Biography.

Williams was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the son of Philadelphia parents Charles Duane Williams, a direct descendant from Benjamin Franklin, and Lydia Biddle White. He was tutored privately at a Swiss boarding school and spoke fluent French and German. He started playing tennis at age 12, mainly under the guidance of his father.  On January 11, 1919 in Paris, France, Williams married Jean Haddock (1890–1929), daughter of Arthur Henry and Matilda (Stewart) Haddock. They would have four children. Jean died aged 38 on April 20, 1929 in Philadelphia. Williams remarried to Frances West Gillmore (1908–2001), daughter of Major General Quincy Adams Gillmore II and Frances West (Hemsley) Gillmore, on October 2, 1930. She was a great-granddaughter of Quincy Adams Gillmore.

Tennis career.

In 1911 Williams won the Swiss Championship. A year later he entered Harvard and became the intercollegiate tennis champion in singles (1913, 1915) and doubles (1914, 1915).  Williams is best known for his two men's singles titles at the U.S. Championships in 1914 (beating Maurice McLoughlin in the final) and 1916 (beating Bill Johnston in the final). He was also on the victorious American Davis Cup team twice: in 1925 and 1926 and was considered a fine doubles player. He also had a reputation in singles of always hitting as hard as possible and always trying to hit winners near the lines. This made him an extremely erratic player, but when his game was sporadically "on", he was considered unbeatable.  During the 1924 Olympics, at the age of 33 (and with a sprained ankle), Richard Norris Williams became a Gold Medalist in the mixed doubles, partnering Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman. He went on to captain several winning Davis Cup teams from 1921 through 1926 as well as the 1934 team. At age 44 he retired from Championship Tennis.  He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (Newport, Rhode Island) in 1957.

RMS "Titanic".

Williams also gained fame as being a survivor of the RMS "Titanic" disaster in April 1912. He and his father, Charles Duane Williams, were traveling first class on the liner when it struck an iceberg and sank. Shortly after the collision, Williams freed a trapped passenger from a cabin by breaking down a door. He was reprimanded by a steward, who threatened to fine him for damaging White Star Line property, an event that inspired a scene in James Cameron's film "Titanic" (1997). Williams remained on the doomed liner almost until the very end. At one point Williams' father tried to get a steward to fill his flask. The flask was given to Williams and remains in the Williams family.  As "Titanic" began her final plunge, father and son jumped into the water. While Dick was able to save himself, his father was killed by the first funnel falling from the ship. The 21-year-old Williams recalled, "I saw one of the four great funnels come crashing down on top of him. Just for one instant I stood there transfixed – not because it had only missed me by a few feet... curiously enough not because it had killed my father for whom I had a far more than normal feeling of love and attachment; but there I was transfixed wondering at the enormous size of this funnel, still belching smoke. It seemed to me that two cars could have been driven through it side by side." He made his way to the partially-submerged Collapsible A, holding onto its side for quite a while before getting in. When Williams entered the water, he was wearing a fur coat which he quickly discarded along with his shoes. Those in Collapsible A who survived were transferred to Lifeboat 14 by Fifth Officer Harold Lowe. Although abandoned by RMS "Carpathia", Collapsible A was recovered a month later. Onboard the lifeboat was the discarded fur coat which was returned to Williams by White Star.  After entering the lifeboat, he spent several hours knee-deep in the freezing water. "Carpathia" arrived on the scene to rescue survivors. The ordeal left his legs so severely frostbitten that the "Carpathia"s doctor wanted to amputate them. Williams, who did not want his tennis career to be cut short, opted instead to work through the injury by simply getting up and walking around every two hours, around the clock. The choice worked out well for him: later that year, he won his first U.S. Tennis Championship, in mixed doubles, and went on to win many more championships including the Davis Cup with fellow survivor Karl Behr.  It was not until after the publication of "A Night to Remember" (1955), a book about the "Titanic" disaster, that Williams became acquainted with its author Walter Lord. In 1962, Williams met with Lord and gave a detailed account of the sinking.

Military service, business career, historical society.

Williams served in the United States Army during World War I and was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor. After the war he continued playing championship tennis.  Williams, also a noted Philadelphia investment banker, was President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Death.

Richard Norris Williams died of emphysema on June 2, 1968, aged 77 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Richard "Dick" Norris Williams II (January 29, 1891 – June 2, 1968), generally known as R. Norris Williams, was an American tennis player and RMS "Titanic" survivor.


History.

The VAB, which was completed in 1966, was originally built to allow for the vertical assembly of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo program and referred to as the "Vertical Assembly Building". In anticipation of post-Saturn projects such as the Space Shuttle program, it was renamed the Vehicle Assembly Building in 1965, and was used for the shuttle's external fuel tanks and flight hardware, and to mate the Space Shuttle orbiters to their solid rocket boosters and external fuel tanks. Once assembled, the complete Space Shuttle was moved on the mobile launcher platform and crawler-transporter to LC-39A or LC-39B.  Sometime prior to the destruction of in 2003, NASA installed a sub-roof inside the VAB to deal with falling concrete debris as a result of the building's age.

Construction.

In 1963, NASA contracted the Morrison-Knudsen company to design and build the VAB. Construction began with driving the first steel foundation piles on Aug. 2, 1963. It was part of NASA's massive effort to send astronauts to the Moon for the Apollo program. Altogether, 4,225 pilings were driven down 164 feet to bedrock with a foundation consisting of of concrete. Construction of the VAB required of steel. The building was completed in 1966. The VAB is tall, long and wide. It covers, and encloses of space.  Located on Florida's Atlantic coast, the building was constructed to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms. Despite this, it has received damage from several hurricanes (see below).

Capabilities.

There are four entries to the bays located inside the building, which are the four largest doors in the world. Each door is high, has 7 vertical panels and 4 horizontal panels, and takes 45 minutes to completely open or close. The north entry that leads to the transfer aisle was widened by to allow entry of the shuttle orbiter. A central slot at the north entry allowed for passage of the orbiter's vertical stabilizer.  To lift the components of the Space Transportation System, the VAB housed five overhead bridge cranes, including two capable of lifting 325 tons, and 136 other lifting devices.  The building has at least 40 MW of air conditioning equipment, including 125 ventilators on the roof supported by four large air handlers (four cylindrical structures west of the building) to keep moisture under control. Air in the building can be completely replaced every hour. The interior volume of the building is so vast that it has its own weather, including "rain clouds form[ing] below the ceiling on very humid days", which the moisture reduction systems are designed to minimize.

Exterior.

The American flag painted on the building was the largest in the world when added in 1976 as part of United States Bicentennial celebrations, along with the star logo of the anniversary, later replaced by the NASA insignia in 1998. It is high, and wide. Each of the stars on the flag is across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each of the stripes is wide.  Work began in early 2007 to restore the exterior paint on the immense facility. Special attention was paid to the enormous American flag and NASA "meatball" insignia. The work repaired visible damage from years of storms and weathering. The flag and logo had been previously repainted in 1998 for NASA's 40th anniversary. The most extensive exterior damage occurred during the storm season of 2004, when Hurricane Frances blew off 850 aluminum panels from the building, resulting in about of new openings in the sides. Twenty-five additional panels were blown off the east side by the winds from Hurricane Jeanne just three weeks later. Earlier in the season, Hurricane Charley caused significant but less serious damage, estimated to cost $700,000. Damage caused by these hurricanes was still visible in 2007. Some of these panels are "punch-outs", designed to detach from the VAB when a large pressure differential is created on the outside vs. the inside. This allows for equalization, and helps protect the structural integrity of the building during rapid changes in pressure such as in tropical cyclones.  The building has been used as a backdrop in several Hollywood movies including "Marooned", "SpaceCamp", "Apollo 13", "Contact", and others.

Future.

The Space Shuttle was retired in 2011 after which NASA temporarily (as early as 2012) offered public tours of the VAB. These tours were temporarily discontinued in February 2014 to allow for renovations to take place.  The NASA FY2013 budget included US$143.7 million for Construction of Facilities (CoF) requirements in support of Artemis program vehicles including Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. NASA began modifying Launch Complex 39 at KSC to support the new SLS in 2014, beginning with major repairs, code upgrades and safety improvements to the Launch Control Center, Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and the VAB Utility Annex. This initial work will be required to support any launch vehicle operated from Launch Complex 39 and will allow NASA to begin modernizing the facilities, while vehicle-specific requirements are being developed.  The VAB could be used to some extent for assembly and processing of any future vehicles utilizing Launch Complex 39, in addition to renovations for SLS capabilities. On June 16, 2015, NASA released an announcement for proposals (AFP) seeking interest in using the VAB High Bay 2 and other complex facilities for commercial use in "assembling, integration, and testing of launch vehicles". This move is in line with the intent to migrate KSC towards acting as a spaceport accessible to both government and commercial ventures. On April 21, 2016, NASA announced the selection of Orbital ATK (bought by Northrop Grumman as of 2019) to begin negotiations for High Bay 2. The "potential agreement" includes an existing mobile launcher platform.

The Vehicle (originally Vertical) Assembly Building, or VAB, is the large building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), designed to assemble the large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V and the Space Shuttle; and stack them vertically onto the mobile launcher platform (MLP) and crawler-transporter. The future Space Launch System (SLS) will also be assembled there.


History.

