The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy ( ), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus Cavia in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word cavy to describe the animal, while in scientific and laboratory contexts, it is far more commonly referred to by the common name guinea pig. Despite their common name, guinea pigs are not native to Guinea, nor are they closely related biologically to pigs, and the origin of the name is still unclear. They originated in the Andes of South America. Studies based on biochemistry and hybridization suggest they are domesticated animals that do not exist naturally in the wild, descendants of a closely related cavy species such as C. tschudii. They were originally domesticated as livestock for a source of meat, and are still consumed in some parts of the world.

In Western society, the guinea pig has enjoyed widespread popularity as a pet since its introduction to Europe and North America by European traders in the 16th century. Their docile nature, friendly responsiveness to handling and feeding, and the relative ease of caring for them have continued to make guinea pigs a popular choice of household pet. Organizations devoted to the competitive breeding of guinea pigs have been formed worldwide. Many specialized breeds, with varying coat colors and textures, are selected by breeders.

Livestock breeds of the guinea pig play an important role in folk culture for many indigenous Andean peoples, especially as a food source. The animals are also used in folk medicine and in community religious ceremonies. They are raised for their meat and are a culinary staple in the Andes Mountains, where they are known as cuy. In the 1960s a modern breeding program was started in Peru that resulted in large breeds known as cuy mejorados (improved cuy). Marketers tried to increase consumption of the animal outside South America.

Biological experimentation on domestic guinea pigs has been carried out since the 17th century. The animals were used so frequently as model organisms in the 19th and 20th centuries that the epithet guinea pig came into use to describe a human test subject. Since that time, they have been largely replaced by other rodents, such as mice and rats. However, they are still used in research, primarily as models to study such human medical conditions as juvenile diabetes, tuberculosis, scurvy (like humans, they require dietary intake of vitamin C), and pregnancy complications.

History

Cavia porcellus is not found naturally in the wild; it is likely descended from closely related species of cavies, such as C. aperea, C. fulgida, and C. tschudii, which are still commonly found in various regions of South America. Studies from 2007 to 2010 applied molecular markers, and studied the skull and skeletal morphology of current and mummified animals, thereby revealing the ancestor to most likely be C. tschudii. Some species of cavy identified in the 20th century, such as C. anolaimae and C. guianae, may be domestic guinea pigs that have become feral by reintroduction into the wild.

Wild cavies are found on grassy plains and occupy an ecological niche similar to that of cattle. They are social animals, living in the wild in small groups ("herds") that consist of several females ("sows"), a male ("boar"), and their young ("pups" not "piglets", a break with the preceding porcine nomenclature). Herds of animals move together, eating grass or other vegetation, yet do not store food. While they do not burrow themselves or build nests, they frequently seek shelter in the burrows of other animals, as well as in crevices and tunnels formed by vegetation. They are crepuscular and tend to be most active during dawn and dusk, when it is harder for predators to spot them.

Regionally known as cuy, the guinea pig was first domesticated as early as 5000 BC for food by tribes in the Andean region of South America (the present-day southern part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), some thousands of years after the domestication of the South American camelids. Statues dating from circa 500 BC to 500 AD that depict guinea pigs have been unearthed in archaeological digs in Peru and Ecuador. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped animals and often depicted the guinea pig in their art.

From about 1200 to the Spanish conquest in 1532, the indigenous peoples used selective breeding to develop many varieties of domestic guinea pigs, which formed the basis for some of the modern domestic breeds. They continue to be a food source in the region; many households in the Andean highlands raise the animal, which subsists on the family's vegetable scraps.

Folklore traditions involving guinea pigs are numerous; they are exchanged as gifts, used in customary social and religious ceremonies, and frequently referred to in spoken metaphors.  They also are used in traditional healing rituals by folk doctors, or curanderos, who use the animals to diagnose diseases such as jaundice, rheumatism, arthritis, and typhus. They are rubbed against the bodies of the sick, and are seen as a supernatural medium. Black guinea pigs are considered especially useful for diagnoses. The animal may be cut open and its entrails examined to determine whether the cure was effective. These methods are widely accepted in many parts of the Andes, where Western medicine is either unavailable or distrusted.

Spanish, Dutch, and English traders took guinea pigs to Europe, where they quickly became popular as exotic pets among the upper classes and royalty, including Queen Elizabeth I. The earliest known written account of the guinea pig dates from 1547, in a description of the animal from Santo Domingo. Because cavies are not native to Hispaniola, the animal was believed to have been earlier introduced there by Spanish travelers. However, based on more recent excavations on West Indian islands, the animal must have been introduced to the Caribbean around 500 BC by ceramic-making horticulturalists from South America. It was present in the Ostionoid period on Puerto Rico, for example, long before the advent of the Spaniards.

The guinea pig was first described in the West in 1554 by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner. Its binomial scientific name was first used by Erxleben in 1777; it is an amalgam of Pallas' generic designation (1766) and Linnaeus' specific conferral (1758).

The earliest-known European illustration of a domestic guinea pig is a painting (artist unknown) in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, dated to 1580, which shows a girl in typical Elizabethan dress holding a tortoise-shell guinea pig in her hands. She is flanked by her two brothers, one of whom holds a pet bird. The picture dates from the same period as the oldest recorded guinea pig remains in England, which are a partial cavy skeleton found at Hill Hall, an Elizabethan manor house in Essex, and dated to around 1575.

Characteristics

Guinea pigs are large for rodents; the common pet breeds weigh between  when fully grown and measure between  in length. Some livestock breeds weigh  when full grown. Pet breeds live an average of four to five years, but may live as long as eight years. According to Guinness World Records, , the longest-lived guinea pig was 14 years, 10 months, and 2 weeks old. Most guinea pigs have fur, but one laboratory breed adopted by some pet owners, the skinny pig, is a mostly furless breed. Some breeds are long-fur breeds such as the Peruvian, the Silkie, and the Texel.

In the 1990s, a minority scientific opinion emerged proposing that caviomorphs such as guinea pigs, chinchillas, and degus are not actually rodents, and should be reclassified as a separate order of mammals (similar to the rodent-like lagomorphs which includes rabbits). Subsequent research using wider sampling restored the consensus among mammalian biologists regarding the current classification of rodents, including guinea pigs, as monophyletic.

Male and female guinea pigs do not differ in appearance apart from general size. The position of the anus is very close to the genitals in both sexes. Sexing animals at a young age must be done by someone who has been trained in the differences. Female genitals are distinguished by a "Y"-shaped configuration formed from a vulvar flap. While male genitals may look similar, with the penis and anus forming a similar shape, the penis will protrude if pressure is applied to the surrounding hair anterior to the genital region. The male's testes may also be visible externally from scrotal swelling.

Behavior

Guinea pigs can learn complex paths to food, and can accurately remember a learned path for months. Their strongest problem-solving strategy is motion. While guinea pigs can jump small obstacles, they cannot jump very high. Most of them are poor climbers, and are not particularly agile. They startle easily, and when they sense danger either freeze in place for long periods, or run for cover with rapid, darting motions. Larger groups of startled guinea pigs "stampede", running in haphazard directions as a means of confusing predators. When happily excited, guinea pigs may (often repeatedly) perform little hops in the air (a movement known as "popcorning"), analogous to the ferret's war dance or rabbit happy hops. Guinea pigs are also good swimmers, although they do not like being wet and infrequently need bathing.

Like many rodents, guinea pigs sometimes participate in social grooming, and they regularly self-groom. A milky-white substance is secreted from their eyes and rubbed into the hair during the grooming process. Groups of boars often chew each other's hair, but this is a method of establishing hierarchy within a group, rather than a social gesture. Dominance is also established through biting (especially of the ears), piloerection, aggressive noises, head thrusts, and leaping attacks. Non-sexual simulated mounting for dominance is also common among same-sex groups.

Guinea pig eyesight is not as good as that of a human in terms of distance and color, but they have a wider angle of vision (about 340°) and see in partial color (dichromacy). They have well-developed senses of hearing, smell, and touch.

Guinea pigs have developed a different biological rhythm from their wild counterparts, and have longer periods of activity followed by short periods of sleep in between. Activity is scattered randomly throughout the day; aside from an avoidance of intense light, no regular circadian patterns are apparent.Guinea pigs do not generally thrive when housed with other species. Larger animals may regard guinea pigs as prey, though some dogs and cats can be trained to accept them. Opinion is divided over the cohousing of guinea pigs and rabbits. Some published sources say that guinea pigs and rabbits complement each other well when sharing a cage. However, rabbits have different nutritional requirements; as lagomorphs, they synthesize their own Vitamin C, so the two species will not thrive if fed the same food when housed together. Rabbits may also harbor diseases (such as respiratory infections from Bordetella and Pasteurella), to which guinea pigs are susceptible. Housing guinea pigs with other rodents such as gerbils and hamsters may increase instances of respiratory and other infections, and such rodents may act aggressively toward guinea pigs.

Vocalization
Vocalization is the primary means of communication between members of the species. These are the most common sounds made by the guinea pig:
A "wheek" is a loud noise, the name of which is onomatopoeic, also known as a whistle. An expression of general excitement, it may occur in response to the presence of its owner or to feeding. It is sometimes used to find other guinea pigs if they are running. If a guinea pig is lost, it may wheek for assistance.
A bubbling or purring sound is made when the guinea pig is enjoying itself, such as when being petted or held. It may also make this sound when grooming, crawling around to investigate a new place, or when given food.
A rumbling sound is normally related to dominance within a group, though it can also come as a response to being scared or angry. In the case of being scared, the rumble often sounds higher and the body vibrates shortly. While courting, a male usually purrs deeply, swaying and circling the female in a behavior called rumblestrutting. A low rumble while walking away reluctantly shows passive resistance.
Chutting and whining are sounds made in pursuit situations, by the pursuer and pursuee, respectively.
A chattering sound is made by rapidly gnashing the teeth, and is generally a sign of warning. Guinea pigs tend to raise their heads when making this sound.
Squealing or shrieking is a high-pitched sound of discontent, in response to pain or danger.
Chirping, a less common sound, likened to bird song, seems to be related to stress or discomfort, or when a baby guinea pig wants to be fed. Very rarely, the chirping will last for several minutes.

Living environment

Domestic guinea pigs generally live in cages, although some owners of large numbers of cavies dedicate entire rooms to their pets. Wire mesh floors can cause injury and may be associated with an infection commonly known as bumblefoot (ulcerative pododermatitis), so cages with solid bottoms, where the animal walks directly on the bedding, are typically used. Large cages, which allow for adequate running space, can be constructed from wire grid panels and plastic sheeting, a style known as C&C, or "cubes and coroplast".

