AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The combination acts had little success, trades union simply carried on in secret. E.P. Thomson claimed that the number of trade unions had even increased. Some unions called themselves “friendly societies” and thus continued to work. In 1823 a London tailor called Francis Place led the movement for repeal. With the support of MP Joseph Hume the government was convinced to set up a parliamentary committee to look into the issue of repeal. The government no longer feared revolution, combinations and peaceful bargaining now seemed acceptable. The committee recommended the repeal of the Combination Acts and parliament acted accordingly. The combination acts were repealed in 1824. Trades unions were now legal.
Strikes quickly occurred across the country. The government then decided to bring in the Amending Combination Act in 1825 which allowed the existence of trades union but refused them the right to stage protests.
Trades unionism faced quite a few problems in their creation and organisation:
1. Preventative legislation (laws etc.) most notably the Combination Acts 1799–1800
2. The prevalence of the domestic system of working.
3. an identity of interest between employer and the domestic employee (domestic employees only had contact with their employer and not with their fellow employees – employers adopted a “paternalistic” approach to their workers)
4. Factory works was undeveloped in the early 19th century. As soon as factories had taken off the ‘working classes emerged. The traditional bond of trust between employer and employees were later eroded and working people began to club together.
5. Government fears. The government believed that all working people could club together and react en masse to social change scared the government. The ruling classes associated ‘combinations’ with revolution. The many Combination acts of 1700–1800 aimed to prevent trade unions from being formed.
In the 1820s the idea of creating a national union was spreading.
A cotton spinner from Manchester named John Doherty summoned a conference on the Isle of Man in 1829 to discuss the idea of a national trade union. He then formed the Grand General Union of Operative Spinners of Great Britain and Ireland. The following July he formed National Association for the Protection of Labour which was to be made of most trades. In 1831 the association had disintegrated; mainly due to poor communication links which made it impossible to organise events.
In February 1834, the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union was formed, largely as a result of Robert Owen. Owen dreamed of a socialist society, he hoped that a national union would help this happen.
Robert Owen was an important figure in the formation of the GNCTU. Owen and Doherty were associates and the GNCTU was based on Doherty’s Grand General Union. The union was heavily influenced by Owenite socialism.
The objectives of the GNCTU were straightforward and traditionalist, thus strike action was to be used:
It is disputed whether of not his union succeeded. It lasted just six months (February to August 1834). Owen claimed that there was around half a million members, but other estimates put the figure at around 16,000 members.
The union failed for a number of reasons. Owen did not really understand or empathise the suffering of the workers, who had genuine and immense concerns. The general body or workers favoured militant action but Owen preferred a steady, more legalistic approach. The size of the GNTCU also made any strikes difficult to organise. A further problem was the fact that many employers forbade their employees from joining the GNTCU, and refused to let them work if they had not signed a document which renounced the organisation.
In February 1834 six workers for Tolpuddle in Dorset formed a union. 13 shillings was what the average family need to survive but the men were being paid just 9 shillings. Led by George Loveless the farm labourers fought for increased wages. James Frampton, the landowner, was determined to stop industrial action; he reported the group to the Home Secretary Lord Melbourne. The men were arrested, tried and sentenced to seven years transportation. The judge said that he made he did this to make an example of them for the sake of the stability of the nation. The men became known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and the judge's wishes were carried out. Support for the GNCTU fell dramatically and by August 1834 it had collapsed.
The orthodox view is that trade unionism virtually stopped for the next 15 years after the collapse of the GNCTU, with many workers becoming involved in the alternative reforms adopted by Chartism. However, in the skilled trades unions were flourishing, with trade unions having an estimated 100,000 memberships in the early 1840s.
Unions have been criticized for increasing the cost of workers. Because of this, it is said that fewer people will be hired. A union might also protect workers an employer feels are not productive enough. For example, many unions protect workers who have worked for a job for a long time from being punished or fired, even if new workers are faster.
Some unions are also tied to organized crime, political corruption, or even tied to the employers of the workers they represent.
An officer is a person who holds a high rank in a uniformed organisation like the military or police. A military officer has a commission, a state document saying others must obey him. Some examples of officer ranks would include captains, majors, and lieutenants, but not sergeants, who are sometimes called non-commissioned officers, or NCOs.
People who are in a position of importance in an organization or company may be a corporate officer, for example:
A consul could mean one of the following:
Tachi
The tachi is a Japanese sword, which has a strongly curved blade and is longer than a katana. It was used on the battlefield before katana was, so it is considered to be older. The word Tachi translates as "the soul of bushi" (soul of samurai).
When the katana began to be widely used the tachi sword became a court sword for ceremonies. It looks very richly decorated with traditional cord wrappings and a specially designed handle. The length of a tachi blade was around 30.70 inches (about 75cm) Because of its length the tachi was a cavalry sword and was mainly worn by horsemen. The strongly curved blade also made it easy to make slicing blows. Even if the tachi is a very long sword it is light enough to be handled with one hand. The tachi had a long enough hilt to hold it with two hands. It was especially useful for warriors who were not riding.