The Salpêtrière was originally a gunpowder factory (saltpetre being a constituent of gunpowder), but in 1656 at the direction of Louis XIV, it was converted into a "hospice" for the poor women of Paris as part of the General Hospital of Paris. It served as a prison for prostitutes, and a holding place for women who were learning disabled, mentally ill or epileptic, as well as poor; it was also notable for its population of rats and a bloated and unresponsive bureaucracy. Although the Pitié-Salpêtrière was much admired for the architectural ambitions of Libéral Bruant, it provided wretched living conditions for its inmates. The building was enlarged in 1684.  On the eve of the Revolution, it had become the world's largest hospital, with a capacity of 10,000 patients plus 300 prisoners. From La Salpêtrière they were paired with convicts and forcibly expatriated to New France.  During the September massacres of 1792, the Salpêtrière was stormed on the night of 3/4 September by a mob from the impoverished working-class district of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, with the avowed intention of releasing the detained prisoners: 134 of the prostitutes were released; twenty-five madwomen were less fortunate and were dragged, some still in their chains, into the streets and murdered.  At the very end of the 18th century, the early humanitarian reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill were initiated here by Philippe Pinel (1745–1826), friend of the "Encyclopédistes". The iconic image of Pinel as the liberator of the insane was created in 1876 by Tony Robert-Fleury and Pinel's sculptural monument stands before the main entrance in Place Marie-Curie, Boulevard de L'Hôpital. Pinel was the chief physician of the Salpêtrière by 1794, in charge of a 200-bed infirmary which housed a tiny proportion of the huge indigent female population. He was succeeded by his assistant Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol (1772–1840) who, from 1817, delivered the first systematic lectures on psychiatry in France and was the chief architect of the lunacy legislation of 30 June 1838. Esquirol was followed by Étienne Pariset; and from 1831 till 1867 the "chef d'hospice" was Jean-Pierre Falret (1794–1870) who contributed much to our understanding of bipolar disorder and folie à deux.  A regular visitor to the Salpêtrière from 1842 till his death more than thirty years later was Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne de Boulogne (1806–1875). From humble provincial origins, a long line of seafarers from Boulogne, Duchenne became one of the outstanding medical scientists of the nineteenth century. Though he never held a senior appointment in the hospital, Duchenne nevertheless made meticulous observations on neurological patients, employing a wide range of innovative diagnostic techniques. Duchenne's clinical science stood at the junction of electricity, photography and psychology, as recorded in his much admired "De l'électrisation localisée" with its associated atlas "Album de photographies pathologiques" (1855, 1862). His name is commemorated in the myopathies which he described, as well as in his 1862 masterpiece, the "Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine", much consulted by Charles Darwin in the preparation of his "Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" (1872). Duchenne's last major work (published in 1867) was a study of the physiology of movement. He was never elected to the Academy of Sciences.  Later, when Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) took over the department, the Salpêtrière became celebrated as a neuropsychiatric teaching centre, represented on canvas in 1887 by "A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière" by André Brouillet. In his lectures and demonstrations, the "leçons du mardi", Charcot systematised the neurological examination, did much to map out the territory of modern clinical neurology and, in a personal enthusiasm, explored its interface with psychological distress as represented in hysteria. Although Charcot insisted that hysteria could be a male disorder ("traumatic hysteria"), he is popularly remembered for his demonstrations with Louise Augustine Gleizes and Marie "Blanche" Wittmann, known as the Queen of Hysterics. Charcot had also absorbed much from Duchenne (to whom he often referred as ""mon maître, Duchenne"") and his teaching activities on the Salpêtrière's wards helped to elucidate the natural history of many diseases including neurosyphilis, epilepsy, and stroke. In his discussion of "paralysis agitans", Charcot drew attention to the 1817 description by James Parkinson, and suggested it be renamed Parkinson's disease. In 1882, with Charcot's encouragement, Albert Londe created a photographic department in the Salpêtriėre, producing, in collaboration with Georges Gilles de la Tourette, the "Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière" of 1888.  Students came from across the world to witness Charcot's clinical demonstrations: among them – in 1885 – was the 29-year old Sigmund Freud who translated Charcot's lectures into German and whose deconstruction of the lectures on hysteria formed the foundations of psychoanalysis. The first English translations of Charcot's "Clinical Lectures" (1877, 1881) were published by the Irish physician and statesman George Sigerson. Public health physician and advocate of breastfeeding Truby King travelled from New Zealand to witness Charcot, and reported his clinical demonstrations to be a life-changing experience. A rather negative portrait of Charcot's clinical style emerges in the 1929 autobiographical memoir – "The Story of San Michele" – by the Swedish physician Axel Munthe, whose early idolatry of Charcot gave way to a kind of obsessive antagonism.  The Hôpital de la Pitié, founded about 1612, was moved next to the Salpêtrière in 1911 and fused with it in 1964 to form the Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière. The Pitié-Salpêtrière is now a general teaching hospital with departments focusing on most major medical specialities.  Numerous celebrities have been treated at the Salpêtrière, including Michael Schumacher, Ronaldo, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Alain Delon, Gérard Depardieu, and Valérie Trierweiler. Former president Jacques Chirac had a pacemaker fitted at the Salpêtrière in 2008. Celebrities have also died at the Pitié-Salpêtrière, including the singer Josephine Baker in 1975, following a cerebral haemorrhage; philosopher Michel Foucault (from complications of AIDS) on 25 June 1984; Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997; and French bicycle racer Laurent Fignon in 2010 (from the metastatic spread of lung cancer).  The Brain and Spine Institute has been located in the hospital since it was established in September 2010.

Buildings.

Hospital Chapel.

"Chapelle de la Salpêtrière" (Hospital Chapel), at n° 47 Boulevard de l'Hôpital is one of the masterpieces of Libéral Bruant, architect of Les Invalides. It was built around 1675, on the model of a Greek cross and has four central chapels each capable of holding a congregation of some 1,000 people. Its central octagonal cupola is illuminated by picture windows in circular arcs.

Philippe Pinel monument.

In the "place" in front of the main entrance to the Hospital, there is a large bronze monument to Philippe Pinel, who was chief physician of the Hospice from 1795 to his death in 1826. The Salpêtrière was, at the time, like a large village, with seven thousand elderly indigent and ailing women, an entrenched bureaucracy, a teeming market and huge infirmaries. Pinel created an inoculation clinic in his service at the Salpêtrière in 1799 and the first vaccination in Paris was given there in April 1800.

Notable doctors.

Through its history, the Pitié-Salpétrière hosted notable doctors, among others:

Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital (, ) is a teaching hospital in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Part of the and a teaching hospital of Sorbonne University, it is one of Europe's largest hospitals. It is also France's largest hospital.


History.

The Bravo and the Brava were replacements for Fiat's successful, but ageing Tipo model. The two cars were very different in styling detail and driving experience, the Bravo chassis being tuned for more precise handling, whilst the Brava was tuned for better comfort.  Even the interior trim and many of the body colours were unique to either one version or the other. Both cars had a two star safety rating on EuroNCAP. The cars came with all new engines, the base model using a 1.4 L twelve valve engine producing.  Three other petrol engines were available: the 1.6 L 16 valve; the 1.8 L 16 valve engine and the top of the range 2.0 L twenty valve inline five unit used in the HGT model, which produced and which could take the car to a maximum speed of, later in 1999, the 155 HGT model replaced the older model, power rising to.  Two turbodiesel engines were also available: both were 1.9 L four cylinder units, one producing and the other making. The Bravo/Brava was voted European Car of the Year on its launch.  In August 1996, the Bravo/Brava chassis spawned saloon and estate versions, badged Fiat Marea, a car which was aimed at Ford Mondeo and Opel/Vauxhall Vectra buyers, which won praise for its large boot.  Another car based on the Bravo/Brava underpinnings was launched in January 1999: the curious looking Fiat Multipla, a six seater compact MPV. In 1999, the Bravo/Brava received a mild makeover, and it was discontinued in October 2001, being replaced by the all new Fiat Stilo.  The cars were advertised as being silent, futuristic, economical and offering "The Choice". Fiat's Italian adverts said "Fiat Bravo. Fiat Brava. La Scelta." which roughly translates to "Fiat Bravo. Fiat Brava. The Choice", hinting to the fact that they're very similar cars but you can select between a sporty three door hatchback or a practical five door fastback.  The Bravo and Brava were criticised as being a bit "futuristic" for their time, some reviewers really liked the way they looked, while others thought they were a bit odd.  Peter Davis, Fiat's Styling Center director at the time, said that they started working on the Bravo and Brava right after they had finished working on the Coupe and the Barchetta, so they had the steam built up. He mentioned that they wanted to push the design to the limit, break the rules and discover every angle of the car, distinguishing it from the competitors.  Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the Fiat Bravo and Brava in 1995, on the old format of "Top Gear", stating that "This is how an ordinary car can look like, if you put a bit of effort into it". He also stated : "I'm in a three door hatchback which you can buy for less than £10,000, and I'm having fun, and it's only got a 1.4 litre engine! A good looking car, that's nice to drive and cheap to run too."  He also mentioned that the car feels rigid, there are no squeaks or rattles, and all the switches inside have a quality feel.

Makeover.

The Bravo/Brava received a mild makeover in 1999.  The 1.4L 12v engine was dropped in favour of the 1.2 16v unit from the Fiat Punto, the 2.0L 20V engine of the HGT model gained VVT and VIS systems upping the power from to, the dashboard was redesigned and improved across all trim levels, the grilles of the cars were redesigned, the A/C unit was swapped with the automatic one from the Fiat Coupé, and other small details about the cars were changed throughout the range of trims.  The 1.9 turbodiesel was phased out in favour of 1.9 JTD diesel units (now with and ), to give even better economy and refinement. In the Greek market, all later model Bravas received the rear deck spoiler as standard.

HGT Abarth.

In the end of 1999, Fiat introduced the Abarth accessories for the Bravo, available were more aggressive wheels and bodykit, performance was the same as the 2.0 HGT model. It was produced from 2000 to 2002.

Brazil.

The Brava was produced until 2003 in Brazil for the home market and export, but in the former, the engines available were:

The Fiat Bravo and Fiat Brava (Type 182) are small family cars produced by the Italian automaker Fiat from 1995 to 2001. They were effectively two versions of the same car, the Bravo a three door hatchback, and the Brava a five door fastback. The Bravo name was revived in January 2007, with the all new Fiat Bravo, a replacement of the Stilo. The new version was available only with five doors.


Biography.

