title: Scoliosis

text: A 50-year follow-up study published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" (2003) asserted the lifelong physical health, including cardiopulmonary and neurological functions, and mental health of people with idiopathic scoliosis are comparable to those of the general population. Scoliosis that interferes with normal systemic functions is "exceptional" and "rare", and "untreated [scoliosis] people had similar death rates and were just as functional and likely to lead productive lives 50 years after diagnosis as people with normal spines." In an earlier University of Iowa follow-up study, 91% of people with idiopathic scoliosis displayed normal pulmonary function, and their life expectancy was 2% less than that of the general population. Later (2006-) studies corroborate these findings, adding that they are "reassuring for the adult patient who has adolescent onset idiopathic scoliosis in approximately the 50–70° range." These modern landmark studies supersede earlier studies (e.g. Mankin-Graham-Schauk 1964) that did implicate moderate idiopathic scoliosis in impaired pulmonary function.


title: Scoliosis

text: Generally, the prognosis of scoliosis depends on the likelihood of progression. The general rules of progression are larger curves carry a higher risk of progression than smaller curves, and thoracic and double primary curves carry a higher risk of progression than single lumbar or thoracolumbar curves. In addition, people not having yet reached skeletal maturity have a higher likelihood of progression (i.e., if the person has not yet completed the adolescent growth spurt).


title: Scoliosis

text: Scoliosis affects 2–3% of the United States population, which is equivalent to about five to nine million cases. A scoliosis spinal column curve of 10° or less affects 1.5% to 3% of individuals. The age of onset is usually between 10 years and 15 years (can occur at a younger age) in children and adolescents, making up to 85% of those diagnosed. This is seen to be due to rapid growth spurts occurring at puberty when spinal development is most relenting to genetic and environmental influences. Because female adolescents undergo growth spurts before postural musculoskeletal maturity, scoliosis is more prevalent among females.


title: Scoliosis

text: Although fewer cases are present today using Cobb angle analysis for diagnosis, scoliosis remains a prevailing condition, appearing in otherwise healthy children. Despite the fact that scoliosis is a disfigurement of the spine, it has been shown to influence the pneumonic function, balance while standing and stride execution of kids with scoliosis. The impacts of backpack carriage on these three side effects have been broadly researched. Incidence of idiopathic scoliosis (IS) stops after puberty when skeletal maturity is reached, however, further curvature may proceed during late adulthood due to vertebral osteoporosis and weakened musculature.


title: Scoliosis

text: Ever since the condition was discovered by the Greek physician Hippocrates, a cure has been sought. Treatments such as bracing and the insertion of rods into the spine were employed during the 1900s. In the mid-20th century, new treatments and improved screening methods have been developed to reduce the progression of scoliosis in patients and alleviate their associated pain. School children were during this period believed to develop poor posture as a result of working at their desks, and many were diagnosed with scoliosis. It was also considered to be caused by tuberculosis or poliomyelitis, diseases that were successfully managed using vaccines and antibiotics.


title: Scoliosis

text: The American orthopaedic surgeon Alfred Shands Jr. discovered that two percent of patients had non-disease related scoliosis, later termed "idiopathic scoliosis", or the "cancer of orthopaedic surgery". These patients were treated with questionable remedies. A theory at the time—now discredited—was that the condition needed to be detected early to halt its progression, and so some schools made screening for scoliosis mandatory. Measurements of shoulder height, leg length and spinal curvature were made, and the ability to bend forwards, along with body posture, was tested, but students were sometimes misdiagnosed because of their poor posture.


title: Scoliosis

text: An early treatment was the Milwaukee brace, a rigid contraption of metal rods attached to a plastic or leather girdle, designed to straighten the spine. Because of the constant pressure applied to the spine, the brace was uncomfortable. It caused jaw and muscle pain, skin irritation, as well as low self-esteem.


