |
71,414,213 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral%20%28kinship%29 | Collateral is a term used in kinship to describe kin, or lines of kin, that are not in a direct line of descent from an individual. Examples of collateral relatives include siblings of parents or grandparents and their descendants (uncles, aunts, and cousins). Collateral descent is contrasted with lineal descent: those related directly by a line of descent such as the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. of an individual. Though both forms are consanguineal (blood relations), collaterals are neither ancestors nor descendants of a given person. In legal terminology, 'Collateral descendant' refers to relatives descended from a sibling of an ancestor, and thus a niece, nephew, or cousin.
See also
Lineal descent
Bilateral descent
Kinship
Genealogy
Rota system (collateral succession)
Agnatic seniority
References
Kinship and descent
Anthropology
Kinship terminology | Collateral (kinship) | [
"Biology"
] | 171 | [
"Behavior",
"Human behavior",
"Kinship and descent"
] |
71,416,154 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey%20Piletsky | Sergey Piletsky is a professor of Bioanalytical Chemistry and the Research Director for School of Chemistry, University of Leicester, United Kingdom.
Education
Sergey graduated from Kyiv University, Ukraine, obtaining an MSc in chemistry in 1985 and researched on synthesis of the polymers selective for nucleic acids, for which he was awarded with a PhD in 1991. Cranfield University awarded Sergey with a DSc for his work on molecularly imprinted polymers for diagnostics applications.
Awards
Sergey is a recipient of Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, Leverhulme Trust Fellowship, DFG Fellowship from the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Award of President of Ukraine, and Japan Society for Promotion of Science and Technology Fellowship.
Research
Sergey's work in molecular imprinting focuses on: (i) the fundamental study of the recognition properties of molecularly imprinted polymers; (ii) the development of sensors and assays for environmental and clinical analysis; and (iii) the development of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles for theranostic applications.
Sergey introduced computational design into the field of molecular imprinting, by scientifically demonstrating that non-covalent interaction between the template molecule and polymer is through the technique known as 'bite and switch' wherein functional groups first non-covalently bond with the binding site, but during the rebinding step, the polymer matrix forms irreversible covalent bonds with the target molecule. A number of research groups around the world follow his ideas in developing functional imprinted polymers for a variety of applications.
Notable publications
Surface-grafted molecularly imprinted polymers for protein recognition, A Bossi, SA Piletsky, EV Piletska, PG Righetti, APF Turner, Analytical chemistry 73 (21), 5281-5286
Electrochemical sensor for catechol and dopamine based on a catalytic molecularly imprinted polymer-conducting polymer hybrid recognition element, Dhana Lakshmi, Alessandra Bossi, Michael J Whitcombe, Iva Chianella, Steven A Fowler, Sreenath Subrahmanyam, Elena V Piletska, Sergey A Piletsky, Analytical Chemistry 81 (9), 3576-3584
Piletsky S.A., Turner A.P.F. (2006). New generation of chemical sensors based on molecularly imprinted polymers, in: Molecular imprinting of polymers, S. Piletsky and A.P.F. Turner (eds.), Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, USA
Notable patents
Rationally Designed Selective Binding Polymers (2010), Publication number: 20100009859, Inventors: Sergey A. Piletsky, Olena Piletska, Khalku Karim, Coulton H. Legge, Sreenath Subrahmanyam
Electrochemical Sensor (2019) Publication number: 20210239643, Inventors: Sergey Piletsky, Omar Sheej Ahamad, Alvaro Garcia Cruz
Polymerisation method, polymers and uses thereof (2006) Publication number: 20060122288, Inventors: Sergey Piletsky, Olena Piletska, Anthony Turner, Khalku Karim, Beining Chen
Methods and Kits for determining binding sites (2020) Publication number: 20200033356, Inventors: Sergey Piletsky, Elena Piletska, Francesco Canfarotta, Don Jones
Photoreactor and Process for Preparing MIP Nanoparticles (2014) Publication number: 20140228472, Inventors: Sergey Piletsky, Olena Piletska, Antonio Guerreiro, Michael Whitcombe, Alessandro Poma
References
External links
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
British chemists
Alumni of Cranfield University
British inventors
Molecular modelling
Computational biology
Computational chemistry
Biosensors
Receptors
Biomimetics
Sensors
Bioinorganic chemistry
Ukrainian expatriates in England
Ukrainian chemists
21st-century Ukrainian scientists | Sergey Piletsky | [
"Chemistry",
"Technology",
"Engineering",
"Biology"
] | 796 | [
"Biological engineering",
"Molecular physics",
"Biomimetics",
"Bionics",
"Measuring instruments",
"Signal transduction",
"Bioinformatics",
"Receptors",
"Computational chemistry",
"Theoretical chemistry",
"Molecular modelling",
"Biosensors",
"Computational biology",
"Biochemistry",
"Senso... |
71,416,251 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivica%20Puljak | Ivica Puljak (born 27 August 1969) is a Croatian politician, particle physicist and professor at University of Split's FESB division. He is currently serving as mayor of Split since 2022 and is the president of the Centre political party.
Life
Early life and education
Puljak was born in 1969 in Split, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia. His parents are from the Dalmatian Hinterland with his father, Zdravko, being from Zagvozd and mother, Jaka, from Drniš. Growing up in Split and attending primary and high school in his hometown, he dreamed of becoming a footballer for the local club, Hajduk.
Personal life
Puljak is married to Marijana Rakuljić, the founder of Pametno and a member of Croatian Parliament. They have two daughters and a son together. He is an atheist.
Scientific career
He has been working for his PhD thesis at Laboratory Leprince Ringuet (LLR) at Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, and got his PhD on search for Higgs boson from University Paris VI in 2000 for which he was awarded the best CMS thesis award in 2001. He is a member of CMS collaboration since 1994 and MAGIC collaboration since 2009. He was a co-coordinator of more than a hundred scientists from all over the world working on the most sensitive and precise of all physical processes through which the Higgs boson was discovered and measured. His research interests are the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector, development and implementation of algorithms for the electron reconstruction of the CMS detector, physics of the Higgs boson and astroparticle physics. He was awarded the Annual Award for Science in 2013.
Political career
Puljak ran for and won the 2021 Split mayoral elections.
After about one year, a special election was summoned due to the dissolution of the city council, where Puljak had lost his majority. Adding to the commotion, his deputy mayor, Bojan Ivošević, was charged with threatening a journalist. On April 8, Mayor Puljak and both his deputies resigned. Ivica Puljak won the special election becoming the first mayor of Split to win more than one election and his party Centre won 15 seats out of 31 in the city council.
See also
List of mayors of Split
References
Particle physicists
Croatian physicists
1969 births
Croatian politicians
Academic staff of the University of Split
Living people
Mayors of Split, Croatia | Ivica Puljak | [
"Physics"
] | 503 | [
"Particle physicists",
"Particle physics"
] |
71,417,227 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remifentanilic%20acid | Remifentanilic acid is a metabolite of the potent short-acting synthetic opioid analgesic drug remifentanil. It is an analog of fentanyl and remifentanil, but is not active as an opioid in its own right.
See also
3-Methylbutyrfentanyl
4-Fluorobutyrfentanyl
4-Fluorofentanyl
α-Methylfentanyl
Acetylfentanyl
Benzylfentanyl
Furanylfentanyl
Homofentanyl
List of fentanyl analogues
References
Further reading
Synthetic opioids
Piperidines
Anilides
Mu-opioid receptor agonists
Carboxylic acids
Methyl esters | Remifentanilic acid | [
"Chemistry"
] | 154 | [
"Carboxylic acids",
"Functional groups"
] |
71,417,936 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SY%20Equulei | SY Equulei, also known as HD 203664, is a single variable star located in the equatorial constellation Equuleus. It has an average apparent magnitude of about 8.5, varying by a few hundredths of a magnitude, making it readily visible in binoculars and small telescopes, but not to the naked eye. The star is relatively far away at a distance of 8,000 light years and is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of . At that distance, SY Equulei is dimmed by 0.19 magnitudes due to interstellar dust.
Throughout the late 20th century, HD 203664 was known to have a dust cloud surrounding it. Subsequent observations from Kenneth R. Sembach (1995) reveal it to contain high abundances of calcium as well as traces of magnesium, aluminum, and silicon. The cloud probably came from outside the galactic plane and is moving towards the star at a rate of . The star has a high galactic latitude, indicating its location in the galactic halo. HD 203664 was most likely ejected from its birthplace to its current distance. However, its status as a Beta Cephei variable wasn't discovered until a survey of 2000 using Hipparcos data. It was then given the designation SY Equulei.
SY Equulei has a stellar classification of B0.5 IIIn, indicating an evolved B-type star with nebulous (broad) absorption lines due to rapid rotation. Unlike most stars of its type, it spins rapidly with a projected rotational velocity of , which is 40% of its break-up velocity. It has 14 times the mass of the Sun and a radius of . It radiates at 2,490 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of , giving a whitish blue hue.
SY Equueli is a variable star with an amplitude of 0.07 magnitudes and an average period of 3.98 hours. In later observations, SY Equulei was found to have multiple periods.
References
B-type giants
Beta Cephei variables
Equuleus
Equulei, SY
203664
105614
BD+09 04793 | SY Equulei | [
"Astronomy"
] | 456 | [
"Equuleus",
"Constellations"
] |
71,418,231 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioxamycin | Dioxamycin is a benz[a] anthraquinone antibiotic and kinase inhibitor with the molecular formula C38H40O15. Dioxamycin is produced by the bacterium Streptomyces cocklensis and Streptomyces xantholiticus.
References
Further reading
Streptomyces
Antibiotics
Anthraquinones
Carboxylic acids
Dioxolanes | Dioxamycin | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 83 | [
"Biotechnology products",
"Carboxylic acids",
"Functional groups",
"Antibiotics",
"Biocides"
] |
71,420,582 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfv%C3%A9n%20surface | The Alfvén surface is the boundary separating a star's corona from the stellar wind defined as where the coronal plasma's Alfvén speed and the large-scale stellar wind speed are equal. It is named after Hannes Alfvén, and is also called Alfvén critical surface, Alfvén point, or Alfvén radius. In 2018, the Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft that crossed Alfvén surface of the Sun.
Definition
Stars do not have a solid surface. However, they have a superheated atmosphere, made of solar material bound to the star by gravity and magnetic forces. The stellar corona extends far beyond the solar surface, or photosphere, and is considered the outer boundary of the star. It marks the transition to the solar wind which moves through the planetary system. This limit is defined by the distance at which disturbances in the solar wind cannot propagate back to the solar surface. Those disturbances cannot propagate back towards a star if the outbound solar wind speed exceeds Mach one, the speed of 'sound' as defined for the solar wind. This distance forms an irregular 'surface' around a star is called the Alfvén surface. It can also be described as a point where gravity and magnetic fields are too weak to contain heat and pressure that push the material away from a star. This is the point where solar atmosphere ends and where solar wind begins.
Adhikari, Zank, & Zhao (2019) define the Alfvén surface as:
the location at which the large-scale bulk solar wind speed and the Alfvén speed are equal, and thus it separates sub-Alfvénic coronal flow ||≪|| from super-Alfvénic solar wind flow ||≫||
DeForest, Howard, & McComas (2014) define the Alfvén surface as:a natural boundary that marks the causal disconnection of individual packets of plasma and magnetic flux from the Sun itself. The Alfvén surface is the locus where the radial motion of the accelerating solar wind passes the radial Alfvén speed, and therefore any displacement of material cannot carry information back down into the corona. It is thus the natural outer boundary of the solar corona, and the inner boundary of interplanetary space.
Alfvén surface separates the sub- and super-Alfvénic regimes of the stellar wind, which influence the structure of any magnetosphere/ionosphere around an orbiting planet in the system. Characterization of the Alfvén surface can serve as an inner-boundary of the habitable zone of the star. Alfvén surface can be found "nominally" at 10–30 star radii.
Research
Researchers were unsure exactly where the Alfvén critical surface of the Sun lay. Based on remote images of the corona, estimates had put it somewhere between 10 and 20 solar radii from the surface of the Sun. On April 28, 2021, during its eighth flyby of the Sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) encountered the specific magnetic and particle conditions at 18.8 solar radii that indicated that it penetrated the Alfvén surface; the probe measured the solar wind plasma environment with its FIELDS and SWEAP instruments. This event was described by NASA as "touching the Sun". During the flyby, Parker Solar Probe passed into and out of the corona several times. This proved the predictions that the Alfvén critical surface is not shaped like a smooth ball, but has spikes and valleys that wrinkle its surface.
At 09:33 UT on 28 April 2021 Parker Solar Probe entered the magnetized atmosphere of the Sun above the photosphere, crossing below the Alfvén critical surface for five hours into plasma in causal contact with the Sun with an Alfvén Mach number of 0.79 and magnetic pressure dominating both ion and electron pressure. Magnetic mapping suggests the region was a steady flow emerging on rapidly expanding coronal magnetic field lines lying above a pseudostreamer. The sub-Alfvénic nature of the flow may be due to suppressed magnetic reconnection at the base of the pseudostreamer, as evidenced by unusually low densities in this region and the magnetic mapping.
Further reading
References
External links
Sun
Solar phenomena | Alfvén surface | [
"Physics"
] | 845 | [
"Physical phenomena",
"Stellar phenomena",
"Solar phenomena"
] |
71,420,678 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical%20drain%20cleaners | Chemical drain cleaners or openers are pure or mixtures of chemicals used to unclog drains that are blocked by hair, food, or other organic materials. They are often accompanied by other mechanical drain cleaners for the optimal effect. Chemical drain cleaners are available through hardware stores, although some may be intended for use by licensed plumbers. They may contain either strong acids (in liquid forms) or strong alkalis (in either solid or liquid forms). These cleaners contain chemicals that dissolve at least some of the material causing the clog.
History
The history of drain cleaners parallels the development of common drain systems themselves. As a result, there is not an extensive history of cleaners in the US, as municipal plumbing systems were not readily available in middle-class American homes until the early 20th century. Prior to this time, Americans often discarded the dirty water collected in basins after use. Limited piping systems gradually developed with lead materials, but after WWI when the poisonous properties of lead became more well-known, piping was reconstructed with galvanized iron.
Galvanized iron is actually steel covered in a protective layer of zinc, but it was soon discovered that this zinc layer naturally corroded due to exposure to the atmosphere and rainwater, as well as cement, runoff, etc. Once corrosion occurred down to the base metal, plaques and rust would form, leading to sediment build-up that would gradually clog these drains. Thus, the first motivation for drain cleaners came to be.
The struggle against corroding galvanized iron pipes eventually led to a replacement by copper or plastic (PVC) piping by the 1960s. Copper and plastic do not possess that zinc layer that naturally corrodes to expose the base metal to decay. Natural substances such as hair, grease, or other oils continued to be an issue in drain clogs requiring, in turn, the development of more effective chemical drain cleaners.
Acidic drain openers
Acidic drain cleaners usually contain sulfuric acid at high concentrations. It can dissolve cellulose, proteins like hair, and fats via acid hydrolysis.
While there are many methods for unclogging drains, one of the most effective solutions is using hydrochloric acid (HCl), a powerful chemical cleaner.
Potential hazards include violent reactions with water and the production of explosive hydrogen vapors upon contact with most metals; chronic (delayed) and acute (immediate) health hazards if inhaled, ingested, or contacted, including severe eye, flesh and skin burns or even permanent visual loss, inflammation of respiratory membranes, and corrosive burns to all human tissue. It may even be fatal if swallowed. Due to the vigorous reaction between the acid and water, such acidic drain openers should be added slowly into the pipe to be cleaned.
Acidic drain openers (in very high concentrations) hydrolyze proteins and fats via acid hydrolysis (acid-catalyzed hydrolysis), similar to their alkaline versions:
RCONH2(amide or proteins) + H3O+ → NH4+ + RCOOH
RCO2R'(ester or fats) + H2O → RCO2H + R'OH
Concentrated sulfuric acid dehydrates substances containing carbohydrates, like tissue paper which consists of cellulose:
()n → 6n C + 5n
Alkaline drain openers
Alkaline drain openers primarily contain sodium hydroxide (lye) and some may contain potassium hydroxide. They may appear in liquid or solid form.
Solid formulations of corrosive alkaline drain cleaners are composed of a caustic substance (often sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide), aluminum particles, and 'additives.' These additives often include wetting agents such as alkyl aryl sulfonates, but the exact nature of these additives are not known for commercial drain cleaners, as they are regarded as the trade secrets that make each drain cleaner unique to its brand.
The aluminum granules that are included in the solid caustic drain cleaner release hydrogen gas. The corresponding reactions are shown below. Because the release of hydrogen gas is overall an exothermic reaction, the extra heat released helps to break down the greases, oils, etc. that form the clog.
1. Breakdown of aluminum oxide: Al2O3 + 2NaOH + 3H2O →
2. Oxidation of aluminum metal: 2Al + 2NaOH + 6H2O → + 3H2
The actual breakdown of a clog occurs by reaction with the hydroxide ions (OH−) from the drain cleaner. Clogs are often composed of natural substances such as hair, fats, oils, etc. and breakdown occurs via a saponification reaction of a base and triglyceride. The hydroxide ions from the dissolution of lye in water attack the carbonyl carbons of the fat, which eventually kicks off the hydrophobic tails of the triglyceride (e.g. glyceryl trioleate) to isolate glycerol and a fatty acid salt.
Alkaline drain openers can dissolve hair (containing proteins) and fats inside pipes via alkaline hydrolysis of amide and ester functionalities respectively:
RCONH2 (amide or proteins)+ OH− → NH3 + RCOO−
RCO2R’ (ester or fats)+ OH− → R'OH + RCOO−
Because solid lye is hygroscopic, it is crucial that the solid granules of the cleaner are placed directly in proximity to the clog. Otherwise, the lye itself will absorb water and actually create a mass itself, exacerbating the clog issue.
Liquid formulations of corrosive alkaline drain cleaners can contain sodium hypochlorite (bleach) and lye (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide) in concentrations up to 50 percent. Other corrosive mixtures come as two-part cleaners that are mixed as they are poured in the drain opening. Inside the drain the two solutions react to release a gas, and surfactants trap the gas as dense foam. The intent of this foaming action is to coat the inside of the drain pipe to dislodge more of the substances that form the clog. Because liquid alkaline drain cleaners are essentially a base dissolved in water, this is denser than water and can sink to the source of the clog.
Usage considerations
Advantages of chemical drain cleaners include ready availability of some formulations through retailer stores and potential ease of use for removing soft hair and grease clogs that accumulate close the drain openings.
Disadvantages of chemical drain cleaners include a lack of effectiveness for removing clogs far from the drain opening (for example, clogs that occur in toilets or in the main sewer drain), an inability to remove most solid obstructions, and the safety considerations outlined below.
Strongly corrosive and acid drain cleaners are among the most hazardous household products available to the public. Chemical drain cleaners can cause strong reactions—sometimes explosively—with other chemicals that may have been used previously, which can result in serious injury to anyone in the vicinity. In one such incident, a five-year-old boy was left scarred for life after an acidic drain cleaner leaked through his bedroom ceiling as he slept.
Strong alkali drain cleaners are equally capable of causing rapid, severe burns. Such burns have been seen in the cases of a woman doused with concentrated lye in an attack. A small girl was also permanently disfigured by a common lye drain opener.
Moreover, because the acidic or basic drain cleaners themselves are washed down the drain, this contributes to pollution in the water supply. Drain cleaners usually contain a strong base such as sodium hydroxide that decomposes hair and converts fats into water-soluble products. The reaction is exothermic, releasing heat to soften the fats. Drain cleaners can also contain aluminum, which reacts with sodium hydroxide to produce bubbles of hydrogen gas that help to break up the clog. The pressure buildup by gas generation can cause weaker pipes to burst, and the heat generation can also soften plastic PVC pipes.
Plumbers must take special care to avoid injury when working on pipes which may contain corrosive drain cleaners, and may charge extra for such hazardous work.
At times, individuals may deliberately or unknowingly mix two different types of drain cleaners, which can lead to even deadlier results from poisonous fumes.
References
Household chemicals
Plumbing | Chemical drain cleaners | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,786 | [
"Construction",
"Plumbing"
] |
71,421,049 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt%20%28siren%29 | The Thunderbolt is a mechanical outdoor warning siren that was manufactured by Federal Signal Corporation from 1951 until its production ended in 1991. It is a unidirectional, rotating siren with a large square-shaped horn, and can come in various colors, usually yellow, by request.
History
The Thunderbolt siren was developed between 1952 and 1990. It was the first "supercharged" siren, which uses a blower to force air into the rotor, greatly increasing the siren's volume. In the 1980s, when civil defense fell into disuse, Thunderbolts across the United States were repurposed for nuclear and storm warning siren systems. During the Gulf War, Federal sent a number of modified Thunderbolt 1003s to Kuwait to warn its citizens of an air raid. These were the system 7000 series and were only found in Kuwait. Later, Kuwait's sirens were all replaced with Federal Signal Modulators. One system 7000 is on display next to a Federal Signal Modulator at the Kuwait General Administration of Civil Defense in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Eventually in 1990, the Thunderbolt was discontinued in favor of the new 2001 Siren Series. Since then many have sat abandoned or have been replaced by newer systems. In the 21st century, many communities lacking siren coverage have purchased Thunderbolts that once sat in various towns, and have been refurbished. Many Thunderbolts are also in private and legal possession.
Design
The Thunderbolt came in several models. The Model 1000 was single tone, while the Model 1000T and Model 1003 were dual tone. The Model 1003 also included two solenoid-operated control valves. They are used to create alternating steady, alternating wail, pulsed steady, and pulsed wail signals, which can be used as a fire warning. Otherwise, it is identical to the 1000T, but used the 5/6 rotor only. Although the 4/5 port rotor is compatible, it was never offered for the 1003. There were also 3 types of gas powered Thunderbolts known as the System series, System 7012 is a model Thunderbolt 1000, System 7022 is a model Thunderbolt 1000T. It is identical to 7012, but has a dual-tone chopper. System 7026 uses a model Thunderbolt 1003. There are other system series Thunderbolts, and the only surviving ones have been converted to electric. Only two 4/5 port rotor 1003's exist currently, one in Saint Paul, Nebraska, and the other in University Park, Illinois. The 1003 entered production in 1961 or 1962, and ceased in 1990. The 1003 was the last production model built. The last sirens went to a township in Michigan; all of them have been removed and replaced since 2009. Originally the Thunderbolt used a motor and an Abart gear reducer driven by pulley to drive the large spur gear which makes the projector rotate. The pulleys utilized 3 different belt slots to change the RPM in which the siren rotates, from 2, 4, and 8 RPM. In 1980, Federal wanted to make the Thunderbolt more maintenance free, doing so by turning the motor and gear reducer to face each other and attached to make a direct drive system which rotated at 4 RPM. This rotator was used only on the B-series models. B-series units were only offered in 1980.
References
External links
Thunderbolt siren manual
Listen to a single tone Thunderbolt 1000 in alert mode.
Listen to a dual tone Thunderbolt 1000T in alert mode.
Listen to a dual tone Thunderbolt 1003 in Hi-Lo mode.
Map of all Thunderbolt sirens still in existence
Sirens
Disaster preparedness
Civil defense
Emergency population warning systems | Thunderbolt (siren) | [
"Technology"
] | 752 | [
"Warning systems",
"Emergency population warning systems"
] |
71,421,106 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20civil%20defense%20sirens | This is a list of civil defense sirens.
Alerting Communicators of America (ACA) sirens
ACA Allertor
ACA Cyclone
ACA Hurricane
ATI sirens
ATI HPSS
Federal Signal sirens
Thunderbolt (siren)
Federal Signal 3T22 / 2T22
Federal Signal Model 2
Federal Signal Modulator
Federal Signal STH-10
Other
Chrysler Air-Raid Siren
Sentry Siren
SiraTone
Sirens
Disaster preparedness
Civil defense
Emergency population warning systems | List of civil defense sirens | [
"Technology"
] | 95 | [
"Warning systems",
"Emergency population warning systems"
] |
71,421,375 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C17orf75 | Protein Njmu-R1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the C17orf75 gene. C17orf75 is also known as SRI2 (sensitization to ricin complex subunit 2) and is a human protein encoding gene located at 17q11.2 on the complementary strand. The C17orf75 gene is ubiquitously expressed at medium-low levels throughout the body and at slightly higher levels in the brain and testes. This protein is thought to be part of a complex associated with Golgi-mediated vesicle capture.
Gene
The C17orf75 gene spans from position 32,328,441 to position 32,342,173 with a length of 13,733 nucleotides. The length after intron excision is 4,547 nucleotides, and the coding sequence is 1,191 nucleotides in length. C17orf75 has 10 exons.
RNA
C17orf75 has 4 transcript isoforms: C17orf75 and 3 predicted isoforms which are C17orf75 transcript variant X1 (4,568 nucleotides in length), C17orf75 transcript variant X2 (4,449 nucleotides in length), and C17orf75 transcript variant X3 (4,464 nucleotides in length).
Protein
Structure
The primary isoform of the protein NJMU-R1 is 396 amino acids long. The theoretical isoelectric point for the protein NJMU-R1 is around 5, and its predicted molecular weight is around 44 kD. This protein has a leucine zipper that is predicted to contribute to a coiled coil in the protein's folded structure. The secondary structure of the protein is predicted to dominated by helices, with some beta sheets. 3 potential disulfide bridge sites via cysteine residues are predicted in the protein.
Post-Translational Modifications
The protein NJMU-R1 has two experimentally determined serine phosphorylation sites near the N-terminus. Predicted post-translational modifications include tyrosine sulfation, O-linked glycosylation, and GPI anchor attachment.
Tissue Localization
Immunohistochemistry staining images show moderate protein levels throughout mouse brain tissues, but the Purkinje layer in the cerebellum shows a distinctly high level of protein concentration, especially as compared to the neighboring granular layer. There are also high protein concentrations in the circumventricular organs of the mouse brain.
Cellular Localization
Within the cell, images have shown the protein to be clustered in the cytosol and near the Golgi apparatus. The PSORTII tool also predicts that this protein is localized to the cytosol.
Expression Data
RNA sequencing data shows that C17orf75 is expressed highly in the testes, brain, and at moderately elevated levels in the kidney and thyroid. Microarray data shows that this gene is expressed ubiquitously in most tissues, with moderate-to-high expression in the brain and testes and moderate-to-low expression in all other tissues.
Expression levels of C17orf75 are seen to be higher in colorectal and other cancers, suggesting that C17orf75 may be a protooncogene or that there is another element of the gene's regulation that is causing these elevated levels.