Larrey was born in the little village of Beaudéan, in the Pyrenees as the son of a shoemaker, who later moved to Bordeaux. Larrey was orphaned at the age of 13. He was then raised by his uncle Alexis, who was chief surgeon in Toulouse. After serving a 6-year apprenticeship, he went to Paris to study under Pierre-Joseph Desault, who was chief surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. His studies were cut short by war. Larrey went to Brest where he was appointed in the navy and gave lectures. In 1788 he was sent to Newfoundland and Labrador. In 1789 he was back in Paris and finished his thesis on Eskimos. He cooperated with Jean-Nicolas Corvisart, Xavier Bichat and Raphaël Bienvenu Sabatier in Les Invalides. In 1792, during the War of the First Coalition he joined the Army of the Rhine. In Mainz he met with Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring.  During this time, Larrey initiated the modern method of army surgery, field hospitals and the system of army ambulance corps. After seeing the speed with which the carriages of the French "flying artillery" maneuvered across the battlefields, Larrey adapted them as "ambulance volantes" ("Flying ambulances") for rapid transport of the wounded and manned them with trained crews of drivers, corpsmen and litterbearers. At the Battle of Metz (1793) Larrey successfully demonstrated the value of field ambulances. The quartermaster-general Jacques-Pierre Orillard de Villemanzy ordered prototypes to be built, after which ambulances would be supplied to all the Republic's armies. The politicians heard of this, and ordered a national contest to find the best design, thus delaying their delivery by over two years. Larrey also increased the mobility and improved the organization of field hospitals, effectively creating a forerunner of the modern MASH units. He established a rule for the triage of war casualties, treating the wounded according to the seriousness of their injuries and urgency of need for medical care, regardless of their rank or nationality. Soldiers of enemy armies, as well as those of the French and their allies, were treated.  In 1794 he was sent to Toulon, where he met for the first time with Napoleon. He married the paintress Marie-Élisabeth Laville-Leroux. In Spain he fell ill and was sent back to Paris. He became professor at Val-de-Grâce but was appointed as surgeon-in-chief of the Napoleonic armies in Italy in 1797, and went to Egypt the year after. In the Battle of Acre he was wounded. In 1801 he was back in France.  Larrey was made a Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur on 12 May 1807. He joined in the Battle of Aspern-Essling, where he operated on Marshall Jean Lannes and amputated one of his legs in two minutes. He became the favorite of the Emperor, who commented, "If the army ever erects a monument to express its gratitude, it should do so in honor of Larrey", he was ennobled as a Baron on the field of Wagram in 1809. In 1811, Baron Larrey co-led the surgical team that performed a pre-anesthetic mastectomy on Frances Burney in Paris. Her detailed account of this operation gives insight into early 19th century doctor-patient relationships, and early surgical methods in the home of the patient. Larrey was involved in the French invasion of Russia.  When Napoleon was sent to Elba, Larrey proposed to join him, but the former Emperor refused. At Waterloo in 1815 his courage under fire was noticed by the Duke of Wellington who ordered his soldiers not to fire in his direction so as to "give the brave man time to gather up the wounded" and saluted "the courage and devotion of an age that is no longer ours". Trying to escape to the French border, Larrey was taken prisoner by the Prussians who wanted to execute him on the spot. Larrey was recognized by one of the German surgeons, who pleaded for his life. Perhaps partly because he had saved the life of Blücher's son when he was wounded near Dresden and taken prisoner by the French, he was pardoned, invited to Blücher's dinner table as a guest and sent back to France with money and proper clothes. He devoted the remainder of his life to writing, but after the death of Napoleon he started a new medical career in the army as chief-surgeon. In 1826 he visited England, received well by British surgeons. In 1829 he was appointed in the Institut de France. In 1842 he went to Algiers, together with his son, and fell ill. Larrey died on his way back in Lyon. His corpse was taken to Paris and buried at Père-Lachaise, but his remains were transferred to Les Invalides and re-interred near Napoleon's tomb in December 1992.  Larrey's writings are still regarded as valuable sources of surgical and medical knowledge and have been translated into all modern languages. Between 1800 and 1840 at least 28 books or articles were published. His son Hippolyte (born 1808) was surgeon-in-ordinary to the emperor Napoleon III.

NATO Award.

The Dominique-Jean Larrey Award is the North Atlantic Alliance's highest medical honour. It is bestowed annually by NATO's senior medical body, the Committee of Chiefs of Military Medical Services in NATO (COMEDS), which is composed of the Surgeons General of NATO and partner nations. It is awarded in recognition of a significant and lasting contribution to NATO multi-nationality and/or interoperability, or to improvements in the provision of health care in NATO missions in the areas of medical support or healthcare development.

Baron Dominique Jean Larrey (; 8 July 1766 – 25 July 1842) was a French surgeon in Napoleon's Grande Armée and an important innovator in battlefield medicine and triage. He is often considered the first modern military surgeon.


Biography.

Tikhonov played as a defenceman with the VVS (Team of the Soviet Air Force) and Dynamo Moscow. He scored 35 goals in 296 games in the Soviet elite hockey league from 1949 to 1963. In 1950, he became a Soviet Sports Master. As a player, he won four gold medals of the Soviet national championship (three times with "VVS" (1951–1953) and once with Dynamo, 1954). He won the USSR Cup in 1952 as a member of "VVS". His coaching career started in 1964 when he became an assistant coach for Dynamo Moscow, then he took the position of the head coach for Dynamo Riga in 1968. In 1973, he was named a "Latvian merited sports coach" (ZTR SSSR). In 1977, he became the head coach for both CSKA Moscow ("Central Sport Club of the Army" or the "Red Army Club" as it was known in the US and Canada), and the Soviet National Team. In 1978, he became a "Soviet Merited sports coach" (ZTR SSSR). He was the Soviet and later the Unified Team and Russian National Team coach until 1994, and the coach for CSKA until 1996. As coach he won:  Tikhonov was known for his dictatorial coaching style. He exercised nearly absolute control over his players' lives. His teams practiced for 10 to 11 months a year, and were confined to barracks throughout that time. CSKA was sponsored by the Soviet Army during the Soviet era, and Tikhonov was a colonel. Tikhonov's fear of defections since the late 1980s was supposedly so great that he cut players when he thought they might defect. In 1991, for instance, he cut Pavel Bure, Valeri Zelepukin, Evgeny Davydov, and Vladimir Konstantinov just before the 1991 Canada Cup. All of them had been drafted by NHL teams, and Tikhonov might have thought that they might defect if they were allowed to go to the West, just like Alexander Mogilny and Sergei Fedorov. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Tikhonov mellowed his style considerably.  After his retirement, Tikhonov lobbied the Russian government for more attention and better financing for the national team.  Tikhonov was hospitalized in late October 2014 and died after a long illness in Moscow on 24 November 2014, at the age of 84.

Personal life.

Viktor's son Vasili was also a professional ice hockey coach, who worked in Finland, the United States and Switzerland but moved back to Russia to live with his family. Vasili died in a fall from the window of his Moscow apartment in August 2013.  Viktor's grandson, also named Viktor Tikhonov, was chosen to join Team Russia at the 2007 Super Series against Team Canada after Game Four of the eight-game-series was completed. On 20 June 2008 Tikhonov was selected by the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round, 28th overall, of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. After four seasons playing for SKA Saint Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League, Tikhonov signed a one-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League.

Viktor Vasilyevich Tikhonov (Russian: Виктор Васильевич Тихонов; 4 June 1930 – 24 November 2014) was a Soviet ice hockey player and coach. Tikhonov was a defenceman with VVS Moscow and Dynamo Moscow from 1949 to 1963, winning four national championships. He was the coach of the Soviet team when it was the dominant team in the world, winning eight World Championship gold medals, as well as Olympic gold in 1984, 1988, and 1992. Tikhonov also led CSKA Moscow to twelve consecutive league championships. He was named to the IIHF Hall of Fame as a builder in 1998.


Life.

Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Hamor Piston, a bookkeeper, and Leon Stover. He was the second of four children. Although his family was mainly of English origin, his paternal grandfather was a sailor named Antonio Pistone, who changed his name to Anthony Piston when he came to Maine from Genoa, Italy. In 1905 the composer's father, Walter Piston Sr, moved with his family to Boston, Massachusetts.  Walter Jr first trained as an engineer at the Mechanical Arts High School in Boston, but was artistically inclined. After graduating in 1912, he enrolled in the Massachusetts Normal Art School, where he completed a four-year program in fine art in 1916.  During the 1910s, Piston made a living playing piano and violin in dance bands and later playing violin in orchestras led by Georges Longy. During World War I, he joined the U.S. Navy as a band musician after rapidly teaching himself to play saxophone; he later stated that, when "it became obvious that everybody had to go into the service, I wanted to go in as a musician". While playing in a service band, he taught himself to play most wind instruments. "They were just lying around," he later observed, "and no one minded if you picked them up and found out what they could do".  Piston was admitted to Harvard College in 1920, where he studied counterpoint with Archibald Davison, canon and fugue with Clifford Heilman, advanced harmony with Edward Ballantine, and composition and music history with Edward Burlingame Hill. He often worked as an assistant for various music professors there, and conducted the student orchestra.  In 1920, Piston married artist Kathryn Nason (1892–1976), who had been a fellow student at the Normal Art School. The marriage lasted until her death in February 1976, a few months before his own.  On graduating summa cum laude from Harvard, Piston was awarded a John Knowles Paine Traveling Fellowship. He chose to go to Paris, living there from 1924 to 1926. At the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Paris, he studied composition and counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger, composition with Paul Dukas and violin with George Enescu. His "Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon" of 1925 was his first published score.  He taught at Harvard from 1926 until his retirement in 1960. His students include Samuel Adler, Leroy Anderson, Arthur Berger, Leonard Bernstein, Gordon Binkerd, Elliott Carter, John Davison, Irving Fine, John Harbison, Karl Kohn, Ellis B. Kohs, Gail Kubik, Billy Jim Layton, Noël Lee, Robert Middleton, Robert Moevs, Daniel Pinkham, Frederic Rzewski, Allen Sapp, Harold Shapero, and Claudio Spies, as well as Frank D'Accone, Ann Ronell, Robert Strassburg, Yehudi Wyner, and William P. Perry.  In 1936, the Columbia Broadcasting System commissioned six American composers (Aaron Copland, Louis Gruenberg, Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, William Grant Still and Piston) to write works for broadcast on CBS radio. Piston wrote his Symphony No. 1 and conducted its premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on April 8, 1938.  Piston's only dance work, "The Incredible Flutist", was written for the Boston Pops Orchestra, which premiered it with Arthur Fiedler conducting on May 30, 1938. The dancers were Hans Weiner and his company. Soon after, Piston arranged a concert suite including "a selection of the best parts of the ballet." This version was premiered by Fritz Reiner and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on November 22, 1940. Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra included the suite in a 1991 RCA Victor CD recording that also featured Piston's "Three New England Sketches" and Symphony No. 6.  Piston studied the twelve-tone technique of Arnold Schoenberg and wrote works using aspects of it as early as the Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930) and the First Symphony (1937). His first fully twelve-tone work was the "Chromatic Study on the Name of Bach" for organ (1940), which nonetheless retains a vague feeling of key. Although he employed twelve-tone elements sporadically throughout his career, these become much more pervasive in the Eighth Symphony (1965) and many of the works following it: the Variations for Cello and Orchestra (1966), Clarinet Concerto (1967), "Ricercare for Orchestra", Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra (1970), and Flute Concerto (1971).  In 1943, the Alice M. Ditson fund of Columbia University commissioned Piston's Symphony No. 2, which was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra on March 5, 1944 and was awarded a prize by the New York Music Critics' Circle. His next symphony, the Third, earned a Pulitzer Prize, as did his Symphony No. 7. His Viola Concerto and String Quartet No. 5 also later received Critics' Circle awards.  Piston was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal for his outstanding contribution to the arts by the MacDowell Colony in 1974.  Piston wrote four books on the technical aspects of music theory which are considered to be classics in their respective fields: "Principles of Harmonic Analysis", "Counterpoint", "Orchestration," and "Harmony". The last of these introduced for the first time in theoretical literature several important new concepts that Piston had developed in his approach to music theory, notably the concept of harmonic rhythm, and the secondary dominant. This work went through four editions in the author's lifetime, was translated into several languages, and (with changes and additions by Mark DeVoto) was still regarded as recently as 2009 as a standard harmony text.  He died at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts on November 12, 1976.  His library and desk are permanently exhibited in the Piston Room, at the Boston Public Library.

Walter Hamor Piston Jr, (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University.


Life.

He was born at Marseille, the grandson of Claude d'Urfé, and was educated at the Collège de Tournon. A partisan of the League, he was taken prisoner in 1595, and, though soon set free, he was again captured and imprisoned. During his imprisonment he read Ronsard, Petrarch and above all the "Diana" of Jorge de Montemayor and Tasso's "Aminta". After the defeat of the League in 1594, d'Urfé emigrated to Savoy whose duke was a relative of his mother. Here, he wrote the "Epîtres morales" (1598).  Honoré's brother Anne, comte d'Urfé, had married in 1571 the beautiful Diane de Châteaumorand, but the marriage was annulled in 1598 by Clement VIII. Anne d'Urfé was ordained to the priesthood in 1603, and died in 1621 dean of Montbrison.  Diane had a great fortune, and to avoid the alienation of the money from the D'Urfé family, Honoré married her in 1600. This marriage also proved unhappy; D'Urfé spent most of his time separated from his wife at the court of Savoy, where he held the charge of chamberlain. The separation of goods arranged later on may have been simply due to money embarrassments.  He died from injuries received by a fall from his horse at Villafranca, during a campaign against the Genoese.

Works.

It was in Savoy that he conceived the plan of his novel "L'Astrée", the scene of which is laid on the banks of the Lignon in his native province of Forez. It is a leisurely romance in which the loves of Celadon and Astrée are told at immense length with many digressions. The recently discovered circumstances of the marriages of the brothers have disposed of the idea that the romance is autobiographical in its main idea, but some of the episodes are said to be but slightly veiled accounts of the adventures of Henry IV. The shepherds and shepherdesses of the story are of the usual type in pastorals, and they discourse of love with a casuistry and elaborate delicacy that are by no means rustic.  The first part of "L'Astrée" appeared in 1607, the second in 1610, the third in 1619, and in 1627 the fourth part was edited. In 1628 a fifth was added by D'Urfé's secretary Balthazar Baro. "L'Astrée" set the fashion temporarily in romance narratives, and no tragedy was complete without wire-drawn discussions on love in the manner of Celadon and Astrée. The best edition of "L'Astrée" is that of 1647.  D'Urfé also wrote the pastoral poem "La Sireine" (1584) and the pastoral play "Sylvanire" (1627).

Memory and legacy.

In 1757 "L'Astrée" was sufficiently in the public consciousness, or at any rate "Celadon" had become a byword for amorousness, to be referred to in passing by an Italian guest of Casanova.  In 1908 a bust of D'Urfé was erected at Virieu-le-Grand (Ain), where the greater part of "L'Astrée" was written.  An adaptation of "L'Astrée," by French director Eric Rohmer, was released in 2007 under the title "Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon" (in English-speaking territories its title was "The Romance of Astrea and Celadon)." It was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, and star Andy Gillet won an Étoile d'Or in 2008 for Best Male Newcomer for his performance as Céladon.

Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf (11 February 15681 June 1625) was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer.


Function.

Amino acid catabolism results in waste ammonia. All animals need a way to excrete this product. Most aquatic organisms, or ammonotelic organisms, excrete ammonia without converting it. Organisms that cannot easily and safely remove nitrogen as ammonia convert it to a less toxic substance such as urea or uric acid via the urea cycle, which occurs mainly in the liver. Urea produced by the liver is then released into the bloodstream where it travels to the kidneys and is ultimately excreted in urine. The urea cycle is essential to these organisms, because if the nitrogen or ammonia are not eliminated from the organism it can be very detrimental. In species including birds and most insects, the ammonia is converted into uric acid or its urate salt, which is excreted in solid form.

Reactions.

The entire process converts two amino groups, one from and one from Aspartate, and a carbon atom from, to the relatively nontoxic excretion product urea at the cost of four "high-energy" phosphate bonds (3 ATP hydrolyzed to 2 ADP and one AMP). The conversion from ammonia to urea happens in five main steps. The first is needed for ammonia to enter the cycle and the following four are all a part of the cycle itself. To enter the cycle, ammonia is converted to carbamoyl phosphate. The urea cycle consists of four enzymatic reactions: one mitochondrial and three cytosolic.  1 -ornithine2 carbamoyl phosphate3 -citrulline4 argininosuccinate5 fumarate6 -arginine7 urea -Asp -aspartateCPS-1 carbamoyl phosphate synthetase IOTC Ornithine transcarbamoylaseASS argininosuccinate synthetaseASL argininosuccinate lyaseARG1 arginase 1

First reaction: entering the urea cycle.

Before the urea cycle begins ammonia is converted to carbamoyl phosphate. The reaction is catalyzed by carbamoyl phosphate synthetase I and requires the use of two ATP molecules. The carbamoyl phosphate then enters the urea cycle.

Overall reaction equation.

In the first reaction, + is equivalent to NH + CO + HO.  Thus, the overall equation of the urea cycle is: Since fumarate is obtained by removing NH from aspartate (by means of reactions 3 and 4), and PP + HO → 2 P, the equation can be simplified as follows: Note that reactions related to the urea cycle also cause the production of 2 NADH, so the overall reaction releases slightly more energy than it consumes. The NADH is produced in two ways: We can summarize this by combining the reactions: The two NADH produced can provide energy for the formation of 5 ATP (cytosolic NADH provides 2.5 ATP with the malate-aspartate shuttle in human liver cell), a net production of two high-energy phosphate bond for the urea cycle. However, if gluconeogenesis is underway in the cytosol, the latter reducing equivalent is used to drive the reversal of the GAPDH step instead of generating ATP.  The fate of oxaloacetate is either to produce aspartate via transamination or to be converted to phosphoenolpyruvate, which is a substrate for gluconeogenesis.

Products of the urea cycle.

As stated above many vertebrates use the urea cycle to create urea out of ammonium so that the ammonium does not damage the body. Though this is helpful, there are other effects of the urea cycle. For example: consumption of two ATP, production of urea, generation of H+, the combining of HCO3- and NH4+ to forms where it can be regenerated, and finally the consumption of NH4+.

Regulation.

"N"-Acetylglutamic acid.

The synthesis of carbamoyl phosphate and the urea cycle are dependent on the presence of "N"-acetylglutamic acid (NAcGlu), which allosterically activates CPS1. NAcGlu is an obligate activator of carbamoyl phosphate synthetase. Synthesis of NAcGlu by "N"-acetylglutamate synthase (NAGS) is stimulated by both Arg, allosteric stimulator of NAGS, and Glu, a product in the transamination reactions and one of NAGS's substrates, both of which are elevated when free amino acids are elevated. So Glu not only is a substrate for NAGS but also serves as an activator for the urea cycle.

Substrate concentrations.

The remaining enzymes of the cycle are controlled by the concentrations of their substrates. Thus, inherited deficiencies in cycle enzymes other than do not result in significant decreases in urea production (if any cycle enzyme is entirely missing, death occurs shortly after birth). Rather, the deficient enzyme's substrate builds up, increasing the rate of the deficient reaction to normal.  The anomalous substrate buildup is not without cost, however. The substrate concentrations become elevated all the way back up the cycle to, resulting in hyperammonemia (elevated []).  Although the root cause of toxicity is not completely understood, a high [] puts an enormous strain on the -clearing system, especially in the brain (symptoms of urea cycle enzyme deficiencies include intellectual disability and lethargy). This clearing system involves and, which decrease the 2-oxoglutarate (2OG) and Glu pools. The brain is most sensitive to the depletion of these pools. Depletion of 2OG decreases the rate of TCAC, whereas Glu is both a neurotransmitter and a precursor to GABA, another neurotransmitter. "(p.734)"

Link with the citric acid cycle.

