title: Figure skating

text: The International Skating Union was founded in 1892. The first European Figure Skating Championships were held in 1891 in Hamburg, Germany (won by Oskar Uhlig), and the first World Figure Skating Championships were held in 1896 in Saint Petersburg, Russia (won by Gilbert Fuchs). Only men competed in the early events but in 1902 a woman entered the World Championships for the first time: British female skater Madge Syers competed in the men's competition, finishing in second place behind Sweden's Ulrich Salchow. The ISU quickly banned women from competing against men, and established a separate "ladies" competition in 1906. Pair skating was introduced at the 1908 World Championships, where the title was won by Anna Hübler and Heinrich Burger of Germany.


title: Figure skating

text: Figure skating was the first winter sport contested at the Olympics; it made its Olympic debut at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. On March 20, 1914, an international figure skating championship was held in New Haven, Connecticut. This event was the forerunner of both the United States and Canadian National Championships. However, international competitions in figure skating were interrupted by World War I.


title: Figure skating

text: In the 1920s and 1930s, figure skating was dominated by Sonja Henie of Norway. Henie turned competitive success into a lucrative professional career as a movie star and touring skater, also setting the fashion for female skaters to wear short skirts and white boots. The top male figure skaters of this period included Sweden's Gillis Grafström and Austria's Karl Schäfer.


title: Figure skating

text: Skating competitions were again interrupted for several years by World War II. After the war, with many European rinks in ruins, skaters from the United States and Canada began to dominate international competitions and to introduce technical innovations to the sport. Dick Button, 1948 and 1952 Olympic Champion, was the first skater to perform the double Axel and triple loop jumps, as well as the flying camel spin.


title: Figure skating

text: The World Figure Skating Championships did not include ice dance until 1952. In its early years, ice dance was dominated by British skaters, and until 1960 the world title was won every year by a British couple, beginning with Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy.


title: Figure skating

text: On February 15, 1961, the entire U.S. figure skating team and their coaches were killed in the crash of Sabena Flight 548 in Brussels, Belgium en route to the World Championships in Prague. This tragedy sent the U.S. skating program into a period of rebuilding.


title: Figure skating

text: Meanwhile, the Soviet Union rose to become a dominant force in the sport, especially in the disciplines of pair skating and ice dance. At every Winter Olympics from 1964 until 2006, a Soviet or Russian pair won gold in pair skating, in what is often considered to be one of the longest winning streaks in modern sports history. The 1967 World Championships was the last event held on an outdoor rink.


title: Figure skating

text: Compulsory figures formerly accounted for up to 60% of the score in singles figure skating, meaning that skaters who could build up a significant lead in figures could win competitions even if they were mediocre free skaters. As television coverage of skating events became more important, the popularity of free skating increased because this part of the competition was televised and shown to the general public, whereas the compulsory figures competition was not. The television audience would complain when superior free programs sometimes failed to equate to gold medal victories. Beginning in 1968, the ISU progressively reduced the weighting of compulsory figures and introduced the short program in 1973. A critical issue was said to have been the continued failure of Janet Lynn to achieve on the world stage despite her outstanding free skate programs. For example, she missed out on a podium place at the 1971 World Championships after winning the free skate competition decisively, which produced an uproar and loud booing from the audience during the medal ceremony.


title: Figure skating

text: With these changes, the emphasis in competitive figure skating shifted to increased athleticism. Landing triple jumps during the short program and the free skate became more important. By the 1980s, some skaters began practising quadruple jumps. Jozef Sabovcik of Czechoslovakia landed a quad toe loop at the 1986 European Championships which was recognized at the event but then ruled invalid three weeks later due to a touchdown with his free foot. At the 1988 World Championships, Kurt Browning of Canada landed the first quad toe loop which has remained ratified. Despite expectations, it was several years before quads became an important part of men's skating. In 1988, Japan's Midori Ito became the first woman to land a triple Axel, pushing the athletic and technical level for women's programs. Worth only 20% by 1989, compulsory figures were eliminated from international competition in 1990.


title: Figure skating

text: Television contributed to the sport's popularity by showing skaters in the kiss and cry area after competing. Television also played a role in removing the restrictive amateur status rules that once governed the sport. In May 1990, the ISU voted to allow skaters intending to skate professionally to return to ISU competition, provided that they obtained their national association's permission. In 1995, in an effort to retain skaters who might otherwise have given up their eligibility to participate in lucrative professional events, the ISU introduced prize money at its major competitions, funded by revenues from selling the TV rights to those events.


title: Figure skating

text: In 1984, more than 24 million people in Great Britain watched ice dance pair Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean earn unanimous 6.0s for presentation, the only perfect score in Olympic skating history, which was ranked the 8th greatest sporting moment in a UK poll. In the 1993 National Sports Study II, considered by the Associated Press as the largest study of spectator sport popularity in America, women's figure skating was the second most popular spectator sport in America, just behind NFL football out of over 100 sports surveyed. The 1993 study found that three figure skatersDorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming, and Scott Hamiltonwere among the eight most popular athletes in the United States, of more than 800 athletes surveyed. Dorothy Hamill was statistically tied with Mary Lou Retton as the most popular athlete in America. The Tonya Harding scandal in 1994 increased interest in figure skating. The first night of the women's figure skating competition in the 1994 Winter Olympics achieved higher Nielsen TV ratings than the Super Bowl three weeks earlier and, to that date, was the most watched sports television program of all time.


title: Figure skating

text: To show support, spectators sometimes throw a variety of items onto the ice after the end of a figure skating program, most commonly stuffed toys and flowers. Officials discourage people from throwing flowers that are not fully wrapped because of the possibility of debris disrupting or endangering the following skaters.


title: Figure skating

text: Countries that have produced a great many successful skaters include Russia and the former Soviet Union, the United States, Canada, Japan, China, France, Germany, and Italy. While the sport has grown in East Asia, training opportunities in South Asia are limited due to a scarcity of ice rinks. India had only four major indoor ice rinks as of 2011, but there were plans for ten more to be built, mostly in malls, over the following five years. As of 2016, three of these intended ten indoor rinks were built at Neptune Magnet Mall, Atria Millennium Mall, and Lulu Mall respectively.


title: Figure skating

text: Four skating has mostly disappeared, while synchronized skating, singles/pair skating and ice dance have grown. On April 6, 2011, the International Olympic Committee officially confirmed the approval of a figure skating team event, which was introduced at the 2014 Winter Olympics. The elimination of the compulsory dance segment provided space for the team event. Each team is composed of a men's and women's singles skater, a pair, and an ice dance duo. A maximum of ten teams can compete, with five eliminated after the short program. In December 2011, the ISU released details of the qualifying system and the competition.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Banaras Hindu University (BHU) kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya : /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, founded by Indian Home Rule-leaguer and Theosophist, Annie Besant in 1898. After Besant and her associates were marginalized, the university was established by Madan Mohan Malaviya with the financial support of the maharaja of Dharbhanga Rameshwar Singh, the maharaja of Benares Prabhu Narayan Singh, and the lawyer Sunder Lal. With over 30,000 students, and 18,000 residing on campus, BHU is the largest residential university in Asia. The university is one of the eight public institutions declared as an Institute of Eminence by the Government of India.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: BHU has often been referred by different names throughout the history and present. Some of the English names include Banaras University, Benares Hindu University, and Hindu University.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The university's main campus, spread over , was built on land donated by the Kashi Naresh Prabhu Narayan Singh, the hereditary ruler of Banaras ("Kashi" being an alternative name for Banaras or Varanasi). The south campus, spread over is built on land donated later by Maharaj Kumar Aditya Narayan Singh in Sunderpur, hosts the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agriculture Science Centre) and is located in Barkachha in Mirzapur district, about from Varanasi.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: BHU is organized into six institutes, 14 faculties (streams) and about 140 departments.<nowiki> </nowiki>, the total student enrolment at the university is 30,698 coming from 48 countries. It has over 65 hostels for resident students. Several of its faculties and institutes include Arts, Social Sciences, Commerce, Management Studies, Science, Performing Arts, Law, Agricultural Science, Medical Science, and Environment and Sustainable Development along with departments of Linguistics, Journalism & Mass Communication, among others. The university's engineering institute was designated as an Indian Institute of Technology in June 2012, and henceforth is Indian Institute of Technology (BHU).


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Centralised in 1916 through the Banaras Hindu University Act, Banaras Hindu University is India's first central university. BHU celebrated its centenary year in 2015–2016.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Banaras Hindu University was jointly established by Madan Mohan Malaviya, Annie Besant, Maharaja Rameshwar Singh of Darbhanga Raj and Prabhu Narayan Singh of Narayan dynasty, while the university is the brainchild of Malviya.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: At the 21st Conference of the Indian National Congress in Benares in December 1905, Malaviya publicly announced his intent to establish a university in Banaras. Malaviya continued to develop his vision for the university with inputs from other Indian nationalists and educationists. He published his plan in 1911. The focus of his arguments was the prevailing poverty in India and the decline in income of Indians compared to Europeans. The plan called for the focus on technology and science, besides the study of India's religion and culture:


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: "The millions mired in poverty here can only get rid (of it) when science is used in their interest. Such maximum application of science is only possible when scientific knowledge is available to Indians in their own country."


