Early life.

Magnus was an illegitimate son of King Olaf Haraldsson (later St. Olaf), by his English concubine Alfhild, originally a slave (thrall) of Olaf's queen Astrid Olofsdotter. Born prematurely, the child was weak and unable to breathe for the first few minutes, and he was probably not expected to survive. Olaf was not present at the child's birth, and his Icelandic skald Sigvatr Þórðarson became his godfather. In a hasty baptism, Sigvatr named Magnus after the greatest king he knew of, also Olaf's greatest role model, "Karla Magnus", or Charlemagne. Against the odds, Magnus went on to grow strong and healthy, and he became of vital importance to Olaf as his only son.  Olaf was dethroned by the Danish king Cnut the Great in 1028, and he went into exile with his family and court, including the young Magnus. They travelled over the mountains and through Eidskog during the winter, entered Värmland, and were given shelter by a chieftain called Sigtrygg in Närke. After a few months, they departed Närke, and by March went eastwards towards Sigtuna, where the Swedish king Anund Jacob had left them a ship. The party thereafter sailed through the Baltic Sea and into the Gulf of Finland, eventually landing in Kievan Rus' ("Garðaríki"). They made their first stop at Staraya Ladoga ("Aldeigjuborg") to organise the further journey. From there they travelled southwards to Novgorod ("Holmgard"), where Olaf sought assistance from Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise. Yaroslav, however, did not want to become directly involved in the Scandinavian power-struggles, and declined to help. After some time, in early 1030, Olaf learned that the Earl of Lade Håkon Eiriksson, Cnut's regent in Norway, had disappeared at sea, and gathered his men to make a swift return to Norway. Magnus was left to be fostered by Yaroslav and his wife Ingegerd.  In early 1031, a party including Magnus's uncle Harald Sigurdsson (later also to be king and then known as Harald Hardrada) arrived to report the news of his father's death at the Battle of Stiklestad. For the next few years, Magnus was educated in Old Russian and some Greek and was trained as a warrior. After Cnut's death in 1035, the Norwegian noblemen did not want to be under the oppressive rule of his son Svein and his mother Ælfgifu (known as "Álfífa" in Norway) any longer. Einar Thambarskelfir and Kalf Arnesson, who had both sought to be appointed regents under Cnut after Olaf's death in 1030 (Cnut instead appointed Svein and Ælfgifu), went together to Kievan Rus' to bring the boy back to rule as the King of Norway. After receiving the approval of Ingegerd, they returned with Magnus to Sigtuna in early 1035, and received backing from the Swedish king, brother of Magnus's stepmother Astrid. Astrid immediately became an important supporter of Magnus, and an army was gathered in Sweden, headed by Einar and Kalf, to place Magnus on the Norwegian throne.

King of Norway and Denmark.

Magnus was proclaimed king in 1035 at 11 years of age while Svein, the pretender to the Norwegian throne as son of Canute the Great of Denmark and Queen Elfgifu of Mercia, fled; Svein died shortly after. At first Magnus sought revenge against his father's enemies, but on Sigvatr's advice he stopped doing so, which is why he became known as "good" or "noble".  Another son of Cnut, Harthacnut, was on the throne of Denmark and wanted his country to reunite with Norway, while Magnus initiated a campaign against Denmark around 1040. However, the noblemen of both countries brought the two kings together at the Göta älv, the border between their kingdoms. They made peace and agreed that the first of them to die would be succeeded by the other. In 1042 Harthacnut died while in England, and Magnus also became King of Denmark, in spite of a claim by Cnut's nephew Sweyn Estridsen, whom Harthacnut had left in control of Denmark when he went to England, and who had some support.  As part of consolidating his control, Magnus destroyed the Jomsborg, headquarters of the Jomsvikings. Sweyn fled east and returned as one of the leaders of an invasion by the Wends in 1043, which Magnus decisively defeated at the Battle of Lyrskov Heath, near Hedeby. In the battle, Magnus wielded Saint Olaf's battle-axe, named Hel after the goddess of death. He had dreamt of his father the night before, and the Norwegians swore that before the battle they could hear the bell that Saint Olaf had given to the Church of St. Clement in Kaupang, in Nidaros – a sign that the saint was watching over his son and the army. It was the greatest victory ever over the Wends, with up to 15,000 killed.  Sweyn continued to oppose Magnus in Denmark, although according to "Heimskringla", they reached a settlement by which Sweyn became Earl of Denmark under Magnus. Magnus wanted to reunite Cnut the Great's entire North Sea Empire by also becoming king of England. When Harthacnut died, the English nobles had chosen as their king Æthelred the Unready's son Edward (later known as Edward the Confessor); Magnus wrote to him that he intended to attack England with combined Norwegian and Danish forces and "he will then govern it who wins the victory." The English were mostly hostile to Magnus; Sweyn was made welcome there, although Edward's mother, Emma, curiously favored Magnus and in 1043 the king confiscated her property, with which by one report she had promised to assist Magnus.  Meanwhile, Magnus' uncle Harald Sigurdsson had returned to Norway from the east and contested his rule there, while Sweyn was still a threat in Denmark; Harald allied himself with Sweyn. Magnus chose to appease Harald, and made him his co-king in Norway in 1046.

Death.

Sweyn increased the pressure on Magnus from his base in Scania, but by late 1046, Magnus had driven Sweyn out of Denmark. However, on October 25, 1047 he died suddenly while in Denmark, either in Zealand or in Jutland, either in an accident or of a disease; accounts vary. Reports include falling overboard from one of the ships he was mustering to invade England and drowning, falling off a horse, and falling ill while on board a ship. He is said to have made Sweyn his heir in Denmark, and Harald in Norway; some say in a deathbed statement. Magnus was buried with his father in the cathedral at Nidaros, modern Trondheim.

Physical appearance.

Snorri describes Magnus as:of middle height, with regular features and light complexion. He had light blond hair, was well-spoken and quick to make up his mind, was of noble character, most generous, a great warrior, and most valorous."

Descendants.

The line of Olaf II ended with Magnus' death. However, in 1280 Eric II of Norway, who was descended through his mother from Magnus' legitimate sister, Wulfhild, was crowned king of Norway.  Magnus was not married, but had a daughter out of wedlock, Ragnhild, who married Haakon Ivarsson, a Norwegian nobleman. Her great-grandson would become King Eric III of Denmark.

Magnus Olafsson (Old Norse: "Magnús Óláfsson", Norwegian and Danish: "Magnus Olavsson"; c. 1024 – 25 October 1047), better known as Magnus the Good (Old Norse: "Magnús góði", Norwegian and Danish: "Magnus den gode"), was King of Norway from 1035 and King of Denmark from 1042, ruling over both countries until his death in 1047.


Description.

The bontebok is a tall, medium-sized antelope. They typically stand high at the shoulder and measure along the head and body. The tail can range from. Body mass can vary from. Males are slightly larger and noticeably heavier than females. The bontebok is a chocolate brown colour, with a white underside and a white stripe from the forehead to the tip of the nose, although there is a brown stripe across the white near the eyes in most blesbok. The bontebok also has a distinctive white patch around its tail (whence the Latin name), while this patch is light brown/tan in blesbok. The horns of bontebok are lyre-shaped and clearly ringed. They are found in both sexes and can reach a length of half a metre.

Habitat.

Blesbok live in highveld, where they eat short grasses, while bontebok are restricted to coastal Fynbos and Renosterveld. They are diurnal, though they rest during the heat of the day. Herds contain only males, only females, or are mixed, and do not exceed 40 animals for bonteboks or 70 for blesboks.

Characteristics.

Bontebok are not good jumpers, but they are very good at crawling under things. Mature males form territories and face down other males in displays and occasionally combat.

Threats.

Bontebok were once extensively killed as pests, and were reduced to a wild population of just 17 animals, but the species has since recovered. Blesbok are extinct in their natural habitat, but they have increased in population to the point where they are now very abundant and avidly farmed, because they are popular quarry for hunters and are easy to sustain.

The bontebok ("Damaliscus pygargus") is an antelope found in South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia. The bontebok has two subspecies; the bontebok ("Damaliscus pygargus pygargus"), occurring naturally in the Fynbos and Renosterveld areas of the Western Cape, and the blesbok ("Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi") occurring in the highveld.


Life.

Tacitus, Plutarch and Pliny the Elder describe Petronius as the "elegantiae arbiter" (also phrased "arbiter elegantiarum"), "judge of elegance" in the court of the emperor Nero. He served as suffect consul in 62. Later, he became a member of the senatorial class who devoted themselves to a life of pleasure. His relationship to Nero was apparently akin to that of a fashion advisor.  Tacitus gives this account of Petronius in his historical work the "Annals" (XVI.18): None of the ancient sources give any further detail about his life, or mention that he was a writer. However, a medieval manuscript written around 1450 of the "Satyricon" credited a "Titus Petronius" as the author of the original work. Traditionally, this reference is linked with Petronius Arbiter, since the novel appears to have been written or at least set during his lifetime. The link, however, remains speculative and disputed.

As a writer.

Petronius' development of his characters in the "Satyricon", namely Trimalchio, transcends the traditional style of writing of ancient literature. In the literature written during Petronius' lifetime, the emphasis was always on the typical considerations of plot, which had been laid down by classical rules. The character, which was hardly known in ancient literature, was secondary. Petronius goes beyond these literary limitations in his exact portrayals of detailed speech, behaviour, surroundings, and appearance of the characters.  Another literary device Petronius employs in his novel is a collection of specific allusions. The allusions to certain people and events are evidence that the "Satyricon" was written during Nero's time. These also suggest that it was aimed at a contemporary audience which consisted in part of Nero's courtiers and even Nero himself.  One such allusion, found in chapter 9, refers to the story of the good wife Lucretia which was well known at the time:  The message Petronius tries to convey in his work is far from moral and does not intend to produce reform, but is written above all to entertain and should be considered artistically. Nevertheless, his writings can be a valuable tool to better comprehend the customs and ways of life of Roman society at that particular time, since the author strives to preserve the plausibility of his representation, as can be noted by the frequent use of allusions and detailed descriptions of characters and behaviours. As the title implies, the "Satyricon" is a satire, specifically a Menippean satire, in which Petronius satirizes nearly anything, using his taste as the only standard. It is speculated that Petronius' depiction of Trimalchio mirrors that of Nero. Although the author's own opinion is never alluded to, the opinions of the characters involved in the story are evident, as is how Encolpius criticizes Trimalchio.