The urea cycle and the citric acid cycle are independent cycles but are linked. One of the nitrogens in the urea cycle is obtained from the transamination of oxaloacetate to aspartate. The fumarate that is produced in step three is also an intermediate in the citric acid cycle and is returned to that cycle.

Urea cycle disorders.

A rare genetic disorder that affects about one in 35,000 people in the United States. Genetic defects in the enzymes involved in the cycle can occur, which usually manifest within a few days after birth. The recently born child will typically experience varying bouts of emesis and periods of lethargy. Ultimately the infant may go into a coma and develop brain damage. Newborns with UCD are at a much higher risk of complications or death due to untimely screening tests and misdiagnosed cases. The most common misdiagnosis is neonatal sepsis. Signs of UCD can be present within the first 2-3 days of life, however, the present method to get confirmation by test results can take too long and can potentially cause complications such as coma or death.  Urea cycle disorders may also be diagnosed in adults, and symptoms may include delirium episodes, lethargy, and symptoms similar to that of a stroke. On top of these symptoms if the urea cycle begins to malfunction in the liver the patient may obtain cirrhosis which can also lead to sarcopenia (the loss of muscle mass). Mutations lead to deficiencies of the various enzymes and transporters involved in the urea cycle and cause urea cycle disorders. If individuals with a defect in any of the six enzymes used in the cycle ingest amino acids beyond what is necessary for the minimum daily requirements, then the ammonia that is produced will not be able to be converted to urea. These individuals can experience hyperammonemia or the buildup of a cycle intermediate.  All urea cycle defects, except OTC deficiency, are inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. OTC deficiency is inherited as an X-linked recessive disorder, although some females can show symptoms. Most urea cycle disorders are associated with hyperammonemia, however argininemia and some forms of argininosuccinic aciduria do not present with elevated ammonia.

The urea cycle (also known as the ornithine cycle) is a cycle of biochemical reactions that produces urea (NH)CO from ammonia (NH). This cycle occurs in ureotelic organisms. The urea cycle converts highly toxic ammonia to urea for excretion. This cycle was the first metabolic cycle to be discovered (Hans Krebs and Kurt Henseleit, 1932), five years before the discovery of the TCA cycle. This cycle was described in more detail later on by Ratner and Cohen. The urea cycle takes place primarily in the liver and, to a lesser extent, in the kidneys.


Early life.

Jean Béliveau was born in 1931 to Arthur and Laurette Béliveau, the oldest of eight children. His family traces their ancestry to Antoine Béliveau, who settled in 1642 in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Expelled along with the other Acadians in 1755, the Béliveaus settled in the Boston area before moving to the Trois Rivières area of Québec in the mid-19th century. Jean's father was also part of a large family, one of six brothers, many of whom moved to western Canada in the 1910s while others remained in the Trois-Rivières area and St. Célestin. Jean's family moved to Victoriaville when Jean was six and Jean grew up in Victoriaville, attending L'École Saint-David, L'Académie Saint-Louis de Gonzague and Collège de Victoriaville schools.  Like many future hockey players of the era, the Béliveau family had a backyard ice rink on which their children, friends and neighbours played shinny. Until he was twelve years old, the family rink was where Jean learned to play hockey. His first organized team was in a house league at L'Académie, which played on the school's rink. As part of a squad of L'Académie 'all-stars', Jean played against other local teams. At age fifteen, he entered College and played for its team and an intermediate team, the Victoriaville Panthers.  In the summertime as a child, Béliveau also played baseball. A stand-out in local leagues in Victoriaville, he pitched and occasionally played infield, well enough his family turned down an offer of a minor-league pro contract for Jean at age fifteen. At sixteen, Jean played for the senior league team in Val-d'Or, Quebec.

Playing career.

Béliveau was already a star at 15 when spotted by Canadiens general manager Frank Selke, who sought to sign him to an NHL "C-form". The standard league contract for young players at that time, it would have required Béliveau to join the Canadiens at a set date and agreed-upon salary. When his father balked, Béliveau signed a "B-form" instead, agreeing to play for Montreal should he ever decide to turn pro.  Béliveau was called up twice for brief appearances by the Canadiens in 1950–51 and 1952–53, each time playing the minimum number of games that an amateur could play at the professional level. He led the Quebec Senior Hockey League in scoring in 1953. However, he did not appear to show much interest in playing professionally. Finally, Selke got an idea—if the QSHL were somehow turned into a professional league, Béliveau would be a professional as well, and under the terms of the B-form he would have to sign with the Habs. At Selke's suggestion, the Canadiens' owners, the Canadian Arena Company, bought the QSHL and converted it from an amateur league to a minor pro league. This forced Béliveau to join the Canadiens for the 1953–54 NHL season (though the Habs owned the NHL rights to all of the league's players in any case).  Béliveau retired at the end of the 1970–71 NHL season as his team's all-time leader in points, second all-time in goals and the NHL's all-time leading playoff scorer. He scored 507 goals and had 712 assists for 1,219 points in 1,125 NHL regular-season games plus 79 goals and 97 assists for 176 points in 162 playoff games. His jersey number (#4) was retired on October 9, 1971. In 1972, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is now the second all-time leading scorer in Canadiens history, behind Guy Lafleur. Only Henri Richard (1256 games) and Larry Robinson (1202 games) played more games for the Habs. Béliveau's name appears on the Stanley Cup a record seventeen times, including seven times as an executive for the Canadiens: 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1986, 1993. In addition, to winning the Hart Trophy as league MVP twice, he finished second in the voting a further four times, and third once. As well, in addition to winning the Art Ross Trophy as the leading scorer once, he finished second twice and third four times, illustrating his remarkable long-term consistency. In 1998, "The Hockey News" named Béliveau the seventh greatest NHL player of all time. Upon his retirement, the Canadiens named Béliveau a vice president and director of public relations.  Béliveau was never known as an activist during his playing days. However, he was one of several players who threatened to pull out of the Hall of Fame if disgraced ex-NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson had been allowed to stay in after being convicted of fraud and embezzlement. He also supported the NHL's position during the 2004–05 NHL lockout, arguing that the players' demands would damage the sport and the league.

Personal life and death.

Béliveau met his future wife, Elise Couture, in 1950 in Quebec City. The couple married on June 27, 1953, at St. Patrick's Church there, and had one child together, daughter Hélène. In 1957, Beliveau appeared in full uniform on the American game show "To Tell the Truth".  Upon retiring as a player in 1971 Béliveau set up the charitable Jean Béliveau Foundation, transferred two decades later to the Society for Disabled Children in 1993.  In the early 1990s, he twice declined Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s offer of a Senate appointment, as he believed legislators should only be elected. In 1994 Prime Minister Jean Chrétien offered him the post of Governor General of Canada. Béliveau declined in order to be with his daughter and two grandchildren, Mylene and Magalie, whose father, a Quebec policeman, had committed suicide when the girls were five and three.  Beginning in the 1990s, Béliveau suffered from multiple health issues. He was first hospitalized for cardiac problems in 1996. In 2000, he was treated for a neck tumour. NHL.com reported on January 21, 2010, that Béliveau was admitted to Montréal General Hospital the previous evening with an apparent stroke that was not thought to be life-threatening. Béliveau was hospitalized with a stroke again on February 28, 2012.  Béliveau died on December 2, 2014, at the age of 83, in Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal. His public funeral was held at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in Montreal.

Legacy.

Béliveau was given many awards, including several honorary doctorates from Canadian universities, plus the Loyola Medal from Concordia University in 1995. He was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 1988, promoted to Officer in 2006 and Grand Officer in 2010.  On May 6, 1998, Béliveau was made by Governor General Roméo LeBlanc a Companion of the Order of Canada, then the country's highest civilian award. In 2001, his name was added to Canada's Walk of Fame, the same year he was honoured with his portrait on a Canadian postage stamp. In August 2008, the Canadian Pacific Railway named a station in his honour. On June 29, 2009, he was named an honorary captain of the men's national team for the 2010 Winter Olympics.  On Friday December 4, 2014 the Montreal Canadiens started sewing on a patch that had the number "4" in a black circle on the left side of the jersey.

Joseph Jean Arthur Béliveau (August 31, 1931 – December 2, 2014) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played parts of 20 seasons with the National Hockey League's (NHL) Montreal Canadiens from 1950 to 1971. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972, "Le Gros Bill" Béliveau is widely regarded as one of the Ten Greatest NHL players of all time. Born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Béliveau first played professionally in the Quebec Major Hockey League (QMHL). He made his NHL debut with the Canadiens in 1950, but chose to remain in the QMHL full-time until 1953.


Description.

The plants are unusual in being ferns with simple, undivided fronds. The tongue-shaped leaves have given rise to the common name "Hart's tongue fern"; a hart being an adult male red deer. The sori pattern is reminiscent of a centipede's legs, and "scolopendrium" is Latin for "centipede". The leaves are 10–60 cm long and 3–6 cm broad, with sori arranged in rows perpendicular to the rachis.

Taxonomy.

"A. scolopendrium", with its close relative "A. sagittatum", has also been placed in a segregate genus "Phyllitis". "A. scolopendrium" forms hybrids with other "Asplenium" species, including those species sometimes classified in the separate genus "Camptosorus", which is one reason that both "Phyllitis" and "Camptosorus" species are now generally included in "Asplenium". On the other hand, a recent phylogenetic study of the family Aspleniaceae suggests that "A. scolopendrium" is only distantly related to other "Asplenium" species, and that the genus "Phyllitis" should again be recognized.

Etymology.

The Latin specific epithet "scolopendrium" is derived from the Greek "skolopendra", meaning a centipede or millipede. The underside of the fronds supposedly resembles those insects.

Distribution and habitat.