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Malaviya's plan evaluated whether to seek government recognition for the university or operate without its control. He decided in favour of the former for various reasons. Malaviya also considered the question of medium of instruction and decided to start with English given the prevalent environment, and gradually add Hindi and other Indian languages. A distinguishing characteristic of Malaviya's vision was the preference for a residential university. All other Indian universities of the period, such as the universities in Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, etc., were affiliating universities which only conducted examinations and awarded degrees to students of their affiliated colleges. Malaviya had supported Annie Besant's cause and in 1903, he had raised 250,000 Rupees in donations to finance the construction of the school's hostel. In 1907 Besant had applied for a royal charter to establish a university. However, there was no response from the British government.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Following the publication of Malviya's plan, Besant met Malviya and in April 1911 they agreed to unite their forces to build the university in Varanasi


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Malaviya soon left his legal practice to focus exclusively on developing the university and his independence activities. On 22 November 1911, he registered the Hindu University Society to gather support and raise funds for building the university. He spent the next four years gathering support and raising funds for the university. Malaviya sought and received early support from the Kashi Naresh Prabhu Narayan Singh and Rameshwar Singh Bahadur of Raj Darbhanga. Thakur Jadunath Singh of Arkha along with other noble houses of United Provinces contributed for the development of the university.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: On 22 March 1915, then Education Minister Harcourt Butler introduced the "Benares Hindu University Bill" in the Imperial Legislative Council"." In his speech, he remarked about the university:The Benares Hindu University Bill was passed on 1 October 1915 and assented by the Viceroy and Governor-General of India on the same day.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: BHU was finally established in 1916, the first university in India that was the result of people's efforts. The foundation for the main campus of the university was laid by Lord Hardinge, the then Viceroy of India, on Vasant Panchami 4 February 1916. To promote the university's expansion, Malviya invited eminent guest speakers such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jagadish Chandra Bose, C. V. Raman, Prafulla Chandra Ray, Sam Higginbottom, Patrick Geddes, and Besant to deliver a series of what are now called "The University Extension Lectures" between 5–8 February 1916. Gandhi's lecture on the occasion was his first public address in India.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Sunder Lal was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor, and the university began its academic session the same month with classes initially held at the Central Hindu School in the Kamachha area, while the campus was being built on over of land donated by the Kashi Naresh on the outskirts of the city. The Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar, Mir Osman Ali Khan, also made a donation for the university.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The university's anthem, called "Kulgeet", was composed by university professor and eminent scientist Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Banaras Hindu University's main campus is located on the southern edge of Varanasi, near the banks of the river Ganges. Development of the main campus, spread over , started in 1916 on land donated by the then Kashi Naresh Prabhu Narayan Singh. The campus layout approximates a semicircle, with intersecting roads laid out along the radii or in arcs. Buildings built in the first half of the 20th century are fine examples of Indo-Gothic architecture.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The campus has over 65 hostels offering residential accommodation for over 12,000 students. On-campus housing is also available to a majority of the full-time faculty.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The main entrance gate and boundary wall was built on the donation made by Maharaja of Balrampur, Maharaja Pateshvari Prashad Singh, and is named after him as the ().


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Library is the main library on campus and houses over 1.3 million volumes as of 2011. Completed in 1941, its construction was financed by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. In addition to the main library, there are three institute libraries, eight faculty libraries and over 25 departmental libraries available to students and staff.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Sir Sunderlal Hospital on the campus is a teaching hospital for the Institute of Medical Sciences. Established in 1926 with 96 beds, it has since been expanded to over 900 beds and is the largest tertiary referral hospital in the region.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The most prominent landmark is the Shri Vishwanath Mandir, located in the centre of the campus. The foundation for this high complex of seven temples was laid in March 1931, and took almost three decades to complete.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established in 1920, Bharat Kala Bhavan is the university museum of the Banaras Hindu University. It is situated inside the main campus of the university with over 100,000 holdings which include artifacts, paintings, philately, textiles, costumes, etc.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The south campus is located in Barkachha in Mirzapur district, about southwest of the main campus. Spread over an area of over , it was transferred as a lease in perpetuity to BHU by the Bharat Mandal Trust in 1979.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: It hosts the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agricultural Science Centre), with focus on research in agricultural techniques, agro-forestry and bio-diversity appropriate to the Vindhya Range region. The South Campus features a lecture complex, library, student hostels and faculty housing, besides administrative offices.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: BHU is a fully residential university with a total of 66 hostels - 41 hostels for male, 21 hostels for female students, and 4 hostels for International students.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Hostels in the university are divided among different faculties, institutes, campuses, and colleges catering to their specific demands. Out of the four separate hostels for international students, two are for boys and the other two for girls.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Hostels of the university are named after several historically important figures such as Raja Baldev Das Jugal Kishore Birla, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rani Laxmibai and M. Visvesvaraya. Some hostels are named after important rivers of India; 'Triveni' for instance was initially a cluster of three girls' hostels named after rivers Ganga, Yamuna, and Sarasvati; thereby the cluster being called after Triveni Sangam. Later, hostels named after river Godavari and Kaveri were also added to the 'Triveni' block.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: BHU also provides on-campus residence to a substantial number of teaching and non-teaching staff. There are 654 quarters for teaching staff, 688 quarters for non-teaching staff.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The President of India (as of December 2022, Droupadi Murmu) is the visitor of the Banaras Hindu University. The university's formal head is the chancellor (as of December 2022, Giridhar Malviya), though this is a titular figure, and is not involved with the day-to-day running of the university. The chancellor is elected by the members of the University Court. The university's chief executive is the Vice-chancellor (as of December 2022, Sudhir K. Jain), appointed by the President of India on the recommendations of Ministry of Education which, in turn, is based on an open application process. All permanent administrative offices of the university are located in the Central Office.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The university is governed as per the procedures laid out in the Banaras Hindu University Act of 1915, and statutes of the university. The Executive Council is the supreme executive governing body of the university and exercises all the powers on management and administration of the revenue, property, and administrative affairs of the university. The University Court is the supreme advisory body to the Visitor for all matters not otherwise provided for by the Banaras Hindu University Act, and the statutes. The Academic Council is the highest academic body of the university and is responsible for the maintenance of standards of instruction, education and examination within the university. It has the right to advise the Executive Council on all academic matters. The Finance Committee is responsible for recommending financial policies, goals, and budgets.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The BHU Act has clearly laid out procedure and functions of different administrative bodies of the university. All officers of the university draw their power and responsibilities from the BHU Act of 1915, and statues of the university.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The university has a university temple called Shri Vishwanath Mandir also known as Vishwanath Temple located in the center of the campus, primarily dedicated to Lord Shiva along with 8 other temples inside the main temple structure.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: BHU established International Centre, a university department in 2004 to handle all international academic affairs such as foreign students' applications, international collaboration, international alumni outreach.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The University Museum, Bharat Kala Bhavan, is an art and archaeological museum on the campus. Established in January 1920, its first chairman was Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, with his nephew Abanindranath Tagore as the vice-chairman. The museum was expanded and gained prominence with the efforts of Rai Krishnadasa. The museum is best known for its collection of Indian paintings, but also includes archaeological artefacts, textiles and costumes, Indian philately as well as literary and archival materials. The Alice Boner Gallery was also set up at Bharat Kala Bhavan with the assistance of the Alice Boner Foundation in 1989 to mark the birth centenary of Alice Boner.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established in 1936 with initial funding from Seth Jugal Kishore Birla, formally the Banaras Hindu University Press and Publication Cell, is the university press of BHU. It comprises two entities, namely BHU Press, and the Publication Cell. While the BHU press publishes books, and journals of the university, the Publication Cell looks after the sales aspect. The BHU Press also publishes "Vishwa Panchang" prepared by the Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Academic entities in the Banaras Hindu University are divided in several types of units with varying independence and budget. "Institutes" are a cluster of one or more faculties; "faculties" are a cluster of one or more departments, departments are specifically dedicated to one subject such as political science, or mathematics, or pottery. The university also has special chairs, inter-disciplinary schools, and special centres.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Indian Institute of Techonlology Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) has its roots in the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU). Upon receiving a proposal from the MHRD to convert IT-BHU into an Indian Institutes of Technology, the university's Executive Council approved the change in 2012. Today the IIT-BHU functions as an autonomous IIT, with certain powers vested in the BHU. IIT provides courses at UG, PG, and PhD level.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Institute of Science, originally established as the Faculty of Science and later upgraded, provides education in zoology, botany, biochemistry, computer science, geography, mathematics, physics, geology, geophysics , chemistry, statistics. The Institute also publishes the double-blind peer reviewed "Journal of Scientific Research".


