The two Autonomous Regions of Portugal from 1999 () are the Azores (Região Autónoma dos Açores) and Madeira (). Together with Continental Portugal (Portugal Continental), they form the Portuguese Republic.

History
The autonomous regions were established in 1976 in the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution, which saw Portugal end its colonial empire. Some areas, such as the Azores, Madeira and Macau, were deemed either impractical to decolonise or too close in ties to Continental Portugal to make independent. However, due to their distinct geography, economy, social and cultural situation, as well as historical aspirations of autonomy in Madeira and the Azores, the autonomous regions were formed. When formed in 1976, there were three autonomous regions - the Azores, Madeira, and Macau (Região Autónoma de Macau) in Asia. Macau, by far the most populous and the wealthiest of the three regions, was handed over to China in 1999, leaving Portugal with two Autonomous Regions.

Constitution
Although the regions are politically and administratively autonomous, the Portuguese constitution specifies both a regional and national connection, obliging their administrations to maintain democratic principles and promote regional interests, while still reinforcing national unity. The third clause of article 255 of the Portuguese Constitution specifically points to maintenance of national integrity and sovereignty of the Portuguese State.

Administration
As defined by the Portuguese constitution and other laws, an autonomous region possesses its own political and administrative statute and has its own government. The branches of Government are the regional executive (Governo Regional) and the legislative assembly (known as the Assembleia Regional). The assembly is elected by universal suffrage, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation.

Originally, the sovereignty of the Portuguese Republic was represented in each autonomous region by the Minister of the Republic (Ministro da República), proposed by the Government of the Republic and appointed by the President of the Republic. After the sixth amendment to the Portuguese Constitution was passed in 2006, the Minister of the Republic was replaced by a less-powerful Representative of the Republic (Representante da República) who is appointed by the President, after listening to the Government, but otherwise it is a presidential prerogative.

In Macau (an autonomous region from 1976 to 1999), the office of Governor (Governador de Macau) was uniquely preserved, and held powers equivalent to both the President of the Regional Executive and the President of the Regional Government in the Azores and Madeira, though the rest of the city's political structure aligned with the other two autonomous regions.

The president of the regional executive (the Presidente do Governo Regional) is appointed by the Representative of the Republic according to the results of the election to the legislative assemblies.

Current Presidents of the Regional Executive:

 Azores – José Manuel Bolieiro (Social Democratic Party)
 Madeira – Miguel Albuquerque (Social Democratic Party)

See also
 Legislative Assembly of the Azores
 Legislative Assembly of Madeira
 Legislative Assembly of Macau

References

Government of Portugal
Administrative divisions of Portugal

Autonomous Regions of Portugal


Cockney is an accent or dialect of English,  spoken in London, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" was used to describe a person from the East End, or born within earshot of Bow Bells - The Church of St Mary-le-Bow. Dick Whittington was supposed to have heard the bells calling him back to the city in 1392.

References

London
British English

Cockney


Campo Blenio was a municipality in the district of Blenio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

On 25 January 2005, the cantonal authorities announced that Campo Blenio would merge with Aquila, Ghirone, Olivone and Torre to form a new municipality to be called Blenio. This union was carried through on 22 October 2006.

References

External links

 Official site
 Cantonal Portal

Former municipalities of Ticino

Campo Blenio


The grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura) is a large tree squirrel in the genus Ratufa found in the highlands of the Central and Uva provinces of Sri Lanka, and in patches of riparian forest along the Kaveri River and in the hill forests of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of southern India. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the species as near threatened due to habitat loss and hunting.

Etymology and common names
Grizzled giant squirrels are named for the white flecks of hair that cover their greyish-brown bodies, giving them a grizzled look.

Description

R. macroura is the smallest of the giant squirrels found in the Indian subcontinent, with a head and body length of , and tail measuring roughly the same or more, for a total length of . It has small rounded ears with pointed tufts. The home range of an individual is between .

Subspecies dandolena is dorsally brown grizzled with white. Ventrally light brownish cream. Tail frosted with white fur. Forehead and feet are black in color. Whereas ssp. melamochra, upper parts are jet black which contrast brownish cream to orange yellow ventral surface. Tail frosted with black fur. Snout of both ssp. are pinkish color.

Their vision is good, which aids them in detecting predators. Their sense of hearing is relatively poor. The call is staccato and loud with repeated shrill cackle. It is usually uttered in morning and evening. A low "churr" is also used to communicate with nearby groups.

Hands are normally pentadactylous, with four digits and a rudimentary thumb. Fingers have large broad soft pads, where the inner pad is expanded for gripping while moving through branches. Feet are also comprised with soft pads with both fore and hind limbs possessing long, sharp claws.

Distribution

In India, R. macroura has been recorded from Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary, Theni Forest Division, Palni Hills, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Anaimalai Tiger reserve, Sirumalai, Thiruvannamalai Forest Division of the Eastern Ghats, Hosur Forest Division and Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. The easternmost population of Ratufa macroura dandolena was discovered in the Pakkamalai Reserve Forest in eastern Tamil Nadu.

Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Shenbagathoppu, Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu, India.

Diet
Ratufa macroura are known to eat fruits, nuts, insects, bird eggs, and the bark of some trees. The fruit of the climber Combretum ovalifolium is an especially important food source where it occurs. Young squirrels, upon first emerging from the nest, have been observed to feed exclusively on this fruit.

Behavior
Unlike its relatives, the giant squirrel balances using its two hind feet, instead of its tail.

The species is almost entirely an arboreal, very rarely coming to the ground to escape from predators, to flee from an intruder, attack males of the territory, and connecting with females.

Subspecies
The three subspecies are easily recognizable due to color distinctions. They are also geographically separated demes. The table below lists the three recognized subspecies of Ratufa macroura, along with any synonyms associated with each subspecies:

According to Mammals of Sri Lanka, the three subspecies are identified as follows:

 Ratufa macroura macroura
Males are 35 cm long and females with 37 cm. Tail is 37 cm long in males and 38 cm in females. Jet black dorsal area with a sheen. Rump with white grizzling appearance. Underparts brownish creamy to pale yellow. Tail is with dark black fur with white tip. Face has pink color in naked areas. Fur moderately long with few coarse hairs. Geographically, this subspecies is restricted to central highlands up to 2000m, such as Horton Plains.

 Ratufa macroura dandolena
Males are 37 cm long and females 35 cm. Tail varies from 37 cm in males and 40 cm in females. Males are larger than females. Dorsal surface is brown instead of jet black in subsp. macroura. White rump. Distinct maroon tinge between shoulders. There is a brownish cream crown patch. Underparts are light brownish cream. Tail is dark brown and there is a reddish-brown tip. Fleshy parts of face are pink. Fur moderately long and coarse. Inhabit dry zone parts of the island, as well as India.

 Ratufa macroura melanochra
Males are 35 cm long and females 37 cm. Tail varies from 37 cm in males and 38 cm in females. Upperparts are jet black with contrasting color variation with creamy yellowish ventral surface. Fur is shorter and coarser. Found in low country wet zone, and intermediate zones of the country.

References

External links

ARKive - images and movies of the grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura)

Animal Diversity Web
Hybridisation

Ratufa
Mammals of Asia
Rodents of India
Mammals described in 1769
Taxa named by Thomas Pennant

Grizzled giant squirrel


Leucite (from the Greek word leukos meaning white) is a rock-forming mineral of the feldspathoid group, silica-undersaturated and composed of potassium and aluminium tectosilicate KAlSi2O6. Crystals have the form of cubic icositetrahedra but, as first observed by Sir David Brewster in 1821, they are not optically isotropic, and are therefore pseudo-cubic. Goniometric measurements made by Gerhard vom Rath in 1873 led him to refer the crystals to the tetragonal system. Optical investigations have since proved the crystals to be still more complex in character, and to consist of several orthorhombic or monoclinic individuals, which are optically biaxial and repeatedly twinned, giving rise to twin-lamellae and to striations on the faces. When the crystals are raised to a temperature of about 500 °C they become optically isotropic and the twin-lamellae and striations disappear, although they reappear when the crystals are cooled again. This pseudo-cubic character of leucite is very similar to that of the mineral boracite.

The crystals are white or ash-grey in colour, hence the name suggested by A. G. Werner in 1701, from λευκος, '(matt) white'. They are transparent and glassy when fresh, albeit with a noticeably subdued 'subvitreous' lustre due to the low refractive  index, but readily  alter to become waxy/greasy and then dull and opaque; they are brittle and break with a conchoidal fracture. The Mohs hardness is 5.5, and the specific gravity 2.47. Inclusions of other minerals, arranged in concentric zones, are frequently present in the crystals. On account of the color and form of the crystals the mineral was early known as 'white garnet'. French authors in older literature may employ René Just Haüy's name amphigène, but 'leucite' is the only name for this mineral species that is recognised as official by the International Mineralogical Association.

References

Feldspathoid
Potassium minerals
Aluminium minerals
Tetragonal minerals
Minerals in space group 88

Leucite


Samuel James Supalla (December 4, 1957) is an American Sign Language performer, filmmaker, and linguist.

Supalla was born in Pasco, Washington in December 1957. On his birth, he has said: "Although, I really think of myself as being born around December 23rd with the help of my brother, Ted!" Ted had helped with the creation of his name sign, which Samuel did not have until three weeks after his birth. At a very young age, he began appointing name signs for others. Both of his parents were deaf and he had three brothers, two deaf and one hard of hearing. Supalla is notable for his storytelling performances in American Sign Language (ASL), particularly for his narrative in The American Literature Series: For a Decent Living. He is a filmmaker and a linguist "whose interest lies in the research and English development issues concerning deaf children" and stresses the importance of a natural sign language.

