Antarctic ice sheet.

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest single mass of ice on Earth. It covers an area of almost 14 million km and contains 30 million km of ice. Around 90% of the Earth's ice mass is in Antarctica, which, if melted, would cause sea levels to rise by 58 meters. The continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive and significant at >0.05 °C/decade since 1957.  The Antarctic ice sheet is divided by the Transantarctic Mountains into two unequal sections called the East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS) and the smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The EAIS rests on a major land mass but the bed of the WAIS is, in places, more than 2,500 metres below sea level. It would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there. The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet, meaning that its bed lies below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves. The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf, the Ronne Ice Shelf, and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea.

Greenland ice sheet.

The Greenland ice sheet occupies about 82% of the surface of Greenland, and if melted would cause sea levels to rise by 7.2 metres. Estimated changes in the mass of Greenland's ice sheet suggest it is melting at a rate of about per year. These measurements came from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite, launched in 2002, as reported by BBC News in August 2006.

Ice sheet dynamics.

Ice movement is dominated by the motion of glaciers, whose activity is determined by a number of processes. Their motion is the result of cyclic surges interspersed with longer periods of inactivity, on both hourly and centennial time scales.

Predicted effects of global warming.

The Greenland, and possibly the Antarctic, ice sheets have been losing mass recently, because losses by ablation including outlet glaciers exceed accumulation of snowfall. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), loss of Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet mass contributed, respectively, about 0.21 ± 0.35 and 0.21 ± 0.07 mm/year to sea level rise between 1993 and 2003.  The IPCC projects that ice mass loss from melting of the Greenland ice sheet will continue to outpace accumulation of snowfall. Accumulation of snowfall on the Antarctic ice sheet is projected to outpace losses from melting. However, in the words of the IPCC, ""Dynamical processes related to ice flow not included in current models but suggested by recent observations could increase the vulnerability of the ice sheets to warming, increasing future sea level rise. Understanding of these processes is limited and there is no consensus on their magnitude."" More research work is therefore required to improve the reliability of predictions of ice-sheet response to global warming. In 2018, scientists discovered channels between the East and West Antarctic ice sheets that may allow melted ice to flow more quickly to the sea.  The effects on ice sheets due to increasing temperature may accelerate, but as documented by the IPCC the effects are not easily projected accurately and in the case of the Antarctic, may trigger an accumulation of additional ice mass. If an ice sheet were ablated down to bare ground, less light from the sun would be reflected back into space and more would be absorbed by the land. The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 84% of the island and the Antarctic Ice Sheet covers approximately 98% of the continent. Due to the significant thickness of these ice sheets, global warming analysis typically focuses on the loss of ice mass from the ice sheets increasing sea level rise, and not on a reduction in the surface area of the ice sheets.

An ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than. The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered much of North America, the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America.


Nickname.

Bertrada's nickname "Bertha Broadfoot" dates back to the 13th century, when it was used in Adenes Le Roi's trouvère "Li rouman de Berte aus grands piés". The exact reason that Bertrada was given this nickname is unclear. It is possible that Bertrada was born with a clubfoot, although Adenes does not mention this in his poem. The nickname might have been a reference to an ancient legend about a Germanic goddess named Perchta, to real and mythological queens named Bertha, or to several similarly-named Christian queens. Many myths and legends exist in Europe and Asia, in which clubfooted people are described as the link between the world of the living and the spirit world. The tavern sign in Anatole France's novel "At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque" alludes to this queen.

Biography.

Early life and ancestry.

Bertrada was born sometime between 710 and 727 in Laon, in today's Aisne, France, to Count Charibert of Laon. Charibert's father might have been related to Hugobertides. Charibert's mother was Bertrada of Prüm, who founded Prüm Abbey along with Charibert.

Marriage and children.

Bertrada married Pepin the Short, the son of Charles Martel, the Frankish "Mayor of the Palace", in 741. However, Pepin and Bertrada were too closely related for their marriage to be legal at that time; the union was not canonically sanctioned until 749, after the birth of Charlemagne.  According to French historian Léon Levillain, Bertrada was Pepin's first and only wife. Other sources suggest that Pepin had previously married a "Leutberga" or "Leutbergie", with whom Pepin would have had five children.  Bertrada and Pepin are known to have had seven children: three sons and four daughters. Of these, Charlemagne (c. 742 – 814), Carloman (751–771) and Gisela (757–811) survived to adulthood. Pepin, born in 756, died in his infancy in 762. Bertrada and Pepin also had Berthe, Adelaide, and Rothaide. Gisela became a nun at Chelles Abbey.

Queen of the Franks.

In 751, Pepin and Bertrada became King and Queen of the Franks, following Pepin's successful coup against the Frankish Merovingian monarchs. Pepin was crowned in June 754, and Bertrada, Charlemagne, and Carloman were blessed by Pope Stephen II.  After Pepin's death in 768, Bertrada lost her title as Queen of the Franks. Charlemagne and Carloman inherited the two halves of Pepin's kingdom. Bertrada stayed at the court and often tried to stop arguments between the two brothers. Some historians credit Bertrada's support for her elder son Charlemagne over her younger son Carloman, and her diplomatic skills, for Charlemagne's early success. Although her influence over Charlemagne may have diminished in time, she lived at his court, and, according to Einhard, their relationship was excellent. Bertrada recommended that Charlemagne set aside his legal wife, Himiltrude, and marry Desiderata, a daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius, but Charlemagne soon divorced Desiderata. Einhard claims this was the only episode that ever strained relations between mother and son.

Later life and death.

Bertrada retired from the court after Carloman's death in 771 to live in Choisy-au-Bac, where Charlemagne had set aside a royal house for her. Choisy-au-Bac was favorable because of its history of being the home and burial place of several Merovingian kings.  Bertrada died on 12 July 783 in Choisy-au-Bac. Charlemagne buried her in the Basilica of St Denis near Pepin.

In literature.

Bertrada inspired Adenes Le Roi to write the trouvère "Li rouman de Berte aus grands piés" in 1270. Adenes referred to her as "Bertha Broadfoot", the earliest known usage of that nickname.  Bertrada is also referred to as "Bertha Broadfoot" in François Villon's 15th-century poem "Ballade des dames du temps jadis".

Bertrada of Laon (born between 710 and 727 – 12 July 783), also known as Bertrada the Younger or Bertha Broadfoot (cf. Latin: "Regina pede aucae" i.e. the queen with the goose-foot), was a Frankish queen. She was the wife of Pepin the Short and the mother of Charlemagne, Carloman and Gisela.


Life.

Beaufort was born in Anjou, an English domain in France, and educated for a career in the Church. After his parents were married in early 1396, Henry, his two brothers and one sister were declared legitimate by Pope Boniface IX and legitimated by Act of Parliament on 9 February 1397, but they were barred from the succession to the throne.  On 27 February 1398, he was nominated Bishop of Lincoln, and on 14 July 1398, he was consecrated. After Henry of Bolingbroke deposed Richard II and took the throne as Henry IV in 1399, he made Bishop Beaufort Lord Chancellor of England in 1403, but Beaufort resigned in 1404 when he was appointed Bishop of Winchester on 19 November.  Between 1411 and 1413, Bishop Beaufort was in political disgrace for siding with his nephew, the Prince of Wales, against the king, but when King Henry IV died and the prince became King Henry V, he was made Chancellor once again in 1413, but he resigned the position in 1417. Pope Martin V offered him the rank of Cardinal, but King Henry V would not permit him to accept the offer.  Henry V died in 1422, two years after he had married Catherine of Valois, daughter of King Charles VI, who had disowned his son Charles in favour of Henry in the Treaty of Troyes. Henry and Catherine's infant son Henry VI, the Bishop's great-nephew, succeeded Henry as King of England, and, in accordance with the Treaty, succeeded Charles as King of France. Bishop Beaufort and the child king's other uncles formed the Regency government, and in 1424, Beaufort became Chancellor once more, but was forced to resign in 1426 because of disputes with the king's other uncles, in particular Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.  Pope Martin V finally appointed Beaufort as Cardinal in 1426. In 1427, he made him the Papal Legate for Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia, and directed him to lead the fourth "crusade" against the Hussites heretics in Bohemia. Beaufort's forces were routed by the Hussites at the Battle of Tachov on 4 August 1427.  After the capture of Joan of Arc in 1431, legend has it that Beaufort was present to observe some of the heresy trial sessions presided over by Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais. However, the full record of the trial, which lists all those who took part in her trial on a daily basis shows that he was not there. His sole appearance is on the day of her abjuration (26 May 1431). The formal record does not include Beaufort's presence at her execution but legend has it that he wept as he viewed the horrible scene as she was burned at the stake. This legend derives from what is now known as the Rehabilitation Trial of Joan of Arc which culminated in an examination of numerous witnesses in 1455 and 1456 in which one of the 27 Articles of Enquiry was that Joan had died in "such a manner as to draw from all those present, and even from her English enemies, effusions of tears." A number of witnesses at this re-trial inferred or declared his presence including one of the original trial judges, one Andre Marguerie, Canon of Rouen, who asserted that Beaufort had reprimanded his chaplain for complaining that the Bishop of Beauvais's sermon was too favourable to Joan. However, it is not clear to which sermon Marguerie was referring.  In a spirit of contrition and reconciliation, in 1922 a statue of Joan of Arc (carved under the supervision of Sir Ninian Comper) was placed beside the entrance to the Lady Chapel in Winchester Cathedral diagonally facing Cardinal Beaufort's tomb and chantry chapel.  Beaufort continued to be active in English politics for years, fighting with the other powerful advisors to the king. He died on 11 April 1447.

Affair and daughter.

When Henry was Bishop of Lincoln, he supposedly had an affair with Alice FitzAlan (1378–1415), the daughter of Richard FitzAlan and Elizabeth de Bohun and the widow of John Charleton, 4th Baron Cherleton.

Cardinal Henry Beaufort (c. 1375 – 11 April 1447), Bishop of Winchester, was an English prelate and statesman who held the offices of Bishop of Lincoln (1398) then Bishop of Winchester (1404) and was from 1426 a Cardinal of the Church of Rome. He served three times as Lord Chancellor and played an important role in English politics.