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established in 1931 as the Institute of Agricultural Research, the Institute of Agricultural Sciences is one of the premier institutes of agricultural sciences in India. The institute comprises 11 departments and four auxiliary units and imparts education through undergraduate, postgraduate, special courses, PhD, and diploma programs.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Institute of Medical Sciences, comprising three faculties and one college, is one of the premier medical institutions in India. The institute provides courses at undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD, and diploma levels. It also has the Sir Sunderlal Hospital, and a Trauma centre and Super Speciality Hospital


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Institute of Environment & Sustainable Development (IESD), which aims to develop and advance the knowledge of technology and processes for sustainable development, was started in 2010. The institute was established in accordance with the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development goal to contribute significantly to the development of appropriate knowledge and competences in the area of sustainable development.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Starting as the Department of Management Studies, which was upgraded to Faculty of Management Studies in 1984, IMSt-BHU was finally upgraded into an institute in 2015. The Institute of Management Studies is the business school of Banaras Hindu University. Among the earliest management schools in India, the institute imparts education at postgraduate and doctoral levels. Alok Kumar Rai, a professor at FMS-BHU is currently the vice-chancellor of the University of Lucknow.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: There are nine standalone (which are not under any institute or college) faculties at the Banaras Hindu University:


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Founded in 1898 as the Central Hindu College, the Faculty of Arts is the oldest faculty of the university. It offers courses in History, Culture, Philosophy, Languages, Literature along with various professional and vocational courses. Due to its nature of age, it is also called the 'Mother faculty' of the university.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established in 1940 as the Department of Commerce, the Faculty of Commerce was fully institutionalized as an independent faculty in 1965. The FoC offers courses at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels in commerce, financial management, foreign trade, and risk & insurance.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established in 1918 as the Teacher's Training College, the Faculty of Education is based out of the Kamachha Complex "("outside main campus")". The FoE provides B.Ed, B.Ed (Special Visual Impairment), M.Ed and Ph.D in education.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established in 1922, the Law School offers courses at undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, and diploma level in law.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Faculty of Performing Arts offers undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate courses in performing arts. It was founded in 1950 and had several renowned and award-winning artists and musicians as faculty members. Faculty of Performing Arts was started by Omkarnath Thakur in 1950. It was initially instituted as a college called "Music and Fine Arts". In 1966, under Govind Malviya and founding principal Omkarnath Thakur, the college was restructured to a faculty, with three departments (Vocal music, Instrumental music and Musicology). The Faculty of Performing Arts claims to have started the first department of Musicology in India headed by musicologist Prem Lata Sharma.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established in 1918, the Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vijnan (SVDV) offers courses at "Shastri" (undergraduate), "Acharya" (postgraduate), "Vidyavardhi" (doctoral) and diploma levels in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhism practices and philosophies. The Faculty of Visual Arts offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in applied and visual arts. It was founded in 1916. It includes five departments: Painting, Applied arts, Plastic arts, Pottery and Ceramics, and Textile designing.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Faculty of Social Sciences offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Social science. It was bifurcated from the Faculty of Arts in 1971. It includes the departments of Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Other than the departments, there are five centres which carry on the studies in various fields, namely the Centre for the Study of Nepal, Centre for Women's Study and Development, Centre for Integrated Rural Development, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusion Policy and the Malviya Centre for Peace Research. and Special Courses like Master of Personnel Management and Industrial Relations (MPMIR)


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The faculty holds three chairs, the currently () vacant Babu Jagjivan Ram Chair for Social Research, commemorating Jagjivan Ram and his contributions, the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Chair for Nationalism & National Integration established in 2016 and the Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay Chair, established in 2017.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Currently, Arvind Kumar Joshi is the Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences. Koushal Kishor Mishra has been formerly dean here, several professors are at administrative positions likewise: Professor Sanjay Srivastava as the Member of BHU Court, and Professor Ram Pravesh Pathak (Former Dean) as Chairman of Student Grievance Cell.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: In 2021, the Faculty of Social Sciences started a postgraduate course M.A. in Kashi Studies, specializing in the political, religious, and social history of the ancient holy city.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The DAV Post Graduate College is a public, co-ed, research college admitted to the privileges of Banaras Hindu University, which was established in 1938. There are three public women's colleges: Arya Mahila Post Graduate College, established in 1956; Vasanta College for Women, which was established in 1913 by Annie Besant; and Vasant Kanya Mahavidyalaya, established in 1954.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Kendriya Vidyalaya BHU situated inside the university campus is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education, run by the Kendriya Vidyalya Sangathan.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The School of Biotechnology (SBT) is a center for postgraduate teaching and research under the aegis of Institute of Science of the BHU. It was established in 1986 with funding from the Department of Biotechnology, of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. It offers MSc and PhD programmes in Biotechnology.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The interdisciplinary program involves the partnership between the Institute of Science, the Institute of Medical Sciences and the Indian Institute of Technology at BHU. Notable faculty include Arvind Mohan Kayastha.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Interdisciplinary School of Life Sciences (ISLS) is a joint initiative of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India and the BHU. It was established with a grant of INR 238.9 million from the DBT.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Apart from specialised centres directly funded by DBT, DST, ICAR and ISRO, a large number of departments under the Institutes of Sciences, Engineering & Technology and Faculty of Social Sciences receive funding from the DST Fund for Improvement of Science & Technology Infrastructure (FIST) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) Special Assistance Programme (SAP). UGC SAP provides funds under its Centre of Advanced Study (CAS), Department of Special Assistance (DSA) and Departmental Research Support (DRS) programmes.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Centre for Genetic Disorders was established in 2008. The centre is a result of efforts of Rajiva Raman and his team who was granted a DBT-programme support in 2006 (2006-2011). This centre is involved in genetic diagnosis and counselling of cases referred from BHU hospital. The centre is engaged in research on various genetic disorders. It offers a one-year PG diploma course on Chromosomal, Genetic and Molecular Diagnostics. It also offers Ph.D. programmes. The Centre for Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences (CIMS) focuses on research and education in mathematics, modelling and statistics. It was established under the management of the Faculty of Science, with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The centre imparts post-graduate education and research with participation from the Department of Mathematics, Department of Statistics and Department of Computer Science of the Institute of Science and the Department of Applied Mathematics of the IIT-BHU. It regularly organises training programmes, workshops, seminars, and conferences.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Centre of Food Science & Technology (CFST) is an inter-disciplinary research centre with collaboration between the Institute of Agricultural Sciences and the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) focusing on food processing technology. The Center for Environmental Science and Technology (CEST) is an interdisciplinary university research centre at the Faculty of Science. The CEST conducts three-year M.Sc.(Tech) and Ph.D programmes in Environmental Science & Technology. The centre also works to coordinate environmental programmes of the university


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established by the executive council of the university under the Government of India's Namami Gange Mission, the Malaviya Research Centre for Ganga, River Development & Water Resource Management is dedicated to the study of pollution of the Ganges. The centre focuses on the study of river basin ecology, hydrology and pollution management, technology development, socio-economic and culture, and data management. The centre provides training called "Ganga Mitra ()" in pursuance of its objectives on various subjects. Established in 1991, the Malviya Centre for Ethics and Values aims to promote ethics and human values in higher education. The centre provides two-year diploma courses on human values and ethics. The centre has been tasked as the nodal agency for developing and monitoring courses on human values and ethics in all central universities.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Funded by Department of Higher Education, MHRD, and established in 2015, the Design Innovation Centre(DIC) is a collaboration between IIT-BHU and BHU. The DIC focuses on providing a platform to the students and faculties of the university in order to foster innovation and creative problem solving. The centre also serves Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, and the University of Allahabad.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Established in 2020 as the InnoResTech Foundation-BHU (called BioNest-BHU) by funding from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, BioNest-BHU aims to promote startup and entrepreneurship in sciences, biotechnology, healthcare, agritech, food technology, etc. composed of expert faculty members from IMS-BHU, IAS-BHU, and ISc-BHU.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Starting academic year 2022, the university has confirmed shifting towards the All-India Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admission to several undergraduate and postgraduate courses, which shall replace the "Banaras Hindu University Undergraduate Entrance Test" "(BHU-UET)" and "Banaras Hindu University Postgraduate Entrance Test" ("BHU-PET") exams. Admissions are done according to coursewise eligibility criteria set by the university, merit in the entrance tests, and as per reservation policy of the Government of India.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Admissions to undergraduate programs of IIT-BHU are only through JEE Advanced, similarly, admissions to programs of IMS-BHU are only through NEET, and admissions to FMS-BHU is through a mix of Common Admission Test and personal interview, etc.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Admissions for PhD are done on the basis of either qualification of National Eligibility Test (NET) by the candidates, or through the scores of "Banaras Hindu University Research Entrance Test (BHU-RET)". Admissions in Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University are done through PMT exam. Starting 2021, the UET & PET exams have been conducted by the National Testing Agency.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Admissions to the Banaras Hindu University are highly competitive and tough with more than 50 applicants for one seat. BHU attracts a substantial number of international students. The university has a separate admission pipeline for international students. Applications from international students wishing to continue their education at BHU are invited directly to the university International Centre.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Admissions to the diploma and Special Courses of Study (SCS) are conducted through varying processes depending on the faculty, directly by the university.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: After opting for CUET exam for undergraduate and postgraduate courses, the Banaras Hindu University now only conducts the "Banaras Hindu University Research Entrance Test (BHU-RET)" for admission to the PhD courses"."