Early life
Before enrolling in school, Samuel's father would often go to the Deaf Club bringing the whole family along to attend. Samuel himself remembers the old stories and plays that were performed in ASL. The audience at the Club shared a fascination for these ASL stories. He graduated from the Oregon School for the Deaf. Throughout preschool and elementary, the program enforced oralism amongst deaf students where signing was not allowed. Although the children were not allowed to sign, they would do so in their dormitories. "I had become a signing model for my peers during the early formative years. When Supalla went home, he made up stories about an imaginary white horse, and when he returned to school, he told his classmates. When the students visited his home, "they would ask where the white horse was. I would have to lie and tell them that the white horse died. They were disappointed that they never got to see the white horse".

Talent competition
When Supalla was 15, the Oregon School for the Deaf was invited by Gallaudet University to go to National Association of the Deaf. There was a talent competition in front of an audience of Gallaudet students. Supalla won the competition.

College years
At the end of high school, Supalla enrolled at California State University Northridge in 1976 and graduated as a History major. During his college years, he was invited to a conference on American Sign Language research, as a part of the entertainment for the conference. It was this engagement that established the start of his professional career. During this period of his life, he travelled for the purpose of doing live shows/storytelling in front of many audiences. He worked as a research assistant at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. His next move was to apply to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1982, where he was admitted and majored in education with a concentration in bilingual education. It was at the University of Illinois that he received his master's degree and Doctorate degrees.

Career
After graduating from the University of Illinois, Supalla was offered a job at the University of Arizona. He took the job and moved to Tucson, Arizona, in 1989. His prime focus at the university is on disability and psychoeducational studies.

"His original work on how artificial English-based sign systems fail has led to a greater appreciation of American Sign Language (ASL) as a working language in terms of visual perception and processing."

Supalla is concerned with literacy issues regarding learning to read and write in English. "In the case of deaf children, the need to develop a 'mother tongue' (e.g., ASL) is stressed in order to facilitate the learning of a second language (e.g., English) within the context of bilingualism."

Supalla's The Book Of Names Signs was published 1992. It describes the origins of American Sign Language name signing.

ASL-phabet is a system designed by Supalla. It is the American Sign Language dictionary for kids which consists of over 300 sign words that include symbols such as Handshape, Location, and Movement. It is a "primary source of English for deaf learners".

Supalla contributed to A Free Hand: Enfranchising the Education of Deaf Children. His part discusses "the policy analysis on the notion of reverse mainstreaming and the redefinition of bilingual education for deaf children that is forthcoming."

References

1957 births
Living people
Deaf writers
People from Pasco, Washington
American deaf people
Linguists of sign languages
American writers with disabilities

Samuel James Supalla


Peter van Hove (–1793) was a Flemish Friar Minor, lector in theology and exegete.

Biography
Peter was born at Retie, in the Campine region of Flanders (Belgium). He was a pupil of Willem Smits, founder and first prefect of the "Musæum Philologico-Sacrum", a Franciscan Biblical institute at Antwerp, which had for its scope the training of Franciscan students in the languages appertaining to Biblical study, in Biblical history, geography, chronology and other subsidiary branches, such as are requisite for a critical and literal interpretation of the Sacred Text.

Upon his master's death, in 1770, Van Hove was entrusted with the direction of this flourishing school, which, in the prime of its activity, fell a prey to the fury of the French Revolution. He died at Antwerp, in 1793.

Writings
Prior to his appointment as prefect, Van Hove had published several noteworthy historical and archæological theses, the first of which, "Imago polemico-sacra primi sæculi religionis Christi seu fidei, doctrinæ et morum disciplinæ Ecclesiæ Apostolicæ" (Brussels, 1765), is based chiefly upon the writings of St. Paul. Then followed: "Sacra Iconographia a pictorum erroribus vindicata" (Antwerp, 1768); "Chanaan seu Regnum Israelis Theocraticum, in XII Tribus Divisum" (Antwerp, 1770); and "Messias seu Pascha nostrum immolatus Christus" (Antwerp, 1771). The author devotes much space to exegetical and critical digressions which have a special value. In the last of these works he gives an excellent chronology of the Gospels.

Sixteen folio volumes of Smits's Flemish translation of the Vulgate and his famous commentary had already been edited when, on Smits's death, the immense task devolved upon his pupil. Van Hove first completed and edited "Liber Numeri Vulgatæ Editionis", I (Antwerp, 1772), II (Antwerp, 1775), twelve chapters of which had been prepared by Smits. Following the plan adopted by his predecessor, Van Hove added, of his own, "Prolegomena ac Tentamen Philologico-Sacrum de tempore celebrandi Paschatis Veteris Testamenti", etc.

The same series also includes the "Liber Deuteronomii" (Antwerp, 1777–80), in 2 volumes. This work brought to a close the publication of this valuable translation and commentary, which, however, comprises only the Psalms, the Sapiential Books and the Pentateuch.

Lastly, Van Hove took up his pen in defence of the Catholic faith. He wrote the "Apologismus Polemicus ad Deut. XVII." (Antwerp, 1782), which is a compilation of arguments, such as had been put forward by Bergier and other French apologists of the eighteenth century, in favour of the truth of revealed religion and the infallibility of the Catholic Church.

Sources

Year of birth missing
1793 deaths
Flemish Friars Minor
People from Retie

Peter van Hove


Annie Jean Easley (April 23, 1933 – June 25, 2011) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist. She worked for the Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). She was a leading member of the team which developed software for the Centaur rocket stage, and was one of the first African-Americans to work at NASA. Easley was posthumously inducted into the Glenn Research Hall of Fame in 2015. On February 1, 2021, a crater on the Moon was named after Easley by the IAU.

Education
Before the Civil Rights Movement, educational and career opportunities for African-American children were very limited. Segregation was prevalent, African-American children were educated separately from white children, and their schools were often inferior to white schools. Annie's mother told her that she could be anything, but she would have to work at it. She encouraged Annie to get a good education. From the fifth grade through high school, Annie attended Holy Family High School, and was valedictorian of her graduating class. At a young age Annie had interest in becoming a nurse, but around the age of 16 she decided to study pharmacy.

In 1950, Easley enrolled in classes at Xavier University in New Orleans, an African-American Catholic university, and majored in pharmacy for about two years.

In 1977, she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Cleveland State University.

Career

In 1955, Easley read a story in a local newspaper about twin sisters who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) as "computers". She applied for a job the next day, and was hired two weeks later - one of four African Americans out of about 2500 employees. She began her career as computer at the NACA Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (which became NASA Lewis Research Center, 1958–1999, and subsequently the John H. Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio. Later after electronic computers started being used at NASA her title changed to mathematician and computer technician. Even with a degree, at NASA, Easley also had to complete internal specialization courses to be considered a professional. Easley was denied financial aid that other employees received for education, without explanation from the agency. She also noted that she did not feel that her pay was very high when she first started with two years of college. Although she was promised a GS-3 in her interview, her first paycheck was a GS-2, and when she questioned it she was told there were no more GS-3s available.

Easley's outreach for minorities did not end with her volunteer work at college career days. At NASA she took upon herself to be an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) counselor. This was one of the formal ways that she helped her supervisors at NASA address discrimination complaints from all levels. She was also part of a recruitment effort on behalf of NASA for engineering students from numerous colleges.

Her 34-year career included developing and implementing computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies, supported the Centaur high-energy upper rocket stage, determined solar, wind and energy projects, and identified energy conversion systems and alternative systems to solve energy problems. During the 1970s Easley worked on a project examining damage to the ozone layer. With massive cuts in the NASA space program, Easley began working on energy problems; her energy assignments included studies to determine the life use of storage batteries, such as those used in electric utility vehicles. Her computer applications have been used to identify energy conversion systems that offer the improvement over commercially available technologies. Following the energy crisis of the late 1970s Easley studied the economic advantages of co-generating power plants that obtained byproducts from coal and steam. After retiring in 1989, she remained an active participant in the Speaker's Bureau and the Business & Professional Women's association. Despite her long career and numerous contributions to research, she was cut out of NASA's promotional photos. In response to one such event, Easley responded by saying "I'm out here to do a job and I knew I had the ability to do it, and that's where my focus was, on getting the job done. I was not intentionally trying to be a pioneer." which showed that she placed her work and solving problems before everything else.

Easley's work with the Centaur project helped lay the technological foundations for future space shuttle launches and launches of communication, military and weather satellites. Her work contributed to the 1997 flight to Saturn of the Cassini probe, the launcher of which had the Centaur as its upper stage.

Annie Easley was interviewed in Cleveland on August 21, 2001, by Sandra Johnson. The interview is stored in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center Oral History Program. The 55 page interview transcript includes material on the history of the Civil Rights Movement, Glenn Research Center, Johnson Space Center, space flight, and the contribution of women to space flight. In that same Interview, Easley was asked whether she still played with gadgets and stated "I don't have the time or the desire. I will get the email and I'll send it, but I don't play with it. It's not like this fascinating thing I play with. I'd much rather be out doing something actively, like on the golf course or doing other things."

Easley lived in a time where women and African-Americans were facing discrimination from society, although she prided herself in her work ethic and achieved her goals nonetheless.  She also experienced some discrimination related to being an African-American during her career, especially with the picture-cutting incident at her work, when her face was cut out from a picture to put it on display. In her 34-year career she worked in four different departments: the Computer Services Division, the Energy Directorate, the Launch Vehicles Group and the Engineering Directorate, although none of her moves were due to promotions, which she recognized may have been due to her race or sex.