The tachi was worn hung to the belt with the cutting-edge down, unlike the katana which was worn with the cutting-edge pointing upwards. Not all tachi were the standard size. Small ones were called ko-dachi. If the sword was longer than the standard one it was called o-dachi.
The tachi that can be seen in museums have one or more chips along the back of the sword, while the cutting edge looks almost untouched and mirror polished. The experts explain that Samurai made the smallest possible moves with their tachi to kill the enemy. Thus when both swords were about to collide, the samurai both turned their swords and let only the blunt back (mune) of the blades hit one another. The cutting edge was used for finish touches, namely for cutting the human body.
Western can mean one of the following:
Apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur, everybody in the club be looking at her because she got low low low low.Machaira
Machaira was a rare mythic sword used in the Basileus cult. Basileus cult is the cult of the king, because in ancient Rome the word basileus was translated as "king". To get a Basileus title a person should kill a lion with a special weapon. So this weapon was called - Machaira.
Machaira had a very curved blade, which reminded a sickle. The shape of a machaira is often compared to a lion claw. The cutting edge was on the inside part of the blade. The legends say that it has a length from about . The blade was secured in a wooden cage (sheath). This sword was kept by ancient priests called sacerdotes. They used to decorate the sheath with golden ornaments. The sword was kept in special places and used in important rituals.
The meaning of machaira sword was ideological. A king who was at the same time a sacerdotus and owned a machaira, made rituals before the battle. Its power showed to the army the right path and saved from enemies' traps. It was supposed that the sword kept the troubles away. It was very important that the machaira to be used only by a sacerdotus, otherwise it was only a beautiful but powerless weapon.
The well known king Macedonian Alexander Hephaistion was a sacerdotus. He belonged to the lion cult and used machaira for rituals. Later in 324 B.C. happened the official burial of the machaira sword and Alexander the Great left his sacerdotal powers. The cult of machaira sword and the cult of Basileus were restarted in 301 B.C.
Policy could mean one of the following:
Field can mean:
Lucerne (, Swiss German: "Lozärn", French: "Lucerne", Italian: "Lucerna", Romansh: "Lucerna") is a city in Switzerland. It is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and seat of the district with the same name. The city has a population of about 60,000. Lucerne is the biggest and most important city in Central Switzerland. The city's metropolitan area consists of 17 municipalities in three cantons. It has an overall population of nearly 200,000 people.
Since 2010, Littau part of the city.
Lucerne is located in central Switzerland on the northern end of Lake Lucerne. The river Reuss flows from the lake through the city. The city is surrounded by hills and mountains, for example the mountains Pilatus and Rigi.
Lucerne joined Switzerland in 1332.
Due to its location on the shore of Lake Lucerne ("") within sight of the mountains Pilatus and Rigi, Lucerne is mainly a tourist destination. One of the city's famous landmarks is Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge from the 14th century. Many tourists choose Lucerne as their place to stay because the city is close to the alps in in the center of the country.
Lucerne is also famous for it's traditional "Fasnacht "(carneval) celebration which takes place every spring.
Eastern hemisphere
Hertfordshire is a county in England. It is one of the so-called Home Counties, those counties that border or surround Greater London. The county is also surrounded by Essex, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. The county town is Hertford; the oldest city is St Albans.
Hertfordshire has 26 independent schools and 73 state secondary schools.
The state secondary schools are entirely comprehensive, although seven schools in the south and southwest of the county are partially selective.
The University of Hertfordshire, formerly the Hatfield Polytechnic, is a modern university. It is mostly in Hatfield, and has more than 23,000 students.
Some of the most notable secondary schools are:
Hertfordshire has been home to many famous people, including George Michael and Geri Halliwell. Victoria Beckham, born in Essex, was raised near Broxbourne in Hertfordshire. The Beckhams bought a £2.5 million house in Sawbridgeworth when they married in 1999. They sold it last year to insurance entrepreneur Neil Uttley for £11.4 million.
The richest person in Hertfordshire is Mike Ashley, a retailing tycoon. His fortune is estimated as £3,650 million. He owns Newcastle United F.C. and has an 8.9% share in owning Glasgow Rangers F.C.
Lower Jurassic
The Lower Jurassic is the first geological epoch in the Jurassic that began 201.3 million years ago, and ended at 174.1 million years ago.
The Jurassic period is divided into Lower, Middle and Upper. The Lower Jurassic started after the end-Triassic extinction event at 201.3 million years ago (mya). Its rocks form in Europe the "Lias" group of marine strata consisting mostly of limestone, with some clays and siltstone. It was in this formation on the Dorset Jurassic Coast that Mary Anning did much of her work. The mudstones of the earliest Jurassic (Blue Lias) give way to carbonate rocks as the water deepens in the Middle Jurassic.