Death.

Petronius' high position soon made him the object of envy for those around him. Having attracted the jealousy of Tigellinus, the commander of the emperor's guard, he was accused of treason. He was arrested at Cumae in 65 AD but did not wait for a sentence. Instead, he chose to take his own life. Tacitus again records his elegant suicide in the sixteenth book of the "Annals":  According to Pliny the Elder: "T. Petronius, a consular, when he was going to die through Nero's jealousy and envy, broke his fluorspar wine-dipper so that the emperor's table would not inherit it. It had cost 300,000 sesterces". T. Petronius and G. Petronius have been said to have been the same man.

Apocryphal quotation.

In recent times, a popular quotation, actually written by Charlton Ogburn in 1957, on reorganization is often spuriously attributed to a Gaius Petronius. In one version it reads: We trained hard... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter (; c. 27 – 66 AD) was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. He is generally believed to be the author of the "Satyricon", a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Neronian era (54–68 AD).


Composition.

The altarpiece has two sets of wings, displaying three configurations:  Wings closed:  With the exception of certain holy days, the wings of the altarpiece were kept closed, displaying The Crucifixion framed on the left by the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows, and on the right by Saint Anthony the Great, remaining placid although he is being taunted by a frightening monster. The two saints protect and heal the sick, Saint Anthony as the patron saint of the victims of Saint Anthony's fire and Saint Sebastian, whose aid was invoked to ward off the plague. Grünewald's Crucifixion stands as one of the most poignant representations of this scene in Western art due to the artist's masterful depiction of horrific agony, with Christ's emaciated body writhing under the pain of the nails driven through his hands and feet. This body covered with sores and riddled with thorns must have terrified the sick, but also left no doubt about Christ's suffering, thus comforting them in their communion with the Saviour, whose pain they shared. "Grünewald depicts Jesus' body ravaged by crucifixion yet evokes pointedly the Christian message of Jesus' horrible suffering; originally intended for a hospital, the altar painting may have been designed to provide comfort and solace to the sick." Mary, the mother of Jesus, is shown at Christ's right, collapsing in anguish in the arms of John, the beloved disciple of Christ, and shrouded in a large piece of white cloth.  At Christ's left, John the Baptist is accompanied by a lamb, symbolising the sacrifice of Jesus. The presence of John the Baptist is anachronistic. Beheaded by order of Herod in 29 AD, he could not possibly have witnessed the death of Christ. This last figure announces the New Testament by crying out in Latin, "illum oportet crescere me autem minui" (Vulgate, John ), "He must increase, but I must decrease." The inclusion of John the Baptist in this scene is symbolic, since he is considered as the last of the prophets to announce the coming of the Messiah.  Outer wings opened:  The outer wings of the Isenheim Altarpiece were opened for important festivals of the liturgical year, particularly those in honour of the Virgin Mary. Thus are revealed four scenes: the left wing represents the Annunciation during which the archangel Gabriel comes to announce to Mary that she will give birth to Jesus, the son of God. The Virgin Mary is depicted in a chapel to indicate the sacred character of the event. In the central corpus, the Concert of Angels and the Nativity are not independent scenes but instead fit within a unified concept: the viewer witnesses Christ's coming to earth as a newborn baby, who will be led to combat the forces of evil personified by certain of the angels, disturbing in their physical appearance. A number of symbols provide keys to aid in interpretation: the enclosed garden represents Mary's womb and is a sign of her perpetual virginity, the rose bush without thorns refers to her as free of original sin, the fig tree symbolises mother's milk. The bed, the bucket and the chamber pot underscore the human nature of Christ. Lastly, the right wing shows the Resurrection, in which Christ emerges from the tomb and ascends into Heaven bathed in light transfiguring the countenance of the Crucified into the face of God. The Resurrection and the Ascension are therefore encapsulated in a single image.  Inner wings opened:  - The sculptures of Saint Augustine and Guy Guers, Saint Anthony, Two Bearers of Offerings, Saint Jerome, Christ and the Twelve Apostles are by Niclaus of Haguenau. With its inner wings open, the altarpiece allowed pilgrims and the afflicted to venerate Saint Anthony, protector and healer of Saint Anthony's fire. Saint Anthony occupies the place of honour at the centre of the corpus and at his side a pig is depicted, the emblem of the Antonite order. On his left and right, two bearers of offerings illustrate these contributions in kind, an important source of income for the Antonites. This central section is framed by Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, two of the four great fathers of the Latin Church. Guy Guyers, who had commissioned the Altarpiece, is depicted kneeling at the feet of Saint Augustine.  - Visit of Saint Anthony to Saint Paul the Hermit. The two hermits meet in a stunning landscape, intended to represent the Theban Desert. Grünewald created a fantastic universe, surrounding the date palm with a strange mixture of vegetation, in marked contrast with the calmness and tranquillity of the encounter, in which the animals in attendance take part, with the crow bringing two morsels of bread to the two recluses. In this dreamlike scene, medicinal plants, painted in naturalistic fashion, sprout at the feet of the two main figures. - Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons. This panel depicts Saint Anthony being tormented by monstrous creatures sent by Satan. Trampled to the ground, beaten with sticks, torn by claws and bitten, Saint Anthony appeals to God for help who sends angels to combat these evil demons. In the lower left corner, the being with webbed feet and a distended belly seems to personify the disease caused by ergot poisoning, resulting in swelling and ulcerous growths.

Iconography.

The iconography of the altarpiece has several unusual elements derived from closely following the accounts left by Saint Bridget of Sweden of her mystical visions. These had long had a significant influence on art, especially on depictions of the Nativity of Christ, a scene not included here.

Recent history.

The altarpiece's location in Alsace has meant that, in recent times, control of the work has alternated between Germany and France according to the fortunes of war. Following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 and the passing of control to Germany, German writers developed the concept that the altarpiece somehow represented the essential character of the German nation. The work subsequently became an object of extraordinary scenes of veneration in Munich during its temporary relocation there during the First World War, and again when Alsace passed back into French hands at the end of the War.  In the immediate postwar period the altarpiece, with its strong overtones of violent sensation and emotion, became a natural source of inspiration for many painters in the influential Expressionist school, such as George Grosz and Otto Dix. It also provided the basis for Paul Hindemith's modernist opera "Mathis der Maler". In the later 1930s, it appears to have suffered a temporary decline in official esteem in Germany as a result of the National Socialists’ branding of both Expressionism and of Hindemith’s work as "degenerate".  Due to renovation work in the former convent and until April 2015, the Isenheim Altarpiece was on view in the local Dominican Church, located about 200 metres from the Unterlinden Museum. This temporary transfer offered an exceptional and unprecedented opportunity to present, alongside Grünewald and Haguenau’s monumental masterwork, all three painted works by the Colmar native Martin Schongauer held in Colmar: the Orlier Altarpiece (1470–1475), the Altarpiece of the Dominicans (c. 1480) and the Virgin of the Rose Bush (1473). The altarpiece depicting Saint Catherine and Saint Lawrence (c. 1510) and sculptures from the Late Middle Ages rounded out the presentation.

The Isenheim Altarpiece is an altarpiece sculpted and painted by, respectively, the Germans Nikolaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald in 1512–1516. It is on display at the Unterlinden Museum at Colmar, Alsace, in France. It is Grünewald's largest work, and is regarded as his masterpiece. It was painted for the Monastery of St. Anthony in Isenheim near Colmar, which specialized in hospital work. The Antonine monks of the monastery were noted for their care of plague sufferers as well as their treatment of skin diseases, such as ergotism. The image of the crucified Christ is pitted with plague-type sores, showing patients that Jesus understood and shared their afflictions. The veracity of the work's depictions of medical conditions was unusual in the history of European art.


Description.

Plants grow to 1 metre tall and are vigorous with spreading branches and ovate, mid-green, toothed and waved leaves. The flowers are bell-shaped and 5 centimeters or more across, pale violet with white throats (occasionally pure white), opening only for a few hours in the day. The flower becomes lantern-like towards the end of its blooming period, the inflated calyces somewhat resembling those of certain "Physalis" spp., although in "Nicandra" (unlike in "Physalis") the fruiting calyx is deeply lobed, (the sepals cordate) and not a single, undivided, bladder-like structure. The plant is thought to have insect repellent properties, particularly in relation to whitefly. "N. physalodes" seeds have a relatively thick testa (seed coat) and exhibit strong dormancy, which may, however be broken by a combination of warm and cold stratification, involving temperature fluctuation between 15 and 25 °C.

Distribution.

"Nicandra physalodes" is native to western South America – Northwest Argentina, Bolivia, North and Central Chile and Peru. It has been introduced in many tropical and temperate regions worldwide. In the British Isles, the plant is a frequent casual, found in bare or sparsely grassy places, including cultivated ground, waste places and rubbish tips. Its occurrence is often traceable to the presence of its seeds in commercial brands of bird seed.

Stock poison.

"Nicandra physalodes" is suspected of having poisonous properties similar to those possessed by certain "Physalis" species implicated in the poisoning of sheep. Some conflicting evidence in respect of these suspicions has emerged from Australia (where the plant is sometimes known as "wild gooseberry"), in which the plant has been suspected, on rather vague evidence, of poisoning stock at various times, although a feeding test carried out in New South Wales using a sheep and a goat gave negative results. A case was reported from New South Wales in 1970 in which two crossbred ewes died, apparently as a result of consuming this plant. The animals had been left to graze in a paddock of Wimmera ryegrass heavily infested with "Nicandra physalodes" plants of around 60 cm in height, such that they overtopped the grass. Both ewes died, with symptoms of bloat within 12 hours. At necropsy there were extensive hemorrhages in heart and lungs, but no other apparent abnormalities. The paunches of the ewes were observed to contain large amounts of "Nicandra".

Uses.

