History.

The origins of narratology lend to it a strong association with the structuralist quest for a formal system of useful description applicable to any narrative content, by analogy with the grammars used as a basis for parsing sentences in some forms of linguistics. This procedure does not however typify all work described as narratological today; Percy Lubbock's work in point of view ("The Craft of Fiction", 1921) offers a case in point.  In 1966 a special issue of the journal "Communications" proved highly influential, becoming considered a program for research into the field and even a manifesto. It included articles by Barthes, Claude Brémond, Genette, Greimas, Todorov and others, which in turn often referred to the works of Vladimir Propp (1895–1970).  Jonathan Culler (2001) describes narratology as comprising many strands implicitly united in the recognition that narrative theory requires a distinction between "story," a sequence of actions or events conceived as independent of their manifestation in discourse, and "discourse," the discursive presentation or narration of events.' The Russian Formalists first proposed such a distinction, employing the couplet fabula and sujet. A subsequent succession of alternate pairings has preserved the essential binomial impulse, e.g. "histoire"/"discours", "histoire"/"récit", "story"/"plot". The Structuralist assumption that one can investigate fabula and sujet separately gave birth to two quite different traditions: thematic (Propp, Bremond, Greimas, Dundes, et al.) and modal (Genette, Prince, et al.) narratology. The former is mainly limited to a semiotic formalization of the sequences of the actions told, while the latter examines the manner of their telling, stressing voice, point of view, transformation of the chronological order, rhythm and frequency. Many authors (Sternberg, 1993, Ricoeur, 1984, and Baroni, 2007) have insisted that thematic and modal narratology should not be looked at separately, especially when dealing with the function and interest of narrative sequence and plot.

Applications.

Designating work as narratological is to some extent dependent more on the academic discipline in which it takes place than any theoretical position advanced. The approach is applicable to any narrative, and in its classic studies, vis-a-vis Propp, non-literary narratives were commonly taken up. Still the term "narratology" is most typically applied to literary theory and literary criticism, as well as film theory and (to a lesser extent) film criticism. Atypical applications of narratological methodologies would include sociolinguistic studies of oral storytelling (William Labov) and in conversation analysis or discourse analysis that deal with narratives arising in the course of spontaneous verbal interaction. It also includes the study of videogames, graphic novels, the infinite canvas, and narrative sculptures linked to topology and graph theory. However, constituent analysis of a type where narremes are considered to be the basic units of narrative structure could fall within the areas of linguistics, semiotics, or literary theory.

Narratology in new media.

Digital-media theorist and professor Janet Murray theorized a shift in storytelling and narrative structure in the twentieth century as a result of scientific advancement in her 1998 book "Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace". Murray argues that narrative structures such as the multi-narrative more accurately reflected "post-Einstein physics" and the new perceptions of time, process, and change, than the traditional linear narrative. The unique properties of computers are better-suited for expressing these "limitless, intersecting" stories or "cyberdramas." These cyberdramas differ from traditional forms of storytelling in that they invite the reader into the narrative experience through interactivity i.e. hypertext fiction and Web soap "The Spot." Murray also controversially declared that video games – particularly role-playing games and life-simulators like "The Sims", contain narrative structures or invite the users to create them. She supported this idea in her article "Game Story to Cyberdrama" in which she argued that stories and games share two important structures: contest and puzzles.

Electronic literature and cybertext.

Development and exclusive consumption on digital devices and interactivity are key characteristics of electronic literature. This has resulted in varying narrative structures of these interactive media. Nonlinear narratives serve as the base of many interactive fictions. Sometimes used interchangeably with hypertext fiction, the reader or player plays a significant role in the creation of a unique narrative developed by the choices they make within the story-world. Stuart Moulthrop's "Victory Garden" is one of the first and most studied examples of hypertext fiction, featuring 1,000 lexias and 2,800 hyperlinks.  In his book "Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature," Espen Aarseth conceived the concept of cybertext, a subcategory of ergodic literature, to explain how the medium and mechanical organization of the text affects the reader's experience: ...when you read from a cybertext, you are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard. Each decision will make some parts of the text more, and others less, accessible, and you may never know the exact results of your choices; that is, exactly what you missed. The narrative structure or game-worlds of these cybertexts are compared to a labyrinth that invites the player, a term Aarseth deems more appropriate than reader, to play, explore and discover paths within these texts. Two kinds of labyrinths which are referenced by Aarseth are the unicursal labyrinth which holds one single, winding path that leads to a hidden center, and the multicursal labyrinth, synonymous with a maze, which is branching and complex with the path and direction chosen by the player. These concepts help to distinguish between ergodic (unicursal) and nonergodic literature (multicursal). Some works such as Vladimir Nabokov's "Pale Fire" have proven to potentially be both depending on the path the reader takes.

Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French "narratologie", coined by Tzvetan Todorov ("Grammaire du Décaméron", 1969). Its theoretical lineage is traceable to Aristotle ("Poetics") but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the Russian Formalists, particularly Vladimir Propp ("Morphology of the Folktale", 1928), and Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of heteroglossia, dialogism, and the chronotope first presented in "The Dialogic Imagination" (1975).


History.

Antiquity.

Samothrace was not a state of any political significance in ancient Greece, since it has no natural harbour and most of the island is too mountainous for cultivation: Mount Fengari (literally 'Mt. Moon') rises to. It was, however, the home of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, site of important Hellenic and pre-Hellenic religious ceremonies. Among those who visited this shrine to be initiated into the island cult were Lysander of Sparta, Philip II of Macedon and Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, father-in-law of Julius Caesar.  The ancient city, the ruins of which are called Palaeopoli ("old city"), was situated on the north coast. Considerable remains still exist of the ancient walls, which were built in massive Cyclopean style, as well as of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, where mysterious rites (Samothracian Mysteries) took place which were open to both slaves and free people (similar to the Eleusinian Mysteries). Demetrios of Skepsis mention the Samothracian Mysteries.  The traditional account from antiquity is that Samothrace was first inhabited by Pelasgians and Carians, and later Thracians. At the end of the 8th century BC the island was colonised by Greeks from Samos, from which the name Samos of Thrace, that later became Samothrace; however, Strabo denies this. The archaeological evidence suggests that Greek settlement was in the sixth century BC.  The Persians occupied Samothrace in 508 BC, it later passed under Athenian control, and was a member of the Delian League in the 5th century BC. It was subjugated by Philip II, and from then till 168 BC it was under Macedonian suzerainty. With the battle of Pydna Samothrace became independent, a condition that ended when Vespasian absorbed the island in the Roman Empire in AD 70.  The island is mentioned in the King James Version of the Bible, with the name "Samothracia".  During the Roman and particularly the imperial period, thanks to the interest of the Roman emperors, the radiation of the sanctuary of the Great Gods surpassed Greek borders and Samothrace became an international religious center, where pilgrims flocked from all over the Roman world. Apart from the famous sanctuary, also playing a decisive role in the great development of Samothrace were her two ports, situated on the sea road Troas – Macedonia. Furthermore, an important role was played by her possessions in Perea, which were conceded by the Romans at least during the imperial period, as evidenced by inscriptions of the 1st AD century.  The Book of Acts in the Christian Bible records that the Apostle Paul, on his second missionary journey outside of Palestine, sailed from Troas to Samothrace and spent one night there on his way to Macedonia.

Middle Ages to Modern era.

St. Theophanes died in Samothrace in 818. The Byzantines ruled until 1204, when Venetians took their place, only to be dislodged by a Genoan family in 1355, the Gattilusi. The Ottoman Empire conquered it in 1457 and it was called in Turkish; an insurrection against them by the local population during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1831) led to the massacre of 1,000 inhabitants. The island came under Greek rule in 1913 following the Balkan Wars. It was occupied temporarily by Bulgaria during the Second World War, from 1941 to 1944.

Today.

The modern port town of Kamariotissa is on the north-west coast and provides ferry access to and from points in northern Greece such as Alexandroupoli and Kavala. There is no commercial airport on the island. Other sites of interest on the island include the ruins of Genoese forts, the picturesque "Chora" (literally "village") and 'Paliapoli' (literally "Old Town"), and several waterfalls.  A 2019 article estimated that the current population of goats on the island outnumbered humans by about 15 to 1, resulting in unwanted erosion as a result of overgrazing.

Landmarks.

The island's most famous site is the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Greek "Hieron ton Megalon Theon" ; the most famous artifact of which is the 2.5-metre marble statue of Nike, now known as the Winged Victory of Samothrace, dating from about 190 BC. It was discovered in pieces on the island in 1863 by the French archaeologist Charles Champoiseau, and is now—headless—in the Louvre in Paris. The Winged Victory is featured on the island's municipal seal.

Province.

The province of Samothrace () was one of the provinces of the Evros Prefecture. It had the same territory as the present municipality. It was abolished in 2006.

Samothrace (also known as Samothraki,, ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a municipality within the Evros regional unit of Thrace. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,859 (2011 census). Its main industries are fishing and tourism. Resources on the island include granite and basalt. Samothrace is one of the most rugged Greek islands, with Mt. Saos and its tip Fengari rising to.


History.