The Jurassic period was one of the time periods when dinosaurs were on the Earth. By this time, many groups of the Triassic period had become extinct.
At the start of the Jurassic, Britain was warm temperate to subtropical, between 30° and 40° north of the equator. Temperature would have been in the range of 12–29°C.
Shallow seas were over southern England; higher ground like the Mendip Hills were a string of islands stretching westwards South Wales.
The Lower Jurassic in western North America is quite different. It is continental in origin, sandstones laid down in shifting streams and rivers. These sandstones were laid down over a long period from the later Permian to the Lower Jurassic.
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a handheld computer. Personal digital assistants were designed to replace non-electronic day planners. Many PDAs can work as an address book, a calculator, a clock, and a calendar. Some also have games on them. Newer PDAs are now called smartphones and have Wi-Fi, touch screens, can read e-mail, record video, play music and make phone calls.
PDA's processor is a chip which makes the device work. PDAs can have different processors depending on their speed. If access to the Internet, GPS, or video recording are needed, the PDA needs to have a fast processor.
PDA stores data and applications on RAM memory(Random Access Memory). It is a memory card inside the device. PDAs can also use SD (Secure Digital), SDIO and MMS cards. These are easy to remove and are called flash memory cards. USB flash drives can be used to add more memory.
Most PDAs have touch screens. This means that the device has less buttons or has no buttons at all. Usually PDAs come with removable 'pen' (stylus) with which the screen is touched. The pen acts like a mouse for desktop PCs or like a touch pad for laptops. For other PDAs a finger is used instead of the pen.
PDAs are powered by batteries. There are two types of batteries: removable and fixed. Older PDAs used alkaline batteries which the user would have to take out and replace when they ran out. Most new PDAs have Li-ion batteries. These batteries are rechargeable. PDAs use more battery power when playing video, accessing Internet or transferring data using Bluetooth. Large and bright screens also take more power. This makes the battery run out faster.
A PDA can communicate with other devices, PDAs, PCs, etc. This is made with the help of infrared (IrDA) port or with Bluetooth. With this ability the devices can transfer data, download music, images, video, games, etc.
Synchronization means having the same data on both the PDA and PC or other device. When changes are made on either the PDA or the PC, when they are synchronized, these changes made to data on one of them are also made the data on the other. The synchronization also prevents the loss of the stored information.
Customization is adding more memory, miniature keyboards, etc. to the PDA. Customization also can be putting other software (download Internet programs) on the PDA device.
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is the southwest part of Europe. Like all peninsulas, it is mostly surrounded by sea. To the south and east of the peninsula is the Mediterranean Sea. To its north and west is the Atlantic Ocean. It is the third largest peninsula of Europe with an area of 582,860 km². The name Iberia is the Ancient Greek name for the area which the Romans called "Hispania". The word Hispania is now used for Spain, while the word Iberia is used for the whole area.
The word Iberia was also used by the Ancient Greeks and Romans for another territory at the opposite side of Europe - Caucasian Iberia which is near the Black Sea.
The Iberian Peninsula is divided into:
Kimberly Noel "Kim" Kardashian West (born October 21, 1980) is an American socialite. She started her career as a model. She is one of three daughters of Robert Kardashian. Their family has a reality television series named "Keeping up with the Kardashians". Kim and her sister Kourtney Kardashian have their own spin-off "Kourtney and Kim Take New York".
Kardashian first got media attention because of her close friendship with Paris Hilton. She became better known after appearing in a sex tape. Kim is most popular for her role in the TV series "Keeping Up With The Kardashians". Kim married Damon Thomas in 2000, They divorced in 2004. She then married Kris Humphries in August 2011. Humphries is an NBA player on the New Jersey Nets. After 72 days of marriage, she filed for a divorce on October 31, 2011, because of differences.
She became engaged to Kanye West in 2013. The couple lives in Calabasas, California. They have four children: daughter North West (b. 2013), son Saint West (b. 2015), daughter Chicago West (b. 2018), and son Psalm West (b. 2019).
In January 2021, CNN reported that the couple were discussing divorce and on February 19, 2021, the couple officially filed for divorce.
In 2013 Kardashian was in West's music video for "Bound 2". She has caused controversies after posting nude selfies (nelfies).
Kardashian is a Democrat. She attended the 2012 Democratic National Convention in support of President Obama's re-election. She also supports Armenian political issues such as the proclamation of the Christian Genocide of 1914.
In 2018, Kardashian met with President Donald Trump and helped bring forth the release from prison of Alice Marie Johnson, who was given a life prison sentence for nonviolent drug charges. She is studying to become a lawyer and hopes to sit for the bar exam in the year 2022.
Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev (born December 24, 1961) is the current President of Azerbaijan and has been serving since 2003.
Aliyev succeeded his father Heydar Aliyev who was president of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003. On August 4, 2003, two months before the presidential elections, he was made prime minister by his father who was very ill and dying. In October he easily won the presidential elections and became president on October 31, 2003. He also functions as the head of the New Azerbaijan Party.
He has been married to Mehriban Aliyeva since 1983. They have three children.
Flag of Armenia
The national flag of Armenia, the Armenian Tricolor, has three horizontal bands of equal width, red on the top, blue in the middle, and orange on the bottom.
The first modern national flag of Armenia was created in 1885 by Ghevont Alishan. The Armenian Supreme Council adopted the current flag on August 24, 1990. On June 15, 2006, the Law on the National Flag of Armenia was passed by the Armenian Parliament.
Lake Sevan
Lake Sevan is a lake in Armenia. The entire lake is inside the eastern Armenian province of Gegharkunik. It is fed by 28 rivers and streams.
Sevan was one of the three great lakes of the historical Safavid Empire, collectively referred to as the Seas of Armenia, and it is the only one within the boundaries of today's Republic of Armenia. Sevanavank is the historic area near the lake. "Sevan" translation to Azerbaijan language "Goycha".
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was a state formed in the Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia. It was near the Mediterranean Sea in what is today southern Turkey. The country was independent from around 1078 to 1375.
The Armenians were the most important of the Crusaders' allies, from the local troops recruited in the Crusader States. Many Armenian mercenaries became available in the early 12th century.
Thoros II was a powerful Armenian prince who offered the transfer of 30,000 Armenian warriors with their families to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The king and barons were interested.
Jean Genet
Jean Genet ( in French) (December 19, 1910 – April 15, 1986), was a French writer and later political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond (homeless person) and petty criminal. Later in life, Genet wrote novels, plays, poems, and essays, including "Querelle", "The Thief's Journal", "Our Lady of the Flowers", "The Balcony", "The Blacks" and "The Maids".
Genet's mother was a young prostitute who put him up for adoption. After committing small crimes as a child, he was sent to the youth prison of Mettray. In the 1940s, he was a vagabond, petty thief and prostitute across Europe.
In the mid-1940s, Genet met Jean Cocteau. Cocteau helped Genet to publish his novel. By 1949 when liberated from prison through petitions of many persons including Jean Conteau and Jean-Paul Sartre, Genet had completed five novels, three plays and numerous poems. His books were banned in the United States.
Between 1955 and 1961 Genet wrote three more plays. In 1964, Genet entered a period of depression and attempted suicide. In the late 1960s, Genet became politically active. Jean Genet was gay (homosexual).
Genet developed throat cancer and died on 15 April 1986 in Paris.
The first novel, "Our Lady of the Flowers" (1944), is an about the life in prison. His novels "The Miracle of the Rose" (1946) and "The Thief's Journal" (1949), describe his experiences in youth prison and as a male prostitute. The novel "Querelle de Brest" (1947) is about murder and the novel "Funeral Rites" (1949) is about love and betrayal. His last novel, "A Prisoner of Love" published in (1986), is different from his other books.
Genet's plays were considered to be "Theater of the Absurd" plays. These plays had ideas which were similar to the ideas in existentialist ways of thinking. His plays include "The Maids" (1949); "The Balcony" (1956); "The Screens" (1963); "The Blacks", which was staged in New York in the Off-Broadway theater.
In 1950, Genet directed a film called Un Chant d'Amour, which showed fantasies about prison life.
Jean Genet, "Œuvres completes" (Paris: Gallimard, 1952-)
Lisa Loeb
Mountain Time Zone
The Mountain Time Zone subtracts seven hours from UTC during standard time (UTC−7) and six hours during daylight saving time (UTC−6).
This time zone is called Mountain Standard Time (MST) during standard time (Winter). It is called Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) during daylight saving time (Summer). In the United States and Canada, this time zone is often just called Mountain Time (MT).
The zone is one hour ahead of the Pacific Time Zone and one hour behind the Central Time Zone.
In Canada, this time zone includes all of Alberta, the Northwest Territories (except for Tungsten), the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, part of southeastern and northeastern British Columbia, and the area of Saskatchewan around the city of Lloydminster.
In the United States, the time zone includes the entire area of the states of New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Montana. It also includes parts of Idaho, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, Kansas, and Nevada.
These states are part of the Mountain Time Zone: Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora.
Daylight saving time occurs from early April to late October. During daylight saving, Central Time Zone is only 6 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC−6). Most of the locations in Mountain Time Zone observe daylight saving time. A few places do not. These include Sonora and all of Arizona that is not in the Navajo Nation. These places stay on standard time all year.