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Until 2021, Banaras Hindu University has used to conduct national level "BHU-UET" for undergraduate courses, and "BHU-PET", for postgraduate courses, usually during May–June for admission for which registrations begun on Vasant Panchmi "i.e.," university foundation day, for over 24 undergraduate and over 100 postgraduate courses. The UET & PET exams were held for 5166 seats in online and offline mode in subject-wise papers. The total exam duration was two hours with multiple-choice questions. Total marks varied with the exam.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Internationally, BHU was ranked 601–800 in the world by the "Times Higher Education World University Rankings" of 2022 and 153 in Asia in 2022.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: In India, the 2022 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked BHU sixth among universities and eleventh overall. In NIRF 2022 rankings, BHU ranked fifth in medical, 20 in law, and 50 in management.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Its engineering institute, IIT-BHU, was ranked thirteenth by the NIRF Engineering ranking for 2021. In 2019, IIT-BHU was ranked ninth among engineering colleges in India by "The Week".


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University was ranked fifth in India by "Outlook India" in 2019 and seventh in India by "The Week".


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University was ranked fifth among medical colleges in India in 2022 by NIRF. It was ranked seventh among medical colleges in India in 2020 by "India Today", sixth by "The Week" and eighth by "Outlook India".


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Banaras Hindu University Library system was established from a collection donated by P.K. Telang in the memory of his father Justice Kashinath Trimbak Telang in 1917. The collection was housed in the Telang Hall of the Central Hindu College, Kamachha. In 1921, the library was moved to the Central Hall of the Arts College (now the Faculty of Arts).


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The present Central Library of BHU was established with a donation from Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. Upon his return from the First round Table Conference, Gaekwad wanted a library built on the pattern of the British Library and its reading room, which was then located in the British Museum. On Malviya's suggestion, he made the donation to build the library on the BHU campus.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Gaekwad Library is a designated "Manuscript Conservation Centre" (MCC) of the National Mission for Manuscripts, established in 2003.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: By 1931, the library had built a collection of around 60,000 volumes. The trend of donation of personal and family collection to the library continued as late as the 1940s with the result that it has unique pieces of rarities of books and journals dating back to the 18th century.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: As of 2011, the BHU Library System consisted of the Central Library and 3 Institute Libraries, 8 Faculty Libraries and over 25 Departmental Libraries, with a collection of at least 1.3 million volumes. The digital library is available to students and staff and provides online access to thousands of journals, besides access to large collections of online resources through the National Informatics Centre's DELNET and UGC's INFLIBNET.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The Banaras Hindu University observes Saraswati puja day (also known as Vasant Panchami) as its foundation day. Goddess Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and nature. She is also the revered mascot of the university, and is a part of the university seal.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: There is an intra-university fest, Spandan, where students represent their faculty/institute in various arts competitions such as literature (essay-writing, poems, debates), painting, sketches, vocal music, dancing, singing, drama, and mimicry. It is held every year after Vasant Panchami in the month of February or March. Apart from "Spandan", each faculty and institute have their own in-house annual festivals, for instance, "Aakanksha" is the annual festival of Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: The university anthem, "Banaras Hindu University Kulgeet", is sung in chorus before the convocation or any other official event begins.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Academic costume is mandatory for university convocation. The university's academic costume is White Saree with red border, and red blouse for females; and White Kurta with Dhoti or Pyjama for male students. Both academic costumes include Safa and Uttariya. BHU was the first prominent university in India to ditch Western convocation dress for Indian traditional convocation dress, which led to students at other universities demanding the same, and eventually other universities following suit.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: BHU has university level Mountaineering Centre, and University Sports Board. Other interest-specific clubs and societies exist at faculty, institute, and college level, like "FSS Connect", which is a consortium of all societies and clubs at the Faculty of Social Sciences. In 2022 "BHU Connect" was introduced, which is a platform that acts as a consortium for different institutes' clubs and societies, as well as act as an umbrella for students run unit to manage clubs, events and ensure help to aspirants and freshers at the Banaras Hindu University.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Medals and prizes are awarded at faculty, as well as university level. Each faculty and institute have several in-house awards and medals. Some of the university level medals include:


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Banaras Hindu University does not have an active political student union, but an administrative student council called the Banaras Hindu University Students Council to represent and safeguard the interests of the students.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Despite no elections, student wings of major political parties have an active presence on the campus.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Organized and unorganized protests are held often in the campus due to the vast majority of students. The most prominent protest in the last few years have been the Banaras Hindu University women's rights protest.


title: Banaras Hindu University

text: Alumni and faculty of the Banaras Hindu University, called BHUians and ' ('), have gained prominence in India and across the world in almost all fields of arts, science, and social work. Two former Presidents of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and A. P. J. Abdul Kalam have worked and taught at the university. Other famous administrators include Sunder Lal, K. L. Shrimali, and Moti Lal Dhar.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States and Canada and a few other countries. The GRE is owned and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS). The test was established in 1936 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: According to ETS, the GRE aims to measure verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, and critical thinking skills that have been acquired over a long period of learning. The content of the GRE consists of certain specific algebra, geometry, arithmetic, and vocabulary sections. The GRE General Test is offered as a computer-based exam administered at testing centers and institution owned or authorized by Prometric. In the graduate school admissions process, the level of emphasis that is placed upon GRE scores varies widely between schools and departments within schools. The importance of a GRE score can range from being a mere admission formality to an important selection factor.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The GRE was significantly overhauled in August 2011, resulting in an exam that is not adaptive on a question-by-question basis, but rather by section, so that the performance on the first verbal and math sections determines the difficulty of the second sections presented. Overall, the test retained the sections and many of the question types from its predecessor, but the scoring scale was changed to a 130 to 170 scale (from a 200 to 800 scale).


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The cost to take the test is US$205, although ETS will reduce the fee under certain circumstances. It also provides financial aid to those GRE applicants who prove economic hardship. ETS does not release scores that are older than five years, although graduate program policies on the acceptance of scores older than five years will vary.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Once almost universally required for admission to Ph.D. science programs in the U.S., its use for that purpose has fallen precipitously.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The Graduate Record Examinations was "initiated in 1936 as a joint experiment in higher education by the graduate school deans of four Ivy League universities and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching."


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The first universities to experiment the test on their students were Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University and Columbia University. The University of Wisconsin was the first public university to ask their students to take the test in 1938. It was first given to students at the University of Iowa in 1940, where it was analysed by psychologist Dewey Stuit. It was first taken by students at Texas Tech University in 1942. In 1943, it was taken by students at Michigan State University, where it was analyzed by Paul Dressel. It was taken by over 45,000 students applying to 500 colleges in 1948.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: "Until the Educational Testing Service was established in January, 1948, the Graduate Record Examination remained a project of the Carnegie Foundation."


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In 2006, ETS announced plans to make significant changes in the format of the GRE. Planned changes for the revised GRE included a longer testing time, a departure from computer-adaptive testing, a new grading scale, and an enhanced focus on reasoning skills and critical thinking for both the quantitative and qualitative sections.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: On April 2, 2007, ETS announced the decision to cancel plans for revising the GRE. The announcement cited concerns over the ability to provide clear and equal access to the new test after the planned changes as an explanation for the cancellation. The ETS stated, however, that they do plan "to implement many of the planned test content improvements in the future", although specific details regarding those changes were not initially announced.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Changes to the GRE took effect on November 1, 2007, as ETS started to include new types of questions in the exam. The changes mostly centered on "fill in the blank" type answers for the mathematics section that requires the test-taker to fill in the blank directly, without being able to choose from a multiple choice list of answers. ETS announced plans to introduce two of these new types of questions in each quantitative section, while the majority of questions would be presented in the regular format.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Since January 2008, the Reading Comprehension within the verbal sections has been reformatted, passages' "line numbers will be replaced with highlighting when necessary in order to focus the test taker on specific information in the passage" to "help students more easily find the pertinent information in reading passages."