Investigation of ancient stone huts found on the island indicate that it has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC. Thucydides identifies the original inhabitants as piratical Carians who were eventually expelled by King Minos of Crete. By the time of the Odyssey the island was already famous as the birthplace of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis (although there seems to be some confusion of Artemis' birthplace being either Delos or the island of Ortygia). Indeed, between 900 BC and 100 AD, sacred Delos was a major cult centre, where Dionysus is also in evidence as well as the Titaness Leto, mother of the above-mentioned twin deities. Eventually acquiring Panhellenic religious significance, Delos was initially a religious pilgrimage for the Ionians.  A number of "purifications" were performed by the city-state of Athens in an attempt to render the island fit for the proper worship of the gods. The first took place in the 6th century BC, directed by the tyrant Pisistratus who ordered that all graves within sight of the temple be dug up and the bodies moved to another nearby island. In the 5th century BC, during the 6th year of the Peloponnesian war and under instruction from the Delphic Oracle, the entire island was purged of all dead bodies. It was then ordered that no one should be allowed to either die or give birth on the island due to its sacred importance and to preserve its neutrality in commerce, since no one could then claim ownership through inheritance. Immediately after this purification, the first quinquennial festival of the Delian games were celebrated there.  Four years later, all inhabitants of the island were removed to Atramyttium in Asia as a further purification.  After the Persian Wars the island became the natural meeting-ground for the Delian League, founded in 478 BC, the congresses being held in the temple (a separate quarter was reserved for foreigners and the sanctuaries of foreign deities). The League's common treasury was kept here as well until 454 BC when Pericles removed it to Athens.  The island had no productive capacity for food, fiber, or timber, with such being imported. Limited water was exploited with an extensive cistern and aqueduct system, wells, and sanitary drains. Various regions operated agoras (markets).  Strabo states that in 166 BC the Romans converted Delos into a free port, which was partially motivated by seeking to damage the trade of Rhodes, at the time the target of Roman hostility. In 167 or 166 BC, after the Roman victory in the Third Macedonian War, the Roman Republic ceded the island of Delos to the Athenians, who expelled most of the original inhabitants. Roman traders came to purchase tens of thousands of slaves captured by the Cilician pirates or captured in the wars following the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire. It became the center of the slave trade, with the largest slave market in the larger region being maintained here.  The Roman destruction of Corinth in 146 BC allowed Delos to at least partially assume Corinth's role as the premier trading center of Greece. However, Delos' commercial prosperity, construction activity, and population waned significantly after the island was assaulted by the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus in 88 and 69 BC, during the Mithridatic Wars with Rome. Before the end of the 1st century BC, trade routes had changed; Delos was replaced by Puteoli as the chief focus of Italian trade with the East, and as a cult-centre too it entered a sharp decline. Due to the inadequate natural sources of food and water, and the above history, unlike other Greek islands, Delos did not have an indigenous, self-supporting community of its own. As a result, in later times it was uninhabited.  Since 1872 the École française d'Athènes ("French School of Athens") has been excavating the island, the complex of buildings of which compares with those of Delphi and Olympia. In 1990, UNESCO inscribed Delos on the World Heritage List, citing it as the "exceptionally extensive and rich" archaeological site which "conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port".  Iamblichus writes that there were Delos Mysteries (similar to the Eleusinian Mysteries).

Current population.

The 2001 Greek census reported a population of 14 inhabitants on the island. The island is administratively a part of the municipality of Mýkonos.

The island of Delos (; ; Attic:, Doric: ), near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island are among the most extensive in the Mediterranean; ongoing work takes place under the direction of the French School at Athens, and many of the artifacts found are on display at the Archaeological Museum of Delos and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.


History.

Herodotus mentions Carians as the original inhabitants of the island. Ionians from Athens seem to have followed next in the early 11th century BC. There were many people living on the neighbouring island of Delos, only away, which meant that Mykonos became an important place for supplies and transit. It was, however, during ancient times a rather poor island with limited agricultural resources. Its inhabitants were polytheists and worshipped many gods.  Mykonos came under the control of the Romans during the reign of the Roman Empire and then became part of the Byzantine Empire until the 12th century. In 1204, with the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, Mykonos was occupied by Andrea Ghisi. The island was ravaged by the Catalans at the end of the 13th century and finally given over to direct Venetian rule in 1390.  In 1537, while the Venetians still reigned, Mykonos was attacked by Hayreddin Barbarossa, the admiral of Suleiman the Magnificent and an Ottoman fleet established itself on the island. The Ottomans, under the leadership of Kapudan Pasha, imposed a system of self-governance comprising a governor and an appointed council of "syndics". When the castle of Tinos fell to the Ottomans in 1718, the last of the Venetians withdrew from the region.  Up until the end of the 18th century, Mykonos prospered as a trading centre, attracting many immigrants from nearby islands, in addition to regular pirate raids. In June 1794 the Battle of Mykonos was fought between British and French ships in the island's main harbour.  The Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire broke out in 1821 and Mykonos played an important role, led by the national heroine, Manto Mavrogenous. Mavrogenous, a well-educated aristocrat guided by the ideas of the Enlightenment, sacrificed her family's fortune for the Greek cause. Greece became an independent state in 1830. A statue of her sits in the middle of Mando Mavrogenous square in the main town.  As a result of sailing and merchant activity, the island's economy quickly picked up but declined again during the late 19th century and especially after the opening of the Corinth Canal in 1904 and the First World War at the beginning of the 20th century. Many Mykonians left the island to find work in mainland Greece and many foreign countries, especially the United States.  Tourism soon came to dominate the local economy, owing a lot to the important excavations carried out by the French School of Archaeology, which began work in Delos in 1873.

Mythology.

In Greek mythology, Mykonos was named after its first ruler, Mykonos (Μύκονος), the son or grandson of the god Apollo and a local hero. The island is also said to have been the location of the "Gigantomachy", the great battle between Zeus and Giants and where Hercules killed the invincible giants having lured them from the protection of Mount Olympus. According to myth, the large rocks all over the island are said to be the petrified corpses of the giants.

Geography.

The island has an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. It is situated east of Athens in the Aegean Sea. The island features no rivers, but numerous seasonal streams two of which have been converted into reservoirs.  The island is composed mostly of granite and the terrain is very rocky with many areas eroded by the strong winds. High quality clay and baryte, which is a mineral used as a lubricant in oil drilling, were mined on the eastern side of Mykonos until the late 1900s.  It produces of water daily, by reverse osmosis of sea water in order to help meet the needs of its population and visitors.  The island has a population of nearly 12,500, most of whom live in the main town of Chora.

Climate.

Mykonos has a Mediterranean climate. The sun shines for up to 300 days a year. The rainy season lasts from October until March. Vegetation follows the typical pattern for the region and grows around mid-autumn and ends in the beginning of the summer.  Although temperatures can rise as high as in the summer months, average high temperature is around and because of the seasonal cool "meltemi" wind, summer days are dry, sunny and pleasant. In the winter, average high temperature is around. The winters in general are mild and wet, with many sunny days still even in mid-winter. Snow is infrequent and doesn't stay long on the ground when it falls.

Villages.

There are ten villages:

Cuisine.

Local specialities:

Government.

The municipality of Mykonos (officially: ) is a separate regional unit of the South Aegean region, and the sole municipality in the regional unit. As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Mykonos was created out of part of the former Cyclades Prefecture. The municipality, unchanged at the Kallikratis reform, also includes the islands Delos, Rineia and several uninhabited islets. The total area of the municipality is.  The mayors of Mykonos have been:

Demographics.

There are 10,134 inhabitants (2011) most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, also known as "Chora" (i.e. "the Town" in Greek, a common denomination in Greece when the name of the island itself is the same as the name of the principal town).

Economy.

It being a Greek island, the economy of Mykonos is closely linked with the sea. However, with the rise of tourism, it plays a minor role during summer.  The original Neoclassical building underwent refurbishments and expansions in the 1930s and 1960s and the large eastern room was added in 1972. The museum contains artefacts from the neighbouring island Rhenia, including 9th- to 8th-century BC ceramic pottery from the Cyclades and 7th- to 6th-century BC works from other areas in the Aegean. Its most famous item is the large vase produced in Tinos, showing scenes from the fall of Troy.

Landmarks.

Churches.

The reason for the abundance of churches is that for a number of years to build a house, the islanders were required to build a church on their land first.

Transportation.

Mykonos Airport is located southeast of the town of Mykonos and it is served by international flights during summer. The flight from Athens to Mykonos takes 25 minutes.  Mykonos is also accessible by boat and ferries. High speed vessels visit daily from the surrounding islands and from Athens.  Taxis, buses or boats are available for transportation. There are three main bus depots in Mykonos. The northern depot is situated behind Remezzo Club above the old Port and provides regular service to Ano Mera, Elia and Kalafatis. A few hundred meters below, at the Old Port, lays another Depot focusing on the northern destinations of Tourlos (New Port) and Agios Stefanos. The southern Bus Depot is at the town "entrance", called Fabrika and it provides regular service to Ornos, Agios Yannis, Plati Gialos, Psarou, Paraga, and Paradise Beach. Small boats travel to and from the many beaches. Tour boats go regularly to the nearby island of Delos.

Culture.

In 2013 the Mykonos Biennale was inaugurated offering theatrical, cultural, cinematic, artistic, and musical productions.

Notable people.

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Mykonos (, ; ) is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island has an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 10,134 inhabitants according to the 2011 census, most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also known as "Chora" (i.e. "the Town" in Greek, following the common practice in Greece when the name of the island itself is the same as the name of the principal town).


History.

Origins.

The anthem's music was originally composed by Alexander Alexandrov in 1938 for the Hymn of the Bolshevik Party. The opening bars of this song were sampled from one of Alexandrov's previous pieces, "Life Has Become Better", which was based on a quote by former Soviet Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin at the First All-Union Meeting of the Stakhanovites on November 17, 1935. The song alludes to Stalin's cult of personality.  Other than "Life Has Become Better", the music of the anthem has several possible outside influences. Alexandrov himself has described it as the combination of a march with Russian traditional music, particularly that of "bylina" epic songs. The anthem shares several chord progressions with Vasily Kalinnikov's overture "Bylina, Epic Poem" (which, as its name indicates, is also inspired by the "bylina" tradition). There also exist similarities between Alexandrov's anthem and Robert Schumann's "Frühlingsfahrt".  When the Communist International (Comintern) was dissolved in 1943 in order for the Soviet Union to maintain its alliance with the other Allies of World War II, a new composition was needed to replace "The Internationale" as the national anthem. A contest was held in mid to late 1943 for a new anthem, and more than 200 entries were submitted. Alexandrov's music was personally chosen by Stalin, who both praised and criticized it. The anthem's lyrics then had to be written. Stalin thought the song should be short, and that it should invoke the Red Army's impending victory over the forces of Germany on the Eastern Front. The poets Sergey Mikhalkov and Gabriel El-Registan were chosen by Stalin's staffers, called to Moscow, and given the task of writing lyrics which referenced not only the Great Patriotic War, but also "a Country of Soviets". The first draft was completed overnight.  The anthem was first published on 7 November 1943. It was played for the first time on Soviet radio at midnight on 1 January 1944, and officially adopted on 15 March the same year. The new lyrics had three refrains following three different stanzas. In each refrain, the second line was modified to refer to friendship, then happiness, then glory. Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union's war against Germany were originally invoked in the second and third verses, respectively. Reportedly, Stalin was opposed to including his name in the lyrics but relented after some Politburo members insisted.

