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"A\n",
"A (named , plural \"As\", \"A's\", \"a\"s, \"a's\" or \"aes\") is the first letter and the first vowel of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type.\n",
"In the English grammar, \"a\", and its variant \"an\", is an indefinite article.\n",
"Section::::History.\n",
"The earliest certain ancestor of \"A\" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it from a true alphabet). In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two horns extended.\n",
"By 1600 BC, the Phoenician alphabet letter had a linear form that served as the base for some later forms. Its name is thought to have corresponded closely to the Paleo-Hebrew or Arabic aleph.\n",
"When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for a letter to represent the glottal stop—the consonant sound that the letter denoted in Phoenician and other Semitic languages, and that was the first phoneme of the Phoenician pronunciation of the letter—so they used their version of the sign to represent the vowel , and called it by the similar name of alpha. In the earliest Greek inscriptions after the Greek Dark Ages, dating to the 8th century BC, the letter rests upon its side, but in the Greek alphabet of later times it generally resembles the modern capital letter, although many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one leg, or by the angle at which the cross line is set.\n",
"The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to their civilization in the Italian Peninsula and left the letter unchanged. The Romans later adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write the Latin language, and the resulting letter was preserved in the Latin alphabet that would come to be used to write many languages, including English.\n",
"Section::::History.:Typographic variants.\n",
"During Roman times, there were many variant forms of the letter \"A\". First was the monumental or lapidary style, which was used when inscribing on stone or other \"permanent\" media. There was also a cursive style used for everyday or utilitarian writing, which was done on more perishable surfaces. Due to the \"perishable\" nature of these surfaces, there are not as many examples of this style as there are of the monumental, but there are still many surviving examples of different types of cursive, such as majuscule cursive, minuscule cursive, and semicursive minuscule. Variants also existed that were intermediate between the monumental and cursive styles. The known variants include the early semi-uncial, the uncial, and the later semi-uncial.\n",
"At the end of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), several variants of the cursive minuscule developed through Western Europe. Among these were the semicursive minuscule of Italy, the Merovingian script in France, the Visigothic script in Spain, and the Insular or Anglo-Irish semi-uncial or Anglo-Saxon majuscule of Great Britain. By the 9th century, the Caroline script, which was very similar to the present-day form, was the principal form used in book-making, before the advent of the printing press. This form was derived through a combining of prior forms.\n",
"15th-century Italy saw the formation of the two main variants that are known today. These variants, the \"Italic\" and \"Roman\" forms, were derived from the Caroline Script version. The Italic form, also called \"script a,\" is used in most current handwriting and consists of a circle and vertical stroke. This slowly developed from the fifth-century form resembling the Greek letter tau in the hands of medieval Irish and English writers. The Roman form is used in most printed material; it consists of a small loop with an arc over it (\"a\"). Both derive from the majuscule (capital) form. In Greek handwriting, it was common to join the left leg and horizontal stroke into a single loop, as demonstrated by the uncial version shown. Many fonts then made the right leg vertical. In some of these, the serif that began the right leg stroke developed into an arc, resulting in the printed form, while in others it was dropped, resulting in the modern handwritten form.\n",
"Italic type is commonly used to mark emphasis or more generally to distinguish one part of a text from the rest (set in Roman type). There are some other cases aside from italic type where \"script a\" (\"ɑ\"), also called Latin alpha, is used in contrast with Latin \"a\" (such as in the International Phonetic Alphabet).\n",
"Section::::Use in writing systems.\n",
"Section::::Use in writing systems.:English.\n",
"In modern English orthography, the letter represents at least seven different vowel sounds:\n",
"BULLET::::- the near-open front unrounded vowel as in \"pad\";\n",
"BULLET::::- the open back unrounded vowel as in \"father\", which is closer to its original Latin and Greek sound;\n",
"BULLET::::- the diphthong as in \"ace\" and \"major\" (usually when is followed by one, or occasionally two, consonants and then another vowel letter) – this results from Middle English lengthening followed by the Great Vowel Shift;\n",
"BULLET::::- the modified form of the above sound that occurs before, as in \"square\" and \"Mary\";\n",
"BULLET::::- the rounded vowel of \"water\";\n",
"BULLET::::- the shorter rounded vowel (not present in General American) in \"was\" and \"what\";\n",
"BULLET::::- a schwa, in many unstressed syllables, as in \"about\", \"comma\", \"solar\".\n",
"The double sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived from foreign languages such as \"Aaron\" and \"aardvark\". However, occurs in many common digraphs, all with their own sound or sounds, particularly , , , , and .\n",
"Section::::Use in writing systems.:Other languages.\n",
"In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as , , or . An exception is Saanich, in which (and the glyph Á) stands for a close-mid front unrounded vowel .\n",
"Section::::Use in writing systems.:Other systems.\n",
"In phonetic and phonemic notation:\n",
"BULLET::::- in the International Phonetic Alphabet, is used for the open front unrounded vowel, is used for the open central unrounded vowel, and is used for the open back unrounded vowel.\n",
"BULLET::::- in X-SAMPA, is used for the open front unrounded vowel and is used for the open back unrounded vowel.\n",
"Section::::Other uses.\n",
"In algebra, the letter \"a\" along with other letters at the beginning of the alphabet is used to represent known quantities, whereas the letters at the end of the alphabet (\"x\", \"y\", \"z\") are used to denote unknown quantities.\n",
"In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to denote segments, lines, rays, etc. A capital A is also typically used as one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a representing the side opposite angle A.\n",
"\"A\" is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status: A-, A or A+, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; \"A grade\" for clean restaurants; A-list celebrities, etc. Such associations can have a motivating effect, as exposure to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other letters.\n",
"\"A\" is used as a prefix on some words, such as asymmetry, to mean \"not\" or \"without\" (from Greek).\n",
"In English grammar, \"a\", and its variant \"an\", is an indefinite article.\n",
"Finally, the letter A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe, or a small cup size in a brassiere.\n",
"Section::::Related characters.\n",
"Section::::Related characters.:Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet.\n",
"BULLET::::- Æ æ : Latin \"AE\" ligature\n",
"BULLET::::- A with diacritics: Å å Ǻ ǻ Ḁ ḁ ẚ Ă ă Ặ ặ Ắ ắ Ằ ằ Ẳ ẳ Ẵ ẵ Ȃ ȃ Â â Ậ ậ Ấ ấ Ầ ầ Ẫ ẫ Ẩ ẩ Ả ả Ǎ ǎ Ⱥ ⱥ Ȧ ȧ Ǡ ǡ Ạ ạ Ä ä Ǟ ǟ À à Ȁ ȁ Á á Ā ā Ā̀ ā̀ Ã ã Ą ą Ą́ ą́ Ą̃ ą̃ A̲ a̲ ᶏ\n",
"BULLET::::- Phonetic alphabet symbols related to A (the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems):\n",
"BULLET::::- Ɑ ɑ : Latin letter alpha / script A, which represents an open back unrounded vowel in the IPA\n",
"BULLET::::- ᶐ : Latin small letter alpha with retroflex hook\n",
"BULLET::::- Ɐ ɐ : Turned A, which represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA\n",
"BULLET::::- Λ ʌ : Turned V (also called a wedge, a caret, or a hat), which represents an open-mid back unrounded vowel in the IPA\n",
"BULLET::::- Ɒ ɒ : Turned alpha / script A, which represents an open back rounded vowel in the IPA\n",
"BULLET::::- ᶛ : Modifier letter small turned alpha\n",
"BULLET::::- ᴀ : Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to represent various sounds (mainly open vowels)\n",
"BULLET::::- ᴬ ᵃ ᵄ : Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA)\n",
"BULLET::::- ₐ : Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies\n",
"BULLET::::- ꬱ : Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system\n",
"BULLET::::- Ꞻ ꞻ : Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic\n",
"Section::::Related characters.:Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations.\n",
"BULLET::::- ª : an ordinal indicator\n",
"BULLET::::- Å : Ångström sign\n",
"BULLET::::- ∀ : a turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification (\"for all\")\n",
"BULLET::::- @ : At sign\n",
"BULLET::::- ₳ : Argentine austral\n",
"Section::::Related characters.:Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets.\n",
"BULLET::::- 𐤀 : Semitic letter Aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive\n",
"BULLET::::- Α α : Greek letter Alpha, from which the following letters derive\n",
"BULLET::::- А а : Cyrillic letter A\n",
"BULLET::::- : Coptic letter Alpha\n",
"BULLET::::- 𐌀 : Old Italic A, which is the ancestor of modern Latin A\n",
"BULLET::::- : Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A\n",
"BULLET::::- : Gothic letter aza/asks\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- History of the Alphabet\n"
] |
Albedo
|
[
"Albedo\n",
"Albedo () (, meaning 'whiteness') is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation received by an astronomical body (e.g. a planet like Earth). It is dimensionless and measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation).\n",
"Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of radiosity to the irradiance (flux per unit area) received by a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself, but also by the spectral and angular distribution of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location and time (see position of the Sun). While bi-hemispherical reflectance is calculated for a single angle of incidence (i.e., for a given position of the Sun), albedo is the directional integration of reflectance over all solar angles in a given period. The temporal resolution may range from seconds (as obtained from flux measurements) to daily, monthly, or annual averages.\n",
"Unless given for a specific wavelength (spectral albedo), albedo refers to the entire spectrum of solar radiation. Due to measurement constraints, it is often given for the spectrum in which most solar energy reaches the surface (between 0.3 and 3 μm). This spectrum includes visible light (0.39–0.7 μm), which explains why surfaces with a low albedo appear dark (e.g., trees absorb most radiation), whereas surfaces with a high albedo appear bright (e.g., snow reflects most radiation).\n",
"Albedo is an important concept in climatology, astronomy, and environmental management (e.g., as part of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for sustainable rating of buildings). The average albedo of the Earth from the upper atmosphere, its \"planetary albedo\", is 30–35% because of cloud cover, but widely varies locally across the surface because of different geological and environmental features.\n",
"The term albedo was introduced into optics by Johann Heinrich Lambert in his 1760 work \"Photometria\".\n",
"Section::::Terrestrial albedo.\n",
"Any albedo in visible light falls within a range of about 0.9 for fresh snow to about 0.04 for charcoal, one of the darkest substances. Deeply shadowed cavities can achieve an effective albedo approaching the zero of a black body. When seen from a distance, the ocean surface has a low albedo, as do most forests, whereas desert areas have some of the highest albedos among landforms. Most land areas are in an albedo range of 0.1 to 0.4. The average albedo of Earth is about 0.3. This is far higher than for the ocean primarily because of the contribution of clouds.\n",
"Earth's surface albedo is regularly estimated via Earth observation satellite sensors such as NASA's MODIS instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites, and the CERES instrument on the Suomi NPP and JPSS. As the amount of reflected radiation is only measured for a single direction by satellite, not all directions, a mathematical model is used to translate a sample set of satellite reflectance measurements into estimates of directional-hemispherical reflectance and bi-hemispherical reflectance (e.g.,). These calculations are based on the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), which describes how the reflectance of a given surface depends on the view angle of the observer and the solar angle. BDRF can facilitate translations of observations of reflectance into albedo.\n",
"Earth's average surface temperature due to its albedo and the greenhouse effect is currently about 15 °C. If Earth were frozen entirely (and hence be more reflective), the average temperature of the planet would drop below −40 °C. If only the continental land masses became covered by glaciers, the mean temperature of the planet would drop to about 0 °C. In contrast, if the entire Earth was covered by water — a so-called ocean planet — the average temperature on the planet would rise to almost 27 °C.\n",
"Section::::Terrestrial albedo.:White-sky, black-sky, and blue-sky albedo.\n",
"For land surfaces, it has been shown that the albedo at a particular solar zenith angle \"θ\" can be approximated by the proportionate sum of two terms: \n",
"BULLET::::- the directional-hemispherical reflectance at that solar zenith angle, formula_1, sometimes referred to as black-sky albedo, and\n",
"BULLET::::- the bi-hemispherical reflectance, formula_2, sometimes referred to as white-sky albedo.\n",
"with formula_3 being the proportion of direct radiation from a given solar angle, and formula_4 being the proportion of diffuse illumination, the actual albedo formula_5 (also called blue-sky albedo) can then be given as:\n",
"This formula is important because it allows the albedo to be calculated for any given illumination conditions from a knowledge of the intrinsic properties of the surface.\n",
"Section::::Astronomical albedo.\n",
"The albedos of planets, satellites and minor planets such as asteroids can be used to infer much about their properties. The study of albedos, their dependence on wavelength, lighting angle (\"phase angle\"), and variation in time comprises a major part of the astronomical field of photometry. For small and far objects that cannot be resolved by telescopes, much of what we know comes from the study of their albedos. For example, the absolute albedo can indicate the surface ice content of outer Solar System objects, the variation of albedo with phase angle gives information about regolith properties, whereas unusually high radar albedo is indicative of high metal content in asteroids.\n",
"Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has one of the highest known albedos of any body in the Solar System, with 99% of EM radiation reflected. Another notable high-albedo body is Eris, with an albedo of 0.96. Many small objects in the outer Solar System and asteroid belt have low albedos down to about 0.05. A typical comet nucleus has an albedo of 0.04. Such a dark surface is thought to be indicative of a primitive and heavily space weathered surface containing some organic compounds.\n",
"The overall albedo of the Moon is measured to be around 0.136, but it is strongly directional and non-Lambertian, displaying also a strong opposition effect. Although such reflectance properties are different from those of any terrestrial terrains, they are typical of the regolith surfaces of airless Solar System bodies.\n",
"Two common albedos that are used in astronomy are the (V-band) geometric albedo (measuring brightness when illumination comes from directly behind the observer) and the Bond albedo (measuring total proportion of electromagnetic energy reflected). Their values can differ significantly, which is a common source of confusion.\n",
"In detailed studies, the directional reflectance properties of astronomical bodies are often expressed in terms of the five Hapke parameters which semi-empirically describe the variation of albedo with phase angle, including a characterization of the opposition effect of regolith surfaces.\n",
"The correlation between astronomical (geometric) albedo, absolute magnitude and diameter is:\n",
"formula_7,\n",
"where formula_8 is the astronomical albedo, formula_9 is the diameter in kilometers, and formula_10 is the absolute magnitude.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Illumination.\n",
"Albedo is not directly dependent on illumination because changing the amount of incoming light proportionally changes the amount of reflected light, except in circumstances where a change in illumination induces a change in the Earth's surface at that location (e.g. through albedo-temperature feedback). That said, albedo and illumination both vary by latitude. Albedo is highest near the poles and lowest in the subtropics, with a local maximum in the tropics.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Insolation effects.\n",
"The intensity of albedo temperature effects depends on the amount of albedo and the level of local insolation (solar irradiance); high albedo areas in the arctic and antarctic regions are cold due to low insolation, where areas such as the Sahara Desert, which also have a relatively high albedo, will be hotter due to high insolation. Tropical and sub-tropical rainforest areas have low albedo, and are much hotter than their temperate forest counterparts, which have lower insolation. Because insolation plays such a big role in the heating and cooling effects of albedo, high insolation areas like the tropics will tend to show a more pronounced fluctuation in local temperature when local albedo changes.\n",
"Arctic regions notably release more heat back into space than what they absorb, effectively cooling the Earth. This has been a concern since arctic ice and snow has been melting at higher rates due to higher temperatures, creating regions in the arctic that are notably darker (being water or ground which is darker color) and reflects less heat back into space. This feedback loop results in a reduced albedo effect.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Climate and weather.\n",
"Albedo affects climate by determining how much radiation a planet absorbs. The uneven heating of Earth from albedo variations between land, ice, or ocean surfaces can drive weather.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Albedo–temperature feedback.\n",
"When an area's albedo changes due to snowfall, a snow–temperature feedback results. A layer of snowfall increases local albedo, reflecting away sunlight, leading to local cooling. In principle, if no outside temperature change affects this area (e.g., a warm air mass), the raised albedo and lower temperature would maintain the current snow and invite further snowfall, deepening the snow–temperature feedback. However, because local weather is dynamic due to the change of seasons, eventually warm air masses and a more direct angle of sunlight (higher insolation) cause melting. When the melted area reveals surfaces with lower albedo, such as grass or soil, the effect is reversed: the darkening surface lowers albedo, increasing local temperatures, which induces more melting and thus reducing the albedo further, resulting in still more heating.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Snow.\n",
"Snow albedo is highly variable, ranging from as high as 0.9 for freshly fallen snow, to about 0.4 for melting snow, and as low as 0.2 for dirty snow. Over Antarctica snow albedo averages a little more than 0.8. If a marginally snow-covered area warms, snow tends to melt, lowering the albedo, and hence leading to more snowmelt because more radiation is being absorbed by the snowpack (the ice–albedo positive feedback).\n",
"Just as fresh snow has a higher albedo than does dirty snow, the albedo of snow-covered sea ice is far higher than that of sea water. Sea water absorbs more solar radiation than would the same surface covered with reflective snow. When sea ice melts, either due to a rise in sea temperature or in response to increased solar radiation from above, the snow-covered surface is reduced, and more surface of sea water is exposed, so the rate of energy absorption increases. The extra absorbed energy heats the sea water, which in turn increases the rate at which sea ice melts. As with the preceding example of snowmelt, the process of melting of sea ice is thus another example of a positive feedback. Both positive feedback loops have long been recognized as important to the modern theory of Global warming.\n",