Origin.

The origin of chaturanga has been a puzzle for centuries. It has its origins in Gupta Empire with earliest clear reference dating from the sixth century of the common era, and from north India. The first substantial argument that chaturanga is much older than this is the fact that the chariot is the most powerful piece on the board, although chariots appear to have been obsolete in warfare for at least five or six centuries. The counter-argument is that they remained prominent in literature. Several more recent scholars have proposed a gradual evolution in the centuries B.C. in the northern or northwestern border areas of Indian culture, where it was in contact with Greek culture brought by the Macedonian-Greek army, and where some rulers issued coins with fused Greek-Indian imagery. Myron Samsin argues that chaturanga originated in the kingdom of Bactria, ca. 255–55 B.C., in a fusion of the many short-moving men of the Greek game petteia, or poleis, with men derived from the various moves of an Indian race game, perhaps Seega or Chaupur, on the ashtapada, the board of another race game. Gerhard Josten proposes that the fusion took place in the Kushan Empire ca. 50 B.C.–200 A.D. and draws not only on Indian games but on the Chinese game of Liubo and Chinese and Babylonian divination techniques.

History.

Sanskrit "" is a bahuvrihi compound, meaning "having four limbs or parts" and in epic poetry often meaning "army". The name comes from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic "Mahabharata", referring to four divisions of an army, namely elephantry, chariotry, cavalry and infantry. An ancient battle formation, "akshauhini", is like the setup of chaturanga. Chaturanga was played on an 8×8 uncheckered board, called "ashtāpada", which is also the name of a game. The board sometimes had special markings, the meaning of which are unknown today. These marks were not related to chaturanga, but were drawn on the board only by tradition. Chess historian H. J. R. Murray conjectured that the ashtāpada was also used for some old race-type dice game, perhaps similar to chowka bhara, in which the marks had meaning. An early reference to an ancient Indian board game is sometimes attributed to Subandhu in his "Vasavadatta", dated between the 5th and 7th centuries AD: The time of the rains played its game with frogs for pieces ["nayadyutair"] yellow and green in colour, as if mottled by lac, leapt up on the black field squares.  The colours are not those of the two camps, but mean that the frogs have two colours, yellow and green.  Banabhatta's "Harsha Charitha" (c. AD 625) contains the earliest reference to the name "chaturanga": Under this monarch, only the bees quarrelled to collect the dew; the only feet cut off were those of measurements, and only from Ashtâpada one could learn how to draw up a chaturanga, there was no cutting-off of the four limbs of condemned criminals...  While there is little doubt that ashtâpada is the gameboard of 8×8 squares, the double meaning of chaturanga, as the four-folded army, may be controversial. There is a probability that the ancestor of chess was mentioned there.  The game was first introduced to the West in Thomas Hyde's "De ludis orientalibus libri duo", published in 1694. Subsequently, translations of Sanskrit accounts of the game were published by Sir William Jones.  In Arabic, most of the terminology of chess is derived directly from chaturanga: Modern chess itself is called "shatranj" in Arabic, and the bishop is called the elephant. The Tamerlane chess was also introduced in Iran later.

Rules.

The initial position is as shown. White moves first. The objective in chaturanga, the same as modern chess, is to checkmate the opponent's Raja (king).

Additional rules.

Al-Adli mentions two further differences:

Chaturanga (; ""), or "catur" for short, is an ancient Indian strategy game that is commonly theorized to be the common ancestor of the board games chess, "shogi", "sittuyin", and "makruk".


Multithreading.

The primary benefit of dual-core processors (like the Athlon 64 X2) over single-core processors is their ability to process more software threads at the same time. The ability of processors to execute multiple threads simultaneously is called thread-level parallelism (TLP). By placing two cores on the same die, the X2 effectively doubles the TLP over a single-core Athlon 64 of the same speed. The need for TLP processing capability is dependent on the situation to a great degree, and certain situations benefit from it far more than others. Certain programs are currently written for only one thread, and are therefore unable to utilize the processing power of the second core.  Programs often written with multiple threads and capable of utilizing dual-cores include many music and video encoding applications, and especially professional rendering programs. High TLP applications currently correspond to server/workstation situations more than the typical desktop. These applications can realize almost twice the performance of a single-core Athlon 64 of the same specifications. Multi-tasking also runs a sizable number of threads; intense multi-tasking scenarios have actually shown improvements of considerably more than two times. This is primarily due to the excessive overhead caused by constantly switching threads, and could potentially be improved by adjustments to operating system scheduling code.  In the consumer segment of the market as well, the X2 improves upon the performance of the original Athlon 64, especially for multi-threaded software applications.

Manufacturing costs.

Having two cores, the Athlon 64 X2 has an increased number of transistors. The 1 MB L2 cache 90 nm Athlon 64 X2 processor is 219 mm2 in size with 243 million transistors whereas its 1 MB L2 cache 90 nm Athlon 64 counterpart is 103.1 mm2 and has 164 million transistors. The 65 nm Athlon 64 X2 with only 512 KB L2 per Core reduced this to 118 mm2 with 221 million transistors compared to the 65 nm Athlon 64 with 77.2 mm2 and 122 million transistors. As a result, a larger area of silicon must be defect free. These size requirements necessitate a more complex fabrication process, which further adds to the production of fewer functional processors per single silicon wafer. This lower yield makes the X2 more expensive to produce than the single-core processor.  In the middle of June 2006 AMD stated that they would no longer make any non-FX Athlon 64 or Athlon 64 X2 models with 1 MB L2 caches. This led to only a small production number of the Socket-AM2 Athlon 64 X2 with 1 MB L2 cache per core, known as 4000+, 4400+, 4800+, and 5200+. The Athlon 64 X2 with 512 KB per core, known as 3800+, 4200+, 4600+, and 5000+, were produced in far greater numbers. The introduction of the F3 stepping then saw several models with 1 MB L2 cache per core as production refinements resulted in an increased yield.

CPU cores.

Athlon X2.

'64' was omitted from the name of the Brisbane 'BE' series; the 64-bit marketing campaign initiated by AMD became insignificant once essentially all consumer CPUs became 64-bit processors.

The Athlon 64 X2 is the first native dual-core desktop CPU designed by AMD. It was designed from scratch as native dual-core by using an already multi-CPU enabled Athlon 64, joining it with another functional core on one die, and connecting both via a shared dual-channel memory controller/north bridge and additional control logic. The initial versions are based on the E-stepping model of the Athlon 64 and, depending on the model, have either 512 or 1024 KB of L2 Cache per core. The Athlon 64 X2 is capable of decoding SSE3 instructions (except those few specific to Intel's architecture).


Overview.

The Prototype  design pattern is one of the twenty-three well-known "GoF design patterns" that describe how to solve recurring design problems to design flexible and reusable object-oriented software, that is, objects that are easier to implement, change, test, and reuse.  The Prototype design pattern solves problems like:  Creating objects directly within the class that requires (uses) the objects is inflexible because it commits the class to particular objects at compile-time and makes it impossible to specify which objects to create at run-time.  The Prototype design pattern describes how to solve such problems:  This enables configuration of a class with different codice_1 objects, which are copied to create new objects, and even more, codice_1 objects can be added and removed at run-time.<br> See also the UML class and sequence diagram below.

Structure.

UML class and sequence diagram.

In the above UML class diagram, the codice_5 class that requires a codice_6 object doesn't instantiate the codice_7 class directly. Instead, the codice_5 refers to the codice_1 interface for cloning an object. The codice_7 class implements the codice_1 interface by creating a copy of itself. <br> The UML sequence diagram shows the run-time interactions: The codice_5 object calls codice_13 on a codice_14 object, which creates and returns a copy of itself (a codice_15 object).

Rules of thumb.

Sometimes creational patterns overlap — there are cases when either prototype or abstract factory would be appropriate. At other times they complement each other: abstract factory might store a set of prototypes from which to clone and return product objects (GoF, p126). Abstract factory, builder, and prototype can use singleton in their implementations. (GoF, p81, 134). Abstract factory classes are often implemented with factory methods (creation through inheritance), but they can be implemented using prototype (creation through delegation). (GoF, p95)  Often, designs start out using Factory Method (less complicated, more customizable, subclasses proliferate) and evolve toward abstract factory, prototype, or builder (more flexible, more complex) as the designer discovers where more flexibility is needed. (GoF, p136)  Prototype does not require subclassing, but it does require an "initialize" operation. Factory method requires subclassing, but does not require initialization. (GoF, p116)  Designs that make heavy use of the composite and decorator patterns often can benefit from Prototype as well. (GoF, p126)  The rule of thumb could be that you would need to clone() an "Object" when you want to create another Object "at runtime" that is a "true copy" of the Object you are cloning. "True copy" means all the attributes of the newly created Object should be the same as the Object you are cloning. If you could have "instantiated" the class by using "new" instead, you would get an Object with all attributes as their initial values. For example, if you are designing a system for performing bank account transactions, then you would want to make a copy of the Object that holds your account information, perform transactions on it, and then replace the original Object with the modified one. In such cases, you would want to use clone() instead of new.

Code samples.

Pseudocode.

Let's write an occurrence browser class for a text. This class lists the occurrences of a word in a text. Such an object is expensive to create as the locations of the occurrences need an expensive process to find. So, to duplicate such an object, we use the prototype pattern:  "(the search algorithm is not optimized; it is a basic algorithm to illustrate the pattern implementation)"

C# example.

This pattern creates the concrete type of object using its prototype. In other words, while creating the object of Prototype object, the class actually creates a clone of it and returns it as prototype. You can see here, we have used MemberwiseClone method to clone the prototype when required.  public abstract class Prototype  public class ConcretePrototype1 : Prototype  public class ConcretePrototype2 : Prototype

C++ example.

Discussion of the design pattern along with a complete illustrative example implementation using polymorphic class design are provided in the C++ Annotations.

Java example.

This pattern creates the kind of object using its prototype. In other words, while creating the object of Prototype object, the class creates a clone of it and returns it as prototype. The clone method has been used to clone the prototype when required.  // Prototype pattern public abstract class Prototype implements Cloneable { public class ConcretePrototype1 extends Prototype {  public class ConcretePrototype2 extends Prototype {

PHP example.