Post-Stalin era.

With the process of de-Stalinization after Stalin's death, the lyrics referring to him were considered unacceptable, and from 1956 to 1977 the anthem was performed without lyrics. A notable exception took place at the 1976 Canada Cup ice hockey tournament, where singer Roger Doucet insisted on performing the anthem with lyrics after consultations with Russian studies scholars from Université de Montréal and Soviet team officials. In 1977, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution, revised lyrics, written in 1970 by original author Sergey Mikhalkov, were adopted. The varying refrains were replaced by a uniform refrain after all stanzas, and the line praising Stalin was dropped, as were the lines referring to the Great Patriotic War. Another notable change was the replacement of a line referring to the Soviet national flag with one citing the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the form of ""Partiya Lenina"" ("The party of Lenin"). These lyrics were also present in the original party anthem at the same place in the melody, but followed by the lyrics ""Partiya Stalina"" ("The party of Stalin").

Post-1991 use.

Use in the Russian Federation.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation adopted a new wordless anthem, the "Patriotic Song", although there were suggestions for adopting lyrics. As a result, a few different versions were produced. In late 2000, the current national anthem of Russia was introduced, which uses the music of the Soviet national anthem with new lyrics by Sergei Mikhalkov.

State Union of Russia and Belarus.

The same music was used for a proposed anthem for the State Union of Russia and Belarus, entitled "Derzhavny Soyuz Narodov" ("Sovereign Union of Nations"). Its lyrics were not tied to any specific nationality, and there were official versions in the languages of every Soviet republic and several other Soviet languages; thus it could have been adopted by a broader union. However, it was never officially adopted, and there appear to be no plans to utilize it in any official role.

Decommunization.

In some post-Soviet states which adopted decommunization laws banning Communist symbolism, performing the Soviet anthem is illegal. For example, since 2015, offenders in Ukraine face up to five years in prison. Similar laws were adopted in Latvia and Lithuania.

Other.

The anthem has also been used sometimes for humour and memes related to communism on the Internet.  The variation on the anthem, with comical lyrics, was used during the opening of the second series of the BBC comedy sketch show Harry and Paul, starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. The opening montage being a parody of Cold War era Soviet propaganda films, with Enfield and Whitehouse portraying aging Soviet Presidents.

Official translations.

The anthem has been officially translated into several languages:

Lyrics.

This table shows the anthem's various lyrics. As there were two official lyric versions (in 1944 and 1977), both are included within their sections.

The "State Anthem of the Soviet Union" () was the national anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the regional anthem of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1944 to 1991, replacing "The Internationale". Its original lyrics were written by Sergei Mikhalkov (1913–2009) in collaboration with Gabriel El-Registan (1899–1945), and its music composed by Alexander Alexandrov (1883–1946). Following a two decade interval in which the anthem was performed without lyrics a second set of lyrics, also written by Mikhalkov, were adopted in 1977.


History of mushroom use.

Mycophagy, the act of consuming mushrooms, dates back to ancient times. Edible mushroom species have been found in association with 13,000-year-old archaeological sites in Chile. Ötzi, the mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE in Europe, was found with two types of mushroom. The Chinese value mushrooms for supposed medicinal properties as well as for food. Ancient Romans and Greeks, particularly the upper classes, used mushrooms for culinary purposes. Food tasters were employed by Roman emperors to ensure that mushrooms were safe to eat.

Current culinary use.

Commercially cultivated.

Mushroom cultivation has a long history, with over twenty species commercially cultivated. Mushrooms are cultivated in at least 60 countries with China, the United States, Poland, Netherlands, and India being the top five producers in 2013.  A fraction of the many fungi consumed by humans are currently cultivated and sold commercially. Commercial cultivation is important ecologically, as there have been concerns of depletion of larger fungi such as chanterelles in Europe, possibly because the group has grown popular, yet remains a challenge to cultivate.

Commercially harvested wild edibles.

Some species are difficult to cultivate; others (particularly mycorrhizal species) have not yet been successfully cultivated. Some of these species are harvested from the wild, and can be found in markets. When in season they can be purchased fresh, and many species are sold dried as well. The following species are commonly harvested from the wild:

Other edible wild species.

Many wild species are consumed around the world. The species which can be identified "in the field" (without use of special chemistry or a microscope) and therefore safely eaten vary widely from country to country, even from region to region. This list is a sampling of lesser-known species that are reported as edible.

Nutrients.

A commonly eaten mushroom is the white mushroom ("Agaricus bisporus"). In a 100 gram reference amount, "Agaricus" mushrooms provide 22 calories and are 92% water, 3% carbohydrates, 3% protein, and 0.3% fat (table). They contain high levels (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid (24–33% DV), with moderate content of phosphorus (table). Otherwise, raw white mushrooms generally have low amounts of essential nutrients (table). Although cooking (by boiling) lowers mushroom water content only 1%, the contents per 100 grams for several nutrients increase appreciably, especially for dietary minerals (table for boiled mushrooms).  The content of vitamin D is absent or low unless mushrooms are exposed to sunlight or purposely treated with artificial ultraviolet light ("see" below), even after harvesting and processed into dry powder.

Vitamin D.

Mushrooms exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light produce vitamin D before or after harvest by converting ergosterol, a chemical found in large concentrations in mushrooms, to vitamin D. This is similar to the reaction in humans, where vitamin D is synthesized after exposure to sunlight.  Testing showed an hour of UV light exposure before harvesting made a serving of mushrooms contain twice the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's daily recommendation of vitamin D, and 5 minutes of artificial UV light exposure after harvesting made a serving of mushrooms contain four times the FDA's daily recommendation of vitamin D. Analysis also demonstrated that natural sunlight produced vitamin D.  The ergocalciferol, vitamin D, in UV-irradiated mushrooms is not the same form of vitamin D as is produced by UV-irradiation of human or animal skin, fur, or feathers (cholecalciferol, vitamin D). Although vitamin D clearly has vitamin D activity in humans and is widely used in food fortification and in nutritional supplements, vitamin D is more commonly used in dairy and cereal products.

Use in traditional medicine.

Medicinal mushrooms are mushrooms or extracts from mushrooms that are thought to be treatments for diseases, yet remain unconfirmed in mainstream science and medicine, and so are not approved as drugs or medical treatments. Such use of mushrooms therefore falls into the domain of traditional medicine for which there is no high-quality clinical evidence of efficacy.  Preliminary research on mushroom extracts has been conducted to determine if anti-disease properties exist, such as for polysaccharide-K or lentinan. Some extracts have widespread use in Japan, Korea and China, as potential adjuvants to radiation treatments and chemotherapy. As of 2019, there is no evidence that consuming mushrooms or mushroom extracts has any effect on human diseases.

Safety concerns.

Some wild species are toxic, or at least indigestible, when raw. The safety of consuming Reishi mushrooms has not been adequately demonstrated, as of 2019. Reishi mushrooms may cause side effects including dryness of the mouth or throat, itchiness, rash, stomach upset, diarrhea, headache, or allergic reactions. Failure to identify poisonous mushrooms and confusing them with edible ones has resulted in death.

Edible mushrooms are the fleshy and edible fruit bodies of several species of macrofungi (fungi which bear fruiting structures that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye). They can appear either below ground (hypogeous) or above ground (epigeous) where they may be picked by hand. Edibility may be defined by criteria that include absence of poisonous effects on humans and desirable taste and aroma.


Signs and symptoms.

The first symptoms most people notice are difficulty reading fine print, particularly in low light conditions, eyestrain when reading for long periods, blurring of near objects or temporarily blurred vision when changing the viewing distance. Many extreme presbyopes complain that their arms have become "too short" to hold reading material at a comfortable distance.  Presbyopia, like other focal imperfections, becomes less noticeable in bright sunlight when the pupil becomes smaller. As with any lens, increasing the focal ratio of the lens increases depth of field by reducing the level of blur of out-of-focus objects (compare the effect of aperture on depth of field in photography).  The onset of presbyopia varies among those with certain professions and those with miotic pupils. In particular, farmers and homemakers seek correction later, whereas service workers and construction workers seek correction earlier. Scuba divers with interest in underwater photography may notice presbyopic changes while diving before they recognize the symptoms in their normal routines due to the near focus in low light conditions.

Interaction with myopia.

Many people with near-sightedness can read comfortably without eyeglasses or contact lenses even after age forty. However, their myopia does not disappear and the long-distance visual challenges remain. Myopes considering refractive surgery are advised that surgically correcting their nearsightedness may be a disadvantage after age forty, when the eyes become presbyopic and lose their ability to accommodate or change focus, because they will then need to use glasses for reading. Myopes with astigmatism find near vision better, though not perfect, without glasses or contact lenses when presbyopia sets in, but the more astigmatism, the poorer the uncorrected near vision.  A surgical technique offered is to create a "reading eye" and a "distance vision eye", a technique commonly used in contact lens practice, known as monovision. Monovision can be created with contact lenses, so candidates for this procedure can determine if they are prepared to have their corneas reshaped by surgery to cause this effect permanently.

Mechanism.