Throughout the 1970s, Easley advocated for and encouraged female and minority students at college career days to work in STEM careers. She tutored elementary and high school children as well as young adults who had dropped out of school in a work-study program.

Easley was also a budding athlete who founded and subsequently became the first President of the NASA Lewis Ski Club and participated in other local ski clubs in the Cleveland area.

Personal life
Annie Easley was born to Samuel Bird Easley and Mary Malvina Hoover in Birmingham, Alabama. She was raised by her mother and had a brother six years her senior.

In 1954, Annie Easley married a man from the military. After her husband had been discharged from the military, the two of them moved to Cleveland, Ohio to be near his family.

She had the intention of continuing her studies in Cleveland, but unfortunately, the local university had ended its pharmacy program a short time before and no nearby alternative existed.

After divorcing her husband, Easley returned to Birmingham. As part of the Jim Crow laws that maintained racial inequality, African Americans were required to pass a literacy test and pay a poll tax in order to vote, which was outlawed in 1964 in the Twenty-fourth Amendment. She remembered the test giver looking at her application and saying only, "You went to Xavier University. Two dollars."  Subsequently, she helped other African-Americans prepare for the test.

Easley had always loved dressing up. She wore stockings and heels almost every day in college. Although there was no dress code in her work department, wearing pants as a woman during that time was still not normalized. However, she was one of the first to wear pants to work in the 1970s after talking to her supervisor about it.

In her first three years after retiring from NASA, Easley focused on volunteer work, often telling people she put more miles on her car as a retiree than as a worker. She traveled the world, mostly to ski, and become an independent contractor in real estate. Although she no longer tutored, she expressed that she was always willing to talk to students at career days and similar events if asked.

Selected works
 Performance and Operational Economics Estimates for a Coal Gasification Combined-Cycle Cogeneration Powerplant. Nainiger, Joseph J.; Burns, Raymond K.; Easley, Annie J. NASA, Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio. NASA Tech Memo 82729 Mar 1982 31p
 Bleed Cycle Propellant Pumping in a Gas-Core Nuclear Rocket Engine System. Kascak, A. F.; Easley, A. J. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio. Report No.: NASA-TM-X-2517; E-6639 March 1972
 Effect of Turbulent Mixing on Average Fuel Temperatures in a Gas-Core Nuclear Rocket Engine. Easley, A. J.; Kascak, A. F.; National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio. Report No.: NASA-TN-D-4882 Nov 1968

See also
Katherine Johnson
List of African-American women in STEM fields

References

Further reading
 Black Contributors to Science and Energy Technology. US Department of Energy (Washington, D.C.: Office of Public Affairs), 1979, p. 19. DOE/OPA-0035 (79).
 The ACM-Mills Conference on Pioneering Women in Computing. Mills College, Oakland, California. May 7, 2000
 In Black and White: A Guide to Magazine Articles, Newspaper Articles and Books Concerning More than 15,000 Black Individuals and Groups. 3rd edition Mary Mace Spradling, ed. (Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Co.), 1980. p. 289.
 "Easley, Annie J.: American Computer Scientist" in World of Computer Science.  Brigham Narin, Ed. (Detroit, Michigan: Gales Group), 2002. p. 210.

External links
BookRags Biography
The Faces of Science Biography
NASA Glen Research Center
 Annie Easley

1933 births
2011 deaths
African-American women engineers
American women engineers
African-American engineers
African-American mathematicians
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
American women mathematicians
Cleveland State University alumni
People from Birmingham, Alabama
Xavier University of Louisiana alumni
American women computer scientists
American computer scientists
Women rocket scientists
Mathematicians from Alabama
Engineers from Alabama
Computer programmers
Software engineers
20th-century women engineers
21st-century women engineers
20th-century women mathematicians
21st-century women mathematicians
20th-century African-American academics
20th-century American academics
African-American computer scientists
20th-century African-American women
21st-century African-American women
21st-century African-American academics
21st-century American academics
NASA people
21st-century American women academics

Annie Easley


Yeshayahu Leibowitz (; 29 January 1903 – 18 August 1994) was an Israeli Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath. He was a professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry, and neurophysiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as a prolific writer on Jewish thought and western philosophy. He was known for his outspoken views on ethics, religion, and politics. Leibowitz cautioned that the state of Israel and Zionism had become more sacred than Jewish humanist values and controversially went on to describe Israeli conduct in the occupied Palestinian territories as "Judeo-Nazi" in nature while warning of the dehumanizing effect of the occupation on the victims and the oppressors.

Biography
Yeshayahu Leibowitz was born in Riga, Russian Empire (now in Latvia) in 1903, to a religious Zionist family. His father was a lumber trader, and his cousin was a future chess grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch. In 1919, he studied chemistry and philosophy at the University of Berlin. After completing his doctorate in 1924, he went on to study biochemistry and medicine, receiving an MD in 1934 from the University of Basel.

He immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1935, and settled in Jerusalem. Leibowitz was married to Greta, with whom he had six children, two of whom died at young ages. His son Elia was chairman of the Tel Aviv University astrophysics department, and the longest-serving director of the Wise Observatory. Another son, Uri, was a professor of medicine at Hadassah University Medical Center. His daughter, Yiska, was a district prosecutor.

Leibowitz's sister, Nechama Leibowitz, was a world-famous biblical scholar. Leibowitz was active until his last day. He died in his sleep on 18 August 1994. Shamai Leibowitz is one of his grandchildren.

Academic and literary career

Leibowitz joined the faculty of mathematics and natural science of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1936. He became a professor of biochemistry in 1941, and was promoted to the position of senior professor of organic chemistry and neurology in 1952. He taught at the Hebrew University for nearly six decades, lecturing in biochemistry, neurophysiology, philosophy, and the history of science.

Leibowitz served as the editor of the Encyclopaedia Hebraica in its early stages. Apart from his innumerable articles and essays, Leibowitz authored a wide range of books on philosophy, human values, Jewish thought, the teachings of Maimonides, and politics. Many of his lectures and discourses, including those given as part of the "Broadcast University" project run by Israeli Army Radio, were subsequently compiled and printed in book form. Leibowitz was a prolific letter writer, and his advice or comment was sought out widely. The first collection of his letters (in Hebrew) was published posthumously.

Religious philosophy
Leibowitz was an Orthodox Jew who held controversial views on the subject of halakha, or Jewish law. He wrote that the sole purpose of religious commandments was to obey God, and not to receive any kind of reward in this world or the world to come. He maintained that the reasons for religious commandments were beyond man's understanding, as well as irrelevant, and any attempt to attribute emotional significance to the performance of mitzvot was misguided and akin to idolatry. He believed that Jews should perform mitzvot solely for the sake of worshipping God and that although they could also have incidental benefit to the one performing the mitzvah, it would only be a religiously worthy act as long as the motivation was to worship God. He denied the idea of ethical mitzvot, believing that any mitzvot which set out duties towards others were duties based on a person's position before God rather than their position before their fellow man.

The essence of Leibowitz's religious outlook is that a person's faith is his commitment to obey God, meaning God's commandments, and this has nothing to do with a person's image of God. This must be so because Leibowitz thought that God cannot be described, that God's understanding is not man's understanding, and thus, all the questions asked of God are out of place. Leibowitz claimed that a person's decision to believe in God (in other words: to obey him) defines or describes that person, not God.

Leibowitz viewed God as transcending all reality as humans know it, believing that as an entity God is incomparable to any other form of reality humans can encounter, and is completely separate from the material world. He viewed human history in the natural world as having no divine significance and rejected the idea that God had set out a divine purpose in history or extended some form of providence over humanity. He did not see Torah as an account of historical and scientific truths, but rather as the source of the mitzvot or commandments on how Jews are to serve God. He believed that the stories presented as factual in the Torah were simply using literary forms within the realm of human comprehension to deliver demands on how to worship God, writing that "from the standpoint of religious faith, the Torah and the entirety of Holy Scripture must be conceived as a demand which transcends the range of human cognition - the demand to know God and serve him - a demand conveyed in various forms of human expression: prescriptions, vision, poetry, prayer, thought, and narrative." He believed that the Torah should not be read as a purely factual historical account, that the inclusion of any actual historical information in the Torah would be merely coincidental, and that all descriptions of God intervening in nature and history were not to be seen as factual but rather interpreted in terms of the messages they carry, as his ideas of God's transcendence denied that there could be any such contact between holiness and the world of the profane.

One result of this approach is that faith, which is a personal commitment to obey God, cannot be challenged by the usual philosophical problem of evil or by historical events that seemingly contradict a divine presence. When someone told Leibowitz that he stopped believing in God after the Holocaust, Leibowitz answered, "Then you never believed in God". If a person stops believing after an awful event, it shows that he only obeyed God because he thought he understood God's plan, or because he expected to see a reward. But "for Leibowitz, religious belief is not an explanation of life, nature, or history, or a promise of a future in this world or another, but a demand". He viewed the Holocaust as having no Jewish religious significance, as such a belief would contradict his ideas of God having no involvement in human affairs.

Leibowitz believed in the separation of state and religion, and held that mixing the two corrupted faith. He condemned the veneration of Jewish shrines, cynically referring to the Western Wall as the Discotel (a play on the words "discothèque" and "Kotel", a transliterated Hebrew word which literally means "wall", but capitalized refers to the Western Wall).

He was critical of Reform Judaism, calling it a "historical distortion of the Jewish religion", as well as Kabbalah, seeing them as encouraging people to not perform mitzvot for their own sake but ascribing a stated purpose to them. As Reform Judaism teaches the concept of "ethical monotheism" and Judaism as having the mission of being a "light unto the nations" and Kabbalah seeks universal redemption through the performance of mitzvot. This was in contrast to Leibowitz's idea that mitzvot should be performed solely to serve God and not for any other explicit purpose. He also claimed that placing the State of Israel, Jewish history, and Jewish culture above God was committing Avodah Zara, or idol worship.