Red cedar (Eastern or Western) and pine, both softwoods, were commonly used as bedding, but now these materials are believed to contain harmful phenols (aromatic hydrocarbons) and oils. Bedding materials made from hardwoods (such as aspen), paper products, and corn cobs are alternatives. Guinea pigs tend to be messy; they often jump into their food bowls or kick bedding and feces into them, and their urine sometimes crystallizes on cage surfaces, making it difficult to remove. After its cage has been cleaned, a guinea pig typically urinates and drags its lower body across the floor of the cage to mark its territory. Male guinea pigs may mark their territory in this way when they are put back into their cages after being taken out.

Guinea pigs thrive in groups of two or more; groups of sows, or groups of one or more sows and a neutered boar are common combinations, but boars can sometimes live together. Guinea pigs learn to recognize and bond with other individual pigs, and tests show that a boar's neuroendocrine stress response to a strange environment is significantly lowered in the presence of a bonded female, but not with unfamiliar females. Groups of boars may also get along, provided their cage has enough space, they are introduced at an early age, and no females are present. In Switzerland, where keeping a guinea pig without a companion is illegal, a service to rent guinea pigs (to temporarily replace a dead cage-mate) is available. Sweden has similar laws against keeping a guinea pig by itself.

Nomenclature

Latin name
The scientific name of the common species is Cavia porcellus, with  being Latin for "little pig". Cavia is Neo-Latin; it is derived from cabiai, the animal's name in the language of the Galibi tribes once native to French Guiana. Cabiai may be an adaptation of the Portuguese çavia (now savia), which is itself derived from the Tupi word saujá, meaning rat.

Guinea pig
The origin of "guinea" in "guinea pig" is hard to explain. One proposed explanation is that the animals were brought to Europe by way of Guinea, leading people to think they had originated there. "Guinea" was also frequently used in English to refer generally to any far-off, unknown country, so the name may simply be a colorful reference to the animal's exotic origins.

Another hypothesis suggests the "guinea" in the name is a corruption of "Guiana", an area in South America. A common misconception is that they were so named because they were sold for the price of a guinea coin. This hypothesis is untenable, because the guinea was first struck in England in 1663, and William Harvey used the term "Ginny-pig" as early as 1653. Others believe "guinea" may be an alteration of the word coney (rabbit); guinea pigs were referred to as "pig coneys" in Edward Topsell's 1607 treatise on quadrupeds.

How the animals came to be called "pigs" is not clear. They are built somewhat like pigs, with large heads relative to their bodies, stout necks, and rounded rumps with no tail of any consequence; some of the sounds they emit are very similar to those made by pigs, and they spend a large amount of time eating. They can survive for long periods in small quarters, like a "pig pen", and were easily transported by ship to Europe.

Other languages
Guinea pigs are called quwi or jaca in Quechua and cuy or cuyo (plural cuyes, cuyos) in the Spanish of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

The animal's name alludes to pigs in many European languages. The German word for them is , literally "little sea pig", in Polish they are called , in Hungarian as , and in . This derives from the Middle High German name merswin. This originally meant "dolphin" and was used because of the animals' grunting sounds (which were thought to be similar).

Many other, possibly less scientifically based, explanations of the German name exist. For example, sailing ships stopping to reprovision in the New World would pick up stores of guinea pigs, which provided an easily transportable source of fresh meat. The French term is cochon d'Inde (Indian pig), or cobaye; the Dutch called it Guinees biggetje (Guinean piglet), or cavia (in some Dutch dialects it is called Spaanse rat); and in Portuguese, the guinea pig is variously referred to as cobaia, from the Tupi word via its Latinization, or as porquinho da Índia (little Indian pig). This association with pigs is not universal among European terms; for example, the common word in Spanish is conejillo de Indias (little rabbit of the Indies).

The Chinese refer to the animal as  (túnshǔ, "pig mouse"), and sometimes as  (hélánzhū, 'Netherlands pig') or  (tiānzhúshǔ, "Indian mouse"). The Japanese word for guinea pig is  (morumotto), which derives from the name of another mountain-dwelling rodent, the marmot. This is what the guinea pigs were called by Dutch traders, who first brought them to Nagasaki in 1843. The other, and less common, Japanese word for guinea pig, using kanji, is 天竺鼠 (てんじくねずみ or tenjiku-nezumi), which literally translates as "India rat".

Diet

The guinea pig's natural diet is grass; their molars are particularly suited for grinding plant matter and grow continuously throughout their life. Most mammals that graze are large and have a long digestive tract; guinea pigs have much longer colons than most rodents, but they must also supplement their diet by eating their feces (coprophagy). However, they do not consume all their feces indiscriminately, but produce special soft pellets, called cecotropes (or caecal pellets), which recycle B vitamins, fiber, and bacteria required for proper digestion. The cecotropes are eaten directly from the anus, unless the guinea pig is pregnant or obese. They share this behaviour with rabbits. In geriatric boars or sows (rarely in young ones), the muscles which allow the softer pellets to be expelled from the anus can become weak. This creates a condition known as fecal impaction, which prevents the animal from redigesting cecotropes even though harder pellets may pass through the impacted mass. The condition may be temporarily alleviated by a human carefully removing the impacted feces from the anus.

Guinea pigs benefit from a diet of fresh grass hay, such as timothy hay, in addition to food pellets which are often based on timothy hay. Alfalfa hay is also a popular food choice and most guinea pigs will eat large amounts of alfalfa when offered it, though some controversy exists over offering alfalfa to adult guinea pigs. Some pet owners and veterinary organizations have advised that, as a legume rather than a grass hay, alfalfa consumed in large amounts may lead to obesity, as well as bladder stones from the excess calcium in all animals except for pregnant and very young guinea pigs. However, published scientific sources mention alfalfa as a food source that can replenish protein, amino acids, and fiber.

Like humans, but unlike most other mammals, guinea pigs cannot synthesize their own vitamin C and must obtain this vital nutrient from food. If guinea pigs do not ingest enough vitamin C, they can suffer from potentially fatal scurvy. Guinea pigs require about 10 mg of vitamin C daily (20 mg if pregnant), which can be obtained through fresh, raw fruits and vegetables (such as broccoli, apple, cabbage, carrot, celery, and spinach) or through dietary supplements or by eating fresh pellets designed for guinea pigs, if they have been handled properly. Healthy diets for guinea pigs require a complex balance of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and hydrogen ions; but adequate amounts of vitamins A, D, and E are also necessary.

Poor diets for guinea pigs have been associated with muscular dystrophy, metastatic calcification, difficulties with pregnancy, vitamin deficiencies, and teeth problems. Guinea pigs tend to be fickle eaters when it comes to fresh fruits and vegetables after having learned early in life what is and is not appropriate to consume, and their eating habits may be difficult to change after maturity. They do not respond well to sudden changes in their diet and they may stop eating and starve rather than accept new food types. A constant supply of hay is generally recommended, as guinea pigs feed continuously and may develop bad habits if food is not present, such as chewing on their hair. Because their teeth grow constantly (as do their nails, like humans), they routinely gnaw on things, lest their teeth become too large for their jaw (a common problem in rodents). Guinea pigs chew on cloth, paper, plastic, and rubber, if they are available.

A number of plants are poisonous to guinea pigs, including bracken, bryony, buttercup, charlock, deadly nightshade, foxglove, hellebore, hemlock, lily of the valley, mayweed, monkshood, privet, ragwort, rhubarb, speedwell, toadflax (both Linaria vulgaris and Linaria dalmatica), and wild celery. Additionally, any plant which grows from a bulb (e.g., tulip or onion) is normally considered poisonous, as well as ivy and oak tree leaves.

Reproduction

Males (boars) reach sexual maturity in 3–5 weeks. Similarly, females (sows) can be fertile as early as 4 weeks old, and can carry litters before they are fully-grown adults. A sow is able to breed year-round (with spring being the peak). A sow can have as many as five litters in a year, but six is theoretically possible. Unlike the offspring of most rodents, which are altricial at birth, newborn cavy pups are precocial, and are well-developed with hair, teeth, claws, and partial eyesight. The pups are immediately mobile and begin eating solid food immediately, though they continue to suckle.  Sows can once again become pregnant 6–48 hours after giving birth, but it is not healthy for a female to be constantly pregnant.

The gestation period lasts from  to , with an average of 63–68 days. Because of the long gestation period and the large size of the pups, pregnant sows may become large and eggplant-shaped, although the change in size and shape varies depending upon the size of the litter. Litter size ranges from one to six, with three being the average; the largest recorded litter size is 9. The guinea pig mother only has two nipples, but she can readily raise the more average-sized litters of 2 to 4 pups. In smaller litters, difficulties may occur during labour due to oversized pups. Large litters result in higher incidences of stillbirth, but because the pups are delivered at an advanced stage of development, lack of access to the mother's milk has little effect on the mortality rate of newborns.

Cohabitating females assist in mothering duties if lactating; guinea pigs practice alloparental care, in which a sow may adopt the pups of another. This might take place if the original parents die or are for some reason separated from them. This behavior is common and is seen in many other animal species such as the elephant.

Toxemia of pregnancy (hypertension) is a common problem and kills many pregnant females. Signs of toxemia include: anorexia (loss of appetite), lack of energy, excessive salivation, a sweet or fruity breath odor due to ketones, and seizures in advanced cases. Pregnancy toxemia appears to be most common in hot climates. Other serious complications during pregnancy can include a prolapsed uterus, hypocalcaemia, and mastitis.

Females that do not give birth may develop an irreversible fusing or calcified cartilage of the pubic symphysis, a joint in the pelvis, which may occur after six months of age. If they become pregnant after this has happened, the birth canal may not widen sufficiently, which may lead to dystocia and death as they attempt to give birth.

Health problems
Common ailments in domestic guinea pigs include respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, scurvy (vitamin C deficiency, typically characterized by sluggishness), abscesses due to infection (often in the neck, due to hay embedded in the throat, or from external scratches), and infections by lice, mites, or fungus.

Mange mites (Trixacarus caviae) are a common cause of hair loss, and other symptoms may also include excessive scratching, unusually aggressive behavior when touched (due to pain), and, in some instances, seizures. Guinea pigs may also suffer from "running lice" (Gliricola porcelli), a small, white insect that can be seen moving through the hair; their eggs, which appear as black or white specks attached to the hair, are sometimes referred to as "static lice". Other causes of hair loss can be due to hormonal upsets caused by underlying medical conditions such as ovarian cysts.