The cause of presbyopia is lens hardening by decreasing levels of -crystallin, a process which may be sped up by higher temperatures. It results in a near point greater than 25 cm (or equivalently, less than 4 diopters).  In optics, the closest point at which an object can be brought into focus by the eye is called the eye's near point. A standard near point distance of 25 cm is typically assumed in the design of optical instruments, and in characterizing optical devices such as magnifying glasses.  There is some confusion over how the focusing mechanism of the eye works. In the 1977 book, "Eye and Brain", for example, the lens is said to be suspended by a membrane, the 'zonula', which holds it under tension. The tension is released, by contraction of the ciliary muscle, to allow the lens to become more round, for close vision. This implies the ciliary muscle, which is outside the zonula, must be circumferential, contracting like a sphincter, to slacken the tension of the zonula pulling outwards on the lens. This is consistent with the fact that our eyes seem to be in the'relaxed' state when focusing at infinity, and also explains why no amount of effort seems to enable a myopic person to see farther away.  The ability to focus on near objects declines throughout life, from an accommodation of about 20 dioptres (ability to focus at 50 mm away) in a child, to 10 dioptres at age 25 (100 mm), and levels off at 0.5 to 1 dioptre at age 60 (ability to focus down to 1–2 meters only). The expected, maximum, and minimum amplitudes of accommodation in diopters (D) for a corrected patient of a given age can be estimated using Hofstetter's formulas: expected amplitude (D) = 18.5 - 0.3 × (age in years), maximum amplitude (D) = 25 - 0.4 × (age in years), minimum amplitude (D) = 15 - 0.25 × (age in years).

Treatment.

In the visual system, images captured by the eye are translated into electric signals that are transmitted to the brain where they are interpreted. As such, in order to overcome presbyopia, two main components of the visual system can be addressed: the optical system of the eye and the visual processing of the brain.

Corrective lenses.

Corrective lenses provide a range of vision correction, some as high as +4.0 diopter. People with presbyopia choose convex lens for reading glasses; specialized preparations of convex lens usually require the services of an optometrist.  Contact lenses can also be used to correct the focusing loss that comes along with presbyopia. Multifocal contact lenses can be used to correct vision for both the near and the far. Some people choose contact lenses to correct one eye for near and one eye for far with a method called monovision.

Surgery.

Laser surgery has been done to create multifocal corneas. Concerns with this surgery include people's eyes changing with time.

Etymology.

The term is from Greek πρέσβυς "presbys" meaning "old" and ὤψ "ōps" meaning "sight" ( ὠπός "ōpos")).

Research.

Eye drops to constrict the pupil are being studied for presbyopia.

Presbyopia is a condition associated with the aging of the eye that results in progressively worsening ability to focus clearly on close objects. Symptoms include difficulty reading small print, having to hold reading material farther away, headaches, and eyestrain. Different people will have different degrees of problems. Other types of refractive errors may exist at the same time as presbyopia. Presbyopia is a normal part of the aging process. It occurs due to hardening of the lens of the eye, causing the eye to focus light behind rather than on the retina when looking at close objects. It is a type of refractive error along with nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Diagnosis is by an eye examination. Treatment is typically with eyeglasses. The eyeglasses used have higher focusing power in the lower portion of the lens. Off the shelf reading glasses may be sufficient for some. Contact lenses may also occasionally be used. People over 40 are at risk for developing presbyopia and all people become affected to some degree. Around 25% of people (1.8 billion globally) are currently affected. The condition was mentioned as early as the writings of Aristotle in the 4th century BC. Glass lenses first came into use for the problem in the late 13th century.


Causes.

The causes of cellulite include changes in metabolism, physiology, diet and exercise habits, obesity, sex-specific dimorphic skin architecture, alteration of connective tissue structure, hormonal factors, genetic factors, the microcirculatory system, the extracellular matrix, and subtle inflammatory alterations.

Hormonal factors.

Hormones play a dominant role in the formation of cellulite. Estrogen may be the important hormone in the development of cellulite. However, there has been no reliable clinical evidence to support such a claim. Other hormones, including insulin, the catecholamines adrenaline and noradrenaline, thyroid hormones, and prolactin, are all believed to participate in the development of cellulite.

Genetic factors.

There is a genetic element in individual susceptibility to cellulite. Researchers have traced the genetic component of cellulite to particular polymorphisms in the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and hypoxia-inducible factor 1A (HIF1a) genes.

Predisposing factors.

Several factors have been shown to affect the development of cellulite. Sex, ethnicity, biotype, distribution of subcutaneous fat, and predisposition to lymphatic and circulatory insufficiency have all been shown to contribute to cellulite.

Lifestyle.

A high-stress lifestyle will cause an increase in the level of catecholamines, which have also been associated with the development of cellulite.

Treatments.

Cellulite is a multifactorial condition and can be resistant to the array of treatments currently available. Aside from 'topical' products (creams, ointments, etc) and injectables (eg collagenase), treatments for cellulite include non-invasive therapy such as mechanical suction or mechanical massage. Energy-based devices include radio frequency with deep penetration of the skin, ultrasound, laser and pulsed-light devices. Combinations of mechanical treatments and energy-based procedures are widely used. More invasive'subcision' techniques utilise a needle-sized micro-scalpel to cut through the causative fibrous bands of connective tissue. Subcision procedures (manual, vacuum-assisted, or laser-assisted) are performed in specialist clinics with patients given local anaesthetic.

Epidemiology.

Cellulite is thought to occur in 80–90% of post-adolescent females.<ref name="doi 10.1111/j.1468-3083.2009.03556.x"></ref> There appears to be a hormonal component to its presentation. Its existence as a real disorder has been challenged and the prevailing medical opinion is that it is merely the "normal condition of many women". It is rarely seen in males, but is more common in males with androgen-deficient states, such as Klinefelter's syndrome, hypogonadism, postcastration states and in those patients receiving estrogen therapy for prostate cancer. The cellulite becomes more severe as the androgen deficiency worsens in these males.

History.

The term was first used in the 1920s by spa and beauty services to promote their services, and began appearing in English-language publications in the late 1960s, with the earliest reference in "Vogue" magazine, "Like a swift migrating fish, the word "cellulite" has suddenly crossed the Atlantic."

Cellulite is the herniation of subcutaneous fat within fibrous connective tissue that manifests as skin dimpling and nodularity, often on the pelvic region (specifically the buttocks), lower limbs, and abdomen. Cellulite occurs in most postpubescent females. A review gives a prevalence of 85-98% of women, indicating that it is physiologic (caused by the body) rather than pathologic (caused by disease). It can result from a complex combination of factors ranging from hormones to heredity.


Synopsis.

"The Cossacks" is believed to be somewhat autobiographical, partially based on Tolstoy's experiences in the Caucasus during the last stages of the Caucasian War. Tolstoy had a wild time in his youth, engaging in numerous promiscuous partners, heavy drinking and gambling problems; many argue Tolstoy used his own past as inspiration for the protagonist Olenin.  Disenchanted with his privileged life in Russian society, nobleman Dmitry Andreich Olenin joins the army as a cadet, in the hopes of escaping the superficiality of his daily life. On a quest to find "completeness," he naively hopes to find serenity among the "simple" people of the Caucasus. In an attempt to immerse himself in the local culture, he befriends an old man. They drink wine, curse, and hunt pheasant and boar in the Cossack tradition, and Olenin even begins to dress in the manner of a Cossack. He forgets himself and falls in love with the young Maryanka, in spite of her fiancé Lukashka. While spending life as a Cossack, he learns lessons about his own inner life, moral philosophy, and the nature of reality. He also understands the intricacies of human psychology and nature.

Plot summary.

The young idealist Dmitry Andreich Olenin leaves Moscow, hoping to start a new life in the Caucasus. In the stanitsa, he slowly becomes enamored by the surroundings and despises his previous existence. He befriends the old Cossack Eroshka, who goes hunting with him and finds him a good fellow because of his propensity to drinking. During this time, young Cossack Luka kills a Chechen who is trying to come across the river towards the village to scout the Cossacks and in this way gains much respect. Olenin falls in love with the maid Maryanka, who is to be wed to Luka later in the story. He tries to stop this emotion and eventually convinces himself that he loves both Luka and Maryanka for their simplicity and decides that happiness can only come to a man who constantly gives to others with no thought of self-gratification.  He first gives an extra horse to Luka, who accepts the present yet doesn't trust Olenin on his motives. As time goes on, however, though he gains the respect of the local villagers, another Russian named Beletsky, who is still attached to the ways of Moscow, comes and partially corrupts Olenin's ideals and convinces him through his actions to attempt to win Maryanka's love. Olenin approaches her several times and Luka hears about this from a Cossack, and thus does not invite Olenin to the betrothal party. Olenin spends the night with Eroshka but soon decides that he will not give up on the girl and attempts to win her heart again. He eventually, in a moment of passion, asks her to marry him, which she says she will answer soon.  Luka, however, is severely wounded when he and a group of Cossacks go to confront a group of Chechens who are trying to attack the village, including the brother of the man he killed earlier. Though the Chechens lose after the Cossacks take a cart to block their bullets, the brother of the slain Chechen manages to shoot Luka in the belly when he is close by. As Luka seems to be dying and is being cared for by village people, Olenin approaches Maryanka to ask her to marry him; she angrily refuses. He realizes that "his first impression of this woman's inaccessibility had been perfectly correct." He asks his company commander to leave and join the staff. He says goodbye to Eroshka, who is the only villager who sees him off. Eroshka is emotional towards Olenin but after Olenin takes off and looks back, he sees that Eroshka has apparently already forgotten about him and has gotten back to normal life.

Reception.

John Hagen stated in 1969 that "The Cossacks" is considered Tolstoy’s first masterpiece.

Film adaptations.

Two film adaptations of the book have been made: a 1928 silent film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by George W. Hill and Clarence Brown; and another version made in 1961 by Soviet filmmaker Vasili Pronin, which premiered at the annual Cannes Film Festival.

The Cossacks ( ["Kazaki"]) is a short novel by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1863 in the popular literary magazine "The Russian Messenger". It was originally called Young Manhood. Both Ivan Turgenev and the Nobel prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin gave the work great praise, with Turgenev calling it his favourite work by Tolstoy. Tolstoy began work on the story in August 1853. In August 1857, after having reread the "Iliad", he vowed to completely rewrite "The Cossacks". In February 1862, after having lost badly at cards he finished the novel to help pay his debts. The novel was published in 1863, the same year his first child was born.


Description.