// The Prototype pattern in PHP is done with the use of built-in PHP function __clone()  abstract class Prototype  class ConcretePrototype1 extends Prototype  class ConcretePrototype2 extends Prototype  $cP1 = new ConcretePrototype1(); $cP2 = new ConcretePrototype2(); $cP2C = clone $cP2;  // RESULT: #quanton81  // CONS: A1 // CONS: B1 // CONS: A2 // CONS: B2 // CLON: A2-C // CLON: B2-C

Python example.

Python version 3.8+ from abc import ABC, abstractmethod from typing import AnyStr class A(ABC):  class Concrete(A): c = Concrete() print(c.whois()) Output: Concrete: <__main__.Concrete object at 0x1023bafd0

The prototype pattern is a creational design pattern in software development. It is used when the type of objects to create is determined by a prototypical instance, which is cloned to produce new objects. This pattern is used to:


Geography.

The town lies at the confluence of the Tronto River and the small river Castellano and is surrounded on three sides by mountains. Two natural parks border the town, one on the northwestern flank (Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini) and the other on the southern (Parco Nazionale dei Monti della Laga). Ascoli has good rail connections to the Adriatic coast and the city of San Benedetto del Tronto, by highway to Porto d'Ascoli and by the Italian National Road 4 Salaria to Rome.

History.

Ascoli was founded by an Italic population (Piceni) several centuries before Rome's founding on the important Via Salaria, the salt road that connected Latium with the salt production areas on the Adriatic coast. In 268 BC it became a "civitas foederata", a "federated" city with nominal independence from Rome. In 91 BC, together with other cities in central Italy, it revolted against Rome, but in 89 BC was reconquered and destroyed by Pompeius Strabo in the Battle of Asculum. Its inhabitants acquired Roman citizenship, following the developments and the eventual fall of the Roman Republic.  During the Middle Ages Ascoli was ravaged by the Ostrogoths and then by the Lombards of King Faroald (578). After nearly two centuries as part of the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto (593–789), Ascoli was ruled by the Franks through their vicars, but ultimately it was the bishops that gained influence and power over the city.  In 1189 a free republican municipality was established but internal strife led dramatically to the demise of civic values and freedom and to unfortunate ventures against neighboring enemies. This unstable situation opened the way to foreign dictatorships, like those of Galeotto I Malatesta (14th century), initially recruited as a mercenary (condottiero) in the war against Fermo, and Francesco Sforza. Sforza was ousted in 1482, but Ascoli was again compelled to submit to the Papal suzerainty. In 1860 it was annexed, together with Marche and Umbria, into the newly unified Kingdom of Italy.

Main sights.

Many of the buildings in the central historical part of the city are built using marble called "travertino", a grey-hued stone extracted from the surrounding mountains. Its central Renaissance square, "Piazza del Popolo" ("People's Square") is surrounded by a number of buildings utilizing this stone, now often hosting open-air markets. A few blocks away, the Piazza Arringo, or piazza dell'Arengo, was the administrative and religious center of the town, surrounded by the Cathedral, the baptistery, the Bishop's residence, and the Palace of the Commune. According to traditional accounts, Ascoli Piceno once housed some two hundred towers in the Middle Ages: today some fifty can still be more evidently seen.  Main sights include:

Secular buildings.

In Castel Trosino, not far from the city, in 1893 a rare 6th-century Lombard necropolis was found.

Economy.

Recent industrialization has brought to Ascoli several Italian and multinational companies (YKK, Manuli, Pfizer, Barilla) but the bulk of the economy is made up of small and medium-sized enterprises and by those providing professional services to the area. Agriculture is still important (wheat, olives, fruits).

Transport.

Ascoli Piceno railway station, opened in 1886, is the southwestern terminus of the San Benedetto del Tronto–Ascoli Piceno railway, a branch of the Adriatic railway.

Education.

The city is the administrative headquarters and teaching the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Camerino and the International School on Safety and Environmental Protection private university's Alma Mater Europaea.

Culture and sport.

The main festivity is on the first Sunday in August. The historical parade with more than 1500 people dressed in Renaissance costume is held in celebration of Saint Emidio, protector of the city. The parade is followed by a tournament, called "Quintana", in which six knights, each competing for one of the six neighborhoods in the city, ride the course one after the other trying to hit an effigy of an Arab warrior. Strength and ability are necessary for the knight to win the "palio" or grand prize.  The Castellano river is a site for swimming and bathing in summer.  Founded in 1898, Ascoli Calcio is the main football team in the city. It is one of the oldest teams in Italy and it played for 16 years in Serie A.

Gastronomy.

"" is a dish which originated from this locality. It is prepared from olives.

Territorial subdivision.

Bivio Giustimana, Campolungo-villa sant'Antonio, Caprignano, Carpineto, Casa circondariale, Casalena, Casamurana, Case di Cioccio,, Castel di Lama stazione, Castel Trosino, Cervara, Colle, Colle san Marco, Colloto, Colonna, Colonnata, Faiano, Funti, Giustimana, Il Palazzo, Lago, Lisciano, Lisciano di Colloto, Montadamo, Morignano, Mozzano, Oleificio Panichi, Palombare, Pedana, Piagge, Pianaccerro, Poggio di Bretta, Polesio, Ponte Pedana, Porchiano, Rosara, San Pietro, Santa Maria a Corte, Talvacchia, Taverna di mezzo, Trivigliano-villa Pagani, Tronzano, Valle Fiorana, Valle Senzana, Valli, Vena piccola, Venagrande, Villa S. Antonio.

International relations.

Ascoli Piceno is twinned with:

External links.

<br

Ascoli Piceno ; ) is a town and "comune" in the Marche region of Italy, capital of the province of the same name. Its population is around 48,278 but the urban area of the city has more than 93,000.


History.

Opened on April 8, 1994, it was the first bridge across the lower Mekong, and the second on the full course of the Mekong.  The cost was about A$42 million, funded by the Australian government as development aid for Laos.  The bridge was designed and built by Australian companies as a demonstration of their ability to complete major infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. The concept design of a balanced cantilever bridge was proposed by Bruce Ramsay of VSL with the final design carried out by Maunsell consulting engineers.  The official name of the bridge was changed by the addition of "First" after the Second Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge further south at Savannakhet opened in January 2007.

Road traffic.

Traffic on the bridge drives on the left, as in Thailand, while traffic in Laos drives on the right. The changeover at the Lao end, just before the border post, is controlled by traffic lights.  A shuttle bus service operates across the bridge, between the Lao and Thai border posts.  Bicycles and tricycles can travel on either the road or the footpath; pedestrians can walk directly on the footpath.  The bridge is part of the AH12 Asian Highway Network.

Railway.

A meter gauge rail track from Nong Khai station runs along the midpoint of the bridge. Road traffic is stopped when a train is crossing.  On March 20, 2004, an agreement between the Thai and Lao governments was signed to extend the railway to Thanaleng Railway Station in Laos, about 3.5 km (2.2 mi) from the bridge. This will be the first railway link to Laos (but not the first railway, as a short portage line once existed). The Thai government agreed to finance the line through a combination of grant and loan. Construction formally began on January 19, 2007. Test trains began running on July 4, 2008. Formal inauguration occurred on March 5, 2009.  Watch the entire train journey from Nong Khai station, in Thailand, to Thanaleng station, in Laos, passing through both immigrations and across the friendship bridge over the Mekong River. The trains used for these journeys are RHN Hitachi Railcars, built in 1967, being the oldest and rarest railcars still in use on the Thai rail network.  On February 22, 2006, approval of funding for the rail line from Thanaleng Railway Station to Vientiane, about 9 km, was announced by the French Development Agency.  In November 2010 plans to extend the service from Thanaleng to Vientiane were abandoned.  A hypothetical high-speed rail link from China to Thailand through Laos would make the extension redundant, but would also necessitate the construction of a new bridge near to the current First Friendship Bridge. In 2011, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's revised plan prioritized domestic rail expansion over the ambitious regional connectivity plan spearheaded by China.  China is looking to build a high-speed line from Kunming all the way down to Singapore, passing through Laos, Thailand and Malaysia, a project that would increase China's GDP and those of the involved nations by US$375 billion, according to China Railway Corp.  Since February 2010 the Eastern and Oriental Express crosses the Mekong via the bridge into Laos.

The First Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge (, pronounced ;, ) is a bridge over the Mekong, connecting Nong Khai Province and the city of Nong Khai in Thailand with Vientiane Prefecture in Laos; the city of Vientiane is approximately from the bridge. With a length of 1,170 meters (0.73 mi), the bridge has two -wide road lanes, two -wide footpaths and a single gauge railway line in the middle, straddling the narrow central reservation.


Language features.

Like the BASIC programming language, Visual Basic was designed to have an easy learning curve. Programmers can create both simple and complex GUI applications. Programming in VB is a combination of visually arranging components or controls on a form, specifying attributes and actions for those components, and writing additional lines of code for more functionality. Since VB defines default attributes and actions for the components, a programmer can develop a simple program without writing much code. Programs built with earlier versions suffered performance problems, but faster computers and native code compilation has made this less of an issue. Though VB programs can be compiled into native code executables from version 5 on, they still require the presence of around 1 MB of runtime libraries. Core runtime libraries are included by default in Windows 2000 and later, but extended runtime components still have to be installed. Earlier versions of Windows (95/98/NT), require that the runtime libraries be distributed with the executable.  Forms are created using drag-and-drop techniques. A tool is used to place controls (e.g., text boxes, buttons, etc.) on the form (window). Controls have attributes and event handlers associated with them. Default values are provided when the control is created, but may be changed by the programmer. Many attribute values can be modified during run time based on user actions or changes in the environment, providing a dynamic application. For example, code can be inserted into the form resize event handler to reposition a control so that it remains centered on the form, expands to fill up the form, etc. By inserting code into the event handler for a keypress in a text box, the program can automatically translate the case of the text being entered, or even prevent certain characters from being inserted.  Visual Basic can create executables (EXE files), ActiveX controls, or DLL files, but is primarily used to develop Windows applications and to interface database systems. Dialog boxes with less functionality can be used to provide pop-up capabilities. Controls provide the basic functionality of the application, while programmers can insert additional logic within the appropriate event handlers. For example, a drop-down combination box automatically displays a list. When the user selects an element, an event handler is called that executes code that the programmer created to perform the action for that list item. Alternatively, a Visual Basic component can have no user interface, and instead provide ActiveX objects to other programs via Component Object Model (COM). This allows for server-side processing or an add-in module.  The runtime recovers unused memory using reference counting, which depends on variables passing out of scope or being set to "Nothing", avoiding the problem of memory leaks that are possible in other languages. There is a large library of utility objects, and the language provides basic support for object-oriented programming. Unlike many other programming languages, Visual Basic is generally not case-sensitive—though it transforms keywords into a standard case configuration and forces the case of variable names to conform to the case of the entry in the symbol table. String comparisons are case sensitive by default. The Visual Basic compiler is shared with other Visual Studio languages (C, C++). Nevertheless, by default the restrictions in the IDE do not allow creation of some targets (Windows model DLLs) and threading models, but over the years, developers have bypassed these restrictions.

