Anatomy and appearance.

The largest member of the family, the stone triggerfish ("Pseudobalistes naufragium") reaches, but most species have a maximum length between.  Triggerfish have an oval-shaped, highly compressed body. The head is large, terminating in a small but strong- jawed mouth with teeth adapted for crushing shells. The eyes are small, set far back from the mouth, at the top of the head. The anterior dorsal fin is reduced to a set of three spines. The first spine is stout and by far the longest. All three are normally retracted into a groove. Characteristic of the order Tetraodontiformes, the anal and posterior dorsal fins are capable of undulating from side to side to provide slow movement and comprise their primary mode of propulsion. The sickle-shaped caudal fin is used only to escape predators.  The two pelvic fins are overlaid by skin for most of their length and fused to form a single spine, terminated by very short rays, their only external evidence. Gill plates (opercula), although present, are also not visible, overlaid by the tough skin, covered with rough, rhomboid scales that form a stout armor on their bodies. The only gill opening is a vertical slit, directly above the pectoral fins. This peculiar covering of the gill plates is shared with other members of the Tetradontae. Each jaw contains a row of four teeth on either side, while the upper jaw contains an additional set of six plate-like pharyngeal teeth.  As a protection against predators, triggerfish can erect the first two dorsal spines: The first (anterior) spine is locked in place by erection of the short second spine, and can be unlocked only by depressing the second, “trigger” spine, hence the family name “triggerfish”.  With the exception of a few species from the genus "Xanthichthys", the sexes of all species in this family are similar in appearance.

Behavior.

The rather bizarre anatomy of the triggerfishes reflects their typical diet of slow-moving, bottom dwelling crustaceans, mollusks, sea urchins and other echinoderms, generally creatures with protective shells and spines. Many will also take small fishes and some, notably the members of the genus "Melichthys", feed on algae. A few, for example the redtoothed triggerfish ("Odonus niger"), mainly feed on plankton. They are known to exhibit a high level of intelligence for a fish, and have the ability to learn from previous experiences.  Some triggerfish species can be quite aggressive when guarding their eggs. Both the picasso ("Rhinecanthus aculeatus") and titan triggerfish ("Balistoides viridescens") viciously defend their nests against intruders, including scuba divers and snorkelers. Their territory extends in a cone from the nest toward the surface, so swimming upwards can put a diver further into the fishes' territory; a horizontal swim away from the nest site is best when confronted by an angry triggerfish. Unlike the relatively small picasso triggerfish, the titan triggerfish poses a serious threat to inattentive divers due to its large size and powerful teeth.

Male territoriality.

Triggerfish males migrate to their traditional spawning sites prior to mating and establish territories. Some male species (i.e." Balistes carolinensis" and "Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus") build hollow nests within their territories. Triggerfish males are fierce in guarding their territories as having a territory is essential for reproduction. A male's territory is used for spawning and parental care. Most male territories are located over a sandy sea bottom or on a rocky reef. A single territory usually includes more than one female, and the male mates with all of the females residing in or visiting his territory (polygyny). In Hachijojima, Izu Islands, Japan, one male crosshatch triggerfish ("Xanthichthys mento") has up to three females in his territory at the same time, and mates with them in pairs. Each male red-toothed triggerfish ("Odonus niger") mates with more than 10 females in his territory on the same day. Yellow margin triggerfish ("Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus") also exhibit polygyny.

Spawning and biparental care.

Triggerfish spawning is timed in relation to lunar cycles, tides, and time of changeover of tides. In relation to lunar cycles, eggs are observed 2–6 days before the full moon and 3–5 days before the new moon. In relation to tides, spawning happens 1–5 days before the spring tide. In relation to timing of tides, eggs are observed on days when high tides take place around sunset.  Male and female triggerfish perform certain prespawning behaviors: blowing and touching. A male and female blow water on the sandy bottom (usually in the same spot at the same time) and set up their egg site. They touch their abdomens on the bottom as if they are spawning. During actual spawning, eggs are laid on the sandy sea bottom (triggerfish are demersal spawners despite their large size). Eggs are scattered and attached to sand particles. Triggerfish eggs are usually very small (diameter of 0.5–0.6 mm) and are easily spread by waves. After spawning, both the male and female participate in caring for the fertilized eggs (biparental egg care). A female triggerfish stays near the spawning ground, around 5 m off the bottom, and guards the eggs within her territory against intruders. Some common intruders include "Parupeneus multifasciatus, Zanclus cornutus, Prionurus scalprum", and conspecifics. Besides guarding, females roll, fan, and blow water on eggs to provide oxygen to the embryos, thereby inducing hatching. This behavior of female triggerfish is called "tending", and males rarely perform this behavior. A male triggerfish stays farther above the eggs and guards all the females and eggs in his territory. Males exhibit aggressive behaviors against conspecific males near the boundaries of their territories.

Mating systems.

In crosshatch triggerfish ("Xanthichthys mento") and yellow margin triggerfish ("Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus"), eggs are spawned in the morning and they hatch after the sunset on the same day. After hatching of embryos, the female crosshatch triggerfish leaves the male's territory. This mating system is an example of male-territory-visiting polygamy. Triggerfishes exhibit other types of mating systems, as well, such as a nonterritorial-female (NTF) polygyny and territorial-female (TF) polygyny. In NTF polygyny, nonterritorial females stay in the male's territory and reproduce. In TF polygyny, a female owns territory within a male's territory and will spawn in her territory.

Life history.

Triggerfish lay their demersal eggs in a small hole dug in the sea bottom. Off Florida, juveniles of some species of triggerfishes are found in floating "Sargassum", where they feed on the small shrimp, crabs, and mollusks found there.

Edibility.

Some species of triggerfish, such as the titan triggerfish, may be ciguatoxic and should be avoided. Others, however, such as the grey triggerfish ("Balistes capriscus"), are edible.

Triggerfishes are about 40 species of often brightly colored fish of the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest species richness in the Indo-Pacific. Most are found in relatively shallow, coastal habitats, especially at coral reefs, but a few, such as the oceanic triggerfish ("Canthidermis maculata"), are pelagic. While several species from this family are popular in the marine aquarium trade, they are often notoriously ill-tempered.


Taxonomy.

"Apodemus ponticus" is probably a synonym of "Apodemus flavicollis". The former is found in the Soviet Union with the boundary between the two being the political boundary between Russia and Western Europe. For many years direct comparison of the two species was not possible because of political tensions but it is now accepted that they are in reality the same species.

Description.

The yellow-necked mouse is very similar to the wood mouse but differs in having a slightly longer tail and larger ears, and a complete band of yellow fur across the neck area. The adult head and body length is with a tail about as long again, and the weight varies between. The upperparts are brownish-grey, - a rather more brown shade than the wood mouse. The underparts are white and there is a sharp demarcation line between the two colours. This mouse gets its common name from the ochre-coloured patch of fur between its forelegs but this is often inconspicuous. The upperside of juveniles is a rather paler shade of greyish-brown than the adults.

Distribution and habitat.

The yellow-necked mouse is native to Europe and western Asia. Its range includes the more mountainous parts of Western Europe with the exception of northern Scandinavia, southern Spain and western France. This mouse occurs in Great Britain but not in Ireland, and it is also absent from a number of Mediterranean islands. In Asia, its range extends eastward to the Ural Mountains and it is also found in Turkey, Armenia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. It is mostly a woodland species, often living near the forest verge, but in mountainous regions, it occupies any part of the forest. It is usually found in mature deciduous woodland is also found in scrubby areas, hedgerows, orchards and plantations. It favours areas where there are large, nut-bearing trees such as the oak and the hazel. It is also found in parks and gardens and beside alder-fringed streams.

Behaviour.

The yellow-necked mouse is active all year round and does not hibernate. Sometimes several mice will huddle together during the winter to preserve heat. It is an excellent climber and scrambles around in trees and bushes. It lives in crevices, burrows at the base of trees, holes in tree trunks, hollow logs and bird nesting boxes and sometimes enters buildings. The burrows are often extensive with many entrances and complex layouts. It makes extensive stores of food such as acorns and beechmast in storage chambers and uses other chambers for nesting, bringing in dry plant material for this purpose. There are often mounds of earth outside the entrances to the burrow. It also makes larders of food in holes in trees away from the burrow. The shade is very dense under a beech tree in summer and it has been found that beech nuts hidden in caches by the yellow-necked mouse, and not subsequently eaten, can later germinate and help with dispersal of the parent tree.  The yellow-necked mouse is nocturnal. It is active on the ground and in the tree canopy and has a home range rather smaller than half a hectare. Besides nuts, it feeds on buds, shoots, fruit, seedling plants and sometimes small invertebrates. Breeding takes place at any time between February and October with successive pregnancies occurring at short intervals. The gestation period is about twenty six days and females can remate while still feeding the previous litter. A litter of young is born in a nesting chamber lined with dry plant material and consists of two to eleven (usually five) altricial young born naked, blind and helpless. The eyes of the young open after about a fortnight and their yellow collars are visible by then as grey patches. They are weaned at about eighteen days old. If they are born early in the year, they may start breeding in the same year, but late-born young become sexually mature in the following spring.  The yellow-necked mouse is preyed on by owls, foxes, weasels and other predators. It can leap to evade attackers and the skin of its tail is readily detachable and slides off if grasped by a predator.