The literature on the plant features somewhat conflicting accounts of use, as a species both edible and toxic/medicinal, pointing to the conclusion that it should be regarded as suspect and treated with caution. The whole plant is said to be toxic (even, according to some sources, very toxic) and to be used medicinally as a diuretic, sedative and cough medicine. The tender leaves have, on occasion, been cooked as a leaf vegetable or pot herb (e.g. in the cuisine of Tanzania), yet the decoction of the leaves has been used as an insecticide to treat head lice; while the juice of the fresh leaves has been used to treat amoebiasis. Unspecified medicinal uses of the leaves have also been recorded in the folk medicine of Brazil and Madagascar. The rather dry, brown berries within the papery calyces have an odour reminiscent of cooking oil and, although described in at least one source as being poisonous, are eaten by the Raji people of Nepal. The seeds are said to be edible, but also to be employed as an insecticide and medicinally as an antipyretic, being boiled with water and taken for fever, indigestion and constipation, thus further implying laxative properties. The seeds are used in traditional Tibetan medicine in which system they are described as having an acrid taste and to possess 'a cooling, very poisonous potency' manifested in effects that are analgesic, anthelmintic, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic; being used also to treat toothache, impotence and unspecified 'contagious disorders' and furthermore to 'increase bodily vigour' (i.e. to function as an adaptogen) if consumed in regular doses. "Nicandra physalodes" is used as a folk remedy in several countries in the Himalaya, including Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal and Sikkim, although it is not native to the region. This may be due to a popular recognition of a familial resemblance - particularly in regard to calyces inflated at fruiting - to several native Solanaceous plants of the Himalaya long used in traditional medical practices, the genera involved being "Anisodus", "Physochlaina", "Przewalskia" and "Scopolia" (all belonging to tribe Hyoscyameae of subfamily Solanoideae). The much valued (and consequently over-harvested) species "Anisodus tanguticus" is perhaps particularly relevant in this context. In the southern U.S.A. the juice of the plant has been mixed with milk as a poisoned bait for houseflies and blow flies in the same way in which the crumbled caps of the fungus "Amanita muscaria" were used in parts of Europe. However, the flies were said to be killed outright, rather than merely stupefied, as in the case of the mushroom/milk infusion.

Chemistry.

"Nicandra physalodes" contains nicandrenones, a group of the steroidal lactones known as withanolides. The nicandrenones, like certain other types of withanolide, have insecticidal properties. 30 years after their discovery, the first total synthesis of nicandrenones was carried out in the year 2000. Amongst its other paradoxical attributes, "N. physalodes" is also slightly intoxicating, showing a certain degree of psychoactivity of a type similar to that elicited by the tropane alkaloid hyoscyamine (well known as one of the active principles present in the notoriously toxic nightshades "Hyoscyamus niger" and "Atropa belladonna" and causing mydriasis - a symptom said also to be caused by the alkaloids present in "Nicandra"). This property of the plant is reflected in one of the common names given it in France (namely "belladonne de pays" i.e. 'country belladonna') and likewise in the common name "belladona" given it in Bolivia. It is not yet known whether this mild psychoactivity is referable to the alkaloid content or the withanolide content (or possibly to both - or indeed a synergy between the two). Like its more toxic relatives, "Nicandra physalodes" is alkaloidal, analyses having revealed the presence of the tropane alkaloid tropinone and the pyrrolidine alkaloid hygrine (0.1%, in the root). Withanolides are found almost exclusively in plants of the Solanaceae and, while it is noticeable that many psychoactive species belonging to that family contain only, or primarily, such compounds, not a single withanolide has yet been proven to be psychoactive. The compounds are named for the Solanaceous genus "Withania", the best-known species of which, "Withania somnifera", is, as its specific name suggests, mildly psychoactive to the extent of being sleep-inducing (among other useful medicinal properties). The use of "W.somnifera" (common name (i.a.) 'Indian ginseng') as a tonic (adaptogen) in Ayurvedic medicine parallels the use of "Nicandra" as an adaptogen in traditional Tibetan medicine (see above, under 'Uses') and is accounted for by withanolide content. Also present in "Nicandra" are calystegines, a new group of polyhydroxy alkaloids with a nortropane skeleton and named for the bindweed genus "Calystegia" (Convolvulaceae). Their occurrence has been noted in several species of the Solanaceae, including "Atropa belladonna". The biosynthesis of these compounds is thought to take place via the tropane alkaloid pathway, the first metabolite being pseudotropine.

Nicandra physalodes is a species of flowering plant in subfamily Solanoideae of the nightshade family. It is known by the common names apple-of-Peru and shoo-fly plant. It is thought originally to have been native to western South America, including Peru, and is known elsewhere as an introduced and ruderal species – sometimes as a weed – in tropical, subtropical and, to a lesser extent, temperate areas all over the world. It has also long been cultivated as an ornamental plant for its attractive flowers and curious fruits (the latter sometimes dried for use in floral design) and has been adopted into the traditional medicine of countries far-removed from its original home.


Biography.

Arthur Ruppin was born in Rawicz in the German Empire (today in Poland). When he was fifteen, his family's poverty forced him to work to support them. Nonetheless, he was able to complete his studies in law and economics, winning the Krupp prize in 1899 for his dissertation on the use of social Darwinism in industry. He was to distinguish himself both in furthering practical Zionist settlement and in the academic world.

Zionist activism.

Ruppin joined the Zionist Organization (ZO, the future World Zionist Organization – WZO) in 1905. In 1907 he was sent by David Wolffsohn, the President of the ZO, to study the condition of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine), then in the Ottoman Empire, to investigate the possibilities for development of agriculture and industry. He reported on what he saw, which was distressing, and gave recommendations for improving the situation. In 1908 Ruppin came to live in Palestine by decision of the eighth Zionist Congress. He opened the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization in Jaffa, with the aim of directing the settlement activities of the Zionist movement. His work made Practical Zionism possible and shaped the direction of the Second Aliya, the last wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine before World War I. Ruppin became the chief Zionist land agent. He helped to get a loan for Ahuzat Bayit, later Tel Aviv, and acquired land on the Carmel, in Afula, in the Jezreel Valley, and in Jerusalem. Ruppin was instrumental in shaping the nature of Jewish settlement in Palestine and in changing the paradigm of settlement from those of plantation owners and poor laborers to the collective and cooperative kibbutzim and moshavim that became the backbone of the state-in-the-making. He catalyzed the commune at Sejera, and helped building the first kibbutz – Degania, as well as helping to support and organize Kinneret, Merhavia and other settlements (background about Labor Zionism can be found at www.mideastweb.org). Later, he supported Yehoshua Hankin in his purchases of large tracts of land in the Galilee. Ruppin was among the founders of the Brit Shalom peace movement, which supported a binational state, but he left Brit Shalom after the 1929 Hebron massacre. Thereafter he was convinced that only an independent Jewish state would be possible, and he believed that the way to bring about that state was through continued settlement. He headed the Jewish Agency between 1933 and 1935, and helped to settle the large numbers of Jewish immigrants from Germany who came in that period. Ruppin died in 1943. He was buried in Degania Alef.

Race theory.

Ruppin considered assimilation as the worst threat to the existence of Jews as people, and argued for a concentration of Jews in a common area, to be realized by the colonisation of Palestine, where they would be protected from the assimilationist tendencies in Europe, as he explained in his book "The Jews of the Present" ("Die Juden der Gegenwart" in German), especially in its 2nd largely changed edition. Ruppin accepted the idea of a division of humankind into three important races of humans, the "white", "yellow" and "black", and considered Jews to be part of the "white" race (page 213/214), and within this "race", which Ruppin divides in "Xantrochroe" (light colored) and "Melanochroe" (dark colored), to be part of the latter, actually mixture from the Arab and North African peoples and other West and South Asian peoples.  Ruppin believed that realization of Zionism required "racial purity" of Jews, and was inspired by works of anti-semitic thinkers,including some Nazis. Ruppin personally met Hans F. K. Günther, one of many racist thinkers who greatly influenced Nazism.  Ruppin believed in numerous "Jewish types," performed skull measurements, and believed Ashkenazi Jews were made of various racial subclasses, according to nasal structure. He distinguished between "Racial Jews" and "Jewish types", and believed Ashkenazi Jews to be superior to Yemeni Jews. His concepts included dividing Jews into "white, black and yellow" metaracial categories.  Ruppin wrote that Jewish race should be "purified", he also stated that "only the racially pure come to the land.” Afer becoming head of the Palestine Office of the Zionist Executive (later the Jewish Agency for Israel), he aruged against immigration of Ethiopian Jews due to their lack of "blood connection" and arguing that Yemenite Jews should be limited for menial labor. Due to the Holocaust, historiography in Israel usually played down or ignored altogether this aspect of Ruppin's life.

Awards and recognition.

Many cities in Israel named streets after him, and the city of Haifa has a prize in his name awarded for extraordinary works in thinking, philosophy and politics. One of the prize-winners was the philosopher, Zionist and friend of Kafka's, Felix Weltsch in 1952.  The German city Magdeburg, in which Ruppin lived during his youth, has named a street after him.  Ruppin Academic Center is named after Arthur Ruppin.

Arthur Ruppin (1 March 1876 – 1 January 1943) was a Zionist thinker and leader. He was one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv. He directed Berlin's Bureau for Jewish Statistics and Demography from 1902 to 1907. From 1908 on, he was the director of the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization in Jaffa, organizing Zionist colonisation in Palestine. In 1926 Ruppin joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and founded the sociology department. A building there is now named in his honor. His most celebrated sociological work is "The Jews in the Modern World" (1934).


Etymology.

The use of the term "teleport" to describe the hypothetical movement of material objects between one place and another without physically traversing the distance between them has been documented as early as 1878.  American writer Charles Fort is credited with having coined the word "teleportation" in 1931 to describe the strange disappearances and appearances of anomalies, which he suggested may be connected. As in the earlier usage, he joined the Greek prefix "tele-" (meaning "remote") to the root of the Latin verb "portare" (meaning "to carry"). Fort's first formal use of the word occurred in the second chapter of his 1931 book "Lo!":

Fiction.