title: Scoliosis

text: In 1962, the American orthopaedic surgeon Paul Harrington introduced a metal spinal system of instrumentation that assisted with straightening the spine, as well as holding it rigid while fusion took place. The now obsolete Harrington rod operated on a ratchet system, attached by hooks to the spine at the top and bottom of the curvature that when cranked would distract—or straighten—the curve. The Harrington rod obviates the need for prolonged casting, allowing patients greater mobility in the postoperative period and significantly reducing the quality of life burden of fusion surgery. The Harrington rod was the precursor to most modern spinal instrumentation systems. A major shortcoming was that it failed to produce a posture wherein the skull would be in proper alignment with the pelvis, and it did not address rotational deformity. As the person aged, there would be increased wear and tear, early onset arthritis, disc degeneration, muscular stiffness, and acute pain. "Flatback" became the medical name for a related complication, especially for those who had lumbar scoliosis.


title: Scoliosis

text: In the 1960s, the gold standard for idiopathic scoliosis was a posterior approach using a single Harrington rod. Post-operative recovery involved bed rest, casts, and braces. Poor results became apparent over time.


title: Scoliosis

text: In the 1970s, an improved technique was developed using two rods and wires attached at each level of the spine. This segmented instrumentation system allowed patients to become mobile soon after surgery.


title: Scoliosis

text: In the 1980s, Cotrel-Dubousset instrumentation improved fixation and addressed sagittal imbalance and rotational defects unresolved by the Harrington rod system. This technique used multiple hooks with rods to give stronger fixation in three dimensions, usually eliminating the need for postoperative bracing.


title: Scoliosis

text: There are links between human spinal morphology, bipedality, and scoliosis which suggest an evolutionary basis for the condition. Scoliosis has not been found in chimpanzees or gorillas. Thus, it has been hypothesized that scoliosis may actually be related to humans' morphological differences from these apes. Other apes have a shorter and less mobile lower spine than humans. Some of the lumbar vertebrae in Pan are "captured", meaning that they are held fast between the ilium bones of the pelvis. Compared to humans, Old World monkeys have far larger erector spinae muscles, which are the muscles which hold the spine steady. These factors make the lumbar spine of most primates less flexible and far less likely to deviate than those of humans. While this may explicitly relate only to lumbar scolioses, small imbalances in the lumbar spine could precipitate thoracic problems as well.


title: Scoliosis

text: Scoliosis may be a byproduct of strong selection for bipedalism. For a bipedal stance, a highly mobile, elongated lower spine is very beneficial. For instance, the human spine takes on an S-shaped curve with lumbar lordosis, which allows for better balance and support of an upright trunk. Selection for bipedality was likely strong enough to justify the maintenance of such a disorder. Bipedality is hypothesized to have emerged for a variety of different reasons, many of which would have certainly conferred fitness advantages. It may increase viewing distance, which can be beneficial in hunting and foraging as well as protection from predators or other humans; it makes long-distance travel more efficient for foraging or hunting; and it facilitates terrestrial feeding from grasses, trees, and bushes. Given the many benefits of bipedality which depends on a particularly formed spine, it is likely that selection for bipedalism played a large role in the development of the spine as we see it today, in spite of the potential for "scoliotic deviations". According to the fossil record, scoliosis may have been more prevalent among earlier hominids such as "Australopithecus" and "Homo erectus", when bipedality was first emerging. Their fossils indicate that there may have been selected over time for a slight reduction in lumbar length to what we see today, favouring a spine that could efficiently support bipedality with a lower risk of scoliosis.


title: Scoliosis

text: The cost of scoliosis involves both monetary losses and lifestyle limitations that increase with severity. Respiratory deficiencies may also arise from thoracic deformities and cause abnormal breathing. This directly affects exercise and work capacity, decreasing the overall quality of life.


title: Scoliosis

text: In the health care system of the United States, the average hospital cost for cases involving surgical procedures was $30,000 to $60,000 per person in 2010. As of 2006, the cost of bracing has been published as up to $5,000 during rapid growth periods, when braces must be consistently replaced across multiple follow-ups.


title: Scoliosis

text: Genetic testing for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, which became available in 2009 and is still under investigation, attempts to gauge the likelihood of curve progression.