Foreign bodies, especially small pieces of hay or straw, can become lodged in the eyes of guinea pigs, resulting in excessive blinking, tearing, and in some cases an opaque film over the eye due to corneal ulcer. Hay or straw dust can also cause sneezing. While it is normal for guinea pigs to sneeze periodically, frequent sneezing may be a symptom of pneumonia, especially in response to atmospheric changes. Pneumonia may also be accompanied by torticollis and can be fatal.

Because the guinea pig has a stout, compact body, it more easily tolerates excessive cold than excessive heat. Its normal body temperature is ,  so its ideal ambient air temperature range is similar to a human's, about . Consistent ambient temperatures in excess of  have been linked to hyperthermia and death, especially among pregnant sows. Guinea pigs are not well suited to environments that feature wind or frequent drafts, and respond poorly to extremes of humidity outside of the range of 30–70%.

Guinea pigs are prey animals whose survival instinct is to mask pain and signs of illness, and many times health problems may not be apparent until a condition is severe or in its advanced stages. Treatment of disease is made more difficult by the extreme sensitivity guinea pigs have to most antibiotics, including penicillin, which kill off the intestinal flora and quickly bring on episodes of diarrhea and in some cases, death.

Similar to the inherited genetic diseases of other breeds of animal (such as hip dysplasia in canines), a number of genetic abnormalities of guinea pigs have been reported. Most commonly, the roan coloration of Abyssinian guinea pigs is associated with congenital eye disorders and problems with the digestive system. Other genetic disorders include "waltzing disease" (deafness coupled with a tendency to run in circles), palsy, and tremor conditions.

As pets

Social behaviors
If handled correctly early in life, guinea pigs become amenable to being picked up and carried, and seldom bite or scratch. They are timid explorers and often hesitate to attempt an escape from their cage even when an opportunity presents itself. Still, they show considerable curiosity when allowed to walk freely, especially in familiar and safe terrain. Guinea pigs that become familiar with their owner will whistle on the owner's approach; they will also learn to whistle in response to the rustling of plastic bags or the opening of refrigerator doors, where their food is most commonly stored. In Switzerland, owning a single guinea pig is considered harmful to its well-being and forbidden by law.

Coats and grooming

Domesticated guinea pigs occur in many breeds, which have been developed since their introduction to Europe and North America. These varieties vary in hair and color composition. The most common varieties found in pet stores are the English shorthair (also known as the American), which have a short, smooth coat, and the Abyssinian, whose coat is ruffled with cowlicks, or rosettes. Also popular among breeders are the Peruvian and the Sheltie (or Silkie), both straight longhair breeds, and the Texel, a curly longhair. Grooming of guinea pigs is primarily accomplished using combs or brushes. Shorthair breeds are typically brushed weekly, while longhair breeds may require daily grooming.

Clubs and associations
Cavy clubs and associations dedicated to the showing and breeding of guinea pigs have been established worldwide. The American Cavy Breeders Association, an adjunct to the American Rabbit Breeders' Association, is the governing body in the United States and Canada. The British Cavy Council governs cavy clubs in the United Kingdom. Similar organizations exist in Australia (Australian National Cavy Council) and New Zealand (New Zealand Cavy Council). Each club publishes its own standard of perfection and determines which breeds are eligible for showing.

Human allergies
Allergic symptoms, including rhinitis, conjunctivitis, and asthma, have been documented in laboratory animal workers who come into contact with guinea pigs. Allergic reactions following direct exposure to guinea pigs in domestic settings have also been reported. Two major guinea pig allergens, Cav p I and Cav p II, have been identified in guinea pig fluids (urine and saliva) and guinea pig dander. People who are allergic to guinea pigs are usually allergic to hamsters and gerbils, as well. Allergy shots can successfully treat an allergy to guinea pigs, although treatment can take up to 18 months.

In popular culture and media

As a result of their widespread popularity, especially in households with children, guinea pigs have shown a presence in culture and media. Some noted appearances of the animal in literature include the short story "Pigs Is Pigs" by Ellis Parker Butler, which is a tale of bureaucratic incompetence. Two guinea pigs held at a railway station breed unchecked while humans argue as to whether they are "pigs" or "pets" for the purpose of determining freight charges. Butler's story, in turn, inspired the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", written by David Gerrold. In the Golden Hamster Saga books, two guinea pigs named Enrico and Caruso are modern-day thespians (named after Enrico Caruso) who serve as secondary characters, and often irritate the main character, Freddy Auratus, who strongly dislikes their acting antics.

In children's literature
The Fairy Caravan, a novel by Beatrix Potter, and Michael Bond's Olga da Polga series for children, both feature guinea pigs as the protagonist. Another appearance is in The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis: in the first (chronologically) of his The Chronicles of Narnia series, a guinea pig is the first creature to travel to the Wood between the Worlds. In Ursula Dubosarsky's Maisie and the Pinny Gig, a little girl has a recurrent dream about a giant guinea pig, while guinea pigs feature significantly in several of Dubosarsky's other books, including the young adult novel The White Guinea Pig and The Game of the Goose.

In film and television
Guinea pigs have also been featured in film and television. In the TV movie Shredderman Rules, the main character and the main character's crush both have guinea pigs which play a minor part in the plot. A guinea pig named Rodney, voiced by Chris Rock, was a prominent character in the 1998 film Dr. Dolittle, and Linny the Guinea pig is a co-star on Nick Jr.'s Wonder Pets. Guinea pigs were used in some major advertising campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s, notably for Egg Banking plc, Snapple, and Blockbuster Video. In the South Park season 12 episode "Pandemic 2: The Startling", giant guinea pigs dressed in costumes rampage over the Earth. The 2009 Walt Disney Pictures movie G-Force features a group of highly intelligent guinea pigs trained as operatives of the U.S. government. A video game based on the movie was also released. A guinea pig named Bugsy appears in the 2008 film Bedtime Stories. A guinea pig named Cashew features prominently in the second season of the U.S. adaptation of House of Cards. A guinea pig plays a small but pivotal role in Episode 3, Series 4 (2017) of Black Mirror called Crocodile.

As food

South America

Guinea pigs (called cuy, cuye, or curí) were originally domesticated for their meat in the Andes. Traditionally, the animal was reserved for ceremonial meals and as a delicacy by indigenous people in the Andean highlands, but since the 1960s, it has become more socially acceptable for consumption by all people. It continues to be a major part of the diet in Peru and Bolivia, particularly in the Andes Mountains highlands; it is also eaten in some areas of Ecuador (mainly in the Sierra) and in Colombia, mostly in the southwestern part of the country (Cauca and Nariño departments). Because guinea pigs require much less room than traditional livestock and reproduce extremely quickly, they are a more profitable source of food and income than many traditional stock animals, such as pigs and cattle; moreover, they can be raised in an urban environment. Both rural and urban families raise guinea pigs for supplementary income, and the animals are commonly bought and sold at local markets and large-scale municipal fairs.
Guinea pig meat is high in protein and low in fat and cholesterol, and is described as being similar to rabbit and the dark meat of chicken. The animal may be served fried (chactado or frito), broiled (asado), or roasted (al horno), and in urban restaurants may also be served in a casserole or a fricassee. Ecuadorians commonly consume sopa or locro de cuy, a soup dish. Pachamanca or huatia, a process similar to barbecuing, is also popular, and is usually served with corn beer (chicha) in traditional settings.

Peruvians consume an estimated 65 million guinea pigs each year, and the animal is so entrenched in the culture that one famous painting of the Last Supper in the main cathedral in Cusco shows Christ and the 12 disciples dining on guinea pig. The animal remains an important aspect of certain religious events in both rural and urban areas of Peru. A religious celebration, known as  ("collecting the cuys"), is a major festival in many villages in the Antonio Raimondi province of eastern Peru and is celebrated in smaller ceremonies in Lima. It is a syncretistic event, combining elements of Catholicism and pre-Columbian religious practices, and revolves around the celebration of local patron saints. The exact form the  takes differs from town to town; in some localities, a sirvinti (servant) is appointed to go from door to door, collecting donations of guinea pigs, while in others, guinea pigs may be brought to a communal area to be released in a mock bullfight.  Meals such as cuy chactado are always served as part of these festivities, and the killing and serving of the animal are framed by some communities as a symbolic satire of local politicians or important figures.  In the Tungurahua and Cotopaxi provinces of central Ecuador, guinea pigs are employed in the celebrations surrounding the feast of Corpus Christi as part of the Ensayo, which is a community meal, and the Octava, where castillos (greased poles) are erected with prizes tied to the crossbars, from which several guinea pigs may be hung.  The Peruvian town of Churin has an annual festival that involves dressing guinea pigs in elaborate costumes for competition. There are also guinea pig festivals held in Huancayo, Cusco, Lima, and Huacho, featuring costumes and guinea pig dishes. Most guinea pig celebrations take place on the National Guinea Pig Day (Día Nacional del Cuy) across Peru on the second Friday of October.

Peruvian breeding program

Peruvian research universities, especially La Molina National Agrarian University, began experimental programs in the 1960s with the intention of breeding larger-sized guinea pigs. Subsequent university efforts have sought to change breeding and husbandry procedures in South America, to make the raising of guinea pigs as livestock more economically sustainable. The variety of guinea pig produced by La Molina is fast-growing and can weigh . All the large breeds of guinea pig are known as cuy mejorados and the pet breeds are known as cuy criollos. The three original lines out of Peru were the Perú (weighing  by 2 weeks), the Andina, and the Inti.

The United States, Europe, and Japan
Andean immigrants in New York City raise and sell guinea pigs for meat, and some South American restaurants in major cities in the United States serve cuy as a delicacy. In the 1990s and 2000s, La Molina University began exporting large-breed guinea pigs to Europe, Japan, and the United States in the hope of increasing human consumption outside of countries in northern South America.

Sub-Saharan Africa
Efforts have been made to promote guinea pig husbandry in developing countries of West Africa, where they occur more widely than generally known because they are usually not covered by livestock statistics. However, it has not been known when and where the animals have been introduced to Africa. In Cameroon, they are widely distributed. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they can be found both in peri-urban environments as well as in rural regions, for example, in South Kivu. They are also frequently held in rural households in Iringa Region of southwestern Tanzania.