Characteristics.

Visual Basic builds upon the characteristics of BASIC.

History.

Visual Basic 1.0 was introduced in 1991. The drag and drop design for creating the user interface is derived from a prototype form generator developed by Alan Cooper and his company called "Tripod". Microsoft contracted with Cooper and his associates to develop Tripod into a programmable form system for Windows 3.0, under the code name "Ruby" (no relation to the later Ruby programming language). Tripod did not include a programming language at all. Microsoft decided to combine Ruby with the Basic language to create Visual Basic. The Ruby interface generator provided the "visual" part of Visual Basic, and this was combined with the "EB" Embedded BASIC engine designed for Microsoft's abandoned "Omega" database system. Ruby also provided the ability to load dynamic link libraries containing additional controls (then called "gizmos"), which later became the VBX interface.

Derivative languages.

Microsoft has developed derivatives of Visual Basic for use in scripting. Visual Basic itself is derived heavily from BASIC, and subsequently has been replaced with a.NET platform version.  Some of the derived languages are:

Performance and other issues.

Earlier versions of Visual Basic (prior to version 5) compiled the code to P-Code only. The P-Code is interpreted by the language runtime. The benefits of P-Code include portability and smaller binary file sizes, but it usually slows down the execution, since having a runtime adds an additional layer of interpretation. Visual Basic applications require Microsoft Visual Basic runtime MSVBVMxx.DLL, where xx is the relevant version number, either 50 or 60. MSVBVM60.dll comes as standard with Windows in all editions from Windows 98 to Windows 7 (some editions of Windows 7 do not include it). A Windows 95 machine would however require inclusion with the installer of whichever DLL was needed by the program. Visual Basic 5 and 6 can compile code to either native or P-Code but in either case the runtime is still required for built in functions and forms management.  Criticisms levelled at Visual Basic editions prior to VB.NET include:

Legacy development and support.

All versions of the Visual Basic development environment from 1.0 to 6.0 were retired by Microsoft by 2008, and are therefore no longer supported. The associated runtime environments are also unsupported, except for the Visual Basic 6 core runtime environment, which Microsoft officially supports for the lifetime of Windows 8 and Windows 10. Third party components that shipped with Visual Studio 6.0 are not included in this support statement. Some legacy Visual Basic components may still work on newer platforms, despite being unsupported by Microsoft and other vendors. Documentation for Visual Basic 6.0, its application programming interface and tools is best covered in the last MSDN release before Visual Studio.NET 2002. Later releases of MSDN focused on.NET development and had significant parts of the Visual Basic 6.0 programming documentation removed as the language evolved, and support for older code ended. Although vendor support for Visual Basic 6 has ended, and the product has never been supported on the latest versions of Windows, key parts of the environment still work on newer platforms. It is possible to get a subset of the development environment working on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

Example code.

The following code snippet displays a message box saying "Hello, World!" as the window loads:  Private Sub Form_Load() End Sub  This snippet makes a counter that moves up 1 every second (a label and a timer control need to be added to the form for this to work) until the form is closed or an integer overflow occurs:  Option Explicit Dim Count As Integer Private Sub Form_Load() End Sub Private Sub Timer1_Timer() End Sub

External links.

Visual Basic is a third-generation event-driven programming language from Microsoft known for its Component Object Model (COM) programming model first released in 1991 and declared legacy during 2008. Microsoft intended Visual Basic to be relatively easy to learn and use. Visual Basic was derived from BASIC and enables the rapid application development (RAD) of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, access to databases using Data Access Objects, Remote Data Objects, or ActiveX Data Objects, and creation of ActiveX controls and objects.


Early life.

Reedus was born in Hollywood, Florida, the son of Marianne (née Yarber), a teacher, and Ira Norman Reedus. Reedus' paternal grandmother was of Italian descent, while his grandfather had English, Irish and Scottish ancestry. He attended Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, for a semester. He worked at a Harley-Davidson shop in Venice, California, and contributed artwork to various shows as a painter, photographer, sculptor, and video artist. He first acted in the play "Maps for Drowners" at the Tiffany Theater on Sunset Boulevard. He was discovered at a party in Los Angeles, where someone asked him if he wanted to act in a play.

Career.

Film and television.

Reedus played Jeremy in his major film debut "Mimic" and Mac in Giovanni Rodriguez's "Red Canyon". Reedus played Murphy MacManus in the 1999 film "The Boondock Saints". He reprised the role in the 2009 sequel "". He played Scud in "Blade II". He guest-starred in "Charmed" as Nate, the boyfriend of Paige (Rose McGowan). Reedus starred in "Hello Herman", which opened nationwide and on-demand on June 7, 2013. Reedus currently stars in the reality series "Ride with Norman Reedus", which premiered in June 2016.

"The Walking Dead".

In 2010, Reedus began playing Daryl Dixon in the AMC television series "The Walking Dead", a horror drama about a group of friends and family members who fight to survive in a violent apocalyptic world populated with flesh-eating zombies and the few surviving humans, some of whom are even more diabolical and dangerous than the walkers themselves. The character was not originally in the comic book series of the same name, but was created specifically for Reedus after his audition for the character of Merle Dixon. "The Walking Dead" comic creator Robert Kirkman feels "absolutely blessed Reedus has honored the show with his presence, and the way he has come in and taken over that role and defined Daryl Dixon. A lot of Reedus's portrayal of the character in the first season inspired all the writers to do what we did with him in the second season. We love writing him and end up doing cool stuff with him." The drama has evolved into the highest-rated in cable history, smashing all previous records. Reedus was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

Modeling, music videos, and art.

Reedus has modeled for Prada, Alessandro Dell'Acqua, Durban, Levi's, Lexus, and Morgenthal Fredrics. In 2015, Reedus posed for a Cruelty Free International advertisement in support of ending cosmetic tests on animals.  In the mid-1990s, while working as a model, he appeared in the music videos for "Wicked As It Seems" by Keith Richards, "Violently Happy" by Björk, "Flat Top" by Goo Goo Dolls, "Cat's in the Cradle" covered by Ugly Kid Joe, "Strange Currencies" by R.E.M., and "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead. In 1999, he appeared in the video for "Mean to Me" by Tonic. Since achieving fame as an actor, he has also appeared in the videos for "Judas" by Lady Gaga, "Sun Down" by Tricky (ft. Tirzah), "Gypsy Woman" by Hilary Duff, and "No Cities to Love" by Sleater-Kinney.  He is also a painter, sculptor, and photographer, who currently shows his artwork in galleries in New York City, Berlin, and Frankfurt. He released a book of photography on October 31, 2013, called "The Sun's Coming Up... Like A Big Bald Head", and in September 2014 announced a fan-art compilation called "Thanks For All The Niceness".

Video games.

Reedus reprised his role as Daryl Dixon in the 2013 video game "", which is based on the television series. He was set to star in Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro's reboot horror game "Silent Hills", but Kojima left Konami and the game was cancelled in 2015. Reedus starred in Kojima's new game "Death Stranding".

Personal life.

Reedus was in a five-year relationship with supermodel Helena Christensen from 1998 to 2003. Despite reports to the contrary, the two were never married. Together they have a son, Mingus Lucien Reedus (born October 13, 1999). They have remained friends and shared joint custody of their son.  In February 2005, Reedus sustained a head injury when a truck collided with his car in Germany. His nose was reconstructed with the aid of four screws and his left eye socket with titanium.  In 2015, during the filming of "Sky", Reedus met Diane Kruger; the two were first seen together as a couple in July 2016. In November 2018, Kruger gave birth to their daughter, her first and his second child.

Norman Mark Reedus (born January 6, 1969) is an American actor, voice actor, television host, and model. Reedus is known for starring in the popular AMC horror drama series "The Walking Dead" as Daryl Dixon and in the film "The Boondock Saints" (1999) and its sequel "" (2009) as Murphy MacManus. He has acted in numerous films and television series, and modeled for various fashion designers (most recognizably Prada in the 1990s). Reedus also provided motion capture and voice acting for the main character Sam in Hideo Kojima's video game, "Death Stranding" (2019).


Life.

Burian was born in Plzeň, Czechoslovakia, where he came from a musical family. His father, Emil Burian, was an opera singer. E. F. Burian himself is the father of singer and writer Jan Burian. He studied under the tutelage of J. B. Foerster at Prague Conservatory, whence he graduated in 1927, but had begun participating in cultural life much sooner. Along with Karel Teige and Vítězslav Nezval, E. F. Burian was a key member of Devětsil, an association of Czech avant-garde artists in the 1920s. In 1926–1927 he worked with Osvobozené divadlo, but after disputes with, he and left the theatre. Later they founded their own theatre, Da-Da. He also worked with the theatre scene. In 1927 he founded the musical and elocutionary ensemble Voiceband.  In 1923 Burian joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. His work, strongly influenced by communist ideas, bordered on political agitation. In May 1933 he founded the D 34 theatre, with a strongly leftist-oriented program.  In 1941 Burian was arrested and spent the rest of World War II in Nazi concentration camps at the Small Fortress Theresienstadt, Dachau and finally in Neuengamme. He helped to organize illegal cultural programs for the inmates. In 1945, he survived the RAF attack against the prison ship Cap Arcona, and returned to Czechoslovakia, where he was already presumed dead. After the war, he founded D 46 and D 47 theatre, and led theatres in Brno and the operetta house in Karlín. After communist putsch in 1948, he worked as a member of the Czechoslovak communist parliament. In the post-war time, he became one of the leading promoters of the communist cultural nomenclature. He attempted to reorganize theatres, with a goal of placing communists into leadership posts of theatres.  Burian died in 1959 in Prague.