Teleportation is a common subject in science fiction literature, film, video games, and television. The use of matter transmitters in science fiction originated at least as early as the 19th century. An early example of scientific teleportation (as opposed to magical or spiritual teleportation) is found in the 1897 novel "To Venus in Five Seconds" by Fred T. Jane. Jane's protagonist is transported from a strange-machinery-containing gazebo on Earth to planet Venus – hence the title.  The earliest recorded story of a "matter transmitter" was Edward Page Mitchell's "The Man Without a Body" in 1877.

Science.

An actual teleportation of matter has never been realized by modern science (which is based entirely on mechanistic methods). It is questionable if it can ever be achieved, because any transfer of matter from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them violates Newton's laws, a cornerstone of physics.

Beaming.

Beaming is often used as a synonym for teleportation and refers to the hypothetical transmission of an object in the form of radiation. To this end, the object must be “dematerialized” at the sender, i.e. broken down into its components, which are then sent as a beam and “materialized” at the destination, i.e. reconverted into matter. In this way it is achieved that an object, similar to teleportation, disappears at the place of origin and reappears at the destination. However, there is a continuous transmission path along which the matter (possibly in a converted form) traverses the physical space. Therefore, strictly speaking, beaming is not teleportation. The concept mainly originates from the science fiction series Star Trek, where people and inanimate objects are transported back and forth between places using so-called transporter devices.  In the real world it has so far not been possible to beam objects. For one thing, there is no available technology that can disintegrate or reassemble arbitrary objects atom by atom, let alone within seconds. Furthermore, the required amount of information to fully represent macroscopic objects is far too large for today's available information technology. Another obstacle often cited in this context is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which prohibits the simultaneous measurement of position and momentum of individual particles with arbitrary precision. At room temperature and even far below, however, this poses no limitation, since position and momentum of individual particles fluctuate statistically and do not have to be determined precisely.  Moreover, the science fiction concepts for beaming do not get it exactly clear what kind of radiation the matter would be converted to. According to the current state of knowledge, electromagnetic radiation alone cannot transport matter, since it only transmits the energy, but not the baryons and leptons required to create atoms. If, alternatively, a beam of matter particles was sent, this would offer hardly any advantage over transporting the object as a whole. On the one hand, accelerating and decelerating the particles would require the same amount of energy as for the original object. So there would be no speed advantage. On the other hand, particle beams can hardly penetrate layers of matter along the transmission path (which is supposedly possible in the science-fiction concepts within some limits). A realistic form of beaming could be the transfer of pure information and the use of matter available at the destination to perform materialization. Then however, beaming would merely be the construction of a remote copy.

Quantum teleportation.

Quantum teleportation is distinct from regular teleportation, as it does not transfer matter from one place to another, but rather transmits the information necessary to prepare a (microscopic) target system in the same quantum state as the source system. In many cases, such as normal matter at room temperature, the exact quantum state of a system is irrelevant for any practical purpose (because it fluctuates rapidly anyway, it "decoheres"), and the necessary information to recreate the system is classical. In those cases, quantum teleportation may be replaced by the simple transmission of classical information, such as radio communication.  In 1993, Bennett "et al" proposed that a quantum state of a particle could be teleported to another distant particle, but the two particles do not move at all. This is called state teleportation. There are many following theoretical and experimental papers published. Researchers believe that quantum teleportation is the foundation of quantum calculation and quantum communication.  In 2008, M. Hotta proposed that it may be possible to teleport energy by exploiting quantum energy fluctuations of an entangled vacuum state of a quantum field. There are some papers published but no experimental verification.  In 2014, researcher Ronald Hanson and colleagues from the Technical University Delft in the Netherlands, demonstrated the teleportation of information between two entangled quantumbits three metres apart.  In 2016, Y. Wei showed that in a generalization of quantum mechanics, particles themselves could teleport from one place to another. This is called particle teleportation. With this concept, superconductivity can be viewed as the teleportation of some electrons in the superconductor and superfluidity as the teleportation of some of the atoms in the cellular tube. This effect is not predicted to occur in standard quantum mechanics.

Philosophy.

Philosopher Derek Parfit used teleportation in his teletransportation paradox.

Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction literature, film, video games, and television. Teleportation is often paired with time travel, being that the travelling between the two points takes unknown period of time, sometimes being immediate.


Life.

He was the son of a member of the "geheimrat" of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, Franz Napus von Thurn-Valsassina (František Thurn), count of Linz (1508–1586) and his second wife, Countess Barbora Gräfin von Schlick (1547–1581), daughter of Hieronymus Schlick count of Bassano and Weißkirchen and countess Katharina von Gleichen-Tonna.  Both of his parents were Protestants. Count Jindrich Matyas was born on in Lipnice nad Sázavou castle in the Crown of Bohemia. After the death of his father, he was fostered to his Catholic uncle John Ambrose.  Young count Thurn served in the Imperial Habsburg embassy, and visited Istanbul, Syria, Egypt and Jerusalem. From 1592 he served in the imperial army against Turks. In imperial service, Thurn rose to the ranks of colonel and War Councillor. By marriage, he came into remarkable landholdings, in Croatian Krajina among other places. The Emperor granted him the burgraviate of Karlštejn Castle in central Bohemia as reward for his accomplishments in the battles against the Turks in Hungary. In northeast Bohemia he purchased 1605 the lordship of Veliš manor (near town Jičín), which brought him to the membership of the Bohemian estate of nobles ("páni", "lords"). Politically, Thurn joined the Protestants of Bohemia where he served as marshal of the nobility.  In 1617, the devout Catholic archduke Ferdinand of Styria was put forward as Habsburg successor to the aged, childless emperor Matthias, and also to be elected to the Bohemian throne. Bohemian nobles required him to commit to honor their freedom of religion, enshrined in the Decree (Letter of Majesty) of the late emperor Rudolph II. Thurn was one of signatories of Bohemians' critical reply to Ferdinand.

Leader of the Bohemian Rebellion.

Despite his accession to the crown of Bohemia in 1617, Ferdinand was not willing to agree to the demands of the Bohemian nobility. Furthermore, their demands also failed to prevent Ferdinand's election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1619. What the nobles did achieve was that in 1618, in a stormy event at the Royal Castle of Prague, count Thurn was a key leader of that faction of the nobility who incited a crowd that defenestrated two of Ferdinand's representatives, Bořita of Martinice and Slavata of Chlum together with their scribe, Philip Fabricius.  Following the defenestration, Thurn was elected as one of the thirty Defenders of the Protestant Faith elected by the Estates of Bohemia. The revolt of the Protestant population of Bohemia began on 23 May 1618 and Thurn took command of the national army. His command was signified by a series of ineffective campaigns, faults in the campaign plan in some cases beyond his control, which frustrated imperial efforts to quickly crush the revolt. He participated in deposing Ferdinand of Bohemia from the throne and in the election of Frederick V, Elector Palatine as the new Bohemian king. Count Thurn was commander of a regiment at the inauspicious Battle of White Mountain in 1620. After the Bohemians' defeat there, Ferdinand exiled him, like all the other Protestant nobility (including leaders of the uprising) and townspeople. Consequently, Thurn lost his estates in Bohemia.

In exile.

After being exiled, Thurn continued to take part in the fighting and political negotiations of the Thirty Years' War against the Habsburgs, acting in the roles of both diplomat and as a soldier.  In 1626 he took command of some troops in Silesia. Then he served as lieutenant general in the army of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden. His only son, count Frantisek Bernard, who rose to the rank of colonel in Swedish service, fell ill during the Polish campaign and died in 1628.  On 11 October 1633 Thurn and his force of 8000 soldiers were confronted by Wallenstein's army near Steinau an der Oder in Saxony, where he was captured. He was ransomed soon from the captivity, and retired to the family's new holdings in Pärnu (Pernau), Estonia. Count Thurn died there, and was buried in the St Mary's Cathedral of Tallinn.  His heir was his underage grandson, count Heinrich von Thurn-Valsassina of Pärnu (1628–1656), son of František Bernard (1592–1628) and Magdalena von Thurn-Valsassina (born von Hardeck).  Count Thurn wrote a booklet in German, titled "Defensionsschrift" ("Writing about Defenestration"), the work justifying his role in the events of 1618 as a deliberate, conscious defence of his religious beliefs. The booklet was published in Sweden.

Count Jindřich Matyáš Thurn-Valsassina (German: "Heinrich Matthias Graf von Thurn und Valsassina"; Italian: "Enrico Matteo Conte della Torre di Valsassina") (24 February 1567 – 26 January 1640), was a Czech (Bohemian) nobleman, one of leaders of Protestant Bohemian Revolt against Emperor Ferdinand II. He took part in events that led to the Thirty Years War, and after the war he became a military leader and diplomat in Swedish service, who eventually resided in Swedish Estonia.


History.