"Cryoconite, powdery windblown dust containing soot, sometimes reduces albedo on glaciers and ice sheets.\n",
"The dynamical nature of albedo in response to positive feedback, together with the effects of small errors in the measurement of albedo, can lead to large errors in energy estimates. Because of this, in order to reduce the error of energy estimates, it is important to measure the albedo of snow-covered areas through remote sensing techniques rather than applying a single value for albedo over broad regions.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Small-scale effects.\n",
"Albedo works on a smaller scale, too. In sunlight, dark clothes absorb more heat and light-coloured clothes reflect it better, thus allowing some control over body temperature by exploiting the albedo effect of the colour of external clothing.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Solar photovoltaic effects.\n",
"Albedo can affect the electrical energy output of solar photovoltaic devices. For example, the effects of a spectrally responsive albedo are illustrated by the differences between the spectrally weighted albedo of solar photovoltaic technology based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and crystalline silicon (c-Si)-based compared to traditional spectral-integrated albedo predictions. Research showed impacts of over 10%. More recently, the analysis was extended to the effects of spectral bias due to the specular reflectivity of 22 commonly occurring surface materials (both human-made and natural) and analyzes the albedo effects on the performance of seven photovoltaic materials covering three common photovoltaic system topologies: industrial (solar farms), commercial flat rooftops and residential pitched-roof applications.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Trees.\n",
"Because forests generally have a low albedo, (the majority of the ultraviolet and visible spectrum is absorbed through photosynthesis), some scientists have suggested that greater heat absorption by trees could offset some of the carbon benefits of afforestation (or offset the negative climate impacts of deforestation). In the case of evergreen forests with seasonal snow cover albedo reduction may be great enough for deforestation to cause a net cooling effect. Trees also impact climate in extremely complicated ways through evapotranspiration. The water vapor causes cooling on the land surface, causes heating where it condenses, acts a strong greenhouse gas, and can increase albedo when it condenses into clouds. Scientists generally treat evapotranspiration as a net cooling impact, and the net climate impact of albedo and evapotranspiration changes from deforestation depends greatly on local climate.\n",
"In seasonally snow-covered zones, winter albedos of treeless areas are 10% to 50% higher than nearby forested areas because snow does not cover the trees as readily. Deciduous trees have an albedo value of about 0.15 to 0.18 whereas coniferous trees have a value of about 0.09 to 0.15. Variation in summer albedo across both forest types is correlated with maximum rates of photosynthesis because plants with high growth capacity display a greater fraction of their foliage for direct interception of incoming radiation in the upper canopy. The result is that wavelengths of light not used in photosynthesis are more likely to be reflected back to space rather than being absorbed by other surfaces lower in the canopy.\n",
"Studies by the Hadley Centre have investigated the relative (generally warming) effect of albedo change and (cooling) effect of carbon sequestration on planting forests. They found that new forests in tropical and midlatitude areas tended to cool; new forests in high latitudes (e.g., Siberia) were neutral or perhaps warming.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Water.\n",
"Water reflects light very differently from typical terrestrial materials. The reflectivity of a water surface is calculated using the Fresnel equations (see graph).\n",
"At the scale of the wavelength of light even wavy water is always smooth so the light is reflected in a locally specular manner (not diffusely). The glint of light off water is a commonplace effect of this. At small angles of incident light, waviness results in reduced reflectivity because of the steepness of the reflectivity-vs.-incident-angle curve and a locally increased average incident angle.\n",
"Although the reflectivity of water is very low at low and medium angles of incident light, it becomes very high at high angles of incident light such as those that occur on the illuminated side of Earth near the terminator (early morning, late afternoon, and near the poles). However, as mentioned above, waviness causes an appreciable reduction. Because light specularly reflected from water does not usually reach the viewer, water is usually considered to have a very low albedo in spite of its high reflectivity at high angles of incident light.\n",
"Note that white caps on waves look white (and have high albedo) because the water is foamed up, so there are many superimposed bubble surfaces which reflect, adding up their reflectivities. Fresh 'black' ice exhibits Fresnel reflection.\n",
"Snow on top of this sea ice increases the albedo to 0.9.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Clouds.\n",
"Cloud albedo has substantial influence over atmospheric temperatures. Different types of clouds exhibit different reflectivity, theoretically ranging in albedo from a minimum of near 0 to a maximum approaching 0.8. \"On any given day, about half of Earth is covered by clouds, which reflect more sunlight than land and water. Clouds keep Earth cool by reflecting sunlight, but they can also serve as blankets to trap warmth.\"\n",
"Albedo and climate in some areas are affected by artificial clouds, such as those created by the contrails of heavy commercial airliner traffic. A study following the burning of the Kuwaiti oil fields during Iraqi occupation showed that temperatures under the burning oil fires were as much as 10 °C colder than temperatures several miles away under clear skies.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Aerosol effects.\n",
"Aerosols (very fine particles/droplets in the atmosphere) have both direct and indirect effects on Earth's radiative balance. The direct (albedo) effect is generally to cool the planet; the indirect effect (the particles act as cloud condensation nuclei and thereby change cloud properties) is less certain. As per Spracklen et al. the effects are:\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aerosol direct effect.\" Aerosols directly scatter and absorb radiation. The scattering of radiation causes atmospheric cooling, whereas absorption can cause atmospheric warming.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aerosol indirect effect.\" Aerosols modify the properties of clouds through a subset of the aerosol population called cloud condensation nuclei. Increased nuclei concentrations lead to increased cloud droplet number concentrations, which in turn leads to increased cloud albedo, increased light scattering and radiative cooling (\"first indirect effect\"), but also leads to reduced precipitation efficiency and increased lifetime of the cloud (\"second indirect effect\").\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Black carbon.\n",
"Another albedo-related effect on the climate is from black carbon particles. The size of this effect is difficult to quantify: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the global mean radiative forcing for black carbon aerosols from fossil fuels is +0.2 W m, with a range +0.1 to +0.4 W m. Black carbon is a bigger cause of the melting of the polar ice cap in the Arctic than carbon dioxide due to its effect on the albedo.\n",
"Section::::Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Human activities.\n",
"Human activities (e.g., deforestation, farming, and urbanization) change the albedo of various areas around the globe. However, quantification of this effect on the global scale is difficult.\n",
"Section::::Other types of albedo.\n",
"Single-scattering albedo is used to define scattering of electromagnetic waves on small particles. It depends on properties of the material (refractive index); the size of the particle or particles; and the wavelength of the incoming radiation.\n",
"Section::::Acquisition.\n",
"Albedo can be measured by an Albedometer.\n",
"Section::::See also.\n",
"BULLET::::- Cool roof\n",
"BULLET::::- Daisyworld\n",
"BULLET::::- Emissivity\n",
"BULLET::::- Exitance\n",
"BULLET::::- Global dimming\n",
"BULLET::::- Irradiance\n",
"BULLET::::- Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation\n",
"BULLET::::- Opposition surge\n",
"BULLET::::- Polar see-saw\n",
"BULLET::::- Solar radiation management\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- Albedo Project\n",
"BULLET::::- Albedo – Encyclopedia of Earth\n",
"BULLET::::- NASA MODIS BRDF/albedo product site\n",
"BULLET::::- Surface albedo derived from Meteosat observations\n",
"BULLET::::- A discussion of Lunar albedos\n",
"BULLET::::- reflectivity of metals (chart)\n"
] |
Academy Award for Best Production Design
|
[
"Academy Award for Best Production Design\n",
"The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted from the Art Director's branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) being renamed the Designer's branch. Since 1947, the award is shared with the set decorator(s). It is awarded to the best interior design in a film.\n",
"The films below are listed with their production year (for example, the 2000 Academy Award for Best Art Direction is given to a film from 1999). In the lists below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees in alphabetical order.\n",
"Section::::See also.\n",
"BULLET::::- BAFTA Award for Best Production Design\n",
"BULLET::::- Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Art Direction\n"
] |
Actrius
|
[
"Actrius\n",
"Actresses (Catalan: Actrius) is a 1997 Catalan language Spanish drama film produced and directed by Ventura Pons and based on the award-winning stage play \"E.R.\" by Josep Maria Benet i Jornet. The film has no male actors, with all roles played by females. The film was produced in 1996.\n",
"Section::::Synopsis.\n",
"In order to prepare herself to play a role commemorating the life of legendary actress Empar Ribera, young actress (Mercè Pons) interviews three established actresses who had been the Ribera's pupils: the international diva Glòria Marc (Núria Espert), the television star Assumpta Roca (Rosa Maria Sardà), and dubbing director Maria Caminal (Anna Lizaran).\n",
"Section::::Cast.\n",
"BULLET::::- Núria Espert as Glòria Marc\n",
"BULLET::::- Rosa Maria Sardà as Assumpta Roca\n",
"BULLET::::- Anna Lizaran as Maria Caminal\n",
"BULLET::::- Mercè Pons as Estudiant\n",
"Section::::Recognition.\n",
"Section::::Recognition.:Screenings.\n",
"\"Actrius\" screened in 2001 at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in an American Cinematheque retrospective of the works of its director. The film had first screened at the same location in 1998. It was also shown at the 1997 Stockholm International Film Festival.\n",
"Section::::Recognition.:Reception.\n",
"In \"Movie - Film - Review\", \"Daily Mail\" staffer Christopher Tookey wrote that though the actresses were \"competent in roles that may have some reference to their own careers\", the film \"is visually unimaginative, never escapes its stage origins, and is almost totally lacking in revelation or surprising incident\". Noting that there were \"occasional, refreshing moments of intergenerational bitchiness\", they did not \"justify comparisons to \"All About Eve\"\", and were \"insufficiently different to deserve critical parallels with \"Rashomon\"\". He also wrote that \"The Guardian\" called the film a \"slow, stuffy chamber-piece\", and that \"The Evening Standard\" stated the film's \"best moments exhibit the bitchy tantrums seething beneath the threesome's composed veneers\". MRQE wrote \"This cinematic adaptation of a theatrical work is true to the original, but does not stray far from a theatrical rendering of the story.\"\n",
"Section::::Recognition.:Awards and nominations.\n",
"BULLET::::- 1997, won 'Best Catalan Film' at Butaca Awards for Ventura Pons\n",
"BULLET::::- 1997, won 'Best Catalan Film Actress' at Butaca Awards, shared by Núria Espert, Rosa Maria Sardà, Anna Lizaran, and Mercè Pons\n",
"BULLET::::- 1998, nominated for 'Best Screenplay' at Goya Awards, shared by Josep Maria Benet i Jornet and Ventura Pons\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- as archived February 17, 2009 (Spanish)\n"
] |
Animalia (book)
|
[
"Animalia (book)\n",
"Animalia is an illustrated children's book by Graeme Base. It was originally published in 1986, followed by a tenth anniversary edition in 1996, and a 25th anniversary edition in 2012. Over four million copies have been sold worldwide. A special numbered and signed anniversary edition was also published in 1996, with an embossed gold jacket.\n",
"Section::::Synopsis.\n",
"\"Animalia\" is an alliterative alphabet book and contains twenty-six illustrations, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each illustration features an animal from the animal kingdom (A is for alligator, B is for butterfly, etc.) along with a short poem utilizing the letter of the page for many of the words. The illustrations contain many other objects beginning with that letter that the reader can try to identify. As an additional challenge, the author has hidden a picture of himself as a child in every picture.\n",
"Section::::Related products.\n",
"Julia MacRae Books published an \"Animalia\" colouring book in 2008. H. N. Abrams also published a wall calendar colouring book version for children the same year.\n",
"H. N. Abrams published \"The Animalia Wall Frieze\", a fold-out over 26 feet in length, in which the author created new riddles for each letter.\n",
"The Great American Puzzle Factory created a 300-piece jigsaw puzzle based on the book's cover.\n",
"Section::::Adaptations.\n",
"A television series was also created, based on the book, which airs in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway and Venezuela. It also airs on Minimax for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And recently in Greece on the channel ET1. The Australian Children's Television Foundation released a teaching resource DVD-ROM in 2011 to accompany the TV series with teaching aids for classroom use.\n",
"In 2010, The Base Factory and AppBooks released Animalia as an application for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch.\n",
"Section::::Awards.\n",
"\"Animalia\" won the Young Australian's Best Book Award in 1987 for Best Picture Story Book.\n",
"The Children's Book Council of Australia designated \"Animalia\" a 1987 : Honour Book.\n",
"Kid's Own Australian Literature Awards named \"Animalia\" the 1988 Picture Book Winner.\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- Graeme Base's official website\n",
"BULLET::::- A Learning Time activity guide for \"Animalia\" created by The Little Big Book Club\n"
] |
An American in Paris
|
[
"An American in Paris\n",
"An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s.\n",
"Walter Damrosch had asked Gershwin to write a full concerto following the success of \"Rhapsody in Blue\" (1924). Gershwin scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns. He brought back four Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took place on December 13, 1928, in Carnegie Hall, with Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic. He completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the work's premiere. He collaborated on the original program notes with critic and composer Deems Taylor.\n",
"Section::::Background.\n",
"Although the story is likely apocryphal, Gershwin is said to have been attracted by Maurice Ravel's unusual chords, and Gershwin went on his first trip to Paris in 1926 ready to study with Ravel. After his initial student audition with Ravel turned into a sharing of musical theories, Ravel said he could not teach him, saying, \"Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?\" That 1926 trip, however, resulted in a snippet of melody entitled \"Very Parisienne\", that the initial musical motive of \"An American in Paris\", written as a 'thank you note' to Gershwin's hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. Gershwin called it \"a rhapsodic ballet\"; it is written freely and in a much more modern idiom than his prior works.\n",
"Gershwin strongly encouraged Ravel to come to the United States for a tour. To this end, upon his return to New York, Gershwin joined the efforts of Ravel's friend Robert Schmitz, a pianist Ravel had met during the war, to urge Ravel to tour the U.S. Schmitz was the head of Pro Musica, promoting Franco-American musical relations, and was able to offer Ravel a $10,000 fee for the tour, an enticement Gershwin knew would be important to Ravel.\n",
"Gershwin greeted Ravel in New York in March 1928 during a party held for Ravel's birthday by Éva Gauthier. Ravel's tour reignited Gershwin's desire to return to Paris which he and his brother Ira did after meeting Ravel. Ravel's high praise of Gershwin in an introductory letter to Nadia Boulanger caused Gershwin to seriously consider taking much more time to study abroad in Paris. Yet after playing for her, she told him she could not teach him. Nadia Boulanger gave Gershwin basically the same advice she gave all of her accomplished master students: \"What could I give you that you haven't already got?\" This did not set Gershwin back, as his real intent abroad was to complete a new work based on Paris and perhaps a second rhapsody for piano and orchestra to follow his \"Rhapsody in Blue\". Paris at this time hosted many expatriate writers, among them Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, Ernest Hemingway; and artist Pablo Picasso.\n",
"Section::::Composition.\n",
"Gershwin based \"An American in Paris\" on a melodic fragment called \"Very Parisienne\", written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. He described the piece as a \"rhapsodic ballet\" because it was written freely and is more modern than his previous works. Gershwin explained in \"Musical America\", \"My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere.\"\n",
"The piece is structured into five sections, which culminate in a loose ABA format. Gershwin's first A episode introduces the two main \"walking\" themes in the \"Allegretto grazioso\" and develops a third theme in the \"Subito con brio\". The style of this A section is written in the typical French style of composers Claude Debussy and Les Six. This A section featured duple meter, singsong rhythms, and diatonic melodies with the sounds of oboe, English horn, and taxi horns. The B section's \"Andante ma con ritmo deciso\" introduces the American Blues and spasms of homesickness. The \"Allegro\" that follows continues to express homesickness in a faster twelve-bar blues. In the B section, Gershwin uses common time, syncopated rhythms, and bluesy melodies with the sounds of trumpet, saxophone, and snare drum. \"Moderato con grazia\" is the last A section that returns to the themes set in A. After recapitulating the \"walking\" themes, Gershwin overlays the slow blues theme from section B in the final \"Grandioso\".\n",
"Section::::Instrumentation.\n",
"\"An American in Paris\" is scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, triangle, wood block, ratchet, cymbals, low and high tom-toms, xylophone, glockenspiel, celesta, 4 taxi horns labeled as A, B, C and D with circles around them, alto saxophone/soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone/soprano saxophone/alto saxophone, baritone saxophone/soprano saxophone/alto saxophone, and strings. Although most modern audiences have heard the taxi horns using the notes A, B, C and D, it has recently come to light that Gershwin's intention was to have used the notes A, B, D, and A. It is likely that in labeling the taxi horns as A, B, C and D with circles, he may have been referring to the use of the four different horns and not the notes that they played.\n",
"The revised edition by F. Campbell-Watson calls for three saxophones, alto, tenor and baritone. In this arrangement the soprano and alto doublings have been rewritten to avoid changing instruments. In 2000, Gershwin specialist Jack Gibbons made his own restoration of the original orchestration of An American in Paris, working directly from Gershwin's original manuscript, including the restoration of Gershwin's soprano saxophone parts removed in F. Campbell-Watson's revision; Gibbons' restored orchestration of An American in Paris was performed at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 9, 2000 by the City of Oxford Orchestra conducted by Levon Parikian\n",