title: Awakenings

text: Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film directed by Penny Marshall. It is written by Steven Zaillian, who based his screenplay on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir "Awakenings". It tells the story of neurologist Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), who is based on Sacks, who discovers the beneficial effects of the drug L-Dopa in 1969. He administers it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe (Robert de Niro) and the rest of the patients are awakened after decades and have to deal with a new life in a new time. Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Stormare, and Max von Sydow also star.


title: Awakenings

text: "Awakenings" was produced by Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, who first encountered Sacks's book as undergraduates at Yale and optioned it a few years later. The film was a critical and commercial success, earning $108.7 million on a $29 million budget, and was nominated for three Academy Awards.


title: Awakenings

text: In 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer is a dedicated and caring physician at a local hospital in the Bronx borough of New York City. After working extensively with the catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica, Sayer discovers certain stimuli will reach beyond the patients' respective catatonic states; actions such as catching a ball, hearing familiar music, being called by their name, and enjoying human touch, all have unique effects on particular patients and offer a glimpse into their worlds. Patient Leonard Lowe seems to remain unmoved, but Sayer learns that Leonard is able to communicate with him by using a Ouija board.


title: Awakenings

text: After attending a lecture at a conference on the drug L-Dopa and its success for patients with Parkinson's disease, Sayer believes the drug may offer a breakthrough for his own group of patients. A trial run with Leonard yields astounding results: Leonard completely "awakens" from his catatonic state. This success inspires Sayer to ask for funding from donors so that all the catatonic patients can receive the L-Dopa medication and gain "awakenings" to reality and the present.


title: Awakenings

text: Meanwhile, Leonard is adjusting to his new life and becomes romantically interested in Paula, the daughter of another hospital patient. Leonard begins to chafe at the restrictions placed upon him as a patient of the hospital, desiring the freedom to come and go as he pleases. He stirs up a revolt by arguing his case to Sayer and the hospital administration. Sayer notices that as Leonard grows more agitated, a number of facial and body tics are starting to manifest, which Leonard has difficulty controlling.


title: Awakenings

text: Although Sayer and the hospital staff are thrilled by the success of L-Dopa with this group of patients, they soon learn that it is a temporary result. As the first to "awaken", Leonard is also the first to demonstrate the limited duration of this period of "awakening". Leonard's tics grow more and more prominent, and he starts to shuffle more as he walks. All of the patients are forced to witness what will eventually happen to them. He soon begins to have full body spasms and can hardly move. Leonard puts up well with the pain, and asks Sayer to film him, in hopes that he would someday contribute to research that may eventually help others. Leonard acknowledges what is happening to him and has a last lunch with Paula, where he tells her he cannot see her anymore. When he is about to leave, Paula dances with him. For this short period of time, his spasms disappear. Leonard and Sayer reconcile their differences, but Leonard returns to his catatonic state soon after. The other patients' fears are similarly realized as each eventually returns to catatonia, no matter how much their L-Dopa dosages are increased.


title: Awakenings

text: Sayer tells a group of grant donors to the hospital that although the "awakening" did not last, another kindone of learning to appreciate and live lifetook place. For example, he overcomes his painful shyness and asks Nurse Eleanor Costello to go out for coffee, many months after he had declined a similar invitation from her. The nurses now treat the catatonic patients with more respect and care, and Paula is shown visiting Leonard. The film ends with Sayer standing over Leonard behind a Ouija board, with his hands on Leonard's hands, which are on the planchette. "Let's begin," Sayer says.