Homology
The C17orf75 gene has orthologs as distantly related as amoeba and slime molds that are approximately 1,092,000,000 years old. It is seen in most animals that diverged since then, such as insects, though, notably, not Drosophila, marine vertebrates, marine invertebrates, 14 amphibians (only frogs/toads and caecilians), reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Protein Interactions
Research findings show that NJMU-R1 is predicted to be part of a trimer (with FAM91A1 [Family With Sequence Similarity 91 Member A1] and SRI1), as elicited through immunoprecipitation, fractionation, and mass spectrometry. This trimer has been proposed to promote the Golgi’s capture of vesicles, particularly vesicles involved with the AB toxin, ricin, as knockouts of C17orf75 lead to higher cell susceptibility to ricin.
References
Cell biology
Human proteins | C17orf75 | [
"Biology"
] | 915 | [
"Cell biology"
] |
71,422,887 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waitea%20oryzae | Waitea oryzae is a species of fungus in the family Corticiaceae. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are corticioid, thin, effused, and web-like, but the fungus is more frequently encountered in its similar but sterile anamorphic state. Waitea oryzae is best known as a plant pathogen, causing commercially significant leaf and sheath spots of rice and other cereals.
Taxonomy
Rhizoctonia oryzae was originally described on Oryza sativa (rice) from Louisiana in 1938, but was invalidly published. It was later considered to be the anamorph (asexual state) of Waitea circinata. Molecular research has, however, shown that Waitea circinata is part of a complex of at least four genetically distinct taxa, each causing visibly different diseases. These taxa were initially treated (invalidly) as varieties of W. circinata, but have now been validly described as separate species.
References
External links
Index Fungorum
USDA ARS Fungal Database
Fungal plant pathogens and diseases
Corticiales
Fungi described in 2021
Fungus species | Waitea oryzae | [
"Biology"
] | 240 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
71,423,602 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas%20Astro | The Douglas Astro was a design concept for a fully reusable space launch system from the Douglas Aircraft Company. It combined two crewed lifting bodies, with only one of them achieving orbit. The system was designed around much existing hardware from the Apollo and other US space programs.
See also
BAC Mustard
Triamese
References
Former proposed space launch system concepts
Two-stage-to-orbit
Space launch vehicles of the United States | Douglas Astro | [
"Astronomy"
] | 86 | [
"Rocketry stubs",
"Astronomy stubs"
] |
71,425,036 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihyun%20Kang | Mihyun Kang () is a South Korean mathematician specializing in combinatorics, including graph enumeration and the topological properties of random graphs. She is a professor in the Institute of Discrete Mathematics at the Graz University of Technology.
Education and career
Kang completed a PhD at KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, in 2001. Her dissertation, Random Walks on a Union of Finite Groups, was supervised by Geon Ho Choe.
She became a postdoctoral researcher at the Humboldt University of Berlin from 2001 to 2008, and completed a habilitation there in 2007. From 2008 to 2011 she was funded by the German Research Foundation as a Heisenberg Fellow. After taking an acting professorship at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 2011, she became a full professor at the Graz University of Technology in 2012. At the same time, she became head of the Institute of Discrete Mathematics at Graz.
Recognition
Kang was a 2019 winner of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
References
External links
Home page
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
21st-century South Korean mathematicians
South Korean women mathematicians
Graph theorists
KAIST alumni
Academic staff of the Graz University of Technology | Mihyun Kang | [
"Mathematics"
] | 243 | [
"Mathematical relations",
"Graph theory",
"Graph theorists"
] |
77,342,962 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deltares | Deltares is a in the Netherlands specialising in hydraulic engineering research and consulting, along with water management, geotechnics, and infrastructure. The organisation's research mainly focuses on rivers and river deltas, coastal regions, and offshore engineering. As of 2020, Deltares employed over 750 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff members from 42 nationalities, located in Delft and Utrecht. The turnover in 2020 was €112 million.
Areas of expertise
Deltares operations focus on, among other things:
Water management;
Water safety;
Hydraulic engineering;
Groundwater;
Soil management;
Geology;
Ecology;
Water quality;
River and coastal morphology.
Facilities
In addition to desk study research, Deltares undertakes physical model research and development of computer applications. For physical model research, Deltares has several wave flumes (including the Delta Flume), wave basins, and lock facilities. Facilities are also available for research on pumps and pipelines.
For geotechnical research, Deltares provides facilities such as the geocentrifuge, a water and soil flume (for dredging research), and a geotechnical laboratory.
History
Deltares was established on January 1, 2008, following the findings of the Wijffels Committee, from the merger of:
GeoDelft
Delft Hydraulics, previously known as the (Hydraulic Research Laboratory)
Parts of TNO–Building and Underground
Parts of the specialized services RIZA, RIKZ, and DWW from Rijkswaterstaat.
Initially, the name Delta Institute was considered. However, this name had been used until 1992 by another organization: the Delta Institute for Hydrobiological Research. This organization is now part of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW).By 2008, the Delft laboratory had become known by the English name WL | Delft Hydraulics, and in an effort to consolidate knowledge with similar institutes, it was merged with other research institutes and sections of Rijkswaterstaat, becoming known by its present name.
See also
Delta Works
Flood control in the Netherlands
Rijkswaterstaat
Waterloopkundig Laboratorium
Zuiderzee Works
References
External links
Deltares
Aankondiging Delta-instituut (archived)
Coastal engineering
Civil engineering
Hydraulic engineering
Delta Works
Research institutes in the Netherlands | Deltares | [
"Physics",
"Engineering",
"Environmental_science"
] | 470 | [
"Hydrology",
"Coastal engineering",
"Physical systems",
"Construction",
"Hydraulics",
"Delta Works",
"Civil engineering",
"Hydraulic engineering"
] |
77,343,422 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%20in%20Botswana | Time in Botswana is given by a single time zone, officially denoted as Central Africa Time (CAT; UTC+02:00). Botswana has never observed daylight saving time. Botswana, as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, has observed CAT since 1903. In 1885 it used the South African Standard Time (SAST; UTC+01:30) as British Bechuanaland. Before adopting SAST and CAT, it observed local mean time (LMT; UTC+01:43).
Daylight saving time
Daylight saving time in Botswana was adopted in 1943 and consequently disposed of in 1944.
IANA time zone database
In the IANA time zone database, Botswana is given one zone in the file zone.tab – Africa/Gaborone. "BW" refers to the country's ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code. Data for Botswana directly from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database; columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself:
See also
List of time zones by country
List of UTC time offsets
References
External links
Current time in Botswana at Time.is
Time in Botswana at TimeAndDate.com
Time in Africa
Time by country
Geography of Botswana | Time in Botswana | [
"Physics"
] | 245 | [
"Spacetime",
"Physical quantities",
"Time",
"Time by country"
] |
77,344,938 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20163296 | HD 163296 is a young Herbig Ae star that is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. The disk is a popular target to study disk composition and several works suggested the presence of protoplanets inside the gaps of the disk.
The star
HD 163296 was first identified in the Henry Draper Catalogue. The star was first identified to have peculiar hydrogen emission lines in 1925, based on observations with the Mount Wilson Observatory by Paul W. Merrill, Milton L. Humason and Cora G. Burwell. The star was classified with the spectral type of A2e. In 1984 it was first considered that HD 163296 is a Herbig Ae star due to the H-alpha and NaD lines having a P Cygni profile. The status as a Herbig Ae star was questioned at the time. It was however concluded that it is surrounded by a dust shell from near-infrared excess. Later in 1989 it was found that magnesium and calcium lines have short-term variability from observations with the International Ultraviolet Explorer, showing that it is similar to the Herbig Ae star AB Aurigae. Observations with Hubble STIS showed Herbig-Haro nebulosity that is often associated with Herbig Ae stars. These nebulae are called HH 409 A/B/C. Additionally a jet was detected with STIS in Lyman alpha and silicon emission, which had a velocity of 335-380 km/s. Observations with Chandra x-ray showed that the x-ray emission is dominated by accretion of material from the disk onto the surface of the star. X-ray emission alongside the Ly-alpha jet was also detected. A team analysing XMM-Newton data did conclude that the x-ray emission does not originate from the accretion shock and the team proposed that the emission is coming from the shock at the base of the jet and the corona of the star. The jet was also directly imaged with VLT/MUSE in H-alpha and sulfur emission lines.
The age of the star was first determined to be 5 Myrs, but some more recent works find an age of 10 Myrs. Other recent works find ages between 6-7 Myrs. The star is suspected to co-move with the young stellar object candidate 2MASS J17564004-2159530, with a separation of 30,600 AU. It is also suspected that the star could belong to a small moving group, consisting of 13 stars, which is called HSC 103. This group would have HD 163296 and HD 166191 as their brightest members. It is, however, not clear if these stars belong to the same group.
The star experienced a dimming event in 2001 at which the V-band magnitude dropped by 0.8 and the star subsequently brightened in 2002 in the near-infrared. This was re-produced by modelling a jet-like feature and a disk wind. A disk wind is produced by the interaction of the star with the inner edge of the disk, which ejects dust and gas away from the disk. The drop in brightness was caused by a dust clump being ejected into the disk wind and blocking the light in the V-band, but increasing the near-infrared brightness.
The stellar system
Protoplanetary disk
A resolved circumstellar disk was first identified in 1997 with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. The semi-major axis was initially estimated to be 110 AU. Observations with STIS revealed that the disk is much larger with a radius of 450 AU and has an inclination of about ° and has a cleared central zone. An outer ring was discovered in scattered light with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) instrument NACO. The ring was initially seen as broken. Later observations with the Gemini Planet Imager showed the complete ring. Notably there is an offset between the position of the star and the outline of the ring. This is likely due to the light being scattered on the surface of the disk. A flared inclined disk will make the ring appear to be offset. The scattered light images trace small dust grains. Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) dust observations showed multiple rings. The ALMA dust observations trace larger dust grains of the midplane of the disk. High-resolution ALMA dust and CO images were presented in 2018 by the DSHARP team. This new image showed the previously known rings and an inner ring with a gap, as well as a dust crescent near the B67 ring. The outer disk shows time-variable illumination between 2011 (Subaru) and 2016 (VLT/SPHERE). This time-dependent change is likely driven by shadows cast from the inner disk. New observations with STIS found an outer ring at 330 AU and also found time-variable changes. The disk has a total (gas+dust) mass that is less than 0.35 , or between 0.01 and 0.15 . The B67 ring has a dust mass of 81 ±13 and the B100 ring has a dust mass of .
Disk composition
In 1999 observations between 3 and 15 μm from the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility were published. The spectrum showed silicate emission, consistent with an olivine and pyroxene mixture. The study suggested that this is evidence of grains that will later be incorporated into exocomets. Observations with the Infrared Space Observatory were published in 2000. The team found amorphous silicates, water ice, iron oxide and a small fraction of very large (mm to cm-sized) crystalline silicates. Herschel/PACS observations detected warm water and the hydroxyl molecule. Observations with the Submillimeter Array, showed that the carbon monoxide ice-line begins at around 155 AU. Later ALMA observed carbon monoxide (CO) and other molecules in higher resolution. The CO snowline was detected with the help of DCO+ (deuterated aldehyde). Another analysis of ALMA data found that N2H+ emission is a better tracer of the CO snowline and this line is located at 90 AU (at 25 Kelvin). Formaldehyde was detected throughout the disk, but was found to be enhanced in the outer disk. This could be due to hydrogenation of CO ices on dust grains and sublimation of formaldehyde from UV-radiation. Alternatively, formaldehyde is more efficiently produced in the gas-phase. Methanol was not detected in the disk around HD 163296. The abundance of methanol is lower when compared to TW Hydrae, likely due to a difference in stellar radiation. The water snowline has an upper limit of 8-20 AU from ALMA observations.
Possible exoplanets
The gaps in the disk around HD 163296 are thought to be carved by newly formed planets. As of 2023 four planets in the disk are proposed. Below are the gaps and explanation of candidate planets in those gaps:
D10 gap: One work suggests that the gap is carved by a planet with a mass of 0.35-0.71 .
D45 gap: The crescent at 55 AU can be re-created by a 0.15 planet at 54 AU. Another work estimated the mass to be 1.07-2.18 from the size of the gap. Hydrodynamic simulations suggest a mass of 0.46 . Later modelling did find that the crescent shaped asymmetry can be explained with a Jupiter-mass planet at 48 AU. The crescent represents dust with a mass between 10 and 15 , trapped at Lagrange point L5 of the planet. Carbon emission localized at the position of the proposed planet at the D45 gap could represent protoplanet inflow/outflow or disk winds. Another work suggests that two sub-Saturn planets are inside the D45 gap and in a 4:3 orbital resonance. The crescent is seen as dust trapped in the L5 point of the outer planet.
D86 gap: Perturbations of the CO gas could be explained by a Jupiter-mass planets at 83 AU. One work suggests this planet could have a mass of 0.07-0.14 . A point-like source at 67 AU was identified from Keck observations as a potential protoplanet with a mass of 6-7 . It might be less massive if the planet is surrounded by a circumplanetary disk. The point-like Keck source was not detected SPHERE imaging, excluding it as a massive planet. It could still be a lower-mass planet if the spectrum is very red. A velocity kink in CO gas suggests the presence of a planet at 94 ±6 AU with a mass of 1 .
D141 gap: Two Saturn-mass exoplanets were inferred from the gas and dust depletion of the middle and outer dust rings seen by ALMA. These planets would reside at 100 and 160 AU. It is however possible that no exoplanets are present and that other effects cause this observation. Perturbations of the CO gas could be explained by a Jupiter-mass planets at 137 AU. Another work suggests a mass of 0.46 and a distance of 105 AU and another planet at 160 AU with a mass of 0.58 .
D270 gap: Another candidate was proposed from perturbation of the gas of the disk, suggesting a 2 planet at around 260 AU. This candidate was not detected with SPHERE, but could not be excluded. The spiral structure of the CO gas is explained with the planet, producing a planetary wake generated by Lindblad resonances.
References
Sagittarius (constellation)
163296
Herbig Ae/Be stars
Circumstellar disks
Protoplanets | HD 163296 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 1,978 | [
"Sagittarius (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
77,345,989 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance%20punishment | In human resources, performance punishment also known as quiet promotion refers to the burdening of high-performing employees with additional work, often without compensation or promotion.
Performance punishment can lead to occupational burnout, resentment, and a sense of being undervalued leading to morale loss. Performance punishment of high-performers may also limit opportunities for improvement of low-performers and alternative growth opportunities for high-performers. Performance punishment allows for performance deficits of low-performers to be ignored.
Performance punishment can be mitigated by having work fairly distributed, promoting skills development, and transparent communication.
Quiet promotion
The term quiet promotion arose in response to the Great Resignation following the COVID-19 pandemic in response to quiet quitting. Quiet promotions may due to a staffing shortage or cost-cutting measures.
References
Labor relations
Popular culture neologisms
Human resource management
Occupational stress
Motivation
Work
Labor | Performance punishment | [
"Biology"
] | 179 | [
"Ethology",
"Behavior",
"Motivation",
"Human behavior"
] |
77,346,824 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspoxicillin | Aspoxicillin (trade name Doyle) is an antibiotic drug of the beta-lactam class. It is an injectable form of penicillin that is highly active against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, including Bacillus fragilis, which is resistant to other beta-lactam antibiotics. It is approved for use in Japan.
References
Beta-lactam antibiotics
Amines
Carboxylic acids
Carboxamides | Aspoxicillin | [
"Chemistry"
] | 94 | [
"Amines",
"Carboxylic acids",
"Bases (chemistry)",
"Functional groups"
] |
77,347,365 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disitamab%20vedotin | Disitamab vedotin (trade name Aidixi) is a drug for the treatment of various types of solid tumors. It is an antibody-drug conjugate that consists of an immunoglobulin G1 antibody that is linked to the antitumor agent vedotin (monomethyl auristatin E).
History
In China, disitamab vedotin was approved in 2021 for the treatment of patients with HER2-overexpressing locally advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, including gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, who have received at least two systemic chemotherapy regimens. In the United States, the FDA has granted disitamab vedotin a breakthrough therapy designation for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma following treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy.
References
Antibody-drug conjugates | Disitamab vedotin | [
"Biology"
] | 192 | [
"Antibody-drug conjugates"
] |
77,348,149 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred%20enclosure | In the study of the history of religions and anthropology, a sacred enclosure refers to any structure intended to separate two spaces: a sacred space and a profane space. Generally, it is a separation wall erected to mark the difference between the two spaces, acquiring significant symbolic meaning. Many human cultures have made use of sacred enclosures, found in Mesopotamia, as well as in pre-Columbian America, sub-Saharan Africa, such as in Notsé, or in Mediterranean cultures, such as Greece and Rome. The use of sacred enclosures is also a crucial aspect of the Abrahamic religions, as seen in the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem or pilgrimages such as the Hajj. In some cases, this separation is placed within a single sacred space, dividing it, as with enclosures separating people according to their gender in certain churches, mosques, and synagogues.
The term refers to the structure that establishes, reinforces, or accentuates separations, but it is sometimes used more broadly to describe all sacred boundaries imposed on spaces, although the term "sacred boundary" is more accurate in this case. Anthropologically, it is an important aspect of human culture, as it often establishes the limits of the profane space by erecting a visible marker signifying the presence of the sacred space. It is central to the notion of the sacred.
Anthropology
Clarifying aspect
The erection of a sacred enclosure, whether a large compound or a simple wall, is central to a clarifying aspect. By establishing and making visible the boundaries between places, the enclosure defines both the sacred and the profane. It also generally reinforces cultic behaviors; faced with the material impossibility of crossing this space, humans must align their actions with the cult, which is thus materialized and made present to the entire community.
Delimiting aspect
The sacred enclosure marks an extraction from the profane world. After crossing the boundaries, the individual finds themselves in a different perception of time, where the normal course of events no longer seems to follow its usual rhythm. In this place and after passing through the enclosure, communication with the supernatural is perceived as more natural and evident.
History
Antiquity
The erection of a sacred enclosure is often associated with the foundation of a city. For example, when the Phoenician city of Byblos was refounded in the mid-4th millennium BCE, the sacred enclosure demarcating the future temple of the city was the first structure of the city. Byblos was not unique; older Mesopotamian cities like Eridu and Uruk also centered around sacred enclosures that defined the boundaries of their temples. These two Mesopotamian cities have the most significant Mesopotamian sacred enclosures, but nearly all cities of the ancient Near East featured such enclosures, including those in Cyprus. While many myths directly link supernatural intervention to the selection and delimitation of the sacred space, in some cases, divine intervention was said to construct the enclosure, as seen in Uruk, where the god An was directly involved in its construction.
In Minoan Crete and the wider ancient Aegean region, such structures are also attested. The Celts were frequent builders of sacred enclosures, often using them in their rituals. Prehistoric stone circles in France might be of a similar nature. Similar phenomena are attested in North America from the 5th century BCE. The Greeks also used sacred enclosures, which were central to their practices. They used them to delimit the space of temples or sacred groves, such as the sanctuary at Delphi. It is possible, though not certain, that the second part of the goddess Artemis’s name comes from the Greek root for sacred enclosure, “τέμενος” (temenos). The Persians were also known for this practice, as seen in Pasargadae. According to Strabo, the cults of ancient Georgia incorporated such enclosures.
Among the Romans, the pomerium referred to the sacred boundary of the city. This boundary was sometimes marked by a sacred enclosure, which also had military and defensive roles, as seen with the Servian Wall. In this case, according to Plutarch, the gates were not part of the sacred enclosure, allowing passage through them.
Parallel or similar dynamics are observed in ancient Judaism. For example, it was forbidden for a foreigner to enter the enclosure of the Temple of Jerusalem, as noted by the Temple Warning inscription. In the case of the Temple of Jerusalem, it was constructed in a concentric structure, where each crossed enclosure brought one closer to the Holy of Holies, perceived as the physical dwelling of the God of Israel. Thus, it was a place segmented by numerous sacred enclosures, which were omnipresent markers of the sanctity of each stage where one found themselves.
Middle Ages
In Europe and Asia, this structure was adopted in Christian places of worship, with churches separating themselves from the outside through the erection of walls that enclosed a sanctuary, separated from the rest by a wall or veil, the precursor to the iconostasis or rood screen. In some cases, Christians and Jews implemented other built markers within their places of worship, such as establishing a separate gynaeceum for female congregants. Similar internal separations are also found in mosques, with a different space, sometimes even a separate room, allocated for the prayers of men and women.
In sub-Saharan Africa, such practices are found among the ancestors of the Ewe people, as evidenced by the stories related to the exodus of the Ewe from Notsé, where the ancestors decided to leave the city after the tyrannical king Agokoli chose to erect a vast sacred enclosure. The Incas in Central America also seemed to make use of sacred enclosures.
References
Temples
Building types
Types of monuments and memorials
Sacral architecture
Religious buildings and structures | Sacred enclosure | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,181 | [
"Sacral architecture",
"Architecture"
] |
77,349,162 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidaclothiz | Imidaclothiz is an insecticide of the neonicotinoid class used to control sucking and chewing insect pests on various crops.
It is approved for use in China.
References
Neonicotinoids
Nitroguanidines
Chloroarenes
Thiazoles
Imidazolidines | Imidaclothiz | [
"Chemistry"
] | 63 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Organic compound stubs",
"Organic chemistry stubs"
] |
77,349,270 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paichongding | Paichongding is an insecticide of the neonicotinoid class used to control sucking and chewing insect pests on various crops including rice.
It is widely used in China.
References
Neonicotinoids
Nitro compounds
Chloropyridines
Propyl compounds
Imidazopyridines | Paichongding | [
"Chemistry"
] | 62 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Organic compound stubs",
"Organic chemistry stubs"
] |
77,350,508 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nots%C3%A9%20Walls | The walls of Notsé (; ) or the Agbogbo and the Agbobovi are a sacred enclosure erected in Notsé, Togo, between the 16th and 17th centuries. The walls delineate two different areas, one called "Agbogbo" and the other called "Agbogbovi". Associated with the figure of Agokoli, the ruler of the city-state, they gained significant importance in West Africa, as the refusal to participate in their construction is said to have caused the exodus of the Ewe from Notsé, an event considered by the Ewe as the origin of their people. Although they were never completed, as the construction undertaken under Agokoli is said to have led to the ruin of the city, parts of the walls still remain at the beginning of the 21st century.
History
Context
The ancestors of the Ewe were likely a people already present in the region of Togo and Ghana in the 13th century. However, it is difficult to trace their journey and evolution before their settlement in Notsé, where they founded a prosperous city and kingdom during the 15th century. According to surviving oral traditions, they were guided to the site of Notsé by the hunter Afotsè, also called Ndétsi, or under the leadership of an ancestor named Noin or Da. There, they merged with the populations already present in the area and founded the city. Although it was prosperous and housed the regional sanctuary of the god Mawu, political unrest quickly broke out among the city's ruling classes, weakening the priest-king. In the 17th century, one of these kings, Agokoli, took power after the death of his father, Ago. It appears that this king attempted to expand beyond the limited scope of his duties, purging his advisors and replacing them with his supporters.
Construction and exodus
In this context, Agokoli undertook the construction of the walls of Notsé, intended to be a sacred enclosure of monumental proportions for the time. The walls are called, or delineate, two different areas, known as "Agbogbovi" for the older one and "Agbogbo" for the more recent one. Despite the religious objections of several leaders, which reflected hostility to the project from part of the population, especially since the construction had to be carried out under difficult conditions due to the project's size, Agokoli persisted with his plans. The enclosure wall, discovered by archaeologists, is not a fortification wall but rather a religious and symbolic enclosure. In some traditional accounts, this wall is reinterpreted as having been made of "human blood and clay".
Agokoli is a very negative figure among the Ewe people, although this portrayal of him as an entirely negative and tyrannical king might be a later historical reconstruction. The erection of this wall triggered the exodus of the Ewe from Notsé, and the project was never completed. The walls extend over a little more than 14 kilometers and are two meters wide. Restoration work was undertaken in 2017 on the remaining portions of the structure.
Legacy
An important ceremony of the Ewe people, called "Agbogbo-Za", takes place in Notsé. It reenacts the original exile of the people and their crossing of the sacred enclosure.
References
Building types
Types of monuments and memorials
Sacral architecture
Religious buildings and structures
Kingdom of Notsé
Sacred sites in traditional African religions | Notsé Walls | [
"Engineering"
] | 697 | [
"Sacral architecture",
"Architecture"
] |
69,847,870 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutoassociahedron | In mathematics, the permutoassociahedron is an -dimensional polytope whose vertices correspond to the bracketings of the permutations of terms and whose edges connect two bracketings that can be obtained from one another either by moving a pair of brackets using associativity or by transposing two consecutive terms that are not separated by a bracket.
The permutoassociahedron was first defined as a CW complex by Mikhail Kapranov who noted that this structure appears implicitly in Mac Lane's coherence theorem for symmetric and braided categories as well as in Vladimir Drinfeld's work on the Knizhnik–Zamolodchikov equations. It was constructed as a convex polytope by Victor Reiner and Günter M. Ziegler.
Examples
When , the vertices of the permutoassociahedron can be represented by bracketing all the permutations of three terms , , and . There are six such permutations, , , , , , and , and each of them admits two bracketings (obtained from one another by associativity). For instance, can be bracketed as or as . Hence, the -dimensional permutoassociahedron is the dodecagon with vertices , , , , , , , , , , , and .
When , the vertex is adjacent to exactly three other vertices of the permutoassociahedron: , , and . The first two vertices are reached from via associativity and the third via a transposition. The vertex is adjacent to four vertices. Two of them, and , are reached via associativity, and the other two, and , via a transposition. This illustrates that, in dimension and above, the permutoassociahedron is not a simple polytope.
Properties
The -dimensional permutoassociahedron has
vertices. This is the product between the number of permutations of terms and the number of all possible bracketings of any such permutation. The former number is equal to the factorial and the later is the th Catalan number.
By its description in terms of bracketed permutations, the 1-skeleton of the permutoassociahedron is a flip graph with two different kinds of flips (associativity and transpositions).
See also
Permutohedron
Associahedron
Cyclohedron
References
Permutations
Polytopes | Permutoassociahedron | [
"Mathematics"
] | 508 | [
"Functions and mappings",
"Permutations",
"Mathematical objects",
"Combinatorics",
"Mathematical relations"
] |
69,847,972 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul%20Bunge%20Prize | The Paul Bunge Prize is an international award for seminal and lasting contributions to the history of scientific instruments. Endowed in 1993 by the late Hans R. Jenemann (1920–1996), glass chemist at Schott AG in Mainz, and collector and historian of antique chemical balances. The name of the prize commemorates the leading German maker of precision balances in the nineteenth century Paul Bunge (1839–1888). The Prize is given by the Hans R. Jenemann Foundation and jointly administered by the German Chemical Society and the Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für Physikalische Chemie.