"William Daly arranged the score for piano solo which was published by New World Music in 1929.\n",
"Section::::Response.\n",
"Gershwin did not particularly like Walter Damrosch's interpretation at the world premiere of \"An American in Paris\". He stated that Damrosch's sluggish, dragging tempo caused him to walk out of the hall during a matinee performance of this work. The audience, according to Edward Cushing, responded with \"a demonstration of enthusiasm impressively genuine in contrast to the conventional applause which new music, good and bad, ordinarily arouses.\" Critics believed that \"An American in Paris\" was better crafted than his lukewarm Concerto in F. Some did not think it belonged in a program with classical composers César Franck, Richard Wagner, or Guillaume Lekeu on its premiere. Gershwin responded to the critics, \"It's not a Beethoven Symphony, you know... It's a humorous piece, nothing solemn about it. It's not intended to draw tears. If it pleases symphony audiences as a light, jolly piece, a series of impressions musically expressed, it succeeds.\"\n",
"Section::::Preservation status.\n",
"On September 22, 2013, it was announced that a musicological critical edition of the full orchestral score will be eventually released. The Gershwin family, working in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan, are working to make scores available to the public that represent Gershwin's true intent. It is unknown if the critical score will include the four minutes of material Gershwin later deleted from the work (such as the restatement of the blues theme after the faster 12 bar blues section), or if the score will document changes in the orchestration during Gershwin's composition process.\n",
"The score to \"An American in Paris\" is currently scheduled to be issued first in a series of scores to be released. The entire project may take 30 to 40 years to complete, but \"An American in Paris\" will be an early volume in the series.\n",
"Two urtext editions of the work were published by the German publisher B-Note Music in 2015. The changes made by Campbell-Watson have been withdrawn in both editions. In the extended urtext, 120 bars of music have been re-integrated. Conductor Walter Damrosch had cut them shortly before the first performance.\n",
"Section::::Recordings.\n",
"\"An American in Paris\" has been frequently recorded. The first recording was made for RCA Victor in 1929 with Nathaniel Shilkret conducting the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, drawn from members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Gershwin was on hand to \"supervise\" the recording; however, Shilkret was reported to be in charge and eventually asked the composer to leave the recording studio. Then, a little later, Shilkret discovered there was no one to play the brief celesta solo during the slow section, so he hastily asked Gershwin if he might play the solo; Gershwin said he could and so he briefly participated in the actual recording. This recording is believed to use the taxi horns in the way that Gershwin had intended using the notes A-flat, B-flat, a higher D and a lower A. The radio broadcast of the September 8, 1937 Hollywood Bowl George Gershwin Memorial Concert, in which \"An American in Paris,\" also conducted by Shilkret, was second on the program, was recorded and was released in 1998 in a two-CD set. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra recorded the work for RCA Victor, including one of the first stereo recordings of the music. In 1945, Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra recorded the piece for RCA Victor, one of the few commercial recordings Toscanini made of music by an American composer. The Seattle Symphony also recorded a version in 1990 of Gershwin's original score, before he made numerous edits resulting in the score as we hear it today. Harry James released a version of the blues section on his 1953 album \"One Night Stand,\" recorded live at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (Columbia GL 522 and CL 522).\n",
"Section::::Use in film.\n",
"In 1951, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the musical film \"An American in Paris\", featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Winning the 1951 Best Picture Oscar and numerous other awards, the film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, featured many tunes of Gershwin, and concluded with an extensive, elaborate dance sequence built around the \"An American in Paris\" symphonic poem (arranged for the film by Johnny Green), costing $500,000.\n",
"Section::::Further reading.\n",
"BULLET::::- Rimler, Walter. \"George Gershwin – An Intimate Portrait\". Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 2009. 29–33.\n",
"BULLET::::- Pollack, Howard. \"George Gershwin – His Life and Work\". Berkeley, University of California Press, 2006. 431–42.\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- 1944 recording by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Artur Rodziński\n",
"BULLET::::- , New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, 1959.\n"
] |
International Atomic Time
|
[
"International Atomic Time\n",
"International Atomic Time (TAI, from the French name ) is a high-precision atomic coordinate time standard based on the notional passage of proper time on Earth's geoid. It is the principal realisation of Terrestrial Time (with a fixed offset of epoch). It is also the basis for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is used for civil timekeeping all over the Earth's surface. , when another leap second was added, TAI is exactly 37 seconds ahead of UTC. The 37 seconds results from the initial difference of 10 seconds at the start of 1972, plus 27 leap seconds in UTC since 1972.\n",
"TAI may be reported using traditional means of specifying days, carried over from non-uniform time standards based on the rotation of the Earth. Specifically, both Julian Dates and the Gregorian calendar are used. TAI in this form was synchronised with Universal Time at the beginning of 1958, and the two have drifted apart ever since, due to the changing motion of the Earth.\n",
"Section::::Operation.\n",
"TAI is a weighted average of the time kept by over 400 atomic clocks in over 50 national laboratories worldwide. The majority of the clocks involved are caesium clocks; the International System of Units (SI) definition of the second is based on caesium. The clocks are compared using GPS signals and two-way satellite time and frequency transfer. Due to the signal averaging TAI is an order of magnitude more stable than its best constituent clock.\n",
"The participating institutions each broadcast, in real time, a frequency signal with timecodes, which is their estimate of TAI. Time codes are usually published in the form of UTC, which differs from TAI by a well-known integer number of seconds. These time scales are denoted in the form \"UTC(NPL)\" in the UTC form, where \"NPL\" in this case identifies the National Physical Laboratory, UK. The TAI form may be denoted \"TAI(NPL)\". The latter is not to be confused with \"TA(NPL)\", which denotes an independent atomic time scale, not synchronised to TAI or to anything else.\n",
"The clocks at different institutions are regularly compared against each other. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM, France), combines these measurements to retrospectively calculate the weighted average that forms the most stable time scale possible. This combined time scale is published monthly in \"Circular T\", and is the canonical TAI. This time scale is expressed in the form of tables of differences UTC − UTC(\"k\") (equivalent to TAI − TAI(\"k\")) for each participating institution \"k\". The same circular also gives tables of TAI − TA(\"k\"), for the various unsynchronised atomic time scales.\n",
"Errors in publication may be corrected by issuing a revision of the faulty Circular T or by errata in a subsequent Circular T. Aside from this, once published in Circular T, the TAI scale is not revised. In hindsight it is possible to discover errors in TAI, and to make better estimates of the true proper time scale. Since the published circulars are definitive, better estimates do not create another version of TAI; it is instead considered to be creating a better realisation of Terrestrial Time (TT).\n",
"Section::::History.\n",
"Early atomic time scales consisted of quartz clocks with frequencies calibrated by a single atomic clock; the atomic clocks were not operated continuously. Atomic timekeeping services started experimentally in 1955, using the first caesium atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory, UK (NPL). It was used as a basis for calibrating the quartz clocks at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and to establish a time scale, called Greenwich Atomic (GA). The United States Naval Observatory began the A.1 scale on 13 September 1956, using an Atomichron commercial atomic clock, followed by the NBS-A scale at the National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado on 9 October 1957.\n",
"The International Time Bureau (BIH) began a time scale, T or AM, in July 1955, using both local caesium clocks and comparisons to distant clocks using the phase of VLF radio signals. The BIH scale, A.1, and NBS-A were defined by an epoch at the beginning of 1958 The procedures used by the BIH evolved, and the name for the time scale changed: \"A3\" in 1964 and \"TA(BIH)\" in 1969.\n",
"The SI second was defined in terms of the caesium atom in 1967. From 1971 to 1975 the General Conference on Weights and Measures and the International Committee for Weights and Measures made a series of decisions which designated the BIPM time scale International Atomic Time (TAI). \n",
"In the 1970s, it became clear that the clocks participating in TAI were ticking at different rates due to gravitational time dilation, and the combined TAI scale therefore corresponded to an average of the altitudes of the various clocks. Starting from Julian Date 2443144.5 (1 January 1977 00:00:00), corrections were applied to the output of all participating clocks, so that TAI would correspond to proper time at mean sea level (the geoid). Because the clocks were, on average, well above sea level, this meant that TAI slowed down, by about one part in a trillion. The former uncorrected time scale continues to be published, under the name \"EAL\" (\"Echelle Atomique Libre\", meaning \"Free Atomic Scale\").\n",
"The instant that the gravitational correction started to be applied serves as the epoch for Barycentric Coordinate Time (TCB), Geocentric Coordinate Time (TCG), and Terrestrial Time (TT), which represent three fundamental time scales in the solar system. All three of these time scales were defined to read JD 2443144.5003725 (1 January 1977 00:00:32.184) exactly at that instant. TAI was henceforth a realisation of TT, with the equation TT(TAI) = TAI + 32.184 s.\n",
"The continued existence of TAI was questioned in a 2007 letter from the BIPM to the ITU-R which stated, \"In the case of a redefinition of UTC without leap seconds, the CCTF would consider discussing the possibility of suppressing TAI, as it would remain parallel to the continuous UTC.\"\n",
"Section::::Relation to UTC.\n",
"UTC is a discontinuous time scale. It is regularly adjusted by leap seconds. Between these adjustments it is composed from segments that are linear transformations of atomic time. From its beginning in 1961 through December 1971 the adjustments were made regularly in fractional leap seconds so that UTC approximated UT2. Afterwards these adjustments were made only in whole seconds to approximate UT1. This was a compromise arrangement in order to enable a publicly broadcast time scale; the post-1971 more linear transformation of the BIH's atomic time meant that the time scale would be more stable and easier to synchronize internationally. The fact that it continues to approximate UT1 means that tasks such as navigation which require a source of Universal Time continue to be well served by the public broadcast of UTC.\n",
"Section::::See also.\n",
"BULLET::::- Clock synchronization\n",
"BULLET::::- Network Time Protocol\n",
"BULLET::::- Precision Time Protocol\n",
"BULLET::::- Time and frequency transfer\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- Bureau International des Poids et Mesures: TAI\n",
"BULLET::::- Time and Frequency Section - National Physical Laboratory, UK\n",
"BULLET::::- IERS website\n",
"BULLET::::- NIST Web Clock FAQs\n",
"BULLET::::- History of time scales\n",
"BULLET::::- NIST-F1 Cesium Fountain Atomic Clock\n",
"BULLET::::- Japan Standard Time Project, NICT, Japan\n",
"BULLET::::- Standard of time definition: UTC, GPS, LORAN and TAI\n"
] |
Alain Connes
|
[
"Alain Connes\n",
"Alain Connes (; born 1 April 1947) is a French mathematician, currently Professor at the Collège de France, IHÉS, Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University. He was an Invited Professor at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (2000).\n",
"Section::::Work.\n",
"Alain Connes studies operator algebras. In his early work on von Neumann algebras in the 1970s, he succeeded in obtaining the almost complete classification of injective factors. He also formulated the Connes embedding problem. Following this, he made contributions in operator K-theory and index theory, which culminated in the Baum–Connes conjecture. He also introduced cyclic cohomology in the early 1980s as a first step in the study of noncommutative differential geometry. He was a member of Bourbaki.\n",
"Connes has applied his work in areas of mathematics and theoretical physics, including number theory, differential geometry and particle physics.\n",
"Section::::Awards and honours.\n",
"Connes was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982, the Crafoord Prize in 2001\n",
"Section::::Books.\n",
"BULLET::::- Alain Connes and Matilde Marcolli, \"Noncommutative Geometry, Quantum Fields and Motives\", Colloquium Publications, American Mathematical Society, 2007, \n",
"BULLET::::- Alain Connes, Andre Lichnerowicz, and Marcel Paul Schutzenberger, \"Triangle of Thought\", translated by Jennifer Gage, American Mathematical Society, 2001,\n",
"BULLET::::- Jean-Pierre Changeux, and Alain Connes, \"Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics\", translated by M. B. DeBevoise, Princeton University Press, 1998,\n",
"BULLET::::- Alain Connes, \"Noncommutative Geometry\", Academic Press, 1994,\n",
"Section::::See also.\n",
"BULLET::::- Bost–Connes system\n",
"BULLET::::- Cyclic homology\n",
"BULLET::::- Factor (functional analysis)\n",
"BULLET::::- Higgs boson\n",
"BULLET::::- C*-algebra\n",
"BULLET::::- M-theory\n",
"BULLET::::- Groupoid\n",
"BULLET::::- Criticism of non-standard analysis\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- Alain Connes Official Web Site containing downloadable papers, and his book \"Non-commutative geometry\", .\n",
"BULLET::::- Alain Connes' Standard Model\n",
"BULLET::::- An interview with Alain Connes and a discussion about it\n"
] |
Allan Dwan
|
[
"Allan Dwan\n",
"Allan Dwan (3 April 1885 – 28 December 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.\n",
"Section::::Early life.\n",
"Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan, was the younger son of commercial traveler of woolen clothing Joseph Michael Dwan (1857–1917) and his wife Mary Jane Dwan, née Hunt. The family moved to the United States when he was seven years old on 4 December 1892 by ferry from Windsor to Detroit, according to his naturalization petition of August 1939. His elder brother, Leo Garnet Dwan (1883–1964), became a physician.\n",
"Allan Dwan studied engineering at the University of Notre Dame and then worked for a lighting company in Chicago. He had a strong interest in the fledgling motion picture industry, and when Essanay Studios offered him the opportunity to become a scriptwriter, he took the job. At that time, some of the East Coast movie makers began to spend winters in California where the climate allowed them to continue productions requiring warm weather. Soon, a number of movie companies worked there year-round, and in 1911, Dwan began working part-time in Hollywood. While still in New York, in 1917 he was the founding president of the East Coast chapter of the Motion Picture Directors Association.\n",
"Section::::Career.\n",
"Dwan operated Flying A Studios in La Mesa, California from August 1911 to July 1912. Flying A was one of the first motion pictures studios in California history. On 12 August 2011, a plaque was unveiled on the Wolff building at Third Avenue and La Mesa Boulevard commemorating Dwan and the Flying A Studios origins in La Mesa, California.\n",
"After making a series of westerns and comedies, Dwan directed fellow Canadian-American Mary Pickford in several very successful movies as well as her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, notably in the acclaimed 1922 \"Robin Hood\". Dwan directed Gloria Swanson in eight feature films, and one short film made in the short-lived sound-on-film process Phonofilm. This short, also featuring Thomas Meighan and Henri de la Falaise, was produced as a joke, for the 26 April 1925 \"Lambs' Gambol\" for The Lambs, with the film showing Swanson crashing the all-male club.\n",
"Following the introduction of the talkies, Dwan directed child-star Shirley Temple in \"Heidi\" (1937) and \"Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm\" (1938).\n",
"Dwan helped launch the career of two other successful Hollywood directors, Victor Fleming, who went on to direct \"The Wizard of Oz\" and \"Gone With the Wind\", and Marshall Neilan, who became an actor, director, writer and producer. Over a long career spanning almost 50 years, Dwan directed 125 motion pictures, some of which were highly acclaimed, such as the 1949 box office hit, \"Sands of Iwo Jima\". He directed his last movie in 1961.\n",
"He died in Los Angeles at the age of ninety-six, and is interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California.\n",
"Dwan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Boulevard.\n",
"Daniel Eagan of \"Film Journal International\" described Dwan as one of the early pioneers of cinema, stating that his style \"is so basic as to seem invisible, but he treats his characters with uncommon sympathy and compassion.\"\n",
"Section::::Partial filmography as director.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Gold Lust\" (1911)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Picket Guard\" (1913)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Restless Spirit\" (1913)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Back to Life\" (1913)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Bloodhounds of the North\" (1913)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Lie\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Honor of the Mounted\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Unwelcome Mrs. Hatch\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Remember Mary Magdalen\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Discord and Harmony\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Embezzler\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Lamb, the Woman, the Wolf\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The End of the Feud\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Tragedy of Whispering Creek\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Unlawful Trade\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Forbidden Room\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Hopes of Blind Alley\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Richelieu\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Wildflower\" (1914)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"A Small Town Girl\" (1915)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"David Harum\" (1915)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"A Girl of Yesterday\" (1915)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Pretty Sister of Jose\" (1915)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Jordan Is a Hard Road\" (1915)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Betty of Graystone\" (1916)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Habit of Happiness\" (1916)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Good Bad Man\" (1916)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"An Innocent Magdalene\" (1916)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Half-Breed\" (1916)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Manhattan Madness\" (1916)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Accusing Evidence\" (1916)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Panthea\" (1917)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"A Modern Musketeer\" (1917)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Bound in Morocco\" (1918)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Headin' South\" (1918)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Mr. Fix-It\" (1918)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"He Comes Up Smiling\" (1918)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Cheating Cheaters\" (1919)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Dark Star\" (1919)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Getting Mary Married\" (1919)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Soldiers of Fortune\" (1919)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"In The Heart of a Fool\" (1920) also producer\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Forbidden Thing\" (1920) also producer\n",