title: Awakenings

text: On September 15, 1989, Liz Smith reported that those being considered for the role of Leonard Lowe's mother were Kaye Ballard, Shelley Winters, and Anne Jackson; not quite three weeks later, "Newsday" named Nancy Marchand as the leading contender. However, it was not until late January of the following year—more than three quarters of the way through the film's four-month shooting schedule—that the matter was seemingly resolved, when the February 1990 issue of "Premiere" magazine published a widely cited story (much repeated and embellished in the years since), belatedly informing fans that not only had Winters landed the role, but she'd been targeted at De Niro's request and had sealed the deal by means of some unabashed résumé-flexing (for the benefit, as we can now surmise, of veteran casting director Bonnie Timmermann:):


title: Awakenings

text: "Premiere", "Newsday" and Liz Smith notwithstanding, the film, as finally released in December 1990, featured neither Winters—whose early dismissal evidently resulted from continuing attempts to pull rank on director Penny Marshall—nor any of the other previously publicized candidates (nor at least two others, Jo Van Fleet and Teresa Wright, identified in subsequent accounts), but rather the then-85-year-old Group Theater alumnus Ruth Nelson, giving a well-received performance in what would prove her final feature film. "As Leonard's mother," writes "Wall Street Journal" critic Julie Salamon, "Nelson achieves a wrenching beauty that stands out even among these exceptional actors doing exceptional things." In her 2012 memoir, Penny Marshall recalled:


title: Awakenings

text: Principal photography for "Awakenings" began on October 16, 1989, at the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn, New York, which was operating, and lasted until February 16, 1990. According to Williams, actual patients were used in the filming of the movie. In addition to Kingsboro, sequences were also filmed at the New York Botanical Garden, Julia Richman High School, the Casa Galicia, and Park Slope, Brooklyn.


title: Awakenings

text: "Awakenings" opened in limited release on December 22, 1990, with an opening weekend gross of $417,076. The film expanded to a wide release on January 11, 1991, opening in second place behind "Home Alone"s ninth weekend, with $8,306,532. It went on to gross $52.1 million in the United States and Canada and $56.6 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $108.7 million.


title: Awakenings

text: "Awakenings" received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of 35 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.7/10. Its consensus states "Elevated by some of Robin Williams' finest non-comedic work and a strong performance from Robert De Niro, "Awakenings" skirts the edges of melodrama, then soars above it." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 74 based on 18 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A" on scale of A to F.


title: Awakenings

text: Oliver Sacks, the author of the memoir on which the film is based, "was pleased with a great deal of [the film]," explaining,


title: Awakenings

text: Desson Howe of "The Washington Post" felt the film's tragic aspects did not live up to the strength in its humor, saying that


title: Awakenings

text: The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including: the Academy Award for Best Picture, the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Academy Award for Best Actor (Robert De Niro). Robin Williams was also nominated at the 48th Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.


title: Norovirus

text: Norovirus, sometimes referred to as the winter vomiting disease, is the most common cause of gastroenteritis. Infection is characterized by non-bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. Fever or headaches may also occur. Symptoms usually develop 12 to 48 hours after being exposed, and recovery typically occurs within one to three days. Complications are uncommon, but may include dehydration, especially in the young, the old, and those with other health problems.


title: Norovirus

text: The virus is usually spread by the fecal–oral route. This may be through contaminated food or water or person-to-person contact. It may also spread via contaminated surfaces or through air from the vomit of an infected person. Risk factors include unsanitary food preparation and sharing close quarters. Diagnosis is generally based on symptoms. Confirmatory testing is not usually available but may be performed by public health agencies during outbreaks.


title: Norovirus

text: Prevention involves proper hand washing and disinfection of contaminated surfaces. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for norovirus. Management involves supportive care such as drinking sufficient fluids or intravenous fluids. Oral rehydration solutions are the preferred fluids to drink, although other drinks without caffeine or alcohol can help. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not effective against the norovirus, according to the NHS information page on the subject; this is due to norovirus being a non-enveloped virus.


title: Norovirus

text: Norovirus results in about 685 million cases of disease and 200,000 deaths globally a year. It is common both in the developed and developing world. Those under the age of five are most often affected, and in this group it results in about 50,000 deaths in the developing world. Norovirus infections occur more commonly during winter months. It often occurs in outbreaks, especially among those living in close quarters. In the United States, it is the cause of about half of all foodborne disease outbreaks. The virus is named after the city of Norwalk, Ohio, US where an outbreak occurred in 1968.