Bunge Prize Laureates
2024 Peter Heering, Flensburg; Rebekah Higgitt, Edinburgh, UK
2023 Robert W. Smith, Alberta, Canada
2022 Matthew L. Jones, New York, USA
2021 Liba Taub, Cambridge, UK
2020 Simon Werrett, London, UK
2019 Sara J. Schechner, Cambridge, MA
2018 Anthony John Turner, Le Mesnil-le-Roi, France
2017 Simon Schaffer, Cambridge, UK
2016 Robert G. W. Anderson, Cambridge, UK
2015 Brian Gee (posthumously), Chelsea, UK
2014 Cyrus C. M. Mody, Houston, TX
2013 Marco Beretta, Bologna, Italy
2012 David Pantalony, Ottawa, Canada
2011 Matteo Valleriani, Berlin, Germany
2010 Henning Schmidgen, Weimar, Germany
2009 Jutta Schickore, Bloomington, IN
2008 Alison Morrison-Low, Edinburgh, UK
2007 Charlotte Bigg, Berlin, Germany
2006 Davis Baird, Columbia, SC; Inge Keil, Augsburg, Germany
2005 Myles W. Jackson, Salem, OR
2004 Jobst Broelmann, Munich, Germany; Carsten Reinhardt, Regensburg, Germany
2003 Sean F. Johnston, Glasgow, UK
2002 Paolo Brenni, Florence, Italy
2001 Jim Bennett, Oxford, UK
2000 Alan Q. Morton, London, UK; Richard J. Sorrenson, Bloominton, IN
1999 Nicolas Rasmussen, Sydney, Australia
1998 Robert Bud, London, UK; Deborah J. Warner, Washington, DC
1997 Silvio A. Bedini, Washington, DC
1996 David A. King, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
1995 Gerald L'Estrange Turner, Oxford, UK
1994 Otto Sibum, Cambridge, UK; Matthias Dörries, Munich, Germany
1992–1993 Klaus Hentschel, Hamburg, Germany; Mara Miniati, Florence, Italy
Literature
Charlotte Bigg & Christoph Meinel (eds.), Paul Bunge Prize: History of Scientific Instruments, 1993-2023 (Frankfurt/Main: GDCh & DBG, 2023), 96 pp.
References
External links
Foundation Flyer (in German)
Jenemann Archive Project
History of science and technology
History of science awards
History of science award winners
Historians of science | Paul Bunge Prize | [
"Technology"
] | 581 | [
"Science and technology awards",
"History of science and technology",
"History of science awards"
] |
69,853,778 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meliola%20brevispora | Meliola brevispora is a species of fungus in the family Meliolaceae. It was first described in 1987 by Marie Farr, from a specimen found on the leaves of a plant in the family, Guttiferae, in Brazil.
References
Meliolaceae
Fungi described in 1987
Fungi of Brazil
Taxa named by Marie Leonore Farr
Fungus species | Meliola brevispora | [
"Biology"
] | 76 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
69,854,203 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europium%28II%29%20oxide | Europium(II) oxide (EuO) is a chemical compound which is one of the oxides of europium. In addition to europium(II) oxide, there is also europium(III) oxide and the mixed valence europium(II,III) oxide.
Preparation
Europium(II) oxide can be prepared by the reduction of europium(III) oxide with elemental europium at 800 °C and subsequent vacuum distillation at 1150 °C.
Eu2O3 + Eu → 3 EuO
It is also possible to synthesize from the reaction of europium oxychloride and lithium hydride.
2 EuOCl + 2 LiH → 2 EuO + 2 LiCl + H2
In modern research, thin films can be manufactured by molecular beam epitaxy directly from europium atoms and oxygen molecules. These films have contamination of Eu3+ of less than 1%.
Properties
Europium(II) oxide is a violet compound as a bulk crystal and transparent blue in thin film form. It is unstable in humid atmosphere, slowly turning into the yellow europium(II) hydroxide hydrate and then to white europium(III) hydroxide. EuO crystallizes in a cubic sodium chloride structure with a lattice parameter a = 0.5144nm. The compound is often non-stoichiometric, containing up to 4% Eu3+ and small amounts of elemental europium. However, since 2008 high purity crystalline EuO films can be created in ultra high vacuum conditions. These films have a crystallite size of about 4 nm.
Europium(II) oxide is ferromagnetic with a Curie Temperature of 69.3 K. With the addition of about 5-7% elemental europium, this increases to 79 K. It also displays colossal magnetoresistance, with a dramatic increase in conductivity below the Curie temperature. One more way to increase the Curie temperature is doping with gadolinium, holmium, or lanthanum.
Europium(II) oxide is a semiconductor with a band gap of 1.12 eV.
Applications
Because of the properties of europium(II) oxide, thin layers of the oxide deposited on silicon are being studied for use as spin filters. Spin filter materials only allow electrons of a certain spin to pass, blocking electrons of the opposite spin.
References
Europium(II) compounds
Oxides
Rock salt crystal structure
Ferromagnetic materials
Semiconductor materials | Europium(II) oxide | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 525 | [
"Semiconductor materials",
"Ferromagnetic materials",
"Oxides",
"Salts",
"Materials",
"Matter"
] |
69,856,131 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophet%20inequality | In the theory of online algorithms and optimal stopping, a prophet inequality is a bound on the expected value of a decision-making process that handles a sequence of random inputs from known probability distributions, relative to the expected value that could be achieved by a "prophet" who knows all the inputs (and not just their distributions) ahead of time. These inequalities have applications in the theory of algorithmic mechanism design and mathematical finance.
Single item
The classical single-item prophet inequality was published by , crediting its tight form to D. J. H. (Ben) Garling. It concerns a process in which a sequence of random variables arrive from known distributions . When each arrives, the decision-making process must decide whether to accept it and stop the process, or whether to reject it and go on to the next variable in the sequence. The value of the process is the single accepted variable, if there is one, or zero otherwise. It may be assumed that all variables are non-negative; otherwise, replacing negative values by zero does not change the outcome. This can model, for instance, financial situations in which the variables are offers to buy some indivisible good at a certain price, and the seller must decide which (if any) offer to accept. A prophet, knowing the whole sequence of variables, can obviously select the largest of them, achieving value for any specific instance of this process, and expected value The prophet inequality states the existence of an online algorithm for this process whose expected value is at least half that of the prophet: No algorithm can achieve a greater expected value for all distributions of
One method for proving the single-item prophet inequality is to use a "threshold algorithm" that sets a parameter and then accepts the first random variable that is at least as large If the probability that this process accepts an item is , then its expected value is plus the expected excess over that the selected variable (if there is one) has. Each variable will be considered by the threshold algorithm with probability at least and if it is considered will contribute to the excess, so by linearity of expectation the expected excess is at least Setting to the median of the distribution of so that and adding to this bound on expected excess, causes the and terms to cancel each other, showing that for this setting of the threshold algorithm achieves an expected value of at least A different threshold, also achieves at least this same expected value.
Generalizations
Various generalizations of the single-item prophet inequality to other online scenarios are known, and are also called prophet inequalities.
Comparison to competitive analysis
Prophet inequalities are related to the competitive analysis of online algorithms, but differ in two ways. First, much of competitive analysis assumes worst case inputs, chosen to maximize the ratio between the computed value and the optimal value that could have been achieved with knowledge of the future, whereas for prophet inequalities some knowledge of the input, its distribution, is assumed to be known. And second, in order to achieve a certain competitive ratio, an online algorithm must perform within that ratio of the optimal performance on all inputs. Instead, a prophet inequality only bounds the performance in expectation, allowing some input sequences to produce worse performance as long as the average is good.
References
External links
Matroid Prophet Inequalities and Mechanism Design, The Matroid Union
An Economic View of Prophet Inequalities
Online algorithms
Sequential experiments
Mechanism design | Prophet inequality | [
"Mathematics"
] | 690 | [
"Game theory",
"Mechanism design"
] |
69,860,092 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep%20epigenetics | Sleep epigenetics is the field of how epigenetics (heritable characteristics that do not involve changes in DNA sequence) affects sleep.
Research in the field of epigenetics has proven the significance of various environmental experiences. Changes in sleep can cause critical changes to the epigenome, while changes to the epigenome can, in turn, have a crucial influence on experiences related to sleep. Early life experiences with stress can produce lifelong changes in the number of glucocorticoid receptors and impair sleep. Additionally, sleep deprivation alters individuals’ epigenome via changes to methylation, histones, and non-coding RNA. The development of sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and narcolepsy can be greatly impacted by epigenetic changes. Additionally, various methods have been discovered that can reverse, prevent, and treat sleep-related issues by causing epigenetic changes.
Stress
Exposure to stress, particularly during early life, has significant impacts on an individual's response to future experiences of stress. Research on epigenetic changes caused by differences in the amount of time rats were nurtured by their mother is one example of these significant impacts. When examining the epigenome of rat offspring, it is noted that alterations to the epigenome occur at the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene promoter in the hippocampus. This happens when the offspring experience a significant amount of licking and grooming from their mother at an early age. The offspring that experience a significant amount of licking and grooming develop differences in DNA methylation compared to the offspring that receive an insignificant amount of licking and grooming. The offspring that are inadequately nurtured by their mother become highly susceptible to stressful environments. These epigenetic differences can be seen as early as the first week of life and persist into adulthood. However, evidence shows that when offspring are cross-fostered to receive a good amount of licking and grooming, the epigenetic differences are reversed, supporting a causal relationship between the maternal effect and the epigenetic stress responses in offspring. This proposes that the offspring's epigenome can be altered and established through early life experiences.
The effect of stress on sleep can be predicted long before a baby is born. It is hypothesized that increasing cortisol levels in mothers reduces the amount of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in an infant's hippocampus, lowering the physiological role of the negative feedback loop on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The HPA axis is important for regulating the wake-sleep cycle but works with other factors that help modulate sleep as well. When the negative feedback loop is disrupted due to stress, the HPA axis in newborns becomes hyperactive and the amount of cortisol in circulation elevates. However, the hyperactivity of the HPA axis and the elevated levels of cortisol in the hippocampus can be reversed or lowered to normal levels after demethylation of the hippocampal GR promoter, further providing evidence of the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in HPA axis modifications.
Glucocorticoids are a necessity for life. They play a large role in a majority of physiological functions involving metabolism, blood pressure, breathing, the immune system, and behavior. Either acute or chronic stress can alter the response of the HPA axis. However, the stage of life at which an individual is exposed to stress will determine the magnitude of the consequences they will face in the future. Early life exposure to stress during the critical period of childhood development can result in permanent changes to adult response systems.
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is a significant societal problem. It is estimated that around 35.2% of all adults in the US sleep less than 7 hours. Lifestyle choices, health conditions, and the use of stimulants are examples of some of the causes that underlie sleep deprivation in humans. Sleep deprivation is known to cause metabolic changes, such as altered expression of metabolic genes and hormones. These changes in expression lead to a higher risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. These impacts are also seen at the cognitive level, causing deficits in synaptic plasticity, decreased synapse strength, an inhibited ability to form and maintain memories, and changes in mood. In the long term, these cognitive changes may develop into psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease. Epigenomic changes such as changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications, and changes in non-coding RNA caused by sleep deprivation may be the cause of these phenotypic presentations.
CpG methylation is the addition of a methyl group to a cytosine-guanine dinucleotide. It is the most common epigenetic modification and is correlated with decreased gene expression. Past studies have suggested that sleep deprivation may increase CpG methylation. One such study in mice showed that sleep deprivation increases gene expression of Dnmt3a1 and Dnmt3a2, which are genes that code for enzymes that establish and maintain CpG methylation. Another study found that one night of sleep deprivation causes the hypermethylation of circadian clock genes–CLOCK and CRY1. The circadian clock is a biochemical oscillator in organisms that is in sync with the 24 hour cycle of the Earth's rotation and has been found to impact gene expression and behavior. A different study showed that the gene encoding for the enzyme SCD1 was hypermethylated following sleep deprivation; this enzyme is crucial in fatty acid desaturation, which is involved in metabolism. The disruption of metabolic pathways may affect hippocampal memory as well. A study of differentially methylated positions caused by experiencing insufficient sleep found that 78% of the differentially methylated positions were hypomethylated, yet it is noted that the effect of hypomethylation on transcription depends on the location of the CpG. Concluding the exact effect on the level of gene expression is difficult.
One post-translational modification that alters histone conformation is histone acetylation which is the transferring of an acetyl moiety from acetyl-CoA to lysine residues. This modification promotes the assembly of transcription factors via the loosening of chromatin and the ability of acetyl groups to act as binding sites. The binding of transcription factors promotes gene expression. Some evidence suggests that sleep deprivation causes a decrease in histone acetylation. Studies in sleep-deprived rats have found a decrease in acetylated histones at the BDNF promoter IV, which is crucial for learning and memory. Models disrupting the sleep-wake cycle in flies and models of neurodegenerative diseases suggest that decreased histone acetylation is associated with neuronal dysfunction.
Long non-coding RNAs and microRNAs have important roles in a majority of biological pathways. The roles of LncRNAs include regulation of splicing and translation and recruitment of epigenetic and regulatory components to target genomic loci. The fact that a large portion of tissue-specific RNA exists in the brain is evidence that LncRNAs might play a role in neuronal function. Studies in sleep deprived mice observed an impact in the levels of expression of several LncRNAs, yet no function has been found for them. MicroRNAs have a role in many neurological processes, such as synaptic plasticity. Several studies have associated them with circadian expression and sleep. Some studies have found altered microRNA expression following sleep deprivation such as altered let-7b and miR-125a expression, yet the ability to draw concrete conclusions on this is limited because there is an abundance of both microRNAs and their targets.
Sleep disorders
There are epigenetic changes that may contribute to the development of various sleep disorders.
The epigenetics of insomnia has a large literature. There are arguments that insomnia may be influenced by epigenetic phenomena, and insomnia has both sleep mechanisms and stress-response-related gene environment interactions that affect brain plasticity. There has been growing evidence of the role heritability has on insomnia development but the main factor that determines if a person develops insomnia is stress. Insomnia may be the result of an epigenetic control process of sleep mechanics and may be influenced by changes in brain plasticity caused by exposure to stress. There has been a link to the development of insomnia to the circadian clock. It is believed that humans’ intrinsic time-tracking system, the circadian clock, may be affected by dynamic changes in chromatin transitions. It has been found that there are links to circadian regulators, the remodeling of chromatins, and cellular metabolism. The protein of interest is known as the central clock protein CLOCK, and this protein has HAT enzymatic properties. The central clock protein CLOCK allows histone H3 to be acetylated, and it also allows its dimerization partner BMAL1 at K537 to be acetylated. This acetylation is important for the function of the circadian clock. The HDAC activity of the NAD(+) - dependent SIRT1 enzyme's regulation is also related to the circadian clock. The SIRT1 enzyme is thought to work as an enzymatic rheostat of circadian function, and it does this by sending transduced signals from the cellular metabolites to the circadian clock. Therefore, it is believed that at the core of the circadian machinery there is a method of chromatin remodeling responsible for insomnia.
Sleep apnea is a condition commonly found in the general population. This condition causes an individual to stop and restart breathing on multiple occasions while sleeping. This condition negatively impacts the well-being of the individual because it can prevent the body from receiving enough oxygen. Current evidence indicates that histone modifications, non-coding RNAs, and DNA methylation are epigenetic mechanisms that are involved in sleep apnea. Having untreated obstructive sleep apnea can lead to developmental deficits such as cognitive impairments, hyperactivity disorder, and poor performance in academic endeavors. There are various hypoxia-mediated perturbations of gene expression that are attributed to obstructive sleep apnea comorbidities due to epigenetic mechanisms. They are however, heritable and reversible epigenetic alterations which include DNA methylation, histone modifications, and the activation of short and long non-coding RNAs that are known to be the response leading to hypoxia and chronic intermittent hypoxia. As of now, there is not much known about the associations of pediatric obstructive sleep apnea and epigenetic alterations.
There are instances where a person may feel fatigued in the daytime, causing experiences of drowsiness and sudden instances of going to sleep. These moments are characterized as a chronic sleep disorder known as narcolepsy. There are several genetic factors such as HLA-DQB*6:02 that have been identified as possibly playing a role in the development of narcolepsy. It is found that top-ranked narcolepsy-associated differentially methylated positions are more common in non-CpG islands. It was reported that patients experiencing narcolepsy in the study had these sites hypomethylated 95% of the time. There is a gene that has been identified that may contribute to the development of this disease known as the CCR3 gene. It appears that this gene shows that both methylation and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) had a close association with narcolepsy. This gene is not necessarily the main cause of this disease and the research suggests that there are other unidentified genetic factors linked to the disease.
Epigenetic Treatment
Abnormal functioning of dopaminergic pathways has been linked to various disorders, including PTSD. Research has been conducted to investigate an epigenetic means by which various symptoms of PTSD, including lucid nightmares, can be reduced. Given that possession of alleles such as the D2A1 allele which cause low dopamine function make an individual susceptible to PTSD, treating the modulation of dopaminergic signals may serve as a way to decrease lucid nightmares in individuals suffering from PTSD. Additionally, the critical role dopamine plays in the synaptic signals of thalamic and neocortical neurons which cause the visual and motor hallucinations in dreams is worth considering. In one study, the use of KB200Z, a dopamine agonist, alleviated the negative symptoms of lucid nightmares in participants with histories of abuse, addiction and PTSD. Epigenetic alteration of neuroplasticity may be significantly inhibited via targeting dopamine pathways and trauma-induced deficiencies in functional connectivity. The use of neurotransmitters to increase potentiation of synaptic pathways specifically at CA1 and CA3 pyramidal cells is a promising way to treat nightmares.
Sleep deprivation increases the expression of HDAC2 which in turn leads to a significant deficiency in histone acetylation. This decreased histone acetylation has been linked to learning and memory deficits and abnormalities in individuals' circadian clock.Trichostatin A has proven to be beneficial when treating sleep deprivation. Since it is an HDAC inhibitor, Trichostatin A has been shown to specifically alleviate spatial memory loss tied to the hippocampus via specifically targeting HDAC2. A decrease in HDAC2 works to reverse the cognitive deficiencies associated with epigenetic changes from chronic sleep deprivation.
Aside from the use of epigenetic drugs to treat the epigenetic effects of sleep disorders, lifestyle changes that can induce epigenetic changes have also been considered. In one study, mice that experienced gestational sleep fragmentation were found to have Foxo1 misregulation. Foxo1 plays a critical role in monitoring insulin signaling in the liver. Various histone modifications and an increase in the epigenetic mark of 5-hydroxy-methyl-CpG at Foxo1 was found to occur in mice which experienced gestational sleep fragmentation. However, when the mice participated in early-life exercise, these epigenetic effects were reversed. The research suggests that taking measures to reverse the epigenetic changes caused by gestational sleep fragmentation decreases the susceptibility of individuals to metabolic disorders such as diabetes and preeclampsia.
More research is needed to identify biomarkers that will allow for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. Difficulties arise when developing epigenetic treatment due to the highly-sensitive nature of the epigenome in response to the circumstances of its environment. For example, SCN promoter regions of mice underwent significant methylation changes in response to slight changes in the mice's length of day. Though this points to epigenetic alterations being an adaptive force to deal with day-to-day changes to sleep, it presents problems in treating the behavioral phenotypes of sleep disorders that rely on epigenetic regulation that is easily and quickly altered.
References
Sleep
Epigenetics | Sleep epigenetics | [
"Biology"
] | 3,156 | [
"Behavior",
"Sleep"
] |
69,860,650 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas%20of%20AI | Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence is a book by Australian academic Kate Crawford. It is based on Crawford's research into the development and labor behind artificial intelligence, as well as AI's impact on the world.
Overview
The book is mainly concerned with the ethics of artificial intelligence.
Chapters 1 and 2 criticise Big Tech in general for exploitation of Earth's resources, such as in the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, and human labor, such as in Amazon warehouses and the Amazon Mechanical Turk. Crawford also compares "TrueTime" in Google's Spanner with historical efforts to control time associated with colonialism.
In Chapters 3 and 4, attention is drawn to the practice of building datasets without consent, and of training on incorrect or biased data, with particular focus on ImageNet and on a failed Amazon project to classify job applicants.
Chapter 5 criticises affective computing for employing training sets which, although natural, were labelled by people who had been grounded in controversial emotional expression research by Paul Ekman, in particular his Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which had been based on posed images; it is implied that Affectiva's approach would not sufficiently attenuate the problems of FACS, and attention is drawn to potential inaccurate use of this technology in job interviews without addressing claims that human bias is worse.
In Chapter 6, Crawford gives an overview of the secret services' surveillance software as revealed in the leaks of Edward Snowden, with a brief comparison to Cambridge Analytica and the military use of metadata, and recounts Google employees' objections to their unwitting involvement in Project Maven (giving their image recognition a military use) before this was moved to Palantir.
Chapter 7 criticises the common perception of AlphaGo as an otherworldly intelligence instead of a natural product of massive brute-force calculation at environmental cost, and Chapter 8 discusses tech billionaires' fantasies of developing private spaceflight to escape resource depletion on Earth.
Reception
The book received positive reviews from critics, who singled out its exploration of issues like exploitation of labour and the environment, algorithmic bias, and false claims about AI's ability to recognize human emotion.
The book was considered a seminal work by Anais Resseguier of Ethics and AI. It was included on the year end booklists of Financial Times, and New Scientist, and the 2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Titles booklist.
Data scientist and MIT Technology Review editor Karen Hao praised the book's description of the ethical concerns regarding the labor and history behind artificial intelligence.
Sue Halpern of The New York Review commented that she felt the book shined a light on "dehumanizing extractive practices", a sentiment which was echoed by Michael Spezio of Science. Virginia Dignum of Nature positively compared the book's exploration of artificial intelligence to The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian.
References
2021 non-fiction books
Systems theory books
Software development books
English non-fiction books
English-language non-fiction books
Books about the politics of science
Sustainability books
Non-fiction books about Artificial intelligence
Yale University Press books
Books in philosophy of technology | Atlas of AI | [
"Technology"
] | 636 | [
"Computing stubs",
"Computer book stubs"
] |
69,862,880 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTES | JTES, the Japanese Teletext Specification, is a protocol used for encoding teletext pages, as well as other types of digital data, within the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of an analog video signal in Japan. It was adopted into the international standard CCIR 653 (now ITU-R BT.653) of 1986 as CCIR Teletext System D.
It supports the display of Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana characters. The service can be used to display subtitles, cyclic text pages or pseudo interactive programs. There's support for presentation of photographs, geometry or sound.
History
The development of teletext in Japan started in 1972, followed by the announcement of the world's first teletext system (Ceefax) by the BBC in the United Kingdom.
Because Japanese characters are different from the western alphabets, Japan proceeded with research and development of a specific transmissions method. Called "pattern method", it sends scanning signals similar to a fax, at a rate 20 times faster than existing methods, but required a character generator with a large (at the time) 1-megabit ROM. This method was adopted in 1982.
The first receiver prototype was capable of displaying 1258 characters, and a 48-kilobyte character generation ROM, integrated into a single chip. During the 1970s the problem of error correction (causing wrong characters to be displayed) was studied. These problems were solved in the early 1980s, allowing the service to start.
An alternative method of transmission, called "hybrid method" was developed by NHK in 1979. It allowed faster transmissions rated, and was adopted as a standard in October 1985.
Experimental broadcasts started on October 3, 1983, by NHK in Tokyo and Osaka using the "pattern method". This included subtitles and other so called "supplementary" or "independent programs", where information unrelated to the TV program being show is displayed. For example, at the time of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, information about vital services and victim names was broadcast for days. To accompany the introduction of the system, Sony released the "TXT-10" decoder with a cost of 119,000 yen, and Sharp released "21C-L1", a TV with a built in decoder.
In 1984 Nippon TV (NTV) experimented teletext between March and July.
Regular transmissions started on November 29, 1985 (covering the entire country by 1986) by NHK ("Telemo Japan" service) and NTV ("AXES4" service), using the "hybrid method". NHK broadcast 759 hours of teletext per week during 1985, with eight different programs such as news, weather, public announcements and subtitles.
In 1986, TV Asahi started broadcasts with a service named "TV Asahi Data Vision", that remained active up to 24 July 2011.
Other channels, such as Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) with "Tokyo Data Vision" or TV Tokyo with "Nikkei Telepress", along with Fuji TV and Tokyo Metropolitan Television also had teletext services.
As of 1995, 20 television models with built-in teletext receivers were available in the Japanese market.
Description
In a normal NTSC video signal there are 525 scan lines of video signal. These are split into two half-images, known as "fields", sent every 60th of a second. These images merge on-screen, and in-eye, to form a single frame of video updated every 30th of a second. Each line of each field takes 63.5 μs to send; 50.3 μs of video and 13.2 μs amount of "dead time" on each end used to signal the television that the line is complete, known as the horizontal blanking interval (HBI). When the scanning process reaches the end of the screen it returns to the top during the vertical blanking interval (VBI), which, like the HBI requires some "dead time" to properly frame the signal on the screen. In this case, the dead time is represented by unused lines of the picture signal, normally the top 22 lines of the frame.
At the beginning of the service, JTES used four of these lines to transmit information, with 176 bits of data transmitted per scanning line.
JTES encodes data into the video signal as a series of dots at a fixed rate of 5.727272 Mbit/s. Each line of a field has 50.3 μs of video area that can be used for transmission, which results in 296 bits per line.
It's possible to change the character code set (JIS C 6226 Japanese Industrial Standard, containing 6879 graphic characters suitable for writing text, place names, personal names, etc. in the Japanese language, defined in 1978), in order to express appropriate characters or enhance transmission efficiency. If a character is not available in the teletext receiver character generator, it can be created using "DRCS" (Dynamically Redefinable Character Sets).
Characters can be transmitted as a mosaic of semigraphic elements, with each element having a resolution of pixels.
There was support for sound generation using the YM2413 sound chip. Yet sound and images could be transmitted using PCM, using an error correction system called "BEST".
Several information codings are possible:
Mosaic - a mosaic of semigraphic blocks, similar to how graphics are composed on other teletext systems
DRCS - allows characters not available on the character generator
Single layer photographic - transmits image data (pixels, limited number of colors) instead of blocks, significantly slower
Multi layer photographic - transmits images or animations with a large number of colors, much slower
Geometric - generates images from lines, arcs, rectangles and polygons. Similar to NABTS teletext.