Leibowitz did not believe in the Messianic Age as traditionally understood: "the profound religious meaning of the messianic idea consists in presenting a goal and a purpose towards which one must strive eternally. The Messiah is essentially he who always will come, he is the eternal future. The Messiah who comes, the Messiah of the present, is inevitably the false Messiah." He viewed the expectations of a literal Messianic Age as blurring the line between "religious faith aimed at the service of God and psychological yearnings for the satisfaction of human aspirations."

In his view, prayer for personal reasons, done for the needs of the person praying, was religiously meaningless and even blasphemy, as it seeks to influence God and sees God as an agent for fulfilling human needs. In his eyes, the only legitimate form of prayer was one done to fulfill commandments without any reference to the needs of the person praying.

In contrast to his strict views on some matters, he was liberal on others. On the subject of homosexuality, for example, Leibowitz believed that despite the ban on homosexual relations in Judaism, homosexuals should do their best to remain observant Jews.

Views and opinions
Although Leibowitz was a Zionist and Israeli patriot, in his later years he did not support Zionism for religious reasons but rather as an "endeavor to liberate Jews from being ruled by the Gentiles." In his view, the State of Israel had no religious significance and merely served a noble political purpose by fulfilling human needs. Despite being an Orthodox Jew, the version of Zionism he espoused was totally secular in nature. In line with his view that holiness was totally separate from the material world, Leibowitz denied that the Land of Israel was holy and that the Jews had a special right to it, writing that "the idea that a specific country or location has an intrinsic 'holiness' is an indubitably idolatrous idea" and that "talk of rights is pure nonsense. No nation has a right to any land."

Originally, he had been associated with religious Zionism and looked favorably on a system of law based on halakha. In the 1930s while still in Germany, he was aligned with the Mizrachi religious Zionist movement. On Zionism, he wrote that "we are presented with the opportunity and the task of realizing through and within the land of Israel the concealed power of Torah." He called for "a specific and detailed halakhic code for administering the full panoply of state functions" to demonstrate how religious parties would run the future Jewish state. He proposed a form of democratic halakhic Judaism. In the 1949 Knesset election, Leibowitz headed the United List of Religious Workers, which failed to win a seat. Following Israeli independence, Leibowitz moved away from religious Zionism. He was disappointed with the way the religious parties compromised with the secular government. In his view, they had prostituted themselves to the government to guard their own brand of religious sectarianism, subordinating religion to the government. He viewed the rabbinic leadership as morally corrupt. As a result, he became disillusioned with religious Zionism. His disillusionment was further bolstered by the Qibya massacre, which caused him to become more progressively critical of government policy. In his later philosophy, he became an outspoken defender of the complete separation between religion and state, which he was calling for by 1959. He came to view political involvement as having a corrupting influence on Judaism, and argued for the separation of religion and state for Judaism's sake. He viewed politicized religion as not being truly religious, believing that it focuses less on the demands it makes on its adherents. He was among the first Israeli intellectuals to state immediately after the 1967 Six-Day War that if the occupation continued, this would lead to the decline in moral stature.

In a 1968 essay titled "The Territories", Leibowitz postulated a hellish future:

The Arabs would be the working people and the Jews the administrators, inspectors, officials, and police—mainly secret police. A state ruling a hostile population of 1.5 to 2 million foreigners would necessarily become a secret-police state, with all that this implies for education, free speech and democratic institutions. The corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the State of Israel. The administration would suppress Arab insurgency on the one hand and acquire Arab Quislings on the other. There is also good reason to fear that the Israel Defense Forces, which has been until now a people's army, would, as a result of being transformed into an army of occupation, degenerate, and its commanders, who will have become military governors, resemble their colleagues in other nations.

In an interview in Haaretz newspaper, Carlo Strenger, who knew Leibowitz personally, stated: Because of his provocativeness, it's easy to miss Leibowitz's profound moral seriousness and the great relevance of his thought today. He is often pigeonholed as belonging to the extreme left, which is a mistake. Leibowitz, never willing to bow to collective pressure, was the most unlikely of combinations: On the one hand he was a libertarian, an extreme form of classical liberalism, and believed that human beings should be free to determine their way of life without any state interference. On the other hand, he was an ultra-Orthodox Jew who insisted that the state and religion must be separated completely to avoid corrupting each other.

During the Mossad's killing of the Palestinian and Arab figures after the murder of the Israeli Olympic athletes in September 1972 Leibowitz declared in a public speech at Beersheba University the following view: "Whoever condemns the terrorism of the Palestinian organizations must at the same time condemn the terrorism of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza." For him the Palestinian terrorist attacks abroad against Israelis were the acts of "terrorism against terrorism."

Leibowitz became more harshly critical of Israeli policies following the 1982 Lebanon War. He repeatedly called for Israelis to refuse to serve in the occupied territories, and warned that Israel was turning its soldiers into "Judeo-Nazis", writing that if "the law . . . can allow the use of torture as a way of getting confessions out of prisoners, then this testifies to a Nazi mentality." He supported a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories.

Awards and recognition

In 1993, Leibowitz was selected for the Israel Prize. Before the award ceremony, Leibowitz was invited to speak to the Israel Council for Israeli–Palestinian Peace, where his controversial remarks calling upon Israeli soldiers to refuse orders triggered outrage (and Yitzhak Rabin had threatened to boycott the ceremony). The jury convened to discuss the possibility of withdrawing the prize, but Leibowitz himself announced that he would refuse to accept it, because he did not want to create antagonism when receiving the prize.

References

External links

 Yeshayahu Leibowitz (Hebrew)
 Yeshayahu Leibowitz (English)

1903 births
1994 deaths
Scientists from Riga
People from Kreis Riga
Latvian Jews
20th-century Israeli Jews
Jews from the Russian Empire
Latvian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
Israeli Orthodox Jews
Israeli people of Latvian-Jewish descent
Israeli scientists
Israeli philosophers
Jewish chemists
Jewish philosophers
Jewish scientists
Philosophers of Judaism
20th-century Israeli philosophers
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Israel Prize for special contribution to society and the State recipients

Yeshayahu Leibowitz


Battista is a given name and surname which means Baptist in Italian.

Given named
 Battista Agnese (died 1564), cartographer from the Republic of Genoa, who worked in the Venetian Republic
 Battista Dossi, also known as Battista de Luteri, Italian painter
 Battista Farina (1893-1966), later Battista Pininfarina, Italian automobile designer and the founder of the Carrozzeria Pininfarina.
 Battista Sforza (1446-1472), Duchess of Urbino and second wife of Federico da Montefeltro

Surnamed
 Bobbie Battista (1952-2020), American journalist
 Giovanni Battista, multiple people
 Miriam Battista (1912-1980), American actress
 Orlando Aloysius Battista (1917-1995), Canadian chemist and author.

Others
 Battista, a Disney character who is Scrooge McDuck's butler.
Pininfarina Battista, the first car from Automobili Pininfarina

See also
 Baptist (disambiguation)
 Batista (Portuguese/Spanish surname)
 Bautista (Spanish surname) meaning "Baptist"
 Baptista (Portuguese surname) meaning "Baptist"
 Baptiste (name) (French surname and given name) meaning "Baptist"

Italian given names
Italian-language surnames

Battista


Leo H. Fischer (September 20, 1897 - October 1970) was an American sports writer, editor and organizer.  He also served on the boards of charitable organizations and headed the National Basketball League in the early 1940s before it merged with another professional organization to become the National Basketball Association that continues to exist today.

Family life
Fischer was born in Chicago. His parents were Abraham and Anna (née Silverberg). From 1921 to 1923, Fischer studied at Northwestern University. He married Margaret MacLean on June 20, 1926. Their children were Barbara (Mrs. William Swisher) and Nancy (Mrs. John W. Gwynne, Jr.).

Career
Fischer was a sports writer for the Chicago Examiner, the Herald Examiner, Chicago Journal, and the Chicago's American. He began his news career as editor of the Great Lakes Bulletin in 1918.

For more than 25 years, he was the sports editor for Chicago's American (from 1943–1969). In 1969, he continued as sports editor when the American was converted into a tabloid known as Chicago Today.

Other interests
In 1933, Fischer co-founded the Amateur Softball Association with Michael J. Pauley He also served as ASA's president until 1938. He wrote a book entitled How to Play Winning Softball in 1940. Fischer was president of the National Basketball League from 1940 to 1944. Moreover, he was a Trustee of the National Hemophilia Foundation and Illinois Masonic Hospital and also served as a director of LaRabida Jackson Park Sanitarium.

Army
Fischer served in the United States Navy from 1917–1919 and after that in the Illinois National Guard from 1919-1920. After that he was in the 1st United States Army Reserve from 1920-1927.

Awards
Fischer was a recipient of the U.S.O. citation for veterans recreational services in 1944. He was cited in the Back of Yards Council in 1953 and named Press Veteran of the Year in 1963. Chicago Sportsman of the Year, 1968. Member of Editorial Assoc., Chgo. Press Club, Baseball Writers' Assn. Am., Football Writers's Assn. (pres. 1956), other profl. assns., Am. Legion, Sigma Delta Chi. Mason (Shriner). Elk. Clubs: Variety, Ill. Athletic, Headline (president 1951), Sojourners. Author: Winning Softball, 1941; co-author Little Sports Library (10 vols.), 1939. Contbr. articles nat. mags. Home: Chicago IL

References

1897 births
1970 deaths
United States Navy personnel of World War I
Writers from Chicago
Northwestern University alumni
Sportswriters from Illinois

Leo Fischer


Chris M. Eckmann (May 27, 1874 – January 21, 1937) was Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska from 1926 to 1927.