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In December 2009, ETS announced plans to move forward with significant revisions to the GRE in 2011. Changes include a new 130–170 scoring scale, the elimination of certain question types such as antonyms and analogies, the addition of an online calculator, and the elimination of the CAT format of question-by-question adjustment, in favor of a section by section adjustment.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: On August 1, 2011, the Revised GRE General test replaced General GRE test. The revised GRE is said to be better by design and provides a better test taking experience. The new types of questions in the revised format are intended to test the skills needed in graduate and business schools programs. From July 2012 onwards GRE announced an option for users to customize their scores called ScoreSelect.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The earliest versions of the GRE tested only for verbal and quantitative ability. For a number of years before October 2002, the GRE had a separate Analytical Ability section which tested candidates on logical and analytical reasoning abilities. This section was replaced by the Analytical Writing Assessment.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The computer-based GRE General Test consists of six sections. The first section is always the analytical writing section involving separately timed issue and argument tasks. The next five sections consist of two verbal reasoning sections, two quantitative reasoning sections, and either an experimental or research section. These five sections may occur in any order. The experimental section does not count towards the final score but is not distinguished from the scored sections. Unlike the computer adaptive test before August 2011, the GRE General Test is a multistage test, where the examinee's performance on earlier sections determines the difficulty of subsequent sections. This format allows the examined person to freely move back and forth between questions within each section, and the testing software allows the user to "mark" questions within each section for later review if time remains. The entire testing procedure lasts about 3 hours 45 minutes. One-minute breaks are offered after each section and a 10-minute break after the third section.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The paper-based GRE General Test also consists of six sections. The analytical writing is split up into two sections, one section for each issue and argument task. The next four sections consist of two verbal and two quantitative sections in varying order. There is no experimental section on the paper-based test.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The computer-based verbal sections assess reading comprehension, critical reasoning, and vocabulary usage. The verbal test is scored on a scale of 130–170, in 1-point increments. (Before August 2011, the scale was 200–800, in 10-point increments.) In a typical examination, each verbal section consists of 20 questions to be completed in 30 minutes. Each verbal section consists of about 6 text completion, 4 sentence equivalence, and 10 critical reading questions. The changes in 2011 include a reduced emphasis on rote vocabulary knowledge and the elimination of antonyms and analogies. Text completion items have replaced sentence completions and new reading question types allowing for the selection of multiple answers were added.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The computer-based quantitative sections assess basic high school level mathematical knowledge and reasoning skills. The quantitative test is scored on a scale of 130–170, in 1-point increments (Before August 2011 the scale was 200–800, in 10-point increments). In a typical examination, each quantitative section consists of 20 questions to be completed in 35 minutes. Each quantitative section consists of about 8 quantitative comparisons, 9 problem solving items, and 3 data interpretation questions. The changes in 2011 include the addition of numeric entry items requiring the examinee to fill in the blank and multiple-choice items requiring the examinee to select multiple correct responses.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The analytical writing section consists of two different essays, an "issue task" and an "argument task". The writing section is graded on a scale of 0–6, in half-point increments. The essays are written on a computer using a word processing program specifically designed by ETS. The program allows only basic computer functions and does not contain a spell-checker or other advanced features. Each essay is scored by at least two readers on a six-point holist scale. If the two scores are within one point, the average of the scores is taken. If the two scores differ by more than a point, a third reader examines the response.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The test taker is given 30 minutes to write an essay about a selected topic. Issue topics are selected from a pool of questions, which the GRE Program has published in its entirety. Individuals preparing for the GRE may access the pool of tasks on the ETS website.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The test taker will be given an argument (i.e. a series of facts and considerations leading to a conclusion) and asked to write an essay that critiques the argument. Test takers are asked to consider the argument's logic and to make suggestions about how to improve the logic of the argument. Test takers are expected to address the logical flaws of the argument and not provide a personal opinion on the subject. The time allotted for this essay is 30 minutes. The Arguments are selected from a pool of topics, which the GRE Program has published in its entirety. Individuals preparing for the GRE may access the pool of tasks on the ETS website.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The experimental section, which can be either verbal or quantitative, contains new questions ETS is considering for future use. Although the experimental section does not count towards the test-taker's score, it is unidentified and appears identical to the scored sections. Because test takers have no definite way of knowing which section is experimental, it is typically advised that test takers try their best and be focused on every section. Sometimes an identified research section at the end of the test is given instead of the experimental section. There is no experimental section on the paper-based GRE.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: An examinee can miss one or more questions on a multiple-choice section and still receive a perfect score of 170. Likewise, even if no question is answered correctly, 130 is the lowest possible score. Verbal and qualitative reasoning scores are given in one-point increments, and analytical writing scores are given in half-point increments on a scale of 0 to 6.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The percentiles for the current General test and the concordance with the prior format are as follows. According to interpretive data published by ETS, from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2018 about 2 million people have taken the test. Based on performance of individuals the mean and standard deviation of verbal section were 150.24 and 8.44. Whereas, mean and standard deviation for quantitative section were 153.07 and 9.24. Analytical writing has a mean of 3.55 with a standard deviation of 0.86.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: "Field-wise distribution" of test takers is "limited to those who earned their college degrees up to two years before the test date." ETS provides no score data for "non-traditional" students who have been out of school more than two years, although its own report "RR-99-16" indicated that 22% of all test takers in 1996 were over the age of 30.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In addition to the General Test, there are also four GRE Subject Tests testing knowledge in the specific areas of Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology. The length of each exam is 170 minutes.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In the past, subject tests were also offered in the areas of Computer Science, Economics, Revised Education, Engineering, Geology, History, Music, Political Science, Sociology, and Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology. In April 1998, the Revised Education and Political Science exams were discontinued. In April 2000, the History and Sociology exams were discontinued; with Economics, Engineering, Music, and Geology being discontinued in April 2001. The Computer Science exam was discontinued after April 2013. Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology was discontinued in December 2016. The GRE Biology Test and GRE Literature in English Test tests were discontinued in April 2021.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Many graduate schools in the United States require GRE results as part of the admissions process. The GRE is a standardized test intended to measure all graduates' abilities in tasks of general academic nature (regardless of their fields of specialization) and the extent to which undergraduate education has developed their verbal skills, quantitative skills, and abstract thinking.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In addition to GRE scores, admission to graduate schools depends on several other factors, such as GPA, letters of recommendation, and statements of purpose. Furthermore, unlike other standardized admissions tests (such as the SAT, LSAT, and MCAT), the use and weight of GRE scores vary considerably not only from school to school, but also from department to department and program to program. For instance, most business schools and economics programs require very high GRE or GMAT scores for entry, while engineering programs are known to allow more score variation. Liberal arts programs may only consider the applicant's verbal score, while mathematics and science programs may only consider quantitative ability. Some schools use the GRE in admissions decisions, but not in funding decisions; others use it for selection of scholarship and fellowship candidates, but not for admissions. In some cases, the GRE may be a general requirement for graduate admissions imposed by the university, while particular departments may not consider the scores at all. Graduate schools will typically provide the average scores of previously admitted students and information about how the GRE is considered in admissions and funding decisions. In some cases, programs have hard cut off requirements for the GRE; for example, the Yale Economics PhD program requires a minimum quantitative score of 160 to apply. The best way to ascertain how a particular school or program evaluates a GRE score in the admissions process is to contact the person in charge of graduate admissions for the specific program in question.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In February 2016, the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law became the first law school to accept either the GRE or the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) from all applicants. The college made the decision after conducting a study showing that the GRE is a valid and reliable predictor of students' first-term law school grades.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In the spring of 2017, Harvard Law School announced it was joining University of Arizona Law in accepting the GRE in addition to the LSAT from applicants to its three-year J.D. program.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: After a trial cycle of GRE–free admissions for Fall 2021, University of California, Berkeley voted to drop the GRE requirement for most graduate program admissions for Fall 2022 as well. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor shortly followed announcing that they would drop the GRE requirements for Ph.D. admissions beginning with the 2022–23 admissions cycle. By late 2022, the trend had intensified.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) is a computer-adaptive standardized test in mathematics and the English language for measuring aptitude to succeed academically in graduate business studies.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Business schools commonly use the test as one of many selection criteria for admission into an MBA program. Starting in 2009, many business schools began accepting the GRE in lieu of a GMAT score. Policies varied widely for several years. However, as of the 2014–2015 admissions season, most business schools accept both tests equally. Either a GMAT score or a GRE score can be submitted for an application to an MBA program. Business schools also accept either score for their other (non-MBA) Masters and Ph.D. programs.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The primary issue on which business school test acceptance policies vary is in how old a GRE or GMAT score can be before it is no longer accepted. The standard is that scores cannot be more than 5 years old (e.g., Wharton, MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School).