Species in the Araceae are often rhizomatous or tuberous and are often found to contain calcium oxalate crystals or raphides. The leaves can vary considerably from species to species. The inflorescence is composed of a spadix, which is almost always surrounded by a modified leaf called a spathe. In monoecious aroids (possessing separate male and female flowers, but with both flowers present on one plant), the spadix is usually organized with female flowers towards the bottom and male flowers towards the top. In aroids with perfect flowers, the stigma is no longer receptive when the pollen is released, thus preventing self-fertilization. Some species are dioecious.  Many plants in this family are thermogenic (heat-producing). Their flowers can reach up to 45 °C even when the surrounding air temperature is much lower. One reason for this unusually high temperature is to attract insects (usually beetles) to pollinate the plant, rewarding the beetles with heat energy. Another reason is to prevent tissue damage in cold regions. Some examples of thermogenic Araceae are:" Symplocarpus foetidus" (eastern skunk cabbage)," Amorphophallus titanum" (titan arum)," Amorphophallus paeoniifolius" (elephant foot yam), "Helicodiceros muscivorus" (dead horse arum lily), and "Sauromatum venosum" (voodoo lily). Species such as titan arum and the dead horse arum give off a very pungent smell, often resembling rotten flesh, to attract flies to pollinate the plant. The heat produced by the plant helps to convey the scent further.

Taxonomy.

Phylogeny.

Phylogeny based on the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. F

Classification.

One of the earliest observations of species in the Araceae was conducted by Theophrastus in his work "Enquiry into Plants". The Araceae were not recognized as a distinct group of plants until the 16th century. In 1789, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu classified all climbing aroids as "Pothos" and all terrestrial aroids as either "Arum" or "Dracontium" in his book "Familles des Plantes".  The first major system of classification for the family was produced by Heinrich Wilhelm Schott, who published "Genera Aroidearum" in 1858 and "Prodromus Systematis Aroidearum" in 1860. Schott's system was based on floral characteristics, and used a narrow conception of a genus. Adolf Engler produced a classification in 1876, which was steadily refined up to 1920. His system is significantly different from Schott's, being based more on vegetative characters and anatomy. The two systems were to some extent rivals, with Engler's having more adherents before the advent of molecular phylogenetics brought new approaches.  Modern studies based on gene sequences show the Araceae (including the Lemnoideae, duckweeds) to be monophyletic, and the first diverging group within the Alismatales. The APG III system of 2009 recognizes the family, including the genera formerly segregated in the Lemnaceae. The sinking of the Lemnaceae into the Araceae is not universally accepted. For example, the 2010 "New Flora of the British Isles" uses a paraphyletic Araceae and a separate Lemnaceae. A comprehensive genomic study of "Spirodela polyrhiza" was published in February 2014.

Genera.

"Anthurium" and "Zantedeschia" are two well-known members of this family, as are "Colocasia esculenta" (taro) and "Xanthosoma roseum" (elephant ear or ‘ape). The largest unbranched inflorescence in the world is that of the arum "Amorphophallus titanum" (titan arum). The family includes many ornamental plants: "Dieffenbachia", "Aglaonema", "Caladium", "Nephthytis", and "Epipremnum", to name a few. The genera "Cryptocoryne", "Anubias" and "Bucephalandra " are many popular aquarium plants. "Philodendron" is an important plant in the ecosystems of the rainforests and is often used in home and interior decorating. "Symplocarpus foetidus" (skunk cabbage) is a common eastern North American species. An interesting peculiarity is that this family includes the largest unbranched inflorescence, that of the titan arum, often erroneously called the "largest flower" and the smallest flowering plant and smallest fruit, found in the duckweed, "Wolffia".

Toxicity.

Within the Araceae, genera such as "Alocasia", "Arisaema", "Caladium", "Colocasia", "Dieffenbachia", and "Philodendron" contain calcium oxalate crystals in the form of raphides. When consumed, these may cause edema, vesicle formation, and dysphagia accompanied by painful stinging and burning to the mouth and throat, with symptoms occurring for up to two weeks after ingestion.

Food plants.

Food plants in the family Araceae include "Amorphophallus paeoniifolius" (elephant foot yam), "Colocasia esculenta" (kochu, taro, dasheen), "Xanthosoma" (cocoyam, tannia), "Typhonium trilobatum" and "Monstera deliciosa" (Mexican breadfruit). While the aroids are little traded, and overlooked by plant breeders to the extent that the Crop Trust calls them "orphan crops", they are widely grown and are important in subsistence agriculture and in local markets. The main food product is the corm, which is high in starch; leaves and flowers also find culinary use.

See also.

List of foliage plant diseases (Araceae)

The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe or leaf-like bract. Also known as the arum family, members are often colloquially known as aroids. This family of 114 genera and about 3750 known species is most diverse in the New World tropics, although also distributed in the Old World tropics and northern temperate regions.


Mission.

The stated mission of SFOR was to "deter hostilities and stabilise the peace, contribute to a secure environment by providing a continued military presence in the Area Of Responsibility (AOR), target and co-ordinate SFOR support to key areas including primary civil implementation organisations, and progress towards a lasting consolidation of peace, without further need for NATO-led forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina".

Structure and history.

SFOR was established in Security Council Resolution 1088 on 12 December 1996. It succeeded the much larger Implementation Force IFOR which was deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 20 December 1995 with a one-year mandate. The commanders of the SFOR, who each served one-year terms, were General William W. Crouch, General Eric Shinseki, General Montgomery Meigs, Lt. General Ronald Adams, Lt. General Michael Dodson, Lt. General John B. Sylvester, Lt. General William E. Ward, Major General Virgil Packett and Brigadier General Steven P. Schook.  SFOR operated in support of NATO Operation Joint Guard and Operation Joint Forge.  Troop levels were reduced to approximately 12,000 by the close of 2002, and to approximately 7,000 by the close of 2004. During NATO's 2004 Istanbul Summit the end of the SFOR mission was announced.  It was replaced by the European Union's EUFOR Althea, on 2 December 2004 at NATO HQ, Camp Butmir, Sarajevo, B-H. Operation Joint Forge was succeeded by the EU's Operation Althea.  SFOR was divided into three zones of operation:  The three AOs were known collectively as Multi-National Divisions until the end of 2002 where they were reduced in scope to Multi-National Brigades.  SFOR operated under peace enforcement, not peacekeeping, rules of engagement. For example, it was cleared, in 1997, to neutralise Serb radio-television facilities. During its mandate, SFOR arrested 29 individuals who were charged with war crimes. Those arrested were transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Netherlands. U.S. service members serving in SFOR were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the NATO Medal.  SFOR operated as part of Operation Joint Guard and Operation Joint Forge. As time progressed, the numbers of troops allotted to SFOR declined. On 2 December 2004, SFOR disbanded and its functions were assumed by military units from the European Union organized as European Union Forces (EUFOR).

Air operations.

Several sequential air operations supported the stabilization efforts.

Member forces.

SFOR operated under the code names Operation Joint Guard (21 December 1996 – 19 June 1998) and Operation Joint Forge (20 June 1998 – 2 December 2004).  NATO nations providing troops included: Non-NATO nations providing troops included:

The Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR) was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Bosnian war. Although SFOR was led by NATO, several non-NATO countries contributed troops. It was replaced by EUFOR Althea in December 2004.


Life.

Hermann was a son of Count Giselbert of Luxembourg (1007–1059). His elder brother Conrad inherited the County of Luxemburg and became a faithful supporter of the Salian king Henry IV of Germany in the Investiture Controversy and the civil war of the Great Saxon Revolt.

Investiture Controversy.

The major issue between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV was the appointment of bishops. It was a custom that if a bishop was to die, the emperor would appoint a new bishop based on his ecclesiastical qualifications. Henry, on the other hand, was appointing bishops for political reasons which made Gregory furious and thus prohibited the appointments of investiture by any lay person, including the emperor.  From the 10th century, the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire were elected Kings of the Romans, who expected to be crowned by the Pope as Holy Roman Emperor. However, because Henry believed the papacy should submit to the crown, Pope Gregory had him excommunicated and declared that he was unworthy of being Emperor. Because of this, the church broke off from Henry and supported the election of German anti-kings.

Election.

Upon Henry's humiliating Walk to Canossa, several princes met at Forchheim and had the Swabian duke Rudolf of Rheinfelden elected anti-king in 1077. Henry's and Rudolf's forces met in the 1080 Battle on the Elster, whereby Rudolf died from the wounds he received.  While Henry turned to Italy in order to enforce his coronation in Rome, the Saxon and Swabian nobles led by the deposed Bavarian Duke Welf I elected Hermann as the second anti-king opposed to the Salian monarch in Ochsenfurt, Franconia on 6 August 1081. He immediately entered into an armed conflict with the loyal Hohenstaufen duke Frederick of Swabia and retired to the Saxon lands, where Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz crowned him king in Goslar on 26 December.

Military campaigning.

Unfortunately for Pope Gregory, Hermann was nowhere near as strong a leader as Rudolph and this caused Henry’s power to grow. Henry was crowned Emperor by Antipope Clement III in 1084, leaving Hermann in a very awkward position. He gained broad support by the Saxon nobility, however, his plan to gather an army on the banks of the Danube and march across the Alps into Italy was dashed by the death of his main retainer, Count Otto of Nordheim. When Emperor Henry IV came into Saxony with a large army in 1085, Hermann fled to Denmark.  Little is known of what happened to Hermann after this other than he served as an anti-king under Gregory’s rule. During the revolt of Margrave Egbert II of Meissen, Hermann was able to return to Germany. Once again in alliance with Duke Welf I, he defeated the emperor at the 1086 Battle of Bleichfeld on the River Main, taking Würzburg. Soon after his victory, however, he had to witness Egbert's reconciliation with Emperor Henry and the killing of his ally Bishop Burchard II of Halberstadt. Tired of being a pawn in the hands of the grandees, he retired to his familial estates. King Conrad (III) began his rule after Hermann’s death. He died near the Imperial castle of Cochem later that year of 1088 in an skirmish with his relative Count palatine Henry of Laach, ending the Great Saxon Revolt.  His wife, Countess Sophia of Formbach, left him a son, Otto, who succeeded him in Salm.  According to a legend perpetuated by the Brothers Grimm, Hermann was mocked as "King Garlic" by his opponents. First celebrated by local Kalands Brethren, an annual "Garlic Wednesday" is held after Pentecost in the region around Halle up to today.

Herman(n) of Salm ( – 28 September 1088), also known as Herman(n) of Luxembourg, the progenitor of the House of Salm, was Count of Salm and elected German anti-king from 1081 until his death.