Biography

Chris Eckmann was born May 27, 1874, in Denmark. He worked in lumber in North Dakota before moving to Seattle to enter the furniture trade in 1906. He married in 1911, and in May 1915, moved to tent city at the site of what would later become known as Anchorage. He opened up a furniture store on the corner of Fifth Avenue and K Street, and worked for the Alaska Railroad as a clerk and a baggage handler.

In 1923 he was elected to the Anchorage City Council, and in 1926 he was elected to a single term as mayor. He was elected to an additional term on the council in 1933. He served as a director of First National Bank Alaska, and was active in a number of fraternal organizations, including the Freemasons, the Shriners, the Elks, the Eagles, and the Odd Fellows.

He died from complications of pneumonia the night of January 21, 1937 at Anchorage Hospital.

References

1874 births
1937 deaths
Danish emigrants to the United States
Mayors of Anchorage, Alaska
Deaths from pneumonia in Alaska
Alaska city council members

Chris M. Eckmann


The University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics (/Ekonomski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu) is one of the educational institutions of the University of Belgrade, Serbia. The building is located in the city center of Belgrade, in the Savski Venac municipality. The Belgrade's School of Economics is Serbia's leading educational institution in business and economics.

History
Initially established on 31 March 1937 as Economics-Commercial High School, the Faculty of Economics was the first center of higher education dedicated to the study of economics in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. On 7 February 1947, The Faculty of Economics was included in the composition of the University of Belgrade.

Its curriculum includes courses in economic analysis and policy; marketing; accounting, auditing and financial management; trade and commerce; finance, banking and insurance; tourism and hotel industry; statistics and informatics; management and international economics and foreign trade.

In its 80-year old history, around 50,000 students have graduated from the Faculty. As of 2016, the Faculty has a total of 9,206 enrolled students.

Starting with the 2017–18 winter semester, the faculty offers an international bachelor studies for 30 students in cooperation with the London School of Economics  and University of London. After successful completion, students gain parallel degrees from these institutions.

Organization and resources
The Faculty has a total of six departments:
 Department for Economic Theory and Analysis
 Department for Economic Policy and Development
 Department for International Economic Relations
 Department for Business Economics and Management
 Department for Accounting and Business Finance
 Department for Statistics and Mathematics

The Faculty includes a library with over 120,000 titles. The Faculty's Publication Center has grown into one of the leading Serbian publishers for economic literature. Its research center has implemented over 800 projects in the field of restructuring, assets valuation, privatization, investment, etc., as well as over one hundred macroeconomic projects for governments and multilateral institutions.

Notable alumni and teaching staff
Some of the school's renowned students and professors include: Rushka Bergman, Sonja Biserko, Mirko Cvetković, Bojan Dimitrijević, Mlađan Dinkić, Diana Dragutinović, Mitja Gaspari, Radovan Jelašić, Srgjan Kerim, Nikola Kljusev, Dragan Maršićanin, Gordana Matković, Branko Milanovic, Slobodan Milosavljević, Miroslav Mišković, Abdul Rahman Munif, Milorad Nedeljković, Ivo Perišin, Aleksandar Pravdić, Toplica Spasojević, Srđan Srećković, Kori Udovički, Ashagre Yigletu, Zaim Topčić and Philip Zepter.

References

External links
 Official Website (in Serbian, English)

Economics
University of Belgrade
Education in Belgrade
Economics schools
Business schools in Serbia
Savski Venac


William C. Velasquez Jr. (May 9, 1944June 15, 1988) was an American social activist and vote organizer. He founded the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project which worked to expand Latino and Hispanic American interest and participation in the voting process. His group popularized the motto Su Voto Es Su Voz (Your Vote is your Voice).

Biography
Velasquez was born to William and María Luisa (née Cardenas) Velásquez, who were Mexican Americans. His father was stationed in Florida during World War II where he worked as a union organizer. He attended St. Mary's University where in 1967, he helped form the Mexican American Youth Organization and later on earned a B.A. in economics. Velasquez helped form the basis for Raza Unida Party as El Movimiento Social de La Raza Unida.

In 1968, Velasquez was boycott coordinator for United Farm Workers and organized strikes at the Rio Grande Valley. He founded the Mexican American Unity Council and then later on became field director for the Southwest Council of La Raza in 1970.

From 1972 to 1974, Velasquez started work on the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project which would have helped Latinos be given more involvement with the voting process. Velasquez also hoped that the democratic process was more aware of the Latino vote.

Velasquez would not live long enough to see his accomplishments flourish. He died in 1988 due to kidney cancer.

Velasquez was survived by his wife Jane Velasquez, daughters Catarina and Carmen and son Guillermo.

In 1995, Velasquez was posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

References

1944 births
1988 deaths
American trade unionists of Mexican descent
Deaths from kidney cancer
People from Orlando, Florida
People from San Antonio
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Raza Unida Party
St. Mary's University, Texas alumni
United Farm Workers people

Willie Velasquez


Dorinha Duval (real name Dorah Teixeira) is a Brazilian former actress and singer, who after retirement from television and film, became an artist. She became famous for her roles in some of Brazil's most famous television soap operas and, later, for the murder of her abusive third husband.

Early life
Dorah Teixeira was born in São Paulo, Brazil on 21 January 1929. As a teenager, she joined director Carlos Lisboa's group of dancers, performing at casinos in the interior of São Paulo state. She also sang and played the maracas, earning her the nickname of Dorah Maraca. In this role she appeared in the opening show on Brazilian TV. She also became known as Chininha, apparently from the Chinese appearance of her eyes. Discovered by actors Maria Irma and Juan Daniel, parents of director Daniel Filho, she joined the variety theatre, where she became a successful starlet. Her time in variety was remembered in a 2006 soap opera by Silvio de Abreu, called Belíssima, in which she made a special appearance.

Acting career
Duval acted in several radio soap operas, before debuting on television. She started at the former TV network Rede Tupi, as part of the cast of the TV de Comédia programme, between 1957 and 1959. She also worked for TV Rio and TV Excelsior. On TV Rio, she was directed by her future husband, Daniel Filho. She started working at TV Globo in 1969, in the cast of the soap opera Verão Vermelho, written by Dias Gomes. In the early 1970s, she was in the cast of three of the most successful soap operas in Brazilian television drama, all directed by Daniel Filho: Irmãos Coragem (1970), by Janete Clair, Minha Doce Namorada (1970), by Vicente Sesso, and Selva de Pedra (1972), also by Janete Clair. She also participated with Filho in a musical programme that would become famous, known as Times Square. In 1973, she played in the soap opera, O Bem-Amado, the first soap opera broadcast in colour on Brazilian TV. She also played the role of Cuca in Sítio do Picapau Amarelo in 1977, a children's television series first broadcast in 1977. Parallel to her television career, Duval acted in several films. Her first was Veneno (1952), starring Leonora Amar, while the best-known was As Aventuras de Pedro Malasartes in 1960, in which she starred with Amácio Mazzaropi.

Marriages and murder
Duval married TV director Mário Pomponet Júnior. They had a daughter in 1965, who is also an actress. Her second husband was Daniel Filho, with the marriage taking place in Las Vegas. Her third husband was an advertising producer and filmmaker, Paulo Sérgio Garcia Alcântara, who was unemployed when she met him and for whom she found a job through her contacts. He was 16 years younger than Duval and she was constantly the victim of verbal abuse by him, calling her old and saying that he wanted younger women. In 1980, in a moment of anger, she responded to the insults and humiliations and shot her husband three times in their house in Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro, killing him. For this she was initially sentenced to 18 years in prison, with her husband's family arguing that the crime was premeditated. She was later retried and sentenced to six years in prison, by which time it was almost time for her release.

After release from prison, she decided not to return to acting, preferring to remain out of the limelight. She wrote an autobiography, together with Luiz Carlos Maciel e Maria Luiza Ocampo, which was released in 2002, entitled Em Busca da Luz - Memórias de Dorinha Duval (In search of light – Memories of Dorinha Duval). In this she narrated the experience of being raped at the age of fifteen, having an abortion and prostituting herself. Duval also reveals that she attempted suicide after the separation from Daniel Filho, and explains why she killed her third husband. In 2006, she appeared in the final episode of the TV Globo soap opera Belíssima, which paid tribute to some famous stars. In 2018 she returned to television in an event organized with veteran actors. She remains part of Globo's retired team; a group of artists still on contract, but no longer working. Among other things, this provides medical insurance.

References

1929 births
Living people
20th-century Brazilian actresses
21st-century Brazilian women
Actors from São Paulo
Brazilian television actresses
Brazilian film actresses

Dorinha Duval


Douro Film Harvest is the first totally decentralized  international summit of cinema, that takes place in Alto Douro Wine Region,a area classified by UNESCO as World Heritage Patrimony and homeland of Porto Wine.

Douro Valley receives in September this event allying the winery harvest to the film appreciation

The awards assigned are
CastaDouro Career, to a person which career had been important to the history of 7th Art
CastaDouro Special Guest
CastaDouro Best Film, to the only section in competition, the Vintage Selection.

This event is organized by Turismo do Douro, with the support of Port and Douro Wine Institute (IVDP), Douro Mission Structure, Turismo de Portugal and production of Expanding World.