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Some GRE scores (usually pre-2002 ones) are accepted as qualifying evidence to intellectual clubs such as Intertel, Mensa and the Triple Nine Society, the minimum passing score depending on the selectivity of the society and the time period when the test was taken. Intertel accepts scores in the 99th percentile obtained after 2011, while Mensa and TNS do not accept any score post-September 2001.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: A variety of resources are available for those wishing to prepare for the GRE. ETS provides preparation software called PowerPrep, which contains two practice tests of retired questions, as well as further practice questions and review material. Since the software replicates both the test format and the questions used, it can be useful to predict the actual GRE scores. ETS does not license their past questions to any other company, making them the only source for official retired material. ETS used to publish the "BIG BOOK" which contained a number of actual GRE questions; however, this publishing was abandoned. Several companies provide courses, books, and other unofficial preparation materials.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Some students taking the GRE use a test preparation company. Students who do not use these courses often rely on material from university text books, GRE preparation books, sample tests, and free web resources.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: While the general and subject tests are held at many undergraduate institutions, the computer-based general test can be held in over 1000 locations with appropriate technological accommodations. In the United States, students in major cities or from large universities will usually find a nearby test center, while those in more isolated areas may have to travel a few hours to an urban or university location. Many industrialized countries also have test centers, but at times test-takers must cross country borders.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Critics have claimed that the computer-adaptive methodology may discourage some test takers since the question difficulty changes with performance. For example, if the test-taker is presented with remarkably easy questions halfway into the exam, they may infer that they are not performing well, which will influence their abilities as the exam continues, even though question difficulty is subjective. By contrast, standard testing methods may discourage students by giving them more difficult items earlier on.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Critics have also stated that the computer-adaptive method of placing more weight on the first several questions is biased against test takers who typically perform poorly at the beginning of a test due to stress or confusion before becoming more comfortable as the exam continues. On the other hand, standard fixed-form tests could equally be said to be "biased" against students with less testing stamina since they would need to be approximately twice the length of an equivalent computer adaptive test to obtain a similar level of precision.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The GRE has also been subjected to the same racial bias criticisms that have been lodged against other admissions tests. In 1998, "The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education" noted that the mean score for black test-takers in 1996 was 389 on the verbal section, 409 on the quantitative section, and 423 on the analytic, while white test-takers averaged 496, 538, and 564, respectively. The National Association of Test Directors Symposia in 2004 stated a belief that simple mean score differences may not constitute evidence of bias unless the populations are known to be equal in ability. A more effective, accepted, and empirical approach is the analysis of differential test functioning, which examines the differences in item response theory curves for subgroups; the best approach for this is the DFIT framework.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The GREs are criticized for not being a true measure of whether a student will be successful in graduate school. Robert Sternberg (now of Cornell University; working at Yale University at the time of the study), a long-time critic of modern intelligence testing in general, found the GRE general test was weakly predictive of success in graduate studies in psychology. The strongest relationship was found for the now-defunct analytical portion of the exam.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: The ETS published a report ("What is the Value of the GRE?") that points out the predictive value of the GRE on a student's index of success at the graduate level. The problem with earlier studies is the statistical phenomenon of restriction of range. A correlation coefficient is sensitive to the range sampled for the test. Specifically, if only students accepted to graduate programs are studied (in Sternberg & Williams and other research), the relationship is occluded. Validity coefficients range from .30 to .45 between the GRE and both first year and overall graduate GPA in ETS' study.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Kaplan and Saccuzzo state that the criterion that the GRE best predicts is first-year grades in graduate school. However, this correlation is only in the high tens to low twenties. "If the test correlates with a criterion at the .4 level, then it accounts for 16% of the variability in that criterion, with the other 84% resulting from unknown factors and errors" (p. 303). Graduate schools may be placing too much importance on standardized tests rather than on factors that more fully account for graduate school success, such as prior research experience, GPAs, or work experience. While graduate schools do consider these areas, many times schools will not consider applicants that score below a current score of roughly 314 (1301 prior score). Kaplan and Saccuzzo also state that "the GRE predict[s] neither clinical skill nor even the ability to solve real-world problems" (p. 303).


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In 2007, a study by a university found a correlation of .30 to .45 between the GRE and both first year and overall graduate GPA. The correlation between GRE score and graduate school completion rates ranged from .11 (for the now defunct analytical section) to .39 (for the GRE subject test). Correlations with faculty ratings ranged from .35 to .50.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In May 1994, Kaplan, Inc warned ETS, in hearings before a New York legislative committee, that the small question pool available to the computer-adaptive test made it vulnerable to cheating. ETS assured investigators that it was using multiple sets of questions and that the test was secure. This was later discovered to be incorrect.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: In December 1994, prompted by student reports of recycled questions, then Director of GRE Programs for Kaplan, Inc and current CEO of Knewton, Jose Ferreira led a team of 22 staff members deployed to 9 U.S. cities to take the exam. Kaplan, Inc then presented ETS with 150 questions, representing 70–80% of the GRE. According to early news releases, ETS appeared grateful to Stanley H. Kaplan, Inc for identifying the security problem. However, on December 31, ETS sued Kaplan, Inc for violation of a federal electronic communications privacy act, copyright laws, breach of contract, fraud, and a confidentiality agreement signed by test-takers on test day. On January 2, 1995, an agreement was reached out of court.


title: Graduate Record Examinations

text: Additionally, in 1994, the scoring algorithm for the computer-adaptive form of the GRE was discovered to be insecure. ETS acknowledged that Kaplan, Inc employees, led by Jose Ferreira, reverse-engineered key features of the GRE scoring algorithms. The researchers found that a test taker's performance on the first few questions of the exam had a disproportionate effect on the test taker's final score. To preserve the integrity of scores, ETS revised its scoring and uses a more sophisticated scoring algorithm.


title: Image Comics

text: Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-owned properties, in which comics creators could publish material of their own creation without giving up the copyrights to those properties. Normally this isn't the case in the work for hire-dominated American comics industry, where the legal author is a publisher, such as Marvel Comics or DC Comics, and the creator is an employee of that publisher. Its output was originally dominated by superhero and fantasy series from the studios of the founding Image partners, but now includes comics in many genres by numerous independent creators. Its best-known publications include "Spawn", "Savage Dragon", "Witchblade", "Bone", "The Walking Dead", "Invincible", "Saga", "Jupiter's Legacy", "Kick-Ass" and "Radiant Black".


title: Image Comics

text: In the early 1990s, comics creators Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, and Jim Valentino had dinner with Malibu Comics editor-in-chief Dave Olbrich. Malibu was a small but established publishing company sympathetic to creator-ownership, and Olbrich expressed interest in publishing comics created by them. These and several other freelance illustrators doing popular work for Marvel Comics were growing frustrated with the company's work for hire policies and practices, which they felt did not sufficiently reward the talent that produced them, as the company heavily merchandised their artwork, and compensated them with modest royalties.


title: Image Comics

text: According to Todd McFarlane, he, Jim Lee and Liefeld met with Marvel president Terry Stewart and editor Tom DeFalco in late December 1991. Larsen and Marc Silvestri, who joined the group the night before, were not present, but the group that met with Stewart indicated that they were representing them as well. McFarlane says that they made no demands of Stewart or Marvel, but informed him that they were leaving, gave their reasons why, and cautioned Stewart to heed those reasons, lest the company suffer future departures. The creators had a similar meeting with DC Comics the next day, commenting that their new policies intended to be more beneficial to creators had been crafted unilaterally, without creators' input. After Whilce Portacio returned from his annual trip to the Philippines, his Homage Studios colleague Lee asked him to join the group.


title: Image Comics

text: A group of seven artists then announced the founding of Image Comics: McFarlane (known for his work on ""), Lee ("X-Men"), Liefeld ("X-Force"), Silvestri ("Wolverine"), Larsen ("The Amazing Spider-Man"), Valentino ("Guardians of the Galaxy"), and Portacio ("Uncanny X-Men"); with longtime "Uncanny X-Men" writer Chris Claremont (who was not actively involved with the group) adding his support. This development was nicknamed the "X-odus", because several of the artists involved (Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri, and Portacio) were famous for their work on the "X-Men" franchise. Marvel's stock fell $3.25/share when the news became public.


title: Image Comics

text: Each Image partner founded their own studio, which published under the Image banner but was autonomous from any central editorial control. Portacio withdrew during the formative stages to deal with his sister's illness, and former "Incredible Hulk" artist Dale Keown declined to take Portacio's place due to a criminal record impeding his ability to travel outside his home country of Canada, so Image originally consisted of six studios:


title: Image Comics

text: The founders' initial titles were produced under the Image imprint, but published through Malibu Comics, which provided administrative, production, distribution, and marketing support for the launch of them.


title: Image Comics

text: The first Image comic books to arrive in stores were Liefeld's "Youngblood", Larsen's "The Savage Dragon", McFarlane's "Spawn", and Lee's "WildC.A.T.s". ("Youngblood" and "Savage Dragon" were not entirely new creations, having debuted in Gary Carlson's "Megaton", an independent comic book title published from 1981 to 1987.) Propelled by the artists' popularity and the eagerness of comic book collectors to get in on the "next big thing", these series sold in numbers that no publisher other than Marvel, DC, or Valiant Comics had achieved in the years since the market's decline in the 1970s. (The company experienced lesser successes with Silvestri's "Cyberforce", Valentino's "Shadowhawk", and Portacio's much-delayed "Wetworks".) Within a few months, the Image titles' success led to Malibu having almost 10% of the North American comics market share, briefly exceeding that of industry giant DC Comics. By the beginning of 1993, Image's financial situation was secure enough to publish its titles independently, and it left Malibu.