History.

In the late 1920s, the mathematicians Gabriel Sudan and Wilhelm Ackermann, students of David Hilbert, were studying the foundations of computation. Both Sudan and Ackermann are credited with discovering total computable functions (termed simply "recursive" in some references) that are not primitive recursive. Sudan published the lesser-known Sudan function, then shortly afterwards and independently, in 1928, Ackermann published his function formula_2 (the Greek letter "phi"). Ackermann's three-argument function, formula_3, is defined such that for "p" = 0, 1, 2, it reproduces the basic operations of addition, multiplication, and exponentiation as and for "p" > 2 it extends these basic operations in a way that can be compared to the hyperoperations:  In "On the Infinite", David Hilbert hypothesized that the Ackermann function was not primitive recursive, but it was Ackermann, Hilbert's personal secretary and former student, who actually proved the hypothesis in his paper "On Hilbert's Construction of the Real Numbers".  Rózsa Péter and Raphael Robinson later developed a two-variable version of the Ackermann function that became preferred by many authors.

Definition and properties.

Ackermann's original three-argument function formula_3 is defined recursively as follows for nonnegative integers "m", "n", and "p":  Of the various two-argument versions, the one developed by Péter and Robinson (called "the" Ackermann function by some authors) is defined for nonnegative integers "m" and "n" as follows:  It may not be immediately obvious that the evaluation of formula_12 always terminates. However, the recursion is bounded because in each recursive application either "m" decreases, or "m" remains the same and "n" decreases. Each time that "n" reaches zero, "m" decreases, so "m" eventually reaches zero as well. (Expressed more technically, in each case the pair ("m", "n") decreases in the lexicographic order on pairs, which is a well-ordering, just like the ordering of single non-negative integers; this means one cannot go down in the ordering infinitely many times in succession.) However, when "m" decreases there is no upper bound on how much "n" can increase—and it will often increase greatly.  The Péter-Ackermann function can also be expressed in relation to various other versions of the Ackermann function:  For small values of "m" like 1, 2, or 3, the Ackermann function grows relatively slowly with respect to "n" (at most exponentially). For, however, it grows much more quickly; even is about 2, and the decimal expansion of is very large by any typical measure.  One interesting aspect of the Ackermann function is that the only arithmetic operations it ever uses are addition and subtraction of 1. Its properties come solely from the power of unlimited recursion. This also implies that its running time is at least proportional to its output, and so is also extremely huge. In actuality, for most cases the running time is far larger than the output; see below.  A single-argument version that increases both "m" and "n" at the same time dwarfs every primitive recursive function, including very fast-growing functions such as the exponential function, the factorial function, multi- and superfactorial functions, and even functions defined using Knuth's up-arrow notation (except when the indexed up-arrow is used). It can be seen that "f"("n") is roughly comparable to "f"("n") in the fast-growing hierarchy. This extreme growth can be exploited to show that "f", which is obviously computable on a machine with infinite memory such as a Turing machine and so is a computable function, grows faster than any primitive recursive function and is therefore not primitive recursive.  In a category with exponentials, using the isomorphism formula_19 (in computer science, this is called currying), the Ackermann function may be defined via primitive recursion over higher-order functionals as follows:  where is the usual successor function and Iter denotes the functional power operator, defined by primitive recursion as well:  The function formula_22 defined in this way agrees with the Ackermann function formula_23 defined above: formula_24.

Example expansions.

To see how the Ackermann function grows so quickly, it helps to expand out some simple expressions using the rules in the original definition. For example, one can fully evaluate formula_25 in the following way:  To demonstrate how formula_27's computation results in many steps and in a large number:

Table of values.

Computing the Ackermann function can be restated in terms of an infinite table. First, place the natural numbers along the top row. To determine a number in the table, take the number immediately to the left. Then use that number to look up the required number in the column given by that number and one row up. If there is no number to its left, simply look at the column headed "1" in the previous row. Here is a small upper-left portion of the table: !! 0! 1! 2! 3! 4! "n"! 0! 1! 2! 3! 4  This inverse appears in the time complexity of some algorithms, such as the disjoint-set data structure and Chazelle's algorithm for minimum spanning trees. Sometimes Ackermann's original function or other variations are used in these settings, but they all grow at similarly high rates. In particular, some modified functions simplify the expression by eliminating the −3 and similar terms.  A two-parameter variation of the inverse Ackermann function can be defined as follows, where formula_46 is the floor function: This function arises in more precise analyses of the algorithms mentioned above, and gives a more refined time bound. In the disjoint-set data structure, "m" represents the number of operations while "n" represents the number of elements; in the minimum spanning tree algorithm, "m" represents the number of edges while "n" represents the number of vertices. Several slightly different definitions of exist; for example, is sometimes replaced by "n", and the floor function is sometimes replaced by a ceiling.  Other studies might define an inverse function of one where m is set to a constant, such that the inverse applies to a particular row.

Use as benchmark.

The Ackermann function, due to its definition in terms of extremely deep recursion, can be used as a benchmark of a compiler's ability to optimize recursion. The first published use of Ackermann's function in this way was in 1970 by Dragoş Vaida and, almost simultaneously, in 1971, by Yngve Sundblad.  Sundblad's seminal paper was taken up by Brian Wichmann (co-author of the Whetstone benchmark) in a trilogy of papers written between 1975 and 1982.

In computability theory, the Ackermann function, named after Wilhelm Ackermann, is one of the simplest and earliest-discovered examples of a total computable function that is not primitive recursive. All primitive recursive functions are total and computable, but the Ackermann function illustrates that not all total computable functions are primitive recursive.


Life.

Rudolf was the son of the Swabian count ("Graf") Kuno of Rheinfelden. He was first mentioned in a 1048 deed issued by the Salian emperor Henry III as a count in the Swabian Sisgau on the High Rhine (in present-day Northwestern Switzerland), an estate then held by the Prince-Bishopric of Basel. Rudolf's family had large possessions up to Sankt Blasien Abbey in the Black Forest and down to the Aargau beyond the border with the Kingdom of Burgundy. He probably was related to King Rudolph II of Burgundy (d. 937), the Dukes of Lorraine and the Ottonian dynasty.

Duke of Swabia.

When Duke Otto III of Swabia died without male heirs in 1057, Empress Agnes, consort of late Henry III, appointed him Swabian duke and administrator of Burgundy. Rivalling with the Zähringen count Berthold, Rudolf according to Frutolf of Michelsberg had taken advantage of the minority of Agnes' son Henry IV, elected King of the Romans, by kidnapping his sister Matilda of Swabia. Rudolf demanded, and received, Matilda's hand in marriage (1059). In 1061 Berthold received the Duchy of Carinthia instead. When Matilda died in 1060, Rudolf subsequently, in 1066, married Adelaide of Savoy (d. 1079), a daughter of Count Otto of Savoy and Adelaide of Susa. When Adelaide's sister Bertha of Savoy married Henry IV in 1066, Rudolf became brother-in-law to the king twice over.  During Agnes' regency, the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire could further strengthen their position against the Imperial authority. In the 1062 Coup of Kaiserswerth, several princes led by Archbishop Anno II of Cologne even abducted the minor king to enforce the surrender of the Imperial Regalia. When Henry came of age in 1065, he continued the policies of his father against the reluctant Saxon nobility, sparking the Saxon Rebellion in 1073. While other princes like the Carinthian duke Berthold of Zähringen or Duke Welf of Bavaria distanced themselves, Rudolf supported Henry's campaigns in Thuringia, when he was a primary force in the 1075 Battle of Langensalza against the insurgents. However, after the joint victory, Rudolf became estranged to the king and rumours occurred that he was involved in adversarial conspiracies. Empress Agnes repeatedly had to arbitrate between the parties.  Finally when the Investiture Controversy broke out and King Henry was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII in February 1076, Duke Rudolf met with Berthold, Welf and several other princes in Trebur in order to decide on a course of action and to arrange a new election. Henry, observing the proceedings from his camp in Oppenheim on the other side of the Rhine, had to face a massive loss of support among the German nobles and realized that he had to achieve the lifting of his ban. Pope Gregory agreed to meet with the princes at Augsburg in February 1077.

Anti-king.

Already in January, Henry hastened to see the pope on his way to the Empire from Rome. Duke Rudolf attempted to have the Alpine passes closed, nevertheless the king through wintry weather made his Walk to Canossa, where Gregory, fearing an armed attack by Henry's forces, had found refuge with Matilda of Tuscany. By doing penance, Henry managed to achieve absolution, buying time at the price of his reputation and secular authority. The rebels continued with their plans. Rudolf was elected anti-king on 15 March 1077 at the "Kaiserpfalz" in Forchheim, where already Louis the Child and Conrad I of Germany had been crowned. The first anti-king in the history of the Empire, he promised to respect the investiture solely according to canon law, as well as the concept of the elective monarchy. Further claims raised by the princes were rejected as simony by the attendant papal legates.  Rudolf was supported by the Archbishops of Mainz, Salzburg and Magdeburg as well as by the Dukes of Carinthia and Bavaria, the Saxon rebel Otto of Nordheim and possibly also by Duke Magnus of Saxony. He proceeded to Mainz, where on 25 May he was crowned by Archbishop Siegfried I, but soon after was forced to flee to Saxony, when the Mainz citizens revolted. This presented a problem, since the Saxon duchy was cut off from his Swabian homelands by the king's Salian territory. Moreover, the pope avoided taking sides and adopted a waiting attitude. Rudolf was accused of greed, treason and usurpation by Henry's liensmen, while his own support crumbled.

Later life.