Douro Film Harvest 2009

On its first edition, Douro Film Harvest brought to Portugal the following guests:
 Miloš Forman
 Andie MacDowell
 Kyle Eastwood

In competition, at Vintage Selection, were the following films:
 33 scenes from life by Malgoska Szumowska
 About Elly by Asghar Farhadi
 Alice in Land by Esteban Larrain
 Dawn of the world by Abbas Fahdel
 Don't think about white monkeys by Yuri Mamin
 March by Händl Klaus
 Parque via by Enrique Rivero
 Wolfy by Vasili Sigarev (winner)

Douro Film Harvest 2010

In 2010, Douro Film Harvest had as guests
 Sophia Loren
 Gustavo Santaolalla
 Carlos Saura

In competition in the Vintage Selection were
 5 x favela, now by ourselves, several directors
 Of Love and other Demons by Hilda Hidalgo
 I, Don Giovanni by Carlos Saura (winner)
 How ended this summer by Alexei Popogrebsky
 Nanga Parbat by Joseph Vilsmaier
 The last flight of flamingo by João Ribeiro
 Solitary Man by David Lean and Brian Koppelman
 South of the Border by Oliver Stone
 The Ghost Writer by Roman Polanski

Douro Film Harvest 2011

The third edition of Douro Film Harvest will take place between the 5 and 11 September 2011.

External links
 Douro Film Harvest
 Expanding World
 Turismo do Douro
 Turismo de Portugal
 Porto and Douro Wine Institute (IVDP)
 Douro Mission Structure

Film festivals in Portugal
Recurring events established in 2009
2009 establishments in Portugal
Annual events in Portugal
Autumn events in Portugal

Douro Film Harvest


Cranachan  () is a farmstead about 2.5 miles north-east of Roybridge in Lochaber, in the Highlands, Scotland. Cranachan is in the Highland Council area and stands on the north bank of the confluence of the River Roy and the River Allt Glas Dhoire.

The land at Cranachan was occupied by the MacDonalds of Cranachan, a cadet branch of Clan MacDonald of Keppoch.

Descendants of the MacDonalds of Cranachan include the Australian Saint Mary McKillop, whose mother Flora MacDonald was of the Cranachan family; Ranald MacDonald, Catholic Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District, whose mother was from the Cranachan family; 'Long John' MacDonald who founded the Ben Nevis Distillery and from whom the 'Long John' brand of whisky takes its name.

On the opposite bank of the River Roy, accessed by a path from Cranachan, is a mass stone, with a carved chalice on one side. It is said that open air mass was performed, using the stone as an altar, during times when the practice of Catholicism was persecuted.

References

External links
 Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland - RCAHMS record for the Glen Roy mass stone

Clan MacDonald of Keppoch

Cranachan, Lochaber


Nathaniel C. Emerson (25 October 1874 – 25 October 1958) was a top-ranked American amateur tennis player in the early 20th century.

Personal life
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 25, 1874, to Henry Emerson Jr. & Eleanor Caldwell, he moved to Yakima, Washington by 1911, where he owned an apple orchard. Later he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he died on October 25, 1958, his 84th birthday.

Tennis career
He was ranked in the ranked in U.S. tennis top ten (No. 7) in 1908 and in the top 20 in 1909 (No. 17) and 1907 (No. 19). In the national doubles rankings, he was ranked No. 6 in 1908 and No. 9 in 1907.

He was a singles semifinalist at the 1908 U.S. National Championship (now known as the U.S. Open), and a doubles finalist at the U.S. National Championship in 1906 & 1908 (both times with L. Harry Waidner). They lost to future International Tennis Hall of Famers Fred Alexander and Harold Hackett in 1906, and Raymond D. Little and Beals Wright in 1908.

At the tournament now known as the Cincinnati Masters he:
Was the first men's singles winner (1899)
Was a singles finalist in 1908
Defeated Fred Alexander in 1900 semifinals
Won five doubles titles – 1899 (with Burton Hollister), 1902 & 1903 (with Ernie Diehl), 1907 (with Raymond D. Little), and 1908 (with William P. Hunt).
Reached the doubles final in 1900 (with Diehl) and 1905 (with Robert Mitchell)
Still holds the record for most round of 16 appearances all-time at the Cincinnati Masters with 12 (tied with his brother, H. Truxtun Emerson, and Michael Chang)

Also, he was:
Singles champion at the 1899 & 1900 Ohio State singles tournament
Singles champion at the Western Tennis Championship in 1907 & 1908
Singles champion at the Oregon State Tennis Championship in 1910
Singles finalist at the Western Tennis Championship in 1905, 1906 and 1907
Doubles winner of the Western Tennis Championship in 1906 & 1908
Singles winner of the 1908 Northwestern Championships
Singles winner and doubles finalist at the 1915 Tennessee State championships
Doubles finalist at the Oregon State Tennis Championship in 1910

He was inducted into the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame in 2003.

Sources
From Club Court to Center Court by Phillip S. Smith (2008 Edition; )
Wright & Ditson's Tennis Annual (1901 & 1909 Editions)

1874 births
1958 deaths
19th-century American sportsmen
19th-century male tennis players
American male tennis players
Sportspeople from Memphis, Tennessee
Sportspeople from Yakima, Washington
Tennis players from Cincinnati
20th-century American sportsmen

Nat Emerson


The Trojanka , also called Goślinka , is a stream, a right tributary of the Warta river, lying within the district of Gmina Murowana Goślina in Greater Poland Voivodeship, western Poland. It has a total length of approximately . It broadens into lakes at several places, and is joined by a number of smaller streams along its length.

The Trojanka rises in the middle of the Puszcza Zielonka forest, south of the village of Zielonka and close to the settlement of Huta Pusta. It initially flows northwards through Zielonka, where it broadens out into a lake, and to Głęboczek, where it again forms a small lake. It then flows north-westwards into a larger lake, Jezioro Leśne ("Forest Lake"), south-east of Łopuchówko. From there it flows west, forming  another small lake at Głębocko, followed by the larger Jezioro Worowskie ("Worowo Lake" named after the settlement of Worowo to the north).

The stream then continues north-westwards, flowing out of the Puszcza Zielonka Landscape Park, and turns sharply southwards at the settlement of Brody south of Wojnowo. It flows through Trojanowo and Przebędowo (where it again forms a small lake), before running along the western side of the town of Murowana Goślina. At a point south-west of the older part of the town (but north of the newer Zielone Wzgórza estate) it again turns north-west, flowing into another lake at Raduszyn, and from there to the village of Mściszewo. It joins the river Warta a short distance to the north-west of Mściszewo. There was formerly a village called Goślinka (or Mała Goślina—"Little Goślina") close to this point, but this is now part of Mściszewo.

References
Murowana Goślina i okolice, N. Kulse, Z. Wojczak, 2004 (local publication)

Rivers of Greater Poland Voivodeship
Rivers of Poland

Trojanka (river)


Affliction is an American drama movie produced in 1997. It was written and directed by Paul Schrader. It is based on the novel by Russell Banks. It stars Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, and Willem Dafoe.

Plot
Affliction tells the story of Wade Whitehouse, a small-town policeman in New Hampshire. Disconnected from the people around him, including his father and his divorced wife, he becomes obsessed with the solving of a fatal hunting accident. This leads to a series of tragic events.

1997 drama movies
1990s mystery movies
American drama movies
American mystery movies
Canadian drama movies
Canadian mystery movies
Japanese movies
English-language movies
Movies directed by Paul Schrader
Movies based on books
Movies set in New Hampshire
Movies about alcoholism
Movies about brothers
Movies about child abuse
Movies about dysfunctional families
Movies about mental health
Movies about police officers

Affliction (movie)


Escape Artists Productions, LLC, commonly known as Escape Artists, is an independently financed motion picture and television production company with a first look non-exclusive deal at Sony Pictures Entertainment, headed by partners Steve Tisch, Todd Black, and Jason Blumenthal.

The company's production office is located in the Astaire Building on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California.

History
In 2001, Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal's Black & Blu merged with the Steve Tisch Company to form Escape Artists.

The first produced movie under the Escape Artists banner was A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger in May 2001.  In the fall of 2005, Escape Artists released The Weather Man, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine.  Their next film, The Pursuit of Happyness, directed by Gabriele Muccino and starring Will Smith, was released in December 2006 and earned over $300 million in worldwide ticket sales, as well as best actor Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Will Smith.  Seven Pounds, another Gabriele Muccino-directed film starring Will Smith, was released in December 2008. In 2009, Escape Artists released the Alex Proyas thriller Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage, and The Taking of Pelham 123, directed by Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Their latest project entitled, The Upside directed by Neil Burger and starring Kevin Hart was released through STX Entertainment and Lantern Entertainment on January 11, 2019 in the United States.

In February 2013, 12-year veteran David Bloomfield was promoted to partner Escape Artists. In October 2014, the company inks its first-look pact with FX Productions. In August 2019, MGM Television inks its first-look deal with Escape Artists.