title: Image Comics

text: Some of the founders' studios came to resemble separate publishers, each with several ongoing series set in a shared universe. (At first there were indications of an "Image Universe" shared by the studios, but these decreased as the studios developed their own directions.) The use of freelancers to write or illustrate series that were owned by the Image partners led to criticism that some of them had reproduced the very system they had rebelled against, but with them in charge instead of a corporation. Image partners such as Larsen and Valentino, who did not take this approach, assumed a neutral position on it, in keeping with the requirement that none of them had any say in how the others' studios were run.


title: Image Comics

text: Some of the Image partners used their studios to also publish new works produced by independent creators, allowing those people to retain ownership and editorial control over those series, an arrangement which was then uncommon among large publishers. These included Sam Kieth ("The Maxx"), Dale Keown ("Pitt"), Jae Lee ("Hellshock"), and the team of Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross ("Astro City"). Later, some established self-published series also moved to Image, such as Jeff Smith's "Bone" and Colleen Doran's "A Distant Soil".


title: Image Comics

text: The partners had little business or management experience, and many series quickly fell behind their intended publishing schedule. Comparing them to vaporware, one reader reported that 17 of the 36 delayed items in his December 1992 order were from Image. Retailers' advance orders of newly offered issues were typically based on the sales of recent issues, but as the issues shipped weeks and even several months late, fans' interest tended to wane, leaving retailers with inventory they couldn't sell when it arrived. In response, retailers cut orders to reduce their risk. This significantly hurt the studios, which were each responsible for their own cash flow and profitability. In late 1993, the partners hired independent cartoonist Larry Marder to act as "executive director" for the publisher; Valentino quipped in interviews that Marder's job was literally to "direct the executives" (i.e. the Image partners). Marder developed better financial planning and had some success in disciplining creators to deliver their work on time, in part by insisting that retail orders for new issues would not be solicited until the books had been illustrated, usually ensuring they would be ready to ship when promised.


title: Image Comics

text: By the mid-1990s Image series such as "Spawn" and "The Savage Dragon" had proven themselves as lasting successes (the former frequently topping the sales charts for months in which new issues came out), while new series such as Wildstorm's "Gen¹³", and Top Cow's "Witchblade" and "The Darkness" were also successful. Image had become the third-largest comics publisher in North America, surpassed only by long-established industry leaders Marvel and DC Comics.


title: Image Comics

text: Disagreements between partners began to develop. Several of the partners complained that Liefeld was using his position as CEO of Image to promote and perhaps even to financially support Maximum Press, a publishing company that Liefeld operated separately from Image. Silvestri withdrew Top Cow from Image in 1996 (although he retained his partnership in the company), protesting that Liefeld was recruiting artists from his studio, including highly popular Michael Turner ("Witchblade"). The other five partners discussed ousting Liefeld from the company, and Liefeld resigned in September 1996, giving up his share of the company. Silvestri subsequently returned Top Cow to Image.


title: Image Comics

text: Wildstorm's Cliffhanger imprint, established in 1998, was a commercial success, launching high-selling creator-owned properties by Humberto Ramos, J. Scott Campbell, Joe Madureira, and others. Jim Lee sold Wildstorm and its characters to DC Comics in 1999, citing a desire to exchange his responsibilities as a publisher for the opportunity to do more creative work.


title: Image Comics

text: The founders of Image were best known for their dynamic and extravagant art, and for character-driven, thinly-plotted stories in the superhero genre. Although the company also published other styles of works, many readers came to perceive this as the "Image style" of comics. Valentino had become less active as a creator after the company's first few years, and responded to this development in 1997 by using his position as a partner to seek out and publish a number of titles by other creators in distinctly different genres and styles, in a deliberate attempt to diversify Image's output and how it was perceived. Although most of these series—ironically dubbed the "non-line" because of their lack of commonality—did not sell well and were soon cancelled, they introduced an increasingly important business model for the company: offering other creators the same total-ownership terms the partners enjoyed, but taking a fixed fee upon publication for the company's administrative costs. This practice was later formalized as a function of "Image Central", a business unit independent of any of the studios. This focus on non-studio comics increased when Valentino took on the role of Image's publisher, assuming many of the responsibilities held by Marder until Marder left the company in 1999.


title: Image Comics

text: The company's position in the North American direct market diminished in the 2000s, challenged by Dark Horse Comics and IDW Publishing for the position of "third largest publisher" after Marvel and DC. In February 2004, Larsen replaced Valentino as publisher, largely continuing existing business practices. Larsen stepped down as publisher in July 2008 and executive director Eric Stephenson was promoted to the position. Valentino returned to operating his own studio with his Shadowline imprint.


title: Image Comics

text: Shortly after Stephenson's appointment, Image added Robert Kirkman as the company's first new partner since its founding. Kirkman's black-and-white series "The Walking Dead" was at that time already a long-running and popular series (it would run for 193 issues and serve as the basis for three television series), and his series "Invincible" was one of the longest-running series featuring a superhero created in the early 2000s (it would run for 144 issues). Kirkman created an imprint under his direction, known as Skybound.


title: Image Comics

text: Starting in 2009, Image began to greatly expand both the types of comics it publishes and the types of creators drawn to the publisher, beginning a period of critical acclaim. Among its award-winning series, are "Chew", "Morning Glories", "Fatale", "The Manhattan Projects", and "Saga". "Saga" creator Brian K. Vaughan explained why he chose Image to publish that series:


title: Image Comics

text: Image's sales grew significantly during this period to a market share of around 10% in 2015, and an influx of Marvel- and DC-associated creators began publishing creator-owned work with them. As a result, Image was voted Diamond Comic Distributors' Publisher of the Year Over 4% three years in a row between 2013 and 2015. By this time, a clear majority of titles Image published in a given month were non-studio productions. Meanwhile, McFarlane's "Spawn" and related titles, his McFarlane Toys line, Silvestri's Top Cow imprint, and Kirkman's various series remained a substantial segment of Image's total sales. , McFarlane's "Spawn" and Larsen's "Savage Dragon" were the longest-running creator-owned titles published by Image, with over 300 and 250 issues, respectively.


title: Image Comics

text: In November 2021, members of the editorial, production, sales, and accounting staff formed Comic Book Workers United, a trade union affiliated with the Communications Workers of America; however, Image did not voluntarily recognize the union. When it was certified by a vote in January 2022, it became the first such union in the American comics industry.


title: Image Comics

text: Image Comics titles have garnered both comics and mainstream critical acclaim. Image Comics titles boast multiple award nominations and wins across all categories in the Eisner Awards, Hugo Awards, Russ Manning Awards, The Edgar Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, Young Adult Library Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and more. Image Comics’ title list includes domestic and international bestsellers with regular appearances on "The New York Times" bestseller list, "The Washington Post"s bestseller list, "USA Today"s bestseller list, the Amazon.com bestseller list, and more.


title: Image Comics

text: In July 2018, Marjorie Liu won the Eisner Award for Best Writer for her work on "Monstress", making her the first woman in history to win in the category.