"BULLET::::- \"A Splendid Hazard\" (1920)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"A Perfect Crime\" (1921)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Sin of Martha Queed\" (1921)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"A Broken Doll\" (1921)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Robin Hood\" (1922)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Zaza\" (1923)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Big Brother\" (1923)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Manhandled\" (1924)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Argentine Love\" (1924)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Coast of Folly\" (1925)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Night Life of New York\" (1925)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Stage Struck\" (1925)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Gloria Swanson Dialogue\" (1925) short film made in Phonofilm for The Lambs annual \"Gambol\" held at Metropolitan Opera House\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Padlocked\" (1926)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Sea Horses\" (1926)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Summer Bachelors\" (1926)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Tin Gods\" (1926)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"French Dressing\" (1927)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Joy Girl\" (1927)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"East Side, West Side\" (1927)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Big Noise\" (1928)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Frozen Justice\" (1929)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Iron Mask\" (1929)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Tide of Empire\" (1929)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Far Call\" (1929)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"What a Widow!\" (1930)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Man to Man\" (1930)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Chances\" (1931)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Wicked\" (1931)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"While Paris Sleeps\" (1932)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Counsel's Opinion\" (1933)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Black Sheep\" (1935)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Navy Wife\" (1935)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"High Tension\" (1936)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"15 Maiden Lane\" (1936)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"One Mile from Heaven\" (1937)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Heidi\" (1937)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm\" (1938)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Suez\" (1938)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Josette\" (1938)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Three Musketeers\" (1939)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Gorilla\" (1939)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Frontier Marshal\" (1939)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Sailor's Lady\" (1940)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Young People\" (1940)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Trail of the Vigilantes\" (1940)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Look Who's Laughing\" (1941) also producer\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Rise and Shine\" (1941)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Friendly Enemies\" (1942)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Around the World\" (1943) also producer\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Up in Mabel's Room\" (1944)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Abroad with Two Yanks\" (1944)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Getting Gertie's Garter\" (1945) also screenwriter\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Brewster's Millions\" (1945)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Rendezvous with Annie\" (1946)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Driftwood\" (1947)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Calendar Girl\" (1947)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Northwest Outpost\" (1947) also associate producer\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Inside Story\" (1948)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Angel in Exile\" (1948) (with Philip Ford)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Sands of Iwo Jima\" (1949)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Surrender\" (1950)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Belle Le Grand\" (1951)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Wild Blue Yonder\" (1951)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"I Dream of Jeanie\" (1952)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Montana Belle\" (1952)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Woman They Almost Lynched\" (1953)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Sweethearts on Parade\" (1953)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Silver Lode\" (1954)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Passion\" (1954)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Cattle Queen of Montana\" (1954)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Tennessee's Partner\" (1955)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Pearl of the South Pacific\" (1955)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Escape to Burma\" (1955)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Slightly Scarlet\" (1956)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Hold Back the Night\" (1956)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Restless Breed\" (1957)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The River's Edge\" (1957)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Enchanted Island\" (1958)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Most Dangerous Man Alive\" (1961)\n",
"Section::::See also.\n",
"BULLET::::- Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood\n",
"Section::::Further reading.\n",
"BULLET::::- Brownlow, Kevin, \"The Parade's Gone By...\" (1968)\n",
"BULLET::::- Bogdanovich, Peter, \"Allan Dwan: The Last Pioneer\" (1971)\n",
"BULLET::::- Foster, Charles, \"Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood\" (2000)\n",
"BULLET::::- Lombardi, Frederic, \"Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios\" (2013)\n",
"Print E-book \n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- Allan Dwan profile, virtual-history.com; accessed 16 June 2014\n"
] |
Autism
|
[
"Autism\n",
"Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Parents usually notice signs during the first three years of their child's life. These signs often develop gradually, though some children with autism reach their developmental milestones at a normal pace before worsening.\n",
"Autism is associated with a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Risk factors during pregnancy include certain infections, such as rubella, toxins including valproic acid, alcohol, cocaine, pesticides and air pollution, fetal growth restriction, and autoimmune diseases. Controversies surround other proposed environmental causes; for example, the vaccine hypothesis, which has been disproven. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering connections and organization of nerve cells and their synapses. How this occurs is not well understood. In the DSM-5, autism and less severe forms of the condition, including Asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), have been combined into the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).\n",
"Early behavioral interventions or speech therapy can help children with autism gain self-care, social, and communication skills. Although there is no known cure, there have been cases of children who recovered. Not many children with autism live independently after reaching adulthood, though some are successful. An autistic culture has developed, with some individuals seeking a cure and others believing autism should be accepted as a difference and not treated as a disorder.\n",
"Globally, autism is estimated to affect 24.8 million people . In the 2000s, the number of people affected was estimated at 1–2 per 1,000 people worldwide. In the developed countries, about 1.5% of children are diagnosed with ASD , from 0.7% in 2000 in the United States. It occurs four-to-five times more often in males than females. The number of people diagnosed has increased dramatically since the 1960s, which may be partly due to changes in diagnostic practice. The question of whether actual rates have increased is unresolved.\n",
"Section::::Characteristics.\n",
"Autism is a highly variable, neurodevelopmental disorder whose symptoms first appears during infancy or childhood, and generally follows a steady course without remission. People with autism may be severely impaired in some respects but normal, or even superior, in others. Overt symptoms gradually begin after the age of six months, become established by age two or three years and tend to continue through adulthood, although often in more muted form. It is distinguished not by a single symptom but by a characteristic triad of symptoms: impairments in social interaction; impairments in communication; and restricted interests and repetitive behavior. Other aspects, such as atypical eating, are also common but are not essential for diagnosis. Individual symptoms of autism occur in the general population and appear not to associate highly, without a sharp line separating pathologically severe from common traits.\n",
"Section::::Characteristics.:Social development.\n",
"Social deficits distinguish autism and the related autism spectrum disorders (ASD; see Classification) from other developmental disorders. People with autism have social impairments and often lack the intuition about others that many people take for granted. Noted autistic Temple Grandin described her inability to understand the social communication of neurotypicals, or people with normal neural development, as leaving her feeling \"like an anthropologist on Mars\".\n",
"Unusual social development becomes apparent early in childhood. Autistic infants show less attention to social stimuli, smile and look at others less often, and respond less to their own name. Autistic toddlers differ more strikingly from social norms; for example, they have less eye contact and turn-taking, and do not have the ability to use simple movements to express themselves, such as pointing at things. Three- to five-year-old children with autism are less likely to exhibit social understanding, approach others spontaneously, imitate and respond to emotions, communicate nonverbally, and take turns with others. However, they do form attachments to their primary caregivers. Most children with autism display moderately less attachment security than neurotypical children, although this difference disappears in children with higher mental development or less severe ASD. Older children and adults with ASD perform worse on tests of face and emotion recognition although this may be partly due to a lower ability to define a person's own emotions.\n",
"Children with high-functioning autism suffer from more intense and frequent loneliness compared to non-autistic peers, despite the common belief that children with autism prefer to be alone. Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult for those with autism. For them, the quality of friendships, not the number of friends, predicts how lonely they feel. Functional friendships, such as those resulting in invitations to parties, may affect the quality of life more deeply.\n",
"There are many anecdotal reports, but few systematic studies, of aggression and violence in individuals with ASD. The limited data suggest that, in children with intellectual disability, autism is associated with aggression, destruction of property, and meltdowns.\n",
"Section::::Characteristics.:Communication.\n",
"About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs. Differences in communication may be present from the first year of life, and may include delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and vocal patterns that are not synchronized with the caregiver. In the second and third years, children with autism have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants, words, and word combinations; their gestures are less often integrated with words. Children with autism are less likely to make requests or share experiences, and are more likely to simply repeat others' words (echolalia) or reverse pronouns. Joint attention seems to be necessary for functional speech, and deficits in joint attention seem to distinguish infants with ASD. For example, they may look at a pointing hand instead of the pointed-at object, and they consistently fail to point at objects in order to comment on or share an experience. Children with autism may have difficulty with imaginative play and with developing symbols into language.\n",
"In a pair of studies, high-functioning children with autism aged 8–15 performed equally well as, and as adults better than, individually matched controls at basic language tasks involving vocabulary and spelling. Both autistic groups performed worse than controls at complex language tasks such as figurative language, comprehension and inference. As people are often sized up initially from their basic language skills, these studies suggest that people speaking to autistic individuals are more likely to overestimate what their audience comprehends.\n",
"Section::::Characteristics.:Repetitive behavior.\n",
"Autistic individuals can display many forms of repetitive or restricted behavior, which the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R) categorizes as follows.\n",
"BULLET::::- Stereotyped behaviors: Repetitive movements, such as hand flapping, head rolling, or body rocking.\n",
"BULLET::::- Compulsive behaviors: Time-consuming behaviors intended to reduce anxiety that an individual feels compelled to perform repeatedly or according to rigid rules, such as placing objects in a specific order, checking things, or hand washing.\n",
"BULLET::::- Sameness: Resistance to change; for example, insisting that the furniture not be moved or refusing to be interrupted.\n",
"BULLET::::- Ritualistic behavior: Unvarying pattern of daily activities, such as an unchanging menu or a dressing ritual. This is closely associated with sameness and an independent validation has suggested combining the two factors.\n",
"BULLET::::- Restricted interests: Interests or fixations that are abnormal in theme or intensity of focus, such as preoccupation with a single television program, toy, or game.\n",
"BULLET::::- Self-injury: Behaviors such as eye-poking, skin-picking, hand-biting and head-banging.\n",
"No single repetitive or self-injurious behavior seems to be specific to autism, but autism appears to have an elevated pattern of occurrence and severity of these behaviors.\n",
"Section::::Characteristics.:Other symptoms.\n",
"Autistic individuals may have symptoms that are independent of the diagnosis, but that can affect the individual or the family.\n",
"An estimated 0.5% to 10% of individuals with ASD show unusual abilities, ranging from splinter skills such as the memorization of trivia to the extraordinarily rare talents of prodigious autistic savants. Many individuals with ASD show superior skills in perception and attention, relative to the general population. Sensory abnormalities are found in over 90% of those with autism, and are considered core features by some, although there is no good evidence that sensory symptoms differentiate autism from other developmental disorders. Differences are greater for under-responsivity (for example, walking into things) than for over-responsivity (for example, distress from loud noises) or for sensation seeking (for example, rhythmic movements). An estimated 60–80% of autistic people have motor signs that include poor muscle tone, poor motor planning, and toe walking; deficits in motor coordination are pervasive across ASD and are greater in autism proper. Unusual eating behavior occurs in about three-quarters of children with ASD, to the extent that it was formerly a diagnostic indicator. Selectivity is the most common problem, although eating rituals and food refusal also occur.\n",
"Parents of children with ASD have higher levels of stress. Siblings of children with ASD report greater admiration of and less conflict with the affected sibling than siblings of unaffected children and were similar to siblings of children with Down syndrome in these aspects of the sibling relationship. However, they reported lower levels of closeness and intimacy than siblings of children with Down syndrome; siblings of individuals with ASD have greater risk of negative well-being and poorer sibling relationships as adults. There is tentative evidence that autism occurs more frequently in people with gender dysphoria.\n",
"Gastrointestinal problems are one of the most commonly associated medical disorders in people with autism. These are linked to greater social impairment, irritability, behavior and sleep problems, language impairments and mood changes.\n",
"Section::::Causes.\n",
"It has long been presumed that there is a common cause at the genetic, cognitive, and neural levels for autism's characteristic triad of symptoms. However, there is increasing suspicion that autism is instead a complex disorder whose core aspects have distinct causes that often co-occur.\n",
"Autism has a strong genetic basis, although the genetics of autism are complex and it is unclear whether ASD is explained more by rare mutations with major effects, or by rare multigene interactions of common genetic variants. Complexity arises due to interactions among multiple genes, the environment, and epigenetic factors which do not change DNA sequencing but are heritable and influence gene expression. Many genes have been associated with autism through sequencing the genomes of affected individuals and their parents. Studies of twins suggest that heritability is 0.7 for autism and as high as 0.9 for ASD, and siblings of those with autism are about 25 times more likely to be autistic than the general population. However, most of the mutations that increase autism risk have not been identified. Typically, autism cannot be traced to a Mendelian (single-gene) mutation or to a single chromosome abnormality, and none of the genetic syndromes associated with ASDs have been shown to selectively cause ASD. Numerous candidate genes have been located, with only small effects attributable to any particular gene. Most loci individually explain less than 1% of cases of autism. The large number of autistic individuals with unaffected family members may result from spontaneous structural variation — such as deletions, duplications or inversions in genetic material during meiosis. Hence, a substantial fraction of autism cases may be traceable to genetic causes that are highly heritable but not inherited: that is, the mutation that causes the autism is not present in the parental genome. Autism may be underdiagnosed in women and girls due to an assumption that it is primarily a male condition.\n",
"Maternal nutrition and inflammation during preconception and pregnancy influences fetal neurodevelopment. Intrauterine growth restriction is associated with ASD, in both term and preterm infants. Maternal inflammatory and autoimmune diseases may damage fetal tissues, aggravating a genetic problem or damaging the nervous system.\n",
"Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy, especially heavy metals and particulates, may increase the risk of autism. Environmental factors that have been claimed without evidence to contribute to or exacerbate autism include certain foods, infectious diseases, solvents, PCBs, phthalates and phenols used in plastic products, pesticides, brominated flame retardants, alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs, vaccines, and prenatal stress. Some, such as the MMR vaccine, have been completely disproven.\n",