Research.

It has been found that the yellow-necked mouse can transmit the virus causing tick-borne encephalitis while being immune to the virus itself. It has also been found that the yellow-necked mouse together with the striped field mouse ("Apodemus agrarius") are the natural reservoir for a Orthohantavirus, the Dobrava virus, which causes a severe form of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in humans.

Status.

The yellow-necked mouse has a very wide range and is common in suitable habitat within that range. In Eastern Europe, densities of up to a hundred individuals per hectare have been recorded. The population is stable and this species faces no specific threats so the IUCN has listed it as being of "Least Concern" in its Red List of Threatened Species.

The yellow-necked mouse ("Apodemus flavicollis"), also called yellow-necked field mouse, yellow-necked wood mouse, and South China field mouse, is closely related to the wood mouse, with which it was long confused. It was only recognised as a separate species in 1894. It differs in its band of yellow fur around the neck and in having slightly larger ears and usually being slightly larger overall. Around 100 mm in length, it can climb trees and sometimes overwinters in houses. It is found mostly in mountainous areas of southern Europe, but extends north into parts of Scandinavia and Britain. It facilitates the spread of tick-borne encephalitis to humans and is a reservoir species for the Dobrava virus, a hantavirus that is responsible for causing haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.


Structure and occurrence.

Allicin features the thiosulfinate functional group, R-S(O)-S-R. The compound is not present in garlic unless tissue damage occurs, and is formed by the action of the enzyme alliinase on alliin. Allicin is chiral but occurs naturally only as a racemate. The racemic form can also be generated by oxidation of diallyl disulfide:  Alliinase is irreversibly deactivated below pH 3; as such, allicin is generally not produced in the body from the consumption of fresh or powdered garlic. Furthermore, allicin can be unstable, breaking down within 16 hours at 23 °C.

Biosynthesis.

The biosynthesis of allicin commences with the conversion of cysteine into S-allyl-L-cysteine. Oxidation of this thioether gives the sulfoxide (alliin). The enzyme alliinase, which contains pyridoxal phosphate (PLP), cleaves alliin, generating allylsulfenic acid (CH=CHCHSOH), pyruvate, and ammonium ions. At room temperature, two molecules of allylsulfenic acid condense to form allicin.

Research.

Allicin has been studied for its potential to treat various kinds of multiple drug resistance bacterial infections, as well as viral and fungal infections in vitro, but as of 2016, the safety and efficacy of allicin to treat infections in people was unclear.  In a small clinical trial, a daily high dose of extracted allicin (20 times the amount in a garlic clove) showed effectiveness to prevent the common cold. A Cochrane review found this to be insufficient to draw conclusions.

History.

Allicin was discovered as part of efforts to create thiamine derivatives in the 1940s, mainly in Japan. Allicin became a model for medicinal chemistry efforts to create other thiamine disulfides. The results included sulbutiamine, fursultiamine (thiamine tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide) and benfothiamine. These compounds are hydrophobic, easily pass from the intestines to the bloodstream, and are reduced to thiamine by cysteine or glutathione.

Allicin is an organosulfur compound obtained from garlic, a species in the family Alliaceae. It was first isolated and studied in the laboratory by Chester J. Cavallito and John Hays Bailey in 1944. When fresh garlic is chopped or crushed, the enzyme alliinase converts alliin into allicin, which is responsible for the aroma of fresh garlic. The allicin generated is unstable and quickly changes into a series of other sulfur-containing compounds such as diallyl disulfide. Allicin is part of a defense mechanism against attacks by pests on the garlic plant.


History.

The genus "Micromys" most likely evolved in Asia and is closely related to the long-tailed climbing mouse ("Vandeleuria") and the pencil-tailed tree mouse ("Chiropodomys"). "Micromys" first emerged in the fossil record in the late Pliocene, with "Micromys minutus" being recorded from the Early Pleistocene in Germany. They underwent a reduction in range during glacial periods, and were confined to areas in Europe that were free of ice. During the mid-Pleistocene, "Micromys minutus" specimens also lived in parts of Asia.. This suggests that they spread towards Asia when the ice sheets started to melt. Other evidence suggests that "Micromys minutus" could have been introduced accidentally through agricultural activities during Neolithic times.  Before the harvest mouse had been formally described, Gilbert White believed they were an undescribed species, and reported their nests in Selborne, Hampshire:  They never enter into houses; are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves; abound in harvest; and build their nests amidst the straws of the corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They breed as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nest composed of the blades or grass or wheat. One of these nests I procured this autumn, most artificially platted, and composed of the blades of wheat; perfectly round, and about the size of a cricket-ball. It was so compact and well-filled, that it would roll across the table without being discomposed, though it contained eight little mice that were naked and blind.  Although the harvest mouse was first formally reported by Gilbert White, it was first reported in 1768 by Thomas Pennant.  Conservation efforts have taken place in Britain since 2001. Tennis balls used in play at Wimbledon have been recycled to create artificial nests for harvest mice in an attempt to help the species avoid predation and recover from near-threatened status.

Description.

The harvest mouse ranges from long, and its tail from long; it weighs from, or about half the weight of the house mouse ("Mus musculus"). Its eyes and ears are relatively large. It has a small nose, with short, stubble-like whiskers, and thick, soft fur, somewhat thicker in winter than in summer.  The upper part of the body is brown, sometimes with a yellow or red tinge; the under-parts range from white to cream coloured. It has a prehensile tail which is usually bicoloured and furless at the tip. The mouse's rather broad feet are adapted specifically for climbing, with a somewhat opposable, large outermost toe, allowing it to grip stems with each hindfoot and its tail, thus freeing the mouse's forepaws for food collection. Its tail is also used for balance.

Ecology.

Habitat and distribution.

The harvest mouse is common in all east coast counties of England, reaching the North York Moors. It also inhabits less favourable habitats, such as woodlands and forests in the west.  Harvest mice reside in a large variety of habitats, from hedgerows to railway banks. Harvest mice seem to have an affinity for all types of cereal heads, except for maize ("Zea mays"). Harvest mice typically like using monocotyledons for their nest-building, especially the common reed ("Phragmites australis") and Siberian iris "Iris sibirica". Most harvest mice prefer wetlands for their nesting habitats..  Harvest mice in Japan like making wintering nests near the ground from grasses that are dried, which indicates that they require vegetative cover in the winter, as well as in the warmer seasons. Grasslands with a mix of perennials and annual grasses are required to balance the increases in nesting periods and the mice's need to secure nutrients. Habitat selection might be the result of differences in the structure of the landscape of grasslands and wetlands in the area.

Behaviour.

Harvest mice are very skilled at climbing among grasses due to their short lactation period of 15-16 days.. They spend most of their life in long grass and other vegetation such as reedbeds, rushes, ditches, cereals and legumes. They grasp leaves and stems with their feet and tail, which leaves their hands free for other tasks. These tasks can include grooming and feeding. Harvest mice have a prehensile tail that functions as an extra limb during climbing. During the lactation period, the pups are able to climb a vertical bar by the time they first emerge from their nest. At 3-7 days they learn hand grasping, and at 6-9 days they learn food grasping. Between 6-11 days, they adopt a quadrupedal stance, and at 10-11 there is tail prehension, and righting at 10-12 days. The righting response in harvest mice develops earlier, but takes longer to master than the other skills the pups learn. They cannot climb horizontally by the time they are weaned, suggesting that horizontal climbing is not as essential as vertical climbing.

Predators.

Their predators include domesticated cats, barn owls, tawny owls, long-eared owls, little owls, and kestrels.

Reproduction.

In most rodent species, females prefer familiar males to unfamiliar ones. The adaptive preference of mating with familiar males is not uncommon as familiarity is a proxy for quality that is seen in many solitary animals.. Harvest mice are thought to be solitary, and the preference for familiar males over unfamiliar is a mechanism for inbreeding avoidance. There is no size dimorphism between the sexes so the females are considered dominant over the males. Females do not show interest in the male's odor. When females are in oestrus they spend more time with familiar males, and prefer the one that is heavier. While in dioestrus, the female spends more time with unfamiliar males.  In most years in Britain, harvest mice build their first breeding nests in June or July; occasional nests are built earlier in April or early May. They prefer building their breeding nests above ground. In Russia, harvest mouse breeding occurs in November and December in cereal ricks, buckwheat, and other cereal heads.

Conservation.

Due to their habitat, harvest mice are threatened by a number of anthropogenic effects such as farming, pesticide use, crop rotation, habitat destruction, fragmentation, and wetland draining. Grasslands in Japan are rapidly decreasing in area, and are also becoming increasingly fragmented. Urbanisation rate is another parameter for habitat destruction; in areas that are being urbanised more quickly, other species in the area will be forced into smaller areas. Spatial relationships between habitat patches are becoming increasingly important in these areas.  Small salamanders require stagnant water in unsuitable habitats in more urban areas and since harvest mice have a similar ability to disperse, there is a risk that they may be forced to adapt to such environments when their preferred habitat is absent in the future.  The first survey of the harvest mouse in Britain was conducted by the Mammal Society in the 1970s. and later followed up by the National Harvest Mouse survey in the late 1990s. These surveys indicated that harvest mouse nests were on a decline with 85% of the suitable habitat no longer available for the mice.  Due to their declining population, the harvest mouse is currently protected under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework: Implementation Plan and the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981.