In computer science, a data structure is the organization and implementation of values and information. In simple words data structure is the way of organizing data in efficient manner. Data structures are different from abstract data types in the way they are used. Data structures are the implementations of abstract data types in a concrete and physical setting. They do this by using algorithms. This can be seen in the relationship between the list (abstract data type) and the linked list (data structure). A list contains a sequence of values or bits of information. A linked list also has a “pointer” or “reference” between each node of information that points to the next item and the previous one. This allows one to go forwards or backwards in the list. Furthermore, data structures are often optimized for certain operations. Finding the best data structure when solving a problem is an important part of programming. Data structure is a systematic way to store data
The simplest type of data structure is a linear array. Also known as a one-dimensional array. An array holds several values of the same type (Integer, Floats, String, etc.). Accessing elements within the array is very fast. An array is normally of fixed size. After the size of the array is defined at the start, it may not be possible to increase the size of the array without creating a new larger array and copying all values into the new array. In computer science, an array data structure or simply an array is a data structure consisting of a collection of "elements" (values or variables), each identified by at least one "array index" or "key". An array is stored so that the position of each element can be computed from its index tuple by a mathematical formula.
For example, an array of 10 integer variables, with indices 0 through 9, may be stored as 10 words at memory addresses 2000, 2004, 2008, 2036, so that the element with index "i" has the address 2000 + 4 × "i."
As the mathematical concept of a matrix can be represented as a two-dimensional grid, two-dimensional arrays are also sometimes called matrices. In some cases the term "vector" is used in computing to refer to an array, although tuples rather than vectors are the more correct mathematical equivalent. Arrays are often used to implement tables, especially look up tables; the word "table" is sometimes used as a synonym of "array".
Arrays are among the oldest and most important data structures, and are used by almost every program. They can also be used to implement many other data structures, such as lists and strings. They effectively exploit the addressing logic of computers. In most modern computers and many external storage devices, the memory is a one-dimensional array of words, whose indices are their addresses. Processors, especially vector processors, are often optimized for array operations.
Arrays are useful because the element indices can be computed at run time. Among other things, this feature allows a single iterative statement to process arbitrarily many elements of an array. For that reason, the elements of an array data structure are required to have the same size and should use the same data representation. The set of valid index tuples and the addresses of the elements (and hence the element addressing formula) are usually, but not always, fixed while the array is in use.
The term "array" is often used to mean array data type, a kind of data type provided by most high-level programming languages that consists of a collection of values or variables that can be selected by one or more indices computed at run-time. Array types are often implemented by array structures; however, in some languages they may be implemented by hash tables, linked lists, search trees, or other data structures.
A linked data structure is a set of information/data linked together by references. The data are often called "nodes". The references are often called "links" or "pointers". From here on, the words "node" and "pointer" will be used for these concepts.
In linked data structures, pointers are only dereferenced or compared for equality. Thus, linked data structures are different than arrays, which require adding and subtracting pointers.
Linked lists, search trees, and expression trees are all linked data structures. They are also important in algorithms such as topological sort and set union-find.
A stack is a basic data structure that can be logically thought as linear structure represented by a real physical stack or pile, a structure where insertion and deletion of items takes place at one end called top of the stack. The basic concept can be illustrated by thinking of your data set as a stack of plates or books where you can only take the top item off the stack in order to remove things from it. This structure is used all throughout programming.
The basic implementation of a stack is also called a “Last In First Out” structure; however there are different variations of stack implementations.
There are basically three operations that can be performed on stacks. They are:
A queue is an abstract data type or a linear data structure, in which the first element is inserted from one end (the “tail”), and the deletion of existing element takes place from the other end (the “head”). A queue is a “First In First Out” structure. "First In First Out" means that elements put in the queue first will come out first, and elements put in the queue last will come out last. An example of a queue are lines of people waiting. The first person in the line goes first, and the last person in the line goes last.
The process of adding an element to a queue is called “enqueuing” and the process of removing an element from a queue is called “dequeuing”.
A graph is an abstract data type that is meant to implement the graph and hypergraph concepts from mathematics.
A graph data structure consists of a finite (and possibly mutable) set of ordered pairs, called edges or arcs, of certain entities called nodes or vertices. As in mathematics, an edge ("x","y") is said to point or go from "x" to "y". The nodes may be part of the graph structure, or may be external entities represented by integer indices or references. A graph data structure may also associate to each edge some edge value, such as a symbolic label or a numeric attribute.
The tree is one of the most powerful advanced data structures. It often appears in advanced subjects such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and design. Surprisingly, the tree is important in a much more basic application - the keeping of an efficient index.
When a tree is used there is a high chance that an index is used. The simplest type of index is a sorted list of key fields. A tree normally has a defined structure. In the case of a binary tree, you can use a binary search to locate any item without having to look at every item.
The tree data type is a type of graph meaning that many algorithms made to traverse a graph also work with a tree however, the algorithms can be much similar and must have a dedicated start node, that is the node with no other nodes linking to it.