List of Japanese Teletext Services
Telemo Japan (NHK)
TV Asahi Data Vision (TV Asahi) (7 April 1986 – 24 July 2011)
AXES4 (Nippon TV) (1985 – 31 March 2007)
Tokyo Data Vision (TBS)
Fuji TV
Tokyo Metropolitan Television
Nikkei Telepress (TV Tokyo)
See also
Antiope - French teletext standard (CCIR Teletext System A)
NABTS – North American Broadcast Teletext Specification (CCIR Teletext System C)
CAPTAIN - Japanese videotex system created by NTT
NAPLPS – North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax
Videotex character set
Text semigraphics
References
Television technology
Teletext | JTES | [
"Technology"
] | 1,339 | [
"Information and communications technology",
"Television technology"
] |
72,963,928 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos%201275 | Kosmos 1275 ( meaning Cosmos 1275) was a part of a 6-satellite Soviet military navigation system, called the Parus series, distributed in orbital planes spaced 30 degrees apart, and launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome aboard a Cosmos rocket. It is believed to be the first satellite destroyed by untracked Satellite debris.
Kosmos 1275 was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Russian SSR on 4 June 1981. On July 24, 1981, at 23.51 GMT, it suddenly ceased operations and broke into more 300 large pieces of debris and many other too small to track. Because it had no propellant on board, it was believed that there was nothing internal that could have led to its break-up.
See also
1981 in spaceflight
List of Kosmos satellites (1251–1500)
References
Kosmos satellites
Spacecraft launched in 1981
Spacecraft that broke apart in space | Kosmos 1275 | [
"Technology"
] | 190 | [
"Space debris",
"Spacecraft that broke apart in space"
] |
72,965,015 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QSO%20J0439%2B1634 | QSO J0439+1634, often referred to by just its coordinates, J0439+1634 or J043947.08+163415.7, is a superluminous quasar, and was, until 20 February 2024, (when it was superseded by QSO J0529-4351) considered the brightest quasar in the early universe with a redshift of z = 6.51. It is approximately 12.873 billion light-years away. The brightness of the quasar is equivalent to about 600 trillion luminosities of the Suns with gravitational lensing, without this effect 11 trillion. The quasar-related supermassive black hole has a mass of 700 million solar masses.
Discovery
On April 3, 2018, the ACS/WFC observed and photographed gravitational lensing at the location of the quasar, and further research revealed an extremely bright and large quasar there.
References
Further reading
Astronomical objects discovered in 2019
Quasars
Supermassive black holes
Taurus (constellation) | QSO J0439+1634 | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 223 | [
"Black holes",
"Unsolved problems in physics",
"Supermassive black holes",
"Constellations",
"Taurus (constellation)"
] |
72,965,610 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20178845 | HD 178845, also known as HR 7271 or rarely 49 G. Telescopii, is a binary star located in the southern constellation Telescopium. Gaia DR3 parallax measurements place the system 379 light years away and both components are approaching the Solar System with heliocentric radial velocities of and −24 km/s respectively. At its current distance, HD 178845A's brightness is diminished by 0.22 magnitudes due to interstellar dust.
The primary has an apparent magnitude of 6.13, placing it near the naked eye viewing limit and the companion has an apparent magnitude of 10.9, making it readily visible in medium-sized telescopes. The system was first observed by astronomer Willem Hendrik van den Bos in 1930. As of 1991, HD 178845B is located 7.2" away along a position angle of 320°.
The primary is an evolved red giant with a stellar classification of G8 III. It has 2.35 times the mass of the Sun but at the age of 455 million years, it has expanded to 9.1 times its radius. It radiates 47 times the luminosity of the Sun from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of , giving it a yellow hue. It has a solar metallicity ([Fe/H] = +0.02) and spins modestly with a projected rotational velocity of .
References
G-type giants
Binary stars
Telescopium
Telescopii, 49
178845
094398
7271
CD-50 12377 | HD 178845 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 330 | [
"Telescopium",
"Constellations"
] |
72,966,366 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project%20Weber/RENEW | Project Weber/RENEW is a harm reduction organization in Providence, Rhode Island established in 2016 by the merger of Project RENEW and Project Weber. The organization is staffed entirely by people who have directly experienced mental health issues, substance abuse and/or sex work.
History
Creation of Project RENEW
In 2006, Colleen Daley Ndoye started Project Revitalizing & Engaging Neighborhoods by Empowering Women (RENEW), which connects women sex workers with social services and substance abuse treatment. Project RENEW has been credited with reducing prostitution arrests in Pawtucket.
Creation of Project Weber
In 2008, Project Weber was founded by Rich Holcomb and James Waterman, in Providence, as the first supportive services in America to exclusively serve male sex workers. The project was named in honor of Roy Weber, a sex worker who was found murdered in Providence in 2003. Project Weber opened its first drop-in center in 2013. After two years of running the drop-in center and nearly seven years of complete abstinence from drugs and alcohol, Holcomb relapsed and resigned as director of Project Weber. The merger into Project Weber/RENEW occurred, in part, to sustain the work of Project Weber, after Holcomb's departure as director. Holcomb continues to be involved in the organization.
Merger into Project Weber/RENEW
In 2016, Project Weber which served male sex workers and Project RENEW which served female sex workers merged to become Project Weber/RENEW in a hope to gather more funds and help more people. Project Weber/RENEW is funded by the Rhode Island Department of Health. Weber/RENEW's interventions include education, distribution of harm reduction supplies, peer-led street outreach, addressing basic needs, HIV prevention testing, support groups, and case management.
Services
In 2021, Weber/RENEW began handing out harm reduction supplies in Kennedy Plaza. The organization runs two drop-in centers run by workers in recovery. One in Providence and another in Pawtucket. Additionally, the organization runs a mobile outreach van in Providence, Central Falls, and Pawtucket.
In partnership with the organization CODAC Behavioral Health, it intends to open an overdose prevention center at 349 Huntington Ave in Providence, a location currently occupied by CODAC. After the controversial announcement of the supervised consumption center's opening, some private donors terminated donations to CODAC.
It is one of the largest distributors of Narcan in the state.
Work
COVID-19 pandemic response
In 2020 and 2021, Weber/RENEW was one of the only organizations in Rhode Island to continue in person harm reduction and outreach work, despite the risk of transmission at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, the organization expanded services to meet clients' basic needs. Weber/RENEW also started distributing COVID masks and cleaning supplies, hosting vaccination clinics, and sharing educational information about COVID and vaccines.
Collaboration with schools
In January 2022, Project Weber/ RENEW taught a Community Leadership in Nonviolence and Substance Use Prevention class for students at Blackstone Academy Charter School, in partnership with U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha, Local Initiatives Support Corporation Rhode Island, and the Nonviolence Institute.
Advocacy of supervised injection sites
In July 2022, Rhode Island became the first state in America to legalize supervised drug consumption sites.
In February 2024 the Providence City Council approved the establishment of the state's first supervised injection site, to be operated by Project Weber/RENEW and VICTA, a privately owned behavioral health organization. The site is to be located next to the campus of Rhode Island Hospital.
Outreach in Kennedy Plaza
Project Weber/RENEW focuses much of their outreach on the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) bus terminal, Kennedy Plaza. Kennedy Plaza has one of the highest rates of overdoses in Providence.
Awarded grants
In 2018, Miriam Hospital received a $2.5 million federal grant to partner with Project Weber/RENEW and the Rhode Island Public Health Institute to create Rhode Island's first substance use treatment program for gay and bisexual, Black and Latino men. In 2018, Project Weber/RENEW was awarded $10,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation for advocacy and training, as well as to connect high-risk transgender men and women with health and prevention services.
PrideFest honor
In June 2022, Project Weber/RENEW was named Grand Marshals for the return of PrideFest and the Illuminated Night Parade in Providence.
References
Addiction medicine
Drug culture
Drug safety
Harm reduction
Prevention of HIV/AIDS
Charities based in Rhode Island
Organizations based in Providence, Rhode Island
Addiction and substance abuse organizations
Drug policy
Drug policy organizations
Organizations based in Rhode Island
Organizations established in 2006
Substance intoxication
Substance abuse
Civil liberties advocacy groups in the United States
Human rights organizations based in the United States
Political advocacy groups in the United States
Sex worker organizations based in the United States
Social justice organizations
LGBTQ political advocacy groups in the United States | Project Weber/RENEW | [
"Chemistry"
] | 990 | [
"Drug safety"
] |
72,966,505 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic%20Contract%20Types%20Unified%20Standards | Algorithmic Contract Types Unified Standards, abbreviated to ACTUS, is an attempt to create a globally accepted set of definitions and a way of representing almost all financial contracts. Such standards are regarded as important for transaction processing, risk management, financial regulation, the tokenization of financial instruments, and the development of smart contracts for decentralized finance (DeFi) using blockchain technology. ACTUS is used as a reference standard by the Office of Financial Research (OFR), an arm of the US Treasury.
History
The difficulty of defining and analyzing financial data were described by Willi Brammertz and his co-authors in a 2009 book, Unified Financial Analysis: The missing links of finance. The simplicity of the problem is described in an ECB paper, “Modelling metadata in central banks”. This cites the issue of how financial institutions have tried to overcome data silos by building enterprise-wide data warehouses. However, while these data warehouses physically integrate different sources of data, they do not conceptually unify them. For example, a single concept like notional value still might be captured in various ways in fields that might be labeled ‘nominal value,’ ‘current principal,’ ‘par value’ or ‘balance’. Standardization of data would improve internal bank operations, and offer the possibility of large-scale financial risk analytics by leveraging Big Data technology. Key to this is the idea of "contract types".
The concepts were expanded upon by Brammertz and Allan I. Mendelowitz in a 2018 paper in the Journal of Risk Finance. They describe the need for software that turns natural language contracts into algorithms – smart contracts – that can automate financial processes using blockchain technology. Financial contracts define exchanges of payments or cashflows that follow certain patterns; in fact 31 patterns cover most contracts. Underlying these contracts there must be a data dictionary that standardizes contract terms. In addition, the smart contracts need access to information representing the state of the world and which affects contractual obligations. This information would include variables such as market risk and counterparty risk factors held in online databases that are outside the blockchain (sometimes called "oracles").
The idea of the standardized algorithmic representation of financial contracts, however, is independent of and predates blockchain technology and digital currencies. In fact, also Nick Szabo's definition of smart contracts dates back to 1994. However, it is highly relevant for blockchains or distributed ledgers and the concept of smart contracts. Brammertz and Mendelowitz argue in a 2019 paper that without standards, the chaos around data in banks today would proliferate on blockchains, because every contract could be written individually. They further argue that of the four conditions set by Szabo, blockchains will usually fulfill only one, namely observability.
The authors argue that the adoption of a standard for smart contracts and financial data would reduce the cost of operations for financial firms, provide a computational infrastructure for regulators, reduce regulatory reporting costs, and improve market transparency. Also, it would enable the assessment of systemic risk by directly quantifying the interconnectedness of firms.
These ideas led to the ACTUS proposal for a data standard alongside an algorithmic standard. Together, these can describe most financial instruments through 31 contract types or modular templates. The ACTUS Financial Research Foundation and the ACTUS Users Association develop the structure to implement the ideas. The also control the intellectual property and development approaches. Specifications are developed, maintained, and released on GitHub.
In October 2021, ACTUS was added as the second reference after ISO 20022 to a database run by the Office of Financial Research, an arm of the US Treasury. ACTUS is being used to help define five asset classes (equities, debt, options, warrants, and futures) in the OFR's financial instrument reference database (FIRD). A third reference, the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) messaging standard, was added a year later. In 2023 ACTUS became a liaison member of ISO TC68 / SC9.
ACTUS implementation
ACTUS has been implemented as a set of royalty-free, open standards for representing financial contracts. The standards combine three elements. First, a concise data dictionary that defines the terms present in a particular type of financial contract. Second, a simple but complete taxonomy of the fundamental algorithmic contract type patterns. These incorporate the parts of the data dictionary that apply to a given contract type. Finally, the reference code in Java which calculates the cash flow obligations which are established by the contract so they can be accurately projected, analyzed and acknowledged by all parties over the life of the contract.
Providing an open standard for the data elements and algorithms of contracts provides consistency first within financial institutions and second when sharing data among organizations in the finance industry. This data may be used to consolidate the views of product lines within a firm, to manage obligations between institutions, or to meet reporting obligations set by regulators. In addition, ACTUS can assist in the tokenization of financial instruments, and the development of smart contracts for decentralized finance (DeFi) using blockchain. For example, ACTUS contracts have been coded in the Marlowe smart contracts language.
References
Data modeling
Financial software
Cryptocurrency projects | Algorithmic Contract Types Unified Standards | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,080 | [
"Data modeling",
"Data engineering"
] |
72,967,774 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%20Palestine%2C%20Ohio%2C%20train%20derailment | A freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, United States on February 3, 2023, at 8:55 p.m. EST (UTC−5). The Norfolk Southern freight train was carrying hazardous materials when 38 cars derailed. Several railcars burned for more than two days and emergency crews also conducted controlled burns of several railcars, which released hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air. As a result, residents within a radius were evacuated. Agencies from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia assisted in the emergency response.
Following the derailment, reaction and commentary focused on industry working conditions and safety concerns, including: the lack of modern brake safety regulations, the implementation of precision scheduled railroading (PSR), reduced railway workers per train, and increased train lengths and weight. Critics said train companies had failed to invest in maintenance to prevent accidents, even though they conduct stock buybacks, in which capital that could be used for maintenance and safety measures is instead distributed to existing shareholders.
Several unions and consumer organizations expressed concern about private ownership of railways and a "profit-driven approach", which they state puts workers and communities at high risk. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) also called for public ownership of the US railway systems.
Major US railroads promised to overhaul safety in the industry as a direct result of the East Palestine disaster. Although derailments rose at the top five freight railroads in 2023, Norfolk Southern was the only railroad among the five to report a decline in accidents in the period. A group of the railroads also promised to enroll in the Federal Railroad Administrations “close-call incident reporting system.” Only NS has joined the system.
In June 2024, the National Transportation Safety Board held a meeting in East Palestine to review its findings on the incident. The board voted unanimously to accept the findings and announced it would issue a report.
By October 2023, Norfolk Southern removed more than 167,000 tons of contaminated soil and more than of tainted water from the derailment site.
By one year after the incident, Norfolk Southern had committed more than $100 million to East Palestine, including $25 million for a regional safety training center and $25 million in planned improvements to East Palestine's park. The company has also paid $21 million directly to residents.
Background
The derailed train was Norfolk Southern train 32N, operating from the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis yard in Madison, Illinois, to Norfolk Southern's Conway Yard in Conway, Pennsylvania, on the Fort Wayne Line. Aboard the train were an engineer, conductor, and conductor trainee. The train consisted of 3 diesel locomotives, which were NS AC44C6M 4178, NS AC44C6M 4224, (both of which were placed at the front of 32N), and NS AC44C6M 4412, which was placed in the middle of the train (used as a distributed power unit, also known as a DPU), 141 loaded cars and 9 empty cars. Other reports note one more car, for a total of 151 cars, weighing 18,000 tons.
Of those cars, 20 were carrying hazardous materials, including chloroethene (vinyl chloride), butyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, isobutylene, combustible liquids, and benzene residue. The train departed Madison on February 1, and had suffered at least one mechanical failure before the derailment.
Derailment
Security footage from a business in Salem, Ohio ( northwest of East Palestine), and a Ring doorbell camera from New Waterford, Ohio ( northwest from East Palestine), show fire emanating from underneath a rail car as it went by on the tracks. After this, at around 8:55 pm EST on February 3, 2023, 51 cars derailed on the east side of East Palestine, near the border with Pennsylvania. 49 of the cars ended up in a derailment pile, which caught fire and burned for several days. Of the 51 derailed cars, 11 were tank cars that dumped of hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, benzene residue, and butyl acrylate.
About 48 hours later, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released preliminary findings indicating that the derailment was caused by a mechanical problem on one of the railcars' trucks, which may be connected to reports that an axle was observed throwing sparks about an hour before. The crew received an alarm from a wayside defect detector shortly before the derailment indicating a mechanical problem, and then an emergency brake application was initiated.
Emergency response and burn off
Nearly 70 emergency agencies from Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania mobilized in response. East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway declared a state of emergency.
Norfolk Southern personnel were first to respond on February 3. On February 4, they noticed water spillage into Sulphur Run and Leslie Run, and installed booms and underflow dams to separate the floating pollutant. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Norfolk Southern began monitoring air quality on February 3. According to the EPA, humans can smell butyl acrylate at a concentration lower than the screening level (exposure limit). The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit for butyl acrylate is a time-weighted average of 10 ppm (55 mg/m3).
On February 5, a temperature change in one of the train cars caused fears of an explosion with the potential to disperse shrapnel as the fires continued to burn. Although five cars containing vinyl chloride remained intact following the crash, the relief valve on one of the cars had malfunctioned. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine activated the Ohio National Guard to assist local authorities in what he called "a matter of life and death". Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro ordered an evacuation in areas of Beaver County which bordered the site. Officials in both states went door-to-door to evacuate residents. The fire from the accident burned until February 5. A Civil Emergency Message was issued by the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, PA at 10:10 PM for Columbiana County, Ohio.
On February 6, DeWine and Shapiro ordered the mandatory evacuation of all residents within a area. In an effort to prevent further explosions, Norfolk Southern emergency crews, at the direction of Unified Command under the East Palestine fire chief, conducted a controlled release and burn of the five tanks of vinyl chloride into the air. The EPA was consulted in the decision to vent and burn. Small shaped charges were used to breach the tank cars, and the vinyl chloride was allowed to flow into a trench, where it was ignited by flares. The burn caused black clouds to form above the area, and released phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Although officials reported that air quality readings were not showing anything concerning, residents in nearby Mahoning and Trumbull counties reported a chemical smell in their areas. Officials in the Youngstown region advised residents to stay indoors. Air monitoring conducted on February 7–8 revealed an increase in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air below the screening level and an increase in particulate matter, probably from the soot.
On February 8, state and federal EPA workers noticed oily spillage on the soil and notified Norfolk Southern, which began removing it with a vacuum truck.
On the evening of February 8, Norfolk Southern resumed traffic through the town. East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway said that he was displeased because the railroad had said that trains would not run again until all residents were able to return to their homes. On the morning of February 10, Amtrak Capitol Limited trains resumed passing through East Palestine.
The evacuation was lifted on February 9 after the EPA reported that the air inside and outside the evacuation zone had returned to normal levels. Although toxicants were detected at the derailment site, they were not detected outside the area. The Ohio EPA also reported that drinking water (sourced from different waterways) was safe. In a testing report from February 8, the Ohio EPA showed WKBN-TV that vinyl chloride, benzene, some chlorinated organic compounds, and other VOCs were not detected in the water. As of January 2024, Norfolk Southern has committed $4.3 million to provide enhanced filtration to East Palestine's drinking water.
Toxic chemicals were borne into the atmosphere as they polluted the air in 16 states, , 14% of the US, according to a 2024 study from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. High concentrations of chloride were discovered in Virginia, South Carolina and Wisconsin with the highest concentrations on the Canada-New York border, downwind of East Palestine. Most of the chemicals had dissipated after two to three weeks. The study also showed unforeseen high pH levels and unusually high levels of base cations. Both measurements were greater than the 99th percentile vs. historic levels.
Burnoff unnecessary
In February 2024, Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), testified before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (SCCST) that the controlled release and burn of vinyl chloride was not necessary. Homendy stated that the decision-makers relied on contractors who were alarmed by the limited temperature readings they were able to get, combined with the violent way one of the tank cars released vinyl chloride with a roar from a pressure release valve after hours of calm. However, Homendy also stated that OxyVinyls, the company that manufactured and was shipping the volatile chemicals, did not believe polymerization was occurring. During the NTSB field hearing in June 2023, OxyVinyl's on-scene expert testified he had said he at one point believed polymerization could be occurring. Dewine was not made aware that officials from Oxyvinyls were at the scene of the derailment. Norfolk Southern and their clean-up contractors testified that their rationale for the burn was the belief that polymerization of the vinyl chloride was imminent; this required quickly increasing ambient temperature and an oxygen infusion – neither of which occurred. Officials from Oxyvinyl, also involved in litigation from the incident, testified that the temperature in the derailed tank cars was descending, no deadly chemical reaction was occurring, so the controlled burn was unnecessary. The cars could have been left to cool down. The smoke and residue of the burning chemicals have concerned local citizens about long-term health ramifications. Both Ohio senators reacted to Homendy's announcement. J.D. Vance wondered why the unnecessary burnoff was rushed and suggested Norfolk Southern wanted to open the rail line and move freight again. Sherrod Brown said the burnoff provided proof that Norfolk Southern considered profit more than safety. Data collected by the U.S. EPA, Norfolk Southern, and independent scientists have indicated the air is safe. The NTSB announced its final findings on the cause of the accident at a board meeting on June 25, 2024, at East Palestine High School. This was the second time the full board of the NTSB visited East Palestine. The first was in the summer of 2023.
Health and environmental concerns
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources stated the chemical spill killed an estimated 3,500 small fish across of streams as of February 8. A later estimate put the number of minnows at 38,222, with other species of animals at 5,500, totaling 43,222. Several captive foxes at Parker Dairy became sick over the following weekend, and one died, which its owner attributed to the derailment. Material from the crash was observed in storm drains and detected in samples from Sulphur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek, and the Ohio River. An oily product was seen seeping into the soil. Emergency response staff are assessing potential impacts on aquatic life. On February 23, Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, stated that the derailment potentially killed more than 43,000 fish, crustaceans, amphibians and other marine animals. State officials said on February 23 that they have not seen deaths or other negative effects on animals living on the land. However, residents report that pets and animals as far as from the derailment site died overnight during the controlled release of vinyl chloride. In late March, CBS News reported that inhabitants have continued to experience health symptoms, despite officials asserting that no harmful chemicals were detected in the air or water. Employees of the CDC who investigated the derailment in early March also experienced symptoms.
Neil Donahue, a chemistry professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), expressed concern about the potential production of dioxins during the burning of vinyl chloride, while Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health, worried more about residual vinyl chloride. Gaseous pollutants dissipate quickly in the air, but dioxins are persistent.
William M. Diesslin, board chair of the Institute of Hazardous Materials Management, suggested that burning vinyl chloride was "the lesser of two evils", from reading from the emergency response guide and from safety data sheets. DeWine's press secretary defended the decision months later.
The Guardian reported, quoting a police officer who presented at the incident: "We were never told about the cargo on the train and we were never told to wear protective clothing, although it did not matter because our Personal protective equipment (PPE) dates back to 2010." Ohio citizens fear health hazards near train sites while no one is being held answerable.
In early March 2023, seven investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including some from the Epidemic Intelligence Service, fell sick when inspecting the crash site, with symptoms matching those of East Palestine residents.
In summer 2023, the cleanup efforts continued as contractors had removed 25,000,000 gallons of contaminated water and 80,000 tons of tainted soil without a plan for cleaning up Sulphur Run, a creek that runs through downtown. Residents remain concerned about the pace of the cleanup and possible health risks.
In June 2024, an analysis of precipitation and pollution data from rain and snow samples by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program revealed that "extreme concentrations of multiple pollutants", including chloride, and "exceptionally high" pH levels relative to historical levels were present over a widespread area, suggesting an area of impact from the accident and subsequent fire covering 1.4 million km2 and including portions of 16 US states (and likely Canada, for which data was not available).
Waste disposal
Officials in Michigan expressed disappointment that contaminated soil had been disposed of in southeast Michigan without their knowledge, while officials in Texas likewise acknowledged that they were only officially informed of waste water disposal from the derailment in Texas via an announcement on DeWine's website.
On February 26, a protest against the imported waste shipments was held in Romulus, Michigan, near one of the two EPA-approved waste disposal sites within the state of Michigan.
Independent testing
Researchers from multiple universities entered the impact area to conduct environmental sampling in February 2023. Results of the Texas A&M and a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) investigation indicated chemical levels in the air above long-term exposure limits. In particular, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, 1,3-butadiene, acrolein, benzene, m-,p-,o-xylenes, naphthalene, trichloroethylene, and vinyl chloride were detected. An associate professor from CMU, Albert Presto, said that acrolein was a cause for continuing research because of potential risk. The presence of acrolein was found in some parts of East Palestine at levels as found in other American cities such as Pittsburgh. Acrolein was not listed in the chemicals that Norfolk Southern indicated were transported in the railcars; however, it can be produced by the combustion of fuel, wood and plastics.
The measuring technique by the CMU and Texas A&M researchers is by mobile lab in a van that draws in air above the van driver's head as it travels at low speed. The van is part of CMU's Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies. The van made measurements every ten feet as it drove through East Palestine. The testing unit can measure particles every second and can identify minuscule concentrations in parts per billion.
A Purdue University team collaborated with residents and a community group formed after the disaster called United for East Palestine. The Purdue University team was onsite from February 25 to 27, 2023 meeting with residents, as well as collecting creek and home drinking water samples. After visiting the site, the researchers called for warnings to be issued to the public about the acute risk posed by the heavily contaminated creeks. On March 1, USEPA Administrator Michael Regan publicly advised residents to stay away from the creeks. Also found by the team was that some private drinking water well owners had called the Columbiana Health Department multiple days multiple times to have their well tested, but the Health Department had not called them back. Results of the Purdue University studies will be released on their website.
Whistleblower and cover-up allegations
An EPA whistleblower alleged that the EPA covered up evidence of toxic chemicals by intentionally delaying the deployment of chemical-sensing aircraft and turning off chemical sensors. According to the whistleblower, the EPA hid its misconduct from FOIA requests by falsifying records and instructing staff to omit keywords in order to evade in an FOIA search.
The whistleblower, Robert Kroutil, was a senior scientist managing the deployment of ASPECT aircraft that scanned the area for toxic chemicals. According to Kroutil, he was instructed to neglect scanning critical areas of concern. When the plane flew over contaminated creeks, he was instructed to turn off chemical-sensing equipment, a request that Kroutil characterized as highly unusual and against standard procedure. He was also asked to falsely backdate new procedures, written weeks after the chemical sensing mission. The EPA delayed the procedure by deploying aircraft only after days—an extraordinary circumstance, when every other of the hundreds of deployments had occurred within hours.
Aftermath
Immediately following the derailment, Norfolk Southern implemented a new six-point safety plan based on recommendations from an independent safety consultant.
On February 14, DeWine told reporters that he was not seeing any problems in the area after the controlled release of chemicals and that President Joe Biden had offered federal assistance but DeWine said that no further assistance was necessary.
A town hall meeting was held on February 15 between residents and local, state, and federal officials. Norfolk Southern representatives declined to attend due to a perceived physical threat. Some residents expressed distrust in the company and government. In late February 2023, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw visited East Palestine and spoke with local officials, first responders and NS employees residing in the region. He promised that Norfolk Southern is “…here to stay” until East Palestine is “…made whole.”