The harvest mouse ("Micromys minutus") is a small rodent native to Europe and Asia. It is typically found in fields of cereal crops, such as wheat and oats, in reed beds and in other tall ground vegetation, such as long grass and hedgerows. It has reddish-brown fur with white underparts and a naked, highly prehensile tail, which it uses for climbing. It is the smallest European rodent; an adult may weigh as little as. It eats chiefly seeds and insects, but also nectar and fruit. Breeding nests are spherical constructions carefully woven from grass and attached to stems well above the ground.


Mission summary.

STS-7 began on June 18, 1983, with an on-time liftoff at 7:33 am EDT. It was the first spaceflight of an American woman (Sally K. Ride), the largest crew to fly in a single spacecraft up to that time (five people), and the first flight that included members of NASA's Group 8 astronaut class, which had been selected in 1978 to fly the Space Shuttle. President Ronald Reagan also sent his personal favourite Jelly Belly jelly beans with the astronauts, making them the first jelly beans in space.  The crew of STS-7 included Robert L. Crippen, commander, making his second Shuttle flight; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman Thagard, all mission specialists. Thagard conducted medical tests concerning Space Adaptation Syndrome, a bout of nausea frequently experienced by astronauts during the early phase of a space flight.  Two communications satellites – Anik C2 for Telesat of Canada, and Palapa B1 for Indonesia – were successfully deployed during the first two days of the mission. The mission also carried the first Shuttle Pallet Satellite, SPAS-1, which was built by the West German aerospace firm Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm. SPAS-1 was unique in that it was designed to operate in the payload bay or be deployed by the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) as a free-flying satellite. It carried 10 experiments to study formation of metal alloys in microgravity, the operation of heat pipes, instruments for remote sensing observations, and a mass spectrometer to identify various gases in the payload bay. It was deployed by the RMS and flew alongside and over "Challenger" for several hours, performing various maneuvers, while a U.S.-supplied camera mounted on SPAS-1 took pictures of the orbiter. The RMS later grappled the pallet and returned it to the payload bay.  STS-7 also carried seven GAS canisters, which contained a wide variety of experiments, as well as the OSTA-2 payload, a joint U.S.-West German scientific pallet payload. Finally, the orbiter's K-band antenna was able to relay data through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to a ground terminal for the first time.  STS-7 was scheduled to make the first Shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center's then-new Shuttle Landing Facility. However, unacceptable weather forced a change to Runway 15 at Edwards AFB. The landing took place on June 24, 1983, at 6:57 am PDT. The mission lasted 6 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 59 seconds, and covered about 2.2 million miles during 97 orbits of the Earth. "Challenger" was returned to KSC on June 29.

Incidents.

STS-7 experienced the first known External Tank bipod ramp foam shedding event during launch. This was the root cause of the eventual loss of "Columbia" during STS-107 almost two decades later.  While "Challenger" was on-orbit, one of its windows was damaged non-critically by space debris.

Mission insignia.

The seven white stars in the black field of the mission patch, as well as the arm extending from the shuttle in the shape of a 7, indicate the flight's numerical designation in the Space Transportation System's mission sequence. The five-armed symbol on the right side illustrates the four male/one female crew.

Wake-up calls.

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. Each track is specially chosen, often by the astronauts' families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.

STS-7 was NASA's seventh Space Shuttle mission, and the second mission for the Space Shuttle "Challenger". During the mission, "Challenger" deployed several satellites into orbit. The shuttle launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 18, 1983, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on June 24. STS-7 was notable for carrying Sally Ride, America's first female astronaut.


Early life.

He was born to a family of small nobility in Grenade-sur-Garonne, Languedoc. After a "roturier" appointment in the grenadier corps of the Aquitaine Regiment, he retired to his estate. Pérignon welcomed the French Revolution, and gained a seat in the Legislative Assembly (1791), where he sat on the Right, but soon resigned and made his military career during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Revolutionary Wars.

In 1793-1795 he held commands in the "Army of the Eastern Pyrenees", defeating the Spanish troops at the battle of Escola with "a sombre kind of energy". He succeeded Jacques François Dugommier as army commander after that general's death at the Battle of the Black Mountain. He successfully concluded the Siege of Roses in early 1795. In 1796, he was elected by Haute-Garonne to the Council of Five Hundred. He became the French Directory's ambassador to Spain, concluding the Treaty of San Ildefonso against the Kingdom of Great Britain.  He was then involved in a smuggling affair and compromised with a young woman who was a Royalist spy. In 1798 Perignon was recalled and remanded to the Army in Liguria where he was assigned to command the left wing. Wounded and captured by Second Coalition armies at the Battle of Novi, he returned to France in 1800.

Empire and Restoration.

Pérignon was a supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte, was made senator (1801), Marshal (1804) and count of the French Empire; in 1805, he received the Legion of Honor. From September 18, 1806 to July 23, 1808, he was the Governor-general of the Duchy of Parma. Later moved to the Kingdom of Naples, Pérignon, recently ennobled, became a close acquaintance of the royal couple (King Joachim Murat and Caroline Bonaparte).  He returned to France in 1814 and rallied to the Bourbon Restoration and Louis XVIII - he was stricken off the list of Marshals during the Hundred Days, and voted in favor of the death penalty for Michel Ney. He was raised to "marquis de Grenade", a Peer of France and awarded the Order of Saint Louis. As Dr. George Ostermann commented, "M. de Perigon died as if the Empire he served well, though reluctantly, had never existed."

Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon, 1st Marquis of Grenade (31 May 1754 – 25 December 1818) was a Marshal of the Empire.


Design.

"Panther" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. "Panther" could steam at a top speed of at. The ship had a cruising radius of about at a speed of. She had a crew of 9 officers and 121 enlisted men. "Panther" was armed with a main battery of two SK L/40 guns, with 482 rounds of ammunition. She also carried six machine guns.

Service history.

"Panther" was laid down at the "Kaiserliche Werft" (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in 1900. She was launched on 1 April 1901 and was commissioned into the German fleet on 15 March 1902.  In September 1902, after the Haitian rebel ship "Crête-à-Pierrot" hijacked the German steamer "Markomannia" and seized weapons destined for the Haitian government, Germany sent "Panther" to Haiti. "Panther" found the rebel ship. The rebel Admiral Killick evacuated his crew and blew up "Crête-à-Pierrot", which was by then under fire from "Panther". There were concerns about how the United States would view the action in the context of the Monroe Doctrine. But despite legal advice describing the sinking as "illegal and excessive", the US State Department endorsed the action. The "New York Times" declared that "Germany was quite within its rights in doing a little housecleaning on her own account".  Some months later, in December 1902, the "Panther" was in the German naval contingent during the Naval Blockade of Venezuela, during which she bombarded the settlement of Fort San Carlos, near Maracaibo. The shallow waters that connected lake Maracaibo with the sea were passable for major ships only in the strait that separated San Carlos from the island of Zapara, yet even there it needed the help of a local pilot to avoid the sand banks and shallow waters of the passage. The battle started when the fort's gunners opened fire as "Panther" was crossing the bar. "Panther" returned fire, but the shallow waters limited its effectiveness. Inside the fort, two gunners (Manuel Quevedo and Carlos José Cárdenas) managed to score several hits on "Panther" with their 80-millimeter Krupp gun, causing considerable damage. After half an hour of exchanging fire, the Germans retreated.  In 1905, "Panther" was sent to the Brazilian Port of Itajahy, where its crew conducted an unauthorized search in their pursuit of a German deserter by the name of Hassman. They ended up kidnapping, inexplicably, the German Fritz Steinhoff. This incident became known as the "Panther Affair" (""Caso Panther"").

Agadir Crisis.

"Panther" became notorious in 1911 when it was deployed to the Moroccan port of Agadir during the "Agadir Crisis" (also called the "Second Moroccan Crisis"). "Panther" was supposedly sent to protect German citizens in the port. (A German sales representative, Hermann Wilberg, had been sent to Agadir on behalf of the Foreign office, but only arrived three days after "Panther".) The ship's actual mission was to apply pressure on the French, as the latter attempted to colonize Morocco, to extract territorial compensation in French Equatorial Africa. This was an example of "gunboat diplomacy". The incident contributed to the international tensions that would lead to the First World War.  The ship was scrapped in 1931.

SMS "Panther" was one of six "Iltis"-class gunboats of the Kaiserliche Marine and, like its sister ships, served in Germany's overseas colonies. The ship was launched on 1 April 1901 in the Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig. It had a crew of 9 officers and 121 men.


Etymology.

Concerning the dormouse's name, etymonline says "long-tailed Old World rodent noted for its state of semi-hibernation in winter, early 15c., possibly from Anglo-French "dormouse" 'tending to be dormant' (from stem of "dormir" 'to sleep,' see "dormant"), with the second element mistaken for "mouse"; or perhaps it is from a Middle English dialectal compound of "mouse" (n.) and Middle French "dormir". French "dormeuse", fem. of "dormeur"'sleeper' is attested only from 17c."