In scientific research

The use of guinea pigs in scientific experimentation dates back at least to the 17th century, when the Italian biologists Marcello Malpighi and Carlo Fracassati conducted vivisections of guinea pigs in their examinations of anatomic structures. In 1780, Antoine Lavoisier used a guinea pig in his experiments with the calorimeter, a device used to measure heat production. Guinea pigs played a major role in the establishment of germ theory in the late 19th century, through the experiments of Louis Pasteur, Émile Roux, and Robert Koch. Guinea pigs have been launched into orbital space flight several times, first by the USSR on the Sputnik 9 biosatellite of March 9, 1961 – with a successful recovery. China also launched and recovered a biosatellite in 1990 which included guinea pigs as passengers.

Guinea pigs remained popular laboratory animals until the later 20th century: about 2.5 million guinea pigs were used annually in the U.S. for research in the 1960s, but that total decreased to about 375,000 by the mid-1990s. As of 2007, they constitute about 2% of the current total of laboratory animals. In the past, they were widely used to standardize vaccines and antiviral agents; they were also often employed in studies on the production of antibodies in response to extreme allergic reactions, or anaphylaxis. Less common uses included research in pharmacology and irradiation. Since the middle 20th century, they have been replaced in laboratory contexts primarily by mice and rats. This is in part because research into the genetics of guinea pigs has lagged behind that of other rodents, although geneticists W. E. Castle and Sewall Wright made a number of contributions to this area of study, especially regarding coat color.  The guinea pig genome was sequenced in 2008 as part of the Mammalian Genome Project, but the guinea pig sequence scaffolds have not been assigned to chromosomes.

The guinea pig was most extensively used in research and diagnosis of infectious diseases. Common uses included identification of brucellosis, Chagas disease, cholera, diphtheria, foot-and-mouth disease, glanders, Q fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and various strains of typhus. They are still frequently used to diagnose tuberculosis, since they are easily infected by human tuberculosis bacteria. Because guinea pigs are one of the few animals which, like humans and other primates, cannot synthesize vitamin C, but must obtain it from their diet, they are ideal for researching scurvy. From the accidental discovery in 1907 that scurvy could be induced in guinea pigs, to their use to prove the chemical structure of the "ascorbutic factor" in 1932, the guinea pig model proved a crucial part of vitamin C research.

Complement, an important component for serology, was first isolated from the blood of the guinea pig. Guinea pigs have an unusual insulin mutation, and are a suitable species for the generation of anti-insulin antibodies. Present at a level 10 times that found in other mammals, the insulin in guinea pigs may be important in growth regulation, a role usually played by growth hormone. Additionally, guinea pigs have been identified as model organisms for the study of juvenile diabetes and, because of the frequency of pregnancy toxemia, of pre-eclampsia in human females. Their placental structure is similar to that of humans, and their gestation period can be divided into trimesters that resemble the stages of fetal development in humans.

Guinea pig strains used in scientific research are primarily outbred strains. Aside from the common American or English stock, the two main outbred strains in laboratory use are the Hartley and Dunkin-Hartley; these English strains are albino, although pigmented strains are also available. Inbred strains are less common and are usually used for very specific research, such as immune system molecular biology. Of the inbred strains that have been created, the two still used with any frequency are, following Sewall Wright's designations, "Strain 2" and "Strain 13".

Hairless breeds of guinea pigs have been used in scientific research since the 1980s, particularly for dermatological studies. A hairless and immunodeficient breed was the result of a spontaneous genetic mutation in inbred laboratory strains from the Hartley stock at the Eastman Kodak Company in 1979. An immunocompetent hairless breed was also identified by the Institute Armand Frappier in 1978, and Charles River Laboratories has reproduced this breed for research since 1982. Cavy fanciers then began acquiring hairless breeds, and the pet hairless varieties are referred to as "skinny pigs".

Metaphorical usage
In English, the term "guinea pig" is commonly used as a metaphor for a subject of scientific experimentation, or in modern times a subject of any experiment or test. This usage dates back to the early 20th century: the earliest examples cited by the Oxford English Dictionary date from 1913 and 1920. In 1933, Consumers Research founders F. J. Schlink and Arthur Kallet wrote a book entitled 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs, extending the metaphor to consumer society. The book became a national bestseller in the United States, thus further popularizing the term, and spurred the growth of the consumer protection movement. During World War II, the Guinea Pig Club was established at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Sussex, England, as a social club and mutual support network for the patients of plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe, who were undergoing previously untested reconstruction procedures. The negative connotation of the term was later employed in the novel The Guinea Pigs (1970) by Czech author Ludvík Vaculík as an allegory for Soviet totalitarianism.

See also

Rodents as pets
Peter Gurney, guinea pig rights advocate
Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs, against breeding for animal research
Kurloff cell, special cells found in the blood and organs of guinea pigs

References

Sources

External links

 American Cavy Breeders' Association (ACBA)
View the guinea pig genome on Ensembl

Cavies
Domesticated animals
Rodents of South America
Fauna of the Andes
Mammals of Peru
Mammals of Bolivia
Mammals of Colombia
Bolivian cuisine
Ecuadorian cuisine
Peruvian cuisine
Mammals described in 1758
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Animal models
Pleistocene rodents
Quaternary mammals of South America
Extant Pleistocene first appearances

Guinea pig


Elpida Karayiannopoulou (, born 1 October 1949), is a Greek sangster who wis ane o the maiost successful sangsters in Greece an the Greek diaspora in the 1970s an 1980s.

Kent profeesionally as juist Elpida, she released 17 oreeginal albums in her 25-year recordin history, an regularly toppit fever chirts run bi the Greek state broadcaster, Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi (ERT). Internaitionally, she wis kent for bein a twa-time entrant taeo the Eurovision Song Contest, representin Greece in 1979 wi the sang "Sokrati" which placit 8t an Cyprus in 1986 wi "Tora Zo" which came 20t (an last).

Early life
Elpida Karayiannopoulou wis born in Spercheiada, Greece; at 14, she muivit tae Athens wi her twa aulder brithers tae study. Upon feenishin schuil, she wished tae be an airchitect, but instead began tae study topografie while wirkin at the same time.

Career
Elpida began her singin career in 1970 when she became the sangster o an orchestra an subsequently recordit an album wi thaim. In 1972, she pairticipatit in Thessaloniki Music Festival wi the sang "Den Ton Eida" (Δεν τον είδα, A didna see him) an wis introducit tae the public. The same year she recordit her first solo album an aw, which wis presentit live wi fellae sangsters George Dalaras, Giannis Parios, Tolis Voskopoulos, Giorgos Marinos, Giannis Poulopoulos, Haris Alexiou, an Grigoris Bithikotsis. In 1973, ERT deemit Elpida the maist popular sangster in the kintra at that time.

Elpida went on tae tak pairt in 13 festivals similar tae those o Thessaloniki includin Tokyo in 1974 whaur she placit seicont an the winner o Viña del Mar Festival in Chile in 1975 wi the sang "Pos Pes Mou Pos". She receivit various awairds such as the "Rewaird o Interpretation" in Poland, an a rewaird for telly in Bulgarie. She made a lot o telly appearances in Laitin Americae an aw, Spain, Germany, Ingland, the Netherlands, the Scandinavie kintras an made several telly appearances in Israel.

In 1979, Elpida wis chosen tae tak pairt in the Eurovision Song Contest tae represent Greece. She sang the sang "Sokrati" (Σωκράτη, Socrates) an placit aicht, receivin 69 points frae the 19 pairticipatin kintras. She released an album in Israel which reached gowd sales an in Portugal, which reached #6 in the local chairts. Seiven years later, she appeared at Eurovision ance mair, in 1986, but representin Cyprus. She sang "Tora Zo" (Τώρα ζω, Now I Live), but wi less success than in 1979, anerly garnerin fower points, an placin 20t (last).

1988 saw the release o the album Flas frae which the sang "Opos Se Thelo S'oneirevomai" became a radio hit. In 1994, her saxteent studio album wis released titled Mes Ti Nihta Hathika, wi muisic bi Thanasis Kargidis an Panos Falaras.

Personal life
Elpida marriet in 1979 an gave birth tae her first bairn, a girl namit Hera, in 1980. Her seicont bairn, Stephanos, wis born in 1985 an led tae her absence frae the muisic industrie for fower years as she spent time wi her faimily.

Discografie
 1972: Den Ton Eida
 1973: Elpida
 1975: Koita To Fos
 1975: Epi Skinis
 1976: Elpida
 1978: Borei
 1979: Sokrati
 1979: Elpida
 1979: Ta Oraiotera Tragoudia Mou (compilation)
 1981: Me Tin Elpida
 1983: Me Logia Apla
 1987: Flas
 1988: 16 Apo Ta Oraiotera Tragoudia (compilation)
 1989: Ela na Paizoume
 1990: Tragoudontas Tis Epohes, 10
 1990: Selida 16
 1992: To Palio Na Legetai
 1994: Mes Sti Nihta Hathika
 1994: "Zileia"/"Kameno Harti" (maxi single)
 1995: To Lathos Kai To Pathos
 1997: Me Tragoudia Kai Logia ta Oraiotera Mou, 1972-87 (compilation)

References

1950 births
Livin fowk
Greek female sangsters

Elpida (sangster)


DigitalCurriculum was the first educational video-on-demand system and remains the standard for interactive streaming multimedia libraries.  An early SaaS model, DigitalCurriculum was conceived and designed in 1997 and produced and released in 1999, by AIMS Multimedia's David S. Sherman, Ph. D., co-president of AIMS MULTIMEDIA, and software architect Richard Williams.  The service drew from and incorporated the AIMS Multimedia educational video library, executive producer Mike Wright and associate producer Pat Davies.  Also heavily involved in the design team were Hillary Broadwater, Elizabeth von Schoff, and Aram Iskenderian.

The video component in DigitalCurriculum included over $300 million in educational productions — programs that received more than 1,000 awards worldwide — including the prestigious Emmy, Oscar, Peabody and Parents' Choice awards. These premier titles came from hundreds of world-renowned producers and distributors including: Scholastic/Weston Woods, ABC, Paramount, TV Ontario, TEAMS Distance Learning, Channel One and the National Film Board of Canada.

DigitalCurriculum was a curriculum-on-demand teaching and learning system that fully integrated full-length educational videos, key concept video clips, still images, Encyclopædia Britannica content, teacher guides, lesson plans, and interactive online assessments and assignments into a comprehensive learning tool for teachers, students, and administrators with complete record-keeping and an internal messaging service. At the time of its acquisition in 2004 by Discovery Communications, DigitalCurriculum had over 100,000 educational multimedia components for every K-12 subject, state and national framework correlations, multiple bit-rate encoding for school and home use, simple incorporation of local content, and a paid subscriber base of more than 20 million teachers, librarians, administrators, and students.