Work.

His work, deeply influenced by dadaism, futurism and poetism, was leftist-oriented. After the war it proved to agitate Communist ideas. He had a strong influence on Czech modern theatre, and his innovative staging methods (work with metaphor, poetry, and symbols) and inventions (theatergraph, voiceband) are inspirational for the theatre even now.

Emil František Burian (11 June 1904 – 9 August 1959) was a Czech poet, journalist, singer, actor, musician, composer, dramatic adviser, playwright and director. He was also active in Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politics.


History.

In 1473, the Portuguese navigator Lopo Gonçalves sailed near Cape Lopez. In 1722, pirates led by Bartholomew Roberts fought a battle in the Cape Lopez Bay against the Royal Navy. The encounter ended in Roberts' death. The settlement was established on Mandji Island in the delta of the Ogooué River by the French, who signed a treaty with the Orungu people in 1873. It was used as a base for the expeditions of de Brazza into the interior, then in 1894 a customs post was set up, becoming the nucleus of a trading center that included Hatton & Cookson, John Holt, Woermann, Société du Haut-Ogooué, and Compagnie d'Exploitations Forestières Africaines. The main products were initially rubber and ivory, gradually supplemented by woods, particularly okoumé for plywood.  The town was named after the French colonial administrator Émile Gentil in 1900. After World War I it became a port for timber, but it grew rapidly only after Elf began oil exploration in the area. It received its first bank branch when Bank of West Africa (BAO) opened a branch there in 1928.  A 1947 population of 4,500 grew to 21,000 by 1960. An oil refinery was established by SOGARA in the 1960s, with natural gas added in 1968.  The town is now known for its hotels and its nightlife, while attractions include the St Louis Church (built in 1927), a zoo, a casino, beaches and a golf course, as well as the wildlife in local swamps.

City districts.

The city centre lies next to the harbour on the Port-Gentil Bay seaside. Hotels, banks, shops, and supermarkets (such as the Casino and Cecado brands) are found within the downtown area between the Avenue Savorgnan de Brazzaville and the seaside. The area also concentrates a residential compound for foreign workforce. In the southern part, the BEAC building lies next to the port. The western Atlantic seaside is scarcely populated, mainly due to the presence of strong winds and sea currents. As is the case with other cities in Gabon, the authorities have not yet implemented house numbering in Port-Gentil, and the use of postal boxes is common.

Climate.

The Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies Port-Gentil's climate as tropical wet and dry (Aw). Despite the fact that the city lies in close proximity to the equator, Port-Gentil experiences noticeably warmer and cooler periods of the year with average temperatures in July (the city's coolest month) hovering at around and average temperatures in February and March (the city's warmest months) at around. Port-Gentil features a lengthy wet season that runs from October through May and a relatively short dry season that covers the remaining four months. The city receives roughly of precipitation annually.  The highest recorded temperature was on 26 February 2016; the lowest recorded temperature was on 1 August 1953.

Transportation.

Port Gentil is technically on an island, and no bridge connects it to the mainland. The limited number of paved roads within the city are also poorly maintained. The roads are paved in the inner city up to the outskirts of the new residential districts in N'Tchengue, where sandy paths with frequent potholes prevail. Traffic jams are common in road junctions such as the Carrefour Tobia or Léon Mba, close to the downtown area. There are plenty of shared taxi services for which the price of a drive is negotiable, starting usually at 400 CFA Francs. The taxi fare usually doubles for night drives. A premium price (doubled fare) is requested for passengers travelling beyond paved roads, given the hardships of the road, lack or non existence of illuminated roads at night, or pedestrians randomly walking on the road. Most of the cars are obsolete given the prohibitively high cost of new imported cars. Furthermore, the lack of local car spareparts manufacturers underscores the need to import such parts from as far as Europe, the increased price as well as the lengthy delivery duration penalize altogether the traffic.  The city has an airport, Port-Gentil International Airport, serving as the main channel of transportation with the world. Regular flights connect it with Libreville, capital of Gabon.

Healthcare.

Hospitals within Port-Gentil include:
* Clinique Mandji, located in the Littoral district on the Route de la Sobraga,
* Clinique du Littoral, located on the Boulevard du Gouverneur Pélieu,
* Centre du Traitement Ambulatoire on the road to N'Tchengue.

Education.

Schools include:

Places of worship.

Among the places of worship, they are predominantly Christian churches and temples : Roman Catholic Diocese of Port-Gentil (Catholic Church), Assemblies of God, Evangelical Church of Gabon. There are also Muslim mosques.

Port-Gentil or Mandji is the second-largest city of Gabon, and its leading seaport. It is the center of Gabon's petroleum and timber industries. The city is located on a delta island in the Ogooue delta with no bridges to the mainland. Nearby Cape Lopez is Gabon's westernmost point. It had a 2013 census population of 136,462.


Types.

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms may fall within coding sequences of genes, non-coding regions of genes, or in the intergenic regions (regions between genes). SNPs within a coding sequence do not necessarily change the amino acid sequence of the protein that is produced, due to degeneracy of the genetic code.  SNPs in the coding region are of two types: synonymous and nonsynonymous SNPs. Synonymous SNPs do not affect the protein sequence, while nonsynonymous SNPs change the amino acid sequence of protein. The nonsynonymous SNPs are of two types: missense and nonsense.  SNPs that are not in protein-coding regions may still affect gene splicing, transcription factor binding, messenger RNA degradation, or the sequence of noncoding RNA. Gene expression affected by this type of SNP is referred to as an eSNP (expression SNP) and may be upstream or downstream from the gene.

Frequency.

More than 335 million SNPs have been found across humans from multiple populations. A typical genome differs from the reference human genome at 4 to 5 million sites, most of which (more than 99.9%) consist of SNPs and short indels.

Within a genome.

The genomic distribution of SNPs is not homogenous; SNPs occur in non-coding regions more frequently than in coding regions or, in general, where natural selection is acting and "fixing" the allele (eliminating other variants) of the SNP that constitutes the most favorable genetic adaptation. Other factors, like genetic recombination and mutation rate, can also determine SNP density.  SNP density can be predicted by the presence of microsatellites: AT microsatellites in particular are potent predictors of SNP density, with long (AT)(n) repeat tracts tending to be found in regions of significantly reduced SNP density and low GC content.

Within a population.

There are variations between human populations, so a SNP allele that is common in one geographical or ethnic group may be much rarer in another. Within a population, SNPs can be assigned a minor allele frequency—the lowest allele frequency at a locus that is observed in a particular population. This is simply the lesser of the two allele frequencies for single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Importance.

Variations in the DNA sequences of humans can affect how humans develop diseases and respond to pathogens, chemicals, drugs, vaccines, and other agents. SNPs are also critical for personalized medicine. Examples include biomedical research, forensics, pharmacogenetics, and disease causation, as outlined below.

Clinical research.

SNPs' greatest importance in clinical research is for comparing regions of the genome between cohorts (such as with matched cohorts with and without a disease) in genome-wide association studies. SNPs have been used in genome-wide association studies as high-resolution markers in gene mapping related to diseases or normal traits. SNPs without an observable impact on the phenotype (so called silent mutations) are still useful as genetic markers in genome-wide association studies, because of their quantity and the stable inheritance over generations.

Forensics.

SNPs were used initially for matching a forensic DNA sample to a suspect but it has been phased out with development of STR-based DNA fingerprinting techniques. Current next-generation-sequencing (NGS) techniques may allow for better use of SNP genotyping in a forensic application so long as problematic loci are avoided. In the future SNPs may be used in forensics for some phenotypic clues like eye color, hair color, ethnicity, etc. Kidd et al. have demonstrated that a panel of 19 SNPs can identify the ethnic group with good probability of match (Pm = 10) in 40 population groups studied. One example of how this might potentially be useful is in the area of artistic reconstruction of possible premortem appearances of skeletal remains of unknown individuals. Although a facial reconstruction can be fairly accurate based strictly upon anthropological features, other data that might allow a more accurate representation include eye color, skin color, hair color, etc.  In a situation with a low amount of forensic sample or a degraded sample, SNP methods can be a good alternative to STR methods due to the abundance of potential markers, amenability to automation, and potential reduction of required fragment length to only 60–80 bp. In the absence of a STR match in DNA profile database; different SNPs can be used to get clues regarding ethnicity, phenotype, lineage, and even identity.

Pharmacogenetics.

Some SNPs are associated with the metabolism of different drugs. SNP's can be mutations, such as deletions, which can inhibit or promote enzymatic activity; such change in enzymatic activity can lead to decreased rates of drug metabolism. The association of a wide range of human diseases like cancer, infectious diseases (AIDS, leprosy, hepatitis, etc.) autoimmune, neuropsychiatric and many other diseases with different SNPs can be made as relevant pharmacogenomic targets for drug therapy.

Disease.

A single SNP may cause a Mendelian disease, though for complex diseases, SNPs do not usually function individually, rather, they work in coordination with other SNPs to manifest a disease condition as has been seen in Osteoporosis. One of the earliest successes in this field was finding a single base mutation in the non-coding region of the APOC3 (apolipoprotein C3 gene) that associated with higher risks of hypertriglyceridemia and atherosclerosis.  All types of SNPs can have an observable phenotype or can result in disease:

Databases.

As there are for genes, bioinformatics databases exist for SNPs.  The International SNP Map working group mapped the sequence flanking each SNP by alignment to the genomic sequence of large-insert clones in Genebank. These alignments were converted to chromosomal coordinates that is shown in Table 1. This list has greatly increased since, with, for instance, the Kaviar database now listing 162 million single nucleotide variants (SNVs).

Nomenclature.