Characteristics.

Dormice are small rodents, with body lengths between, and weights between. They are generally mouse-like in appearance, but with furred, rather than scaly, tails. They are largely arboreal, agile, and well adapted to climbing. Most species are nocturnal. Dormice have an excellent sense of hearing and signal each other with a variety of vocalisations.  Dormice are omnivorous, and typically feed on berries, flowers, fruits, insects, and nuts. They are unique among rodents in that they lack a cecum, a part of the gut used in other species to ferment vegetable matter. Their dental formula is similar to that of squirrels, although they often lack premolars:  Dormice breed once or occasionally twice each year, producing litters with an average of four young after a gestation period of 22–24 days. They can live for as long as five years. The young are born hairless and helpless, and their eyes do not open until about 18 days after birth. They typically become sexually mature after the end of their first hibernation. Dormice live in small family groups, with home ranges that vary widely between species and depend on the availability of food.

Hibernation.

One of the most notable characteristics of those dormice that live in temperate zones is hibernation. They can hibernate six months out of the year, or even longer if the weather does not become warm enough, sometimes waking for brief periods to eat food they had previously stored nearby. During the summer, they accumulate fat in their bodies to nourish them through the hibernation period.  The sleepy behaviour of The Dormouse character in Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" reflects this familiar trait of dormice.

Relationship with humans.

The edible dormouse ("Glis glis") was considered a delicacy in ancient Rome, either as a savoury appetizer or as a dessert (dipped in honey and poppy seeds). The Romans used a special kind of enclosure, a glirarium, to raise and fatten dormice for the table. It is still considered a delicacy in Slovenia and in several places in Croatia, namely Lika, and the islands of Hvar and Brač. Dormouse fat was believed by the Elizabethans to induce sleep since the animal put on fat before hibernating.  In more recent years dormice have begun to enter the pet trade, though they are uncommon as pets and are considered an exotic pet. The woodland dormouse ("Graphiurus murinus)" is the most commonly seen species in the pet trade. Asian garden dormice ("Eliomys melanurus") are also occasionally kept as pets.

Evolution.

The Gliridae are one of the oldest extant rodent families, with a fossil record dating back to the early Eocene. As currently understood, they descended in Europe from early Paleogene ischyromyids such as "Microparamys" ("Sparnacomys") "chandoni". The early and middle Eocene genus "Eogliravus" represents the earliest and most primitive glirid taxon; the oldest species, "Eogliravus wildi", is known from isolated teeth from the early Eocene of France and a complete specimen of the early middle Eocene of the Messel pit in Germany. They appear in Africa in the upper Miocene and only relatively recently in Asia. Many types of extinct dormouse species have been identified. During the Pleistocene, giant dormice the size of large rats, such as "Leithia melitensis", lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily.

Classification.

The family consists of 29 living species, in three subfamilies and (arguably) nine genera:  Family Gliridae – Dormice

A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and are particularly known for their long periods of hibernation.


Early life.

Richard Wurmbrand, the youngest of four boys, was born in 1909 in Bucharest in a Jewish family. He lived with his family in Istanbul for a short while; his father died when he was 9, and the Wurmbrands returned to Romania when he was 15.  As an adolescent, he was sent to study Marxism in Moscow, but returned clandestinely the following year. Pursued by Siguranţa Statului (the secret police), he was arrested and held in Doftana prison. When returning to his mother country, Wurmbrand was already an important Comintern agent, leader and coordinator directly paid from Moscow. Like other Romanian communists he was arrested several times, then sentenced and released again.  He married Sabina Oster on October 26, 1936. Wurmbrand and his wife (known as Bintzea to her friends) converted to Christianity in 1938 due to the witness of Christian Wolfkes, a Romanian Christian carpenter; they joined the Anglican Church's Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ UK). Wurmbrand was ordained twice – first as an Anglican, then, after World War II, as a Lutheran minister. In 1944, when the Soviet Union occupied Romania as the first step to establishing a communist regime, Wurmbrand began a ministry to his Romanian countrymen and to Red Army soldiers. When the government attempted to control churches, he immediately began an "underground" ministry to his people. Richard is remembered for his courage in standing up in a gathering of church leaders and denouncing government control of the churches. He was arrested on February 29, 1948, while on his way to church services.

Imprisonments.

Wurmbrand, who passed through the penal facilities of Craiova, Gherla, the Danube–Black Sea Canal, Văcăreşti prison, Malmaison, Cluj, and ultimately Jilava, spent three years in solitary confinement. This confinement was in a cell twelve feet underground, with no lights or windows. There was no sound because even the guards wore felt on the soles of their shoes. He later recounted that he maintained his sanity by sleeping during the day, staying awake at night, and exercising his mind and soul by composing and then delivering a sermon each night. Due to his extraordinary memory, he was able to recall more than 350 of those, a selection of which he included in his book "With God in Solitary Confinement", which was first published in 1969. During part of this time, he communicated with other inmates by tapping out Morse code on the wall. In this way he continued to "be sunlight" to fellow inmates rather than dwell on the lack of physical light.  Wurmbrand was released from his first imprisonment in 1956, after eight and a half years. Although he was warned not to preach, he resumed his work in the underground church. He was arrested again in 1959 and sentenced to 25 years. During his imprisonment, he was beaten and tortured. Physical torture included mutilation, burning and being locked in a large frozen icebox.. His body bore the scars of physical torture for the rest of his life. For example, he later recounted having the soles of his feet beaten until the flesh was torn off, then the next day beaten again to the bone. This prolific writer said there were not words to describe that pain.  During his first imprisonment, Wurmbrand's supporters were unable to gain information about him; later they found out that a false name had been used in the prison records so that no one could trace his whereabouts. Members of the Secret police visited Sabina posing as released fellow prisoners. They claimed to have attended her husband's funeral in prison. During his second imprisonment, his wife Sabina was given official news of his death, which she did not believe. Sabina herself had been arrested in 1950 and spent three years in penal labour on the canal. Sabina's autobiographical account of this time is titled "The Pastor's Wife". Their only son, Mihai, by then a young adult, was expelled from college-level studies at three institutions because his father was a political prisoner; an attempt to obtain permission to emigrate to Norway to avoid compulsory service in the Communist army was unsuccessful.  Eventually, Wurmbrand was a recipient of an amnesty in 1964. Concerned with the possibility that Wurmbrand would be forced to undergo further imprisonment, the Norwegian Mission to the Jews and the Hebrew Christian Alliance negotiated with Communist authorities for his release from Romania for $10,000 (though the going rate for political prisoners was $1,900). He was convinced by underground church leaders to leave and become a voice for the persecuted church. He devoted the rest of his life to this effort, despite warnings and death threats.  He was a friend of Costache Ioanid, the Romanian Christian poet.

Achievements, influence and death.

Wurmbrand travelled to Norway, England, and then the United States. In May, 1966, he testified in Washington, D.C., before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee. That testimony, in which he took off his shirt in front of TV cameras to show the scars of his torture, brought him to public attention. He became known as "The Voice of the Underground Church," doing much to publicise the persecution of Christians in Communist countries. He compiled circumstantial evidence that Marx was a satanist.  In April 1967, the Wurmbrands formed Jesus to the Communist World (later renamed The Voice of the Martyrs), an interdenominational organisation working initially with and for persecuted Christians in Communist countries, but later expanding its activities to help persecuted believers in other places, especially in the Muslim world.  In 1990, Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand returned to Romania for the first time in 25 years. The Voice of the Martyrs opened a printing facility and bookstore in Bucharest. The new mayor of Bucharest had offered a storage space for the books under former dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's palace – where Richard had spent years in confinement, praying for a ministry to his homeland. Wurmbrand engaged in preaching with local ministers of nearly all denominations.  Wurmbrand wrote 18 books in English and others in Romanian. His best-known book, titled "Tortured for Christ", was published in 1967. In several of them he wrote very boldly and emphatically against Communism; yet he maintained a hope and compassion even for those who tortured him by "looking at men... not as they are, but as they will be... I could also see in our persecutors. a future Apostle Paul... (and) the jailer in Philippi who became a convert." Wurmbrand last lived in Palos Verdes, California.  He died at the age of 91 on February 17, 2001 in a hospital in Torrance, California. His wife, Sabina, had died six months earlier on August 11, 2000. In 2006, he was voted fifth among the greatest Romanians according to the "Mari Români" poll.

Richard Wurmbrand, also known as Nicolai Ionescu (March 24, 1909 – February 17, 2001) was a Romanian evangelical Christian minister of Jewish descent. In 1948, having become a Christian 10 years before, he publicly said Communism and Christianity were incompatible. As a result, he experienced imprisonment and torture by the then Communist regime of Romania, for his beliefs. After serving a total of fourteen years, he was ransomed for $10,000. His colleagues in Romania urged him to leave the country and work for religious freedom from a location less personally dangerous. After spending time in Norway and England, he and his wife Sabina, who had also been imprisoned, emigrated to America and dedicated the rest of their lives to publicizing and helping Christians who are persecuted for their beliefs. He wrote more than 18 books, the most widely known being "Tortured for Christ". Variations of his works have been translated into more than 65 languages. He founded the international organization Voice of the Martyrs, which continues to aid Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith.