DigitalCurriculum is of particular historical interest as it was a SaaS pioneer and one of the first video on demand services.  It used a revolutionary multiple bitrate encoding that allowed video and audio streaming by users with shared DSL fractional T-1 internet connectivity; it even allowed streaming at 56kbit/s dial-up modems.

DigitalCurriculum was described as innovative and visionary; its design, features and functionality having been copied and incorporated by virtually all educational media companies since its initial release back in 1998–1999 and its various iterations, culminating in v.5.0 in 2004.

References

Mass media companies of the United States
Multimedia
Streaming media systems
File sharing networks
Film and video technology
Video on demand services

DigitalCurriculum


Minga y Petraca (later known as Minga y Tomasa) was a television show produced in Puerto Rico by Antonio "El Gangster" Sanchez since 1992 up until early 2005 on Telemundo Puerto Rico, channel 2.

Sanchez and actor Johnny Ray Rodríguez played Minga and Petraca (respectively), two middle aged, mustached "ladies" who dedicate themselves to reading such magazines as Vea, Teve Guia and other popular Puerto Rican gossip magazines. They commented on the stories published, making fun of the articles. After reading magazine articles, they would get into comedic situations with their friends, husbands and families. Their husbands have never actually been shown on the show, only their voices are heard. Minga and Petraca are from the Santurce area of San Juan.

Minga y Petraca reached such popularity in Puerto Rico that there was even a CD released with the two characters as main stars. The song Estoy Escriquillá!! (loosely translated into I'm tired) was a big hit during Christmas of 1993 on Puerto Rico's radio.

Ray moved to the United States and with that, he took his character of Petraca. Sanchez decided that "the show must go on", and changed the show's name to Minga y Tomasa. He hired a new actor, Alex Soto, to play Minga'''s new friend, Tomasa. Ray flies to Puerto Rico on and off to tape shows, and his character Petraca is now a visitor from the United States to Minga.

In March 2005, the show was cancelled because Telemundo wanted to open a new telenovela spot at 9:00 p.m., so axed all sitcoms and programs in that time slot, only leaving Sanchez's No Te Duermas, as a daily show.

In January 2008, the Minga character got new life as part of a weekly  segment on Minga's Tokchou (Minga's Talk Show in Spanglish).'' In her segment, male guests dress as females while female guests dress as males.

On February 27, 2011, a Minga y Petraca reunion show aired on Telemundo Puerto Rico.

See also
 Antonio Sanchez (Puerto Rican host)

References

Telemundo original programming
Television shows set in Puerto Rico
1990s Puerto Rican television series debuts
2000s Puerto Rican television series endings
1992 establishments in Puerto Rico
2005 disestablishments in Puerto Rico
1992 American television series debuts
2005 American television series endings
Entertainment news shows

Minga y Petraca


Catch the Fire World is a global non-denominational Charismatic Christian ministry that includes churches, music, books, schools and events.

Its flagship church and largest location is Catch the Fire Church in Toronto. This church is the birthplace and center of the Toronto Blessing, a religious revival and phenomenon in charismatic Christianity during the 1990s.

History
Pastors John and Carol Arnott founded the church around 1988. The church later joined John Wimber's Vineyard movement and was known as Toronto Airport Vineyard Church. It met in various rented locations throughout Toronto until the early 1990s when the church found a more permanent home near the Lester B. Pearson Airport.

In January 1994, Randy Clark, a Vineyard pastor, was invited to preach. John Arnott heard that Clark had attended a conference with Rodney Howard-Browne and had been greatly impacted by Howard-Browne's ministry. The revival started during Clark's two-month visit but continued after he left. Some religious leaders criticized the church and revival because of the teachings and manifestations that occurred. Wimber initially defended the Airport Vineyard saying "Nearly everything we've seen—falling, weeping, laughing, shaking—has been seen before, not only in our own memory, but in revivals all over the world."

Nevertheless, the church withdrew or was expelled, according to some, from the Vineyard. Wimber explained the circumstances surrounding the split in a Christianity Today interview, saying that the revival at Toronto was "changing our definition of renewal in Vineyard" and that "[the Vineyard's] decision was to withdraw endorsement; [TACF's] decision was to resign".

After the break with Wimber and the Vineyard in 1995, the church was renamed Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. It founded Partners in Harvest, a group of churches that shared similar beliefs. In 2006, the Arnotts resigned as senior pastors to pursue a new ministry, Catch the Fire. They were succeeded by Steve and Sandra Long.

The Arnotts now hold the position of Founding Pastors, and the church was renamed in 2010 as Catch the Fire Toronto, to reflect the "fire" of God spreading to other congregations around the world, unifying them.

After more than two decades of hosting revival, John and Carol as Senior Leaders passed on the baton to Duncan and Kate Smith in September 2015.

In 2019, pastors and leaders from both Partners in Harvest and Catch The Fire announced the integration of the two movements. The vision to integrate was that both Partners in Harvest and Catch The Fire will be "stronger together." This will fulfill their God-given destiny, to invest in leaders, strengthen the local church, and resource missional initiatives.

Beliefs and Practices

At TACF revival services, worshippers have exhibited unusual behaviours that they attribute to an encounter with God and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The most common described behaviours include laughter (often referred to as "holy laughter"), weeping, deep bowing, shaking, "drunkenness" (a reference to Acts 2:13-15 and Ephesians 5:18), slain in the Spirit and speaking in tongues. Other less common behaviours include producing sounds that resemble animals, such as roaring like lions.

The TACF website described it thus:

The Toronto Blessing is a transferable anointing. In its most visible form it overcomes worshippers with outbreaks of laughter, weeping, groaning, shaking, falling, 'drunkenness,' and even behaviours that have been described as a 'cross between a jungle and a farmyard.'

The church is also the site where the prophecy of the golden sword was given.

The statement of faith of Catch the Fire Church can be found on their main website.

Music
Catch The Fire Music is a collective of worship artists and worship leaders affiliated with Catch The Fire. They have produced several live albums recorded at conferences.

References

External links
 Catch The Fire Official Site
 Catch The Fire Toronto Official Site
 Catch The Fire Music
 John Wimber and the Toronto Blessing
 Blog article by Adrian Warnock about the Toronto Blessing including overview of similar phenomena in church history
 Richard Riss on revival and Christianity
 Charisma News Online Article - Aug 15 2010

Charismatic denominations
Christian denominations in Canada
Faith healers
Christian organizations established in 1988
Churches in Toronto

Catch the Fire World


Sam Rouanet (born 15 November 1972 in Toulouse, France) is a French-born guitarist, DJ and producer of electronic music who lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Career
Sam Rouanet studied violin and classical music in Toulouse, France. He moved to Chicago in the late 1990s and began to play guitar in bands within the post-rock scene there. After returning to Europe, Sam started producing electronic music, mostly under the alias Reynold. First, he moved to London playing bass with the electronic duo Kinobe, before moving to Paris where he co-founded the Minimal Dancin' event where artists such as Swayzak, Metro Area, T. Raumschmiere, Roman Flügel of the duo Alter Ego, Feadz, Trentemøller, Aril Brikha, Booka Shade among many others. After success in Paris, Sam finally moved to Berlin to explore the electronic scene there.

He has released records for such labels as Persona, Plexi, KINA, Treibstoff and his own label, Trenton Records. Reynold's music has been well reviewed by international publications such as Resident Advisor and De:Bug.

In 2003 Sam co-created the electronic music label Trenton Records, which has since released over 50 records from artists such as John Tejada, Stewart Walker, Jeff Samuel, 3 Channels and Touane among others.

He has been the host of the monthly "Minimal Dancin" events at the Nouveau Casino in Paris, France, between 2001 and 2009 alongside Duplex 100 partner Phil Stumpf.

In 2010, Rouanet worked with Kazakh electronic musicians, in a project sponsored by the French Embassy in Kazakhstan and the Goethe-Institut, in creating a collaborative album entitled "Tronicstan". He later toured with some of the Kazakh participants around France and Germany.

In 2011 Sam Rouanet also released an album CD with his father Jacques Rouanet as a project called "Kigo".
Sam is also collaborating on a number of live band projects with like-minded artists including "Spleen Underground Music", "brome"  or American electronic music producer Stewart Walker with whom he shares the "Ivory Tower Studio" in Berlin.

Releases

2015  S.U.M. Salt & Pepper, Flumo Recordings
2014  S.U.M, Ye Ole EP, Trenton Records
2014  Reynold & Phil Stumpf, On The Move, Souvenir
2013  S.U.M. Love & Happiness, Dirt Crew Rec
2013  Spleen Live, Fusionary Part1, Back To The Balearics
2013  S.U.M, Spleen Underground Music, Trenton Records
2012  Reynold, The Rain, Trenton
2012  Reynold, Bring it on, Liquid Garden, part.2, Eintakt
2012  Giovanni Verga & Reynold, Into the Bone, Sirus Pandi2012  Le Projet Minsk, album/CD, Trenton
2011  Gelmatica, Craft, Subtraction
2011  KIGO "Princesse", Subtraction
2010  Reynold, Tempura EP, High Jack
2010  Tronicstan album/CD, Trenton
2010  Reynold, Un Air de Gondole, KINA
2010  Reynold, To Know You EP, Trenton
2009  Reynold, Cococurry EP, Plexi records
2009  The Seasons, Undone, CD album, City Centre Office
2008  Reynold, Another Way EP, Persona Express 002
2008  Reynold, Faze part. 2, Trenton
2008  Reynold, Faze part.1, Trenton
2008  Reynold & 3 Channels, Macho Lato, Trenton
2007  Reynold / Aki Latvamaki: split EP, Curle 08
2007  Reynold Vs Aspro: god is given, Microfon 10
2007  Reynold: the leisure hive EP, Fragmented audio 01
2007  Reynold Vs Aspro: musique basique, Lebensfreude
2007  Reynold / Denis Karimani: split EP, Curle 05
2007  Reynold: La cité d'en haut EP, Persona
2006  Johnny Wagner: intercity EP, Trenton
2006  Reynold: my favorite movie CD/album,Persona
2006  Reynold Vs Aspro: U-turn, Microfon 06
2006  Rerynold: blue print EP, Body talk
2006  Reynold / Denis Karimani: split EP, Curle 02
2006  Reynold: montrose place EP, MA citysport
2006  Duplex 100: flashcam EP, Cray1Labworks
2006  Reynold: tropical storm EP, Baystreet rec
2006  Reynold: planet vinea EP, S'hort records
2006  Reynold: food for thought EP, Out of orbit
2006  Reynold Vs Phil Stumpf: for house, Sushitech
2006  Reynold Vs Aspro: angle & curve, trenton
2005  Duplex100: this is crime EP, MA
2005  Duplex100: Well hung EP, 3rd floor
2005  Reynold: playfool EP, MA citysport
2005  Duplex 100: Big shot EP, Treibstoff
2005  Reynold: mathmos, compil. Highgrade
2005  Duplex 100: 12", Initial Cuts
2005  Duplex 100: Duplexity EP, Morris/audio
2005  Reynold: 12", Morris/audio city sport
2004  Reynold: web EP, electro chelou
2004  Duplex 100: Extrapoliert EP, Initial cuts
2004  Duplex 100: Bipolar EP, Treibstoff
2004  Reynold: Winnemark EP, Morris | Audio
2004  Duplex 100: 1 track on Regular compil.
2004  Duplex 100: shooting star EP, Onitor
2004  Reynold: split EP 12", Trenton 002
2003  Reynold: a side split EP, 12" Trenton 001
2003  Reynold: Mystic, "Paris Lounge vol3
2003   Reynold: Tomy is Dancin' 12", Dumb-Unit
2003  Babyreynold: Compil "Artificiel", musiques modernes
2003  Canvas: Naked 12", Nacopa'jaz (rmx by Modernist)
2003  Canvas: Buona Modulazione LP/CD, Nacopa'jaz
2003  Duplex100: Rue Rouvet 12", Popular Tools
2003  Duplex100: popular internationalist #1
2003  Canvas: Origine J 12", Nacopa'jaz
2002  Crapule12" Indestructible/La Ink
2002  Canvas. Duplex 100: O'range, Serial
1999  12", Inkorporation 01