On February 16, DeWine released a statement saying after speaking with the White House, he requested more aid from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Health and Emergency Response Team (HERT), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). DeWine also said his office had been informed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that it was not eligible for FEMA assistance. He said during a press conference on February 17, "Although FEMA is synonymous with disaster support, they're most typically involved with disasters where there is tremendous home or property damage," such as tornadoes, flooding, or hurricanes. Biden's spokesperson said FEMA was supporting the other agencies which were better matched to this type of disaster.
On February 16, Sherrod Brown, senior senator of Ohio, visited East Palestine, met with EPA Head Regan and met with residents and first responders. He sent a letter to Governor DeWine, asking him to declare a state of emergency and to seek full federal support in cleanup efforts. He also sent letters to the NTSB and the EPA, calling on them to investigate the accident and to provide assistance in the area. On the following Sunday, February 19, when interviewed, Brown said that residents were "right to be skeptical". He said that Norfolk Southern should go beyond giving a $1,000 payment to every resident in the city. Brown said that the company should abide by its pledge to "make everybody whole".
On February 16, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael S. Regan visited the scene to provide assistance. The EPA faced criticism for delays in testing for dioxin following the derailment.
As of October 2023, Norfolk Southern has removed more than 167,000 tons of contaminated soil and more than 39 million gallons of tainted water from the derailment site. On October 26, the EPA announced that major cleanup activities were completed. The EPA said soil confirmation sampling will continue to ensure all contaminants are gone. Norfolk Southern will continue to conduct additional cleanup and investigations at two creeks that run through East Palestine.
Health teams from the CDC and HHS were expected to arrive as early as February 20.
Former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine on February 22, giving a speech half a mile away from the wreckage in which he criticized the federal response to the disaster and offered relief. Trump provided thousands of bottles of "Trump Spring Water" for the community, walked through East Palestine, flanked by his son Donald Trump Jr. and Ohio Senator JD Vance, and then visited a local McDonald's to purchase food for the first responders.
On the evening of February 22, Governor DeWine, EPA Administrator Regan and Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw appeared at a CNN town hall in East Palestine. Shaw apologized to the community's residents. "I'm terribly sorry for what has happened to your community." He added, "I want you to know that Norfolk Southern is here, and we're going to stay here. And we're going to make this right."
Giant Eagle announced on February 22, they would temporarily suspend the sale and product distribution of Salineville, Ohio sourced spring water. Spokesperson Dan Donovan, said, "[the company is] operating out of an abundance of caution," also mentioning, "[their water comes from] a protected spring located at a higher elevation than East Palestine and is not near groundwater sources directly impacted by the incident," adding that, "A third-party lab has been testing Salineville's raw water sources and finished products and "has not found any evidence" that the water was negatively impacted by the derailment."
On February 27, Senator Brown made a return trip to East Palestine, held a town hall and met with residents and business owners. In a press briefing afterward he promoted additional regulations for railcars to ensure that this sort of accident would not recur. He added, "I want to see rail safety legislation passed in the next few weeks."
On March 5, 2023, a local music group, The Conkle Brothers, partnered with the Brightside Project (a non-profit in Salem, Ohio), to put on a local music benefit for the residents of East Palestine featuring 20 local musicians and raising over $7,000.
Norfolk Southern has hired around 1,600 new employees over two years, including many conductors and engineers. The company has begun installing additional hot-box detectors, which can detect the kind of malfunction that led to the accident, including detectors on each side of East Palestine. The increased emphasis on safety has resulted in a 40% decrease in main line derailments in 2023.
Lawsuits and compensation
On February 8, affected businesses and residents filed three class action lawsuits against Norfolk Southern Railway. One demands the company to pay for the medical screenings and treatments of people living within a radius of the derailment. Norfolk Southern Railway offered payments to locals to "cover costs related to the evacuation". Some residents expressed concerns that taking these payouts would limit their ability to join future legal actions.
On February 4, Norfolk Southern donated to the Red Cross to support its efforts in East Palestine. On February 14, the company pledged a "community support fund", and free chemical testing of air, water, and soil. On February 16, the support fund was increased to .
On February 21, the EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to find and clean contaminated water and soil, and to pay for the EPA's own cleaning efforts. Norfolk Southern continues to backfill in excavated areas and assess chemical contamination in the area's creeks. Regional EPA administrator Debra Shore and Norfolk Southern's CEO Alan Shaw have promised to ensure all the contamination is gone before finishing the cleanup.
On March 6, Shapiro announced that Norfolk Southern pledged $5 million to reimburse the fire departments for damaged equipment and another $1 million for damages to the people or businesses of Beaver and Lawrence Counties in Pennsylvania. Another $1.4 million was promised by the company, totaling an additional $7.4 million to what was initially pledged by the company to state agencies that responded to the incident.
The following week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a 58-count civil lawsuit against Norfolk Southern.
On March 30, the United States Department of Justice sued Norfolk Southern on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, accusing the company of polluting waterways in violation of the Clean Water Act, and seeking the company to cover the cost of the cleanup fully.
In May 2023, Norfolk Southern announced compensation plans for homeowners whose homes lost value near the 2023 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The program applies to parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania near the derailment site and applies to those with homes on the market, future listings or sold since February 3.
In August 2023, NS announced that they are investing $500,000 into East Palestine's economy. The money will be used to hire a professional economic development consultant, who will help put in place plans to grow the area's economy. The focus of the economic recovery will include rejuvenating downtown, filling empty storefronts, and attracting new manufacturing companies to the area.
One year after the incident, Norfolk Southern has committed more than $100 million to East Palestine, including $25 million for a regional safety training center and $25 million in planned improvements to East Palestine's park. The company has also paid $21 million directly to residents.
As of January 2024, the railroad's costs related to the derailment were $1.1 billion, with $101 million in insurance payments issued.
Norfolk Southern is set to end relocation assistance for families living within a mile of the site of the derailment by February 9, 2024. According to The Columbus Dispatch, families attempting to obtain the financial assistance through the company have described a "complex process that they found exhausting and arbitrary."
In March 2024, US District Judge (Northern District of Ohio) John R. Adams ruled that the cleanup for the derailment is the sole responsibility of Norfolk Southern, negating the railroad's claim that the chemical manufacturer, Oxy Vinyls and the rail car company, GATX, should bear equal culpability for the removal of the dangerous chemicals. Residents of the area remain anxious about the contamination. The judge also remarked that Norfolk Southern “shared responsibility” request would only delay lawsuits that the EPA and the State of Ohio had filed against the company.
The company agreed in April 2024 to pay $600 million to settle the class-action lawsuit. It provides payment for personal injuries in a 10-mile radius and compensation for disruption for residents and businesses within a 20-mile radius. In May 2024 a federal judge in the Northern District of Ohio proffered preliminary approval to the $600 million lawsuit settlement claimed by East Palestine residents and businesses.
In May 2024, Norfolk Southern agreed to spend $310 million as a settlement for its part in the East Palestine derailment accident that streamed dangerous chemicals into the water table, nearby rivers and waterways. US District Judge John Adams must still approve the agreement and consent decree. Norfolk Southern will pay:
$235 million for clean-up results, with no burden on taxpayers, $15 million (the highest legal amount) for a violation of the Clean Water Act, $25 million for a 20-year community health program for East Palestine residents, $15 million for a 10-year monitoring of surface and ground water, and $15 million for 10 years of testing private drinking water.
Other provisions include improving coordination with government officials during emergencies and chemical burns, upgrading hazardous materials-carrying railcars, lower train speeds and better braking systems. Additionally, the railroad must install more detection devices for overheated bearings, which NTSB determined as the cause of the derailment.
In September 2024, Federal Judge Benita Person ruled a final approval on the $600 million (US) that Norfolk Southern offered as settlement for a class-action suit on the train derailment. Residents supported the decision; roughly 55,000 claims were filed. Individuals living within two miles of the derailment are eligible for up to $70,000 per household and $25,000 per person for health problems. The payments are in an inverse ratio depending on the distance one lives from the site. The judge’s decision would ensure payments would begin very quickly.
Attorneys for a dissident resident filed an appeal to the judge’s decision, estimating that payments might be delayed six to 12 months, and might be postponed even longer if the appeal were argued up to the US Supreme Court.
In January 2025, a $5 million lawsuit was filed against Norfolk Southern by Kelly Likovich and Terry Berresford, owners of the State Line Tavern in East Palestine, alleging that the derailment caused irreparable damage to their business and a nearby rental property. Both properties, located within close proximity to the derailment site, were rendered unusable due to contamination and lack of cleanup efforts. According to the filing, Norfolk Southern failed to fulfill its obligations to restore the affected properties.
NTSB board meeting and findings
In June 2024, at a meeting of the NTSB board in East Palestine, the board was presented with findings on the derailment and its subsequent consequences. The members voted unanimously to accept the findings and announced a final report would be issued in the near future. The board did proclaim that Norfolk Southern's decision to release and burn toxic chemicals was “misguided” and that NS had “…misinterpreted and disregarded…” evidence in deciding to perform the release and burn operation.
The Chair of the NTSB board, Jennifer Homendy accused Norfolk Southern of threatening the NTSB board, attempting to manufacture evidence and withholding documents from the investigation. She called the company's activity "unconscionable" and "reprehensible". She then recounted a series of “inappropriate” and “unethical” actions including hiring a private lab to test the vinyl chloride, presenting “a threat” to the board and inviting the five-member board to confer personally with the railway on the day prior to the formal NTSB board meeting. Norfolk Southern said its decisions and actions were made in the safety interests of first responders and the community.
Federal Railroad Administration safety culture assessment
In August 2023, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a report known as a safety culture assessment about operations at Norfolk Southern. Parts of the assessment make references to the East Palestine derailment. This incident raised concerns among federal officials about Norfolk Southern’s handling of hazardous materials and prompted a regulatory response from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the FRA.
Following the derailment, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg issued a Call-to-Action, urging improvements in rail safety and stricter regulations for high-hazard flammable trains (HHFTs). The FRA assessment identified several contributing factors, including deficiencies in Norfolk Southern’s processes for handling and analyzing data from wayside detectors, which are critical for identifying mechanical issues like overheated bearings. The report also noted inaccuracies in train documentation, which could hinder emergency response efforts in incidents involving hazardous materials. The FRA’s major concerns about Norfolk Southern are its safety culture, inadequate communication, inconsistent procedures, and a focus on meeting minimum safety standards rather than proactive improvement.
Inquiry and cause
In the aftermath of the disaster, Norfolk Southern was accused of prioritizing $10 billion stock buybacks for shareholders instead of maintenance. Shaw was accused of sidestepping questions about Norfolk Southern's support for President Trump's 2017 overturning of the Obama administration requirement for ECP brakes and Norfolk Southern's pressing the federal government against a rule that, in most cases, would require more than one person operating a freight train.
Hearings
On June 22, the NTSB began a two-day public "field hearing" in East Palestine, which included testimony from emergency responders and scientists, and from representatives from Norfolk Southern and their contractors, rail unions, and chemical manufacturers. It was the agency's first on-site investigative hearing since a 2017 aircraft crash in Alaska that killed three. The prior evening, residents were given a chance to ask NTSB and other government officials about the investigative process in a community meeting, with many residents expressing support for improvements in rail safety. One resident asked why the railroad had not yet conducted a full inspection of the site; an EPA representative said it was "a back and forth process". Resident Misti Allison said she particularly appreciated the on-site hearing given how infrequently it is done.
In October 2023, Norfolk Southern installed a new generation of automated inspection portals on its tracks near East Palestine. The portals can quickly spot safety defects on moving trains by taking pictures of every passing locomotive and rail car and then analyzing them with artificial intelligence. Norfolk Southern said it expects to have at least a dozen of them installed across its 22-state network in the East by the end of 2024.
Jason Cox of the Transportation Communications Union testified that since 2019, Norfolk Southern has slashed the number of expert car inspectors it employs, and that it had been exploiting a loophole in Federal regulations by having train crews do a 12-point inspection on railcars instead of the 90 to 105-point checks done by an expert carman. He also testified that the defective car had passed through three railyards without being inspected by on-duty qualified personnel. He said that the 12-point inspections are "just supposed to be a stopgap to get the freight car to an inspection point", but they were increasingly becoming the primary method across the industry.
Responding to an NTSB preliminary report released on February 13, which said an overheated wheel bearing likely caused the derailment, and that the train had passed through three hotbox sensors prior to the incident, Norfolk Southern representative Jared Hopewell testified that the third sensor had notified the train crew of the overheated bearing, but by then the crew's efforts to stop the train were too late. Constantine Tarawneh of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley testified that hotbox detectors are "inefficient", and urged railroads to deploy more acoustic bearing detectors; one NTSB official said there are only 16 or 17 such detectors on US railways. The Washington Post reported that there are about 6,000 hotbox detectors spaced every 15 to 30 miles across North American railways; according to Norfolk Southern, they have a network of 1,000 detectors costing , generating 2 billion readings a year, of which 80 indicate a car requiring attention. The railroad also told The Post that their alarm threshold of 200 degrees is among the industry's lowest.
Homendy asked why the first local official did not receive information about the train's contents for more than an hour after the derailment when the railroad had apparently been able to notify its own contractors within 14 minutes. Company representatives told her that the document to which she referred gave the time of communication in Central time, corresponding to an hour later in East Palestine. Investigators testified that railcars are required to carry placards indicating what chemicals they're carrying, but that Federal regulations only specify that they withstand normal weather exposure, and that some placards on derailed cars had burned in the extreme heat of the fire. Chief Drabik testified that local jurisdictions lack centralized communication and a 911 command center, and that more hazmat training and federal funding was required for small, mostly volunteer, departments like his own.
Local fire chief Keith Drabick testified that he was "blindsided" by the question of whether to vent and burn the tank cars carrying vinyl chloride, and that Norfolk Southern had given him only 13 minutes to decide. He said that he made the final call after a consensus from the unified command—consisting of The Village of East Palestine, Beaver County Emergency Management Coordinator, U.S. EPA, Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency, Ohio EPA and Norfolk Southern—all agreed that the vent and burn was "the least bad option". Representatives from chemical manufacturer OxyVinyls testified they believed at the time that their product was stable and had notified Norfolk Southern that a vent and burn was not required, but that the railroad had not passed on that information. An NTSB graph displayed at the hearing indicated that temperatures in one of the tankers was decreasing prior to venting. Local resident Russell Murphy, who attended the hearings, said it was the first time he had heard the risk of explosion minimized, and questioned whether that information might have resulted in a different outcome.
In mid-February 2024, NTSB announced a final report board meeting on Tuesday morning, June 25 at East Palestine High School.
Brakes
Electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes may potentially reduce stopping distances by up to 60 percent over conventional railway air brakes. The derailed train was not equipped with ECP brakes, which former Federal Railroad Administration official Steven Ditmeyer said would have mitigated the severity of the accident. The Obama administration proposed safety regulations for trains carrying hazardous materials in 2014; these were weakened by lobbying from the railway industry. In 2017, further lobbying persuaded the Trump administration to begin a repeal of the regulations requiring the use of such brakes on trains.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said the FAST Act, enacted by the Republican-controlled 114th United States Congress and signed by President Barack Obama, instead required them to repeal ECP brake mandates, after a regulatory impact analysis report stated in 2018 that "the expected costs of ECP brakes are significantly higher than the expected benefit." The Trump administration finalized a roll back of the requirement for electronically controlled brakes in September 2018. The NTSB has recommended this technology for all trains. As of 2023, the Biden administration had not reinstated this rule, although Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that technology may have prevented the derailment.
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy explained that the train in this accident would not have been required to utilize the ECP braking system even if the FAST Act was not repealed, because the term "high-hazard flammable train" means a single train transporting 20 or more tank cars loaded with a Class 3 flammable liquid. As it had only three such placarded train cars, the derailed train did not meet the qualifications of a "high-hazard flammable" train. Homendy addressed speculation on Twitter that a rule on electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes, if implemented, would have prevented the train derailment, which she said was "false".
Reactions
Within hours of the derailment, Erin Brockovich started getting calls for assistance from the community about the toxic chemical fires. She has been interviewed on various news outlets regarding the issue, from independent media to national networks. A few weeks later, Brockovich traveled to East Palestine, Ohio where she was interviewed by local media, and appeared at one of several high-profile town hall meetings on Friday night, Feb. 24th. At the meeting, Brockovich and an attorney highlighted decades of toxic chemical train derailments. Among Brockovich's many concerns is the potential groundwater contamination after chemicals were, as she describes it, "dumped in a big hole in the ground and burned off." On February 24, prior to Brockovich's first town hall in East Palestine, an Ohio law enforcement fusion center, the Ohio Statewide Terrorism Analysis & Crime Center Terrorism Analysis Unit Situational Awareness, issued a report to law enforcement agencies claiming that her insistence on "placing blame solely on Norfolk Southern" could result in "increased tensions in the community" and possibly even the emergence of "special interest terrorism"; after receiving criticism for the bulletin, the Ohio Department of Public Safety denied that it was deeming Brockovich to be a terrorist threat.
Congress
The Biden administration, in particular U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, faced criticism after the derailment. Some lawmakers and locals of East Palestine described the response as delayed and lackluster. East Palestine's mayor criticized Biden's visit to Ukraine amid the derailment crisis. Right-wing and Republican lawmakers criticized Buttigieg, and some on the political left, such as David Sirota, also criticized Buttigieg. The Biden administration defended their response to the derailment, saying they had "mobilized a robust, multi-agency effort to support the people of East Palestine, Ohio" that was refused by DeWine.
Ohio Senator JD Vance, joined by other lawmakers, asked the Biden administration for funding to conduct a long-term study on the health effects the derailment disaster might have on nearby residents. However, the administration turned down the request, citing that they did not consider the study necessary. The House Republicans intended to launch a probe into the incident as well as the "too late response", accusing the Transportation Department of neglect.
Misinformation
The derailment sparked the spread and circulation of misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories. Most were exaggerations of the derailment and the events surrounding it.
Some commentators alleged that concurrently-reported high-altitude object events were being overemphasized or even faked as a red herring to distract the public from the derailment or cover it up entirely. Conspiracy theories, such as those promulgated by congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and football player Aaron Rodgers, claimed the U.S. government had faked the high-altitude objects to distract from the derailment, allegations of American responsibility for the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, and the release of Jeffrey Epstein's client list. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying and South China Morning Post columnist Alex Lo suggested Western media were deliberately overemphasizing high-altitude object stories over the derailment. However, the derailment received constant coverage from news outlets since the initial derailment, though Media Matters for America noted most television news coverage did not cover it in depth and presented it merely "as an accident", with little mention of railway industry lobbying or safety regulation concerns.
A Wired editorial noted that while social media attention increased coverage on traditional media outlets, it also created a "perfect storm" for alarmist posts and conspiracy theories.
Allegations that police were arresting journalists attempting to report on the incident were also true. Only one journalist was arrested—NewsNation reporter Evan Lambert on February 8 for disorderly conduct and trespassing—but this was recorded live in a room full of witnesses and other journalists (making any attempt at a cover-up impractical), and charges against Lambert were dismissed on February 15, with him freely continuing to report on the derailment after his release. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker and the Committee to Protect Journalists have reported no further arrests since Lambert's, nor have they been aware of any press restrictions.
Criticizing the spread of misinformation in regard to the derailment, Homendy urged the public to let the NTSB investigate and stop "adding pain to a community that's been through enough", adding that if people genuinely wanted to help, the NTSB was hiring.
Comparisons
Several news reports have drawn parallels between this derailment and the 2012 Paulsboro train derailment, which also involved the release of vinyl chloride.
Erin Brockovich cited the Hinkley case and Flint water crisis, as well as the 2013 Lac-Megantic, Canada oil train catastrophe. A recurring theme from her appearances is that the nation has, for decades, in the name of profits over people, continued to put off necessary infrastructure improvements, tighter regulations and better response to protect the health, safety and welfare of communities from long-term bodily harm and environmental damage.
Historians have noted the connection of this event to a longer history of industrial pollution crises in the Ohio River valley, notably the nearby Donora Smog of 1948.
Similarities between the derailment and the plot of the 2022 film White Noise have been noted. The film features a cataclysmic train accident that creates a plume of toxic chemical waste over an Ohio town. It was adapted from the 1985 novel of the same name by Don DeLillo. The central character, Jack Gladney, teaches at an Ohio college. The scene itself was filmed in East Palestine, and at least one resident who had been affected had served as an extra in the film.
Fraudulent charity scheme
In the aftermath of the derailment, a fraudulent charity scheme emerged, allegedly exploiting the community’s need for assistance. The Ohio Clean Water Fund, co-founded by Mike Peppel, raised nearly $149,000 by claiming to support affected residents through the Second Harvest Food Bank. However, it was later revealed that only $10,000 was donated to the Food Bank, while the remainder of the funds were misappropriated. Peppel and two associates, Isaih Wartman and Luke Mahoney, faced litigation initiated by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Subsequent derailments
On March 4, 2023, another Norfolk Southern train derailed near Springfield, Ohio. The train was not transporting any hazardous chemicals, according to Norfolk Southern. In a statement on Sunday, March 5, 2023, the company reported that 28 cars of the 212-car train derailed, after initially reporting that 20 had derailed. The company also reported that the train's two-person crew was unharmed. Ohio senator Brown referred to the two derailments as "unacceptable." In the NTSB preliminary report released on February 13, the NTSB said an overheated wheel bearing likely caused the derailment.
On March 9, 2023, a third train derailed in Calhoun County, Alabama, hours before CEO Alan Shaw met with lawmakers to discuss the February derailment. Thirty-seven cars and two waybill locomotives derailed with no injuries or hazardous leaks. An NTSB report determined the two waybill locomotives were missing "alignment control couplers", which are designed to "resist lateral coupler movement under compressive in-train forces." A company spokesperson claimed that Norfolk Southern does not own the two locomotives and that the couplers are uncommon on their network.
On March 2, 2024 three Norfolk Southern trains collided and derailed in Easton, Pennsylvania, with approximately $2.5 million (US) in damages to track and the railcars, as well as non-life-threatening injuries to seven NS crew members. Three of the cars contained ethanol residue and butane residue, according to an NTSB investigation. Two locomotives toppled into the Lehigh River and leaked diesel fuel which crews were able to vacuum from the water. The NTSB will release a final investigative report in 2025 or 2026.
See also
List of American railroad accidents
List of rail accidents (2020–present)
2022 United States railroad labor dispute
Concrete ties
Farragut derailment (2002), another Norfolk Southern derailment which caused release of hazardous chemicals
Graniteville train crash (2005), two Norfolk Southern freight trains collided, releasing toxic chlorine gas which killed 10 and injured 250 others
Hazardous Materials Transportation Act
Lac-Mégantic rail disaster (2013), a MMA Railway freight train carrying crude oil derailed, resulting in an explosion which killed 47
Miamisburg train derailment (1986), a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad freight train derailment resulting in release of hazardous chemicals and the largest mass evacuation in Ohio history
Mississauga train derailment (1979), a CP Rail freight train derailed, releasing hazardous chemicals
Nemadji River train derailment (1992), a Burlington Northern freight train derailed, releasing nearly 22,000 gallons of liquid benzene into the Nemadji River and toxic emissions into the air, resulting in the largest evacuation in U.S. history from a train accident
Weyauwega, Wisconsin, derailment (1996), a Wisconsin Central Ltd. freight train derailed, releasing hazardous chemicals
References
Further reading
External links
East Palestine, Ohio Train Derailment Emergency Response |Environmental Protection Agency
Accident Investigation Page |NTSB
Making it Right in East Palestine |Norfolk Southern Railway
Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio state officials. Press conference about the hazardous train derailment in East Palestine, February 14, 2023 – YouTube
2023 controversies in the United States
2023 disasters in the United States
2023 in Ohio
2023 industrial disasters
Accidents and incidents involving Norfolk Southern Railway
Articles containing video clips
Chemical disasters
Columbiana County, Ohio
Derailments in the United States
East Palestine, Ohio
Environmental disasters in the United States
February 2023 events in the United States
Railway accidents and incidents in Ohio
Railway accidents in 2023
Pollution events in 2023 | East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment | [
"Chemistry"
] | 10,187 | [
"Chemical accident",
"Chemical disasters"
] |
72,969,093 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High%20Efficiency%20Streaming%20Protocol |
High Efficiency Streaming Protocol (HESP)
High Efficiency Streaming Protocol (also known as HESP) is an HTTP-based adaptive bitrate streaming protocol that enables high-quality streaming of media content over the Internet delivered from conventional HTTP web servers, such as HLS and DASH. The technology was developed by THEO Technologies and made available via the HESP Alliance, which has Synamedia and THEO Technologies as founding members. HESP brings sub-second latency and a fast channel change and is seen as a challenger of Low Latency HLS (LL-HLS, first released in 2009) and Low Latency DASH (LL-DASH, standardized in 2012).
Architecture
HTTP-based streaming protocols such as HLS and DASH typically use a segment-based approach. This means a video is cut up into TCP segments of a few seconds each, which requires video players to wait until the start of a new segment to start playback. This approach increases channel change times and introduces additional latency. HESP leverages a frame-based streaming approach, which does not require a trade-off between live latency and channel switching time.
When all components of the video workflow are optimized for low latency, HESP can provide for sub-second latency.
HESP requires implementation in the packager and player, and support for range requests and Chunked transfer encoding (CTE) in the CDN.
Standardization
Work on HESP started in 2018; it became an IETF information draft in May 2021
The HESP Alliance, launched in 2020, promotes and catalyzes the adoption of HESP. It consists of streaming vendors and media companies, including Synamedia, THEO Technologies, G-Core, EZDRM, Mainstreaming, NativeWaves, and Hoki. The HESP Alliance technical working group is focused on further advancing the HESP standard.
References
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
Network protocols
Streaming media systems | High Efficiency Streaming Protocol | [
"Technology"
] | 390 | [
"Streaming media systems",
"Telecommunications systems",
"Computer systems"
] |
72,969,848 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver%20stearate | Silver stearate is a metal-organic compound with the chemical formula . The compound is classified as a metallic soap, i.e. a metal derivative of a fatty acid (stearic acid).
Synthesis
Silver stearate can be obtained by the reaction of sodium stearate and silver nitrate.
Also by the reaction of stearic acid and silver nitrate in presence of DBU.
Physical properties
Silver stearate forms white powder.
Silver stearate crystals are of triclinic crystal system; cell parameters a = 0.5431 nm, b = 4.871 nm, c = 0.4120 nm, α = 90.53°, β = 122.80°, γ = 90.12°, Z = 2.