title: Norovirus

text: Norovirus infection is characterized by nausea, vomiting, watery diarrhea, abdominal pain, and in some cases, loss of taste. A person usually develops symptoms of gastroenteritis 12 to 48 hours after being exposed to norovirus. General lethargy, weakness, muscle aches, headaches, and low-grade fevers may occur. The disease is usually self-limiting, and severe illness is rare. Although having norovirus can be unpleasant, it is not usually dangerous, and most who contract it make a full recovery within two to three days.


title: Norovirus

text: Norovirus can establish a long term infection in people who are immunocompromised, such as those with common variable immunodeficiency or with a suppressed immune system after organ transplantation. These infections can be with or without symptoms. In severe cases, persistent infections can lead to norovirus‐associated enteropathy, intestinal villous atrophy, and malabsorption.


title: Norovirus

text: Noroviruses are transmitted directly from person to person (62–84% of all reported outbreaks) and indirectly via contaminated water and food. They are extremely contagious, and fewer than twenty virus particles can cause an infection (some research suggests as few as five). Transmission can be aerosolized when those stricken with the illness vomit, and can be aerosolized by a toilet flush when vomit or diarrhea is present; infection can follow eating food or breathing air near an episode of vomiting, even if cleaned up. The viruses continue to be shed after symptoms have subsided and shedding can still be detected many weeks after infection.


title: Norovirus

text: Vomiting, in particular, transmits infection effectively and appears to allow airborne transmission. In one incident, a person who vomited spread infection across a restaurant, suggesting that many unexplained cases of food poisoning may have their source in vomit. In December 1998, 126 people were dining at six tables; one person vomited onto the floor. Staff quickly cleaned up, and people continued eating. Three days later others started falling ill; 52 people reported a range of symptoms, from fever and nausea to vomiting and diarrhea. The cause was not immediately identified. Researchers plotted the seating arrangement: more than 90% of the people at the same table as the sick person later reported becoming ill. There was a direct correlation between the risk of infection of people at other tables and how close they were to the sick person. More than 70% of the diners at an adjacent table fell ill; at a table on the other side of the restaurant, the infection rate was still 25%. The outbreak was attributed to a Norwalk-like virus (norovirus). Other cases of transmission by vomit were later identified.


title: Norovirus

text: In one outbreak at an international scout jamboree in the Netherlands, each person with gastroenteritis infected an average of 14 people before increased hygiene measures were put in place. Even after these new measures were enacted, an ill person still infected an average of 2.1 other people. A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of 11 outbreaks in New York State lists the suspected mode of transmission as person-to-person in seven outbreaks, foodborne in two, waterborne in one, and one unknown. The source of waterborne outbreaks may include water from municipal supplies, wells, recreational lakes, swimming pools, and ice machines.


title: Norovirus

text: Shellfish and salad ingredients are the foods most often implicated in norovirus outbreaks. Ingestion of shellfish that has not been sufficiently heatedunder poses a high risk for norovirus infection. Foods other than shellfish may be contaminated by infected food handlers. Many norovirus outbreaks have been traced to food that was handled by only one infected person.


title: Norovirus

text: Between March and August 2017, in Quebec, Canada, there was an outbreak of norovirus that sickened more than 700 people. According to an investigation by Canada's CFIA Food Control Agency, the culprit was frozen raspberries imported from Harbin Gaotai Food Co Ltd, a Chinese supplier, and then Canadian authorities issued a recall on raspberries products from Harbin Gaotai.


title: Norovirus

text: Noroviruses (NoV) are a genetically diverse group of single-stranded positive-sense RNA, non-enveloped viruses belonging to the family "Caliciviridae". According to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, the genus "Norovirus" has one species, which is called "Norwalk virus".


title: Norovirus

text: Noroviruses can genetically be classified into at least seven different genogroups (GI, GII, GIII, GIV, GV, GVI, and GVII), which can be further divided into different genetic clusters or genotypes.