References

External links
Sam Rouanet's Official Website
Trenton Records' Label Website
Reynold discography at Discogs
Duplex 100 discography at Discogs
Minimal Dancin

1972 births
Living people
French guitarists
French male guitarists
French dance musicians
French electronic musicians
French DJs
Musicians from Toulouse
Electronic dance music DJs
21st-century guitarists
21st-century French male musicians

Sam Rouanet


The Caribbean Peace Force (CPF), also known as the  Caribbean Peacekeeping Force and the Eastern Caribbean Peace Force (ECPF), was a 350-member peacekeeping force operating in Grenada from October 1983 to June 1985 after the Invasion of Grenada, codenamed Operation Urgent Fury. The military intervention by the United States of America in coalition with six Caribbean nations was in response to the illegal deposition and execution of Grenadan Prime Minister Maurice Bishop on Oct. 19, 1983.  Bishop's revolutionary regime was briefly replaced by a military junta composed entirely of Grenadian military officers. On October 25, 1983, the United States, Barbados, Jamaica and members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States landed on Grenada, defeated Grenadian and Cuban resistance and overthrew the military government of Hudson Austin.

The U.S-led invasion was spearheaded at dawn by Army Rangers, Navy SEALs, Marines and other elite units. The first Caribbean forces arrived on Grenada by U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft from Barbados about five hours later. The vanguard force, led by Brigadier Rudyard Lewis of Barbados, landed on a Ranger-seized runway without any defined military role being assigned to them by the Pentagon. An ad hoc plan was developed for them to guard Cuban and Grenadan prisoners who were being captured in mounting numbers by U.S. combat troops, Later, the Caribbean troops took over police duties in St. George's, the island's capital, and guard duties at Richmond Hill Prison. The peacekeeper force was mostly composed of 150 soldiers from the Jamaica Defence Force and a 50-man rifle platoon from the Barbados Defence Force.  Antigua and Barbuda also contributed an infantry squad. The remaining members were police or paramilitary constabulary from Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts and Nevis. These five Eastern Caribbean island nations were then participants in a Regional Security System.

The Caribbean peacekeepers were not involved in combat, which officially ended on Nov. 2, 1983. U.S. combat troops left the island on Dec. 12, 1983.  The peacekeeping force remained on Grenada until the spring of 1985 to allow the reconstituted domestic police force to be fully trained and equipped.

References

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States
International organizations based in the Americas
Multinational units and formations
Military in the Caribbean
Military units and formations established in 1983
Military units and formations disestablished in 1983
Grenada–United States relations
Barbados–Grenada relations
Grenada–Saint Vincent and the Grenadines relations

Caribbean Peace Force


In chemistry, the term inert is used to describe something that is not chemically active.  The noble gases were described as being inert because they did not react with the other elements or themselves.

Inert gases are completely inert to basic chemical reactions (such as combustion, for example) because their outer valence shell is completely filled with electrons. With a filled outer valence shell, an inert atom is not able to acquire or lose an electron, and is therefore not able to participate in any chemical reactions. For inert atoms or molecules, a lot of energy is involved before it can combine with other elements to form compounds. A high temperature and pressure is necessary, and sometimes requires the presence of a catalyst.

For example, elemental nitrogen is inert under standard room conditions and exists as a diatomic molecule, N2. The inertness of nitrogen is due to the presence of the very strong triple covalent bond in the N2 molecule.

Inert atmospheres of gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon are routinely used in working with processes that will go wrong if air or water is present. For example, some welding must be done in argon so the material will not burn.

Chemical nomenclature
Noble gases

Chemically inert


"Nos rendez-vous" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Natasha St-Pier. Written by Patrice Guirao, Volodia and Gioacchino Maurici, and produced by Pascal Obispo, it was the second single from St-Pier's third album De l'amour le mieux (2002), and was released on 27 September 2002. It became the singer's sixth-most successful single in terms of peak positions on the French charts, hitting some success. In France, the single debuted at number 16 on the chart edition of 5 October 2002, reached a peak of number 15 in the third week, then dropped and remained for a total of 14 weeks in the top 50 and fell out of the top 100 after 17 weeks. On 17 December 2002, it earned a Gold disc for selling over 250,000 units. In Belgium (Wallonia), it entered the Ultratop 50 on 16 November 2002 at number 28, then jumped to a peak of number 15 and remained for 13 weeks in the top 40. In Switzerland, entered at a peak of number 45 on 24 November 2002, then dropped and fell off the top 100 after 11 weeks.

The song was included in St-Pier's best of Tu trouveras... 10 ans de succès (Best of), released in November 2009, on which it appears as the sixth track.

Track listings
 CD single - Promo
 "Nos rendez-vous" — 3:04

 CD single
 "Nos rendez-vous" — 3:04
 "De l'amour le mieux" — 4:10

Charts

Peak positions

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

2002 singles
Natasha St-Pier songs
Songs with lyrics by Patrice Guirao

Nos rendez-vous


A belt is a long band with slots for ammunition for a firearm. They are most often used with machine guns. Belts can be made of out of canvas or made of metal. They can be made up of long chains of metal carriers. Belts are made in many different lengths. Some have as little as 50 rounds of ammunition, while others can have as many as 300.

Firearms

Belt (firearm)


The Sweet Gum Stable, also known as Farmer's Feed and Supply, was located at the southeast corner of Main and W. Seventh Street in New Albany, Indiana.  The property was a stop of the Underground Railroad, ten blocks west of another stop, the Town Clock Church, and a mere block away from the River Jordan for fugitive slaves, the Ohio River.  The stable was built in 1877, and consisted of a balloon frame stable with an attached small brick and frame dwelling constructed about 1836. A feed store was added to the building in 1886. The structured measured 60 feet by 120 feet and encompassed the entire lot.

The house on the property was built by steamboat captain Thomas Riddle.  After the American Civil War, Riddle's heirs sold most of the property to William Robison and James Payton.  From them Frank Howard bought the property, and built the Sweet Gum Stable on the grounds of the original livery stable.

In early 1996, the stable was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  In late 1998, it was sold at auction, and on May 22, 1999, was torn down.  A feed store is in its place.  The stable was removed from the National Register in December 2011.

References

External links
 The Underground Railroad in Floyd County, Indiana by Pamela R. Peters

Buildings and structures in New Albany, Indiana
Underground Railroad in Indiana
Former National Register of Historic Places in Indiana
Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana
National Register of Historic Places in Floyd County, Indiana
Buildings and structures completed in 1836
Demolished buildings and structures in Indiana
Buildings and structures demolished in 1999

Sweet Gum Stable


The Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI) is an organisation providing youth hostel accommodation in India. It is a member of the Hostelling International federation.

History

Formation
The whole concept of youth hostels was started in Germany in 1909 by Richard Schirrmann and it took 40 years for the ideas to reach fruition in the India.  The Youth Hostel Movement had found its way into India before the partition of the country in 1947. The idea was introduced in early forties by the Boy Scouts and Girls Guides of India, Punjab Circle and the first Youth Hostel was formally opened at Tara Devi near Shimla on 9 June 1945 by H E Sir Bertrand Glancy, Chief Scout and Governor of the Punjab.

In 1949, some enthusiasts in Mysore set up a Committee for promotion of the Movement. Three years later the Indian Association received Associate membership of IYHF. The first National Conference of the Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI) was held in 1956 in Delhi which marked the establishment of the movement on a national level.

On 5 October 1970, National Youth Hostel Trust was created through a Resolution passed by the National Council of YHAI, a day earlier. As a result, a 120-bed Youth Hostel complex in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi with Administrative Offices came into existence. Later a Training Centre equipped with audiovisual aids and Recreation Centre with indoor games and library facilities were added. The Training Centre has since been approved by IYHF for training of international participants.

The Plan for constructing youth hostels by YHAI was taken up and the first Youth Hostel built with its own resources on a donated piece of land was a small 35-bed youth hostel at Jagjit Nagar near Kasauli. An international camp of volunteers helped to construct its foundation. Gopalpur-on-Sea, Ganjam, Odisha was the next one built by YHAI in 1961. Some State Branches and Units are in the process of procuring land for construction of Youth Hostels.

Ever since its inception it has been known as YHA using the abbreviation YHAI when necessary to distinguish it from other associations.

As its charitable objective YHAI stated it as "Our Mission is to enable and promote travel, tourism, adventure spirit, national integration and Education & health by providing hostels of good standards to millions of youth of limited means during their travel at affordable rates on a sustainable basis and by organizing adventure and educational events and to develop understanding among youth about social & developmental issues".

Early years
The first hostel to open was at Chanakya Puri in New Delhi in December 1977. All hostels provided accommodation in single sex dormitories. Self-catering facilities were provided at all hostels and many hostels provided a meals service. The hostel was run by a manager known as a warden and all the hostels in an area were administered by a number of National Councils.  A National Office to co-ordinate policy and standards.