The compound is insoluble in water, ethanol, diethyl ether.
References
Stearates
Silver compounds | Silver stearate | [
"Chemistry"
] | 179 | [
"Inorganic compounds",
"Inorganic compound stubs"
] |
72,970,020 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative%20pre-trained%20transformer | A generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) is a type of large language model (LLM) and a prominent framework for generative artificial intelligence. It is an artificial neural network that is used in natural language processing by machines. It is based on the transformer deep learning architecture, pre-trained on large data sets of unlabeled text, and able to generate novel human-like content. As of 2023, most LLMs had these characteristics and are sometimes referred to broadly as GPTs.
The first GPT was introduced in 2018 by OpenAI. OpenAI has released significant GPT foundation models that have been sequentially numbered, to comprise its "GPT-n" series. Each of these was significantly more capable than the previous, due to increased size (number of trainable parameters) and training. The most recent of these, GPT-4o, was released in May 2024. Such models have been the basis for their more task-specific GPT systems, including models fine-tuned for instruction followingwhich in turn power the ChatGPT chatbot service.
The term "GPT" is also used in the names and descriptions of such models developed by others. For example, other GPT foundation models include a series of models created by EleutherAI, and seven models created by Cerebras in 2023. Companies in different industries have developed task-specific GPTs in their respective fields, such as Salesforce's "EinsteinGPT" (for CRM) and Bloomberg's "BloombergGPT" (for finance).
History
Initial developments
Generative pretraining (GP) was a long-established concept in machine learning applications. It was originally used as a form of semi-supervised learning, as the model is trained first on an unlabelled dataset (pretraining step) by learning to generate datapoints in the dataset, and then it is trained to classify a labelled dataset.
There were mainly 3 types of early GP. The hidden Markov models learn a generative model of sequences for downstream applications. For example, in speech recognition, a trained HMM infers the most likely hidden sequence for a speech signal, and the hidden sequence is taken as the phonemes of the speech signal. These were developed in the 1970s and became widely applied in speech recognition in the 1980s.
The compressors learn to compress data such as images and textual sequences, and the compressed data serves as a good representation for downstream applications such as facial recognition. The autoencoders similarly learn a latent representation of data for later downstream applications such as speech recognition. The connection between autoencoders and algorithmic compressors was noted in 1993.
During the 2010s, the problem of machine translation was solved by recurrent neural networks, with attention mechanism added. This was optimized into the transformer architecture, published by Google researchers in Attention Is All You Need (2017). That development led to the emergence of large language models such as BERT (2018) which was a pre-trained transformer (PT) but not designed to be generative (BERT was an "encoder-only" model). Also in 2018, OpenAI published Improving Language Understanding by Generative Pre-Training, which introduced GPT-1, the first in its GPT series.
Previously in 2017, some of the authors who would later work on GPT-1 worked on generative pre-training of language with LSTM, which resulted in a model that could represent text with vectors that could easily be fine-tuned for downstream applications.
Prior to transformer-based architectures, the best-performing neural NLP (natural language processing) models commonly employed supervised learning from large amounts of manually-labeled data. The reliance on supervised learning limited their use on datasets that were not well-annotated, and also made it prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to train extremely large language models.
The semi-supervised approach OpenAI employed to make a large-scale generative systemand was first to do with a transformer modelinvolved two stages: an unsupervised generative "pretraining" stage to set initial parameters using a language modeling objective, and a supervised discriminative "fine-tuning" stage to adapt these parameters to a target task.
Later developments
Regarding more recent GPT foundation models, OpenAI published its first versions of GPT-3 in July 2020. There were three models, with 1B, 6.7B, 175B parameters, respectively named babbage, curie, and davinci (giving initials B, C, and D).
In July 2021, OpenAI published Codex, a task-specific GPT model targeted for programming applications. This was developed by fine-tuning a 12B parameter version of GPT-3 (different from previous GPT-3 models) using code from GitHub.
In March 2022, OpenAI published two versions of GPT-3 that were fine-tuned for instruction-following (instruction-tuned), named davinci-instruct-beta (175B) and text-davinci-001, and then started beta testing code-davinci-002. text-davinci-002 was instruction-tuned from code-davinci-002. Both text-davinci-003 and ChatGPT were released in November 2022, with both building upon text-davinci-002 via reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). text-davinci-003 is trained for following instructions (like its predecessors), whereas ChatGPT is further trained for conversational interaction with a human user.
OpenAI's most recent GPT foundation model, GPT-4, was released on March 14, 2023. It can be accessed directly by users via a premium version of ChatGPT, and is available to developers for incorporation into other products and services via OpenAI's API. Other producers of GPT foundation models include EleutherAI (with a series of models starting in March 2021) and Cerebras (with seven models released in March 2023).
Foundational models
A foundational model is an AI model trained on broad data at scale such that it can be adapted to a wide range of downstream tasks.
Thus far, the most notable GPT foundation models have been from OpenAI's GPT-n series. The most recent from that is GPT-4, for which OpenAI declined to publish the size or training details (citing "the competitive landscape and the safety implications of large-scale models").
Other such models include Google's PaLM, a broad foundation model that has been compared to GPT-3 and have been made available to developers via an API, and Together's GPT-JT, which has been reported as the closest-performing open-source alternative to GPT-3 (and is derived from earlier open-source GPTs). Meta AI (formerly Facebook) also has a generative transformer-based foundational large language model, known as LLaMA.
Foundational GPTs can also employ modalities other than text, for input and/or output. GPT-4 is a multi-modal LLM that is capable of processing text and image input (though its output is limited to text). Regarding multimodal output, some generative transformer-based models are used for text-to-image technologies such as diffusion and parallel decoding. Such kinds of models can serve as visual foundation models (VFMs) for developing downstream systems that can work with images.
Task-specific models
A foundational GPT model can be further adapted to produce more targeted systems directed to specific tasks and/or subject-matter domains. Methods for such adaptation can include additional fine-tuning (beyond that done for the foundation model) as well as certain forms of prompt engineering.
An important example of this is fine-tuning models to follow instructions, which is of course a fairly broad task but more targeted than a foundation model. In January 2022, OpenAI introduced "InstructGPT"a series of models which were fine-tuned to follow instructions using a combination of supervised training and reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) on base GPT-3 language models. Advantages this had over the bare foundational models included higher accuracy, less negative/toxic sentiment, and generally better alignment with user needs. Hence, OpenAI began using this as the basis for its API service offerings. Other instruction-tuned models have been released by others, including a fully open version.
Another (related) kind of task-specific models are chatbots, which engage in human-like conversation. In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPTan online chat interface powered by an instruction-tuned language model trained in a similar fashion to InstructGPT. They trained this model using RLHF, with human AI trainers providing conversations in which they played both the user and the AI, and mixed this new dialogue dataset with the InstructGPT dataset for a conversational format suitable for a chatbot. Other major chatbots currently include Microsoft's Bing Chat, which uses OpenAI's GPT-4 (as part of a broader close collaboration between OpenAI and Microsoft), and Google's competing chatbot Gemini (initially based on their LaMDA family of conversation-trained language models, with plans to switch to PaLM).
Yet another kind of task that a GPT can be used for is the meta-task of generating its own instructions, like developing a series of prompts for 'itself' to be able to effectuate a more general goal given by a human user. This is known as an AI agent, and more specifically a recursive one because it uses results from its previous self-instructions to help it form its subsequent prompts; the first major example of this was Auto-GPT (which uses OpenAI's GPT models), and others have since been developed as well.
Multimodality
Generative transformer-based systems can also be targeted for tasks involving modalities beyond text. For example, Microsoft "Visual ChatGPT" combines ChatGPT with visual foundation models (VFMs) to enable input or output comprising images as well as text. Also, advances in text-to-speech technology offer tools for audio content creation when used in conjunction with foundational GPT language models.
Domain-specificity
GPT systems can be directed toward particular fields or domains. Some reported examples of such models and apps are as follows:
EinsteinGPT – for sales and marketing domains, to aid with customer relationship management (uses GPT-3.5)
BloombergGPT – for the financial domain, to aid with financial news and information (uses "freely available" AI methods, combined with their proprietary data)
Khanmigo – described as a GPT version for tutoring, in the education domain, it aids students using Khan Academy by guiding them through their studies without directly providing answers (powered by GPT-4)
SlackGPT – for the Slack instant-messaging service, to aid with navigating and summarizing discussions on it (uses OpenAI's API)
BioGPT – for the biomedical domain, to aid with biomedical literature text generation and mining (uses GPT-2)
Sometimes domain-specificity is accomplished via software plug-ins or add-ons. For example, several different companies have developed particular plugins that interact directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT interface, and Google Workspace has available add-ons such as "GPT for Sheets and Docs"which is reported to aid use of spreadsheet functionality in Google Sheets.
In November 2023, OpenAI announced that it's enabling ChatGPT Plus subscribers to create custom versions of ChatGPT (being called GPTs). These can be tailored for specific domains via prompt engineering, curated datasets, and/or targeted interaction with external tools. Users who register as verified builders are able to publish their custom GPTs for other users, with monetization potential. (This is notably distinct from OpenAI's API service, as this is based internally within OpenAI's platform.)
Brand issues
OpenAI, which created the first generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) in 2018, has recently asserted that "GPT" should be regarded as a brand of OpenAI. In April 2023, OpenAI revised the brand guidelines in its terms of service to indicate that other businesses using its API to run their artificial intelligence (AI) services would no longer be able to include "GPT" in such names or branding. In May 2023, OpenAI engaged a brand management service to notify its API customers of this policy, although these notifications stopped short of making overt legal claims (such as allegations of trademark infringement or demands to cease and desist). As of November 2023, OpenAI still prohibits its API licensees from naming their own products with "GPT", but it has begun enabling its ChatGPT Plus subscribers to make "custom versions of ChatGPT" that are being called GPTs on the OpenAI site. OpenAI's terms of service says that its subscribers may use "GPT" in the names of these, although it's "discouraged".
Relatedly, OpenAI has applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to seek domestic trademark registration for the term "GPT" in the field of AI. OpenAI sought to expedite handling of its application, but the USPTO declined that request in April 2023. In May 2023, the USPTO responded to the application with a determination that "GPT" was both descriptive and generic. As of November 2023, OpenAI continues to pursue its argument through the available processes. Regardless, failure to obtain a registered U.S. trademark does not preclude some level of common-law trademark rights in the U.S., and/or trademark rights in other countries.
For any given type or scope of trademark protection in the U.S., OpenAI would need to establish that the term is actually "distinctive" to their specific offerings in addition to being a broader technical term for the kind of technology. Some media reports suggested that OpenAI may be able to obtain trademark registration based indirectly on the fame of its GPT-based chatbot product, ChatGPT, for which OpenAI has separately sought protection (and which it has sought to enforce more strongly). Other reports have indicated that registration for the bare term "GPT" seems unlikely to be granted, as it is used frequently as a common term to refer simply to AI systems that involve generative pre-trained transformers. In any event, to whatever extent exclusive rights in the term may occur the U.S., others would need to avoid using it for similar products or services in ways likely to cause confusion. If such rights ever became broad enough to implicate other well-established uses in the field, the trademark doctrine of descriptive fair use could still continue non-brand-related usage.
Selected bibliography
This section lists the main official publications from OpenAI and Microsoft on their GPT models.
GPT-1: report, GitHub release.
GPT-2: blog announcement, report on its decision of "staged release", GitHub release.
GPT-3: report. No GitHub or any other form of code release thenceforth.
WebGPT: blog announcement, report,
InstructGPT: blog announcement, report.
ChatGPT: blog announcement (no report).
GPT-4: blog announcement, reports, model card.
GPT-4o: blog announcement.
See also
Cyc
Gemini
References
Large language models
Generative artificial intelligence
Artificial neural networks
OpenAI | Generative pre-trained transformer | [
"Engineering"
] | 3,279 | [
"Artificial intelligence engineering",
"Generative artificial intelligence"
] |
72,971,250 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20192886 | HD 192886, also known as HR 7749 or rarely 84 G. Telescopii, is a solitary, yellowish-white hued star located in the southern constellation Telescopium. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.13, making it barely visible to the naked eye, even in ideal conditions. The object is located relatively close at a distance of only 103 light years but is drifting closer with a heliocentric radial velocity of . At its current distance, HD 192886's brightness is diminished by 0.13 magnitudes due to extinction from interstellar dust. It has an absolute magnitude of +3.69.
HD 192886 has a stellar classification of F5 V, making it an ordinary F-type main-sequence star. However, Richard O. Gray and colleagues give it a class of F6 IV-V, indicating that it is slightly cooler and more evolved. It has 1.32 times the mass of the Sun and 1.39 times the Sun's radius. It radiates 2.92 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of . It has a solar metallicity ([Fe/H] = +0.02) and is estimated to be 2.23 billion years old. HD 192886 is more likely a main sequence star because it is only 0.24 magnitudes above the main sequence. The star spins modestly with a projected rotational velocity of .
References
F-type main-sequence stars
Telescopium
CD-47 13340
192886
100184
7749
Telescopii, 84 | HD 192886 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 332 | [
"Telescopium",
"Constellations"
] |
72,972,970 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resmetirom | Resmetirom, sold under the brand name Rezdiffra, is a medication used for the treatment of noncirrhotic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. It is a thyroid hormone receptor beta (NR1A2) agonist.
The most common side effects include diarrhea and nausea.
Resmetirom was approved for medical use in the United States in March 2024. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers it to be a first-in-class medication.
Medical uses
Resmetirom is indicated, in conjunction with diet and exercise, for the treatment of adults with noncirrhotic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with moderate to advanced liver fibrosis (consistent with stages F2 to F3 fibrosis).
History
In a phase III clinical trial, it was found to be effective for resolving noncirrhotic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and improving liver fibrosis.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluated the safety and efficacy of resmetirom based on an analysis of a surrogate endpoint at month twelve in a 54-month, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial. The surrogate endpoint measured the extent of liver inflammation and scarring. The FDA requires the sponsor to conduct a postapproval study to verify and describe the clinical benefit of resmetirom, which will be done through completing the same 54-month study. In the trial, 888 participants were randomly assigned to receive one of the following: placebo (294 participants); 80 milligrams of resmetirom (298 participants); or 100 milligrams of resmetirom (296 participants); once daily, in addition to standard care for noncirrhotic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, which includes counseling for healthy diet and exercise.
The FDA granted the application for resmetirom accelerated approval, along with breakthrough therapy, fast track, and priority review designations. The FDA granted the approval of Rezdiffra to Madrigal Pharmaceuticals.
Research
In a systematic review and meta-analysis of resmetirom, published in 2024, found that it is well tolerated and that it improves hepatic fat content, liver enzymes, and fibrosis biomarkers in people with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
References
Chloroarenes
Isopropyl compounds
Nitriles
Pyridazines
Thyroid hormone receptor beta agonists
Triazines | Resmetirom | [
"Chemistry"
] | 530 | [
"Nitriles",
"Functional groups"
] |
72,974,361 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V2052%20Ophiuchi | V2052 Ophiuchi, also known as HR 6684, is a star about 920 light years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus. It is a 5th-magnitude star, making it faintly visible to the naked eye of an observer far from city lights. V2052 Ophiuchi is a Beta Cephei variable (β Cep) star, varying slightly in brightness from magnitude 5.81 to 5.84 over a period of about 3.4 hours.
In 1972, Mikolaj Jerzykiewicz announced that HR 6684 is a variable star, based on his observations using the 0.6 meter Air Force Telescope on Mauna Kea. He classified the star as a β Cep variable with period of 0.13989 days, He further noted that if confirmed, it would be the least luminous and shortest period β Cep star known up to that date. Spectroscopic and photometric observations by D. Harold McNamara and Bruce Bills in 1973 confirmed Jerzykiewicz's results. In 1973, HR 6684 was given the variable star designation V2052 Ophiuchi.
In 1994, Henryk Cugier et al. determined that V2052 Ophiuchi pulsated primarily in the fundamental (l=0) radial mode. A much less powerful non-radial pulsation mode was identified in 2003. Ultraviolet observations by the TD-1A satellite show that throughout its pulsation cycle, the temperature of V2052 Ophiuchi varies by , and its radius changes by . Observations at the Pic du Midi Observatory showed that V2052 Ophiuchi has a dipole magnetic field, the axis of which is offset from the star's center, and there are helium spots on the surface near the magnetic poles. V2052 Ophiuchi is a type of chemically peculiar star known as a helium-strong star. Its surface is over-abundant in helium, and under-abundant in oxygen, perhaps due to its magnetic field differentially effecting the diffusion of elements in its atmosphere.
References
Ophiuchus
87812
163472
Ophiuchi, V2052
6684
Beta Cephei variables
Chemically peculiar stars | V2052 Ophiuchi | [
"Astronomy"
] | 452 | [
"Ophiuchus",
"Constellations"
] |
72,974,716 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid%20Krushinsky | Leonid Viktorovich Krushinsky (; 16 June 1911 – 25 May 1984) was a Soviet and Russian biologist who specialized in the experimental study of animal behaviour at Moscow State University. The Krushinksy-Molodkina strain of rat susceptible to seizures caused by loud sounds was produced in his laboratory in the 1950s and is named after him and his student Ludmila Molodkina.
Krushinsky was born in Moscow and went to the Moscow State University where he graduated in 1934. He then worked on animal behaviour under M. M. Zavadovsky and defended a thesis on defensive reactions in dogs in 1938 and received his doctorate on animal behaviour development in 1946. He became a professor in 1957.
Leon Orbeli invited Krushinsky to work at the Pavlov Laboratory. Krushinsky conducted experiments on conditioning in rats and one of their observations was unexpected seizures induced by a loud bell. Just as genetics laboratories were being closed in the 1940s in response to Lysenkoism he demonstrated auditory seizures in a strain of Wistar rats and then maintained the line which showed genetic heritability of the character although he never made use of words like genetics or heredity in his publications on the topic. Studies on the KM strain helped the development of anticonvulsant drugs for the management of epileptic seizures. Krushinsky developed tests for animal reasoning and intelligence. During World War II he was assigned to dog breeding and training for training mine detection, guide, and rescue dogs. They also trained dogs to drop explosives in front of tanks and trains. They also studied the genetics of behaviour and conducted experiments on the behaviour of wolves and foxes. Krushinsky attempted to explain the connection between intelligence and neural organization in the brain.
Krushinsky published several texts on animal behaviour and guided a number of students.
References
External links
Russian documentary on animal intelligence which includes footage of Krushinsky's research on dogs (1973)
Служебных Собак (1993 edition of Krushinsky's dog training manual)
ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ ПОВЕДЕНИЯ ЖИВОТНЫХ В НОРМЕ И ПАТОЛОГИИ. ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО (1960)
ЭВОЛЮЦИОННОГЕНЕТИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ ПОВЕДЕНИЯ (1991)
1911 births
1984 deaths
Ethologists
Evolutionary biologists | Leonid Krushinsky | [
"Biology"
] | 538 | [
"Ethology",
"Behavior",
"Ethologists"
] |
72,974,768 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang%20Dong%20%28hacker%29 | Wang Dong () is a member of the People's Liberation Army and is a Chinese hacker who is part of PLA Unit 61398.
Criminal career
During 2004 and 2014, Wang Dong, and others in the People's Liberation Army cyber-attacked the United States. Wang Dong used the Chinese chatting service WeChat and a Chinese military forum to talk to multiple members when doing cyber crimes. Wang would buy domains and upload malware on the Chinese file uploading service PUDN, he would put "ug." at the start of each domain he bought to be able to claim that the domain was really his. Wang accessed classified documents of the infrastructure to nuclear power plant and United States officials' e-mails. He left tell-tale clues on the internet for federal agents working to find and arrest him. This led to him and other China nationals being blocked from DefCon events. He and other Chinese nationals in Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army were indicted. China's foreign ministry called the indictment against Wang Dong and the other individuals "extremely ridiculous".
References
External links
Chinese nationalists
Hackers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people) | Wang Dong (hacker) | [
"Technology"
] | 243 | [
"Lists of people in STEM fields",
"Hackers"
] |
72,974,856 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department%20for%20Energy%20Security%20and%20Net%20Zero | The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It was established on 7 February 2023 by a cabinet reshuffle under the Rishi Sunak premiership. The new department took on the energy policy responsibilities of the former Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The department's first Secretary of State was Grant Shapps; he was previously the final Secretary of State at BEIS. The current secretary is Ed Miliband.
The department is scrutinised by the Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee.
History
The department was established on 7 February 2023.
The creation of the new department was described by Downing Street as an opportunity to "focus on giving the UK cheaper, cleaner, more secure sources of energy – cutting bills, cutting emissions, and cutting dependence on international energy supplies."
The London School of Economics's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment welcomed the creation of the new department saying that it "signalled a commitment to delivering net zero" and "showed that MPs on the right of the Conservative Party have failed to win the argument for weakening climate policy." However, the LSE warned that the new department would have to "persuade other departments and the Treasury to accelerate action on cutting greenhouse gas emissions across the economy outside the energy sector" to be effective.
Responsibilities
The department's immediate priorities were outlined by the Prime Minister as follows:
To maintain energy supplies, particularly during the winter.
To reduce energy bills and lower inflation.
To ensure the UK is on track to meet its legally binding carbon budgets and Net Zero commitments.
To speed up significantly the delivery of network infrastructure and green energy.
To improve the energy efficiency of UK homes, businesses and public sector buildings.
To deliver a new Energy Bill by the end of the Parliament.
Ministers
DESNZ ministers are as follows, with cabinet members in bold:
See also
Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy – preceding body from 2016 to 2023.
Department of Energy and Climate Change – similar body from 2008 to 2016.
Department of Energy – historic body with similar responsibilities from 1974 to 1992.
References
External links
Official webpage on GOV.UK
Making Government Deliver: Updating the machinery of government for the world of today and of tomorrow policy paper forwarded by Rishi Sunak explaining the rationale for the department.
Energy Security and Net Zero
Climate change ministries
Energy ministries
Energy in the United Kingdom
Ministries established in 2023
2023 establishments in the United Kingdom
Climate change policy in the United Kingdom | Department for Energy Security and Net Zero | [
"Engineering"
] | 518 | [
"Energy organizations",
"Energy ministries"
] |
72,975,864 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical%20Machine%20Corporation | Logical Machine Corporation (LOMAC), originally John Peers and Company, later Logical Business Machines, Inc., was a computer company active from the mid-1970s to the 1980s.
History
John Peers (born 1942) founded Logical Machine Corporation as John Peers and Company in September 1974. The company originally occupied a 4,500-square-foot office in Burlingame, California. The company was Peers' fourth; he had recently sold off Allied Business Systems of London to Trafalgar House in 1974. Peers sought to raise a manufacturing in an agricultural zone in Ukiah, California. Following a delay, caused in part by concerned residents, a 30,000-square-foot plant was raised in Burke Hill, three miles south of Ukiah.
The Ukiah plant was built to mass manufacture the company's ADAM minicomputer. The ADAM computer ran a specialized compiler for the company's natural English programming language; that is to say, the programming language attempted to closely emulate English syntax. Prototypes of the ADAM were built in May 1974, based on specifications devised in October 1973. Peers had yet to patent the technology as of June 1975. The ADAM's central processing unit was bolted onto an 7-by-6-foot L-shaped desk, on which rested its terminal. Twenty units of the ADAM were installed between April 1975 and February 1976, out of a backlog of orders for 3,500 from 500 clients, manufactured out of the company's Burlingame headquarters. It cost US$40,000. A controversial print advertisement featuring a naked woman seated at an ADAM terminal—as a pastiche of Adam and Eve—was recalled in early 1976 as a result of outcry from the National Organization for Women.
The company changed its name to Logical Machine Corporation (LOMAC) in October 1976 and moved its headquarters to a 26,000-square-foot building in Sunnyvale, California, in anticipation of a ramping up of orders for the ADAM. The company originally occupied half of the building; they later purchased the other half from the tenant in July 1977 to double its manufacturing output. For fiscal year 1977, the company earned $5 million in revenue. In December 1977, LOMAC acquired Byte, Inc.—the proprietor of The Byte Shop, the first computer retail chain—from Paul Terrell and Boyd Wilson for an unspecified amount. The Byte Shop had 65 locations in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1978; it catered mainly to hobbyists with low cost microcomputer kits, in contrast to the high cost of LOMAC's ADAM. By July 1978, however, LOMAC were able to reduce the price of the ADAM down to $15,000. The company by that point had shipped their 50th ADAM and expanded to 14 countries.
Also in 1978, LOMAC acquired Mass Memory—a high-tech optical storage company based in Phoenix, Arizona, whose products had storage capacities on the order gigabytes and terabytes—and Centigram, makers of the Mike—a computer with speech recognition. Later that year, the company introduced Tina, a low-cost version of the ADAM. LOMAC suffered losses that year and appointed Jerry Brandt to the board of directions, naming him chief operating officer, in August 1978. Brandt had Logical absorb Mass Memory and Centigram into the parent operations, shutting down their respective plants in the process, converted 10 Byte Shops to franchises and opened 25 more franchised Byte locations, and stopped direct sales of LOMAC's business computer products. By the beginning of 1979, LOMAC was profitable once more, and Brandt was let go from LOMAC.
Peers left LOMAC in 1980, following a slump in the company's sales. He became an executive director of the United States Robotics Society, a consortium for industrial automation companies, that year. Following Peers' departure, LOMAC changed its name to Logical Business Machines, adopting the name of its European subsidiary. In 1983, the company announced a 16-bit clone of the IBM PC, called the Logical L-XT, which featured a 10-MB hard drive, 320-KB floppy drive and 192 KB of RAM, and a real-time clock, and came shipped with various software (including MS-DOS, a word processor, and a spreadsheet application) and an amber CRT monitor. The following year, the company introduced L-NET, a local area network system based on the L-XT that could link up to 64 computers. L-NET came shipped with a natural programming language, Diplomat—a descendant of the programming language used on the ADAM.
In June 1983, Logical sued Coleco Industries over trademark infringement with the latter's to-be-released Adam microcomputer. Logical cited confusion from their existing ADAM customer base caused by the announcement of the Coleco Adam as the basis for the suit. Coleco challenged Logical in the press, writing that Logical's rights to the Adam trademark for use in computers had lapsed earlier in the year. The two settled out of court, with Coleco agreeing to license the Adam name from Logical in exchange for unlimited rights to the Adam trademark.
Logical halted development of the L-XT when they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 1984. The company had been $4 million in debt. They emerged from bankruptcy in September 1985, after being infused with $2 million from Carat Ltd. The latter immediately received a little less than 50 percent ownership in Logical—this stake set to grow to over 50 percent over the next six months. As part of the terms of exiting bankruptcy, Logical stopped manufacturing hardware and strictly became a software development company and value-added reseller of computer systems.