Nauru Airlines was established as Air Nauru on 17 September 1969, and started operations on 14 February 1970 with an experimental service between Nauru and Brisbane, using a Dassault Falcon 20 (a medium-size business jet) that was chartered from an Australian company. Regular scheduled services commenced after the delivery in January 1972 of the airline's first Fokker F28 Fellowship twin jet (a second Fellowship was subsequently placed into service as well). A Boeing 737-200C was added to the fleet in 1975 and a Boeing 727-100 entered service on 16 June 1976. Later in the 1970s the two Fellowships were sold and more Boeings were added to the fleet.  By 1983 the fleet included seven aircraft: two Boeing 727-100s and five Boeing 737-200s; since the entire population of Nauru at this time was about 8,000, the airline was in the position of having seating capacity equal to 10% of the Nauruan population. The airline also had a bad reputation for cancelling flights at the whim of its government owners, including using the Boeing 727s for low-level searches for Nauruan fisherman lost at sea while relatives on board were served alcohol by the flight attendants. From this high point (at least in terms of fleet numbers) the airline gradually contracted in size, leasing some aircraft and selling others. Five years later in 1988 the fleet consisted of three Boeing 737-200s with the one remaining 727-100 leased out to Trans Australia Airlines. At this time the airline was badly affected by an industrial dispute with its pilots and was operating without a set timetable, a situation that lasted for several months.  In the early 1990s, an Air Nauru 737 was chartered to operate the Auckland-Niue route of Niue Airlines, the latter company's only service.  In 1993 two of the 737-200s were replaced by Boeing 737-400s, leaving the Boeing 737-200C to soldier on for a little while longer. The airline, by now only operating a single 737-400, was corporatised in July 1996 as the Nauru Air Corporation (NAC) headed by a new CEO without ties to the government, enabling it to operate independently in a commercial marketplace, free from most of its government constraints.  In 1998 Air Nauru came under the regulatory control of the Civil Aviation Authority of Australia and since then has been a select foreign carrier holding an Australian Air Operator's Certificate (AOC). Mismanagement of the island's wealth and the resulting economic troubles caused the airline to lose large amounts of money, and on some occasions become insolvent. Its operations were also suspended for brief periods in the 1990s because of concerns raised by Australia over the airworthiness and safety record of its aircraft. Airline offices and equipment were also frequently repossessed by the Australian government for Nauru's repeated defaults on foreign loans. The airline became in dispute with the Export-Import Bank of the United States in 2002, and in December 2005 the High Court of Australia upheld an earlier decision to allow the bank to seize Air Nauru's only aircraft, leaving Nauru and the island nation of Kiribati without air services. The aircraft was seized by creditors at Melbourne Airport on 18 December 2005. Following the acquisition of a replacement aircraft (a Boeing 737-300) in mid-2006, the airline was rebranded as Our Airline and relaunched on 14 October 2006. Our Airline was renamed Nauru Airlines on 1 August 2014.  Nauru Airlines is now wholly owned by the state and had 65 employees in July 2012.

Destinations.

Nauru Airlines serves the following destinations as of December 2019:  Air Nauru once had a remarkably comprehensive network in the Asia-Pacific, with services to Hong Kong, Kagoshima, Taipei, Okinawa, Manila, Singapore, Guam, Saipan, Koror, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Honiara, Kosrae, Majuro, Tarawa, Honolulu, Honiara, Port Vila, Nouméa, Apia, Pago Pago, Nadi, Tonga, Kanton Island, Niue, Raratonga, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island. The average load factor throughout the network was around 20%, with many flights carrying no or few passengers. The Nauru government subsidised the airline with profits from phosphate mining. Due to the phosphate reserves depleting in the early 1990s, along with the mismanagement of the island's reserves the airline began to cease services to unprofitable destinations.  Since relaunching services in 2006, the airline has repeatedly adjusted its route map. When the airline initially resumed services in 2006, it offered a twice-weekly service from Brisbane to Honiara, Nauru, Tarawa, and Majuro. These were quickly curtailed, with flights to Majuro eliminated. The Tarawa extension was suspended from July 2008 to November 2009 because, along with the high fuel prices of the time, operating the Tarawa flight was not profitable without a connecting destination. The Tarawa extension was suspended again in 2011 because of disputes, but it was resumed in early 2012. Meanwhile, Honiara service was suspended around the same time.  Although it had been reported in early 2007 that Our Airline would begin services between Nauru and Fiji in the very near future, the airline instead provided once weekly Tarawa to Nadi service on behalf of Air Kiribati beginning in November 2009. However, the service between Nauru and Fiji which began in 2010 ceased in December 2011 due to a dispute between the governments of Kiribati and Fiji. This was replaced with a bi-weekly service that operated from Nauru to Nadi nonstop.

Services provided to Norfolk Island.

Norfolk Island's Norfolk Jet Express and Norfolk Air had chartered Our Airline to fly services between Norfolk Island and Brisbane, Newcastle, Melbourne and Sydney. Norfolk Jet Express went out of business on 4 June 2005. A government operated airline, called Norfolk Air, was then established but with no aircraft of its own, Qantas operated the flights from 11 June 2005 using Air Nauru's Boeing 737-400. This arrangement ceased later that year, when the aircraft was seized due to Air Nauru's own financial problems. Other airlines filled the gap for Norfolk Air, but Air Nauru again started providing aircraft for Norfolk Air flights in April 2009. The Norfolk government closed down Norfolk Air in March 2012, with a new agreement that Air New Zealand would take over the Norfolk Island flights, using its own aircraft.

Fleet.

The Nauru Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of August 2019):  Previously operated aircraft:  In March 2006, the government of the Republic of China, reportedly as a reward for Nauru's diplomatic recognition of the ROC instead of the People's Republic of China, assisted Air Nauru with the purchase of a second-hand Boeing 737, which was expected to be in operation by mid-2006, after several logistical delays. This purchase was put on hold in May 2006 due to OzJet and Air Pacific having started on the routes formerly operated by Air Nauru. In October 2006 the new Boeing plane came into service. The plane was registered as VH-INU and named as 'Naoero'. In 2008, the Airline bought their second Boeing 737-300 adorned with a full Norfolk Air livery, remaining till now despite Norfolk Air's current state of closure. The plane was registered as VH-NLK. Later in March 2013, the Airline purchased a Boeing 737-300 from GECAS. The plane was painted in the 'Our Airline' livery in Melbourne, making its first visit to Brisbane Airport on 3 September 2013.

Nauru Air Corporation, trading as Nauru Airlines (formerly trading as Our Airline and Air Nauru) is the flag carrier airline of the Republic of Nauru. It operates scheduled international services to other Pacific islands and Australia. Its main base is Nauru International Airport. Its head office is on the property of Nauru International Airport, Yaren District and its operations office is in Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland. In August 2014, the airline changed its name from Our Airline to Nauru Airlines.


Salts.

Superoxide forms salts with alkali metals and alkaline earth metals. The salts CsO, RbO, KO, and NaO are prepared by the reaction of O with the respective alkali metal.  The alkali salts of are orange-yellow in color and quite stable, provided they are kept dry. Upon dissolution of these salts in water, however, the dissolved undergoes disproportionation (dismutation) extremely rapidly (in a pH-dependent manner):  This reaction (with moisture and carbon dioxide in exhaled air) is the basis of the use of potassium superoxide as an oxygen source in chemical oxygen generators, such as those used on the space shuttle and on submarines. Superoxides are also used in firefighters' oxygen tanks in order to provide a readily available source of oxygen. In this process acts as a Brønsted base, initially forming the hydroperoxyl radical (HO).  The superoxide anion,, and its protonated form, hydroperoxyl, are in equilibrium in an aqueous solution:  Given that the hydroperoxyl radical has a p"K" of around 4.8, at neutral pH superoxide predominantly exists in the anionic form.  Potassium superoxide is soluble in dimethyl sulfoxide (facilitated by crown ethers) and is stable as long as protons are not available. Superoxide can also be generated in aprotic solvents by cyclic voltammetry.  Superoxide salts also decompose in the solid state, but this process requires heating:

Biology.

Superoxide and hydroperoxyl (HO) are often discussed interchangeably, although superoxide predominates at physiological pHs. Both superoxide and hydroperoxyl are classified as reactive oxygen species. It is generated by the immune system to kill invading microorganisms. In phagocytes, superoxide is produced in large quantities by the enzyme NADPH oxidase for use in oxygen-dependent killing mechanisms of invading pathogens. Mutations in the gene coding for the NADPH oxidase cause an immunodeficiency syndrome called chronic granulomatous disease, characterized by extreme susceptibility to infection, especially catalase-positive organisms. In turn, micro-organisms genetically engineered to lack the superoxide-scavenging enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) lose virulence. Superoxide is also deleterious when produced as a byproduct of mitochondrial respiration (most notably by Complex I and Complex III), as well as several other enzymes, for example xanthine oxidase, which can catalyze the transfer of electrons directly to molecular oxygen under strongly reducing conditions.  Because superoxide is toxic at high concentrations, nearly all organisms living in the presence of oxygen express SOD. SOD efficiently catalyzes the disproportionation of superoxide: Other proteins that can be both oxidized and reduced by superoxide (e.g., hemoglobin) have weak SOD-like activity. Genetic inactivation ("knockout") of SOD produces deleterious phenotypes in organisms ranging from bacteria to mice and have provided important clues as to the mechanisms of toxicity of superoxide in vivo.  Yeast lacking both mitochondrial and cytosolic SOD grow very poorly in air, but quite well under anaerobic conditions. Absence of cytosolic SOD causes a dramatic increase in mutagenesis and genomic instability. Mice lacking mitochondrial SOD (MnSOD) die around 21 days after birth due to neurodegeneration, cardiomyopathy, and lactic acidosis. Mice lacking cytosolic SOD (CuZnSOD) are viable but suffer from multiple pathologies, including reduced lifespan, liver cancer, muscle atrophy, cataracts, thymic involution, haemolytic anemia and a very rapid age-dependent decline in female fertility.  Superoxide may contribute to the pathogenesis of many diseases (the evidence is particularly strong for radiation poisoning and hyperoxic injury), and perhaps also to aging via the oxidative damage that it inflicts on cells. While the action of superoxide in the pathogenesis of some conditions is strong (for instance, mice and rats overexpressing CuZnSOD or MnSOD are more resistant to strokes and heart attacks), the role of superoxide in aging must be regarded as unproven for now. In model organisms (yeast, the fruit fly Drosophila and mice), genetically knocking out CuZnSOD shortens lifespan and accelerates certain features of aging (cataracts, muscle atrophy, macular degeneration, thymic involution). But the converse, increasing the levels of CuZnSOD, does not seem (except perhaps in "Drosophila"), to consistently increase lifespan. The most widely accepted view is that oxidative damage (resulting from multiple causes, including superoxide) is but one of several factors limiting lifespan.  The binding of O by reduced (Fe)heme proteins involves formation of Fe(III) superoxide complex.

Assay in biological systems.

The assay of superoxide generated in biological systems is a difficult task because of its high reactivity and short half-life. One approach that has been used in quantitative assays converts superoxide to hydrogen peroxide, which is relatively stable. Hydrogen peroxide is then assayed by a fluorimetric method. As a free radical, superoxide has a strong EPR signal, and it is possible to detect superoxide directly using this method when its abundance is high enough. For practical purposes, this can be achieved only in vitro under non-physiological conditions, such as high pH (which slows the spontaneous dismutation) with the enzyme xanthine oxidase. Researchers have developed a series of tool compounds termed "spin traps" that can react with superoxide, forming a meta-stable radical (half-life 1–15 minutes), which can be more readily detected by EPR. Superoxide spin trapping was initially carried out with DMPO, but phosphorus derivatives with improved half-lives, such as DEPPMPO and DIPPMPO, have become more widely used.