Membership was required to stay at a hostel and all people staying at a hostel were required to assist in the running of the hostel by undertaking what were known as 'duties'.  These ranged from washing up, to cleaning the hostel. Bedding was supplied. The sheet sleeping bag was used from the outset and supplemented by pillows and blankets. The emphasis was very much on a8 communal atmosphere within each hostel. The use of dormitory accommodation and common rooms in every hostel reinforced this.

Reform
Significant modernization of hostels had occurred during the 2000s but by the late 2000s it became clear to YHAI that it needed to change as the stresses and strains of running what was a large organisation began to show on what was almost entirely a volunteer-run body. Direct management of the hostels was removed from the regional committees and a professional management structure was put in place.

As well as upgrading facilities in existing hostels, other experimental approaches to attracting young travelers were made. In 2010 a hostels renovation was done to bring the standards on par with international standards for the commonwealth games.

2010 saw a change in the charitable objective of the association. YHAI announced the largest plan of network renewal. As of now there are 50+ franchisee hostels and YHAI regularly monitors all its hostels to establish if they are still viable and if necessary closes those that are no longer viable or have no prospects of becoming viable again in the future. However the network renewal project was on top of this regular review and was a proposal to increase the network to more than 100 by 2011. The aim of the exercise was to reduce borrowing and to provide funds for re-investment into the network. The hostels involved were not necessarily poor performers but ones where the amount of investment required to bring them up to a desired standard was excessive, or in some cases because the site value was very high.

In 2003 as part of the move towards raising standards, the sheet sleeping bag was replaced by a bedding pack comprising a bottom sheet, duvet cover and two pillow cases. Duties have also disappeared although hostel users are encouraged to maintain the communal spirit and assist staff by cleaning up after themselves

Membership
It is required to be either a member of YHAI or a member of an Hosteling International affiliated association before staying at a hostel. Membership can be purchased on arrival at a hostel but a non member wishing to stay must pay a supplement equivalent to a day membership.

MEMBERSHIP TYPES

1. Individual (Prices inclusive of GST and Postage charges)

Note: Calendar year is applicable for YHAI memberships i.e. January to December.

2. YHAI- IYTC Co Branded Membership

This membership is valid for 1 year in which, a person gets dual membership of YHAI & IYTC (International Youth Travel Card), that includes more than ₹40,000 worth discounts on accommodation, food, entertainment and many other categories, all over the world.
Moreover, the membership is endorsed by the UNESCO.

There is an upper age limit of 30 yr. to apply for this membership.  Both the benefits of YHAI and IYTC are applied to this membership type, internationally.

YHAI- IYTC MEMBERSHIP (11- 30 YEARS) (for 1 YEAR) : ₹500

3. Institutional membership (Prices inclusive of GST)

Alcohol
The consumption of alcohol on hostel premises has never been allowed since the inception.

Schools
Groups of children aged 11–18 are welcome at hostels as long as they were under the supervision of a responsible leader.  All bookings had to be made in advance. Apart from price no other concession was made to these groups.  As such a large proportion of YHAI business involves children it has a very stringent child protection policy and all staff and volunteers have to have checks conducted before they can work for YHAI.

YHAI today
YHAI is a member of Hostelling International, an international federation of hostel associations. Due to its work in various fields, e.g. youth activity, the environment, education, it work in partnership with a wide variety of other organisations both within the voluntary sector, national government and local government.

Products / Adventure Sports
YHAI remains primarily an accommodation provider and supports this with the provision of food and drink, educational packages to support school groups using hostels and since 1970's. As a part of increasing tourism and youth travelling YHAI organizes several units via the National Office at Delhi and through its state offices. The trekking events are –

 Sar Pass Trek
 Saurkundi Pass Trek
 Mountain Biking
 Family camping
 Nature Study – Dobhi
 Kedarkanta
 Mountain Biking
 Valley of Flowers trek
 Great Lakes of Kashmir
 Hamta Pass and Chandratal
 Roopkund Trek

Accommodation
The dormitories (shared accommodation as YHAI calls it) in hostels typically consist of a number of beds, often bunk beds, and many offer storage facilities such as lockers. Such rooms are a means of being able to offer cheaper accommodation for large numbers of people and typically contain 4 – 8 beds. Unlike some associations e.g. Canada, dormitories in India are always unisex. With the YHA's modernising efforts and its attempt to widen its target market many hostels now offer private rooms in sizes suited to couples and families.  An increasing number of rooms are being provided with en suite facilities.

Facilities
 YHAI operates 190 hostels and bunkhouses in addition to over 30 camping barns. All but ten hostels provide self-catering facilities and 140 provide a meals service.  Nearly all provide drying rooms and cycle storage.  The communal areas remain a major focus of the hostels.  Many of the medium and larger hostels have classrooms and meeting rooms which can be used in conjunction with a residential stay or on a non residential basis.

Environment
One aim of the YHAI is to support "sustainable use of the countryside, youth hostels and their local communities". YHAI strives to operate as both an environmentally friendly user and to provide environmental education.

Volunteering
There are a wide variety of volunteering opportunities support by YHA. These range from running camps, trekking expeditions and serving as medical officer etc.

Governance
YHAI is governed by national council with a President, Chairman and four National Vice Presidents elected via state units and branches. Each state unit elects a group of members to represent the needs and views of YHAI members and users. These state units also elect the majority of the National Executive Council Meeting (NEC) delegates. They also elect Trustees. A program of meetings is held around the country throughout the year. State units are able to put Motions to the National AGM as required.

The board of trustees which is elected at the AGM has up to 26 members. Of these four, the National Chairman, President, National Vice Presidents, Treasurer and Chief Executive Officer form the National Officers who act as an executive committee.

References

External links
 YHAI of India Official Site
 YHAI Chhattisgarh State site
 Hostelling International Official Site h
 YHAI Mumbai Unit Site
 YHAI Malad Unit Site

Youth organizations established in 1949
Tourism in India
Hostelling International member associations
Organisations based in Delhi
Adventure tourism in India
Tourist accommodations in India

Youth Hostels Association of India


Smoking in Russia includes the use of tobacco in Russia and its predecessor states, as well as tobacco farming, the tobacco and cigarette industries, impact on health, and government regulation. English merchants introduced tobacco to Russia in the 1560s.

Tsarist Russia to 1918
Tobacco played a significant role in Russian society under the tsars. English merchants introduced tobacco to Russia in the 1560s. In 1634 the patriarch of Russia condemned smoking and snuff as a mortal sin, and the Tsar criminalized its use. Offenders risked whippings and nose slitting, or even the death penalty. The ban was not well enforced; Tobacco steadily became more popular in elite circles. In the 1690s Peter the Great reversed course, allowed usage, and sold monopoly rights to an English company to import and sell Virginia tobacco. The imperial court now hailed smoking as a welcome sign of development and Westernization.

Russians smoked the  papirosa, a hollow cardboard tube, extended by a thin paper tube which the user fills with tobacco. The cardboard tube acts as a holder. Tobacco consumption expanded thanks to the reforms of Tsar Alexander II in the 1860s and 1870s, especially the emancipation of the serfs and the modernization of the military. Thereby tobacco went from a minor product of occasional use to become a mainstay of Russian identity by 1914, when the average urban male smoked a pack of papirosa a day. This happened despite the hostility of the established church, which taught that smoking contradicted Russian Orthodox traditions. Peasants in the Ukraine grew tobacco on their small plots.  Very harsh working conditions for the women and children who worked in the papirosa factories sparked labor unrest in 1905 and 1917.

Soviet Union 1918-1991
Although the Soviet Communist regime condemned tobacco, smoking continued to grow and spread in the country. More women took up smoking. The unique style of papirosa smoking flourished and had broad cultural, social, and gendered consequences.   According to Tricia A. Starks, the Soviet Union in the 1920s launched an antismoking campaign carried out by the Communist party on a national scale. It was led by Nikolai Semashko in his role as Commissar of Public Health. The program sought with little success to reduce tobacco cultivation and production. However it did launch an intense propaganda attack against tobacco. The campaign was highly innovative in its approach to antismoking propaganda and treatment programs. These initiatives involved the mass distribution of antismoking materials such as posters, pamphlets, articles, plays, and films, alongside the implementation of special state-sponsored smoking cessation programs that claimed high success rates.

Recent history
The Communist system made sure the cigarette supply was adequate.  By 1990 it verged on collapse as the economy faltered, with growing shortages of food and essentials. However it was missing cigarettes that outraged the Russians. In 1990, there was a summer-long cigarette shortage that led to public outrage and protests in major cities. In Moscow, the city council decided to ration cigarette purchases to half a pack of cigarettes per day. The shortage was caused when half the Russian cigarette factories closed for repair, and imports from Bulgaria plunged. President Gorbachev pleaded with Washington for help, and the largest American tobacco companies hurriedly made plans to ship 34 billion cigarettes to Russia, at a dollar a pack.   The crisis eased and a new opportunity emerged. As Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the USSR, 1989-1991, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and Reemtsma (the main German firm) moved in and bought out 75% of the old tobacco industry. Marlboro and the other Western brands replaced the old papirosa, with a plentiful supply and massive advertising. They were welcomed as "liberators."

Per-capita smoking rates in Russia rank among the highest globally, making it a prized market for tobacco companies facing declining growth in the heavily regulated Western world. Statistics in 2012 showed Russia had the highest rate of smoking of any major country. It was the fourth-largest consumer of cigarettes, trailing only China, the U.S., and Japan, with an annual consumption of about 400 billion cigarettes, and this number continues to rise. About 44 million Russians are smokers, or 40 percent of the population, including 60 percent of men and 22 percent of women. The rate among women in 2001 had been only 16 percent. According to  Public Chamber of Russia, an oversight agency, smoking kills around 400,000 Russians each year, a number comparable to the United States which has twice the population. These smoking-related deaths cost the Russian economy about three percent of its annual GDP, amounting to $36 billion.

In 2013 the government imposed bans on smoking in public places. According to the World Health Organization, per-capita smoking in Russia fell 20% from 2000 to 2020. see Prevalence of tobacco use#Countries.