Christian beginnings.

The Christian major rogation replaced a pagan Roman procession known as Robigalia, at which a dog was sacrificed to propitiate Robigus, the deity of agricultural disease. The practitioners observing Robigalia asked Robigus for protection of their crops from wheat rust.  The minor Rogation days were introduced around AD 470 by Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, and eventually adopted elsewhere. Their observance was ordered by the Council of Orleans in 511, and though the practice was spreading in Gaul during the 7th century, it was not officially adopted into the Roman rite until the reign of Pope Leo III.  The faithful typically observed the Rogation days by fasting and abstinence in preparation to celebrate the Ascension, and farmers often had their crops blessed by a priest at this time. Violet vestments are worn at the rogation litany and its associated Mass, regardless of what colour is worn at the ordinary liturgies of the day.  A common feature of Rogation days in former times was the ceremony of beating the bounds, in which a procession of parishioners, led by the minister, churchwarden, and choirboys, would proceed around the boundary of their parish and pray for its protection in the forthcoming year. This was also known as 'Gang-day', after the old English name for going or walking. This was also a feature of the original Roman festival, when revellers would walk to a grove five miles from the city to perform their rites.  In traditional Methodist usage, "The Book of Worship for Church and Home" (1965) provides the following as one of the prayers for Rogation days: The reform of the Liturgical Calendar for Latin Roman Catholics in 1969 delegated the establishment of Rogation Days, along with Ember Days, to the episcopal conferences. Their observance in the Latin Church subsequently declined, but the observance has revived somewhat since 1988 (when Pope John Paul II issued his decree "Ecclesia Dei Adflicta") and especially since 2007 (when Pope Benedict XVI issued his "motu proprio" called "Summorum Pontificum") when the use of older rites was encouraged.  In Montier-en-Der, Rogation Day processions were said to be events when miracles occurred. Miracle books reported a blind woman being healed and the lame being able to walk. In Germany it was traditional for the local schoolmaster, rather than priest, to lead the procession.

In the British Isles.

The Rogation Day ceremonies are thought to have arrived in the British Isles in the 7th century.  The oldest known Sarum text regarding Rogation Days is dated from around 1173 to 1220. In it, celebrations in the south of England are described, in which processions were led by members of the congregation carrying banners which represented various biblical characters. At the head of the procession was the dragon, representing Pontius Pilate, which would be followed by a lion, representing Christ. After this there would be images of saints carried by the rest of the congregation. Many torches were present at each procession, weighing between 42 lb (19 kg) and 27 lbs (12 kg), which were bought by the church and parishioners jointly.  Sarum texts from the 13th and 15th centuries show that the dragon was eventually moved to the rear of the procession on the vigil of the Ascension, with the lion taking the place at the front. Illustrations of the procession from the early 16th century show that the arrangements had been changed yet again, this time also showing bearers of reliquaries and incense.  During the reign of King Henry VIII, Rogation processions were used as a way to assist crop yields, with a notable number of the celebrations taking place in 1543 when there were prolonged rains. Even before religious sensibilities turned towards the puritanical, there were concerns about the lack of piety at such events. Robert Herrick penned a piece to capture the mood of the celebrations before their repression:  During the reign of King Edward VI, the Crown having taken much of the Church's holdings within the country, liturgical ceremonies were not officially condoned or recognised as an official part of worship. However, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the celebrations were explicitly mentioned in the royal reformation, allowing them to resume as public processions.  Rogation processions continued in the post-Reformation Church of England much as they had before, and Anglican priests were encouraged to bring their congregations together for inter-parish processions. At specific intervals, clerics were to remind their congregations to be thankful for their harvests. Psalms 103 and 104 were sung, and people were reminded of the curses the Bible ascribed to those who violated agricultural boundaries. The processions were not mandatory, but were at the discretion of the local minister, and were also ascribed more importance when a public right of way needed to be protected from agricultural or other expansion.  The marches would follow prescribed routes, with York and Coventry being unique in their following royal entries. On other routes, altars were erected at certain locations where antiphons were sung.  Any Roman Catholic imagery or icons were banned from the processions. The then Archdeacon of Essex, Grindal of London, besought the church explicitly to label the tradition as a perambulation of the parish boundaries (beating the bounds), further to distance it from Italian liturgy. In the book "Second Tome of Homelys", a volume containing officially sanctioned homilies of the Elizabethan church, it was made clear that the English Rogation was to remember town and other communal boundaries in a social and historical context, with extra emphasis on the stability gained from lawful boundary lines.  For years after Rogation Days were recognised, the manner in which they were observed in reality was very different from the official decree. While it was officially ordered that the entire congregation attend, bishops began urging their priests to invite only older and more pious men. This, they believed, would stop the drunken revelry in those dioceses where Protestantism had yet to take a firm hold. Royal Injunctions concerning the practice were reinterpreted to restrict and regulate participants of the festivities.  In London, Rogation Days, just like Easter or Hocktide, were times when begging was "legitimate" for the period of celebration.  The new, Protestant, version of Rogation days became such a fixture in church life that the tradition was even carried over to the Americas by British colonists in Jamaica, Barbados, and South Carolina. Though not widely celebrated in the modern Church of England, the holiday is still observed in some areas.

Rogation days are days of prayer and fasting in Western Christianity. They are observed with processions and the Litany of the Saints. The so-called "major" rogation is held on 25 April; the "minor" rogations are held on Monday to Wednesday preceding Ascension Thursday. The word "rogation" comes from the Latin verb "rogare", meaning "to ask", which reflects the beseeching of God for the appeasement of his anger and for protection from calamities.


History.

The Convention was approved at a special United Nations conference on 28 July 1951, and entered into force on 22 April 1954. It was initially limited to protecting European refugees from before 1 January 1951 (after World War II), though states could make a declaration that the provisions would apply to refugees from other places.  The 1967 Protocol removed the time limits and applied to refugees "without any geographic limitation", but declarations previously made by parties to the Convention on geographic scope were grandfathered.

Parties.

As of 20 January 2020, there were 146 parties to the Convention, and 147 to the Protocol. Madagascar and Saint Kitts and Nevis are parties only to the Convention, while Cape Verde, the United States of America and Venezuela are parties only to the Protocol. Since the US ratified the Protocol in 1968, it undertook a majority of the obligations spelled out in the original 1951 document (Articles 2-34), and Article 1 as amended in the Protocol, as "supreme Law of the Land".

Definition of refugee.

Article 1 of the Convention defines a refugee as: With the passage of time and the emergence of new refugee situations, the need was increasingly felt to make the provisions of the 1951 Convention applicable to such new refugees. As a result, a Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees was prepared, and entered into force on 4 October 1967. The UNHCR is called upon to provide international protection to refugees falling within its competence. The Protocol defined "refugee" to mean any person within the 1951 Convention definition as if the words "As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and..." were omitted.  Several groups have built upon the 1951 Convention to create a more objective definition. While their terms differ from those of the 1951 Convention, the Convention has significantly shaped the new, more objective definitions. They include the 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa by the Organisation of African Unity (since 2002 African Union) and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration, while nonbinding, also sets out regional standards for refugees in Central America, Mexico and Panama.

Rights and responsibilities of parties to the Refugee Convention.

In the general principle of international law, treaties in force are binding upon the parties to it and must be performed in good faith. Countries that have ratified the Refugee Convention are obliged to protect refugees that are on their territory, in accordance with its terms. There are a number of provisions that States parties to the Refugee Convention must adhere to.  Refugees shall  The contracting states shall  The contracting states shall not  Refugees shall be treated at least like "nationals" in relation to  Refugees shall be treated at least like "other non-nationals" in relation to

Noncompliance.

Although the Convention is "legally binding" there is no body that monitors compliance. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has supervisory responsibilities, but cannot enforce the Convention, and there is no formal mechanism for individuals to file complaints. The Convention specifies that complaints should be referred to the International Court of Justice. It appears that no nation has ever done this.  An individual may lodge a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or with the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, but no one has ever done so in regard to violations of the Convention. Nations may levy international sanctions against violators, but no nation has ever done this.  At present, the only real consequences of violation are 1) public shaming in the press, and 2) verbal condemnation of the violator by the UN and by other nations. To date these have not proven to be significant deterrents.

The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, also known as the 1951 Refugee Convention or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951, is a United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who a refugee is, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum. The Convention also sets out which people do not qualify as refugees, such as war criminals. The Convention also provides for some visa-free travel for holders of refugee travel documents issued under the convention.


Example usage.

Here is an incomplete example of a salt value for storing passwords. This first table has two username and password combinations. The password is not stored.  The salt value is generated at random and can be any length, in this case the salt value is 8 bytes long. The salt value is appended to the plaintext password and then the result is hashed, this is referred to as the hashed value. Both the salt value and hashed value are stored.  As the table above illustrates, different salt values will create completely different hashed values, even when the plaintext passwords are exactly the same. Additionally, dictionary attacks are mitigated to a degree as an attacker cannot practically precompute the hashes. However, a salt cannot protect common or easily guessed passwords.

Common mistakes.

Salt reuse.