The nomenclature for SNPs can be confusing: several variations can exist for an individual SNP, and consensus has not yet been achieved.  The rs### standard is that which has been adopted by dbSNP and uses the prefix "rs", for "reference SNP", followed by a unique and arbitrary number. SNPs are frequently referred to by their dbSNP rs number, as in the examples above.  The Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) uses a standard which conveys more information about the SNP. Examples are:

SNP analysis.

SNPs are usually biallelic and thus easily assayed. Analytical methods to discover novel SNPs and detect known SNPs include:

Programs for prediction of SNP effects.

An important group of SNPs are those that corresponds to missense mutations causing amino acid change on protein level. Point mutation of particular residue can have different effect on protein function (from no effect to complete disruption its function). Usually, change in amino acids with similar size and physico-chemical properties (e.g. substitution from leucine to valine) has mild effect, and opposite. Similarly, if SNP disrupts secondary structure elements (e.g. substitution to proline in alpha helix region) such mutation usually may affect whole protein structure and function. Using those simple and many other machine learning derived rules a group of programs for the prediction of SNP effect was developed:

A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; ; plural ) is a substitution of a single nucleotide at a specific position in the genome, that is present in a sufficiently large fraction of the population (e.g. 1% or more).


Early years and education.

Gregory III Laham was born Lutfy Laham in Darayya, Syria, on December 15, 1933.  He entered the Seminary of the Holy Savior of the Basilian Salvatorian Order near Saida, Lebanon, in 1943. He took his simple religious vows in 1949 and his solemn religious vows in 1954. He received his religious and philosophical education at the Holy Savior Seminary, Joun, Lebanon. He continued his theological studies in Rome, Italy, where he was ordained priest on February 15, 1959 in the Church of the Abbey of Grottaferrata.

Church.

Priesthood.

The future patriarch received a doctoral degree in Oriental Theology from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome following his ordination. He then served as superior of the Holy Savior Major Seminary from 1961 until 1964. In 1962 he founded the magazine "Al-Wahdah - Unity in Faith", the first ecumenical magazine to be published in the Arabic language. He also founded several orphanages and trade schools in Lebanon.  He was appointed administrator of the Patriarchal Vicariate of Jerusalem in 1975, in the wake of the Israeli arrest of the Patriarchal Vicar of Jerusalem, Archbishop Hilarion Capucci of the Aleppin Salvatorian order. Laham founded the Student Fund in Jerusalem to help needy students and in 1978 the Family Assistance Fund to help needy families in the troubled areas of his diocese. In 1967 he founded at the Patriarchate the Oriental Library to promulgate the knowledge of Eastern traditions. He initiated a variety of social projects such as repairing churches, opening clinics and building public housing, including a guest house for pilgrims at the Patriarchal Center in Jerusalem.

Episcopate.

On September 9, 1981 he was named Archeparch by Patriarch Maximos V Hakim and continued his work as Patriarchal Vicar of Jerusalem as successor to Archeparch Hilarion Capucci. On November 27, 1981 he was enthroned as the titular archbishop of Tarsus and consecrated Archeparch by patriarch Maximos V Hakim. His co-consecrators were Saba Youakim, Archeparch of Petra and Philadelphia and François Abou Mokh, titular bishop of Palmyra dei Greco-Melchiti.  In 1992 Laham was named Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and in 1998 became Protosyncellus of the same city.  Appointed by Patriarch Maximos V as president of the Patriarchal Liturgical Commission, he edited the "Anthologion", the prayer book or breviary of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and "The Book of the Liturgies", an updated compendium of the Divine Liturgy. As secretary of the Ecumenical Commission of the Melkite Patriarchate, he led the dialogue between the Melkite Greek Catholic and the Antiochian Orthodox Churches.

Patriarchate.

Patriarch Maximos resigned in 2000 at age 92 due to failing health. The episcopal synod of the Melkite Church, met at the patriarchal residence in Raboueh on November 22, 2000 to select a new leader. On November 29 the synod elected Laham patriarch. He chose the name Gregory after the Patriarch Gregory II Youssef, the last member of the Basilian Salvatorian Order to serve as head of the Melkite Church. On December 5, 2000, Pope John Paul II accepted Patriarch Laham's request for ecclesiastical communion.  On May 8, 2008, along with other Melkite bishops and archimandrites, Patriarch Laham was received at the Vatican by Pope Benedict XVI. He repeated this visit on March 15, 2012.  The patriarch is an advocate of the Christian communities of the Near and Middle East. speaking at a 2010 synod, he asserted that "among the most dangerous effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" is the phenomenon of Christian emigration, "which will make Arab society a society with only one color, a society purely Muslim." Viewing the Near East as Muslim and the West as Christian could mean that "any occasion would be propitious for a new clash of cultures, of civilizations and even of religions -- a destructive clash between the Muslim Arab East and the Christian West," he said. The patriarch called for Christian-Islam dialogue which describes to Muslims "what our fears are," including concern about a lack of separation between religion and government, lack of equality and about a legal system that is based on Islamic law.  In December 2010, Laham was quoted by "The Lebanon Daily Star" as claiming that attacks against Levantine Christians, were part of a "Zionist conspiracy against Islam." Lahham reportedly stated that "All this behavior has nothing to do with Islam... But it is actually a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations and it aims at undermining and giving a bad image of Islam." He further added that media portrayal of the attack the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad was "a conspiracy against Arabs and the pre-dominantly Muslim Arab world that aims at depicting Arabs and Muslims in Arab countries as terrorist and fundamentalist murderers in order to deny them their rights and especially those of the Palestinians.” In March 2011 Patriarch Gregory said “we Christians risk demographic extinction and face huge challenges,” calling on league members to “formulate ideas” on how to address the phenomenon. The Palestine-Israel conflict, Lahham said, was the “sole” reason for emigration.  In August 2013 Patriarch Gregory gave an appeal to Asia News "We must listen to the Pope's appeal for peace in Syria. If western countries want to create true democracy then they must build it on reconciliation, through dialogue between Christians and Muslims, not with weapons. This attack being planned by the United States is a criminal act, which will only reap more victims, in addition to the tens of thousands of these two years of war. This will destroy the Arab world's trust in the West"  In September 2015, he urged Syrian Christians not to leave the country, despite the ongoing Syrian Civil War, and implored European countries not to encourage their emigration from their homeland.  Patriarch Gregory III retired on 6 May 2017.  Gregory III Laham speaks Arabic, English, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Italian and Latin. He travels a lot in the world, to draw attention to the difficult situation in Syria to the Christians. He also calls for a dialogue between all parties in Syria to end the civil war.

Books and other works.

Patriarch Gregory III is author of several books, including:

Gregory III Laham, B.S. (; ; born Lutfy Laham, December 15, 1933, in Darayya, Syria), Emeritus Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and Jerusalem, is the former spiritual leader of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. He was elected on November 29, 2000, succeeding Patriarch Maximos V Hakim. He retired on May 6, 2017.


Early life.

Carlo Buonaparte was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, Republic of Genoa, as the youngest of three children. His father, "Nobile" Giuseppe Buonaparte, had represented Ajaccio at the Council of Corte in 1749. The Corsican Buonapartes were descended from minor Italian nobility of Tuscan origin, who had come to Corsica from Liguria in the 16th century. Carlo initially followed in his father's footsteps and studied to be a lawyer at Pisa University, but following a substantial inheritance from the death of his father, he left before earning his degree to tend to his inheritance and take charge of family responsibilities. Shortly afterwards, he married "Donna" Maria Letizia Ramolino. Both were of Corsican nobility, and very young at the time of their marriage (Carlo was seventeen and Letizia was thirteen), but this was typical of their society at that time. Their marriage was arranged by their families, also typical of their milieu; economic convenience was only one of several factors considered while arranging the match, the main considerations being of cultural compatibility in matters such as speech dialect, church habits, food habits, attire and other family traditions. Buonaparte's new wife brought with her a dowry of thirty-one acres of land, including a mill and bakery which yielded an annual income of roughly £10,000.

French takeover.

For a period after his marriage at Ajaccio on 2/7 June 1764, he worked as a secretary and personal assistant to Pasquale Paoli. He had a son, Napoleone, who died in infancy in 1765 as did a daughter. Paoli sent him to Rome to negotiate with Pope Clement XIII in 1766. He had apparently enjoyed his time in Rome up until being forced for reasons unknown back to Corsica in 1768 - though he had possibly enjoyed an affair with a married woman during his stay which led to his departure. At the time of his return, the Republic of Genoa had offered Corsica to Louis XV as payment for a debt. The French were eager to obtain the strategically placed island for the protection of their own coasts, and Genoa equally keen to relinquish control given their inability to resist growing independence movements. Buonaparte was noted for a fervent speech against the French "invasion". Political upheaval followed as France gained ownership of Corsica, and many of Paoli's supporters had to flee to the mountains. Buonaparte and his family, now boasting newborn Giuseppe, who was the first child to survive infancy, were included. The family eventually returned to the town, where Buonaparte's wife gave birth to third son, another Napoleone, within Ajaccio Cathedral.  Soon after French acquisition of the island, Carlo Buonaparte embraced the new government. He was appointed Assessor of the Royal Jurisdiction of Ajaccio and the neighbouring districts on 20 September 1769. Shortly after that he became a Doctor in Laws at the University of Pisa on 27 November 1769.

Rise to prominence.