"Asplenium scolopendrium" is a common diploid species in Europe. In North America it occurs in rare, widely scattered populations that have been given varietal status, "A. scolopendrium" var. "americanum". Morphological differences are minor, but the North American populations are tetraploid.  The plants grow on neutral and lime-rich substrates, including moist soil and damp crevices in old walls, most commonly in shaded situations but occasionally in full sun; plants in full sun are usually stunted and yellowish in colour, while those in full shade are dark green and luxuriant. The rare occurrences of the North American form in the southeastern US are found exclusively in sinkhole pits. These populations may be relics of cooler Pleistocene climates.  In the United States, "A. scolopendrium" var. "americanum" was declared endangered in 1989. The reason that the European variety is relatively widespread, and the American variety a rarity, has apparently not been established. A third variety, "A. scolopendrium" var. "lindenii", occurs in southern Mexico and Hispaniola.  "A. scolopendrium" var. "americanum" grows in a small number of caves in the United States, two of them being in Alabama. One is Fern Cave, a public cave in Jackson County, Alabama, where it has declined heavily due to illegal plant collecting. The other is located at an undisclosed pit in Morgan County that is off limits due to the land around it being both protected by private landowners and the National Speleological Society.

Uses.

Cultivation.

"Asplenium scolopendrium" is often grown as an ornamental plant, with several cultivars selected with varying frond form, including with frilled frond margins, forked fronds and cristate forms. The species has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, as has the cultivar 'Angustatum'.  The American variety is reputed to be difficult to cultivate, and even in North America most, if not all, cultivated plants are derived from the European forms.

Herbal medicine.

This fern was used in the 1800s as a medicinal plant in folk medicine as a spleen tonic and for other uses.

Asplenium scolopendrium, known as hart's-tongue or hart's-tongue fern (syn. "Phyllitis scolopendrium") is an evergreen fern in the genus "Asplenium", of the Northern Hemisphere.


Biography.

Dumézil's father was a classicist and Georges became interested in ancient languages at a young age (it has been said that he could read the "Aeneid" in Latin at the age of nine) and, by the end of his life, he is said to have spoken many languages fluently. During his time in secondary school, he was also influenced by Michel Bréal, a leading French philologist who was the grandfather of one of his classmates. By the time that he entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1916, he was already on the road to studying linguistics and the classics.  Dumézil's studies were delayed by World War I, when he was drafted and served as an artillery officer. After the war, he resumed them and was particularly influenced by Antoine Meillet. He aggregated in 1919 in Classics and received his doctorate in 1924 after writing a thesis comparing the common origins of the Greek ambrosia and a similarly named Indian drink "Amrita", which was said to make its imbiber immortal. The dissertation was controversial because some of the examiners, such as Henri Hubert, thought that Dumézil took liberty with the facts to generate a more beautiful interpretation (that was a common criticism of Dumézil's work).  Feeling that he had little place in the French academy, Dumézil moved to Turkey in 1925 to teach at the University of Istanbul, created as part of Kemal Atatürk's attempt to create a modern, secular nation. He learned Turkish and developed an interest in the Ubykh language and travelled widely in Russia, Turkey and the Caucasus. As a result, he became one of the premier experts of Caucasian languages to work in French. He compared the Etruscan language with the Caucasian languages. In 1931, he took another position, in Uppsala, Sweden, which allowed him to improve his skills in the Germanic stock of Indo-European.  In 1929, he published "Flamen-Brahman", the first full statement of his trifunctional hypothesis; the idea was repeated in "Mitra-Varuna", perhaps his most accessible work.  Dumézil's influence rose in the mid-1930s. In 1935 he left Uppsala to take up a chair of Comparative Religion of Indo-European Peoples at the prestigious École Pratique des Hautes Études. He was named a professor at the Collège de France in 1949, and was finally elected to the Académie française in 1978 thanks to the patronage of his colleague and fellow student of myth, Claude Lévi-Strauss. In 1984 he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca.  Dumézil is also well known for mentoring many younger French scholars. Michel Foucault, for instance, benefitted from his patronage when Dumézil arranged for him to teach temporarily in Uppsala early on in his career. Georges Charachidzé, a historian and linguist of Georgian origin under Dumézil's tutelage, became a noted specialist of the Caucasian cultures and aided Dumézil in the reconstruction of the Ubykh language.  Many themes of Dumézil's work have continued influence in ancient religious studies: his impulse to comparative study, and his basic insight that polytheistic gods must be studied not simply by themselves but in the pairs and the ensembles in which their worshippers grouped them.

Criticism.

Dumézil's politics are much more often criticised than his monolithic scholarly work. Bruce Lincoln has leveled accusations of fascism against Dumézil. The scholars Arnaldo Momigliano, Carlo Ginzburg, and Lincoln argue that Dumézil was in favor of a traditional hierarchical order in Europe (e.g. three estates), that his Indo-European dualism and tripartite ideology may be also related to Italian and French fascist ideas and that he was in favor of French fascism (e.g. integralism); none of them thought that he was a supporter of German Nazism. Lincoln states: "[T]hose on the New Right, like Alain de Benoist, Jean Haudry, or Roger Pearson, cite Dumézil's writings in support of their positions—their fondness for hierarchy and authority, for example, their antipathy toward egalitarianism and the ideals of the Enlightenment, or their triumphal view of ‘Indo-Europeans’ as superior to all other peoples—we may suspect them of appropriating nothing other than positions of the Old Right that have been brilliantly recoded and misrepresented first as ancient wisdom, and second as scholarly discourse."  In the 1930s, Dumézil supported the far-right, royalist, anti-democratic and anti-German Action Française and held for a while Benito Mussolini in high regard, while steadfastly opposing Nazism and voicing as a journalist his opposition to the growing danger posed by German nationalism. However, Dumézil never joined Action Française, contending that "too many things separated [him] from them. The credo of the Action Française was a block: it forbade both appreciating Edmond Rostand and believing in the innocence of Captain Dreyfus." Dumézil joined the Free Masonry in the early 1930s, as a member of the Portique lodge of the Grande Loge de France of the Scottish Rite and thus was summarily dismissed from his teaching positions and from the civil service by the Vichy State.  Lincoln notes that Dumézil "maintained a cautiously ambiguous relation" with Nouvelle Droite figures like de Benoist and Haudry, "both of whom courted him avidly". Among his "closest colleagues" were Otto Höfler (who was in the SS-"Ahnenerbe"), Jan de Vries (a Nazi collaborator) and Stig Wikander (who had an ambiguous relation to Nazism). In response to a text written by Momigliano indicating that he might have been keen on Nazi ideology, Dumézil wrote "fascist and Nazi conceptions of a hierarchical society have never been part of my intuition nor of my conduct".  Such criticism of Dumézil has been emphatically disputed by philosopher Didier Eribon in his 1992 book "Faut-il brûler Dumézil? Mythologie, science et politique" [Should Dumézil Be Burned? Mythology, Science and Politics]. In a survey article on Dumézil's work, Dean A. Miller devoted two pages on the case and concluded that "at its worst, the effort tries to remove the importance of whole theoretical constructions on the basis of some adduced or invented political flaw found in the past, often the remote past, of their creator. This derogation is not simple-minded 'political correctness'. It is, [again] in my opinion, the blindest intellectual self-mutilation".  In order to clarify the debate regarding his political opinion, Georges Dumézil has declared to Eribon in 1987: "the principle, not simply monarchical, but dynastic, which protects the highest office of the State from caprices and ambitions, seemed to me, and still seems to me, preferable to the generalized election in which we have been living since Danton and Bonaparte. The example of the [constitutional] monarchies of the North (of Europe) confirmed to me this feeling. Of course, the formula is not applicable in France."

Georges Dumézil (; 4 March 1898 – 11 October 1986, Paris) was a French comparative philologist best known for his analysis of sovereignty and power in Proto-Indo-European religion and society. He is considered one of the major contributors to mythography, in particular for his formulation of the trifunctional hypothesis of social class in ancient societies.


Early career.

Born in Oneglia (today part of the city of Imperia), he went to the Military Academy of Modena, and became an Army officer in the new Kingdom of Italy. De Amicis fought in the battle of Custoza during the Third Independence War, a defeat of Savoy forces against the Austrian Empire; the spectacle left him disappointed, and contributed to his later decision to leave military life.  In Florence, he wrote his first sketches dealing with his frontline experience, collected as "La vita militare" ("Military Life", 1868), and first published by the journal of the Ministry of Defense, "L'Italia Militare". In 1870, he joined the staff of the journal "La Nazione" in Rome, and his correspondence at the time later served as base for his travel writings: "Spagna" (1873), "Olanda" (1874), "Ricordi di Londra" (1874), "Marocco" (1876), "Constantinople" (1878), "Ricordi di Parigi" (1879). A new edition of "Costantinople", considered by many his masterpiece and the best description of the city in the 19th century, was published in 2005, with a foreword by Umberto Eco.

"Heart" success.

"Heart" was issued by Treves on 17 October 1886, the first day of school in Italy. Its success was immense: in a few months it was printed in 40 Italian editions and translated into dozens of languages. Its praise for the creation of the united Italian state in the previous decade contributed to its reception, but also led to criticism from some Roman Catholic politicians for failing to depict the nature of the Holy See's opposition to the annexation of Rome.

Later years.

The nationalist message visible in De Amicis' works was soon fused with a commitment to socialism (a trend visible within "Heart"). In 1896, he adhered to the Italian Socialist Party. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1901.  His later works include: "Sull'oceano" (1889), dealing with the plight of Italian emigrants overseas, "Il romanzo di un maestro" (1890), "Amore e ginnastica" (1892), "Maestrina degli operai" (1895), "La carrozza di tutti" (1899), "L'idioma gentile" (1905), and "Nuovi ritratti letterari e artistici" (1908). At the same time, he contributed to the Turin-based "Il Grido del Popolo" - his articles were collected as "Questione sociale" ("Social Issues", 1894).  De Amicis died in Bordighera at the "Hotel de la Reine", which he chose because it was George MacDonald's Casa Coraggio, Bordighera. His last years were marked by tragedy and spent in reclusion; he was marked by his mother's death, and the frequent conflicts with his wife - ultimately, these were the source of an even greater emotional shock for De Amicis, as they led to his son Furio's suicide (as schoolchildren, Furio and his brother Ugo had served as inspiration for "Heart").