"Parents may first become aware of autistic symptoms in their child around the time of a routine vaccination. This has led to unsupported theories blaming vaccine \"overload\", a vaccine preservative, or the MMR vaccine for causing autism. The latter theory was supported by a litigation-funded study that has since been shown to have been \"an elaborate fraud\". Although these theories lack convincing scientific evidence and are biologically implausible, parental concern about a potential vaccine link with autism has led to lower rates of childhood immunizations, outbreaks of previously controlled childhood diseases in some countries, and the preventable deaths of several children.\n",
"Section::::Mechanism.\n",
"Autism's symptoms result from maturation-related changes in various systems of the brain. How autism occurs is not well understood. Its mechanism can be divided into two areas: the pathophysiology of brain structures and processes associated with autism, and the neuropsychological linkages between brain structures and behaviors. The behaviors appear to have multiple pathophysiologies.\n",
"There is evidence that gut–brain axis abnormalities may be involved. A 2015 review proposed that immune dysregulation, gastrointestinal inflammation, malfunction of the autonomic nervous system, gut flora alterations, and food metabolites may cause brain neuroinflammation and dysfunction. A 2016 review concludes that enteric nervous system abnormalities might play a role in neurological disorders such as autism. Neural connections and the immune system are a pathway that may allow diseases originated in the intestine to spread to the brain.\n",
"Several lines of evidence point to synaptic dysfunction as a cause of autism. Some rare mutations may lead to autism by disrupting some synaptic pathways, such as those involved with cell adhesion. Gene replacement studies in mice suggest that autistic symptoms are closely related to later developmental steps that depend on activity in synapses and on activity-dependent changes. All known teratogens (agents that cause birth defects) related to the risk of autism appear to act during the first eight weeks from conception, and though this does not exclude the possibility that autism can be initiated or affected later, there is strong evidence that autism arises very early in development.\n",
"Section::::Diagnosis.\n",
"Diagnosis is based on behavior, not cause or mechanism. Under the DSM-5, autism is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction across multiple contexts, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. These deficits are present in early childhood, typically before age three, and lead to clinically significant functional impairment. Sample symptoms include lack of social or emotional reciprocity, stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language, and persistent preoccupation with unusual objects. The disturbance must not be better accounted for by Rett syndrome, intellectual disability or global developmental delay. ICD-10 uses essentially the same definition.\n",
"Several diagnostic instruments are available. Two are commonly used in autism research: the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) is a semistructured parent interview, and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) uses observation and interaction with the child. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) is used widely in clinical environments to assess severity of autism based on observation of children. The Diagnostic interview for social and communication disorders (DISCO) may also be used.\n",
"A pediatrician commonly performs a preliminary investigation by taking developmental history and physically examining the child. If warranted, diagnosis and evaluations are conducted with help from ASD specialists, observing and assessing cognitive, communication, family, and other factors using standardized tools, and taking into account any associated medical conditions. A pediatric neuropsychologist is often asked to assess behavior and cognitive skills, both to aid diagnosis and to help recommend educational interventions. A differential diagnosis for ASD at this stage might also consider intellectual disability, hearing impairment, and a specific language impairment such as Landau–Kleffner syndrome. The presence of autism can make it harder to diagnose coexisting psychiatric disorders such as depression.\n",
"Clinical genetics evaluations are often done once ASD is diagnosed, particularly when other symptoms already suggest a genetic cause. Although genetic technology allows clinical geneticists to link an estimated 40% of cases to genetic causes, consensus guidelines in the US and UK are limited to high-resolution chromosome and fragile X testing. A genotype-first model of diagnosis has been proposed, which would routinely assess the genome's copy number variations. As new genetic tests are developed several ethical, legal, and social issues will emerge. Commercial availability of tests may precede adequate understanding of how to use test results, given the complexity of autism's genetics. Metabolic and neuroimaging tests are sometimes helpful, but are not routine.\n",
"ASD can sometimes be diagnosed by age 14 months, although diagnosis becomes increasingly stable over the first three years of life: for example, a one-year-old who meets diagnostic criteria for ASD is less likely than a three-year-old to continue to do so a few years later. In the UK the National Autism Plan for Children recommends at most 30 weeks from first concern to completed diagnosis and assessment, though few cases are handled that quickly in practice. Although the symptoms of autism and ASD begin early in childhood, they are sometimes missed; years later, adults may seek diagnoses to help them or their friends and family understand themselves, to help their employers make adjustments, or in some locations to claim disability living allowances or other benefits. Girls are often diagnosed later than boys.\n",
"Underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis are problems in marginal cases, and much of the recent increase in the number of reported ASD cases is likely due to changes in diagnostic practices. The increasing popularity of drug treatment options and the expansion of benefits has given providers incentives to diagnose ASD, resulting in some overdiagnosis of children with uncertain symptoms. Conversely, the cost of screening and diagnosis and the challenge of obtaining payment can inhibit or delay diagnosis. It is particularly hard to diagnose autism among the visually impaired, partly because some of its diagnostic criteria depend on vision, and partly because autistic symptoms overlap with those of common blindness syndromes or blindisms.\n",
"Section::::Diagnosis.:Classification.\n",
"Autism is one of the five pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions and communication, and severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. These symptoms do not imply sickness, fragility, or emotional disturbance.\n",
"Of the five PDD forms, Asperger syndrome is closest to autism in signs and likely causes; Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder share several signs with autism, but may have unrelated causes; PDD not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS; also called \"atypical autism\") is diagnosed when the criteria are not met for a more specific disorder. Unlike with autism, people with Asperger syndrome have no substantial delay in language development. The terminology of autism can be bewildering, with autism, Asperger syndrome and PDD-NOS often called the \"autism spectrum disorders\" (ASD) or sometimes the \"autistic disorders\", whereas autism itself is often called \"autistic disorder\", \"childhood autism\", or \"infantile autism\". In this article, \"autism\" refers to the classic autistic disorder; in clinical practice, though, \"autism\", \"ASD\", and \"PDD\" are often used interchangeably. ASD, in turn, is a subset of the broader autism phenotype, which describes individuals who may not have ASD but do have autistic-like traits, such as avoiding eye contact.\n",
"The manifestations of autism cover a wide spectrum, ranging from individuals with severe impairments—who may be silent, developmentally disabled, and locked into hand flapping and rocking—to high functioning individuals who may have active but distinctly odd social approaches, narrowly focused interests, and verbose, pedantic communication. Because the behavior spectrum is continuous, boundaries between diagnostic categories are necessarily somewhat arbitrary. Sometimes the syndrome is divided into low-, medium- or high-functioning autism (LFA, MFA, and HFA), based on IQ thresholds, or on how much support the individual requires in daily life; these subdivisions are not standardized and are controversial. Autism can also be divided into syndromal and non-syndromal autism; the syndromal autism is associated with severe or profound intellectual disability or a congenital syndrome with physical symptoms, such as tuberous sclerosis. Although individuals with Asperger syndrome tend to perform better cognitively than those with autism, the extent of the overlap between Asperger syndrome, HFA, and non-syndromal autism is unclear.\n",
"Some studies have reported diagnoses of autism in children due to a loss of language or social skills, as opposed to a failure to make progress, typically from 15 to 30 months of age. The validity of this distinction remains controversial; it is possible that regressive autism is a specific subtype, or that there is a continuum of behaviors between autism with and without regression.\n",
"Research into causes has been hampered by the inability to identify biologically meaningful subgroups within the autistic population and by the traditional boundaries between the disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, neurology and pediatrics. Newer technologies such as fMRI and diffusion tensor imaging can help identify biologically relevant phenotypes (observable traits) that can be viewed on brain scans, to help further neurogenetic studies of autism; one example is lowered activity in the fusiform face area of the brain, which is associated with impaired perception of people versus objects. It has been proposed to classify autism using genetics as well as behavior.\n",
"Section::::Screening.\n",
"About half of parents of children with ASD notice their child's unusual behaviors by age 18 months, and about four-fifths notice by age 24 months. According to an article, failure to meet any of the following milestones \"is an absolute indication to proceed with further evaluations. Delay in referral for such testing may delay early diagnosis and treatment and affect the long-term outcome\".\n",
"BULLET::::- No babbling by 12 months.\n",
"BULLET::::- No gesturing (pointing, waving, etc.) by 12 months.\n",
"BULLET::::- No single words by 16 months.\n",
"BULLET::::- No two-word (spontaneous, not just echolalic) phrases by 24 months.\n",
"BULLET::::- Loss of any language or social skills, at any age.\n",
"The United States Preventive Services Task Force in 2016 found it was unclear if screening was beneficial or harmful among children in whom there is no concerns. The Japanese practice is to screen all children for ASD at 18 and 24 months, using autism-specific formal screening tests. In contrast, in the UK, children whose families or doctors recognize possible signs of autism are screened. It is not known which approach is more effective. Screening tools include the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), the Early Screening of Autistic Traits Questionnaire, and the First Year Inventory; initial data on M-CHAT and its predecessor, the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT), on children aged 18–30 months suggests that it is best used in a clinical setting and that it has low sensitivity (many false-negatives) but good specificity (few false-positives). It may be more accurate to precede these tests with a broadband screener that does not distinguish ASD from other developmental disorders. Screening tools designed for one culture's norms for behaviors like eye contact may be inappropriate for a different culture. Although genetic screening for autism is generally still impractical, it can be considered in some cases, such as children with neurological symptoms and dysmorphic features.\n",
"Section::::Prevention.\n",
"While infection with rubella during pregnancy causes fewer than 1% of cases of autism, vaccination against rubella can prevent many of those cases.\n",
"Section::::Management.\n",
"The main goals when treating children with autism are to lessen associated deficits and family distress, and to increase quality of life and functional independence. In general, higher IQs are correlated with greater responsiveness to treatment and improved treatment outcomes. No single treatment is best and treatment is typically tailored to the child's needs. Families and the educational system are the main resources for treatment. Services should be carried out by behavior analysts, special education teachers, speech pathologists, and licensed psychologists. Studies of interventions have methodological problems that prevent definitive conclusions about efficacy. However, the development of evidence-based interventions has advanced in recent years. Although many psychosocial interventions have some positive evidence, suggesting that some form of treatment is preferable to no treatment, the methodological quality of systematic reviews of these studies has generally been poor, their clinical results are mostly tentative, and there is little evidence for the relative effectiveness of treatment options. Intensive, sustained special education programs and behavior therapy early in life can help children acquire self-care, communication, and job skills, and often improve functioning and decrease symptom severity and maladaptive behaviors; claims that intervention by around age three years is crucial are not substantiated. While medications have not been found to help with core symptoms, they may be used for associated symptoms, such as irritability, inattention, or repetitive behavior patterns.\n",
"Section::::Management.:Education.\n",
"Educational interventions often used include applied behavior analysis (ABA), developmental models, structured teaching, speech and language therapy, social skills therapy, and occupational therapy. Among these approaches, interventions either treat autistic features comprehensively, or focalize treatment on a specific area of deficit. The quality of research for early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI)—a treatment procedure carried out with very young children that incorporates over thirty hours per week of the structured type of ABA—is currently low, and more vigorous research designs with larger sample sizes are needed. Two theoretical frameworks outlined for early childhood intervention include structured and naturalistic ABA interventions, and developmental social pragmatic models (DSP). One interventional strategy utilizes a parent training model, which teaches parents how to implement various ABA and DSP techniques, allowing for parents to disseminate interventions themselves. Various DSP programs have been developed to explicitly deliver intervention systems through at-home parent implementation. Despite the recent development of parent training models, these interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in numerous studies, being evaluated as a probable efficacious mode of treatment.\n",
"Early, intensive ABA therapy has demonstrated effectiveness in enhancing communication, as well as adaptive and global functioning in preschool children; it is well-established for improving the intellectual performance of that age group. Similarly, a teacher-implemented intervention that utilizes a more naturalistic form of ABA combined with a developmental social pragmatic approach has been found to be beneficial in improving social-communication skills in young children, although there is less evidence in its treatment of global symptoms. Neuropsychological reports are often poorly communicated to educators, resulting in a gap between what a report recommends and what education is provided. It is not known whether treatment programs for children lead to significant improvements after the children grow up, and the limited research on the effectiveness of adult residential programs shows mixed results. The appropriateness of including children with varying severity of autism spectrum disorders in the general education population is a subject of current debate among educators and researchers.\n",
"Section::::Management.:Medication.\n",
"Medications may be used to treat ASD symptoms that interfere with integrating a child into home or school when behavioral treatment fails. They may also be used for associated health problems, such as ADHD or anxiety. More than half of US children diagnosed with ASD are prescribed psychoactive drugs or anticonvulsants, with the most common drug classes being antidepressants, stimulants, and antipsychotics. The atypical antipsychotic drugs risperidone and aripiprazole are FDA-approved for treating associated aggressive and self-injurious behaviors. However, their side effects must be weighed against their potential benefits, and people with autism may respond atypically. Side effects, for example, may include weight gain, tiredness, drooling, and aggression. SSRI antidepressants, such as fluoxetine and fluvoxamine, have been shown to be effective in reducing repetitive and ritualistic behaviors, while the stimulant medication methylphenidate is beneficial for some children with co-morbid inattentiveness or hyperactivity. There is scant reliable research about the effectiveness or safety of drug treatments for adolescents and adults with ASD. No known medication relieves autism's core symptoms of social and communication impairments. Experiments in mice have reversed or reduced some symptoms related to autism by replacing or modulating gene function, suggesting the possibility of targeting therapies to specific rare mutations known to cause autism.\n",
"Section::::Management.:Alternative medicine.\n",
"Although many alternative therapies and interventions are available, few are supported by scientific studies. Treatment approaches have little empirical support in quality-of-life contexts, and many programs focus on success measures that lack predictive validity and real-world relevance. Some alternative treatments may place the child at risk. The preference that children with autism have for unconventional foods can lead to reduction in bone cortical thickness with this being greater in those on casein-free diets, as a consequence of the low intake of calcium and vitamin D; however, suboptimal bone development in ASD has also been associated with lack of exercise and gastrointestinal disorders. In 2005, botched chelation therapy killed a five-year-old child with autism. Chelation is not recommended for people with ASD since the associated risks outweigh any potential benefits. Another alternative medicine practice with no evidence is CEASE therapy, a mixture of homeopathy, supplements, and 'vaccine detoxing'.\n",
"Although popularly used as an alternative treatment for people with autism, as of 2018 there is no good evidence to recommend a gluten- and casein-free diet as a standard treatment. A 2018 review concluded that it may be a therapeutic option for specific groups of children with autism, such as those with known food intolerances or allergies, or with food intolerance markers. The authors analyzed the prospective trials conducted to date that studied the efficacy of the gluten- and casein-free diet in children with ASD (4 in total). All of them compared gluten- and casein-free diet versus normal diet with a control group (2 double blind randomized controlled trials, 1 double blind crossover trial, 1 single blind trial). In two of the studies, whose duration was 12 and 24 months, a significant improvement in ASD symptoms (efficacy rate 50%) was identified. In the other two studies, whose duration was 3 months, no significant effect was observed. The authors concluded that a longer duration of the diet may be necessary to achieve the improvement of the ASD symptoms. Other problems documented in the trials carried out include transgressions of the diet, small sample size, the heterogeneity of the participants and the possibility of a placebo effect.\n",
"In the subset of people who have gluten sensitivity there is limited evidence that suggests that a gluten-free diet may improve some autistic behaviors.\n",
"There is tentative evidence that music therapy may improve social interactions, verbal communication, and non-verbal communication skills. There has been early research looking at hyperbaric treatments in children with autism.\n",
"Section::::Prognosis.\n",