List of films

Columbia Pictures
A Knight's Tale (2001)
The Pursuit of Happyness (also with Overbrook Entertainment) (2006)
Seven Pounds (also with Overbrook Entertainment) (2008)
The Taking of Pelham 123 (also with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Scott Free Productions) (2009)
Hope Springs (also with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Mandate Pictures) (2012)
Sex Tape (2014)
The Equalizer (also with Village Roadshow Pictures) (2014)
The Magnificent Seven (also with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Village Roadshow Pictures) (2016)
Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)
The Equalizer 2 (2018)
A Journal for Jordan (2021)
The Man from Toronto (also with Netflix) (2022)
The Equalizer 3 (2023)

Others
Alex & Emma (with Warner Bros. Pictures and Franchise Pictures) (2003)
The Weather Man (with Paramount Pictures) (2005)
Knowing (with Summit Entertainment) (2009)
The Back-up Plan (with CBS Films) (2010)
Unfinished Business (with 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises) (2015)
Southpaw (with The Weinstein Company) (2015)
Fences (with Paramount Pictures) (2016)
The Upside (with STX Entertainment and Lantern Entertainment) (2017)
Troop Zero (with Amazon Studios) (2020)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (with Netflix) (2020)
Being the Ricardos (with Amazon Studios) (2021)
Emancipation (with Apple TV+) (2022)
Cassandro (with Amazon Studios) (2023)
Masters of the Universe (with Netflix and Mattel Films) (TBA)

List of television shows
Perpetual Grace, LTD  (Epix) (with MGM Television, Chi-Town Pictures, Elephant Pictures and FXP) (2019)
Why We Hate (Discovery Channel) (with Amblin Television and Jigsaw Productions) (2019)
Servant (Apple TV+) (with Blinding Edge Pictures and Dolphin Black Productions) (2019–2023)
Dr. Death (Peacock) (with Universal Content Productions, Wondery and Littleton Road Productions) (2021)
Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe (Amazon Prime Video) (with, Amazon Studios, MGM Television, Dorothy Street Pictures & PMZ Pictures)

References

External links
 Official site

Film production companies of the United States
Entertainment companies based in California
Companies based in Culver City, California
American companies established in 2001
Entertainment companies established in 2001
2001 establishments in California
American independent film studios

Escape Artists


Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is prized because of its sweet taste, nutritive value, and long shelf life.

Today, dried fruit consumption is widespread. Nearly half of the dried fruits sold are raisins, followed by dates, prunes, figs, apricots, peaches, apples, and pears. These are referred to as "conventional" or "traditional" dried fruits: fruits that have been dried in the sun or in heated wind tunnel dryers. Many fruits such as cranberries, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and mango are infused with a sweetener (e.g. sucrose syrup) prior to drying. Some products sold as dried fruit, like papaya, kiwifruit and pineapple, are most often candied fruit.

History

Traditional dried fruit such as raisins, figs, dates, apricots and apples have been a staple of Mediterranean diets for millennia. This is due partly to their early cultivation in the Middle Eastern region known as the Fertile Crescent, made up by parts of modern Iran, Iraq, southwest Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and northern Egypt. Drying or dehydration also happened to be the earliest form of food preservation: grapes, dates, and figs that fell from the tree or vine would dry in the hot sun. Early hunter-gatherers observed that these fallen fruit took on an edible form, and valued them for their stability as well as their concentrated sweetness.

The earliest recorded mention of dried fruits can be found in Mesopotamian tablets dating to about 1500 BC, which contain what are probably the oldest known written recipes. These clay slabs, written in Akkadian, the daily language of Babylonia, were inscribed in cuneiform and tell of diets based on grains (barley, millet, wheat), vegetables and fruits such as dates, figs, apples, pomegranates, and grapes. These early civilizations used dates, date juice evaporated into syrup and raisins as sweeteners. They included dried fruits in their breads for which they had more than 300 recipes, from simple barley bread for the workers to very elaborate, spiced cakes with honey for the palaces and temples.

The date palm was one of the first cultivated trees. It was domesticated in Mesopotamia more than 5,000 years ago. It grew abundantly in the Fertile Crescent and it was so productive (an average date palm produces 50 kg (100 lbs) of fruit a year for 60 years or more) that dates were the cheapest of staple foods. Because they were so valuable, they were well recorded in Assyrian and Babylonian monuments and temples. The villagers in Mesopotamia dried them and ate them as sweets. Whether fresh, soft-dried or hard-dried, they helped to give character to meat dishes and grain pies. They were valued by travelers for their energy and were recommended as stimulants against fatigue.

Figs were also prized in early Mesopotamia, Palestine, Israel, and Egypt where their daily use was probably greater than or equal to that of dates. As well as appearing in wall paintings, many specimens have been found in Egyptian tombs as funerary offerings. In Greece and Crete, figs grew very readily and they were the staple of poor and rich alike, particularly in their dried form.

Grape cultivation began in Armenia and the eastern regions of the Mediterranean in the 4th millennium BC. Raisins were produced by drying grapes in the hot desert sun. Very quickly, viticulture and raisin production spread across northern Africa including Morocco and Tunisia. The Phoenicians and the Egyptians popularized the production of raisins, probably due to the perfect arid environment for sun drying. They put them in jars for storage and allotted them to the different temples by the thousands. They also added them to breads and various pastries, some made with honey, some with milk and eggs.

From the Middle East, these fruits spread through Greece to Italy where they became a major part of the diet. Ancient Romans consumed raisins in spectacular quantities and at all levels of society, including them as a key part of their common meals, along with olives and fresh fruits. Raisined breads were common for breakfast and were consumed with their grains, beans, and cultured milks. Raisins were so valued that they transcended the food realm and became rewards for successful athletes, as well as premium barter currency.

Having dried fruits was essential in ancient Rome as these instructions for housekeepers around 100 BC tell: "She must keep a supply of cooked food on hand for you and the servants. She must keep many hens and have plenty of eggs. She must have a large store of dried pears, sorbs, figs, raisins, sorbs in must, preserved pears and grapes and quinces. She must also keep preserved grapes in grape-pulp and in pots buried in the ground, as well as fresh Praenestine nuts kept in the same way, and Scantian quinces in jars, and other fruits that are usually preserved, as well as wild fruits. All these she must store away diligently every year."

Figs were also extremely popular in Rome. Dried figs were added to bread and formed a major part of the winter food of country people. They were rubbed with spices such as cumin, anise and fennel seeds, or toasted sesame, wrapped in fig leaves and stored in jars. Today, major producing regions include Israel, Jerusalem, Gaza and many other Arabic countries. Dried figs are rich in vitamins, phosphorus and various other important minerals.

Plums, apricots and peaches had their origins in Asia. They were domesticated in China in the 3rd millennium BC and spread to the Fertile Crescent where they were also very popular, fresh and dried alike. They arrived in Greece and Italy much later and were very expensive but valued in the preparation of gourmet dishes with port or stewed with honey and spices.

Production

Dried fruit is produced in most regions of the world, and consumption occurs in all cultures and demographic segments. Raisins accounted for about two thirds of this. California produces the largest percentage of the US and the world's dried fruit crop. It accounts for over 99% of the US crop of raisins and dried plums, 98% of dried figs, 96% of dried peaches, 92% of apricots and over 90% of dates. Most of California dried fruit production is centered in the San Joaquin Valley where the soil and climate, especially the hot, dry summers, provide ideal growing conditions. While these fruits were commonly dried in the sun in the past, now only raisins are almost entirely naturally sun-dried.

Preparation and use
Fruits can be dried whole (e.g., grapes, berries, apricot, plum), in halves, or as slices, (e.g., mango, papaya, kiwi). Alternatively, they can be chopped after drying (e.g., dates), made into pastes, or concentrated juices. The residual moisture content can vary from small (3 – 8%) to substantial (16 – 18%), depending on the type of fruit. Fruits can also be dried in puree form, as leather, or as a powder, by spray or drum drying. They can be freeze dried. Fresh fruit is frozen and placed in a drying chamber under a vacuum. Heat is applied and water evaporates from the fruit while still frozen". The fruit becomes very light and crispy and retains much of its original flavor. Dried fruit is widely used by the confectionery, baking, and sweets industries. Food manufacturing plants use dried fruits in various sauces, soups, marinades, garnishes, puddings, and food for infants and children.

As ingredients in prepared food, dried fruit juices, purées, and pastes impart sensory and functional characteristics to recipes:

 The high fiber content provides water-absorbing and water-binding capabilities.
 Organic acids such as sorbitol act as humectants, provide dough and batter stability, and control water activity.
 Fruit sugars add sweetness, humectancy, and surface browning, and control water activity.
 Fruit acids, such as malic acid and tartaric acid, contribute to flavor enhancement.

The high drying and processing temperatures, the intrinsic low pH of the fruit, and the low water activity (moisture content) in dried fruit make them a stable food.

Sulfur dioxide is used as an antioxidant in some dried fruits to protect their color and flavor. For example, in golden raisins, dried peaches, apples, and apricots, sulfur dioxide is used to keep them from losing their light color by blocking browning reactions that darken fruit and alter their flavor. Over the years, sulfur dioxide and sulfites have been used by many populations for a variety of purposes. Sulfur dioxide was first employed as a food additive in 1664, and was later approved for such use in the United States as far back as the 1800s.

Sulfur dioxide, while harmless to healthy individuals, can induce asthma when inhaled or ingested by sensitive people. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that one out of a hundred people is sulfite-sensitive, and about 5% of asthmatics are also at risk of suffering an adverse reaction. Given that about 10% of the population suffers from asthma, this figure translates to 0.5% of the whole population with potential for sulfite-sensitivity. These individuals make up the subgroup of greatest concern and are largely aware of the need to avoid sulfite-containing foods. Consequently, the FDA requires food manufacturers and processors to disclose the presence of sulfiting agents in concentrations of at least 10 parts per million.

In Taipei, Taiwan, a 2010 city health survey found one-third of tested dried fruit products failed health standard tests, most having excessive amounts of sodium cyclamate, some at levels 20 times higher than the legal limit.

Turkey exported 1.5 billion dollars of dried fruit in 2021 and became the world's largest exporter of dried fruit.