Bonding and structure.

Superoxides are compounds in which the oxidation number of oxygen is −. Whereas molecular oxygen (dioxygen) is a diradical containing two unpaired electrons, the addition of a second electron fills one of its two degenerate molecular orbitals, leaving a charged ionic species with single unpaired electron and a net negative charge of −1. Both dioxygen and the superoxide anion are free radicals that exhibit paramagnetism.  The derivatives of dioxygen have characteristic O–O distances that correlate with the order of the O–O bond.

A superoxide is a compound that contains the superoxide ion, which has the chemical formula. The systematic name of the anion is dioxide(1−). The reactive oxygen ion superoxide is particularly important as the product of the one-electron reduction of dioxygen O, which occurs widely in nature. Molecular oxygen (dioxygen) is a diradical containing two unpaired electrons, and superoxide results from the addition of an electron which fills one of the two degenerate molecular orbitals, leaving a charged ionic species with a single unpaired electron and a net negative charge of −1. Both dioxygen and the superoxide anion are free radicals that exhibit paramagnetism.


Intramembranous ossification.

Intramembranous ossification forms the flat bones of the skull, mandible and hip bone.

Endochondral ossification.

Endochondral ossification is the formation of long bones and other bones. This requires a hyaline cartilage precursor. There are two centers of ossification for endochondral ossification.  The primary center  In long bones, bone tissue first appears in the diaphysis (middle of shaft). Chondrocytes multiply and form trebeculae. Cartilage is progressively eroded and replaced by hardened bone, extending towards the epiphysis. A perichondrium layer surrounding the cartilage forms the periosteum, which generates sperm cells that then go on to make a collar that encircles the outside of the bone and remodels the medullary cavity on the inside.  The nutrient artery enters via the nutrient foramen from a small opening in the diaphysis. It invades the primary center of ossification, bringing osteogenic cells (osteoblasts on the outside, osteoclasts on the inside.) The canal of the nutrient foramen is directed away from more active end of bone when one end grows more than the other. When bone grows at same rate at both ends, the nutrient artery is perpendicular to the bone.  Most other bones (e.g. vertebrae) also have primary ossification centers, and bone is laid down in a similar manner.  Secondary centers  The secondary centers generally appear at the epiphysis. Secondary ossification mostly occurs after birth (except for distal femur and proximal tibia which occurs during 9th month of fetal development). The epiphyseal arteries and osteogenic cells invade the epiphysis, depositing osteoblasts and osteoclasts which erode the cartilage and build bone. This occurs at both ends of long bones but only one end of digits and ribs.

Evolution.

Several hypotheses have been proposed for how bone evolved as a structural element in vertebrates. One hypothesis is that bone developed from tissues that evolved to store minerals. Specifically, calcium-based minerals were stored in cartilage and bone was an exaptation development from this calcified cartilage. However, other possibilities include bony tissue evolving as an osmotic barrier, or as a protective structure.

Ossification (or osteogenesis) in bone remodeling is the process of laying down new bone material by cells called osteoblasts. It is synonymous with bone tissue formation. There are two processes resulting in the formation of normal, healthy bone tissue: Intramembranous ossification is the direct laying down of bone into the primitive connective tissue (mesenchyme), while endochondral ossification involves cartilage as a precursor. In fracture healing, endochondral osteogenesis is the most commonly occurring process, for example in fractures of long bones treated by plaster of Paris, whereas fractures treated by open reduction and internal fixation with metal plates, screws, pins, rods and nails may heal by intramembranous osteogenesis.


Taxonomy.

"Aspergillus niger" is included in "Aspergillus" subgenus "Circumdati", section "Nigri". The section "Nigri" includes 15 related black-spored species that may be confused with "A. niger", including "A. tubingensis", "A. foetidus", "A. carbonarius", and "A. awamori". A number of morphologically similar species were in 2004 described by Samson "et al."  In 2007 the strain of ATCC 16404 "Aspergillus niger" was reclassified as "Aspergillus brasiliensis" (refer to publication by Varga et al.). This has required an update to the U.S. Pharmacopoeia and the European Pharmacopoeia which commonly use this strain throughout the pharmaceutical industry.

Pathogenicity.

Plant disease.

"Aspergillus niger" causes sooty mold of onions and ornamental plants. Infection of onion seedlings by "A. niger" can become systemic, manifesting only when conditions are conducive. "A. niger" causes a common postharvest disease of onions, in which the black conidia can be observed between the scales of the bulb. The fungus also causes disease in peanuts and in grapes.

Human and animal disease.

"Aspergillus niger" is less likely to cause human disease than some other "Aspergillus" species. In extremely rare instances, humans may become ill, but this is due to a serious lung disease, aspergillosis, that can occur. Aspergillosis is, in particular, frequent among horticultural workers who inhale peat dust, which can be rich in "Aspergillus" spores. The fungus has also been found in the mummies of ancient Egyptian tombs and can be inhaled when they are disturbed.  "A. niger" is one of the most common causes of otomycosis (fungal ear infections), which can cause pain, temporary hearing loss, and, only in severe cases, damage to the ear canal and tympanic membrane.

Cultivation.

"A. niger" has been cultivated both on Czapek medium plates and malt extract agar oxoid (MEAOX) plates.

Industrial uses.

"Aspergillus niger" is cultured for the industrial production of many substances. Various strains of "A. niger" are used in the industrial preparation of citric acid (E330) and gluconic acid (E574), and have been assessed as acceptable for daily intake by the World Health Organization. "A. niger" fermentation is "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) by the United States Food and Drug Administration under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.  Many useful enzymes are produced using industrial fermentation of "A. niger". For example, "A. niger" glucoamylase () is used in the production of high-fructose corn syrup, and pectinases (GH28) are used in cider and wine clarification. Alpha-galactosidase (GH27), an enzyme that breaks down certain complex sugars, is a component of Beano and other products that decrease flatulence. Another use for "A. niger" within the biotechnology industry is in the production of magnetic isotope-containing variants of biological macromolecules for NMR analysis. "Aspergillus niger" is also cultured for the extraction of the enzyme, glucose oxidase (), used in the design of glucose biosensors, due to its high affinity for β-D-glucose.  "Aspergillus niger" growing from gold-mining solution contained cyano-metal complexes, such as gold, silver, copper, iron, and zinc. The fungus also plays a role in the solubilization of heavy-metal sulfides. Alkali-treated "A. niger" binds to silver to 10% of dry weight. Silver biosorption occurs by stoichiometric exchange with Ca(II) and Mg(II) of the sorbent.

Genetics.

Genome.

The "A. niger" ATCC 1015 genome was sequenced by the Joint Genome Institute in a collaboration with other institutions.  The genomes of two "A. niger" strains have been fully sequenced.

Aspergillus niger is a fungus and one of the most common species of the genus "Aspergillus". It causes a disease called "black mold" on certain fruits and vegetables such as grapes, apricots, onions, and peanuts, and is a common contaminant of food. It is ubiquitous in soil and is commonly reported from indoor environments, where its black colonies can be confused with those of "Stachybotrys" (species of which have also been called "black mold").


Biography.

Early life.

Lu Xun was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. As was common in pre-modern China, Lu Xun had many names. His birth name was "Zhou Zhangshou" (). His courtesy name was "Yushan" (), but he later changed that to "Yucai" (). In 1898, before he went to the Jiangnan Naval Academy, he took the given name "Shuren" ()—which means, figuratively, "to be an educated man". The name by which he is best known internationally, "Lu Xun", was a literary pseudonym that he chose

Education.

Lu Xun half-heartedly participated in one civil service examination, in 1899, but then abandoned pursuing a traditional Confucian education or career. He intended to study at a prestigious school, the "Seeking Affirmation Academy", in Hangzhou, but was forced by his family's poverty to study at a tuition-free military school, the "Jiangnan Naval Academy", in Nanjing, instead. As a consequence of Lu's decision to attend a military school specializing in Western education, his mother wept, he was instructed to change his name (to avoid disgracing his family), and some of his relatives began to look down on him. Lu attended the Jiangnan Naval Academy for half a year, and left after it became clear that he would be assigned to work in an engine room, below deck, which he considered degrading. He later wrote that he was dissatisfied with the quality of teaching at the academy. After leaving the school, Lu sat for the lowest level of the civil service exams, and finished 137th of 500. He intended to sit for the next-highest level, but became upset when one of his younger brothers died, and abandoned his plans.  Lu Xun transferred to another

Early career.

Lu intended to study in Germany in 1909, but did not have sufficient funds, and was forced to return home. Between 1909 and 1911 he held a number of brief teaching positions at local colleges and secondary schools that he felt were unsatisfying, partly to support his brother Zuoren's studies in Japan.  Lu spent these years in traditional Chinese literary pursuits: collecting old books, researching pre-modern Chinese fiction, reconstructing ancient tombstone inscriptions, and compiling the history of his native town, Shaoxing. He explained to an old friend that his activities were not "scholarship", but "a substitute for 'wine and women'". In his personal letters he expressed disappointment about his own failure, China's political situation, and his family's continuing impoverishment. In 1911 he returned to Japan to retrieve his brother, Zuoren, so that Zuoren could help with the family finances. Zuoren wanted to remain in Japan to study French, but Lu wrote that "French... does not fill stomachs." He encouraged another brother, Jianren, to become a botanist. He began to drink heavily, a habit he continued for the rest of his life. In 1911 he wrote his first short story, "Nostalgia", but he was so disappointed with it that he threw it away. Zuoren saved it, and had it successfully published two years later under his own name.  In February 1912, shortly

Late career.