Rudolf gave Swabia to his son Berthold and attempted to rectify his situation by stalking Henry's forces near Würzburg, but to little effect. Meanwhile, he was deprived of Swabia by the "Hoftag" diet at Ulm in May, and the king gave the duchy to Frederick of Büren, the first Hohenstaufen ruler.  The next year Henry waged a successful campaign to Bavaria, while Pope Gregory rejected to excommunicate Rudolf. The Battle of Mellrichstadt on 7 August 1078 proved indecisive: though the opposition forces under Otto of Nordheim were victorious, the troops of Berthold and Welf were stuck in a peasants' revolt. Rudolf found it difficult to convince the Saxons to fight beyond their borders; they viewed him as a southerner and distrusted him. He was also frustrated by the apparent reluctance of the pope to recognize his cause. In order to gain and maintain supporters, he was forced to grant large parts of the crown lands, as well as those of the church, to his followers. Nevertheless, things seemed to be improving in 1080. The battle of Flarchheim (27 January 1080) went well in his favor. On 7 March, the pope excommunicated Henry again and recognized Rudolf as king.  Emboldened, Rudolf's forces met Henry's at the White Elster river in the Battle of Elster. The battle, which took place on 14 October 1080, would have been a huge victory for the anti-royalists. However, Rudolf lost his right hand in the battle and was mortally wounded in the abdomen. He withdrew to nearby Merseburg, where he died the next day and was buried. The majority of the support for the rebellion against Henry IV soon evaporated, but the struggle continued on in effect into 1085, with a final flare up in 1088 under Rudolph's successor, the second anti-king, Herman of Luxembourg.

Issue.

With his second wife, Adelaide, Rudolf had at least four (and perhaps five) children:

Rudolf of Rheinfelden ( – 15 October 1080) was Duke of Swabia from 1057 to 1079. Initially a follower of his brother-in-law, the Salian emperor Henry IV, his election as German anti-king in 1077 marked the outbreak of the Great Saxon Revolt and the first phase of open conflict in the Investiture Controversy between Emperor and Papacy. After a series of armed conflicts, Rudolf succumbed to his injuries after his forces defeated Henry's in the Battle on the Elster.


Systematics.

Evolution.

The earliest known fossil earless seal is "Noriphoca gaudini" from the late Oligocene or earliest Miocene (Aquitanian) of Italy. Other early fossil phocids date from the mid-Miocene, 15 million years ago in the north Atlantic. Until recently, many researchers believed that phocids evolved separately from otariids and odobenids; and that they evolved from otter-like animals, such as "Potamotherium", which inhabited European freshwater lakes. Recent evidence strongly suggests a monophyletic origin for all pinnipeds from a single ancestor, possibly "Enaliarctos", most closely related to the mustelids and bears.  Monk seals and elephant seals are believed to have first entered the Pacific through the open straits between North and South America, which only closed in the Pliocene. The various Antarctic species may have either used the same route, or traveled down the west coast of Africa.

Taxonomy.

In the 1980s and 1990s, morphological phylogenetic analysis of the phocids led to new conclusions about the interrelatedness of the various genera. More recent molecular phylogenetic analyses have confirmed the monophyly of the two phocid subfamilies (Phocinae and Monachinae). The Monachinae (known as the "southern" seals), is composed of three tribes; the Lobodontini, Miroungini, and Monachini. The four Antarctic genera "Hydrurga", "Leptonychotes", "Lobodon", and "Ommatophoca" are part of the tribe Lobodontini. Tribe Miroungini is composed of the elephant seals. The Monk seals ("Monachus" and "Neomonachus") are all part of the tribe Monachini. Likewise, subfamily Phocinae (the "northern" seals) also includes three tribes; Erignathini ("Erignathus)", Cystophorini ("Cystophora)", and Phocini (all other phocines). More recently, five species have been split off from "Phoca", forming three additional genera.  Alternatively the three monachine tribes have been evaluated to familiar status, which elephant seals and the Antarctic seals are more closely related to the phocines.

Biology.

External anatomy.

Adult phocids vary from in length and in weight in the ringed seal to and in land-based members of the Carnivora, although they retain powerful canines. Some species lack molars altogether. The dental formula is: While otariids are known for speed and maneuverability, phocids are known for efficient, economical movement. This allows most phocids to forage far from land to exploit prey resources, while otariids are tied to rich upwelling zones close to breeding sites. Phocids swim by sideways movements of their bodies, using their hind flippers to fullest effect. Their fore flippers are used primarily for steering, while their hind flippers are bound to the pelvis in such a way that they cannot bring them under their bodies to walk on them. They are more streamlined than fur seals and sea lions, so they can swim more effectively over long distances. However, because they cannot turn their hind flippers downward, they are very clumsy on land, having to wriggle with their front flippers and abdominal muscles. Phocid respiratory and circulatory systems are adapted to allow diving to considerable depths, and they can spend a long time underwater between breaths. Air is forced from the lungs during a dive and into the upper respiratory passages, where gases cannot easily be absorbed into the bloodstream. This helps protect the seal from the bends. The middle ear is also lined with blood sinuses that inflate during diving, helping to maintain a constant pressure.  Phocids are more specialized for aquatic life than otariids. They lack external ears and have sleek, streamlined bodies. Retractable nipples, internal testicles, and an internal penile sheath provide further streamlining. A smooth layer of blubber lies underneath the skin. Phocids are able to divert blood flow to this layer to help control their temperatures.

Communication.

Unlike otariids, true seals do not communicate by 'barking'. Instead, they communicate by slapping the water and grunting.

Reproduction.

Phocids spend most of their time at sea, although they return to land or pack ice to breed and give birth. Pregnant females spend long periods foraging at sea, building up fat reserves, and then return to the breeding site to use their stored energy to nurse pups. However, the common seal displays a reproductive strategy similar to that used by otariids, in which the mother makes short foraging trips between nursing bouts.  Because a phocid mother's feeding grounds are often hundreds of kilometers from the breeding site, she must fast while lactating. This combination of fasting with lactation requires the mother to provide large amounts of energy to her pup at a time when she is not eating (and often, not drinking). Mothers must supply their own metabolic needs while nursing. This is a miniature version of the humpback whales' strategy, which involves fasting during their months-long migration from arctic feeding areas to tropical breeding/nursing areas and back.  Phocids produce thick, fat-rich milk that allows them to provide their pups with large amounts of energy in a short period. This allows the mother to return to the sea in time to replenish her reserves. Lactation ranges from five to seven weeks in the monk seal to just three to five days in the hooded seal. The mother ends nursing by leaving her pup at the breeding site to search for food (pups continue to nurse if given the opportunity). "Milk stealers" that suckle from unrelated, sleeping females are not uncommon; this often results in the death of the mother's pup, since a female can only feed one pup.

Growth and maturation.

The pup's diet is so high in calories, it builds up a fat store. Before the pup is ready to forage, the mother abandons it, and the pup consumes its own fat for weeks or even months while it matures. Seals, like all marine mammals, need time to develop the oxygen stores, swimming muscles, and neural pathways necessary for effective diving and foraging. Seal pups typically eat no food and drink no water during the period, although some polar species eat snow. The postweaning fast ranges from two weeks in the hooded seal to 9–12 weeks in the northern elephant seal. The physiological and behavioral adaptations that allow phocid pups to endure these remarkable fasts, which are among the longest for any mammal, remain an area of active study and research.

Feeding strategy.

Phocids make use of at least four different feeding strategies: suction feeding, grip, and tear feeding, filter feeding, and pierce feeding. Each of these feeding strategies is aided by a specialized skull, mandible, and tooth morphology. However, despite morphological specialization, most phocids are opportunistic and employ multiple strategies to capture and eat prey. For example, the leopard seal, "Hydrurga leptonyx", uses grip and tear feeding to prey on penguins, suction feeding to consume small fish, and filter feeding to catch krill.

The earless seals, phocids or true seals are one of the three main groups of mammals within the seal lineage, Pinnipedia. All true seals are members of the family Phocidae. They are sometimes called crawling seals to distinguish them from the fur seals and sea lions of the family Otariidae. Seals live in the oceans of both hemispheres and, with the exception of the more tropical monk seals, are mostly confined to polar, subpolar, and temperate climates. The Baikal seal is the only species of exclusively freshwater seal.


Geography.

The island has a north to southwestern axis and is about long and wide on average. The coastline is indented with inlets, capes and peninsulas. The southeast and southwest parts have gentler slopes and that is where most settlements and facilities are located. The terrain is more rugged on the north coast, with the highest peak at on mount Karafiltzanaka ().  The main town is Skiathos (pop. 4,883 in 2011), in the eastern part of the island. Other main settlements are Kalyvia (312), Troullos (158), Χanemos (143), Koukounaries (119), and Achladias (118).  The Municipality of Skiathos includes the islets of Tsougria, Tsougriaki, Maragos, Arkos, Troulonisi and Aspronisi. The municipality has an area of 49.898 km. They are scattered a few kilometres off the southeast coastline and are clearly visible from the town and the beaches. The island of Skopelos is visible from Skiathos with the more distant islands of Euboea and Skyros visible under very clear weather conditions. The main paved road runs along the southeastern stretch of the island with several narrow dirt roads branching off towards the interior and the northern coast. Farmland exists around the major settlements on the island.  Despite its small size, Skiathos with its many beaches and wooded landscape is a popular tourist destination. It has over 60, mostly sandy, beaches scattered around the coastline. Some of these are Troulos, Vromolimnos, Koukounaries, Asselinos, Megali Ammos and Mandraki.  Much of the island is wooded with Aleppo Pine and a small Stone Pine forest at the Koukounaries location where there is a lagoon and a popular beach. The island's forests are concentrated on the southwest and northern parts, but the presence of pine trees is prevalent throughout the island.

History.