See also
 Apollo-Soyuz (cigarette), a brand of cigarette
 Belomorkanal (Russian: Беломорканал) is a brand of cigarette
 Donskoy Tabak, Russia's fourth-largest cigarette manufacturer
 Java (cigarette), a brand of cigarette
 Jin Ling, a brand of cigarette
 Laika (cigarette), a brand of cigarette
 Prima, a brand of cigarette

References

Further reading
 Corti, Count. A history of smoking (Bracken 1996 reprint; 1931) online
 Frederiksen, O. J. "Virginia Tobacco in Russia under Peter the Great." Slavonic and East European Review. American Series 2#1 (1943), pp. 40–56. online
 Gately, Iain. Tobacco: a cultural history of how an exotic plant seduced civilization (Open Road+ Grove/Atlantic, 2007) online.
 Gilmore, Anna B., and Martin McKee. "Moving East: how the transnational tobacco industry gained entry to the emerging markets of the former Soviet Union—part I: establishing cigarette imports." Tobacco control 13.2 (2004): 143-150. online
 Gedvilaitė, Vaida, et al. "Lung Cancer in Lithuania." Journal of Thoracic Oncology 15.9 (2020): 1401–1405.
 Goodman, Jordan, ed. Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia (2 vol, Gale, 2005) ISBN 0-684-31405-3
 Lillard, Dean R., and Z. L. A. T. A. Dorofeeva. "Smoking in Russia and Ukraine before, during, and after the Soviet Union." in Life-course smoking behavior: Patterns and National Context in ten countries (2015): 117–140.
 Romaniello, Matthew P., and Tricia Starks, eds. Tobacco in Russian History and Culture From the Seventeenth Century to the Present (2011) online
 Rupert, James, and Glen Frankel. "In ex-Soviet markets, US brands took on role of capitalist liberator." Washington Post  (19 November 1996)

 Shkolnikov, Vladimir M.; et al. "Time trends in smoking in Russia in the light of recent tobacco control measures: synthesis of evidence from multiple sources". BMC Public Health (2020). 20:378. doi:10.1186/s12889-020-08464-4. PMC 7092419. PMID 32293365.
 Sinelnikov, Leonid. Smoke and Mirrors: From the Soviet Union to Russia, the Pipedream Meets Reality (Unicorn Publishing, 2020).
 Starks, Tricia. Smoking under the Tsars: A History of Tobacco in Imperial Russia (Cornell University Press, 2018) online.
 Starks, Tricia. Cigarettes and Soviets: Smoking in the USSR (Cornell University Press, 2022). online
 Starks, Tricia. "Tobacco Product Design, Marketing, and Smoking in the USSR." in Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023) pp. 243–264.
 Starks, Tricia. "Red Star/Black Lungs: Anti-Tobacco Campaigns in Twentieth-Century Russia," Journal of the Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 21:1 (2006): 50–68.
 Starks, Tricia A. "A revolutionary attack on tobacco: Bolshevik antismoking campaigns in the 1920s." American journal of public health 107.11 (2017): 1711–1717. online doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.304048
 Žvirblys, Atas. "The Oldest clay tobacco pipes from Vilnius, Lithuania: the interpretation of origin, chronology and social context." Eesti Arheoloogia Ajakiri 25.2 (2021): 93–112. online

External links
 Russia imposes bans on smoking in public places, 2013
  illustrations of papirosa.

Tobacco in Russia
Russia

Smoking in Russia


Cleitarchus or Clitarchus () was one of the historians of Alexander the Great. Son of the historian Dinon of Colophon, he spent a considerable time at the court of Ptolemy Lagus. He was active in the mid to late 4th century BCE.

Quintilian (Institutio Oratoria. x. I. 74) credits him with more ability than trustworthiness, and Cicero (Brutus, II) accuses him of giving a fictitious account of the death of Themistocles. But there is no doubt that his history was very popular, and much used by Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius, Justin and Plutarch, and the authors of the Alexander romances. His unnatural and exaggerated style became proverbial.

His work, the History of Alexander, is almost completely lost and has survived only in some thirty fragments preserved by ancient authors, especially by Aelian and Strabo.

A recent papyrological find from Oxyrhynchus (P.Oxy. LXXI 4808) records that he was a tutor () of Ptolemy IV Philopator, r.221–205 BCE, and suggests that he wrote in the mid to late 3rd century, not, as was hitherto thought, in the late 4th. Luisa Prandi (2012) has recently restated the case for the "high" dating.

References

 Luisa Prandi, Fortuna e realtà dell'opera di Clitarco (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1996) (Historia. Einzelschriften, 104).
 Luisa Prandi, ′New Evidence for the Dating of Cleitarchus (POxy LXXI.4808)?′, Histos 6 (2012), 15–26,

External links
Livius.org, Cleitarchus by Jona Lendering
Histos, In Search of Cleitarchus by A.B. Bosworth
Pothos.org, Dating Kleitarchos by Karl Soundy

Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
4th-century BC historians
Historiography of Alexander the Great
Hellenistic-era historians
Ptolemaic court

Cleitarchus


The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a database for the three-dimensional structural data of large biological molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. The data, typically obtained by X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, or, increasingly, cryo-electron microscopy, and submitted by biologists and biochemists from around the world, are freely accessible on the Internet via the websites of its member organisations (PDBe, PDBj, RCSB, and BMRB). The PDB is overseen by an organization called the Worldwide Protein Data Bank, wwPDB.

The PDB is a key in areas of structural biology, such as structural genomics. Most major scientific journals and some funding agencies now require scientists to submit their structure data to the PDB. Many other databases use protein structures deposited in the PDB. For example, SCOP and CATH classify protein structures, while PDBsum provides a graphic overview of PDB entries using information from other sources, such as Gene ontology.

History
Two forces converged to initiate the PDB: a small but growing collection of sets of protein structure data determined by X-ray diffraction; and the newly available (1968) molecular graphics display, the Brookhaven RAster Display (BRAD), to visualize these protein structures in 3-D. In 1969, with the sponsorship of Walter Hamilton at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Edgar Meyer (Texas A&M University) began to write software to store atomic coordinate files in a common format to make them available for geometric and graphical evaluation. By 1971, one of Meyer's programs, SEARCH, enabled researchers to remotely access information from the database to study protein structures offline. SEARCH was instrumental in enabling networking, thus marking the functional beginning of the PDB.

The Protein Data Bank was announced in October 1971 in Nature New Biology as a joint venture between Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, UK and Brookhaven National Laboratory, US.

Upon Hamilton's death in 1973, Tom Koeztle took over direction of the PDB for the subsequent 20 years. In January 1994, Joel Sussman of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science was appointed head of the PDB. In October 1998,
the PDB was transferred to the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB); the transfer was completed in June 1999. The new director was Helen M. Berman of Rutgers University (one of the managing institutions of the RCSB, the other being the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego). In 2003, with the formation of the wwPDB, the PDB became an international organization. The founding members are PDBe (Europe), RCSB (US), and PDBj (Japan). The BMRB joined in 2006. Each of the four members of wwPDB can act as deposition, data processing and distribution centers for PDB data. The data processing refers to the fact that wwPDB staff review and annotate each submitted entry. The data are then automatically checked for plausibility (the source code for this validation software has been made available to the public at no charge).

Contents

The PDB database is updated weekly (UTC+0 Wednesday), along with its holdings list. , the PDB comprised:

162,041 structures in the PDB have a structure factor file.
11,242 structures have an NMR restraint file.
5,774 structures in the PDB have a chemical shifts file.
13,388 structures in the PDB have a 3DEM map file deposited in EM Data Bank

Most structures are determined by X-ray diffraction, but about 7% of structures are determined by protein NMR. When using X-ray diffraction, approximations of the coordinates of the atoms of the protein are obtained, whereas using NMR, the distance between pairs of atoms of the protein is estimated. The final conformation of the protein is obtained from NMR by solving a distance geometry problem. After 2013, a growing number of proteins are determined by cryo-electron microscopy.

For PDB structures determined by X-ray diffraction that have a structure factor file, their electron density map may be viewed. The data of such structures may be viewed on the three PDB websites.

Historically, the number of structures in the PDB has grown at an approximately exponential rate, with 100 registered structures in 1982, 1,000 structures in 1993, 10,000 in 1999, 100,000 in 2014, and 200,000 in January 2023.

File format

The file format initially used by the PDB was called the PDB file format. The original format was restricted by the width of computer punch cards to 80 characters per line. Around 1996, the "macromolecular Crystallographic Information file" format, mmCIF, which is an extension of the CIF format was phased in. mmCIF became the standard format for the PDB archive in 2014. In 2019, the wwPDB announced that depositions for crystallographic methods would only be accepted in mmCIF format.

An XML version of PDB, called PDBML, was described in 2005.
The structure files can be downloaded in any of these three formats, though an increasing number of structures do not fit the legacy PDB format. Individual files are easily downloaded into graphics packages from Internet URLs:
 For PDB format files, use, e.g., http://www.pdb.org/pdb/files/4hhb.pdb.gz or http://pdbe.org/download/4hhb
 For PDBML (XML) files, use, e.g., http://www.pdb.org/pdb/files/4hhb.xml.gz or http://pdbe.org/pdbml/4hhb
The "4hhb" is the PDB identifier. Each structure published in PDB receives a four-character alphanumeric identifier, its PDB ID. (This is not a unique identifier for biomolecules, because several structures for the same molecule—in different environments or conformations—may be contained in PDB with different PDB IDs.)

Viewing the data
The structure files may be viewed using one of several free and open source computer programs, including Jmol, Pymol, VMD, Molstar and Rasmol. Other non-free, shareware programs include ICM-Browser, MDL Chime, UCSF Chimera, Swiss-PDB Viewer, StarBiochem (a Java-based interactive molecular viewer with integrated search of protein databank), Sirius, and VisProt3DS (a tool for Protein Visualization in 3D stereoscopic view in anaglyph and other modes), and Discovery Studio. The RCSB PDB website contains an extensive list of both free and commercial molecule visualization programs and web browser plugins.

See also
 Crystallographic database
 Protein structure
 Protein structure prediction
 Protein structure database
 PDBREPORT lists all anomalies (also errors) in PDB structures
 PDBsum—extracts data from other databases about PDB structures
 Proteopedia—a collaborative 3D encyclopedia of proteins and other molecules

References

External links

 The Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB)—parent site to regional hosts (below)
 RCSB Protein Data Bank (US)
 PDBe (Europe)
 PDBj (Japan)
 BMRB, Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank (US)
 wwPDB Documentation—documentation on both the PDB and PDBML file formats
 Looking at Structures —The RCSB's introduction to crystallography
 PDBsum Home Page—Extracts data from other databases about PDB structures.
 Nucleic Acid Database, NDB—a PDB mirror especially for searching for nucleic acids
 Introductory PDB tutorial sponsored by PDB
 PDBe: Quick Tour on EBI Train OnLine

Biological databases
Crystallographic databases
Protein structure
Science and technology in the United States
Bioinformatics
Computational biology

Protein Data Bank