Legacy.

Alberto Brambilla of Sorbonne University wrote that "historians of Italian literature consider him a “minor” author" but that the publication of "Constantinople" was evidence that he was "one best-known Italian authors abroad".

Edmondo De Amicis (; 21 October 1846 – 11 March 1908) was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer. His best-known book is "Cuore", a children's novel translated into English as "Heart".


Summary.

Marcuse strongly criticizes consumerism and modern "industrial society", which he claims is a form of social control. Marcuse argues that while the system we live in may claim to be democratic, it is actually totalitarian. A form of technological rationality has imposed itself on every aspect of culture and public life, and has become hegemonic. Our identification with this hegemonic ideology of modern industrial society, this ideology does not represent a form of "false-conscious", but rather has succeeded in becoming reality.  Modern industrial societies have furthermore created an "affluent society", which in increasing comfort have disguised the exploitative nature of the system, and have therefore strengthened means of domination and control. Modern "affluent society" therefore limits opportunities for political revolution against capitalism.  In modern consumer societies, Marcuse argues that a small number of individuals are empowered to dictate our perceptions of freedom by providing us with opportunities to buy our happiness. In this state of "unfreedom", consumers act irrationally by working more than they are required to in order to fulfill actual basic needs, by ignoring the psychologically destructive effects, by ignoring the waste and environmental damage it causes, and by searching for social connection through material items.  It is even more irrational in the sense that the creation of new products, calling for the disposal of old products, fuels the economy and encourages the need to work more to buy more. An individual loses his humanity and becomes a tool in the industrial machine and a cog in the consumer machine. Additionally, advertising sustains consumerism, which disintegrates societal demeanor, delivered in bulk and informing the masses that happiness can be bought, an idea that is psychologically damaging.  There are alternatives to counter the consumer lifestyle. Anti-consumerism is a lifestyle that demotes any unnecessary consumption, as well as unnecessary work, waste, etc. But even this alternative is complicated by the extreme interpenetration of advertising and commodification because everything is a commodity, even those things that are actual needs.

Reception.

The critical theorist Douglas Kellner wrote that "One-Dimensional Man" was one of the most important books of the 1960s and one of the most subversive books of the twentieth century. Despite its pessimism, represented by the citation of the words of Walter Benjamin at the end of this book that ""Nur um der Hoffnungslosen willen ist uns die Hoffnung gegeben"" ("It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us"), it influenced many in the New Left as it articulated their growing dissatisfaction with both capitalist societies and Soviet communist societies.  The philosopher Stephen Hicks argues that the book's popularity marked "a strong turn towards irrationality and violence among younger Leftists."  The philosopher Ronald Aronson wrote that "One-Dimensional Man" is more prescient than Marcuse could have ever realized and that it is more relevant today than ever.

One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society is a 1964 book by the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in which the author offers a wide-ranging critique of both contemporary capitalism and the Communist society of the Soviet Union, documenting the parallel rise of new forms of social repression in both these societies, as well as the decline of revolutionary potential in the West. He argues that "advanced industrial society" created false needs, which integrated individuals into the existing system of production and consumption via mass media, advertising, industrial management, and contemporary modes of thought.


Overview.

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a standard for business process modeling that provides a graphical notation for specifying business processes in a "Business Process Diagram" (BPD), based on a flowcharting technique very similar to activity diagrams from Unified Modeling Language (UML). The objective of BPMN is to support business process management, for both technical users and business users, by providing a notation that is intuitive to business users, yet able to represent complex process semantics. The BPMN specification also provides a mapping between the graphics of the notation and the underlying constructs of execution languages, particularly Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).  BPMN has been designed to provide a standard notation readily understandable by all business stakeholders, typically including business analysts, technical developers and business managers. BPMN can therefore be used to support the generally desirable aim of all stakeholders on a project adopting a common language to describe processes, helping to avoid communication gaps that can arise between business process design and implementation.  BPMN is one of a number of business process modeling language standards used by modeling tools and processes. While the current variety of languages may suit different modeling environments, there are those who advocate for the development or emergence of a single, comprehensive standard, combining the strengths of different existing languages. It is suggested that in time, this could help to unify the expression of basic business process concepts (e.g., public and private processes, choreographies), as well as advanced process concepts (e.g., exception handling, transaction compensation).  Two new standards, using a similar approach to BPMN have been developed, addressing case management modeling (Case Management Model and Notation) and decision modeling, the (Decision Model and Notation).

Topics.

Scope.

BPMN is constrained to support only the concepts of modeling applicable to business processes. Other types of modeling done by organizations for non-process purposes are out of scope for BPMN. Examples of modeling excluded from BPMN are:  In addition, while BPMN shows the flow of data (messages), and the association of data artifacts to activities, it is not a data flow diagram.

Elements.

BPMN models are expressed by simple diagrams constructed from a limited set of graphical elements. For both business users and developers, they simplify understanding of business activities' flow and process. BPMN's four basic element categories are:  These four categories enable creation of simple business process diagrams (BPDs). BPDs also permit making new types of flow object or artifact, to make the diagram more understandable.

Flow objects and connecting objects.

"Flow objects" are the main describing elements within BPMN, and consist of three core elements: events, activities, and gateways.  "Flow objects" are connected to each other using Connecting objects, which are of three types: sequences, messages, and associations.

Swim lanes and artifacts.

Swim lanes are a visual mechanism of organising and categorising activities, based on cross functional flowcharting, and in BPMN consist of two types:  Artifacts allow developers to bring some more information into the model/diagram. In this way the model/diagram becomes more readable. There are three pre-defined Artefacts and they are:

BPMN 2.0.2.

The vision of BPMN 2.0.2 is to have one single specification for a new Business Process Model and Notation that defines the notation, metamodel and interchange format but with a modified name that still preserves the "BPMN" brand. The features include:  The current version of the specification was released in January 2014.

Types of BPMN sub-model.

Business process modeling is used to communicate a wide variety of information to a wide variety of audiences. BPMN is designed to cover this wide range of usage and allows modeling of end-to-end business processes to allow the viewer of the Diagram to be able to easily differentiate between sections of a BPMN Diagram. There are three basic types of sub-models within an end-to-end BPMN model: Private (internal) business processes, Abstract (public) processes, and Collaboration (global) processes:  Within and between these three BPMN sub-models, many types of Diagrams can be created. The following are the types of business processes that can be modeled with BPMN (those with asterisks may not map to an executable language):  BPMN is designed to allow all the above types of Diagrams. However, it should be cautioned that if too many types of sub-models are combined, such as three or more private processes with message flow between each of them, then the Diagram may become difficult to understand. Thus, the OMG recommends that the modeler pick a focused purpose for the BPD, such as a private or collaboration process.

Comparison with other process modeling notations.

Event-driven process chains (EPC) and BPMN are two notations with similar expressivity when process modeling is concerned. A BPMN model can be transformed into an EPC model. Conversely, an EPC model can be transformed into a BPMN model with only a slight loss of information. A study showed that for the same process, the BPMN model may need around 40% less elements than the corresponding EPC model, but with a slightly larger set of symbols. The BPMN model would therefore be easier to read. The conversion between the two notations can be automated.  UML activity diagrams and BPMN are two notations that can be used to model the same processes: a subset of the activity diagram elements have a similar semantic than BPMN elements, despite the smaller and less expressive set of symbols. A study showed that both types of process models appear to have the same level of readability for inexperienced users, despite the higher formal constraints of an activity diagram.

Weaknesses.

The weaknesses of BPMN could relate to:

BPEL and BPMN.

The BPMN specification includes an informal and partial mapping from BPMN to BPEL 1.1. A more detailed mapping of BPMN to BPEL has been implemented in a number of tools, including an open-source tool known as BPMN2BPEL. However, the development of these tools has exposed fundamental differences between BPMN and BPEL, which make it very difficult, and in some cases impossible, to generate human-readable BPEL code from BPMN models. Even more difficult is the problem of BPMN-to-BPEL "round-trip" engineering: generating BPEL code from BPMN diagrams and maintaining the original BPMN model and the generated BPEL code synchronized, in the sense that any modification to one is propagated to the other.

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model. Originally developed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI), BPMN has been maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG) since the two organizations merged in 2005. Version 2.0 of BPMN was released in January 2011, at which point the name was amended to Business Process Model "and" Notation to reflect the introduction of execution semantics, which were introduced alongside the existing notational and diagramming elements. Though it is an OMG specification, BPMN is also ratified as ISO 19510. The latest version is BPMN 2.0.2, published in January 2014.


Plot.