References
1974 establishments in California
1980s disestablishments in California
Computer companies established in 1974
Software companies established in 1974
Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Defunct computer companies based in California
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct software companies of the United States
Defunct computer hardware companies
Defunct computer systems companies
Natural language processing
Companies that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1984 | Logical Machine Corporation | [
"Technology"
] | 1,238 | [
"Natural language processing",
"Natural language and computing"
] |
74,416,786 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash%20coins%20in%20feng%20shui | The usage of cash coins in the Chinese religious practice of feng shui is commonplace influencing many superstitions involving them. Believers in feng shui believe in a primal life force called qi (or chi) and apply their beliefs to the design of residential houses, as well as to commercial and public buildings, sometimes incorporating cash coins into the flow of this supposed qi.
Cash coins are category of ancient Chinese coinage which are typically round in shape and have a square central hole, these coins were used as the main currency of imperial China between 221 BC and 1912 AD. In feng shui cash coins are believed to be able to attract wealth and prosperity and to ward off "evil spirits" (煞氣, shà qì). However, placing them an outward facing position is believed to cause misfortune and placing them at the wrong places supposedly attracts "evil spirits" and poverty. For this reason special care is usually taken by feng shui practitioners when handling cash coins. While classic Chinese coins can come in a huge variety, particular categories of them enjoy more celebrity status than others, this is because Feng shui practitioners believe that some cash coin inscriptions are more auspicious than others, for example the Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寶) is commonly seen as an auspicious inscription because it was produced in a period of military and economic ascendancy in Chinese history, while the Xuanhe Tongbao (宣和通寶) is seen as inauspicious because it was produced during a more tumultuous era.
Feng shui practitioners typically place cash coins that are strung together somewhere in their house or in a cash register to supposedly attract wealth, alternatively they may carry them around as an accessory or place them in their wallet for good luck. A common way cash coins are used in feng shui is as a set of 5 coins known as the "Five Emperor Coins" (see below), these are often used as counters to hanging beams or exposed pillars. When used for such purposes, the 5 coins are often tied together with a red string (as red is seen as an auspicious colour) so as to charge them with yang energy. When combined with Taoist beliefs cash coins could be strung in the shape of a sword to scare away evil spirits.
Because of their common association with feng shui, cash coins are commonly referred to as feng shui coins in English.
The application of cash coins in feng shui should not be confused with the use of cash coin and cash coin-like amulets as "lucky charms" outside of feng shui, their usage in traditional Chinese medicine, or their usage in traditional Chinese fortune telling.
Chinese cash coins
The cash coin became the main standard currency of China in 221 BC with the Ban Liang (半兩) and would be produced until 1912 AD there with the Minguo Tongbao (民國通寶). Cash coins are characterised by their round outer shape and a square center hole (). The hole in the centre of the coins allowed them to be strung together.
Originally cast during the Warring States period, these coins continued to be used for the entirety of Imperial China. The last Chinese cash coins were cast in the first year of the Republic of China. Generally most cash coins were made from copper or bronze alloys, with iron, lead, and zinc coins occasionally used less often throughout Chinese history. Rare silver and gold cash coins were also produced. During most of their production, cash coins were cast, but during the late Qing dynasty, machine-struck cash coins began to be made. As the cash coins produced over Chinese history were similar, thousand year old cash coins produced during the Northern Song dynasty continued to circulate as valid currency well into the early twentieth century.
Over the years, cash coins have had many different inscriptions, and the Wu Zhu (五銖) inscription, which first appeared under the Han dynasty, became the most commonly used inscription and was often used by succeeding dynasties for 700 years until the introduction of the Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寳) during the Tang dynasty. This was also the first time regular script was used as all earlier cash coins exclusively used seal script. During the Song dynasty a large number of different inscriptions was used, and several different styles of Chinese calligraphy were used, even on coins with the same inscriptions produced during the same period. These cash coins are known as matched coins (對錢). This was originally pioneered by the Southern Tang. During the Yuan dynasty, largely deprecated copper coinage was abandoned in favour of paper money. This trend continued under the Ming dynasty. Cash coins only contained the era names of the emperor during the Ming dynasty. Due to a naming taboo the term "Yuanbao" (元寶) was phased out from cash coin inscriptions as the founder of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had the word "Yuan" (元) in his name. The trend of exclusively using the era names on currencies continued during the Qing dynasty, and all cash coins issued during this period were written in regular script.
Outside of China, Chinese cash coins have inspired the design of the Japanese mon, Korean mun, Ryukyuan mon, and Vietnamese văn currencies and the last series of cash coins produced in the world were the French Indochinese Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (保大通寶) during the 1940s.
Significance of cash coins in feng shui
Chinese people in the past believed that "similar things come together" and in this principle they believed that objects and events of the same nature will gather together: flowers go with flowers, grass goes with grass, gold goes with gold, like-minded people gather together, Etc. Therefore, they believed that hanging coins in the house will attract more money to their household or their village.
Feng shui masters () recommend the use of old Chinese cash coins to enhance the feng shui of a house (for the usage of old Chinese charms in the house, see "Chinese house charms"). In feng shui certain cash coins are thought to be able to provide protection and promote good fortune. Generally speaking, Feng shui masters always have a large number of Chinese copper-alloy cash coins on hand. This is because cash coins, as well as jade, are the basic tools used to adjust the yin and yang forces of a house. The reasons why cash coins have an important role in feng shui are numerous and concerns the very nature of Chinese cash coins as they have always been a potent instrument in feng shui.
The reasons why Chinese cash coins have an important place in feng shui include:
1. The Chinese cash coin is a (historical) type of currency and therefore represents good fortune, wealth, and prosperity.
2. A pair of Chinese cash coins (雙錢 / 双钱, Shuāngqián) is one of the "Eight Treasures", also known as the Eight Precious Things.
3. Money is a homophonic pun for "right before your eyes", this is because the word "money" (錢, qián) sounds like the word for front (前, qián), and the square in the coin was sometimes referenced as "the eye of the coin".
4. Chinese cash coins reflect ancient Chinese philosophy concerning the relationship of the heavens, earth, and man. This is because in cash coins are commonly believed that the round shape of the coin symbolised the supposed round shape of the sky (天, tiān), while the centre hole in this analogy is said to represent the planet earth (地, dì), known as Tiān yuán dì fāng (天圓地方). Furthermore, it is also common for cash coins to have the name of the reigning emperor, who in ancient Chinese philosophy was the representative of man (人, rén) on earth, inscribed into them in the area between the round rim and the square central hole. Therefore, old Chinese cash coins display the proper relationship of the heavens (circle – rim) and earth (square – hole) with man (emperor – inscription) standing in between (「天、地、人」), giving them great power in feng shui. This means that the "powers" contained in these types of coins are not just due to them originating from the historical emperors, but also because these emperors have had them designed according to Chinese metaphysics.
5. Coins are metallic objects and are therefore one of the wuxing (五行) in Chinese philosophy element of metal (金). As Old Chinese cash coins are typically made of copper alloys they are seen as being better able to absorb aura than either gold or silver. Though in feng shui it is also believed that metal objects can have evil spirits within them. Because of their association with the metal element they can vent the rusticity of two blacks and five yellows (二黑及五黃之土氣, Èr hēi jí wǔ huáng zhī tǔqì).
6. Throughout Chinese history many of these cash coins may have been used for feng shui purposes in the past, meaning that they would have been buried according to practices of feng shui in places that were considered to be the best areas where the forces of wind, water, and earth were at their strongest.
7. Chinese cash coins which were cast during periods when the Chinese Empire was strong are considered to carry both the message of "prosperity and development" () and the message of "suppression of evils" ().
8. Chinese cash coins are considered to have absorbed and concentrated the power of millions of people into small objects because they circulated as money for hundreds of years. Meaning that the often switched hands and allowed for the energy of the owners to rub off on the coins.
Cash coins when used for feng shui purposes can be combined with other feng shui items to enhance their usage. For example, if they are added to a Pixiu, it can strengthen the wealth effect of the Pixiu statuette, and if you add it to Qilin, it can also increase the power of eliminating evil spirits of the Qilin statuette. Other examples include gourds, where they supposedly strengthen its healing functions and countering evil spirits (sha qì), mystic knots for protection, and crystals for wealth.
While feng shui coins are typically made from copper alloys, they can also be made from stone, jade, other metals, Etc.
Cash coins considered to be suitable and unsuitable for feng shui
Some cash coins considered to be suitable and others unsuitable for feng shui to provide protection from evil and the promotion of good fortune, on this Chinese Feng shui masters note that the supposed "effectiveness" of a cash coin is dependent on the coin's alloy and quality, how many people have previously used it, and the time period when the cash coin was produced.
Factors typically considered by Feng shui masters include:
1. The metal content and quality of a cash coin is often seen as the first consideration, this is because historical Chinese cash coins were not purely made from copper but were typically made from copper alloys. In feng shui it is believed that metal objects themselves can be possessed by evil spirits diminishing their supposed "effectiveness" in the practice to suppress ghosts.
2. The number of people who have used it in the past is also important in feng shui as it is seen as positive qi (陽氣), qi being the primal life force found in people, objects, places, Etc., with a higher number of people having handled it being generally seen as better. Despite this, some practitioners of feng shui believe that the positive qi could have been "contaminated" and lowering its effectiveness in warding off evil. While coin collectors and coin dealers value the physical appearance of a coin Feng shui masters claim that for the purposes of feng shui this makes no difference and they claim that they are able to mitigate the contaminated qi.
3. Where the cash coin was purchased is also seen as an important factor as there are many, many fake coins (including fake cash coins) available for purchase in the antique markets of major cities throughout China and for feng shui purposes a cash coin needs to be authentic. For this reason Feng shui masters advise people to only purchase cash coins from a coin dealer that they personally know and feel that they can trust. Furthermore, they recommend that cash coins which have a history of being used for feng shui are better as they are very likely to have been dealt with by a Feng shui master at some point in the past and are more recommended to be purchased. Another factor in purchasing cash coins recommended by Feng shui masters is the visible wear on the coin as this would indicate that the cash coin in question has enjoyed long circulation meaning that it has accumulated more positive qi, this also differentiates them from buried coins (which are seen as inauspicious in feng shui) as cash coins that have been buried for centuries typically have a heavily encrusted patina. Taoists believe that placing a cash coin next to cinnabar money () would help mitigate the issues if a cash coin is seen as being questionable to be used for feng shui purposes. Cinnabar rust money refers to old cash coins which had oxidated in an alkaline environment (PH7-10) and appeared red in colour, this is because the soil reduced substances such as organic sugars to produce cuprous oxide (Cu2O) which is dark red, and also lead red (Pb3O4). This occurs when local corrosion and electrochemical corrosion will also occur, producing red and green rust forming small pinholes (referred to as "bone rust"). Cash coins typically first rust green before they turn red into cinnabar rust money. This is because cash coins until the mid-Ming dynasty period onwards most cash coins were made from bronze, though later cash coins were mostly made from brass causing them to oxidise differently, but because the old superstitions still applied people would manually apply cinnabar dye to make them appear red, which is known as cinnabar money or old cinnabar happy money. Though as feng shui practitioners note that the "magic" behind cash coins are the in the design, it is believed that while they are weaker in prowess compared to genuine Chinese cash coins, replicas will nevertheless contain the same metaphysical make-up.
4. Another factor that plays a part in the usage of cash coins in feng shui is the period when an individual coin was produced, this is because Feng shui masters claim that if a cash coin was produced during periods when China was a strong military power and had a rising economy the coin would contain a certain quantity of positive qi, but cash coins produced during times of tremendous turmoil and when the Chinese Empire suffered a serious decline are seen as negative. This means that some of the most desired cash coins for feng shui purposes are the Kangxi Tongbao (康熙通寶), which were produced during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor which lasted 61 years, meaning that his reign lasted an entire sexagenary cycle symbolising "longevity" and the fact that the Qing dynasty was experiencing a period of stability, had frequent military successes, and enjoyed economic prosperity during his reign. Likewise, Song dynasty coinage is often considered auspicious for similar reasons, in particular those produced during times of prosperity like the Northern Song period Daguan Tongbao (大觀通寶), while those produced during periods of decline like the Xuanhe Tongbao (宣和通寶) are considered to be unfit for feng shui purposes.
Five Emperor Coins
In feng shui, the term Five Emperor Coins (; ), also sometimes called "Five Emperor Money Coins" in English, refers to a set of cash coins that were produced during the early and High Qing eras when the Qing dynasty was at its height both militarily and economically. This set includes authentic cash coins produced during the reigns of the Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, and Jiaqing Emperors. As this period was when China's national power was the strongest, the authority of the emperor dominated, and Chinese society enjoyed stability the Five Emperor Coins are seen as having the essence of "heaven, earth, and people" (天、地、人). In this context it is sometimes referred to as "genius, genius, talent" (天才，地才，人才). Five Emperor Coins are also used with Tai Sui practices.
The five emperors reigned from 1644 to 1824, which happened to be a cycle in feng shui (as a cycle occurs every 180 years). The Shunzhi reign period belongs to northern water (北方水), Kangxi belongs to eastern wood (東方木), Yongzheng belongs to central earth (中央土), Qianlong belongs to western metal (西方金), and Jiaqing belongs to southern fire (南方火), which is exactly the symbol of the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
Feng shui masters typically advise people to select cash coins for feng shui purposes that are approximately the same size and thickness as each other. During the 60-year-long reign of the Qianlong Emperor a large quantity of Qianlong Tongbao cash coins were produced in varying sizes and qualities, this means that when selecting cash coins with this inscription special attention has to be given.
The Five Emperor Coins consist of:
Alternative set of Five Emperor Coins:
In feng shui before being used Five Emperor Coins, like other feng shui items, have to be consecrated by a Feng shui master for them to have a feng shui effect. Consecration of Five Emperor Coins usually takes place from 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning "when the dragon raises its head", after consecration, the Five Emperor Coins should not be touched by outsiders. If the cash coins are dirty, they are either replaced or wiped with a little salt water, after drying, they are usually placed in the ground the next morning. If the consecrated Five Emperor Coins need to be replaced they are usually wrapped in red cloth and put at the temple incense candle recycling place or at crossroads to supposedly let its aura dissipate.
To attract wealth, Five Emperor Coins cash coins are usually placed placed in the area of the house where wealth is kept or generated such as the living room, work room (for those who work from home), altars, vaults or a safe, Etc. where they are usually strung together in a particular order. Sometimes they are also placed inside of a car.
Other variations
Three Emperor Coins (三帝錢, 三帝钱, 3 đồng xu may mắn) is a set of cash coins consisting of the Qianlong Tongbao, Jiaqing Tongbao, and the Daoguang Tongbao. The Three Emperor Coins set has become popular because the emperors in this set sound like "Money gets home" () which indicates prosperity and the avoidance of evil. Furthermore, during the reigns of the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang Emperors the Qing dynasty experienced its most prosperous and stable period. "Qian Daojia" has the spirit of the three talents of heaven, earth, and people (天、地、人), plus the emperor's prestige of the three emperors, so it is thought by feng shui practitioners that it can attract wealth, prosper wealth, and have the additional effect of dispelling evil spirits and protecting the body.
Four Emperor Coins (四帝錢, 四帝钱) is a set of Shunzhi Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Yongzheng Tongbao, and Qianlong Tongbao cash coins. This set is relatively rarely used.
Six Emperor Coins (六帝錢, 六帝钱) refers to a set of cash coins consisting or the Shunzhi Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Yongzheng Tongbao, Qianlong Tongbao, Jiaqing Tongbao, and the Daoguang Tongbao. This set of cash coins is typically used in a similar method as the Five Emperor Coins set, but is different in the fact that it is not only used in ordinary feng shui but also in specialised wicket 5 yellows and 2 blacks functions, commonly known as the "Liubaigan" (六白乾). The five yellows and the two black evil spirits are both prosperous in the soil, and the evil spirits are dispelled by the earth-generated metal (feng shui should be vented rather than fighting). Qianlong Tongbao cash coins are seen as "the most suitable feng shui tool" of the set. While the Six Emperor Coins are seen as more useful in resolving the five yellows, this set is seen as less useful than the Five Emperor Coins for a number of other feng shui functions. Furthermore, for a set of 6 cash coins the requirements are more relaxed and authentic old coins are not seen as a necessity as they are with the five emperors set as modern replicas are seen as suitable for this set. In fact, a 6 coin set made up entirely of Qianlong Tongbao cash coins with the same thickness and basically the same size are seen as a suitable alternative.
Seven Emperor Coins (七帝錢, 七帝钱) refers to a set of cash coins consisting or the Shunzhi Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Yongzheng Tongbao, Qianlong Tongbao, Jiaqing Tongbao, Daoguang Tongbao, and a Xianfeng inscription. The Seven Emperor Coins are typically woven into the shape of plum blossoms and consecrated. Feng shui practitioners claim that this set can dispel evil spirits, strengthen the owner's self-confidence, and resolve the defects of the six gods without a master (六神無主, Liù shén wú zhǔ). The Seven Emperor Coins are commonly placed in cash registers or inside of left drawers of an office to help gather wealth and increase income. In the home, it is placed in the left drawer of the bedroom cabinet to attract wealth.
Eight Emperor Coins (八帝錢, 八帝钱) refers to a set of cash coins consisting or the Shunzhi Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Yongzheng Tongbao, Qianlong Tongbao, Jiaqing Tongbao, Daoguang Tongbao, Xianfeng Tongbao / Xianfeng Zhongbao / Xianfeng Yuanbao, and Tongzhi Tongbao / Tongzhi Zhongbao. Consecrated Eight Emperor Coins are typically placed in a pendant for attracting wealth, guarding houses, avoiding evil spirits, dispelling evil spirits, preventing gossip, and driving safely. The main function of the Eight Emperor Coins in feng shui is to gain job promotions. Feng shui practitioners typically place this set on the back of an office chair or against the back of a wall to prevent adversaries from slandering them behind their backs.
Nine Emperor Coins (九帝錢, 九帝钱) refers to a set of cash coins consisting or the Shunzhi Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Yongzheng Tongbao, Qianlong Tongbao, Jiaqing Tongbao, Daoguang Tongbao, Xianfeng Tongbao / Xianfeng Zhongbao / Xianfeng Yuanbao, Tongzhi Tongbao / Tongzhi Zhongbao, and Guangxu Tongbao / Guangxu Zhongbao. It is mainly used to resolve all kinds of evil spirits. The "nine" number of Nine Emperor Coins belongs to "fire" element in feng shui, which can be used to relieve the air of wood. This set of cash coins is also seen to be beneficial for marriages. In addition, "nine" is the number of supreme authority, combining nine consecutive copper-alloy cash coins in feng shui have the effect of promoting government fortune and helping authority. Both authentic ancient cash coins and modern replicas are seen as acceptable for this set, depending on the method of its usage and the purpose of the set.
Ten Emperor Coins (十帝錢, 十帝钱) refers to a set of cash coins consisting or the Shunzhi Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Yongzheng Tongbao, Qianlong Tongbao, Jiaqing Tongbao, Daoguang Tongbao, Xianfeng Tongbao / Xianfeng Zhongbao / Xianfeng Yuanbao, Tongzhi Tongbao / Tongzhi Zhongbao, Guangxu Tongbao / Guangxu Zhongbao, and Xuantong Tongbao. The copper-alloy cash coins of the ten emperors' reign eras are used in feng shui to block evil spirits, ward off evil spirits, invite prosperity, wealth, and auspicious luck.
Wearing of cash coins as feng shui accessories
Cash coins can also be worn for feng shui purposes as their square central holes conveniently allows them to be strung to a red cord, ribbon or a piece of clothing or to be worn as a necklace. Cash coins are typically strung while using it in this manner using red cords due to red being considered an auspicious colour in Chinese culture. According to the teaching of feng shui wearing cash coins can provide "personal protection from ghosts and other evils". Alternative, cash coins do not necessarily have to be worn on the body of the person but could be placed in any number of accessoires for their supposed "effect" in feng shui as they could be placed in a purse, handbag or hung on the shoulder strap of a handbag. Placing a set of Five Emperor Coins inside of a wallet is believed to attract wealth.
According to Feng shui masters, cash coin necklaces should be worn in a slip knot, which is known in Mandarin as a Huójié (活結), because slip knots can easily be released by only pulling on one cord meaning that a cash coin is able to automatically" fall off as they believe that in the presence of a nearby powerful evil force should "suddenly fall" meaning that the necklace functions as a "very good warning system" that can warn its wearer to leave immediately if such a fall occurs.
Placement of cash coins in the home for feng shui purposes
According feng shui cash coins placed at inside of the home can ward off evil spirits, this is because it is believed that evil spirits typically attempt to enter a house through gates, doors, and windows and Feng shui masters claim that by placing feng shui coins close to where it is believed evil spirits will enter they will be unable to rush inside. Furthermore, in feng shui cash coins fulfill the purpose of promoting harmony in the household, and attracting both wealth and good fortune. Placing cash coins in an area associated with money such as a vault or a cash register is believed to attract more wealth (see also: Vault protector coin).
When new houses are constructed five sets of Qing dynasty Five Emperor Coins are sometimes placed at specific locations to attract both wealth and prosperity. These sets of Five Emperor Coins are placed at the four corners and the centre of the house in a specific sequence and because the interior area is usually relatively large, it is believed that Five Emperor Coins cannot be used in the interior because their supposed power is not enough for such a large area. All five sets of Five Emperor Coins are placed facing the gate, with five Shunzhi Tongbao in the left corner, five Kangxi Tongbao in the right corner, five Yongzheng Tongbao are placed in the centre, five Qianlong Tongbao are placed in the rear left corner, and five Jiaqing Tongbao in the rear right corner.
Traditionally, "protection" was usually achieved by burying feng shui coins under the threshold of the house, but as many modern people live in apartment buildings "burying" cash coins has become less convenient it has now become more commonplace to hide them under a doormat or to hang the cash coins on a door handle. When using Five Emperor Coins these are usually chronologically arranged. Sometimes cash coins are also placed underneath rugs or floor mats to strengthen the presence of "earth" energy when the level below is empty space such as a vehicle parking lot.
When placed on the right side of an entrance gate, Five Emperor Coins hung from a yellow cord are believed to help prevent female family members from being too argumentative or quarrelsome. In Chinese culture, the colour yellow is associated with the legendary Yellow Emperor and in feng shui yellow is perceived a potent symbol of both imperial rule and general authority.
When placed at the gate of the house, in feng shui Five Emperor Coins are to be placed chronologically from right-to-left. At the same time, it is required that the feet of the ancient coins face inward and the obverse of the coin face upwards. In feng shui it is believed that if the foot of the characters is turned outward that it would cause depression to the inhabitants of the household.
Placing two copper-alloy cash coins under a pillow is believed to ensure harmony in a marriage.
In traditional Chinese homes the ridgepole is the main cross beam located at the top of the house which provides major support for the roof, typically these ridgepoles are painted red because it is seen as an auspicious colour in Chinese culture and a Bagua charm (a type of cash coin amulet), sometimes including the yin and yang symbol, is usually hung from the ridgepole. This is typically done by drilling two holes at the top and bottom of the amulet. Alongside the cash coin amulet ted paper and cloth banners are hung from the ridgepole during its hoisting. These banners have such auspicious sayings as Fú xīng gāo zhào (福星高照, "Let the five good fortunes shine brightly"), Jiāng tài gōng zài cǐ (姜太公在此, "The Protector Jiang Taigong is here"), Fènghuáng zài cǐ (鳳凰在此, "The male and female phoenix are both here"), and Zǐ wēi gāo zhào (紫微高照, "Let the purple polar star shine brightly"). Besides being attached to the ridgepole during the construction of a house, an Eight Trigram cash coin amulet is frequently placed on a main gate or door, these may have inscriptions on them to ward off demons such as Zhǎn zhì xié guǐ (斬治邪鬼, "behead and punish the demons").
It is also customary in feng shui during the 5th day of the 5th month (Duanwu) to hang a five poisons charm on a door or gate as a form of protection. This is done because a host of dangerous pests such as snakes, scorpions, spiders, and others tend to become more common during the summer. The leaves of a Acorus calamus plant, which resemble a sword, are sometimes hung on the same location for the same intended effect.
To ensure and promote "good fortune" for the family Chinese people traditionally nailed cash coin amulets with auspicious inscriptions, such as Changming Fugui (長命富貴, "Longevity, wealth, and honour") and Fushou Tongtian (福壽同天, "good fortune and longevity on the same day") on a gate or wall. Sometimes these good luck amulets feature obverse sides that have inscriptions identical to cash coins, such as Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寳), but may be significantly larger in size, for example a Qianlong Tongbao charm being 38 millimeters in diameter and having a weight of 10.6 grams.
One of the most popular "good luck" motifs found in old Chinese houses consists of five bats (五蝠) surrounding the Chinese character for "longevity" (壽). A specific type of cash coin amulet, known as an open-work charm, with this design is known as a Wufu Pengshou (五福捧壽, "five fortunes surround longevity") and is commonly hung on a door or gate to wish for blessings and a long life.
Coin-swords in the home
In feng shui, coin-swords are often hung to frighten away demons and evil spirits. Coin-swords are a type of Chinese numismatic charm that are primarily used in southern China. The supposed powers of coin-swords do not come from the associated wealth symbolism that usually comes with cash coins. But with the design form of the cash coins used to make the sword, as well as the dynastic origins of the cash coins that carry the Emperor's reign era title. As such, in feng shui the supposed power of the coin-swords will depend heavily on which Chinese emperor's inscription is written down on the cash coins.
They are frequently hung above the bed, on residential walls, on the front and the outside of the bridal bed-curtain, or above the windows of a building. It is believed that evil spirits would not dare molest the residents of the house where the coin-sword hangs because the sword resembles that wielded by the Taoist immortal Zhong Kui, who in Chinese mythology is famous for being a slayer of evil demons. Most Chinese coin-swords consist of Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寳) cash coins. Coin-swords made from Qing dynasty cash coins with the inscription Kangxi Tongbao (康熙通寶) are considered to be the most effective.
About the time of a woman's confinement after her marriage, a coin-sword is sometimes taken to be hung inside of the bridal bed-curtain, usually in a position that is parallel to the horizon.
Other feng shui uses of cash coins
Cash coins are often pasted on calculators to represent having profits to count.
Cash coins are commonly used as an ingredient for the preparation of a feng shui wealth vase ().
Cash coins are commonly found placed in water features or at the bottom of fish ponds, this is done to increase the wealth energy that the element of "water" supposedly brings to a household.