title: Image Comics

text: In April 2019, Image Comics titles received a total 30 Eisner Award nominations—more than any other nominated publisher—and made history as the first publisher to sweep the Best New Series category, with all six titles nominated published by Image.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder-launched weapons, which can be transported by a single soldier, to larger tripod-mounted weapons, which require a squad or team to transport and fire, to vehicle and aircraft mounted missile systems.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Earlier man-portable anti-tank weapons like anti-tank rifles and magnetic anti-tank mines, generally had very short range, sometimes on the order of metres or tens of metres. Rocket-propelled high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) systems appeared in World War II and extended range to the order of hundreds of metres, but accuracy was low and hitting targets at these ranges was largely a matter of luck. It was the combination of rocket propulsion and remote wire guidance that made the ATGM much more effective than these earlier weapons, and gave light infantry real capability on the battlefield against post-war tank designs. The introduction of semi-automatic guidance in the 1960s further improved the performance of ATGMs.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: As of 2016, ATGMs were used by over 130 countries and many non-state actors around the world. Post-Cold-War main battle tanks (MBTs) using composite and reactive armors have proven to be resistant to smaller ATGMs.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Germany developed a design for a wire-guided anti tank missile derived from the Ruhrstahl X-4 air to air missile concept in the closing years of World War II. Known as the X-7, it was probably never used in combat and allegedly had serious guidance to target issues. It never entered service, though a few were produced.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: First-generation ATGMs use a type of command guidance termed "manual command to line of sight" (MCLOS). This requires continuous input from an operator using a joystick or similar control system to steer the missile to a target. One disadvantage of this is that an operator must keep the sight's reticle cross hairs on a target and then steer the missile into the cross hairs, i.e., the line-of-sight. To do this, an operator must be well trained (spending many hours on a simulator) and must remain stationary and in view of a target during the flight time of the missile. Because of this, the operator is vulnerable while guiding the missile. The first system to become operational and to see combat was the French Nord SS.10 during the early 1950s. It entered service in the French Army in 1955. It was also the first anti-tank missile used by the US Army and Israeli Defense Forces.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: The Malkara missile (named from an Australian Aborigine word for "shield") was one of the earliest anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). It was jointly developed by Australia and the United Kingdom between 1951 and 1954, and was in service from 1958 until gradually replaced by the Vickers Vigilant missile in the late 1960s. It was intended to be light enough to deploy with airborne forces, yet powerful enough to knock out any tank then in service. It used a high-explosive squash head (HESH) warhead.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Second-generation semi-automatically command guided to line-of-sight, or semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) missiles require an operator to only keep the sights on the target until impact. Automatic guidance commands are sent to the missile through wires or radio, or the missile relies on laser marking or a TV camera view from the nose of the missile. Examples are the Russian 9M133 Kornet, Israeli LAHAT, the NLOS version of Spike, and the American Hellfire I missiles. The operator must remain stationary during the missile's flight.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Third-generation "fire-and-forget" missiles rely on a laser, electro-optical imager (IIR) seeker or a W band radar seeker in the nose of the missile. Once the target is identified, the missile needs no further guidance during flight; it is "fire-and-forget", and the missile operator is free to retreat. However, fire-and-forget missiles are more subject to electronic countermeasures than MCLOS and SACLOS missiles. Examples include the German PARS 3 LR and the Israeli Spike.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Most modern ATGMs have shaped charge HEAT warheads, designed specifically for penetrating tank armor. Tandem-charge missiles attempt to defeat explosive reactive armour (ERA): the small initial charge sets off the ERA while the follow-up main charge attempts to penetrate the main armor. Top-attack weapons such as the US Javelin, the Swedish Bill and the Indian Nag, HELINA / Dhruvastra and MPATGM are designed to strike vehicles from above, where their armor is usually much weaker.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Fourth generation fire-and-forget anti tank guided missiles have larger range and rely on a combination of seeker for guidance. Examples include India's SANT, which has a stand-off range of , uses dual seeker configuration of electro-optical thermal imager (EO/IR) and millimeter-wave active radar homing for control and guidance with lock-on before launch and lock-on after launch capabilities.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Some ATGMs, notably the French Akeron MP and the latest variants of the Israeli Spike (such as the Spike LR2 and ER2), have been called "5th generation" by their manufacturers and marketed as such. They appear to have the following additional or amplified attributes:


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Countermeasures against ATGMs include newer armors such as spaced, perforated, composite or explosive reactive armor, jammers like the Russian Shtora, active protection systems (APS) like the Israeli Trophy and the Russian Arena, and other methods.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Armor systems have continued in development alongside ATGMs, and the most recent generations of armor are specifically tested to be effective against ATGM strikes, either by deforming the missile warhead or fusing to prevent proper detonation (such as in slat armor) or using some form of reactive armor to 'attack' the missile upon impact, disrupting the shaped charge that makes the warhead effective. Both come with the downside of significant weight and bulk. Reactive armor works best when a vehicle is specifically designed with the system integrated and while developments continue to make armor lighter, any vehicle that includes such a system necessitates a powerful engine and often will still be relatively slow. Inclusion of such armor in older vehicles as a part of a re-design is possible, as in the numerous types derived from the T-72. Slat armor is lighter and as such can be added to many vehicles after construction but still adds both bulk and weight. Particularly for vehicles that are designed to be transported by cargo aircraft, slat armor has to be fitted in the field after deployment. Either approach can never offer complete coverage over the vehicle, leaving tracks or wheels particularly vulnerable to attack.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Jamming is potentially an effective countermeasure to specific missiles that are radar guided, however, as a general purpose defense, it is of no use against unguided anti-tank weapons, and as such it is almost never the only defense. If jamming is used continually, it can be extremely difficult for a missile to acquire the target, locking on to the much larger return from the jammer, with the operator unlikely noticing the difference without a radar screen to see the return. However, any missile that has a backup tracking system can defeat jamming.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Active protection systems show a great deal of promise, both in counteracting ATGMs and unguided weapons. Compared to armor systems, they are very lightweight, can be fitted to almost any vehicle with the internal space for the control system and could, in the future, be a near-perfect defense against any missiles. The weaknesses of the systems include potential developments in missile design such as radar or IR decoys, which would drastically reduce their chance to intercept a missile, as well as technical challenges such as dealing with multiple missiles at once and designing a system that can cover a vehicle from any angle of attack. While these may be answered and allow for lightweight, highly maneuverable vehicles that are strongly defended against missiles and rockets that are extremely well suited for urban and guerrilla warfare. However, such a system is unlikely to be as effective against kinetic energy projectiles, making it a poor choice for fighting against tanks. As kinetic energy projectiles move faster than guided missiles. This often means that the sensors attached to an active protection system can't keep up. Testing in 2007 showed that explosive reactive armor, fitted to a T-72 had no impact on a missile fitted with a kinetic energy projectiles.


title: Anti-tank guided missile

text: Traditionally, before "fire-and-forget" ATGMs were used, the most effective countermeasure was to open fire at the location where the missile was fired from, to either kill the operator or force them to take cover, thus sending the missile off course. Smoke screens can also be deployed from an MBT's smoke discharger, and used to obscure an ATGM operator's line of sight. Other improvised methods used by the Israelis to defeat the Saggers involved firing in front of the tank to create dust. While fire-and-forget missiles have definitive advantages in terms of guidance and operator safety, and include abilities such as top attack mode, older missiles continue in use, both in the front line armies of less developed countries, and in reserve service the world over, due to their lower cost or existing stockpiles of less advanced weapons.


title: Blade (franchise)

text: Blade is a film and television franchise based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, starring Wesley Snipes as Blade in the original trilogy, and Sticky Fingaz in the . The original trilogy was directed by Stephen Norrington, Guillermo del Toro and David S. Goyer, the latter of whom also wrote the films and served as a co-writer for the first and last two episodes of the television series. The original films and television series were distributed by New Line Cinema from 1998 to 2006.


title: Blade (franchise)

text: The character was created in 1973 for Marvel Comics by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan as a supporting character in the 1970s comic "The Tomb of Dracula". In the comic, Blade's mother was bitten by a vampire while she was in labor with Blade, rendering him immune to being turned into a vampire; following the release of "Blade"; the character was retroactively made into a dhampir and redesigned to match his film counterpart. A reboot within the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is expected to be released on September 6, 2024 as part of , with Mahershala Ali in the title role.


title: Blade (franchise)

text: Blade grows up to become a vampire hunter, swearing vengeance on the creatures that killed his mother. He teams up with a man called Whistler, a retired vampire hunter and weapons expert.


title: Blade (franchise)

text: Meanwhile, in the urban underworld, a feud is started between "pure-blood" vampires and those who had been human, but were "turned". Blade becomes aware of this and investigates further, uncovering a plot to raise the blood god La Magra, something he must stop at all costs.


title: Blade (franchise)

text: A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community. "Reapers" are vampires so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans, transforming victims who are unlucky enough to survive into Reapers themselves. Now their quickly expanding population threatens the existence of vampires, and soon there won't be enough humans in the world to satisfy their bloodlust. Blade, Whistler and an armory expert named Scud are curiously summoned by the Shadow Council. The council reluctantly admits that they are in a dire situation and they require Blade's assistance. Blade then tenuously enters into an alliance with The Bloodpack, an elite team of vampires who were trained in all modes of combat to defeat Blade. They'll use their skills instead to help wipe out the Reaper threat. Blade's team and the Bloodpack are the only line of defense which can prevent the Reaper population from wiping out the vampire and human populations.


title: Blade (franchise)

text: In the final installment of the series, the vampires succeed in framing Blade for the killing of a human (who was in fact a familiar being used as bait). Blade, now in the public's eye and wanted by the FBI, is forced to join forces with the Nightstalkers, a human clan of vampire hunters. Blade, Hannibal King, and Abigail Whistler go after Danica Talos, who has succeeded in locating and resurrecting Drake, also known as Dracula, the first vampire and by far the most powerful. In order to stop him, Blade has to release a virus that will wipe out all vampires, but being a dhampir, he must face the possibility of also dying as a result.


title: Blade (franchise)

text: In October 2008, "Blade" director Stephen Norrington was confirmed to be developing a prequel trilogy to "Blade", featuring Stephen Dorff reprising his role as Deacon Frost. However, by August 2012, the film rights to Blade had reverted to Marvel Studios.