The problem with a simple ordered list occurs when you start adding new items and have to keep the list sorted - it can be done reasonably efficiently but requires some modifications. Additionally, a linear index is not easy to share because the whole index needs to be “locked” when one user edits it, whereas one “branch” of a tree can be locked, leaving the other branches editable by other users (as they cannot be affected).
A hash table is an array where each index points to a linked list based on a hash value. A hash value is a value determined by a hash function. A hash function determines a unique value based on the data it is storing. This allows for access of data in constant time because the computer always knows where to look.
Alex Lifeson
Alex Lifeson, OC (born Aleksandar Živojinović; August 27, 1953) is a Canadian musician. He is best known as the guitarist and co-founder for the Canadian rock band Rush. Lifeson has been a member of the band since 1968.
In Rush, Lifeson plays electric and acoustic guitars. He also plays other instruments including: mandola, mandolin and bouzouki.
Along with his music career, Lifeson is part owner of a Toronto restaurant called "The Orbit Room." He is also a licensed airplane pilot.
Hepatitis C is an infection that mostly affects the liver. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes this disease. Often, a person with Hepatitis C does not have any symptoms (health problems or signs that he has the disease). However, chronic infection can scar the liver. Many years of infection may cause cirrhosis. Sometimes, people with cirrhosis also have liver failure or liver cancer. They can also have very swollen veins of the esophagus and stomach. The blood loss from this problem can kill.
Hepatitis C is usually spread by blood-to-blood contact (when blood from a person with Hepatitis C contacts (touches or gets into) another person's bloodstream). The most common ways that this happens are through intravenous drug use (when a person shoots drugs into one of their veins, with a needle that was already used by a person infected with Hepatitis C); nonsterile medical equipment (medical tools that were not cleaned well enough after being used on an infected person); and blood transfusions (when a person is given blood that came from an infected person).
Around the world, about 130–170 million people have Hepatitis C. Scientists began studying the Hepatitis C virus in the 1970s, and in 1989 they proved that the virus exists. As far as scientists know, this virus does not cause disease in any animals other than humans.
The medications that are normally used to treat Hepatitis C are called peginterferon and ribavirin. Between 50-80% of people who are treated (or 5 to 8 out of every 10) are cured. However, if a person's Hepatitis C has progressed (or gotten worse) so much that the person has cirrhosis or liver cancer, the person might need a liver transplant (they might need to have surgery where they are given another person's liver, or part of another person's liver). This makes it possible for the person to survive, but the Hepatitis C virus usually comes back after the transplant. There is no vaccine that works to prevent people from getting Hepatitis C.
Hepatitis C causes acute symptoms (symptoms that begin quickly or last only a short time) in just 15% of people with the disease. More often, infected people have symptoms that are mild (not serious) and vague (not very specific), like a decreased appetite (not feeling like eating), fatigue (feeling tired), nausea (feeling like throwing up), pain in the muscles or joints, and losing weight. Every once in a while, an infected person may get jaundice (where a person's skin turns yellow, a sign that their liver is not working quite right). If it is not treated, Hepatitis C goes away by itself in 10-50% of infected people (1 to 5 out of every 10). This happens more often in young women than in other infected people.
Eighty percent (or 8 out of every 10) of people exposed to the Hepatitis C virus get a chronic infection (one that does not get better and lasts for a long time). Most experience very few or no symptoms during the first decades of the infection, although chronic Hepatitis C can cause fatigue (feeling tired). But in people who have been infected for many years, Hepatitis C can cause serious problems, like cirrhosis and liver cancer. Hepatitis C leads to cirrhosis in 10–30% (between 10 and 30 out of every 100) of people who have been infected over 30 years. People with Hepatitis C are more likely to get cirrhosis if they are men; if they are alcoholics; or if they also have Hepatitis B or HIV. Cirrhosis can cause serious problems on its own, but it also makes people more likely to get other serious illnesses. For example, people who get cirrhosis are twenty times more likely to get liver cancer (with about 1-3% getting liver cancer every year). People with Hepatitis C who are alcoholics are even more likely - 100 times more likely - to get liver cancer. Among people in general, 27% of all cases of cirrhosis, and 25% of all cases of liver cancer, are caused by Hepatitis C.
Cirrhosis of the liver can cause many different symptoms. Some of these symptoms are high blood pressure in the veins that travel to the liver; a buildup of fluid in the abdomen, called ascites; easy bruising or bleeding; veins becoming larger than normal, especially in the stomach and esophagus; jaundice (a yellowing of the skin); and brain damage.