"There is no known cure. Children recover occasionally, so that they lose their diagnosis of ASD; this occurs sometimes after intensive treatment and sometimes not. It is not known how often recovery happens; reported rates in unselected samples have ranged from 3% to 25%. Most children with autism acquire language by age five or younger, though a few have developed communication skills in later years. Most children with autism lack social support, meaningful relationships, future employment opportunities or self-determination. Although core difficulties tend to persist, symptoms often become less severe with age.\n",
"Few high-quality studies address long-term prognosis. Some adults show modest improvement in communication skills, but a few decline; no study has focused on autism after midlife. Acquiring language before age six, having an IQ above 50, and having a marketable skill all predict better outcomes; independent living is unlikely with severe autism.\n",
"Many individuals with autism face significant obstacles in transitioning to adulthood. Compared to the general population individuals with autism are more likely to be unemployed and to have never had a job. People in their 20s with autism have an employment rate of 58%.\n",
"Section::::Epidemiology.\n",
"Most recent reviews tend to estimate a prevalence of 1–2 per 1,000 for autism and close to 6 per 1,000 for ASD, and 11 per 1,000 children in the United States for ASD as of 2008; because of inadequate data, these numbers may underestimate ASD's true rate. Globally, autism affects an estimated 24.8 million people , while Asperger syndrome affects a further 37.2 million. In 2012, the NHS estimated that the overall prevalence of autism among adults aged 18 years and over in the UK was 1.1%. Rates of PDD-NOS's has been estimated at 3.7 per 1,000, Asperger syndrome at roughly 0.6 per 1,000, and childhood disintegrative disorder at 0.02 per 1,000. CDC estimates about 1 out of 59 (1.7%) for 2014, an increase from 1 out of every 68 children (1.5%) for 2010.\n",
"The number of reported cases of autism increased dramatically in the 1990s and early 2000s. This increase is largely attributable to changes in diagnostic practices, referral patterns, availability of services, age at diagnosis, and public awareness, though unidentified environmental risk factors cannot be ruled out. The available evidence does not rule out the possibility that autism's true prevalence has increased; a real increase would suggest directing more attention and funding toward changing environmental factors instead of continuing to focus on genetics.\n",
"Boys are at higher risk for ASD than girls. The sex ratio averages 4.3:1 and is greatly modified by cognitive impairment: it may be close to 2:1 with intellectual disability and more than 5.5:1 without. Several theories about the higher prevalence in males have been investigated, but the cause of the difference is unconfirmed; one theory is that females are underdiagnosed.\n",
"Although the evidence does not implicate any single pregnancy-related risk factor as a cause of autism, the risk of autism is associated with advanced age in either parent, and with diabetes, bleeding, and use of psychiatric drugs in the mother during pregnancy. The risk is greater with older fathers than with older mothers; two potential explanations are the known increase in mutation burden in older sperm, and the hypothesis that men marry later if they carry genetic liability and show some signs of autism. Most professionals believe that race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background do not affect the occurrence of autism.\n",
"Several other conditions are common in children with autism. They include:\n",
"BULLET::::- Genetic disorders. About 10–15% of autism cases have an identifiable Mendelian (single-gene) condition, chromosome abnormality, or other genetic syndrome, and ASD is associated with several genetic disorders.\n",
"BULLET::::- Intellectual disability. The percentage of autistic individuals who also meet criteria for intellectual disability has been reported as anywhere from 25% to 70%, a wide variation illustrating the difficulty of assessing intelligence of individuals on the autism spectrum. In comparison, for PDD-NOS the association with intellectual disability is much weaker, and by definition, the diagnosis of Asperger's excludes intellectual disability.\n",
"BULLET::::- Anxiety disorders are common among children with ASD; there are no firm data, but studies have reported prevalences ranging from 11% to 84%. Many anxiety disorders have symptoms that are better explained by ASD itself, or are hard to distinguish from ASD's symptoms.\n",
"BULLET::::- Epilepsy, with variations in risk of epilepsy due to age, cognitive level, and type of language disorder.\n",
"BULLET::::- Several metabolic defects, such as phenylketonuria, are associated with autistic symptoms.\n",
"BULLET::::- Minor physical anomalies are significantly increased in the autistic population.\n",
"BULLET::::- Preempted diagnoses. Although the DSM-IV rules out concurrent diagnosis of many other conditions along with autism, the full criteria for Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette syndrome, and other of these conditions are often present and these comorbid diagnoses are increasingly accepted.\n",
"BULLET::::- Sleep problems affect about two-thirds of individuals with ASD at some point in childhood. These most commonly include symptoms of insomnia such as difficulty in falling asleep, frequent nocturnal awakenings, and early morning awakenings. Sleep problems are associated with difficult behaviors and family stress, and are often a focus of clinical attention over and above the primary ASD diagnosis.\n",
"Section::::History.\n",
"A few examples of autistic symptoms and treatments were described long before autism was named. The \"Table Talk\" of Martin Luther, compiled by his notetaker, Mathesius, contains the story of a 12-year-old boy who may have been severely autistic. Luther reportedly thought the boy was a soulless mass of flesh possessed by the devil, and suggested that he be suffocated, although a later critic has cast doubt on the veracity of this report. The earliest well-documented case of autism is that of Hugh Blair of Borgue, as detailed in a 1747 court case in which his brother successfully petitioned to annul Blair's marriage to gain Blair's inheritance. The Wild Boy of Aveyron, a feral child caught in 1798, showed several signs of autism; the medical student Jean Itard treated him with a behavioral program designed to help him form social attachments and to induce speech via imitation.\n",
"The New Latin word \"autismus\" (English translation \"autism\") was coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910 as he was defining symptoms of schizophrenia. He derived it from the Greek word \"autós\" (αὐτός, meaning \"self\"), and used it to mean morbid self-admiration, referring to \"autistic withdrawal of the patient to his fantasies, against which any influence from outside becomes an intolerable disturbance\". A Soviet child psychiatrist, Grunya Sukhareva, described a similar syndrome that was published in Russian in 1925, and in German in 1926.\n",
"Section::::History.:Clinical development and diagnoses.\n",
"The word \"autism\" first took its modern sense in 1938 when Hans Asperger of the Vienna University Hospital adopted Bleuler's terminology \"autistic psychopaths\" in a lecture in German about child psychology. Asperger was investigating an ASD now known as Asperger syndrome, though for various reasons it was not widely recognized as a separate diagnosis until 1981. Leo Kanner of the Johns Hopkins Hospital first used \"autism\" in its modern sense in English when he introduced the label \"early infantile autism\" in a 1943 report of 11 children with striking behavioral similarities. Almost all the characteristics described in Kanner's first paper on the subject, notably \"autistic aloneness\" and \"insistence on sameness\", are still regarded as typical of the autistic spectrum of disorders. It is not known whether Kanner derived the term independently of Asperger.\n",
"Donald Triplett was the first person diagnosed with autism. He was diagnosed by Kanner after being first examined in 1938, and was labeled as \"case 1\". Triplett was noted for his savant abilities, particularly being able to name musical notes played on a piano and to mentally multiply numbers. His father, Oliver, described him as socially withdrawn but interested in number patterns, music notes, letters of the alphabet, and U.S. president pictures. By the age of 2, he had the ability to recite the 23rd Psalm and memorized 25 questions and answers from the Presbyterian catechism. He was also interested in creating musical chords.\n",
"Kanner's reuse of \"autism\" led to decades of confused terminology like \"infantile schizophrenia\", and child psychiatry's focus on maternal deprivation led to misconceptions of autism as an infant's response to \"refrigerator mothers\". Starting in the late 1960s autism was established as a separate syndrome.\n",
"Section::::History.:Terminology and distinction from schizophrenia.\n",
"As late as the mid-1970s there was little evidence of a genetic role in autism; while in 2007 it was believed to be one of the most heritable psychiatric conditions. Although the rise of parent organizations and the destigmatization of childhood ASD have affected how ASD is viewed, parents continue to feel social stigma in situations where their child's autistic behavior is perceived negatively, and many primary care physicians and medical specialists express some beliefs consistent with outdated autism research.\n",
"It took until 1980 for the DSM-III to differentiate autism from childhood schizophrenia. In 1987, the DSM-III-R provided a checklist for diagnosing autism. In May 2013, the DSM-5 was released, updating the classification for pervasive developmental disorders. The grouping of disorders, including PDD-NOS, autism, Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, and CDD, has been removed and replaced with the general term of Autism Spectrum Disorders. The two categories that exist are impaired social communication and/or interaction, and restricted and/or repetitive behaviors.\n",
"The Internet has helped autistic individuals bypass nonverbal cues and emotional sharing that they find difficult to deal with, and has given them a way to form online communities and work remotely. Societal and cultural aspects of autism have developed: some in the community seek a cure, while others believe that autism is simply another way of being.\n",
"Section::::Society and culture.\n",
"An autistic culture has emerged, accompanied by the autistic rights and neurodiversity movements. Events include World Autism Awareness Day, Autism Sunday, Autistic Pride Day, Autreat, and others. Organizations dedicated to promoting awareness of autism include Autism Speaks, Autism National Committee, and Autism Society of America. Social-science scholars study those with autism in hopes to learn more about \"autism as a culture, transcultural comparisons... and research on social movements.\" While most autistic individuals do not have savant skills, many have been successful in their fields.\n",
"Section::::Society and culture.:Autism rights movement.\n",
"The autism rights movement is a social movement within the context of disability rights that emphasizes the concept of neurodiversity, viewing the autism spectrum as a result of natural variations in the human brain rather than a disorder to be cured. The autism rights movement advocates for including greater acceptance of autistic behaviors; therapies that focus on coping skills rather than imitating the behaviors those without autism; and the recognition of the autistic community as a minority group. Autism rights or neurodiversity advocates believe that the autism spectrum is genetic and should be accepted as a natural expression of the human genome. This perspective is distinct from two other likewise distinct views: the medical perspective, that autism is caused by a genetic defect and should be addressed by targeting the autism gene(s), and fringe theories that autism is caused by environmental factors such as vaccines. A common criticism against autistic activists is that the majority of them are \"high-functioning\" or have Asperger syndrome and do not represent the views of \"low-functioning\" autistic people.\n",
"Section::::Society and culture.:Employment.\n",
"About half of autistics are unemployed, and one third of those with graduate degrees may be unemployed. Among autistics who find work, most are employed in sheltered settings working for wages below the national minimum. While employers state hiring concerns about productivity and supervision, experienced employers of autistics give positive reports of above average memory and detail orientation as well as a high regard for rules and procedure in autistic employees. A majority of the economic burden of autism if caused by decreased earnings in the job market. Some studies also find decreased earning among parents who care for autistic children.\n"
] |
List of Atlas Shrugged characters
|
[
"List of Atlas Shrugged characters\n",
"This is a list of characters in Ayn Rand's novel \"Atlas Shrugged.\"\n",
"Section::::Major characters.\n",
"The following are major characters from the novel.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Protagonists.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Protagonists.:Dagny Taggart.\n",
"Dagny Taggart is the protagonist of the novel. She is Vice-President in Charge of Operations for Taggart Transcontinental, under her brother, James Taggart. Given James' incompetence, Dagny is responsible for all the workings of the railroad.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Protagonists.:Francisco d'Anconia.\n",
"Francisco d'Anconia is one of the central characters in \"Atlas Shrugged\", an owner by inheritance of the world's largest copper mining operation. He is a childhood friend, and the first love, of Dagny Taggart. A child prodigy of exceptional talents, Francisco was dubbed the \"climax\" of the d'Anconia line, an already prestigious family of skilled industrialists. He was a classmate of John Galt and Ragnar Danneskjöld and student of both Hugh Akston and Robert Stadler. He began working while still in school, proving that he could have made a fortune without the aid of his family's wealth and power. Later, Francisco bankrupts the d'Anconia business to put it out of others' reach. His full name is given as \"Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastián d'Anconia\".\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Protagonists.:John Galt.\n",
"John Galt is the primary male hero of \"Atlas Shrugged\". He initially appears as an unnamed menial worker for Taggart Transcontinental, who often dines with Eddie Willers in the employees' cafeteria, and leads Eddie to reveal important information about Dagny Taggart and Taggart Transcontinental. Only Eddie's side of their conversations is given in the novel. Later in the novel, the reader discovers this worker's true identity.\n",
"Before working for Taggart Transcontinental, Galt worked as an engineer for the Twentieth Century Motor Company, where he secretly invented a generator of usable electric energy from ambient static electricity, but abandoned his prototype, and his employment, when dissatisfied by an easily corrupted novel system of payment. This prototype was found by Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden. Galt himself remains concealed throughout much of the novel, working a job and living by himself, where he unites the most skillful inventors and business leaders under his leadership. Much of the book's third division is given to his broadcast speech, which presents the author's philosophy of Objectivism.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Protagonists.:Henry \"Hank\" Rearden.\n",
"Henry (known as \"Hank\") Rearden is one of the central characters in \"Atlas Shrugged\". He owns the most important steel company in the United States, and invents Rearden Metal, an alloy stronger than steel (with similar properties to stainless steel). He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Lillian, his brother Philip, and his elderly mother. Rearden represents a type of self-made man or prototypical hero, and illustrates Rand's theory of sex in so far as he accepts the traditional view of sexual congress as a subhuman instinct, but responds sexually to Dagny Taggart. Rearden eventually divorces Lillian, abandons his steel mills following a bloody assault by government-planted workers, and joins John Galt's strike.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Protagonists.:Eddie Willers.\n",
"Edwin \"Eddie\" Willers is the Special Assistant to the Vice-President in Charge of Operations at Taggart Transcontinental. His father and grandfather worked for the Taggarts, and himself likewise. He is completely loyal to Dagny and to Taggart Transcontinental. Willers does not possess the creative ability of Galt's associates, but matches them in moral courage and is capable of appreciating and making use of their creations. After Dagny shifts her attention and loyalty to saving the captive Galt, Willers maintains the railroad until its collapse.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Protagonists.:Ragnar Danneskjöld.\n",
"One of Galt's first followers, and world-famous as a pirate, who seizes relief ships sent from the United States to the People's States of Europe. He works to ensure that once those espousing Galt's philosophy are restored to their rightful place in society, they have enough capital to rebuild the world. Kept in the background for much of the book, Danneskjöld makes a personal appearance to encourage Rearden to persevere in his increasingly difficult situation, and gives him a bar of gold as compensation for the income taxes he has paid over the last several years. Danneskjöld is married to the actress Kay Ludlow; their relationship is kept hidden from the outside world, which only knows of Ludlow as a retired film star. Considered a misfit by Galt's other adherents, he views his actions as a means to speed the world along in understanding Galt's perspective.\n",
"According to Barbara Branden, who was closely associated with Rand at the time the book was written, there were sections written describing Danneskjöld's adventures at sea, cut from the final published text. In a 1974 comment at a lecture, Ayn Rand admitted that Danneskjöld's name was a tribute to Victor Hugo's novel, , wherein the hero becomes the first of the Counts of Danneskjöld. In the published book, Danneskjöld is always seen through the eyes of others (Dagny Taggart or Hank Rearden), except for a brief paragraph in the very last chapter.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Antagonists.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Antagonists.:James Taggart.\n",
"The President of Taggart Transcontinental and the book's most important antagonist. Taggart is an expert influence peddler but incapable of making operational decisions on his own. He relies on his sister, Dagny Taggart, to actually run the railroad, but nonetheless opposes her in almost every endeavor because of his various anti-capitalist moral and political beliefs. In a sense, he is the antithesis of Dagny. This contradiction leads to the recurring absurdity of his life: the desire to overcome those on whom his life depends, and the horror that he will succeed at this. In the final chapters of the novel, he suffers a complete mental breakdown upon realizing that he can no longer deceive himself in this respect.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Antagonists.:Lillian Rearden.\n",
"The unsupportive wife of Hank Rearden, who dislikes his habits and (secretly at first) seeks to ruin Rearden to prove her own value. Lillian achieves this, when she passes information to James Taggart about her husband's affair with his sister. This information is used to persuade Rearden to sign a Gift Certificate which delivers all the property rights of Rearden Metal to others. Lillian thereafter uses James Taggart for sexual satisfaction, until Hank abandons her.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Antagonists.:Dr. Floyd Ferris.\n",
"Ferris is a biologist who works as \"co-ordinator\" at the State Science Institute. He uses his position there to deride reason and productive achievement, and publishes a book entitled \"Why Do You Think You Think?\" He clashes on several occasions with Hank Rearden, and twice attempts to blackmail Rearden into giving up Rearden Metal. He is also one of the group of looters who tries to get Rearden to agree to the Steel Unification Plan. Ferris hosts the demonstration of the Project X weapon, and is the creator of the Ferris Persuader, a torture machine. When John Galt is captured by the looters, Ferris uses the device on Galt, but it breaks down before extracting the information Ferris wants from Galt. Ferris represents the group which uses brute force on the heroes to achieve the ends of the looters.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Antagonists.:Dr. Robert Stadler.\n",