title: Norovirus

text: Noroviruses commonly isolated in cases of acute gastroenteritis belong to two genogroups: genogroup I (GI) includes Norwalk virus, Desert Shield virus and Southampton virus; and II (GII), which includes Bristol virus, Lordsdale virus, Toronto virus, Mexico virus, Hawaii virus and Snow Mountain virus.


title: Norovirus

text: Noroviruses from genogroup II, genotype 4 (abbreviated as GII.4) account for the majority of adult outbreaks of gastroenteritis and often sweep across the globe.


title: Norovirus

text: Recent examples include US95/96-US strain, associated with global outbreaks in the mid- to late-1990s; Farmington Hills virus associated with outbreaks in Europe and the United States in 2002 and in 2004; and Hunter virus which was associated with outbreaks in Europe, Japan and Australasia. In 2006, there was another large increase in NoV infection around the globe. Reports have shown a link between the expression of human histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) and the susceptibility to norovirus infection. Studies have suggested the capsid of noroviruses may have evolved from selective pressure of human HBGAs. HBGAs are not however the receptor or facilitator of norovirus infection. In fact, co-factors such as bile salts may facilitate the infection, making it more intense when introduced during or after the initial infection of the host tissue. Bile salts are produced by the liver in response to eating fatty foods, and they help with the absorption of consumed lipids. It is not yet clear as to at what specific point in the Norovirus replication cycle bile salts facilitate infection: penetration, uncoating, or maintaining capsid stability.


title: Norovirus

text: The protein MDA-5 may be the primary immune sensor that detects the presence of noroviruses in the body. Some people have common variations of the MDA-5 gene that could make them more susceptible to norovirus infection.


title: Norovirus

text: Viruses in Norovirus are non-enveloped, with icosahedral geometries. Capsid diameters vary widely, from 23 to 40 nm in diameter. The larger capsids (38–40 nm) exhibit T=3 symmetry and are composed of 180 VP1 proteins. Small capsids (23 nm) show T=1 symmetry, and are composed of 60 VP1 proteins. The virus particles demonstrate an amorphous surface structure when visualized using electron microscopy.


title: Norovirus

text: Noroviruses contain a linear, non-segmented, positive-sense RNA genome of approximately 7.5 kilobases, encoding a large polyprotein which is cleaved into six smaller non-structural proteins (NS1/2 to NS7) by the viral 3C-like protease (NS6), a major structural protein (VP1) of about 58~60 kDa and a minor capsid protein (VP2).


title: Norovirus

text: The most variable region of the viral capsid is the P2 domain, which contains antigen-presenting sites and carbohydrate-receptor binding regions.


title: Norovirus

text: Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 last shared a common ancestor in AD 867. The group 2 and group 4 viruses last shared a common ancestor in approximately AD 1443 (95% highest posterior density 1336–1542 AD). Several estimates of the evolution rate have been made varying from 8.98 × 10 to 2.03 × 10 substitutions per site per year.


title: Norovirus

text: The estimated mutation rate (1.21 to 1.41 substitutions per site per year) in this virus is high even compared with other RNA viruses.


title: Norovirus

text: Viral replication is cytoplasmic. Entry into the host cell is achieved by attachment to host receptors, which mediates endocytosis. Positive-stranded RNA virus transcription is the method of replication. Translation takes place by leaky scanning and RNA termination-reinitiation. Humans and other mammals serve as the natural host. Transmission routes are fecal-oral and contamination.


title: Norovirus

text: When a person becomes infected with norovirus, the virus replicates within the small intestine. The principal symptom is acute gastroenteritis, characterized by nausea, forceful vomiting, watery diarrhea, and abdominal pain, that develops between 12 and 48 hours after exposure, and lasts for 24–72 hours. Sometimes there is loss of taste, general lethargy, weakness, muscle aches, headache, cough, and/or low-grade fever. The disease is usually self-limiting.


title: Norovirus

text: Severe illness is rare; although people are frequently treated at the emergency ward, they are rarely admitted to the hospital. The number of deaths from norovirus in the United States is estimated to be around 570–800 each year, with most of these occurring in the very young, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems. Symptoms may become life-threatening in these groups if dehydration or electrolyte imbalance is ignored or not treated.