In April 1770, the French administration created a Corsican Order of Nobility. He became an advocate of the Superior Council of Corsica on 11 December 1769 and a Substitute Procurator of the King of France in Ajaccio in October 1770. Carlo already possessed the title of a "Noble Patrician of Tuscany" ("Nobile Patrizio di Toscana") since 1769 by permission of the Archbishop of Pisa due to his ancestry, and had his nobility confirmed on 13 September 1771. He then became the assessor of the Royal Jurisdiction of Ajaccio in February 1771, Deputy of the Nobility in the General States of Corsica on 13 September 1771, Member of the Council of the Twelve Nobles of Dila (Western Corsica) in May 1772, Deputy of the Nobility of Corsica at the Royal French Court in July 1777 and finally he was named Corsica's Representative to the Court of Louis XVI of France at Versailles in 1778.  Despite being honored with many titles, Buonaparte's dissatisfied nature led him to embark in risky business enterprises. He made many claims on land and money through legal means, but his success was limited and he burned through his finances rapidly. His apparent fondness of gambling worsened his monetary difficulties. Buonaparte made note of his situation in his account book: In Paris, I received 4,000 francs from the King and a fee of 1,000 crowns from the government, but I came back without a penny. By 1782, Buonaparte was beginning to grow weak, and was suffering from constant pain. He traveled to Montpellier to seek proper medical care. Nothing could be done to quell the effects of what was believed to be stomach cancer, the same disease that may have killed his famous son, Napoleon. Carlo Buonaparte died on 24 February 1785, and, due to his frivolous spending, left his surviving wife and eight children penniless. Carlo Buonaparte's youngest son was born only three months before he died.

Children.

Carlo Buonaparte's marriage to Maria Letizia Ramolino (24 August 1750 – 2 February 1836) in June 1764 produced thirteen children, including one stillbirth. Eight of their children survived to adulthood.

"Nob." Carlo Maria Buonaparte or Carlo Maria di Buonaparte (27 March 1746 – 24 February 1785) was an Italian lawyer and diplomat who is best known as the father of Napoleon Bonaparte.


History.

The competitive exclusion principle is classically attributed to Georgii Gause, although he actually never formulated it. The principle is already present in Darwin's theory of natural selection.  Throughout its history, the status of the principle has oscillated between "a priori" ('two species coexisting "must" have different niches') and experimental truth ('we find that species coexisting do have different niches').

Experimental basis.

Based on field observations, Joseph Grinnell formulated the principle of competitive exclusion in 1904: "Two species of approximately the same food habits are not likely to remain long evenly balanced in numbers in the same region. One will crowd out the other". Georgy Gause formulated the law of competitive exclusion based on laboratory competition experiments using two species of "Paramecium", "P. aurelia" and "P. caudatum". The conditions were to add fresh water every day and input a constant flow of food. Although "P. caudatum" initially dominated, "P. aurelia" recovered and subsequently drove "P. caudatum" extinct via exploitative resource competition. However, Gause was able to let the "P. caudatum" survive by differing the environmental parameters (food, water). Thus, Gause's law is valid only if the ecological factors are constant.  Gause also studied competition between two species of yeast, finding that "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" consistently outcompeted "Schizosaccharomyces kefir" by producing a higher concentration of ethyl alcohol.

Prediction.

Competitive exclusion is predicted by mathematical and theoretical models such as the Lotka-Volterra models of competition. However, for poorly understood reasons, competitive exclusion is rarely observed in natural ecosystems, and many biological communities appear to violate Gause's law. The best-known example is the so-called "paradox of the plankton". All plankton species live on a very limited number of resources, primarily solar energy and minerals dissolved in the water. According to the competitive exclusion principle, only a small number of plankton species should be able to coexist on these resources. Nevertheless, large numbers of plankton species coexist within small regions of open sea.  Some communities that appear to uphold the competitive exclusion principle are MacArthur's warblers and Darwin's finches, though the latter still overlap ecologically very strongly, being only affected negatively by competition under extreme conditions.

Paradoxical traits.

A partial solution to the paradox lies in raising the dimensionality of the system. Spatial heterogeneity, trophic interactions, multiple resource competition, competition-colonization trade-offs, and lag may prevent exclusion (ignoring stochastic extinction over longer time-frames). However, such systems tend to be analytically intractable. In addition, many can, in theory, support an unlimited number of species. A new paradox is created: Most well-known models that allow for stable coexistence allow for unlimited number of species to coexist, yet, in nature, any community contains just a handful of species.

Redefinition.

Recent studies addressing some of the assumptions made for the models predicting competitive exclusion have shown these assumptions need to be reconsidered. For example, a slight modification of the assumption of how growth and body size are related leads to a different conclusion, namely that, for a given ecosystem, a certain range of species may coexist while others become outcompeted.  One of the primary ways niche-sharing species can coexist is the competition-colonization trade-off. In other words, species that are better competitors will be specialists, whereas species that are better colonizers are more likely to be generalists. Host-parasite models are effective ways of examining this relationship, using host transfer events. There seem to be two places where the ability to colonize differs in ecologically closely related species. In feather lice, Bush and Clayton provided some verification of this by showing two closely related genera of lice are nearly equal in their ability to colonize new host pigeons once transferred. Harbison continued this line of thought by investigating whether the two genera differed in their ability to transfer. This research focused primarily on determining how colonization occurs and why wing lice are better colonizers than body lice. Vertical transfer is the most common occurrence, between parent and offspring, and is much-studied and well understood. Horizontal transfer is difficult to measure, but in lice seems to occur via phoresis or the "hitchhiking" of one species on another. Harbison found that body lice are less adept at phoresis and excel competitively, whereas wing lice excel in colonization.

Phylogenetic context.

An ecological community is the assembly of species which is maintained by ecological (Hutchinson, 1959; Leibold, 1988) and evolutionary process (Weiher and Keddy, 1995; Chase "et al"., 2003). These two processes play an important role in shaping the existing community and will continue in the future (Tofts "et al"., 2000; Ackerly, 2003; Reich "et al"., 2003). In a local community, the potential members are filtered first by environmental factors such as temperature or availability of required resources and then secondly by its ability to co-exist with other resident species.  In an approach of understanding how two species fit together in a community or how the whole community fits together, "The Origin of Species" (Darwin, 1859) proposed that under homogeneous environmental condition struggle for existence is greater between closely related species than distantly related species. He also hypothesized that the functional traits may be conserved across phylogenies. Such strong phylogenetic similarities among closely related species are known as phylogenetic effects (Derrickson "et al"., 1988.)  With field study and mathematical models, ecologist have pieced together a connection between functional traits similarity between species and its effect on species co-existence. According to competitive-relatedness hypothesis (Cahil "et al"., 2008) or phylogenetic limiting similarity hypothesis (Violle "et al"., 2011) interspecific competition is high among the species which have similar functional traits, and which compete for similar resources and habitats. Hence, it causes reduction in the number of closely related species and even distribution of it, known as phylogenetic overdispersion (Webb "et al"., 2002). The reverse of phylogenetic overdispersion is phylogenetic clustering in which case species with conserved functional traits are expected to co-occur due to environmental filtering (Weiher "et al".,1 995; Webb, 2000). In the study performed by Webb "et al"., 2000, they showed that a small-plots of Borneo forest contained closely related trees together. This suggests that closely related species share features that are favored by the specific environmental factors that differ among plots causing phylogenetic clustering.  For both phylogenetic patterns (phylogenetic overdispersion and phylogenetic clustering), the baseline assumption is that phylogenetically related species are also ecologically similar (H. Burns et al, 2011). There are no significant number of experiments answering to what degree the closely related species are also similar in niche. Due to that, both phylogenetic patterns are not easy to interpret. It’s been shown that phylogenetic overdispersion may also result from convergence of distantly related species (Cavender-Bares "et al." 2004; Kraft "et al." 2007). In their study, they have shown that traits are convergent rather than conserved. While, in another study, it’s been shown that phylogenetic clustering may also be due to historical or bio-geographical factors which prevents species from leaving their ancestral ranges. So, more phylogenetic experiments are required for understanding the strength of species interaction in community assembly.

Application to humans.

Evidence showing that the competitive exclusion principle operates in human groups has been reviewed and integrated into regality theory to explain warlike and peaceful societies. For example, hunter-gatherer groups surrounded by other hunter-gatherer groups in the same ecological niche will fight, at least occasionally, while hunter-gatherer groups surrounded by groups with a different means of subsistence can coexist peacefully.

In ecology, the competitive exclusion principle, sometimes referred to as Gause's law, is a proposition named for Georgy Gause that two species competing for the same limited resource cannot coexist at constant population values. When one species has even the slightest advantage over another, the one with the advantage will dominate in the long term. This leads either to the extinction of the weaker competitor or to an evolutionary or behavioral shift toward a different ecological niche. The principle has been paraphrased in the maxim "complete competitors can not coexist".


History.

The airline was established in September 2003. The lead investor is Indigo Partners, an American private equity firm specialising in transportation investments. The first flight was made from Katowice International Airport on 19 May 2004. The airline's CEO is József Váradi, former CEO of Malév Hungarian Airlines. The company is registered in Pest County (Hungary).  On 25 February 2015 Wizz Air started trading on London Stock Exchange.  In November 2017 Wizz Air announced that they were planning to launch a British division called Wizz Air UK. The airline is based at London Luton, mainly to take advantage of a number of take-off and landing slots acquired from Monarch Airlines when the latter entered administration in 2017. The airline applied successfully to the CAA for an AOC and a Type A Operating Licence. The airline launched operations in March 2018 using British registered aircraft. Wizz Air UK will start to take over the flights to the UK that are currently operated by Wizz Air. Wizz Air said that the airline will employ up to 100 staff by the end of 2018.  In November 2018, it was reported that Wizz Air had announced plans to reactivate its Wizz Air Ukraine subsidiary, approximately three years after it was shut down. Under the plan, Wizz Air Ukraine will seek to complete certification in 2019 following the acquisition of twenty A320/321 neo jets. Bases will be developed in Kyiv as well as other cities across the country. By 2025, it aims to have a passenger throughput of 6 million passengers per annum.  On 4 March 2020, the company announced that it would be reducing flights to Italy and adjusting its flight schedule as a response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Europe.

Corporate affairs.

Head office.

The current head office can be found in Laurus offices (Laurus Irodaház) Building B, Budapest, since March 2015.  Previously, its head office was at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport. Wizz Air signed the lease agreement in October 2010 and moved there with 150 employees in June 2011. The airline occupied over of space in an office building refurbished after the airline's arrival. The facility, with open-plan offices, housed about 150 employees.  Prior to the time its head office was at the airport, its head office was in the Airport Business Park C2 in Vecsés, close to the airport.

Operations.

As is common with all European low-cost carriers, Wizz Air prefers to use smaller or secondary airports in order to reduce costs and fees incurred by service usage. It also has a buy-on-board food service called Wizz Café as well as a second service called Wizz Boutique, which is for other items.