"A former professor at Patrick Henry University, and along with colleague Hugh Akston, mentor to Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt and Ragnar Danneskjöld. He has since become a sell-out, one who had great promise but squandered it for social approval, to the detriment of the free. He works at the State Science Institute where all his inventions are perverted for use by the military, including a sound-based weapon known as Project X (Xylophone). He is killed when Cuffy Meigs (see below) drunkenly overloads the circuits of Project X, causing it to destroy itself and every structure and living thing in a 100-mile radius. The character was, in part, modeled on J. Robert Oppenheimer, whom Rand had interviewed for an earlier project, and his part in the creation of nuclear weapons. To his former student Galt, Stadler represents the epitome of human evil, as the \"man who knew better\" but chose not to act for the good.\n",
"Section::::Major characters.:Antagonists.:Wesley Mouch.\n",
"The incompetent and treacherous lobbyist whom Hank Rearden reluctantly employs in Washington, who rises to prominence and authority throughout the novel through trading favours and disloyalty. In return for betraying Hank by helping broker the Equalization of Opportunity Bill (which, by restricting the number of businesses each person may own to one, forces Hank to divest most of his companies), he is given a senior position at the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources. Later in the novel he becomes its Top Co-ordinator, a position that eventually becomes Economic Dictator of the country.\n",
"Section::::Secondary characters.\n",
"The following secondary characters also appear in the novel.\n",
"BULLET::::- Hugh Akston is identified as \"One of the last great advocates of reason.\" He was a renowned philosopher and the head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University, where he taught Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt, and Ragnar Danneskjöld. He was, along with Robert Stadler, a father figure to these three. Akston's name is so hallowed that a young lady, on hearing that Francisco had studied under him, is shocked. She thought he must have been one of those great names from an earlier century. He now works as a cook in a roadside diner, and proves extremely skillful at the job. When Dagny tracks him down, and before she discovers his true identity, he rejects her enthusiastic offer to manage the dining car services for Taggart Transcontinental. He is based on Aristotle.\n",
"BULLET::::- Jeff Allen is a tramp who stows away on a Taggart train during one of Dagny's cross-country trips. Instead of throwing him out, she allows him to ride as her guest. It is from Allen that she learns the full story behind the collapse of the Twentieth Century Motor Company (Rand's extensive metaphor for the inherent flaws of communism), as well as a hint of John Galt's true background.\n",
"BULLET::::- Calvin Atwood is owner of Atwood Light and Power Company and joins Galt's strike.\n",
"BULLET::::- Mayor Bascom is the mayor of Rome, Wisconsin, who reveals part of the history of the Twentieth Century Motor Company.\n",
"BULLET::::- Dr. Blodgett is the scientist who pulls the lever to demonstrate Project X.\n",
"BULLET::::- Orren Boyle is the head of Associated Steel, antithesis of Hank Rearden and a friend of James Taggart. He is an investor in the San Sebastián Mines. He disappears from the story after having a nervous breakdown following the failed 'unification' of the steel industry.\n",
"BULLET::::- Laura Bradford is an actress and Kip Chalmers' mistress. She is one of the passengers on his train, and dies in the Taggart Tunnel disaster.\n",
"BULLET::::- Bill Brent is the chief dispatcher for the Colorado Division of Taggart Transcontinental, who tries to prevent the Taggart Tunnel disaster.\n",
"BULLET::::- Cherryl Brooks is a dime store shopgirl who marries James Taggart after a chance encounter in her store the night the John Galt Line was falsely deemed his greatest success. She marries him thinking he is the heroic person behind Taggart Transcontinental. Cherryl is at first harsh towards Dagny, having believed Jim Taggart's descriptions of his sister, until she questions employees of the railroad. Upon learning that her scorn had been misdirected, Cherryl puts off apologizing to Dagny out of shame, but eventually admits to Dagny that when she married Jim, she thought he had the heroic qualities that she had looked up to - she thought she was marrying someone like Dagny. Shortly after making this admission, she commits suicide by jumping over a street guardrail to her death, unable to live with her worthless husband and seeing no way to escape him.\n",
"BULLET::::- Millie Bush was \"a mean, ugly little eight-year-old\" girl voted to receive gold braces to straighten her teeth by the Marxist \"family\" committee who determined how pay was allocated at The Twentieth Century Motor Company. Her teeth are later knocked out by a man denied an allowance by the committee to purchase the things he valued.\n",
"BULLET::::- Emma Chalmers, Kip Chalmers' mother, gains some influence after his death. Known as \"Kip's Ma,\" she starts a soybean-growing project in Louisiana and commandeers thousands of railroad freight cars to move the harvest. As a result, the year's wheat crop from Minnesota never reaches the rest of the country, but instead rots in storage; also, the soybean crop is lost, having been reaped too early.\n",
"BULLET::::- Kip Chalmers is a Washington man who has decided to run for election as Legislator from California. On the way to a campaign rally, the Taggart Transcontinental train that is carrying him encounters a split rail, resulting in the destruction of its diesel engine. His demands lead to a coal-burning steam engine being attached to his train in its stead and used to pull it through an eight-mile tunnel. The result is the suffocation of all passengers and the destruction of the Taggart Tunnel.\n",
"BULLET::::- Dan Conway is the middle-aged president of the Phoenix-Durango railroad. Running a railroad is just about the only thing he knows. When the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule is used to drive his business out of Colorado, he loses the will to fight, and resigns himself to a quiet life of books and fishing.\n",
"BULLET::::- Ken Danagger owns Danagger Coal in Pennsylvania. He helps Hank Rearden illegally make Rearden Metal, then later decides to quit and join Galt's strike moments before Dagny arrives to try to persuade him otherwise.\n",
"BULLET::::- Quentin Daniels is an enterprising engineer hired by Dagny Taggart to reconstruct John Galt's motor. Partway through this process, Quentin withdraws his effort for the same reasons John Galt himself had. Dagny's pursuit of Quentin leads her to Galt's Gulch.\n",
"BULLET::::- Sebastian d'Anconia was the 16th (or 17th) Century founder of the d'Anconia dynasty. Escaped from Spain because of expressing his opinions too freely and coming in conflict with the Inquisition, leaving behind a palace and his beloved. Started a small mine in South America, which became the beginning of a mining empire and a new fortune (and a new palace). Eventually sent for his beloved who had waited for him many years. He is the role model which Francisco d'Anconia looks to, as Dagny Taggart looks to Nathaniel Taggart. Francisco remarks that their respective ancestors would have liked each other.\n",
"BULLET::::- Balph Eubank is called \"the literary leader of the age\", despite the fact that no book he has written has sold more than 3,000 copies. He complains that it is disgraceful that artists are treated as peddlers, and that there should be a law limiting the sales of books to 10,000 copies. He is a misogynist who thinks it disgusting that Dagny Taggart is a railroad vice-president.\n",
"BULLET::::- The Fishwife is one of the strikers, who earns her living by providing the fish for Hammond's grocery market; she is described as having \"dark, disheveled hair and large eyes\", and is a writer. Galt says she \"wouldn't be published outside. She believes that when one deals with words, one deals with the mind.\" According to Barbara Branden in her book \"The Passion of Ayn Rand\", \"The Fishwife is Ayn's Hitchcock-like appearance in \"Atlas Shrugged\".\" So says too Leonard Peikoff.\n",
"BULLET::::- Lawrence Hammond runs Hammond Cars in Colorado, one of the few companies in existence that still produces top-quality vehicles. He eventually quits and joins the strike.\n",
"BULLET::::- Richard Halley is Dagny Taggart's favorite composer, who mysteriously disappeared after the evening of his greatest triumph. Halley spent years as a struggling and unappreciated composer. At age 24, his opera \"Phaethon\" was performed for the first time, to an audience who booed and heckled it. After 19 years, \"Phaethon\" was performed again, but this time it was received to the greatest ovation the opera house had ever heard. The following day, Halley retired, sold the rights to his music, and disappeared. It is later revealed that he has joined the strike and settled in Galt's Gulch.\n",
"BULLET::::- Mrs. William Hastings is the widow of the chief engineer at the Twentieth Century Motor Company. Her husband quit shortly after Galt did and joined the strike some years later. Her lead allows Dagny to find Hugh Akston.\n",
"BULLET::::- Dr. Thomas Hendricks is a famous brain surgeon who developed a new method of preventing strokes. He joined Galt's strike when the American medical system was put under government control.\n",
"BULLET::::- Tinky Holloway is one of the \"looters\" and is frequently referred to and quoted by other characters in the story, but he has only one major appearance: during the Washington meeting with Hank Rearden.\n",
"BULLET::::- Lee Hunsacker is in charge of a company called Amalgamated Service when takes over the Twentieth Century Motor Company. He files a lawsuit that eventually leads to Midas Mulligan and Judge Narragansett joining the strike. A failed businessman, he laments constantly that no-one ever gave him a chance.\n",
"BULLET::::- Gwen Ives is Hank Rearden's secretary, described as being in her late twenties and remaining calm and professional despite the chaos that threatens his business. When Rearden abandons his mills and joins Galt's strike, she and many other employees do the same.\n",
"BULLET::::- Gilbert Keith-Worthing is a British novelist of erstwhile fame, now neglected but still considered a \"walking classic,\" and a proponent of the idea that freedom is an illusion. Kip Chalmers brings him along on the train to California, \"for no reason that either of them could discover\"; he dies in the Taggart Tunnel disaster.\n",
"BULLET::::- Owen Kellogg is Assistant to the Manager of the Taggart Terminal in New York. He catches Dagny Taggart's eye as one of the few competent men on staff. After seeing the sorry state of the Ohio Division, she decides to make him its new Superintendent. However, as soon as she returns to New York, Kellogg informs her that he is quitting his job. Owen Kellogg eventually reaches, and settles in, Galt's Gulch.\n",
"BULLET::::- Fred Kinnan is a labor leader and member of the looter cabal. Unlike the others, however, Kinnan is straightforward and honest about his purpose. Kinnan is the only one to openly state the true motivations of himself and his fellow conspirators. At the end of Galt's three-hour speech, he expresses admiration for the man, as he says what he means. Despite this, Kinnan admits that he is one of the people Galt is out to destroy.\n",
"BULLET::::- Paul Larkin is an unsuccessful, middle-aged businessman, a friend of the Rearden family. He meets with the other Looters to work out a plan to bring Rearden down. James Taggart knows he is friends with Hank Rearden and challenges his loyalty, and Larkin assures Taggart that he will go along with them.\n",
"BULLET::::- Eugene Lawson heads the Community Bank of Madison, then gets a job with the government when it his bank goes bankrupt. One of the looter's cabal, he is a collectivist who abhors production and money-making.\n",
"BULLET::::- Mort Liddy is a hack composer who writes trite scores for movies and modern symphonies to which no one listens. He believes melody is a primitive vulgarity. He is one of Lillian Rearden's friends and a member of the cultural elite.\n",
"BULLET::::- Clifton Locey is a friend of Jim Taggart who takes the position of vice-president of operation when Dagny Taggart quits.\n",
"BULLET::::- Pat Logan is the engineer on the first run of the John Galt Line. He later strikes.\n",
"BULLET::::- Kay Ludlow is a beautiful actress and the wife of Ragnar Danneskjöld.\n",
"BULLET::::- Dick McNamara is a contractor who finished the San Sebastian Line. Dagny Taggart plans to hire him to lay the new Rearden Metal track for the Rio Norte Line, but before she does so, he mysteriously disappears. She later discovers that he has joined the strike and settled in Galt's Gulch.\n",
"BULLET::::- Cuffy Meigs is the Director of Unification for the railroad business. He carries a pistol and a lucky rabbit's foot, and he dresses in a military uniform, and has been described as \"impervious to thought\". Meigs seizes control of Project X and accidentally destroys it, demolishing the country's last railroad bridge across the Mississippi River and killing himself, his men, and Dr. Stadler.\n",
"BULLET::::- Dave Mitchum is a state-hired superintendent of the Colorado Division of Taggart Transcontinental. He is partially responsible for the Taggart Tunnel disaster.\n",
"BULLET::::- Chick Morrison holds the position of \"Morale Conditioner\" in the government. He quits when society begins to collapse and flees to a stronghold in Tennessee. His fellow looters consider it unlikely that he will survive.\n",
"BULLET::::- Horace Bussby Mowen is the president of the Amalgamated Switch and Signal Company, Inc. of Connecticut. He is a businessman who sees nothing wrong with the moral code that is destroying society and would never dream of saying he is in business for any reason other than the good of society. Dagny Taggart hires Mowen to produce switches made of Rearden Metal. He is reluctant to build anything with this unproven technology, and has to be cajoled into accepting the contract. When pressured by public opinion, he discontinues production of the switches, forcing Dagny to find an alternative source.\n",
"BULLET::::- Midas Mulligan is a wealthy banker who mysteriously disappeared in protest after he was given a court order to lend money to an incompetent applicant. When the order came down, he liquidated his entire business, paid off his depositors, and joined Galt's strike. He is the legal owner of the land where Galt's Gulch is located. Mulligan's birth name was Michael, but he had it legally changed after a news article called him \"Midas\" in a derogatory fashion, which Mulligan took as a compliment.\n",
"BULLET::::- Judge Narragansett is an American jurist who ruled in favor of Midas Mulligan during the case brought against him by the incompetent loan applicant. When Narragansett's ruling was reversed on appeal, he retired and joined the strike. At the end of the novel, he is seen editing the United States Constitution, crossing out the contradicting amendments of it and adding an amendment to prohibit Congress from passing laws that restrain freedom of trade.\n",
"BULLET::::- Ben Nealy is a railroad contractor whom Dagny Taggart hires to replace the track on the Rio Norte Line with Rearden Metal. Nealy is incompetent, but Dagny can find no one better in all the country. Nealy believes that anything can get done with enough muscle power. He sees no role for intelligence in human achievement. He relies on Dagny and Ellis Wyatt to run things, and resents them for doing it, because it appears to him like they are just bossing people around.\n",
"BULLET::::- Ted Nielsen is the head of Nielsen Motors. He eventually goes on strike, along with most of the other industrialist \"producer\" types, by closing his motor factory. Dagny later finds him when she visits Galt's Gulch for the first time.\n",
"BULLET::::- Betty Pope is a wealthy socialite who is having a meaningless sexual affair with James Taggart. She is deliberately crude in a way that casts ridicule on her high social position.\n",
"BULLET::::- Dr. Potter holds some undefined position with the State Science Institute. He is sent to try to obtain the rights to Rearden Metal.\n",
"BULLET::::- Dr. Simon Pritchett is the prestigious head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University and is considered the leading philosopher of the age. He believes that man is nothing but a collection of chemicals, reason is a superstition, it is futile to seek meaning in life, and the duty of a philosopher is to show that nothing can be understood.\n",
"BULLET::::- Rearden's mother, whose name is not mentioned, lives with Rearden at his home in Philadelphia. She is involved in charity work, and berates Rearden whenever she can. She dotes on her weak son Philip Rearden.\n",
"BULLET::::- Philip Rearden is the younger brother of Hank Rearden. He lives in his brother's home in Philadelphia and is completely dependent on him. He is resentful of his brother's charity.\n",
"BULLET::::- Dwight Sanders owns Sanders Aircraft, a producer of high-quality airplanes, and joins the strike.\n",
"BULLET::::- Bertram Scudder is an editorial writer for the magazine \"The Future\". He typically bashes business and businessmen, but he never says anything specific in his articles, relying on innuendo, sneers, and denunciation. He wrote a hatchet job on Hank Rearden called \"The Octopus\". He is also vocal in support of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. Scudder claims that the most important thing in life is \"brother love\" but seems to have nothing but hatred for those around him. He loses his job after Dagny Taggart reveals her affair with Hank Rearden over air on his radio show.\n",
"BULLET::::- Claude Slagenhop is president of political organization Friends of Global Progress and one of Lillian Rearden's friends. He believes that ideas are just air, that this is no time for talk, but for action. Global Progress is a sponsor of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill.\n",
"BULLET::::- Gerald and Ivy Starnes are the two surviving children of Jed Starnes, the founder of the Twentieth Century Motor Company. Together with their since-deceased brother Eric, they instituted a communistic payment-and-benefits program that drove the company into bankruptcy. Gerald, a dying alcoholic, and Ivy, a pseudo-Buddhist ascetic, continue to insist that the plan was perfect and that the failure of their father's company was entirely due to the workers. Eric was a weak, attention-seeking man with a pathological desire to be loved. He committed suicide after the woman he loved married another man. Gerald claims that he always acted for the good of the employees, but he was vain and incompetent and often threw lavish parties using company funds. Ivy, on the other hand, is described as a sadist who relishes seeing others in poverty, but who has no desire for wealth of her own.\n",
"BULLET::::- Andrew Stockton runs the Stockton Foundry in Stockton, Colorado. When he joins the strike, he opens a foundry in Galt's Gulch.\n",
"BULLET::::- Nathaniel \"Nat\" Taggart was the founder of Taggart Transcontinental. He built his railroad without any government handouts, and ran the business for no other reason than to turn a profit. He began as a penniless adventurer and ended up as one of the wealthiest men in the country. He never earned money by force or fraud (except for bribing government officials and throwing an opponent down a flight of stairs), and never apologized for becoming wealthy and successful. He was one of the most hated men of his time. Dagny is often inspired by looking at a statue of Nat Taggart at the railroad headquarters, and draws a dollar sign on its base as a signal to Francisco when she is ready to join Galt's strike. It is suspected that he is modeled after James Jerome Hill, builder of the Great Northern Railroad.\n",
"BULLET::::- Mr. Thompson is the \"Head of the State\" for the United States. He is not particularly intelligent and has a very undistinguished look. He knows politics, however, and is a master of public relations and back-room deals. Rand's notes indicate that she modeled him on President Harry S. Truman, and that she deliberately decided not to call him \"President of the United States\" as this title has \"honorable connotations\" which the character does not deserve.\n",
"BULLET::::- Lester Tuck is the campaign manager for Kip Chalmers and one of his guests on the train trip to California. He dies in the Taggart Tunnel disaster.\n",
"BULLET::::- Clem Weatherby is a government representative on the board of directors of Taggart Transcontinental. Dagny considers him the least bad of the government representatives, since he does have some real knowledge on the running of trains. She notices, however, that he is the least appreciated by his own bosses.\n",