A fixed salt is when a programmer uses the same salt for every hashed password.  While this will make current rainbow tables useless (if the salt is properly chosen), if the salt is hard-coded into a popular product that salt can be extracted and a new rainbow table can be generated using that salt.  Using a single fixed salt also means that every user who inputs the same password will have the same hash (unless the password hash is also dependent on the username). This makes it easier to attack multiple users by cracking only one hash.

Short salt.

If a salt is too short, it will be easy for an attacker to create a rainbow table consisting of every possible salt appended to every likely password. Using a long salt ensures that a rainbow table for a database would be prohibitively large.

Benefits.

To understand the difference between cracking a single password and a set of them, consider a single password file that contains hundreds of usernames and hashed passwords. Without a salt, an attacker could compute hash(attempt[0]), and then check whether that hash appears anywhere in the file. The likelihood of a match, i.e. cracking one of the passwords with that attempt, increases with the number of passwords in the file. If salts are present, then the attacker would have to compute hash(salt[a], attempt[0]), compare against entry A, then hash(salt[b], attempt[0]), compare against entry B, and so on. This defeats "reusing" hashes in attempts to crack multiple passwords.  Salts also combat the use of hash tables and rainbow tables for cracking passwords. A hash table is a large list of pre-computed hashes for commonly used passwords. For a password file without salts, an attacker can go through each entry and look up the hashed password in the hash table or rainbow table. If the look-up is considerably faster than the hash function (which it often is), this will considerably speed up cracking the file. However, if the password file is salted, then the hash table or rainbow table would have to contain "salt. password" pre-hashed. If the salt is long enough and sufficiently random, this is very unlikely. Unsalted passwords chosen by humans tend to be vulnerable to dictionary attacks since they have to be both short and meaningful enough to be memorized. Even a small dictionary (or its hashed equivalent, a hash table) is significant help cracking the most commonly used passwords. Since salts do not have to be memorized by humans they can make the size of the rainbow table required for a successful attack prohibitively large without placing a burden on the users.  More technically, salts protect against hash tables and rainbow tables as they, in effect, extend the length and potentially the complexity of the password. If the rainbow tables do not have passwords matching the length (e.g. an 8-byte password, and 2-byte salt, is effectively a 10-byte password) and complexity (non-alphanumeric salt increases the complexity of strictly alphanumeric passwords) of the salted password, then the password will not be found. If found, one will have to remove the salt from the password before it can be used.  The modern shadow password system, in which password hashes and other security data are stored in a non-public file, somewhat mitigates these concerns. However, they remain relevant in multi-server installations which use centralized password management systems to push passwords or password hashes to multiple systems. In such installations, the root account on each individual system may be treated as less trusted than the administrators of the centralized password system, so it remains worthwhile to ensure that the security of the password hashing algorithm, including the generation of unique salt values, is adequate.  Salts also make dictionary attacks and brute-force attacks for cracking large numbers of passwords much slower (but not in the case of cracking just one password). Without salts, an attacker who is cracking many passwords at the same time only needs to hash each password guess once, and compare it to all the hashes. However, with salts, each password will likely have a different salt; so each guess would have to be hashed separately and compared for each salt, which is considerably slower than comparing the same single hash to every password.  Another (lesser) benefit of a salt is as follows: two users might choose the same string as their password, or the same user might choose to use the same password on two machines. Without a salt, this password would be stored as the same hash string in the password file. This would disclose the fact that the two accounts have the same password, allowing anyone who knows one of the account's passwords to access the other account. By salting the passwords with two random characters, even if two accounts use the same password, no one can discover this just by reading hashes.

Unix implementations.

1970s–1980s.

Earlier versions of Unix used a password file codice_1 to store the hashes of salted passwords (passwords prefixed with two-character random salts). In these older versions of Unix, the salt was also stored in the passwd file (as cleartext) together with the hash of the salted password. The password file was publicly readable for all users of the system. This was necessary so that user-privileged software tools could find user names and other information. The security of passwords is therefore protected only by the one-way functions (enciphering or hashing) used for the purpose. Early Unix implementations limited passwords to eight characters and used a 12-bit salt, which allowed for 4,096 possible salt values. This was an appropriate balance for 1970s computational and storage costs.

1980s–.

The shadow password system is used to limit access to hashes and salt. The salt is eight characters, the hash is 86 characters, and the password length is unlimited.

Web-application implementations.

It is common for a web application to store in a database the hash value of a user's password. Without a salt, a successful SQL injection attack may yield easily crackable passwords. Because many users re-use passwords for multiple sites, the use of a salt is an important component of overall web application security. Some additional references for using a salt to secure password hashes in specific languages (PHP,.NET, etc.) can be found in the external links section below.

In cryptography, a salt is random data that is used as an additional input to a one-way function that hashes data, a password or passphrase. Salts are used to safeguard passwords in storage. Historically a password was stored in plaintext on a system, but over time additional safeguards were developed to protect a user's password against being read from the system. A salt is one of those methods.


Camera rig and stabilisation.

The camera can be attached directly to the kite but is usually secured to an adjustable rig suspended from the kite line at a distance from the kite. This distance reduces excessive movement being transmitted from the kite to the camera and allows the kite to be flown into higher, stable air before the camera is attached. If possible, the camera is set to a high shutter speed to reduce motion blur. Cameras using internal image stabilization features can increase the number of sharp photos. In order to take photographs that are oriented correctly with the horizon, a suspension method is used to allow the rig to automatically level itself under the kite line.

Pendulum suspension.

This simple levelling method involves suspending the camera from a rigid length of material below the kite line. Gravity naturally keeps the rig level, irrespective of the angle of the kite line. The pendulum will oscillate due to movement from the kite line and wind pressure, but the camera will remain steadier and more level than without a pendulum.

Picavet suspension.

A Picavet suspension, named after its French inventor Pierre Picavet, consists of a rigid cross suspended below the kite line from two points. A single line is threaded several times between the points of the cross and the points of attachment to the kite line and the rig is attached to the cross. The Picavet line runs through eye hooks or small pulleys so that the weight of the rig causes it to settle naturally into a level position. The dimensions and shape of the Picavet have been adapted many times in attempts to increase stability or to improve portability.

Shutter release and camera positioning.

The shutter of the camera can be released in several ways, depending on the type of camera and complexity of the rig electronics, if used. Shutter release mechanisms include using a radio controlled servo to press the shutter release button, using an infrared signal or wired connection to instruct the camera to release the shutter, or by using the camera's inbuilt intervalometer. Ideally the camera is allowed to reach its final altitude before the shutter is released to avoid taking photos during launch.  Fixing the camera directly to the kite or line makes changes to positioning awkward. If the camera is fitted within a frame, this 'rig' can be designed to rotate horizontally and vertically and to change the picture format from portrait to landscape by rotating the camera. Adjustments to these angles can be made by manually setting the rig on the ground or by adjusting the rig while it is airborne using a remote control or an automatic controller in the rig. Commonly a radio control system, as used for model aircraft is used. The servos in these systems are readily adaptable to adjust rig positioning. Several automatic controllers have been developed that can take a photo, move the camera by a set angle, take the next photo and so on.

Kites.

The most important aspect of any kite used to lift a camera is stability. Generally, single lined kites are used as they allow very long line lengths and need less intervention from the flyer than steerable designs. Almost any stable kite design can be used to lift lightweight camera rigs (up to approx 500g/1 lb). As weight increases, specific designs are chosen for their additional flying characteristics, such as line pull, wind speed, flying angle and ease of launch. Widely used designs are parafoil, rokkaku, delta (including variations such as delta conyne) and the new lighter-than-air helikite design. Of these, the parafoil is most popular as it generates a strong pull for its size, and can be easily stored in a small space due to its sparless construction. Sparred kites such as the rokkaku or delta tend to fly at a higher angle than parafoils, which is of benefit when the space between the launch site and photographic subject is limited. A higher flying angle permits the kite to lift more weight, as more of the generated force is acting vertically. Helikites allow reliable KAP in difficult conditions, thus opening up the use of KAP for professional photography.

History.

The first kite aerial photographs were taken by British meteorologist Douglas Archibald in 1887 and Arthur Batut in Labruguière (France) in 1888.  Manned kite flying and aerial photography was advanced also by French Marcel Maillot, British Robert Baden-Powell, Americans Charles Lamson and William Abner Eddy, Australian Lawrence Hargrave (inventor of box kite in 1893 and kite train in 1884) and French Captain Saconney.  The famous kite image of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake (right) was taken by an early pioneer in KAP, George Lawrence using a large panoramic camera and stabilizing rig he designed.

KAP today.

With the advent of the Internet, light and affordable digital cameras, radio control and microelectronics, kite aerial photography has become increasingly popular. In latter years, kits have become available that enable a beginner to quickly assemble a functional KAP rig and start taking aerial pictures in the visible part of the spectrum and, with more experience, in the ultra-violet, near and thermal infra-red parts of the spectrum too. Practical and commercial use of KAP is limited by the unpredictability of the weather (notably wind, sun and rain) and the fact that not every site is suitable to flying a kite. Launching a kite near buildings or downwind of trees can be problematic, due to heavy turbulence. The main applications today are amateur photography, art and, especially, archaeology as described on the webpages of the West Lothian Archaeological Trust. Another growing application is its use for community mapping and environmental monitoring by the widespread Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science. Research scientists are using kite aerial photography for monitoring bird species and also for studies in the geographical and geological sciences, including photogrammetry. Increasingly, kites are being employed where the use of a small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) is either impractical, or meets with legal or other constraints. Attempts to commercialize KAP have so far been largely unsuccessful.