In 1929, he visited his dying mother, and reported that she was pleased at the news of Guangping's pregnancy. Xu Guangping gave birth to a son, Haiying, on 27 September 1929. She was in labor with the baby for 27 hours. The child's name meant simply "Shanghai infant". His parents chose the name thinking that he could change it himself later, but he never did so. Haiying was Lu Xun's only child.  After moving to Shanghai, Lu rejected all regular teaching positions (though he sometimes gave guest lectures at different campuses), and for the first time was able to make a living solely as a professional writer, with a monthly income of roughly 500 yuan. He was

Legacy.

Shortly after Lu Xun's death, Mao Zedong called him "the saint of modern China," but used his legacy selectively to promote his own political goals. In 1942, he quoted Lu out of context to tell his audience to be "a willing ox" like Lu Xun was, but told writers and artists who believed in freedom of expression that, because Communist areas were already "free", they did not need to be like Lu Xun. After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, Communist Party literary theorists portrayed his work as orthodox examples of communist literature, yet every one of Lu's close disciples from the 1930s was purged. Mao admitted that, had Lu survived until the 1950s, he would "either have gone silent or gone to prison". Party leaders depicted him as "drawing the blueprint of the communist future" and Mao Zedong defined him as the "chief commander of China's Cultural Revolution," although Lu did not join the party. During the 1920s and 1930s Lu Xun and his contemporaries often met informally for freewheeling intellectual discussions, but after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 the Party sought more control over intellectual life in China, and this type of intellectual independence was suppressed, often violently. Finally, Lu Xun's satirical and ironic writing style itself was discouraged, ridiculed, then as often as possible destroyed. In 1942, Mao wrote that "the style of the essay should not simply be like Lu Xun's. [In a Communist society] we can shout at the top of our voices and have no need for veiled and round-about expressions, which are hard for the people to understand. During the Cultural Revolution, the Communist Party both hailed Lu Xun as one of the fathers of communism in China, yet ironically suppressed the very intellectual culture and style of writing that he represented. Some of his essays and writings are now part of the primary school and middle school compulsory curriculum in China. Living under the rule of the dark forces and deprived

Style and thought.

Lu Xun was a versatile writer. He wrote using both traditional Chinese conventions and 19th century European literary forms. His style has been described in equally broad terms, conveying both "sympathetic engagement" and "ironic detachment" at different moments. His essays are often very incisive in his societal commentary, and in his stories his mastery of the vernacular language and tone make some of his literary works (like "The True Story of Ah Q") hard to convey through translation. In them, he frequently treads a fine line between criticizing the follies of his characters and sympathizing with those very follies. Lu Xun was a master of irony and satire (as can be seen in "The True Story of Ah Q") and yet can write impressively

Works.

Translations into English.

Lu Xun's works became known to English readers as early as 1926 with the publication in Shanghai of The True Story of Ah Q, translated by George Kin Leung, and more widely beginning in 1936 with an anthology edited by Edgar Snow and Nym Wales "Living China, Modern Chinese Short Stories," in which Part One included seven of Lu Xun's stories and a short biography based on Snow's talks with Lu Xun. However, there was not a complete translation of the fiction until the four-volume set of his writings, which included "Selected Stories of Lu Hsun" translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang. Another full selection was William A.

Lu Xun (Wade–Giles romanisation: Lu Hsün) was the pen name of Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Writing in Vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese, he was a short story writer, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, poet, and designer. In the 1930s, he became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai.


History.

Burgenland Croatian was the language of Croatian refugees who fled Croatia during the Turkish Wars and settled in the western part of what was then Hungary, the area where they still live. Burgenland Croats included speakers of all three dialects of the Serbo-Croatian language (Shtokavian, Chakavian and Kajkavian), with the majority being the Chakavians. They originally came from the river Una valley. Burgenland Croats did not take part in the shaping of the present standard Croatian in the 19th century. Instead, they constructed their own written standard based mainly on the local Chakavian speech and adopted the Croatian alphabet, a modified Latin alphabet, as their script.  It is still a matter of debate whether Burgenland Croatian should be classified as a Slavic micro-language of its own. Burgenland Croatian dialects are mostly viewed as isolated dialects of the Croatian.  Burgenland Croatian and the Prekmurje dialect of Slovene (in Prekmurje and Hungary) have influenced each other. The first Prekmurje Slovene works (for example, the Old Hymnal of Martjanci) was applied to the Burgenland Croatian books. A few of those that wrote in Prekmurje Slovene were of Burgenland Croatian descent (for example Jakab Szabár) and also Burgenland Croatian (József Ficzkó).  After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918 the areas in which Burgenland Croats lived were divided between Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. After 1921 most of these areas became part of Austria, which established a new province of Burgenland, after which the Croatian minority was named. In 1922 Austria founded the "Apostolic administration of Burgenland" and began to abolish bilingual schools through the introduction of the teaching of German in all primary schools. This process was temporarily stopped after "The National Education Act", that allowed the work of the Croatian elementary schools, was adopted. After Hitler Annexed Austria in 1938 this law was abolished. In 1955 the "Austrian State Treaty" was signed. It gave permission to the Burgenland Croats to use Croatian in education, judiciary and public administration. With the adoption of the "Law on National Minorities" in 1976 use of Croatian in public life became limited. After constitutional complaint was accepted in 1987 parts of the law were changed and Croatian was introduced as an official in 6 out of 7 districts of Burgenland.

Written language.

Burgenland Croatian written language is based mainly on the local Chakavian dialect with some influences from the other Croatian dialects spoken in Burgenland. It uses the Latin alphabet with the same diacritical modifiers as the Croatian alphabet. In the course of language development it acquired some of its own specialised vocabulary, sometimes different from that used in standard Croatian.  The popular "The Little Prince" has also been translated into Burgenland Croatian (1998), specifically the Standard version by Ivan Rotter.

Spoken language.

Croats living in the south of Burgenland speak mainly the Shtokavian-Chakavian dialect, those in the central part the Chakavian dialect with a hard Kajkavian influence, and in the north (close to Vienna) the Chakavian dialect.

Newspapers written in Burgenland Croatian.

Newspapers of the Burgenland Croats are: "Crikveni glasnik" (Church Gazett), 1946; "Naše selo" (Our village), 1947; "Naš tjednik" (Our weekly), 1947; "Naša domovina" (Our homeland), 1952; "Glas" (Voice), 1957; "Novi glas" (New Voice), 1969; "Put" (Way), 1981).

First books written in Burgenland Croatian.

The beginnings of literacy are linked to: Klimpuški misal (Klimpuški Missal) (1501), S. Consul Histrianus and Antun Dalmatin's Postila (Fasting) (1568), Duševne pesne (Spiritual songs) (1609) and Grgur Mekinić Pythiraeus's Druge knjige duševnih pesan (Other books of the Spiritual songs) (1611). Until the mid-19th century, the literature in Burgenland Croatian had religious character and was intended mostly for peasants. Main writers were priests and nuns. In the second half of the 19th century teachers began to write. Thanks to that, many school textbooks and calendars were written.

Writers writing in Burgenland Croatian.

Most popular Burgenland Croat writers are: J. Mulih (1694–1754), Godefrid Palković (1714–78), L. Bogović (1719–89), E. M. Kragel (1725–88), M. Laáb (cca. 1746–1823), J. Ficko (1772–1843), M. Drobilić (1808–91), T. Jordan (1815–93), G. Glavanić (1833–72), M. Naković (1840–1900), I. Mušković (1848–1930), M. Borenić (1850–1939), Ivan Čuković (1865–1944), P. Jandrišević (1879–1938), I. Blažević (1888–1946), Mate Meršić Miloradić (1850–1928), Ignac Horvat (1895–1973), Martin Meršić, A. Blazović (1921–2004), Franz Probst (1919–93), N. Benčić (b. 1938), Ivan (Lav) Sučić (b. 1938), Mathilda Bölcs (b. 1949), J. Čenar (b. 1956), P. Tyran (b. 1955) and H. Gassner (b. 1955).

Burgenland Croatian ("Gradišćanskohrvatski jezik"; German: "Burgenlandkroatische Sprache", Hungarian: "Gradišćei horvát nyelv") is a regional variety of the Chakavian dialect of Croatian spoken in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. Burgenland Croatian is recognized as a minority language in the Austrian state of Burgenland, where it is spoken by 19,412 people according to official reports (2001). Many of the Burgenland Croatian speakers in Austria also live in Vienna and Graz, due to the process of urbanization, which is mostly driven by the poor economic situation of large parts of Burgenland.


Etymology and common name.

The first use of the word okra in the U.S appears around 1670, possibly deriving from the Igbo word. The word "gumbo" (alternatively: "gombo") became common in the United States around 1805, with usage more prominent in the Southeastern United States. The word gumbo (or "gombo") derives from American French (most likely Louisiana creole).

Origin and distribution.

Okra is an allopolyploid of uncertain parentage (proposed parents include "Abelmoschus ficulneus", "A. tuberculatus" and a reported "diploid" form of okra). Truly wild (as opposed to naturalised) populations are not known with certainty and the species may be a cultigen. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of South Asian, Ethiopian and West African origins. The Egyptians and Moors of the 12th and 13th centuries used the Arabic word for the plant, "bamya", suggesting it had come into Egypt from Arabia, but earlier it was probably taken from Ethiopia to Arabia. The plant may have entered southwest Asia across the Red Sea or the Bab-el-Mandeb straight to the Arabian Peninsula, rather than north across the Sahara, or from India. One of the earliest accounts is by a Spanish Moor who visited Egypt in 1216 and described the plant under cultivation by the locals who ate the tender, young pods with meal. From Arabia, the plant spread around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and eastward. The plant was introduced to the Americas by ships plying the Atlantic slave trade by 1658, when its presence was recorded in Brazil. It was further documented in Suriname in 1686. Okra may have been introduced to southeastern North America from Africa in the early 18th century. By 1748, it was being grown as far north as Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson noted it was well established in Virginia by 1781. It was commonplace throughout the Southern United States by 1800, and the first mention of different cultivars was in 1806.

Botany and cultivation.