"BULLET::::- The Wet Nurse (Tony) is a young bureaucrat sent by the government to watch over Rearden's mills. Though he starts out as a cynical follower of the looters' code, his experience at the mills transforms him, and he comes to respect and admire the producers. He is shot attempting to inform Hank Rearden about a government plot, but does succeed in warning Rearden just before he dies.\n",
"BULLET::::- Ellis Wyatt is the head of Wyatt Oil. He has almost single-handedly revived the economy of Colorado by discovering a new process for extracting more oil from what were thought to be exhausted oil wells. When first introduced, he is aggressive towards Dagny, whom he does not yet know and whom he blames for what are, in fact, her brother's policies which directly threaten his business. When the government passes laws and decrees which make it impossible for him to continue, he sets all his oil wells on fire, leaving a jeering note: \"I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours.\" One particular burning well that resists all efforts to extinguish it becomes known as \"Wyatt's Torch\". Later Dagny meets him in Galt's Gulch.\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- Website with comprehensive list of individuals mentioned in Atlas Shrugged\n"
] |
Alien
|
[
"Alien\n",
"Alien primarily refers to:\n",
"BULLET::::- Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth\n",
"BULLET::::- Specifically, intelligent extraterrestrial beings; see List of alleged extraterrestrial beings\n",
"BULLET::::- Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country\n",
"Alien(s), or The Alien(s) may also refer to:\n",
"Section::::Science and technology.\n",
"BULLET::::- Introduced species, a species not native to its environment\n",
"BULLET::::- Alien (file converter), a Linux program\n",
"BULLET::::- AliEn (ALICE Environment), a grid framework\n",
"BULLET::::- Alien Technology, a manufacturer of RFID technology\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (franchise), a media franchise\n",
"BULLET::::- Alien (creature in \"Alien\" franchise)\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.:Films.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (film), a 1979 film by Ridley Scott\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aliens\" (film), the 1986 sequel by James Cameron\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien 3\", third film in the series from 1992 by David Fincher\n",
"BULLET::::- \"\", a 1980 unofficial sequel of the 1979 \"Alien\" film\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Alien\" (unproduced film), an incomplete 1960s IndianAmerican film\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Alien\" (2016 film), a 2016 Mexican film\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.:Literature.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aliens\" (Tappan Wright novel), a 1902 novel by Mary Tappan Wright\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Aliens\" (play), a 2010 play by Annie Baker\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Alien\" (Animorphs), the eighth book in the \"Animorphs\" series\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" novels, an extension of the \"Alien\" franchise\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.:Music.\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.:Music.:Performers.\n",
"BULLET::::- Alien (band), a 1980s Swedish rock group\n",
"BULLET::::- The Aliens (Australian band), a 1970s new wave group\n",
"BULLET::::- The Aliens (Scottish band), a 2005–2008 rock group\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.:Music.:Albums.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Northlane album)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Strapping Young Lad album)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Tankard album)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (soundtrack)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aliens\" (soundtrack)\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.:Music.:Songs.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Britney Spears song)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Jonas Blue and Sabrina Carpenter song)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Pennywise song)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Third Day song)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aliens\" (Coldplay song)\n",
"BULLET::::- \"My Alien\", a song by Simple Plan on the album \"No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls\"\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a song by Bush on the album \"Sixteen Stone\"\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a song by Erasure on the album \"Loveboat\"\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a song by Japan on the album \"Quiet Life\"\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a song by Lamb on the album \"Fear of Fours\"\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a song by Nerina Pallot on the album \"Dear Frustrated Superstar\"\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a song by P-Model on the album \"Landsale\"\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a song by Thriving Ivory on their self-titled album\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a song by Tokio Hotel on the album \"Humanoid\". Also, fans of the band call themselves Aliens\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Aliens\", a song by Warlord\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.:Video games.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aliens\" (1982 video game), a text-only clone of \"Space Invaders\" written for the CP/M operating system on the Kaypro computer\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Atari 2600), a 1982 maze game based on the 1979 film\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (1984 video game), based on the film\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aliens\" (1990 video game), a game by Konami, based on the sequel of the film\n",
"BULLET::::- \"\", a 2014 video game based on the \"Alien\" science fiction horror film series\n",
"Section::::Arts and entertainment.:Other media.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (Armenian TV series), a 2017 melodrama series\n",
"BULLET::::- \"The Aliens\" (TV series), 2016 British sci-fi television series\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\" (sculpture), a 2012 work by David Breuer-Weil, in Mottisfont, Hampshire, England\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Aliens\" (Dark Horse Comics line)\n",
"Section::::Other uses.\n",
"BULLET::::- Alien (shipping company), a Russian company\n",
"BULLET::::- Alien Sun (born 1974), Singaporean actress\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Alien\", a perfume by Thierry Mugler\n",
"Section::::See also.\n",
"BULLET::::- Astrobiology, the study of hypothetical alien life\n",
"BULLET::::- Alien vs. Predator (disambiguation)\n",
"BULLET::::- Alians, an Islamic order\n",
"BULLET::::- \"ATLiens\", a 1996 album by OutKast\n",
"BULLET::::- Unidentified flying object (disambiguation)\n",
"BULLET::::- UFO (disambiguation)\n"
] |
Agricultural science
|
[
"Agricultural science\n",
"Agricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. (Veterinary science, but not animal science, is often excluded from the definition.)\n",
"Section::::Agriculture, agricultural science, and agronomy.\n",
"The three terms are often confused. However, they cover different concepts:\n",
"BULLET::::- Agriculture is the set of activities that transform the environment for the production of animals and plants for human use. Agriculture concerns techniques, including the application of agronomic research.\n",
"BULLET::::- Agronomy is research and development related to studying and improving plant-based crops.\n",
"Agricultural sciences include research and development on:\n",
"BULLET::::- Plant Breeding and Genetics\n",
"BULLET::::- Plant Pathology\n",
"BULLET::::- Horticulture\n",
"BULLET::::- Soil Science\n",
"BULLET::::- Entomology\n",
"BULLET::::- Production techniques (e.g., irrigation management, recommended nitrogen inputs)\n",
"BULLET::::- Improving agricultural productivity in terms of quantity and quality (e.g., selection of drought-resistant crops and animals, development of new pesticides, yield-sensing technologies, simulation models of crop growth, in-vitro cell culture techniques)\n",
"BULLET::::- Minimizing the effects of pests (weeds, insects, pathogens, nematodes) on crop or animal production systems.\n",
"BULLET::::- Transformation of primary products into end-consumer products (e.g., production, preservation, and packaging of dairy products)\n",
"BULLET::::- Prevention and correction of adverse environmental effects (e.g., soil degradation, waste management, bioremediation)\n",
"BULLET::::- Theoretical production ecology, relating to crop production modeling\n",
"BULLET::::- Traditional agricultural systems, sometimes termed subsistence agriculture, which feed most of the poorest people in the world. These systems are of interest as they sometimes retain a level of integration with natural ecological systems greater than that of industrial agriculture, which may be more sustainable than some modern agricultural systems.\n",
"BULLET::::- Food production and demand on a global basis, with special attention paid to the major producers, such as China, India, Brazil, the US and the EU.\n",
"BULLET::::- Various sciences relating to agricultural resources and the environment (e.g. soil science, agroclimatology); biology of agricultural crops and animals (e.g. crop science, animal science and their included sciences, e.g. ruminant nutrition, farm animal welfare); such fields as agricultural economics and rural sociology; various disciplines encompassed in agricultural engineering.\n",
"Section::::Agriculture, agricultural science, and agronomy.:Agricultural biotechnology.\n",
"Agricultural biotechnology is a specific area of agricultural science involving the use of scientific tools and techniques, including genetic engineering, molecular markers, molecular diagnostics, vaccines, and tissue culture, to modify living organisms: plants, animals, and microorganisms.\n",
"Section::::Fertilizer.\n",
"One of the most common yield reducers is because of fertilizer not being applied in slightly higher quantities during transition period, the time it takes the soil to rebuild its aggregates and organic matter. Yields will decrease temporarily because of nitrogen being immobilized in the crop residue, which can take a few months to several years to decompose, depending on the crop's C to N ratio and the local environment.\n",
"Section::::History.\n",
"In the 18th century, Johann Friedrich Mayer conducted experiments on the use of gypsum (hydrated calcium sulphate) as a fertilizer.\n",
"In 1843, John Lawes and Joseph Henry Gilbert began a set of long-term field experiments at Rothamsted Research Station in England; some of them are still running.\n",
"In the United States, a scientific revolution in agriculture began with the Hatch Act of 1887, which used the term \"agricultural science\". The Hatch Act was driven by farmers' interest in knowing the constituents of early artificial fertilizer. The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 shifted agricultural education back to its vocational roots, but the scientific foundation had been built. After 1906, public expenditures on agricultural research in the US exceeded private expenditures for the next 44 years.\n",
"Section::::Prominent agricultural scientists.\n",
"BULLET::::- Robert Bakewell\n",
"BULLET::::- Norman Borlaug\n",
"BULLET::::- Luther Burbank\n",
"BULLET::::- George Washington Carver\n",
"BULLET::::- Carl Henry Clerk\n",
"BULLET::::- George C. Clerk\n",
"BULLET::::- René Dumont\n",
"BULLET::::- Sir Albert Howard\n",
"BULLET::::- Kailas Nath Kaul\n",
"BULLET::::- Justus von Liebig\n",
"BULLET::::- Jay Lush\n",
"BULLET::::- Gregor Mendel\n",
"BULLET::::- Louis Pasteur\n",
"BULLET::::- M. S. Swaminathan\n",
"BULLET::::- Jethro Tull\n",
"BULLET::::- Artturi Ilmari Virtanen\n",
"BULLET::::- Eli Whitney\n",
"BULLET::::- Sewall Wright\n",
"BULLET::::- Wilbur Olin Atwater\n",
"Section::::Fields or related disciplines.\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural biotechnology\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural chemistry\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural diversification\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural education\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural economics\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural engineering\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural geography\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural philosophy\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural marketing\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural soil science\n",
"BULLET::::- Agroecology\n",
"BULLET::::- Agrophysics\n",
"BULLET::::- Animal science\n",
"BULLET::::- Animal breeding\n",
"BULLET::::- Animal husbandry\n",
"BULLET::::- Animal nutrition\n",
"BULLET::::- Farm management\n",
"BULLET::::- Agronomy\n",
"BULLET::::- Botany\n",
"BULLET::::- Theoretical production ecology\n",
"BULLET::::- Horticulture\n",
"BULLET::::- Plant breeding\n",
"BULLET::::- Plant fertilization\n",
"BULLET::::- Aquaculture\n",
"BULLET::::- Biological engineering\n",
"BULLET::::- Genetic engineering\n",
"BULLET::::- Nematology\n",
"BULLET::::- Microbiology\n",
"BULLET::::- Plant pathology\n",
"BULLET::::- Range management\n",
"BULLET::::- Environmental science\n",
"BULLET::::- Entomology\n",
"BULLET::::- Food science\n",
"BULLET::::- Human nutrition\n",
"BULLET::::- Irrigation and water management\n",
"BULLET::::- Soil science\n",
"BULLET::::- Agrology\n",
"BULLET::::- Waste management\n",
"BULLET::::- Weed science\n",
"Section::::See also.\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural Research Council\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural sciences basic topics\n",
"BULLET::::- Agriculture ministry\n",
"BULLET::::- Agroecology\n",
"BULLET::::- American Society of Agronomy\n",
"BULLET::::- Genomics of domestication\n",
"BULLET::::- History of agricultural science\n",
"BULLET::::- Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences\n",
"BULLET::::- International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development\n",
"BULLET::::- International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI\n",
"BULLET::::- List of agriculture topics\n",
"BULLET::::- National FFA Organization\n",
"BULLET::::- Research Institute of Crop Production (RICP) (in the Czech Republic)\n",
"BULLET::::- University of Agricultural Sciences\n",
"Section::::Further reading.\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural Research, Livelihoods, and Poverty: Studies of Economic and Social Impacts in Six Countries Edited by Michelle Adato and Ruth Meinzen-Dick (2007), Johns Hopkins University Press Food Policy Report\n",
"BULLET::::- Claude Bourguignon, \"Regenerating the Soil: From Agronomy to Agrology\", Other India Press, 2005\n",
"BULLET::::- Pimentel David, Pimentel Marcia, \"Computer les kilocalories\", Cérès, n. 59, sept-oct. 1977\n",
"BULLET::::- Russell E. Walter, \"Soil conditions and plant growth\", Longman group, London, New York 1973\n",
"BULLET::::- Salamini Francesco, Oezkan Hakan, Brandolini Andrea, Schaefer-Pregl Ralf, Martin William, \"Genetics and geography of wild cereal domestication in the Near East\", in Nature, vol. 3, ju. 2002\n",
"BULLET::::- Saltini Antonio, \"Storia delle scienze agrarie\", 4 vols, Bologna 1984-89, , , ,\n",
"BULLET::::- Vavilov Nicolai I. (Starr Chester K. editor), \"The Origin, Variation, Immunity and Breeding of Cultivated Plants. Selected Writings\", in Chronica botanica, 13: 1-6, Waltham, Mass., 1949–50\n",
"BULLET::::- Vavilov Nicolai I., \"World Resources of Cereals, Leguminous Seed Crops and Flax,\" Academy of Sciences of Urss, National Science Foundation, Washington, Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem 1960\n",
"BULLET::::- Winogradsky Serge, \"Microbiologie du sol. Problèmes et methodes. Cinquante ans de recherches,\" Masson & c.ie, Paris 1949\n",
"Section::::External links.\n",
"BULLET::::- Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural Research Service\n",
"BULLET::::- Indian Council of Agricultural Research\n",
"BULLET::::- International Institute of Tropical Agriculture\n",
"BULLET::::- International Livestock Research Institute\n",
"BULLET::::- The National Agricultural Library (NAL) - The most comprehensive agricultural library in the world.\n",
"BULLET::::- Crop Science Society of America\n",
"BULLET::::- American Society of Agronomy\n",
"BULLET::::- Soil Science Society of America\n",
"BULLET::::- Agricultural Science Researchers, Jobs and Discussions\n",
"BULLET::::- Information System for Agriculture and Food Research\n",
"BULLET::::- South Dakota Agricultural Laboratories\n",
"BULLET::::- NMSU Department of Entomology Plant Pathology and Weed Science\n"
] |
Austin (disambiguation)
|
[
"Austin (disambiguation)\n",
"Austin is the capital of Texas in the United States.\n",
"Austin may also refer to:\n",
"Section::::People names.\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin (name) - a short form of Augustin, or Augustine\n",
"BULLET::::- Augustin (disambiguation)\n",
"BULLET::::- Augustine (disambiguation)\n",
"BULLET::::- August (disambiguation)\n",
"Section::::Geographical locations.\n",
"Section::::Geographical locations.:Australia.\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Western Australia\n",
"Section::::Geographical locations.:Canada.\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Manitoba\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Ontario\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Quebec\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin Island, Nunavut\n",
"Section::::Geographical locations.:France.\n",
"BULLET::::- Saint-Austin, hamlet at la Neuville-Chant-d'Oisel, Normandy\n",
"Section::::Geographical locations.:United States of America.\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Arkansas\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Colorado\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Illinois:\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin Township, Macon County, Illinois\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Indiana\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Kentucky\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Minnesota\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Missouri\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Nevada\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Ohio\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Oregon\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, Texas\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin County, Texas (note that the city of Austin, Texas is located in Travis County)\n",
"Section::::Schools.\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin College, Sherman, Texas\n",
"BULLET::::- University of Texas at Austin, flagship institution of the University of Texas System\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee\n",
"Section::::Religion.\n",
"BULLET::::- Augustine of Hippo or Augustine of Canterbury\n",
"BULLET::::- An adjective for the Augustinians\n",
"Section::::Business.\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin Automobile Company, short-lived American automobile company\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin (brand), a brand owned by the Kellogg Company\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin Motor Company, British car manufacturer\n",
"BULLET::::- American Austin Car Company, short-lived American automobile maker\n",
"Section::::Entertainment.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Austin\" (song), a single by Blake Shelton\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin, a kangaroo Beanie Baby produced by Ty, Inc.\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin the kangaroo from the children's television series \"The Backyardigans\"\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin Moon, titular character in the television show \"Austin & Ally\"\n",
"Section::::Other uses.\n",
"BULLET::::- USS \"Austin\", three ships\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin station (disambiguation), various public transportation stations\n",
"BULLET::::- \"Austin\" (building), a building designed by artist Ellsworth Kelly under construction in Austin, Texas\n",
"BULLET::::- Austin Allegro, a small family car that was manufactured by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1973 until 1982\n",
"Section::::See also.\n",
"BULLET::::- Austen (disambiguation)\n",
"BULLET::::- Augustine (disambiguation)\n",
"BULLET::::- Justice Austin (disambiguation)\n"
] |
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