Hepatitis C can also cause some rare problems (problems which do not happen very often), which affect parts of the body outside of the liver. One rare problem that Hepatitis C can cause is Sjögren's syndrome, an autoimmune disorder (or a disorder where the body's system of defenses attacks itself). Hepatitis C can also cause a lower-than-normal number of blood platelets (the part of the blood which causes blood to clot; without enough platelets, a person can have bleeding problems, or can start bleeding and be unable to stop. Other rare problems that Hepatitis C can cause are chronic (long-lasting) skin disease; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a type of cancer); and diabetes (where a person's body does not make or use enough insulin, an important hormone that controls the level of sugar in the blood).
Hepatitis C is caused by the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). In the scientific system that names and organizes viruses, the Hepatitis C virus is part of the "hepacivirus" genus in the family "Flaviviridae". There are seven major types of HCV, called "genotypes". In the United States, the first genotype of HCV causes 70% of all cases of Hepatitis C (or 7 out of every 10); the second genotype causes 20% (or 2 out of every 10); and each of the other genotypes causes 1% (or 1 out of every 100 cases). Thr first genotype is also the most common in South America and Europe.
In the developed world, the most common way that people get Hepatitis C is through intravenous drug use (by shooting drugs into a vein, using a needle that was already used by a person who has Hepatitis C). In the developing world, most people get Hepatitis C through blood transfusions (being given blood that was taken from a person with Hepatitis C) or by getting medical care with tools that were not cleaned enough after being used on a person with Hepatitis C. In 20% of all cases of Hepatitis C (or 1 in every 5 cases), it is not known what caused the infection, but many of these cases are thought to have been caused by intravenous drug use.
In many parts of the world, intravenous (IV) drug use (shooting drugs into a vein using a needle) is a major risk factor for Hepatitis C (meaning that it makes people more likely to get the disease). One study that looked at 77 countries showed that in 25 of these countries (including the United States), between 60% and 80% (or 6 to 8 out of every 10) of all IV drug users had Hepatitis C. and China. In twelve of the countries in the study, more than 80% of all IV drug users had Hepatitis C. Across the world, as many as ten million IV drug users are thought to have Hepatitis C; the highest totals are in China (1.6 million), the United States (1.5 million), and Russia (1.3 million). Studies have also shown that in places where there are high numbers of IV drug users, people are more likely to have Hepatitis C. For example, prisoners in the United States are ten to twenty times more likely than the general population (people in general) to have Hepatitis C. This is thought to be because prisoners are more likely to things that put them at high risk for getting Hepatitis C, like using IV drugs and getting tattoos with tools that have not been cleaned properly.
Peoples are at risk for getting Hepatitis C if they get blood transfusions (where a person is given blood from another person), blood products (which have blood or parts of blood in them), or organ transplants (where a person who needs a new organ is given an organ from another person), if these things have not been screened (or tested) for the Hepatitis C virus. In the United States, there has been universal screening - meaning that all blood and organs are tested before being given to another person - since 1992. Before then, about one out of every 200 units of blood carried the Hepatitis C virus; since 1992, only one in 10,000 to 10,000,000 units of blood carry the virus. The reason that there is still a low risk, instead of no risk at all, is that a person's blood does not test positive for the Hepatitis C virus until about 11–70 days after they get the disease. So every once in a while, the screening tests may not pick up on a person's infection if the person got Hepatitis C less than 11–70 days before giving blood. While Hepatitis C screening works very well, some countries still do not screen blood and organ donations for the disease because of the cost.
Sometimes, a healthcare worker will accidentally get stuck with a needle that was used on a person with Hepatitis C. If this happens, the healthcare worker has a small chance - about a 1.8% chance - of becoming infected. The worker is more likely to get infected if the needle they were stuck with was hollow, or if the needle stuck deeply into their skin It is also possible for the Hepatitis C virus to spread if an infected person's mucus touches another person's blood; however, the risk of this happening is low. The virus cannot be spread if an infected person's mucus touches another person's intact skin (skin that is whole and not damaged, with no wounds).
Hepatitis C can also be transmitted (or spread) through hospital equipment that has not been cleaned enough after being used on an infected person. Hepatitis C can be spread through needles, syringes, and medication vials (or containers) that are re-used; through infusion bags (which are used to pump medications into a person's body; and through surgical equipment that is not sterile (or clean and free of germs). In Egypt, which has the highest rate of infection in the world, medical and dental facilities with poor standards of care and cleanliness are the most common reason that Hepatitis C spreads.
Scientists do not know whether Hepatitis C can be transmitted (or spread) through sex. Hepatitis C is more likely in people who have high-risk sexual activity (sexual actions which make them much more likely to get Hepatitis C). However, it is not known whether this is because of these people's sexual behavior, or because these people were also using IV drugs. There does not seem to be any risk that Hepatitis C can be spread through sexual contact between a heterosexual couple (a man and a woman; commonly called a "straight" couple) if neither person has sex with anyone else. There does seem to be a risk of Hepatitis C spreading if one person already has a sexually transmitted infection, like HIV or genital ulceration; or if two people have sex in a way that causes wounds to the lining of the anal canal (like anal penetration - one person putting his penis into another person's anus). The United States government says that most people need to use condoms to protect themselves from getting Hepatitis C only if they have more than one sexual partner.