title: Norovirus

text: Specific diagnosis of norovirus is routinely made by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays or quantitative PCR assays, which give results within a few hours. These assays are very sensitive and can detect as few as 10 virus particles.


title: Norovirus

text: Tests such as ELISA that use antibodies against a mixture of norovirus strains are available commercially, but lack specificity and sensitivity.


title: Norovirus

text: After infection, immunity to the "same" strain of the virus – the genotype – protects against reinfection for between 6 months to 2 years. This immunity does not fully protect against infection with the other diverse genotypes of the virus.


title: Norovirus

text: Hand washing with soap and water is an effective method for reducing the transmission of norovirus pathogens. Alcohol rubs (≥62% isopropyl alcohol) may be used as an adjunct, but are less effective than hand-washing, as norovirus lacks a lipid viral envelope. Surfaces where norovirus particles may be present can be sanitised with a solution of 1.5% to 7.5% of household bleach in water, or other disinfectants effective against norovirus.


title: Norovirus

text: In health-care environments, the prevention of nosocomial infections involves routine and terminal cleaning. Nonflammable alcohol vapor in CO systems is used in health care environments where medical electronics would be adversely affected by aerosolized chlorine or other caustic compounds.


title: Norovirus

text: In 2011, the CDC published a clinical practice guideline addressing strategies for the prevention and control of norovirus gastroenteritis outbreaks in health-care settings. Based on a systematic review of published scientific studies, the guideline presents 51 specific evidence-based recommendations, which were organized into 12 categories: 1) patient cohorting and isolation precautions, 2) hand hygiene, 3) patient transfer and ward closure, 4) food handlers in healthcare, 5) diagnostics, 6) personal protective equipment, 7) environmental cleaning, 8) staff leave and policy, 9) visitors, 10) education, 11) active case-finding, and 12) communication and notification. The guideline also identifies eight high-priority recommendations and suggests several areas in need of future research.


title: Norovirus

text: LigoCyte announced in 2007 that it was working on a vaccine and had started phase 1 trials. The company has since been taken over by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. , a bivalent (NoV GI.1/GII.4) intramuscular vaccine had completed phase 1 trials. In 2020 the phase 2b trials were finished. The vaccine relies on using a virus-like particle that is made of the norovirus capsid proteins in order to mimic the external structure of the virus. Since there is no RNA in this particle, it is incapable of reproducing and cannot cause an infection.


title: Norovirus

text: The norovirus can survive for long periods outside a human host depending on the surface and temperature conditions: it can survive for weeks on hard and soft surfaces, and it can survive for months, maybe even years in contaminated still water. A 2006 study found the virus remained on surfaces used for food preparation seven days after contamination.


title: Norovirus

text: Routine protocols to detect norovirus in clams and oysters by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction are being employed by governmental laboratories such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US.


title: Norovirus

text: There is no specific medicine to treat people with norovirus illness. Norovirus infection cannot be treated with antibiotics because it is a virus. Treatments aim to avoid complications by measures such as the management of dehydration caused by fluid loss in vomiting and diarrhea, and to mitigate symptoms using antiemetics and antidiarrheals.


title: Norovirus

text: Norovirus causes about 18% of all cases of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. It is relatively common in developed countries and in low-mortality developing countries (20% and 19% respectively) compared to high-mortality developing countries (14%). Proportionately it causes more illness in people in the community or in hospital outpatients (24% and 20% respectively) as compared with hospital inpatients (17%) in whom other causes are more common.


title: Norovirus

text: Age and emergence of new norovirus strains do not appear to affect the proportion of gastroenteritis attributable to norovirus.


title: Norovirus

text: Norovirus is a common cause of epidemics of gastroenteritis on cruise ships. The CDC through its Vessel Sanitation Program records and investigates outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness—mostly caused by norovirus—on cruise ships with both a US and foreign itinerary; there were 12 in 2015, and 10 from 1 January to 9 May 2016. An outbreak may affect over 25% of passengers, and a smaller proportion of crew members.