Health

Glycemic index

Traditional dried fruit have a low to moderate Glycemic Index (GI) – a measure of how a food affects blood sugar levels. GI measures an individual's response to eating a carbohydrate-containing food (usually 50 grams of available carbohydrates) compared to the individual's response to the same amount of carbohydrates from either white bread  or glucose. Carbohydrate-containing foods are classified as high (above 70), moderate (56–69), or low (0–55) GI. Foods with high fiber content generally have a low GI. However, other factors also contribute to a food's glycemic response, such as the type of carbohydrate or sugar present, the physical characteristic of the food matrix and the presence of organic acids. All studies assessing the GI of dried fruit show that they are low to moderate GI foods and that the insulin response is proportional to their GI. Factors thought to contribute to this glycemic response include the viscous texture of dried fruits when chewed; their whole food matrix; the presence of phenolic compounds and organic acids and the type of sugar present (about 50% fructose in most traditional dried fruit).

Research
Consumption of dried fruit is under preliminary research for the potential to improve nutrition and affect chronic diseases.

Types

Dehydration methods
People have practiced food preservation since ancient times. Many folktales describe ways of preserving foods in one way or another according to local and cultural traditions. Dehydration Methods help to prevent food from spoilage and to maintain it for a longer period of time while keeping it suitable for consumption. Reducing the amount of water in fruits helps prevent bacteria, yeast or fungi from growing on them. There are several processes that can be used in the production of dried fruit, each of which affects its appearance, rehydration properties, and nutrients differently. These drying processes include sun drying, tray (air) drying, freeze drying, and vacuum microwave drying. Each process has its own benefits and disadvantages.

Sun drying

This process uses sun-exposure as its thermal source, combined with natural airflow. It is also a traditional drying method to reduce the moisture of fruits by spreading under the sun. Warmer temperatures evaporate the moisture and lower humidity allows moisture to move quickly from the fruit to the air. However, there are many disadvantages associated such as the longer time required to dry, hot climate and daylight, and risk of invasion by animals and unwanted microorganisms.

Tray drying
A tray dryer is similar to a convection drier, which is placed in enclosed insulated chambers and trays on top of each other in the tray. Input materials are batch fed, placed in trays and loaded into ovens for drying. Dryers are used in processing where drying and heating is an important part of the industrial manufacturing process, like dried fruits. Tray drying means dehydrating small pieces of fruits from a source of hot dry air or the sun until it is dry enough to store at ambient temperature with minimal spoilage. Despite its poor re-hydration properties and shrunken appearance, this process requires a short period of time along with controlled humidity and heated air.

Freeze drying
Freeze-dried is a special form of drying that removes all moisture and has less effect on the taste of food than normal dehydration. Freeze drying is a water removal process commonly used to preserve pear material, the fruit is placed in a vacuum chamber in low heat to increase shelf life. This process works by freezing the material, then reducing the pressure and adding heat to neutralize the frozen water in the material. Unlike the other drying methods, this method allows the dried mango to retain its shape, retain the highest color value, and provide a great rehydration property despite its high costs. Foods that contain adequate amounts of water are very easy to work with and will maintain their initial shape after the freeze-drying process is complete.

Vacuum microwave drying
The microwave generates a specific amount of energy, easily shortening the drying time. In addition, the boiling point of water is lowered under vacuum, causing a high temperature inside the dried particles on the surface of the product. Microwave vacuum drying is a dehydration process that uses microwave radiation to generate heat at full pressure (chamber pressure). During vacuum drying, high-energy water molecules propagate to the surface and evaporate due to low pressure. Due to the absence of air, vacuum drying inhibits oxidation and maintains the color, texture and taste of dried products. This device can improve the quality of products and the equipment can prolong the shelf life of food, preserve the original taste and nutrients of food, maintain physical activity of raw materials, enhance the function of healthy food and increase the value of agricultural products can do. This method provides better flavor retention, greater rehydration, least nutrient loss and least color change among another thermal drying along with a faster drying rate compared to freeze drying. Vacuum microwave not only dries the mango quickly, it also reduces the amount of fibers and the microorganisms present in the pulpy part of the fruit. The fruit taste is distorted at some rate. The vacuum drying also reduces the amount of water contained and in a closed environment no other microorganism can enter into the fruit.

Gallery

See also
 List of dried foods
 List of seeds, nuts and fruit for snack
 Swedish fruit soup – a soup prepared using dried fruits
 Dried apricot
 Dried cherry
 Dried currant
 Dried lime
 Dried mango
 Dried persimmon
 Dried vine fruit

References

Further reading
 Al-Sahib W and Marshall RJ. "The fruit of the date palm: Its possible use as the best food for the future?" J Food Science Nutr 2003; 54: 247–59
 Barta J. Fruit Drying Principles (Chapter 5) In: Handbook of Fruits and Fruit Processing Hui YH. Ed. Blackwell Publishing, Iowa (2006)
Carughi A. "Health Benefits of Sun-Dried Raisins". http://www.raisins.net/Raisins_and_Health_200810.pdf
 Grivetti LE and Applegate EA. "From Olympia to Atlanta: Agricultural-historic perspective on diet and athletic training". J Clinical Nutr 1997; 127:S860–868
 Hooshmand S and Arjmandi BH. "Viewpoint: Dried plum, and emerging functional food that may effectively improve bone health". Ageing Res Reviews 2009; 8: 122–7
Ratti C and Mujumdar AS. Drying of Fruit (Chapter 7) In: Processing Fruit Barrett DM, Somogyi L and Ramaswamy H. Eds.CRC Press, New York (2005)

Snack foods
Dried foods

Dried fruit


Severity of illness (SOI) is defined as the extent of organ system derangement or physiologic decompensation for a patient. It gives a medical classification into minor, moderate, major, and extreme. The SOI class is meant to provide a basis for evaluating hospital resource use or to establish patient care guidelines.

Patients are assigned their SOI based on their specific diagnoses and procedures performed during their medical encounter, which is generally an inpatient hospital stay. Patients with higher SOI (e.g. major or extreme) are more likely to consume greater healthcare resources and stay longer in hospitals than patients with lower SOI in the same diagnosis-related group (DRG).

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services considered the 3M APR-DRG and SOI system as a potential evolution to the DRG system in 2006, but received such negative feedback from the industry that in March 2007 decided to adopt another internally developed system evolved from the DRG. SOI is still commonly used throughout the United States to adjust for patient complexity, so that physicians and other groups can compare resource utilization, complication rates, and length of stay.

See also
 Diagnosis-related group (DRG)
 Risk of mortality (ROM)
 Case mix index (CMI)
 Diagnosis code

References

 Averill RF, The evolution of case-mix measurement using DRGs: past, present and future, Stud Health Technol Inform. 1994;14:75-83.
 Averill R, Muldoon J, Vertrees J, Goldfield N, et al., The evolution of case mix measurement using diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), Physician Profiling and Risk Adjustment. In: Goldfield N, ed. 2nd ed. Frederick, MD: Aspen Publishers, Inc; 19

Medical terminology
Medical manuals
Diagnosis codes

Severity of illness


The Paso Internacional Los Libertadores, also called Cristo Redentor is a border crossing in the Andes Mountains between Argentina and Chile. It is the main route between Los Andes, Valparaíso Region, (Chile) and the province of Mendoza, (Argentina), in addition to allowing the passage of heavy vehicles between both countries.

On the Argentine side, the access road has a slight incline until it finally enters a tunnel at 3,500 meters above sea level. The Chilean side has a large number of curves to save the steep slope.

Alternative tunnels

To avoid a possible collapse of the border crossing in the event of a prolonged disabling of the main tunnel, the construction of two new tunnels has been proposed. The first is the Juan Pablo II Tunnel, which would be built 20 km from the current one at a height of 2,250 meters above sea level and would have a length of 27.2 km. This tunnel would join the towns of Horcones in Argentina, and Juncal in Chile.

The other proposed tunnel, called Paso Las Leñas, would be built at 2,050 meters above sea level and would have a length of 13 km;  uniting the commune of Machalí in Chile, with the town of El Sosneado, near San Rafael, in Argentina.

Gallery

Other websites

Official site of Cristo Redentor by Argentine National Gendarmerie
Tunnels in Argentina
Cristo Redentor Statue
Updated state of different tunnels and crossings in Argentina
Paso Las Leñas at University UTN, Mendoza, Argentina.

Mendoza Province
Geography of Chile

Paso Internacional Los Libertadores


Exogeny refers to coming from the outside. People, planets, computers, and anything else can be influenced either by things in its environment or by things within itself. Things from within itself are indigenous.

The Earth is shaped by many geological processes. The forces that make these things happen come from both inside and outside the Earth.

In geology, exogenous processes come from forces on or above the Earth's surface. Processes caused by forces from within the Earth are endogenous processes. Exo is a prefix meaning "out", and endo is a prefix meaning "in".

Many exogenous (extraterrestrial) forces are caused by other bodies in the Solar System. For example, the Moon causes tides in the Earth's oceans and other big bodies of water. Impacts from comets and meteoroids change the surface of the Earth. When they strike the Earth, they make craters in the ground.

The Sun is the main exogenous influence in the Solar System. It has many effects on Earth. Radiation from the Sun is a main cause of the surface temperature of the Earth, and for the growth of plant life. We are partly shielded from the Sun's solar wind by the Earth's magnetic field. Storms of solar particles would otherwise strip away the ozone layer which protects us from ultraviolet radiation. Sometimes we see aurorae, which are lights that can be seen at night near the poles.

An example of an exogenous process that is not as a result of bodies in space is erosion. Erosion is mostly made by precipitation such as rain and snow, and by wind.

There are three main endogenous geological processes: folding, faulting and volcanism. They take place mainly along the plate boundaries. These are the zones on the edges of plates. Endogenous processes cause many major landform features.

Earth sciences

Exogeny