Usages of cash coins that supposedly attracts evil
Categories of cash coins seen as unsuitable for feng shui purposes
In feng shui certain cash coins are seen as being inauspicious and are discouraged by Feng shui masters because, according to them, rather than acting as a deterrent to evil they might attract it.
Factors typically seen as indicating an inauspicious cash coins by Feng shui masters include:
1. Cash coins that have been extracted from burial sites such as tombs and graves. It is estimated that among the "real" (authentic) cash coins that are sold in antique markets in major Chinese cities about 30% of them were recovered through excavating graves. Professional antique dealers refer to cash coins that were dug up from graves as "lao keng goods" (). The Mandarin-language term "Lao keng" (老坑) refers to a cemetery and cash coins obtained in this way are often described as coming "from the pits". Between the years 2018 and 2021 a large number of old and valuable Chinese cash coins have entered Chinese antique markets, while fake cash coins still greatly outnumber the real cash coins at these markets, the reason for this appearance of previously rarely seen cash coins at these markets is the fact that many ancient tombs throughout China have had to be excavated to allow for construction of many highways and high-speed railway networks across the country. Feng shui masters claim that inexperienced people should not go to acquire cash coins through this method as it is not easy to determine if the coin in question was previously buried or not. For the reason that there is a large risk that an authentic cash coin purchased through traditional coin dealerships and antique sellers Feng shui masters recommend that the most reliable way to purchase a cash coin to be used for feng shui purposes is through buying them from a reputable Feng shui master. This is because they claim that "a qualified Feng shui master can determine the good and evil forces in the coins". Formerly buried cash coins are said to be full of negative qì (陰氣, Yīn qì) as the places they were buried were mostly places where the wind and energy were gathered and the aura field was strong. This is a reason why feng shui practitioners claim that cash coins need to be consecrated before they can be used.
2. Fake cash coins and replicas of ancient cash coins are also seen as being unsuitable to be used for feng shui purposes and Feng shui masters regard them as mere "lumps of copper". This is because fake cash coins are not old as these have ttpically been made in only last few years or even the last few months, meaning that fake cash coins were not manufactured during the time of the Chinese emperors and therefore do not carry any inherent legitimacy or authority that real cash coins do derived from a regime recognised by the mandate of heaven. Though fake cash coins not intended for circulation started originally being manufactured during the 19th century when foreign coin collectors started entering the country. In fact, these fake cash coins are not really type of "coin" in the traditional sense because they were not produced to be circulating currency that was used in any marketplace, and as they never circulated they never accumulated a concentration of positive qi. Many imitation Chinese coins were only made to be sold to collectors or tourists as souvenirs. Likewise, fake cash coins when freshly purchased have never been handled by Feng shui masters and therefore have no history of previously being used for feng shui purposes. Fake cash coins are massively produced at very low costs for the makers and can be made to look like any historical coin from China's ancient past. Fake cash coins are not always easily recognised by non-expert coin collectors, while some fake cash coins are easily recognisable due to the fact that many modern fakes are machine-made and look new, many producers tend to add fake patina or attempt to make them look as if they were "worn", thus making the coins look as if they are "old". Fake cash coins come in many varieties, while they are usually spotted at first glance as many are not 100% faithful reproductions. For example, they sometimes use a different spelling or style from the originals and can also be made in a different metal, such as brass. Some fake Chinese currencies also mix symbols that could not have been on the same cash coin at the time. For example Manchu symbols and the name of an emperor from the beginning of the millennium (despite the fact that only the last dynasty, the Qing, was Manchu). Among the fake cash coins, there are also many specifically made for feng shui enthusiasts, who wish to use them claiming to harmonise energies and to improve well-being, use the Chinese currency symbol to promise good fortune. Many sellers of feng shui products sell imitations which they often offer up to the buyers as genuine ancient currencies. Their appearance is often easily recognisable by their very recent, clean, and flawless appearance, sometimes even gilded with fine gold.
3. Cash coins which were produced by rebellions or ethnic minority regimes. This includes Liao dynasty coinage, Da Shu coinage, Western Xia coinage, Jin dynasty coinage (1115–1234), and Shengbao among others. Feng shui masters claim that the reasons why these cash coins are not suitable for feng shui purposes is because almost all cash coins from these governments are fake or modern reproductions (which are seen as "not suitable for feng shui") and that it is difficult to find authentic cash coins produced by rebellions and minority regimes in antique markets and online. Furthermore, the fact that rebel groups were not seen as legitimate and typically ended up in failure means that their currency is seen as inauspicious.
4. Feng shui masters typically recommend against using ancient cash coins that were not handled by many people as these are seen as "no better than just a piece of common copper", this includes ancient cash coins that only had brief periods of production and circulation and were often only used in a small area. Feng shui masters recommend against using them because, unlike cash coins that have seen wide circulation, these coins have not been able to accumulate a large amount of positive qi (like with the fake cash coins mentioned above).
Six Emperor Coins and Ten Emperor Coins
As the Five Emperor Coins are seen as auspicious because the economy of the Qing dynasty was in its ascendancy during the reigns of the 5 emperors mentioned in the inscriptions and China enjoyed a period a military strength, Qing dynasty period cash coins produced during times when the empire was gradually falling into serious dynastic decline are seen as inauspicious for feng shui purposes. Despite this a number of dealers selling feng shui coins have been promoting "Six Emperor Coins" (六帝錢, 六帝钱) and "Ten Emperor Coins" (十帝錢, 十帝钱) which include cash coins produced during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor and later when the Qing dynasty was entering its century of humiliation. For this reason, Feng shui masters advise against using "Six Emperor Coins" and "Ten Emperor Coins" coin sets.
Inauspicious placements of cash coins
In feng shui, cash coins are believed to not just attract wealth, good fortune, and harmony when placed in the house but may also attract evil spirits (sha qì) if they are placed in certain positions or at certain places.
If cash coins are placed at residential door to stairs they may attract different types of evil spirits depending on the direction of the staircase. If the stair goes down the house, it is believed that the owner or owners will not be able to keep their wealth and that it will easy for them to lose their money. If cash coins are placed at a door that leads to stairs going up, they will form evil spirits, which are believed to affect health and will make it easy to be injured.
Historically, at times when carpenters and masons feel they have been treated improperly or even mistreated they might have sought revenge by secretly hiding objects within the framework of the building which would bring misfortune to the family residing in it. These bad objects would be hidden somewhere in the infrastructure of the house. While these objects could include a paper drawing or a straw figurine which they believed could become a ghost which would haunt the house, a small straw man paired with a match to attract the possibility of fire destroying the building, a broken rice bowl with a pair of chopsticks which they believed would cause economic hardship, or the tail of a pig, which had the same intended effect we the aforementioned, they could also include cash coins, such as a cart with cash coins headed away from the house. Placing the cart headed away from the house implied that money would be leaving the house and they believed that positioning cash coins in such a manner would portend poverty and hardship for the residing family.
If placed at a door to an elevator entrance, it is believed that wealth will come and go.
If placed at a door that is immediate to the corner of the wall, commonly known in Taiwan as "flying blade evil" (飛刃煞, Fēi rèn shā), they are believed to attract bad fortune in the form of serious injuries, car accidents, and bloody disasters. However, these effects could be mitigated by using them in cooperation with a Bagua mirror or a statue of a Pixiu. Mirrors, and especially a concave or "inverting" mirrors, are often hung above a doorways in feng shui because it is believed that a ghost will flee away if it exposed and looks at its own reflection. Since a concave mirror will invert the image of the ghost, it is believed that these types of mirrors will also "overturn" any evil influences therefore mitigating the negative effects of inauspiciously placed cash coins.
If placed at bow-shaped roads cash coins are believed to attract uneasiness and cause the loss of wealth and energy.
When placed at arches cash coins are believed to attract peach blossoms, which is seen as not being good for marriage and family luck. These supposed effects are believed to be mitigated when used by bead curtains.
If placed at a door leading to a toilet cash coins are believed to attract digestive disorders and urinary diseases. These supposed effects are believed to be mitigated when used by bead curtains.
If placed at a door leading to a kitchen cash coins are believed to attract serious car accidents and other disasters. These supposed effects are believed to be mitigated when used by bead curtains.
If placed at a door leading to another door cash coins are believed to cause the owner of the house to become the subject of gossip. These supposed effects are believed to be mitigated when used by bead curtains.
In feng shui it is believed that putting cash coins in a drain or placing them underneath a drain will make people lose money.
Influence
Due to the cultural influence of feng shui in the Greater China region ancient Chinese coinages have been adopted into the logo design of many companies in the region, which is often referred to as the "symbolic feng shui coin logo design". Logos that are based on the various concepts and forms that are found in feng shui are the most preferred visual representation used by financial institutions such as banks in the Greater China region, with ancient Chinese coins being used in particular.
For this reason, cash coins in feng shui have developed into distinctive and unique style of logo design language in the region.
List of feng shui coin objects
See also
Jin Chan
Explanatory notes
References
Sources
Kann, Eduard – The Currencies of China (1926).
Wong, Wing-Fai (黃詠暉, 黄咏晖) – Five Emperors Coins: The Reformation of Yansheng Object as a Popular Culture in Feng Shui. CFP – 1st Symposium of the Academic Journal of Feng Shui – Oceania, Sydney, Australia, 13–14 May 2017. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Glasstree Academic Publishing (2018).
External links
Feng Shui
Feng Shui
Environmental design
Chinese culture | Cash coins in feng shui | [
"Engineering"
] | 9,478 | [
"Environmental design",
"Design"
] |
74,418,611 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/48%2C000%20Hz | In digital audio, 48,000 Hz (also represented as 48 kHz or DVD Quality) is a common sampling rate. It has become the standard for professional audio and video.
48 kHz is evenly divisible by 24, a common frame rate for media, such as film, unlike 44.1 kHz.
Origin
In the late 1970s, digital audio didn't yet have a standard for a sampling rate, with proprietary sampling rates ranging from 32 kHz up to 50 kHz.
As the use of digital audio increased, it became apparent that standardization on a single sampling rate was needed, which started to be worked on in 1981.
A variety of requirements had to be considered before deciding on a sampling rate. Principally, the samplling rate had to be at least double the maximal frequency carried (as per the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem) — at least 40 kHz to roughly cover all human-audible frequencies without aliasing distortion.
The sampling rates under consideration ranged between 45 kHz and 60 kHz. 60 kHz would have been the ideal sampling rate for film and video use because it would have a complete absence of leap frames, but from the professional audio-only recording perspective, it was considered wastefully high.
To synchronize digital audio with television and film, there were five sampling rates available, that had leap frames but were not too high, which were as follows: 45, 48, 50, 52.5, and 54 kHz. European television chose 48 kHz due to them already broadcasting in 32 kHz, which corresponded to a 3:2 ratio, which made conversion easy, with no leap frames. As for NTSC television, they had two choices: 48, or 50 kHz. Ultimately, they chose 48 kHz, because there would be a leap frame every 5 frames, unlike 50 kHz, which would have a leap frame every 3 frames of color and b/w NTSC video, because European television was already using 48 kHz, and because it was easy to synchronize with 24 frames per second, a common frame rate used in television, and video.
Differences between 48 and 44.1 kHz
Humans can't easily hear the difference between 48, 44.1 kHz, and other similar sampling rates. One benefit that 44.1 kHz provides is that it is easier to work with, requiring fewer computer resources, simply because it has fewer samples per second, which also results in smaller file sizes.
It is generally recommended to use 48 kHz for digital publishing, and 44.1 kHz for CD publishing.
48 kHz does have a slightly Nyquist frequency than 44.1 kHz, which allows for a more gradual low-pass filter to be used without introducing aliasing to the encoded signal.
Other common rates
Other sampling rates include:
44.1 kHz (also known as CD Quality): Originated in the late 1970s with PCM adaptors, and is still a common sampling rate to this day, mostly due to CD's adoption of this sampling rate, defined in the Red Book standard in 1980.
44,056 Hz: An obsolete sampling rate used in Color NTSC.
88.2, 96 kHz and above: High sampling rates are used for recording and production as they can improve audio signal processing and help reduce aliasing during recording. These higher rates are also used for audiophile listening but haven't become the standard for listening, as their principal advantage is being able to encode frequencies above those humans can hear, using more storage and computer resources.
See also
High-resolution audio
Notes
References
Digital audio
Sound measurements
Audio engineering | 48,000 Hz | [
"Physics",
"Mathematics",
"Engineering"
] | 715 | [
"Sound measurements",
"Physical quantities",
"Quantity",
"Electrical engineering",
"Audio engineering"
] |
74,419,867 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%20Clark%20%28inventor%29 | John Clark (1785-1853) was a British printer and inventor who created the first automated text generator, the Latin Verse Machine (also known as the Eureka) between 1830 and 1843. Clark also patented a method for rubberising cloth that was used for air beds.
Life
John Clark was born on 21 November 1785 and died on 23 May 1853. He was a cousin of Cyrus and James Clark, who founded the shoe manufacturing company C. & J. Clark, still doing business as Clark. He was a Quaker.
Air beds
In 1813 Clark registered a patent for air-tight beds, pillows and cushions. In an article for the Furniture History Society, Edward Joy wrote that this was the first such patent, and that Clark used "unvulcanized rubber filled by means of an air pump." Clark's patent describes various uses for the new technique, including for beds, which would not require stuffing materials other than air. The air pump could be kept beneath the bed. For medical uses, the bed could also be filled with hot steam or cold water, allowing for a variety of temperatures. Clark also described how printers could use the air pillow to His niece wrote that he sold the patent to Charles Macintosh who used it for his raincoats, although this may have been a misunderstanding on his niece's part.
Although a physician used Clark's invention to make a water bed for invalids, there was no widespread adoption of air beds or water beds at this time, largely due to more complicated maintenance than the more common stuffed beds, and because spring beds became popular.
Latin Verse Machine
Between 1830 and 1843 Clark constructed a machine that could generate a new line of Latin hexameter verse every minute. He exhibited the machine at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, during the spring of 1845.
The Latin Verse Machine is the first automated text generator, and a pioneering work of generative art and generative literature. It is a remarkable precursor of the genre of electronic literature, although it is of course mechanical rather than electronic. Clark's machine predates the first electronic text generator (Christopher Strachey's love letter generator) by more than a century. Clark's comparison of his text generator to the contemporary kaleidoscope is evidence of a theoretical interest in generative art and literature.
The Latin Verse Machine has also been seen as a critique of prosody and the teaching of Latin in 19th century Britain.
Author and printer
Clark was a printer in Bridgwater, and also published a number of works that he wrote himself.
These include:
The Avalonian Guide to the town of Glastonbury, and its Environs. This guide book was published in several editions. The 1835 edition has been digitised by Google Books.
The General History and Description of a Machine for Composing Hexameter Latin Verses. Clark published two editions of this 28 page pamphlet describing his Latin Verse Machine, in 1837 and 1843. Oiginals are held by the Alfred Gillett Trust in Street, Somerset, UK.
Don Juan. Canto XVII (1827) This was a continuation of Lord Byron's satiric poem Don Juan.
External links
The Alfred Gillett Trust in Somerset holds an archive of Clark's papers and the still functional Latin Verse Machine.
References
1785 births
1853 deaths
Analog computers
Automata (mechanical)
Electronic literature writers
English inventors
Generative literature
History of computing in the United Kingdom
Mechanical computers
One-of-a-kind computers
People of the Industrial Revolution | John Clark (inventor) | [
"Physics",
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 710 | [
"Machines",
"Automation",
"History of computing in the United Kingdom",
"Physical systems",
"Mechanical computers",
"Automata (mechanical)",
"History of computing"
] |
74,420,263 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%B6na%20hem | Sköna hem () is an interior design magazine which has been published since 1979 in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the magazines owned by Bonnier Group and is the oldest interior design magazine in the country.
History and profile
Sköna hem was established in 1979 with the subtitle of Inredning, konst, kultur, antikviteter (). The Specialtidningsförlaget was its founding company. From 1982 to 1988 the magazine was published by Åhlén & Åkerlund. A company called Sköna hem was the publisher of the magazine between 1988 and 1992.
The magazine is published by Bonniers Tidskrifter AB fourteen times a year. Its headquarters is in Stockholm, and Claes Blom is the editor-in-chief. Sköne hem targets readers aged between 25 and 45. As of 2010, 75% of its readers were women and 25% men. It covers articles on interior design and also offers buying tips to help its readers create beautiful homes. It organizes courses on interior design in some cities of Sweden. In May 2021 the magazine was integrated into the website of the Expressen newspaper along with other Bonnier magazines such as Damernas Värld and Allt om Mat.
Sköna hem sold 92,600 copies in 2008, and the number of its readers was 430,000 the same year. The magazine had 409,000 readers in 2011.
References
1979 establishments in Sweden
Design magazines
Magazines established in 1979
Magazines published in Stockholm
Swedish-language magazines
Monthly magazines published in Sweden
Bonnier Group | Sköna hem | [
"Engineering"
] | 319 | [
"Design magazines",
"Design"
] |
74,420,274 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara%20Saraceno | Clara Jody Saraceno (born 1983) is a laser scientist whose research involves the development of ultrafast lasers, a technology whose applications include ultrafast laser spectroscopy, and imaging biological processes at the molecular scale. Born in Argentina and educated in France and Switzerland, she works in Germany as a professor in the Faculty for Electrical Engineering of Ruhr University Bochum, where she holds the Chair of Photonics and Ultrafast Laser Science.
Education and career
Saraceno was born in 1983 in Buenos Aires, Argentine. She studied optics and photonics at the Institut d'optique Graduate School in France, part of Paris-Saclay University, after which she worked in the US for Coherent, Inc. from 2007 to 2008. Returning to graduate study at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, she completed a PhD in 2012, under the supervision of physicist Ursula Keller.
After postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich and the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, she joined Ruhr University Bochum in Germany as an associate professor in 2016.
Recognition
Saraceno's doctoral thesis won the 2013 Quantum Electronics and Optics Division Thesis Prize of the European Physical Society. She was a 2016 recipient of the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
She became an Optica Ambassador in 2019, and was named as a 2022 Optica Fellow, "for seminal contributions to ultrafast science and technology, as well as outstanding service to the optics community".
References
External links
Photonics and Ultrafast Laser Science at Ruhr University Bochum
Living people
Engineers from Buenos Aires
Argentine emigrants to Germany
Electrical engineers
Women electrical engineers
Laser researchers
Paris-Saclay University alumni
ETH Zurich alumni
Academic staff of Ruhr University Bochum
Fellows of Optica (society)
1983 births | Clara Saraceno | [
"Engineering"
] | 358 | [
"Electrical engineering",
"Electrical engineers"
] |
74,420,348 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized%20uncertainty%20principle | The Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) represents a pivotal extension of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, incorporating the effects of gravitational forces to refine the limits of measurement precision within quantum mechanics. Rooted in advanced theories of quantum gravity, including string theory and loop quantum gravity, the GUP introduces the concept of a minimal measurable length. This fundamental limit challenges the classical notion that positions can be measured with arbitrary precision, hinting at a discrete structure of spacetime at the Planck scale. The mathematical expression of the GUP is often formulated as:
In this equation, and denote the uncertainties in position and momentum, respectively. The term represents the reduced Planck constant, while is a parameter that embodies the minimal length scale predicted by the GUP. The GUP is more than a theoretical curiosity; it signifies a cornerstone concept in the pursuit of unifying quantum mechanics with general relativity. It posits an absolute minimum uncertainty in the position of particles, approximated by the Planck length, underscoring its significance in the realms of quantum gravity and string theory where such minimal length scales are anticipated.
Various quantum gravity theories, such as string theory, loop quantum gravity, and quantum geometry, propose a generalized version of the uncertainty principle (GUP), which suggests the presence of a minimum measurable length. In earlier research, multiple forms of the GUP have been introduced
Observable consequences
The GUP's phenomenological and experimental implications have been examined across low and high-energy contexts, encompassing atomic systems, quantum optical systems, gravitational bar detectors, gravitational decoherence, and macroscopic harmonic oscillators, further extending to composite particles, astrophysical systems
See also
Uncertainty principle
References
External links
Research papers on Generalized Uncertainty Principle
Quantum gravity
String theory
Unsolved problems in physics | Generalized uncertainty principle | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 363 | [
"Astronomical hypotheses",
"Unsolved problems in physics",
"Quantum gravity",
"String theory",
"Physics beyond the Standard Model"
] |
74,421,230 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakou | In the recording industry, a dakou () was a type of cut-out used in China to gain access to mostly rock music recordings that would otherwise be banned due to Chinese censorship.
These recordings, which were mainly shipped from the United States and Canada, were exported to China to be used as raw materials; however, they were instead sold through semi-legal markets to be listened to. Although they were cut, due to how tape recorders read the reels of tape loaded in a cassette from the centre to the margin, only the last parts of recordings were lost.
Influence
The dakou allowed the Chinese youth to access Western rock music recordings, which led to musical inspiration from this type of music.
Dakou generation
The emergence of this generation in China during the 1990s can be seen as a result of social and cultural changes. The generation that emerged after the Cultural Revolution was raised in an era characterised by stability and prosperity, which influenced a more relaxed outlook on popular culture. Rock music played a role in their identity politics as it influenced their beliefs and values. The evolution of rock music in China has seen a shift from its initial portrayal of rebellion to a more nuanced perspective within the context of communism. Scholars have studied the production of rock music in China, analysing its connection to the global influence of Western rock and the diverse music scenes in different regions of China.
The influence of the Dakou Generation was observed in various rock music genres, including underground bands, heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, folk-rock, pop-rock, and fashionable bands. The genres and their performers played a role in the evolution and alteration of rock music in China, reflecting the changing cultural scenery of the nation.
Notes
References
The Piracy Years: Internet File Sharing in a Global Context. (2023). (n.p.): Liverpool University Press.
Kielman, A. (2022). Sonic Mobilities: Producing Worlds in Southern China. United Kingdom: University of Chicago Press.
Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media. (2011). India: SAGE Publications.
External links
Radiolab's "Mixtape" podcast about Dakou cassettes
Music industry
Tape recording
Recorded music
Compact disc | Dakou | [
"Technology"
] | 444 | [
"Recording devices",
"Tape recording"
] |
74,422,505 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg%20Limnaeus | Georg Limnaeus (born Georg Wirn, also known as Georgius Lymneus, Limnæus or Limnäus; 24 October 1554 – 14 September 1611) was a German mathematician, astronomer and librarian, who provided noteworthy encouragement to Johannes Kepler shortly after his first heliocentric astronomical work was published.
Early life
Georg Limnaeus' father Antonius Wirn originated from Switzerland and served in the military forces of Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, who had been tutored by George Spalatin and closely followed and supported the works of Martin Luther. Around the time of the Capitulation of Wittenberg, Frederick conceived of the founding of the University of Jena, which was established in 1558 and became the university where Limnaeus was to spend all of his academic years.
Upon completion of his military service, Antonius moved to Jena, where Georg Wirn was born and lived, and where, in 1571, he enrolled at the university. In accordance with its tradition, upon enrollment he assumed the name Georgius Lymneus. At Jena, Limnaeus studied under Jacob Flach (1537–1611), who was a graduate of the University of Wittenberg and had exposure to Philip Melanchthon (1497–1569) and frequented the lectures of Erasmus Reinhold (1511–1553.)
In 1581, Limnaeus received the "Magisters der Philosophie" degree at the University of Jena.
Career and Kepler connections
Limnaeus issued a prognostication in 1585 in Erfurt and, in 1588, became the professor of mathematics at Jena, a position which he held until his death; concurrently, he also assumed the position of head librarian. He lectured on the Celestial sphere, astronomical and scientific calculations, the theory of planets and the use of astronomical tables, and in the areas of geography, geodesy and cosmography. Although he was not known to have produced any memorable manuscripts, he is known to have engaged in professional correspondence with peers, from time to time, including Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler, and to have maintained a respectable reputation as an academic prognosticator. In 1596, he founded the first observatory in Jena.
In 1597, Limnaeus (along with Galileo, Brahe and Ursus) received a draft copy from Kepler of his first major work, Mysterium Cosmographicum. On April 24, 1598, Limnaeus wrote to Kepler, expressing his firm belief that heliocentric considerations should not be dismissed from the studies of astronomy by declaring, "Most illustrious Sir, never was I estranged from the most ancient philosophy of the Platonists – nor have I thought, as have several petty philosophers in our time, that it ought to be shunted outside the borders of the territory of the republic of letters." These words have been used to illustrate that it was not uncommon for traditionalist academicians, such as Limnaeus, to covertly honor heliocentric views of the ancients, while at the same time skillfully avoiding any explicit reference to the more controversial views of Copernicus. Limnaeus added, however, the statement that for any serious student of astronomy, Kepler's work represents "a new path to knowledge of the stars." In light of the disconcerting imprisonment of Giordano Bruno in 1593 (who was executed in 1600), this open expression of both support to young Kepler, and delight in his mathematical astronomical approaches, provided him with some of the earliest, forceful words of encouragement, which he must have welcomed in contrast to the many strong criticisms his work quickly evoked.
In addition, Limnaeus provided information to Kepler on Tycho Brahe which may have promoted his final decision to go to Prague and study under him, thereby ensuring access to Brahe's data and the furtherance of his own work. However, beyond serving as an encourager to Kepler, and a facilitator to his decision to assist Brahe, there is no record that Limnaeus ever dove into specific details of Kepler's work or adopted it for his lessons.
Kepler assisted Brahe from 1599 until Brahe's sudden death in 1601. By 1609, Kepler would develop and introduce his laws of planetary motion, which would subsequently play a major role in the development of Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation, as has been noted by Newton.
Limnaeus and his wife fell victim to the 1611 plague in Jena.
References
Astronomers
16th-century German astronomers
17th-century German astronomers
16th-century German mathematicians
17th-century German mathematicians
1554 births
1611 deaths
German mathematicians | Georg Limnaeus | [
"Astronomy"
] | 961 | [
"Astronomers",
"People associated with astronomy"
] |
74,424,084 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najeong%20Well%2C%20Gyeongju | Najeong Well, designated South Korean historic site No 245, on 20 November 1975, is located in the sacred ("religious") forest of Najeong in Gyeongju. The well is said to be the birthplace of Park Hyeokgeose, the founder of Silla.
Gallery
In popular culture
In the South Korean TV series, Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth, the young True bones meet here to fight, and, Najeong being a sacred place, are subject to death, a death which is avoided, by swearing to become Hwarang with allegiance not to their families but to Silla and its king.
References
Gyeongju
Historic Sites of South Korea | Najeong Well, Gyeongju | [
"Chemistry",
"Engineering",
"Environmental_science"
] | 144 | [
"Hydrology",
"Water wells",
"Environmental engineering"
] |
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