In the distant future, the spaceship "Hunter-Gratzner" is transporting passengers in cryostasis. Among those are a Muslim preacher who goes by the title of Imam, accompanied by three young sons, traveling to New Mecca, a teenager named Jack, a pair of prospectors named Shazza and Zeke, a merchant named Paris and a law enforcement officer, William J. Johns, who is escorting the notorious criminal Richard B. Riddick. Riddick has surgically modified eyes that allow him to see in the dark but are highly sensitive to light.  The Micrometeoroids from a comet rupture the ship's hull, killing the captain and sending the ship off course. The surviving crew members attempt to land the ship on a nearby planet. As the ship falls apart, docking pilot Carolyn Fry attempts to dump the passenger section to reduce their weight but co-pilot Owens prevents her. During the crash, several passenger compartments are destroyed and Owens is fatally injured.  The group explores their surroundings, noticing that the three suns surrounding the planet keep it in perpetual daylight. They find an abandoned geological research settlement, with a water well and a dropship with drained batteries. Zeke is killed but his body is missing and Riddick is immediately suspected. While searching for Zeke's body, Fry barely escapes from photosensitive aggressive underground creatures. Johns offers Riddick a deal: if he helps them escape the planet, he'll go free.  After the group takes a power cell to the dropship, one of the young sons is ambushed and eaten inside one of the buildings, and they realize the geologists were all killed by the creatures. An orrery shows that an eclipse of the entire planet is imminent so the creatures will be free to hunt above ground. Johns informs Fry that Riddick can pilot the dropship and Riddick reveals to Fry that Johns is actually a bounty hunter and a morphine addict.  The group returns to the crash site on a solar-powered sand truck to retrieve more power cells for the dropship before the eclipse, but it begins just as they get there. Creatures pour out of the ground and rip Shazza in half. After regrouping, Riddick agrees to Fry and the others to lead them back to the dropship on foot through the darkness, thanks to his special sight, and the group salvages for any sources of light they can find to scare away the creatures. The trip back to the dropship starts with the power of their light sources getting accidentally cut after Paris is killed and has them cross their tracks. After Riddick reveals to the group Jack is actually female and the scent of her blood is drawing the most attention from the creatures, Johns suggests to Riddick to use Jack as bait to keep the creatures away from the rest of the group, but Riddick engages Johns in a hand-to-hand fight, wounds him and leaves him as a distraction instead. The rest of the survivors push on, while Riddick drags the power cells behind him.  After the Imam's last child is killed and rainfall starts putting out their Molotov torches, the group, down to Riddick, Fry, Jack and Imam, finds shelter in a small cave not far from the settlement. Riddick leaves them there and takes the power cells to the dropship. Inside the cave, they discover bio-luminescent worms, which they stuff in the empty bottles to use as light. Fry leaves the cave and finds Riddick powering up the ship, ready to leave without them. She pleads with him to help her rescue the others, but surprisingly, he just offers to take her with him. Fry, however, refuses and demands that she and Riddick will go back and save the Imam and Jack. Riddick agrees out of sheer fascination with this decision. They find the Imam and Jack, and while returning to the ship Riddick is separated from the group and wounded by the creatures; Fry goes back to help Riddick but is speared and carried off by a creature after attempting to save him. Riddick makes it to the ship and waits until the last possible moment before engaging the engines to incinerate as many creatures as possible. While leaving the planet, Jack asks Riddick what they should tell the authorities about him; he tells her to say that Riddick died on the planet.

Reception.

"Pitch Black" opened in 1,832 theaters on 18 February 2000, grossing $11,577,688 over its opening weekend and ranking 4th at the box office. The film has a domestic gross of $39,240,659 and an international gross of $13,947,000, giving it a worldwide total of $53,187,659.

Critical response.

The film received mixed reviews. At review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 59% approval rating based on 109 reviews, with an average rating of 5.63/10. The site's consensus reads: "Despite an interesting premise (and a starmaking turn from Vin Diesel), "Pitch Black" is too derivative and formulaic to fully recommend to sci-fi or action fans".  Roger Ebert gave the film 2 out of 4 stars. He gives the film credit for some promising story elements and a nice look, but expresses disappointment that more wasn't done with the alien world and that he was underwhelmed by the recycled human conflicts. He concluded it was "A step backward from "The Arrival"."

Home media.

"Pitch Black" was released on VHS and DVD on October 10, 2000. It was re-released on DVD in 2004 as "The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black". It was released on HD DVD on July 11, 2006, and on Blu-ray on March 31, 2009. The disc contains the theatrical edition and an unrated director's cut edition, containing 2 more minutes of extra material. A LaserDisc release was also planned, but cancelled by mid-2001 due to waning support for that format.

Related works.

The movie's sequel, "The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004), was also directed by David Twohy. A short animated movie released the same year, "" (2004), was directed by Peter Chung. "Dark Fury" bridges the gap between "Pitch Black" and "Chronicles of Riddick".  To tie in with the sequel, the film was novelized under the name "The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black". The novel was written by Frank Lauria.  In 2000, a prequel to "Pitch Black" was released named "Into Pitch Black", which was supposed to be a documentary film. "", a game for the Xbox and the PC, was also released in 2004 to critical acclaim. A remake of "Butcher Bay", including a new campaign, was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on 7 April 2009, under the title "".  "Riddick", a live-action sequel to "The Chronicles of Riddick", opened on September 6, 2013, with both David Twohy and Vin Diesel attached. The sequel ties in more closely to the original "Pitch Black".

Pitch Black (titled The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black on its DVD re-release) is a 2000 American science fiction action horror film co-written and directed by David Twohy. The film stars Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Keith David. Dangerous criminal Richard B. Riddick (Diesel) is being transported to prison in a spacecraft. When the spaceship is damaged by comet debris and makes an emergency crash landing on an empty desert planet, Riddick escapes. However, when predatory alien creatures begin attacking the survivors, Riddick joins forces with the surviving crew and other passengers to develop a plan to escape the planet.


History.

One tradition ascribes the first Temple of Concord to a vow made by Camillus in 367 BC, on the occasion of the "Lex Licinia Sextia", the law passed by the tribunes Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus, opening the consulship to the plebeians. The two had prevented the election of any magistrates for a period of several years, as part of the conflict of the orders. Nominated dictator to face an invasion of the Gauls, Camillus, encouraged by his fellow patrician Marcus Fabius Ambustus, Stolo's father-in-law, determined to resolve the crisis by declaring his support for the law, and vowing a temple to Concordia, symbolizing reconciliation between the patricians and plebeians.  Camillus' vow is not mentioned by Livy, who instead describes the dedication of the Temple of Concord in the Vulcanal, a precinct sacred to Vulcan on the western end of the forum, by the aedile Gnaeus Flavius in 304 BC. Flavius' actions were an affront to the senate, partly because he had undertaken the matter without first consulting them, and partly because of his low social standing: not only was Flavius a plebeian, but he was the son of a freedman, and had previously served as a scribe to Appius Claudius Caecus. The Pontifex Maximus, Rome's chief priest, was compelled to instruct Flavius on the proper formulae for dedicating a temple. Cicero and Pliny report that Flavius was a scribe, rather than aedile, at the time of the dedication, and a law was passed immediately afterward forbidding anyone from dedicating a temple without the authorization of the senate or a majority of the plebeian tribunes.  Yet a third Temple of Concord was begun in 217 BC, early in the Second Punic War, by the "duumviri" Marcus Pupius and Caeso Quinctius Flamininus, in fulfillment of a vow made by the praetor Lucius Manlius Vulso on the occasion of his deliverance from the Gauls in 218. The reason why Manlius vowed a temple to "Concordia" is not immediately apparent, but Livy alludes to a mutiny that had apparently occurred among the praetor's men. The temple was completed and dedicated the following year by the "duumviri" Marcus and Gaius Atilius.  The murder of Gaius Gracchus in 121 BC marked a low point in the relationship between the emerging Roman aristocracy and the popular party, and was immediately followed by the reconstruction of the Temple of Concord by Lucius Opimius at the senate's behest, which was regarded as an utterly insincere attempt to clothe its actions in a symbolic act of reconciliation.  From this period, the temple was frequently used as a meeting place for both the Senate and the Arval Brethren. Two important Senate meetings, including one in which Cicero delivered his Fourth Catilinarian speech and another in which Sejanus was condemned to death, took place in the Temple of Concord.  A statue of Victoria placed on the roof of the temple was struck by lightning in 211 BC, and prodigies were reported in the Concordiae, the neighborhood of the temple, in 183 and 181. Little else is heard of the temple until 7 BC, when the future emperor Tiberius undertook another restoration, which lasted until AD 10, when the structure was rededicated on the 16th of January as the "Aedes Concordiae Augustae", the Temple of Concordia of Augustus.  This new temple served as a museum for a number of works of art, many of which are described by Pliny. The fine collection consisted primarily of Greek art including a statue of Hestia, several group bronzes, and panel paintings by famous Greek painters including Zeuxis, Nikias and Theoros.  The temple is occasionally mentioned in imperial times, and may have been restored again following a fire in AD 284. If still in use, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans under the Christian emperors of the late fourth century. The building, however, remained standing. By the eighth century, the temple was reportedly in poor condition, and in danger of collapsing.  The temple was razed "circa" 1450, and the stone turned into a lime kiln to recover the marble for building.

Architecture.

The Temple of Concord, constructed by Lucius Opimus during the Republican period, had a typical rectangular podium (40.8m x 30m). Based on the construction methods used in the base and support walls, the porch had eight Corinthian columns made out of travertine drums covered in stucco.  The later construction of the Temple of Concordia Augusta expanded and altered the previous temple. Backed up against the Tabularium at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, the design of the temple had to accommodate the limitations of the site. The cella of the temple, for instance, is almost twice as wide (45m) as it is deep (24m), as is the pronaos. A steep flight of stairs led up to the entrance of the temple on the long side, which would have been flanked by statues of Hercules and Mercury, symbolizing security and prosperity. A fragment of the marble threshold of the cella is preserved and features an engraved caduceus or wand of Mercury, which represented peace and reconciliation. Three statues were positioned on the apex of the pediment, which represented Concord along with two other goddess, Pax and Salus (or Securitas and Fortuna). Two soldiers, representing Tiberius and his brother Drusus, stood on either side of them. In the cella, a row of Corinthian columns rose from a continuous plinth projecting from the wall, which divided the cella into bays, each containing a niche. The capitals of these columns had pairs of leaping rams in place of the corner volutes. Only the platform now remains, partially covered by a road up to the Capitol.

Other temples.

The main temple in the Forum in Rome seems to have been a model for temples to the goddess elsewhere in the empire—a reproduction of this temple was found at Mérida in Spain, during the excavations of the town's forum in 2002.

The Temple of Concord () in the ancient city of Rome refers to a series of shrines or temples dedicated to the Roman goddess Concordia, and erected at the western end of the Roman Forum. The earliest temple is believed to have been vowed by Marcus Furius Camillus in 367 BC, but it may not have been built until 218 BC by L. Manlius. The temple was rebuilt in 121 BC, and again by the future emperor Tiberius between 7 BC and AD 10.