Kite aerial photography (KAP) is a hobby and a type of photography. A camera is lifted using a kite and is triggered either remotely or automatically to take aerial photographs. The camera rigs can range from the extremely simple, consisting of a trigger mechanism with a disposable camera, to complex apparatus using radio control and digital cameras. On some occasions it can be a good alternative to other forms of aerial photography.


Timeline.

The Western Group of ships reached the Marquesas Islands on December 12, 1946, whereupon the "Henderson" and "Cacapon" set up weather monitoring stations. By December 24, the "Currituck" had begun launching aircraft on reconnaissance missions.  The Eastern Group of ships reached Peter I Island in late December 1946.  On December 30, 1946 the Martin PBM-5 "George 1" crashed on Thurston Island killing Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez, ARM1 Wendell K. Henderson, and ARM1 Frederick W. Williams. The other 6 crew members were rescued 13 days later. These and Vance N. Woodall, who died on January 21, 1947, were the only fatalities during Operation Highjump.  On January 1, 1947, Lieutenant Commander Thompson and Chief Petty Officer Dixon utilized "Jack Browne" masks and DESCO Oxygen rebreathers to log the first dive by Americans under the Antarctic. Paul Allman Siple, Ph.D. was the senior U.S. War Department representative on the expedition. Dr. Siple was the same Eagle Scout who accompanied Admiral Byrd on the previous Byrd Antarctic expeditions.  The Central Group of ships reached the Bay of Whales on January 15, 1947, where they began construction of Little America IV.  Naval ships and personnel were withdrawn back to the United States in late February 1947, and the expedition was terminated due to the early approach of winter and worsening weather conditions.  Admiral Byrd discussed the lessons learned from the operation in an interview with Lee van Atta of International News Service held aboard the expedition's command ship the USS "Mount Olympus". The interview appeared in the Wednesday, March 5, 1947, edition of the Chilean newspaper "El Mercurio" and read in part as follows:  Admiral Richard E. Byrd warned today that the United States should adopt measures of protection against the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile planes coming from the polar regions. The admiral explained that he was not trying to scare anyone, but the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by planes flying over one or both poles. This statement was made as part of a recapitulation of his own polar experience, in an exclusive interview with International News Service. Talking about the recently completed expedition, Byrd said that the most important result of his observations and discoveries is the potential effect that they have in relation to the security of the United States. The fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking – recalled the admiral – is one of the most important lessons learned during his recent Antarctic exploration. I have to warn my compatriots that the time has ended when we were able to take refuge in our isolation and rely on the certainty that the distances, the oceans, and the poles were a guarantee of safety.  After the operation ended, a follow-up Operation WINDMILL returned to the area in order to provide ground-truthing to the aerial photography of HIGHJUMP from 1947 to 1948. Finn Ronne also financed a private operation to the same territory until 1948.  As with other U.S. Antarctic expeditions, interested persons were allowed to send letters with enclosed envelopes to the base, where commemorative cachets were added to their enclosures, which were then returned to the senders. These souvenir philatelic covers are readily available at low cost. It is estimated that at least 150,000 such envelopes were produced, though their final number may be considerably higher.

Human losses.

On December 30, 1946, aviation radiomen Wendell K. Henderson, Fredrick W. Williams, and Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez were killed when their Martin PBM Mariner "George 1" crashed during a blizzard. The surviving six crew members were rescued 13 days later, including aviation radioman James H. Robbins and co-pilot William Kearns. A plaque honoring the three killed crewmen was later erected at the McMurdo Station research base, and Mount Lopez on Thurston Island was named in honor of killed airman Maxwell A. Lopez.  In December 2004, an attempt was made to locate the remains of the plane. In 2007 a group called the George One Recovery Team was unsuccessful in trying to get direct military involvement and raise extensive funds from the United States Congress to try and find the bodies of the three men killed in the crash.  On January 21, 1947, Vance N. Woodall died during a "ship unloading accident". In a crew profile, deckman Edward Beardsley described his worst memory as "when Seaman Vance Woodall died on the Ross Ice Shelf under a piece of roller equipment designed to 'pave' the ice to build an airstrip."  Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding  Capt. George J. Dufek, USN, Commanding  Capt. Charles A. Bond, USN, Commanding  Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer  Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd, Jr. USN, (Ret), Officer in Charge  Capt. Clifford M. Campbell, USN, Commanding

In media.

The documentary about the expedition "The Secret Land" was filmed entirely by military photographers (both USN and US Army) and narrated by actors Robert Taylor, Robert Montgomery, and Van Heflin. It features Chief of Naval Operations Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in a scene where he is discussing Operation HIGHJUMP with admirals Byrd and Cruzen. The film re-enacted scenes of critical events, such as shipboard damage control and Admiral Byrd throwing items out of an airplane to lighten it to avoid crashing into a mountain. It won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, was a United States Navy operation organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN (Ret), Officer in Charge, Task Force 68, and led by Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer, Task Force 68. Operation HIGHJUMP commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947. Task Force 68 included 4,700 men, 13 ships, and 33 aircraft. Operation HIGHJUMP’s primary mission was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV.


Design.

In response to Lancia's rallying success with the mid-engined Stratos, Renault's Jean Terramorsi, vice-president of production, asked Bertone's Marc Deschamps to design a new sports version of the Renault 5 Alpine supermini. The distinctive new rear bodywork was styled by Marcello Gandini at Bertone.  Although the standard Renault 5 has a front-mounted engine, the 5 Turbo featured a mid-mounted Cléon-Fonte with fuel fed by Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection and a Garrett AiResearch T3 turbocharger OHV 2 valves per cylinder Inline-four engine placed behind the driver in mid-body in a modified Renault 5 chassis. In standard form, the engine developed at 6000 rpm and maximum torque of at 3250 rpm.  Though it used a modified body from a standard Renault 5, and was badged a Renault 5, the mechanicals were radically different, the most obvious difference being rear-wheel drive and rear-mid-engined instead of the normal version's front-wheel drive and front-mounted engine. At the time of its launch it was the most powerful production French car. The first 400 production 5 Turbos were made to comply with Group 4 homologation to allow the car to compete in international rallies, and were manufactured at the Alpine factory in Dieppe. Many parts later transferred to the Alpine A310, such as the suspension or alloy wheel set.

Renault 5 Turbo 2.

Once the homologation models were produced, a second version named Turbo 2 was introduced using more stock Renault 5 parts replacing many of the light alloy components in the original 5 Turbo version, and dropping the stunning and specific Bertone seats and dashboard for the interior of the R5 Alpine. Many parts also became dark grey rather than the iconic red or blue. The Turbo 2 was less expensive, but had nearly the same levels of performance, with a top speed of and 0–100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.9 seconds. To differentiate it from the Turbo 2, the original 5 Turbo is often referred as "Turbo 1".  The concept of a mid-engined small Renault returned with the 1998 announcement of the Renault Clio V6.

Awards.

In 2004, "Sports Car International" named the R5 Turbo number nine on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s.

Motorsport.

The R5 Turbo was conceived with dual intent, promoting the sales of the common R5 and being homologated in the FIA group 3 and 4 categories of the rally championship (today WRC). All the motorsport derivatives were based on the Turbo 1.  The factory pushed the engine output up to for the Critérium des Cévennes, for the Tour de Corse, and by 1984 as much as in the R5 Maxi Turbo.  Driven by Jean Ragnotti in 1981, the 5 Turbo won the Monte Carlo Rally on its first outing in the World Rally Championship.

WRC victories.

There are several victories throughout the early 80's in the national championships in France, Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary, and Spain, many victories in international rallies throughout Europe, with wins in iconic rallies such as Monte Carlo. After the factory ceased support, it lived a second life being developed by many teams and enthusiasts to compete in regional championships and local races in which it was ubiquitous and reached many success for almost 20 years. At the time of retirement, the newly created historical categories allowed these cars to return to international events and competitions, living a third life.

The Renault 5 Turbo or R5 Turbo is a high-performance hatchback automobile launched by the French manufacturer Renault at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1980. The car was primarily designed for rallying, but was also sold in a street version. A total of 4987 (turbo 1: 1820 and turbo 2: 3167) R5 Turbos were manufactured during a six-year production run.


Nomenclature and taxonomy of wheat and its cultivars.

Numerous forms of wheat have evolved under human selection. This diversity has led to confusion in the naming of wheats, with names based on both genetic and morphological characteristics. For more information, see the taxonomy of wheat.

Evolution.

Bread wheat is an allohexaploid (an allopolyploid with six sets of chromosomes: two sets from each of three different species). Of the six sets of chromosomes, two come from "Triticum urartu" (einkorn wheat) and two from "Aegilops speltoides". This hybridisation created the species "Triticum turgidum" (durum wheat) 580,000–820,000 years ago. The last two sets of chromosomes came from wild goat-grass "Aegilops tauschii" 230,000–430,000 years ago.<ref name="10.1126/science.1251788"></ref>  Free-threshing wheat is closely related to spelt. As with spelt, genes contributed from "Aegilops tauschii" give bread wheat greater cold hardiness than most wheats, and it is cultivated throughout the world's temperate regions.