The species is a perennial, often cultivated as an annual in temperate climates, often growing to around tall. As a member of the Malvaceae, it is related to such species as cotton, cocoa, and hibiscus. The leaves are long and broad, palmately lobed with 5–7 lobes. The flowers are in diameter, with five white to yellow petals, often with a red or purple spot at the base of each petal. The pollens are spherical with approximately 188 microns diameter. The fruit is a capsule up to long with pentagonal cross-section, containing numerous seeds.  "Abelmoschus esculentus" is cultivated throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of the world for its fibrous fruits or pods containing round, white seeds. It is among the most heat- and drought-tolerant vegetable species in the world and will tolerate soils with heavy clay and intermittent moisture, but frost can damage the pods. In cultivation, the seeds are soaked overnight prior to planting to a depth of. It prefers a soil temperature of at least for germination which occurs between six days (soaked seeds) and three weeks. Seedlings require ample water. The seed pods rapidly become fibrous and woody and, to be edible as a vegetable, must be harvested when immature, usually within a week after pollination. Okra is available in two varieties, green and red. Red okra carries the same flavor as the more popular green okra and differs only in color. When cooked, the red okra pods turn green.  The most common disease afflicting the okra plant is verticillium wilt, often causing a yellowing and wilting of the leaves. Other diseases include powdery mildew in dry tropical regions, leaf spots, and root-knot nematodes.

Food and uses.

The products of the plant are mucilaginous, resulting in the characteristic "goo" or slime when the seed pods are cooked; the mucilage contains soluble fiber. Botanists say to de-slime okra it should be cooked with an acid (like vinegar, tomatoes, etc.); as the pH changes the mucilage will become less viscous. Pods are cooked, pickled, eaten raw, or included in salads. Okra may be used in some developing countries to mitigate malnutrition and alleviate food insecurity.

Nutrition.

Raw okra is 90% water, 2% protein, 7% carbohydrates and negligible in fat. In a 100 gram amount, raw okra is rich (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) in dietary fiber, vitamin C and vitamin K, with moderate contents of thiamin, folate and magnesium (table).

Leaves and seeds.

Young okra leaves may be cooked in a similar way to the greens of beets or dandelions. The leaves are also eaten raw in salads. Okra seeds may be roasted and ground to form a caffeine-free substitute for coffee. When importation of coffee was disrupted by the American Civil War in 1861, the "Austin State Gazette" said, "An acre of okra will produce seed enough to furnish a plantation with coffee in every way equal to that imported from Rio."  Greenish-yellow edible okra oil is pressed from okra seeds; it has a pleasant taste and odor, and is high in unsaturated fats such as oleic acid and linoleic acid. The oil content of some varieties of the seed is about 40%. At 794 kg/ha, the yield was exceeded only by that of sunflower oil in one trial. A 1920 study found that a sample contained 15% oil. A 2009 study found okra oil suitable for use as a biofuel.

Industrial uses.

Bast fibre from the stem of the plant has industrial uses such as the reinforcement of polymer composites. The mucilage produced by the okra plant can be used for the removal of turbidity from wastewater by virtue of its flocculent properties. Having composition similar to a thick polysaccharide film, okra mucilage is under development as a biodegradable food packaging, as of 2018.

Okra (, ), "Abelmoschus esculentus", known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It is valued for its edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of West African, Ethiopian, Arabian, and South Asian origins. The plant is cultivated in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions around the world.


History.

The town was founded in 1957 under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Academician Mikhail Alexeyevich Lavrentyev, a mechanician and mathematician, the first Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, played a prominent role in establishing Akademgorodok. At its peak, Akademgorodok was home to 65,000 scientists and their families, and was a privileged area to live in.  During the Soviet period (1961–1991), due to the peculiarity of the Soviet economic system, monetary rewards did not always translate into a higher standard of living. To offset this, a special compensation system was devised in Akademgorodok for its residents and leading scientists. For example, residents of Akademgorodok had access to special food ration distribution outlets (') that provided, most of the time, an access to some basic subsidized foodstuffs, which were not always easily obtainable elsewhere. Scientists who had obtained a doctorate (a post-Ph.D. degree under the Russian system) were rewarded by the authorities with the special food delivery service ('), which provided access to a wider selection of groceries than available to the general population; some of the scientists, despite being eligible, refused it on moral grounds. Full and corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences had access to still higher level of service (") and were eligible to live in single-family residences (called "cottages"), considered luxurious by Soviet standards, as most of the population lived in apartments in nine- and four-story multi-apartment buildings.  During the early years residents enjoyed great freedom from the rules and restraints of the Soviet Union, with a modernist cultural centre exhibiting works by banned Soviet artists, risqué poetry evenings, and other activities allowed nowhere else. Scientific research in areas dismissed as dangerous pseudoscience in Moscow, such as cybernetics and genetics, flourished. However, freedoms were severely curtailed in the 1970s during the Brezhnev era.

Akademgorodok in the post-Soviet era.

The collapse of the Soviet Union saw many scientists, including whole cadres of Russia's top minds in the physical and theoretical sciences, reduced to penury. Beginning in the mid-1990s, as economic reforms allowed private investment in Russia, Akademgorodok saw the beginnings of venture funding. In 1992, a software company called Novosoft was founded here, and its chief client was IBM. Around this time CFT started, which specializes in banking and financial software. By 1997 private investment reached US$10 million; by 2006 it was $150 million, reaching about $1 billion by 2015. Intel and Schlumberger have brought work to Akademgorodok, and other companies are following them into the area. Many scientists, including Lavrentyev's son, also named Mikhail and also an accomplished mathematician in his own right, were deeply involved in this renaissance. Currently its population stands at over 100,000 and there are over 40 research institutes located within Akademgorodok. While still minuscule by the standards of other countries, the private venture effort in Akademgorodok has breathed new life into what was once one of the Soviet Union's premier scientific centers. , 300 companies had been set up since 2011, employing about 9,000 people and generating 17bn roubles (£175M) annually.  The area is sometimes called "Silicon Forest". A much larger technology center in the former Soviet Union is the Skolkovo Innovation Center, conveniently located on the outskirts of Moscow, a $4bn state project with annual revenues of $1bn.  The Quality Schools International QSI International School of Novosibirsk, previously located in Akademgorodok, opened in 2008.

Sightseeing.

The Technopark (Academpark) has a distinctive headquarters, constructed in 2013. It has two inclined towers connected by an overhead passage on the 13-14th floor level. Its unique form is the source of its nickname: "the geese".

Akademgorodok (, "Academic Town" or "Academic City") is a part of the Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located 30 km south of the city center and about 10 km west of the Science town Koltsovo. It is the educational and scientific centre of Siberia.


Early life.

Ding Ling was born into a gentry family in Linli, Hunan province. Her father died when Ding was three. Ding Ling's mother, who raised her children alone while becoming an educator, was Ding's role model, and she would later write an unfinished novel, titled "Mother", which described her mother's experiences. Following her mother's example, Ding Ling became an activist at an early age. Ding Ling fled to Shanghai in 1920 in repudiation of traditional Chinese family practices by refusing to marry her cousin who had been chosen to become her husband. She rejected the commonly accepted view that parents as the source of the child's body are its owners, and she ardently asserted that she owned and controlled her own body.  Ding Ling was influenced by progressive teachers at the People's Girls School, and by her association with modern writers such as Shen Congwen and the left-wing poet Hu Yepin, whom she married in 1925. She began writing stories around this time, most famously "Miss Sophia's Diary", published in 1927, in which a young woman describes her unhappiness with her life and confused romantic and sexual feelings. In 1931, Hu Yepin was executed in Shanghai by the Kuomintang government for his association with the Communists. In March 1932 she joined the Chinese Communist Party, and almost all of her fiction after this time was in support of its goals. She was active in the League of Left-Wing Writers.

Political persecution.

Active in the Communist revolutionary cause, she was placed under house arrest in Shanghai by the Guomindang for a three-year period from 1933 to 1936. She escaped, and made her way to the Communist base of Yan'an. There she became one of the most influential figures in Yan'an cultural circles, serving as director of the Chinese Literature and Arts Association and editing a newspaper literary supplement.  Ding Ling struggled with the idea that revolutionary needs, defined by the party, should come before art. She objected to the gender standards at work in Yan'an. In 1942 she wrote an article in a party newspaper, titled "Thoughts on March 8", questioning the party's commitment to change popular attitudes towards women. She satirized male double standards concerning women, saying they were ridiculed if they focused on household duties, but also became the target of gossip and rumors if they remained unmarried and worked in the public sphere. She also criticized male cadres use of divorce provisions to rid themselves of unwanted wives. Her article was condemned by Mao Zedong and the party leadership, and she was forced to retract her views and undergo a public self-confession.  Her main work in these years was the novel "The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River", which she completed in 1948. It followed the complex results of land reform on a rural village. It was awarded the Stalin prize for Literature in 1951, and is considered one of the best examples of socialist-realist fiction. It did not, however, address gender issues.  Always a political activist, in 1957 she was denounced as a "rightist", purged from the party, and her fiction and essays were banned. She spent five years in jail during the Cultural Revolution and was sentenced to do manual labor on a farm for twelve years before being "rehabilitated" in 1978.  In her introduction to "Miss Sophie's Diary And Other Stories", Ding Ling explains her indebtedness to the writers of other cultures:  I can say that if I have not been influenced by Western literature I would probably not have been able to write fiction, or at any rate not the kind of fiction in this collection. It is obvious that my earliest stories followed the path of Western realism... A little later, as the Chinese revolution developed, my fiction changed with the needs of the age and of the Chinese people... Literature ought to join minds together... turning ignorance into mutual understanding. Time, place and institutions cannot separate it from the friends it wins... And in 1957, a time of spiritual suffering for me, I found consolation in reading much Latin American and African literature.

Later years.

A few years before her death, she was allowed to travel to the United States where she was a guest at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. She died in Beijing in 1986.  She authored more than three hundred works. After her "rehabilitation" many of her previously banned books such as her novel "The Sun Shines Over The Sanggan River" were republished and translated into numerous languages. Some of her short works, spanning a fifty-year period, are collected in "I Myself Am A Woman: Selected Writings Of Ding Ling".

Ding Ling (; October 12, 1904 – March 4, 1986), formerly romanized as Ting Ling, was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi (), also known as Bin Zhi (彬芷 "Bīn Zhǐ"), one of the most celebrated 20th-century Chinese authors. She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951.