Destinations.

Wizz Air started new services between Katowice and London Gatwick in 2008. In January 2008, flights started from Gdansk to Gothenburg, Bournemouth and Coventry. In summer 2008, Wizz Air restarted summer seasonal services from Katowice and Budapest to Girona, as well as a new weekly service to Girona from Gdańsk. Other summer services from Budapest are Heraklion, Corfu, Burgas and Varna; from Katowice to Crete-Heraklion and Burgas; and Warsaw to Corfu and Burgas. It also restarted its three-times-weekly service from London Luton Airport to Burgas. On 2 October 2008, Wizz Air announced that a number of its Romanian services would have increased frequency following an order for three Airbus A320 aircraft.  In February 2012, Wizz Air announced that it would start flights from Debrecen International Airport to London, beginning 18 June 2012. On 11 September 2012, Wizz Air announced new routes to and from Tel Aviv, Israel.  On 12 April 2013 Wizz Air announced that it would start flights from Budapest Airport to Baku's Heydar Aliyev International Airport starting from 17 June 2013. On 26 June 2013, Wizz Air announced entry into the Slovakian market, adding one new route from Košice International Airport starting from September 2013.  On 26 June 2015 the airline opened its 19th base, at Tuzla International Airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina and deployed one new Airbus A320 aircraft at the airport. With one aircraft stationed at the airport, Wizz Air opened new routes to Memmingen Airport (near Munich) and Sandefjord Airport, Torp (near Oslo), commencing on 26 June 2015, as well as to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport and Stockholm Skavsta Airport, commencing on 28 June 2015.  In February 2016 Wizz Air announced a new base at David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport (serving Kutaisi in Georgia). In October 2016 Wizz Air announced a new base at Chișinău International Airport (serving Chișinău) in Moldova. In December 2016 Wizz Air announced a new base in Varna, Bulgaria.  In February 2017 Wizz Air announced a new base at London Luton Airport in the United Kingdom. Also in 2017, the company added three new routes, to Tel Aviv, Israel, Pristina in Kosovo, and Kutaisi in Georgia, for a total of over 500 routes.  In January 2018 Wizz Air announced a new base at Vienna International Airport in Austria. Three Airbus 320/321 are planned to be based in Vienna and the company will operate a total of 17 new routes from the Austrian capital.  In November 2018, the airline announced it would open a base at Kraków John Paul II International Airport in Poland, starting with 12 routes.

Fleet.

Wizz Air began operations with a fleet of Airbus A320 jets. , the Wizz Air fleet consists of the following aircraft:  With over 260 aircraft on order, Wizz Air has the largest orderbook among European airlines, well above Norwegian Air Shuttle with 220.

Environmental protection.

In November 2019, Wizz Air dismissed concerns about the damage the airline may be causing to the environment, raised by the "flightshame" movement. This dismissal was based on the airline's per-passenger emission level. The company said that it would reduce emissions per capita by an additional 30 percent by 2030. At the same time, Wizz Air condemned inefficient airlines - such as Lufthansa - offering business class and using outdated technologies, which cause far more specific environmental damage than Wizz Air.

Force majeure.

By early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, had created a case of force majeure in European aviation, gradually forcing airline fleets to land, including the majority of Wizz Air aircraft. Although it was announced in March that no redundancies were planned, one-fifth of the stock was redeemed when it became clear that air travel across the continent was shutting down.  In April 2020, based on passenger numbers, Wizz Air became Europe's largest low-cost airline with 78,000 passengers. By mid-June, they had reached 40 percent of their previous year’s normal weekly revenue, while the proportion of no-shows fell from 80 percent in April to 30 percent.

Wizz Air, legally incorporated as Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. () and stylised as W!ZZ Air, is a Hungarian low-cost airline with its head office in Budapest. The airline serves many cities across Europe, as well as some destinations in North Africa and the Middle East. It has the largest fleet of any Hungarian airline, although it is not a flag carrier, and currently serves 44 countries. Its Jersey-based parent company, Wizz Air Holdings plc, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. As of 2018, the airline has its largest base at Budapest Airport with over 60 destinations. In 2019 the airline transported 39.8 million passengers.


Early life.

Gisela was the daughter of Duke Herman II of Swabia and Gerberga of Burgundy, daughter of King Conrad the Peaceful. Both her parents were descendants of Charlemagne. According to a plate found when her tomb was unearthed, she was born on 11 November 999, but that date cannot be reconciled with the records of her marriages.  Gisela first married the Saxon count Brun I of Brunswick, about 1002. Upon Brun's death, her second marriage was ca. 1012 with the Babenberg scion Ernest, who had been enfeoffed with the Duchy of Swabia by King Henry II of Germany at the death of Gisela's brother, Duke Herman III and aimed at legitimising himself as his heir. After Ernest's early death in 1015, Gisela became regent for their minor son Duke Ernest II of Swabia.

Queen and empress.

Gisela's third marriage, which took place before January 1017, was to Conrad II, who was elected king of Germany in 1024 and became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1027. According to Thietmar of Merseburg, Archbishop Aribo of Mainz refused to crown her as queen because Gisela and Conrad were too closely related, the couple both descending from King Henry the Fowler. She was instead crowned thirteen days after Conrad's coronation by Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne. For the same reason, Henry II replaced her as her son's regent with Poppo of Trier, which became the source of conflict between Conrad and Henry.  Gisela played an active part in politics, attending Imperial councils and having her uncle King Rudolph III of Burgundy transfer the succession of his Arelat realm to her husband Conrad. Also, she participated in several synods of the church. She took care of her sister Matilda's daughters Sophie and Beatrice, who later ruled Bar and Tuscany respectively. After Conrad's death in 1039, she and her son Henry III led the mourning progression. The empress died of dysentery at the Imperial Palace of Goslar in 1043. She is interred in the grotto of Speyer Cathedral, Germany along with several emperors and other members of the imperial family. Her tomb was opened in 1900 and Gisela's mummified body was found to be 172 cm (5' 8") tall, with long blond hair.

Children.

Gisela and Brun I, Count of Brunswick had:  Gisela and Ernest I, Duke of Swabia had:  Gisela and Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor had:

Gisela of Swabia ( 990 – 15 February 1043), a member of the Conradiner dynasty, was queen of Germany from 1024 to 1039 and empress of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 to 1039 by her third marriage with Emperor Conrad II. She was the mother of Emperor Henry III. She was regent of Swabia for her minor son Duke Ernest II of Swabia in 1015.


Plants named after Kamel.

Several plants were named in Kamel's honour, though in his adopted homeland - the Philippines - he was mostly forgotten.  Carl Linnaeus named the well known genus of flowering plants "Camellia" in Kamel's honour. American botanist Elmer Drew Merrill named "Eugenia kamelii" after Kamel.

Life.

Kingdom of Bohemia.

Kamel was born in the city of Brno in the Margraviate of Moravia, governed by the Kingdom of Bohemia, then a part of Habsburg Austria, now the Czech Republic.  He was trained as a lay brother pharmacist at the Jesuit College in Brno. On November 12, 1682 he entered the Society of Jesus, spending his novitiate in Brno and his exams in Krems. In 1685 he was sent as an assistant apothecary to the Holy Trinity College in Jindřichův Hradec, but was soon promoted and moved to the pharmacy of St. Vittus in Český Krumlov in 1686.  His pharmacy has been minutely restored and still exists in the local Museum of Český Krumlov During this time, Kamel applied to be sent to the Jesuit overseas missions and his request was granted.

Philippines.

Through Cádiz and New Spain, Kamel arrived in Manila in 1688, where he was assigned to the local Colegio Máximo de San Ignacio. Upon his arrival, he is said to have established the first Jesuit pharmacy in the Philippines, to which he soon added a botanical garden. Given the lack of medical personnel, in addition to work in the pharmacy where he would prepare remedies, Kamel fulfilled the role of a physician, prescribing doses and regimens.  Through Kamel's labours, the Jesuit College in Manila soon became the most reputed one in the Philippines, as his treatment was sought by persons of high authority. At the same time, observing the Christian ideals of charity, he supplied remedies to the poor and the indigenous people for free. Kamel's reputation fast extended even beyond the Philippine Islands, as he entered into scholarly correspondence with learned men both in Europe and Asia. Namely, he exchanged letters, information and specimens with Willem ten Rhijne, a Dutch botanist in Batavia; Samuel Browne and Edward Bulkley, two English surgeons in Madras; and two members of the Royal Society, the apothecary James Petiver and the naturalist John Ray.  Kamel died at the age of 45 from a disease whose symptoms included diarrhoea.

Work.

Kamel drew, described and commented on diverse parts of Philippine nature: from plants to animals, from minerals to insects, shells and molluscs, snakes and even monsters (see below), with his first known text published in 1699.  Although the first consignment of his treatises fell into the hands of pirates and was lost, he successfully shipped his accounts to London where they were published by his correspondents Ray and Petiver. Kamel's descriptions of Philippine herbs, shrubs and trees were published as a 96-page appendix to Ray's third volume of Historia Plantarum (1704), while the remainder of his works appeared the Philosophical Transactions. Kamel was the first to acquaint Europe with species such as the tarsier, the colugo and the St Ignatius bean, a medicinal plant and source of strychnine. Linnaeus did not have a high opinion of Kamel's work and he was critical of the descriptions used in John Ray and declared them as “Descriptiones imperfectae. Florum nulla notitia.” Linnaeus preferred the works of Rumphius for plants of the region.  The majority of Kamel's surviving notes are now kept in the British Library in London, while one volume each are held in the Natural History Museum, London and the Maurits Sabbe Library in Leuven, Belgium. Copies of parts of Kamel's work can be found in his birthplace in Brno, the Czech Republic, alongside his birth register records and several other documents.

Georg Joseph Kamel (; ; ; ; 21 April 1661 – 2 May 1706) was a Jesuit missionary, pharmacist and naturalist known for producing the first comprehensive accounts of Philippine flora and fauna and for introducing Philippine nature to the European learned world. A number of Kamel's treatises were published in the "Philosophical Transactions", while his descriptions of Philippine flora appeared as an appendix to the third volume of John Ray's "Historia Plantarum".