People who get tattoos are about two to three times more likely to get Hepatitis C. This can be because of tools that are not sterile (not clean or free of germs), or because the dyes used for tattooing are contaminated (the Hepatitis C virus has gotten inside of them).
Tattoos or body piercings that were done before the mid-1980s or by people who are not professionals (not experts) are especially likely to spread Hepatitis C, since they are more likely to have used tools that were not sterile. Bigger tattoos also seem to put a person at more risk of getting Hepatitis C. The risk of getting Hepatitis C is very high in prisons; in the United States, almost half of all prison inmates share tattooing tools that are not sterile. However, if a tattoo is done in a licensed place of business (which has to follow rules about cleaning tools and preventing diseases from spreading), there is almost no risk of getting Hepatitis C from the tattoo.
Because Hepatitis C is spread by blood-to-blood contact, personal-care tools which come into contact with blood - like razors, toothbrushes, and manicure or pedicure equipment or any other kind of blood to blood contact - can spread the disease if they are shared. To prevent the spread of Hepatitis C, people should be careful with cuts, sores, or anything else that causes bleeding. Hepatitis C does not spread through casual contact, such as hugging, kissing, or sharing eating or cooking utensils.
Although this does not happen very often, a pregnant woman who has Hepatitis C can give the disease to her baby when it is born, or to her fetus while she is pregnant. This happens in less than 10% of all pregnancies (less than 1 out of every 10 pregnancies). If a pregnant woman has Hepatitis C, nothing can be done to make her less likely to give her baby the disease. If the woman is in labor (the process of delivering her baby) for a long time, there is more of a chance that the baby will become infected during the birth. Breastfeeding does not seem to spread the disease. However, doctors say that an infected mother should not breastfeed if her nipples are cracked and bleeding, or her viral loads (the amount of the Hepatitis C virus in her blood) are high.
There are a few different tests that can diagnose Hepatitis C (or say for sure that a person has the disease). These tests are called HCV antibody, ELISA, Western blot, and quantitative HCV RNA tests. A technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can show that a person has Hepatitis C virus RNA (part of the virus's genetic blueprint) one to two weeks after the person becomes infected. Tests that look for Hepatitis C antibodies (which the body makes to fight the disease) cannot be done this quickly after infection, because the antibodies can take much longer to form and show up.
A person has chronic Hepatitis C if he has been infected with the Hepatitis C virus for more than six months. Because people with chronic Hepatitis C often have no symptoms for decades, doctors often diagnose it through liver function tests (which test how well the liver is working) or by doing routine (regular) screening of high-risk people. Tests cannot tell whether an infection is acute or chronic.
Hepatitis C testing usually begins with blood tests that look for antibodies to the Hepatitis C virus, using a technique called an enzyme immunoassay. If this test is positive (showing that the body is making antibodies to fight the Hepatitis C virus), the person will be tested a second time to make sure that the results are correct and to see how serious the infection is. The results are confirmed using a technique called a recombinant immunoblot assay, and an HCV RNA polymerase chain reaction shows how serious the infection is. If the immunoblot is positive, but there are no Hepatitis C virus RNA, this shows that the person had an infection, but it cleared up either with treatment or on its own. If the immunoblot is negative, this shows that the immunoassay (the first test) was wrong, and the person does not have Hepatitis C. It takes six to eight weeks after a person gets infected before the immunoassay will test positive.
During the first part of a Hepatitis C infection, a person's liver enzymes may change; on average, they begin to rise seven weeks after infection. A person's liver enzymes usually do not affect how severe their infection is.
A test called a liver biopsy can show whether a person's liver has been damaged, or how badly it has been damaged, by Hepatitis C. However, there are some risks from the procedure. In a biopsy, a doctor takes a small piece out of the patient's liver so that he can test it. There are three major changes to the liver that a biopsy usually shows. One is that lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) show up in the liver tissue. Another is that lymphoid follicles (small masses or swellings) show up in the portal triad, a part of the liver. The third is changes to the bile ducts (these carry bile, which is made in the liver and is needed to help a person digest their food, to other parts of the body). Many blood tests are available which try to measure how much damage there is to a patient's liver, in order to avoid the need for a biopsy and its risks.
As few as 5–50% of infected people in the United States and Canada (or 5 to 50 out of every 100) know that they have Hepatitis C. Doctors suggest that people who are at high risk for the disease, including people with tattoos, should get tested. Screening is also suggested for people with elevated (high) liver enzymes, since this is often the only sign that a person has chronic hepatitis. Routine screening (testing everyone) is not recommended in the United States.