In Ancient times, the island played a minor role during the Persian Wars. In 480 BC, the fleet of the Persian King Xerxes was hit by a storm and was badly damaged on the rocks of the Skiathos coast. Following this the Greek fleet blockaded the adjacent seas to prevent the Persians from invading the mainland and supplying provisions to the army facing the 300 Spartans defending the pass at Thermopylae. The Persian fleet was defeated there at Artemisium and finally destroyed at the Battle of Salamis a year later. Skiathos then became part of the Delian League. The city was destroyed by Philip V of Macedon in 200 BC.  In 1207 the Ghisi brothers captured the island and built the Bourtzi, a small Venetian-styled fortress similar to the Bourtzi in Nafplio, on an islet just out of Skiathos Town, to protect the capital from the pirates. But the Bourtzi was ineffective in protecting the population and in the mid-14th century the inhabitants moved the capital from the ancient site that lay where modern Skiathos Town is to Kastro (the Greek word for castle), located on a high rock, overlooking a steep cliff above the sea at the northernmost part of the island. The island returned to Byzantine control in the 1270s, and remained in Byzantine hands until after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, when it passed to the Republic of Venice. Like the rest of the Northern Sporades, Skiathos was conquered by the Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa in 1538.  In 1704 monks from Athos built the Evangelistria Monastery, which played a part on the Greek War of Independence as a hide-out for Greek rebels. The first flag of Greece was created and hoisted in the Evangelistria Monastery in Skiathos in 1807, where several prominent military leaders (including Theodoros Kolokotronis and Andreas Miaoulis) had gathered for consultation concerning an uprising, and they were sworn to this flag by the local bishop.  After the War of Independence and demise of piracy in the Aegean, Kastro became less important. In 1830s, the island's capital was moved to the original site — where it still remains. Today, the ruins of Kastro are a tourist attraction.  During the 19th century Skiathos became an important shipbuilding centre in the Aegean due to the abundance of pine forests on the island. The pine woods of the island were then almost obliterated. This was brought to a halt though, due to the emergence of steamboats. A small shipwright remains north of Skiathos Town, which still builds traditional Greek caiques.

Transport.

There is a regular boat service to the island and the rest of the Sporades islands with departures from Volos and Agios Konstantinos. The boats are operated mainly by Hellenic Seaways using its high-speed Flying Cat vessels as well as conventional ferries.  Skiathos International Airport is at the northeast of the island next to a lagoon and a lowland isthmus separating the island from the peninsula of Lazareta. As of summer 2011, Skiathos airport is served by Olympic Air flights from both Athens and Thessaloniki, while foreign airlines provide charter flights from a range of airports in European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Cyprus and Scandinavian countries. During the winter 2013/14, work began to expand the airport, with a runway extension and increased hard standing for parked aircraft.  The modern major road runs along the eastern and southern coast. Narrower roads, some paved and some dirt, reach the interior and the northwest coastline. There is regular, and during tourist season, very frequent bus transit from the main town to the Koukounaries beach in the southwest.  There are three bus routes on the island. The core route is from the main town to Koukounaries beach which travels along the south coast of the island. There are in total 26 bus stops, with Koukounaries Beach being the last stop, number 26. This route operates a fleet of five coaches as frequently as five times an hour during the summer peak season throughout the day, but is significantly reduced during the winter. The second route departs from Skiathos Town, to the Monastery of Evangelistria at an hourly daily schedule and the third bus route to Xanemos on the north coast with up to six round trips daily, both operated using mini-buses.

In cinema.

Skiathos and its neighbour Skopelos were the filming locations of the 2008 film "Mamma Mia!".

Skiathos (,, ;, ; and ) is a small Greek island in the northwest Aegean Sea. Skiathos is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades group, east of the Pelion peninsula in Magnesia on the mainland, and west of the island of Skopelos.


Taxonomy.

Christian Hendrik Persoon first circumscribed the genus "Russula" in his 1796 work "Observationes Mycologicae", and considered the defining characteristics to be the fleshy fruit bodies, depressed cap, and equal gills. He reduced it to the rank of tribe in the genus "Agaricus" in 1801. Elias Fries similarly regarded "Russula" as a tribe of "Agaricus" in his influential "Systema Mycologicum" (1821), but later (1825) raised it to the rank of genus in the "Systema Orbis Vegetabilis". Around the same time, Samuel Frederick Gray also recognized "Russula" as a genus in his 1821 work "The Natural Arrangement of British Plants". The name "Russula" is derived from the Latin word "russus", meaning "red".

Identification.

Like the genus "Lactarius", russulas have a distinctive flesh consistency, which is also reflected in the appearance of the gills and stipe, and normally makes them immediately recognizable. They have no trace of a veil (no ring, or veil remnants on the cap). The gills are brittle except in a few cases, and cannot be bent parallel with the cap without breaking. Hence the genus "Russula" is sometimes known colloquially as "brittle gills". They have splitting gills and do not exude a milky substance at cut surfaces, contrary to the genus "Lactarius". Presence of large spherical cells,'sphaerocysts', in the stipe is an important characteristic feature to distinguish the members of Russulaceae from other mushrooms. In "Russula", the stipe breaks like the flesh of an apple, while in most other families it only breaks into fibres. The spore powder varies from white to cream, or even orange.  While it is relatively easy to identify a sample mushroom as belonging to this genus, it is a significant challenge to distinguish member species of "Russula". This task often requires microscopic characteristics, and subtle subjective distinctions, such as the difference between a "mild to bitter" and a "mild to acrid" flavor. Moreover, the exact phylogenetic relationships of these mushrooms have yet to be resolved in the professional mycological community, and may ultimately depend on DNA sequencing analysis.  The following characteristics are often important in identifying individual species:  Despite the difficulty in positively identifying collected specimens, the possibility to spot the toxic species by their acrid taste makes some of the mild species, such as "R. cyanoxantha" and "R. vesca", popular edible mushrooms. "Russula" is mostly free of deadly poisonous species, and mild-tasting ones are all edible.

Ecology.

All "Russula" species are ectomycorrhizal symbionts with higher plants and trees, and the genus has a collectively diverse host range. Some species are cosmopolitan and capable of forming associations with one or more hosts in a range of habitats, while others are more constrained in either host or habitat or both. The mycoheterotrophic plant "Monotropa uniflora" associates with a small range of fungal hosts, all of them members of Russulaceae, including 18 species of "Russula".  Russula fruit bodies provide a seasonal food source for slugs, squirrels and deer.  Some russulas can bioaccumulate high levels of toxic metals from their environment. For example, "Russula atropurpurea" is capable of concentrating zinc, a property attributed to the presence of metallothionein-like peptides in the mushroom. "Russula nigricans" can accumulate lead to a level up to five times more concentrated than the soil it grows in, while "R. ochroleuca" concentrates environmental mercury.

Edibility.

Humans collect several species of "Russula" for food. There is a cultural divide toward interpretation of "Russula" edibility. In general, North American field guides tend to list mostly non-edible species and advise caution when consuming any member of the genus. In contrast, European field guides have a more favorable opinion and list more edible species.  In the Pacific Northwest region of North America, only "Russula brevipes" parasitized with "Hypomyces lactifluorum"—known as lobster mushroom—is collected commercially. Several "Russula" species are sold in the markets of Izta-Popo Zoquiapan National Park (central Mexico): "R. brevipes", "R. cyanoxantha", "R. mexicana" and "R. olivacea". In Tlaxcala, wild species sold in market include "R. alutacea", "R. cyanoxantha", "R. delica", "R. mariae", "R. olivacea", "R. romagnesia", and "R. xerampelina".  In Madagascar, species collected from introduced eucalypt forests include "Russula madecassense", "Russula prolifica", and several other species of minor importance, including some that have not yet been officially described. "Russula" is the most commonly consumed and economically important mushroom genus in Madagascar, particularly "Russula prolifica" and "Russula edulis". This and other edible Russula are typically stripped of their cap cuticle before selling to make them more similar in appearance to the "Agaricus bisporus". In Tanzania, "Russula cellulata" and "Russula ciliata" are sometimes used as food.  "Russula cyanoxantha" is a popular edible throughout Asia, Europe, and the Pacific. In Finland, commonly eaten species include (but are not limited to) "Russula vinosa", "Russula vesca, Russula paludosa, Russula decolorans, Russula xerampelina" and "Russula claroflava."  In Thailand, russulas collected by locals and sold in roadsides and local markets include "Russula alboareolata", "Russula lepida", "Russula nigricans", "Russula virescens", and "Russula xerampelina". Edible russulas in Nepal include "Russula flavida" and "Russula chlorides". The tropical Chinese species "Russula griseocarnea", misidentified as the European "R. vinosa" until 2009, is commercially collected as food and medicine.

Toxicity.

The main pattern of toxicity seen among "Russula" species to date has been gastrointestinal symptoms in those with a spicy (acrid) taste when eaten raw or undercooked; many of these are red-capped species such as "R. emetica", "R. sardonia" and "R. nobilis". The Asian species "Russula subnigricans" has been the cause of several fatal cases of rhabdomyolysis in Japan. Several active agents have been isolated from the species, including russuphelin A and cycloprop-2-ene carboxylic acid.

Natural products.

Despite the large number of species, the secondary metabolites of "Russula" have not been well investigated, especially compared to "Lactarius". "Russula foetens" was shown to produce the marasmane sesquiterpenes Lactapiperanol A and Lactapiperanol E. A novel lectin with potent in vitro antitumor activity was isolated from "Russula rosea", the first lectin reported from a "Russula". This mushroom is also the source of the sesquiterpenes rulepidanol and rulepidadienes A and B. "Russula nigricans" contains the compound nigricanin, the first ellagic acid derivative isolated from higher fungi.

Sequestrate species.

The description of "Russula" was changed in 2007 when molecular analysis revealed that several sequestrate species formerly classified in "Macowanites" (syn. "Elasmomyces") were shown to lie within "Russula". The type species of "Macowanites", "Macowanites agaricinus", was transferred and several new species were added: "Russula albidoflava", "R. albobrunnea", "R. brunneonigra", "R. galbana", "R. pumicoidea", "R. reddellii", "R. reddellii", "R. sinuata", and "R. variispora". The genus names "Gymnomyces" and "Martellia", formerly used for sequestrate species, are now accepted synonyms of "Russula", The genus "Cystangium" is also probably a synonym of "Russula" but is still in use.

Around 750 worldwide species of ectomycorrhizal mushrooms compose the genus Russula. They are typically common, fairly large, and brightly colored – making them one of the most recognizable genera among mycologists and mushroom collectors. Their distinguishing characteristics include usually brightly coloured caps, a white to dark yellow spore print, brittle, attached gills, an absence of latex, and absence of partial veil or volva tissue on the stem. Microscopically, the genus is characterised by the amyloid ornamented spores and flesh (trama) composed of spherocysts. Members of the related genus "Lactarius" have similar characteristics but emit a milky latex when their gills are broken. The genus was described by Christian Hendrik Persoon in 1796.