History.

Common wheat was first domesticated in Western Asia during the early Holocene, and spread from there to North Africa, Europe and East Asia in the prehistoric period. Naked wheats (including "Triticum aestivum/durum/turgidum") were found in Roman burial sites ranging from 100BCE to 300CE.  Wheat first reached North America with Spanish missions in the 16th century, but North America's role as a major exporter of grain dates from the colonization of the prairies in the 1870s. As grain exports from Russia ceased in the First World War, grain production in Kansas doubled.  Worldwide, bread wheat has proved well adapted to modern industrial baking, and has displaced many of the other wheat, barley, and rye species that were once commonly used for bread making, particularly in Europe.

Plant breeding.

Modern wheat varieties have short stems, the result of RHt dwarfing genes that reduce the plant's sensitivity to gibberellic acid, a plant hormone that lengthens cells. RHt genes were introduced to modern wheat varieties in the 1960s by Norman Borlaug from Norin 10 cultivars of wheat grown in Japan. Short stems are important because the application of high levels of chemical fertilizers would otherwise cause the stems to grow too high, resulting in lodging (collapse of the stems). Stem heights are also even, which is important for modern harvesting techniques.

Other forms of common wheat.

Compact wheats (e.g., club wheat "Triticum compactum", but in India "T. sphaerococcum") are closely related to common wheat, but have a much more compact ear. Their shorter rachis segments lead to spikelets packed closer together. Compact wheats are often regarded as subspecies rather than species in their own right (thus "T. aestivum" subsp. "compactum").

Common wheat ("Triticum aestivum"), also known as bread wheat, is a cultivated wheat species. About 95% of wheat produced worldwide is common wheat; it is the most widely grown of all crops and the cereal with the highest monetary yield.


Biography.

Walewski was born at Walewice, near Warsaw in Poland. Aged fourteen, he rebelled by refusing to join the Imperial Russian army and fled to London, thence to Paris where the French government refused Tsar Alexander I's demands for his extradition to Russia.  Upon the accession of Louis-Philippe d'Orléans to the French throne in 1830, Walewski was dispatched to Poland, later the same year being entrusted by the leaders of the Polish November Uprising of 1830 as a diplomatic envoy to the Court of St James's. After the Fall of Warsaw, he took out letters of French naturalization and joined the French army, seeing action in Algeria as a captain in the "Chasseurs d'Afrique" of the French Foreign Legion. In 1837 he resigned his commission to begin writing plays and for the press. He is said to have collaborated with the elder Dumas on "Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle" and a comedy of his, "L'Ecole du monde", was produced at the "Theâtre Français" in 1840.  Later that year Thiers, also a man of letters, became patron to one of Walewski's papers, "Le Messager des Chambres", before sending him on a mission to Egypt. Under Guizot's government Walewski was posted to Buenos Aires to liaise with the British ambassador, John Cradock, 1st Baron Howden. Prince Louis Napoleon's accession to power in France as Napoleon III furthered his career with postings as envoy extraordinary to Florence and the Kingdom of Naples before London (1851–55), where he was charged with announcing the "coup d'état" to the prime minister, Lord Palmerston.  In 1855, Walewski succeeded Drouyn de Lhuys as Minister of Foreign Affairs and he acted as French plenipotentiary at the Congress of Paris the following year. As foreign minister, Walewski advocated "entente" with Russia, opposing his emperor's adventurous strategy in Italy which led to war with Austria in 1859. After leaving the Foreign Ministry in 1860 he became France's Minister of State, an office which he held until 1863. He served as senator from 1855 to 1865, before being appointed to the "Corps Législatif" in 1865 and as president of the Chamber of Deputies by the Emperor, who returned him to the Senate after a revolt against his authority two years later.  Walewski was created a duke in 1866, was elected a member of the "Académie des beaux-arts", appointed Grand Cross of the "Légion d'honneur" and made a Knight of Malta, also receiving the Gold Cross of "Virtuti Militari".  Alexandre Walewski died of a stroke at Strasbourg on 27 September 1868 and is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Descendants.

He married on 1 December 1831 Lady Catherine Montagu (1808–1833), daughter of George, 6th Earl of Sandwich by his wife Lady Louisa Lowry-Corry. Following her death, he married secondly, on 4 June 1846 in Florence, Maria Anna, daughter of the Papal Count Zanobi di Ricci by his wife Princess Isabella Poniatowski. He also fathered a son by the actress Rachel Felix in 1844.  He had seven children, two from his first marriage, four from his second marriage, and one illegitimate.

Alexandre Florian Joseph, Count Colonna-Walewski (; 4 May 181027 September 1868), was a Polish and French politician and diplomat. Walewski was widely rumoured to be the (unacknowledged) illegitimate son of Napoleon I by his mistress, Countess Marie Walewska, although her husband (Athanasius, Count Walewski) legally acknowledged him as his own son. In 2013, published scholarship comparing DNA haplotype evidence taken from Emperor Napoleon, from his brother King Jérôme Bonaparte's descendant Charles, Prince Napoléon and from Colonna-Walewski's descendant indicated Alexandre's membership in the genetic male-line of the imperial House of Bonaparte.


Family.

Helene was the oldest daughter of Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria and Ludovika, Royal Princess of Bavaria. The family home was at Possenhofen Castle.

Marriage.

In 1853 she traveled with her mother, Ludovika, and her younger sister Elisabeth to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria with the hopes that she would become the bride of their cousin Franz Josef, then the emperor of Austria. He decided that he preferred Elisabeth instead. Helene was unusually pious, and would have fit into the Habsburg court well. She had one quality, though, that would not have been accepted: she was habitually unpunctual, and often missed trains and appointments.  After the failed engagement, she became depressed and Ludovika became concerned that Helene would take the veil and join a convent. Helene had almost come to terms with remaining single. At 22 years old she was considered to be an "old maid," but her mother arranged for her to meet the wealthy Maximilian Anton Lamoral, Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis. Duke Max in Bavaria, Helene's father, invited the Thurn and Taxis family to Possenhofen for a hunting party, at which Prince Maximilian was introduced to Helene.  While the prince was vacationing at Possenhofen, he brought his marriage plans to his parents, who immediately agreed. The only difficulty involved was that although the Thurn and Taxis family were counted among the richest in the land, they were not considered social equals for a princess of royal blood and a member of the House of Wittelsbach. Because of this, King Maximilian II of Bavaria did not at first agree to a marriage between the two, but through Elisabeth's influence on the king, the marriage took place nevertheless. The wedding ceremony was held on 24 August 1858 at Possenhofen. To mark the occasion, the in-laws gave the bride a necklace worth 160,000 Gulden. In spite of the earlier objections to the match, Helene is considered to have had the only happy marriage among the five Wittelsbach sisters.  Her daughter Louisa was born in 1859, followed by a second daughter, Elisabeth, in 1860. Shortly after the birth of her second child she traveled to Corfu to visit her sister Elisabeth, who was very ill. She returned by way of Vienna, where she reported to Franz Josef on the poor state of his wife.  She gave birth to the much-desired son in 1862, named Maximilian Maria, and in 1867 had another son named Albert.  Even though the couple had a happy marriage, it was overshadowed by the severe illness of her husband Maximilian, who had chronic kidney disease. Neither a course of treatment in Karlsbad nor the best doctors could save him. He died in 1867 at only 35 years of age.

Later life.

Helene took her mind off her sorrows with charitable activities. She received the guardianship of her children from the Austrian emperor. Her father-in-law began to include her in the business affairs of the House of Thurn and Taxis, seeing in her a support and successor. In this way she became the head of the family until her oldest son reached his majority.  In 1877 her youngest daughter, Elisabeth, married Prince Miguel of Braganza, the Miguelist claimant to the throne of Portugal. Elisabeth's health deteriorated after the birth of her first child, and she eventually died in 1881.  In 1879 Helene's oldest daughter, Louise, married the young Prince Frederick of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The couple had no children.  In 1883, her son Maximilian took over the leadership of the family business, but the well-trained young man fell ill. His heart had been weakened by scarlet fever in childhood, and he suffered from severe heart spasms. In 1885, he died of a pulmonary embolism. This left Helene the family head again, until 1888 when her son Albert reached his majority and took over the family businesses. Helene then retired and dedicated herself to her religious devotions.  She became very ill with stomach cancer in 1890, and her sister Elisabeth hurried to her side. Elisabeth was the last person to speak with Helene. Elisabeth's daughter Marie Valerie related in her diary, "Aunt Néné... was glad to see Mama and said to her, 'Old Sisi' -- she and Mama almost always spoke English together. 'We two have had hard puffs in our lives,' said Mama. 'Yes, but we had hearts,' replied Aunt Néné."

Helene Caroline Therese, Duchess in Bavaria (4 April 1834 – 16 May 1890) of the House of Wittelsbach, nicknamed Néné, was a Bavarian princess and, through marriage, temporarily the head of the Thurn and Taxis family.