title: Norovirus

text: Epidemiological studies have shown that individuals with different ABO(H) (histo-blood group) phenotypes are infected with NoV strains in a genotype-specific manner. GII.4 includes global epidemic strains and binds to more histo-blood group antigens than other genogroups. FUT2 fucosyltransferase transfers a fucose sugar to the end of the ABO(H) precursor in gastrointestinal cells and saliva glands. The ABH-antigen produced is thought to act as a receptor for human norovirus: A non-functional fucosyltransferase FUT2 provides high protection from the most common norovirus strain, GII.4.


title: Norovirus

text: Homozygous carriers of any nonsense mutation in the FUT2 gene are called "non-secretors", as no ABH-antigen is produced. Approximately 20% of Caucasians are non-secretors due to G428A and C571T nonsense mutations in FUT2 and therefore have strong – although not absolute – protection from the norovirus GII.4. Non-secretors can still produce ABH antigens in erythrocytes, as the precursor is formed by FUT1. Some norovirus genotypes (GI.3) can infect non-secretors.


title: Norovirus

text: The norovirus was originally named the "Norwalk agent" after Norwalk, Ohio, in the United States, where an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis occurred among children at Bronson Elementary School in November 1968 (although an outbreak had already been discovered in 1936 in Roskilde, Denmark, where it is commonly known as "Roskilde syge" or "Roskilde illness"). In 1972, electron microscopy on stored human stool samples identified a virus, which was given the name "Norwalk virus". Numerous outbreaks with similar symptoms have been reported since. The cloning and sequencing of the Norwalk virus genome showed that these viruses have a genomic organization consistent with viruses belonging to the family Caliciviridae. The name "norovirus" ("Norovirus" for the genus) was approved by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) in 2002. In 2011, however, a press release and a newsletter were published by ICTV, which strongly encouraged the media, national health authorities and the scientific community to use the virus name Norwalk virus, rather than the genus name Norovirus, when referring to outbreaks of the disease. This was also a public response by ICTV to the request from an individual in Japan to rename the Norovirus genus because of the possibility of negative associations for people in Japan and elsewhere who have the family name "Noro". Before this position of ICTV was made public, ICTV consulted widely with members of the Caliciviridae Study Group and carefully discussed the case.


title: Norovirus

text: In addition to "Norwalk agent" and "Norwalk virus", the virus has also been called "Norwalk-like virus", "small, round-structured viruses" (SRSVs), Spencer flu and "Snow Mountain virus". Common names of the illness caused by noroviruses still in use include "Roskilde illness", "winter vomiting disease", "winter vomiting bug", "viral gastroenteritis", and "acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis".


title: Shakshouka

text: Shakshouka ( : šakšūkah, also spelled "shakshuka" or "chakchouka") is a Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion and garlic, commonly spiced with cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper. According to Joan Nathan, shakshouka originated in Ottoman North Africa in the mid-16th century after tomatoes were introduced to the region by Hernan Cortés as part of the Columbian exchange.


title: Shakshouka

text: The word "shakshouka" () is a Maghrebi Arabic term for "a mixture". The exact provenance of the word is often contested, but, like the names of many Maghrebi dishes and terms, is believed to come from the language of the Amazigh (or Berber) people indigenous to the region. In the western Maghreb, it is referred to as "bīd wu matiša" ( "egg and tomato").


title: Shakshouka

text: The origin of the dish remains a matter of some controversy with competing claims of Algerian, Libyan, Moroccan, Tunisian, Turkish and Yemeni origins. Tomatoes and peppers are notably New World ingredients that only became common ingredients in later centuries after the Columbian exchange.


title: Shakshouka

text: North African Jewish immigrants in Israel brought the dish in the 1950s and 1960s, though it only became popularised on menus in the 1990s.


title: Shakshouka

text: Many variations of the basic sauce are possible, varying in spice and sweetness. Some cooks add preserved lemon, salty sheep milk cheeses, olives, harissa or a spicy sausage such as chorizo or merguez. Shakshouka is made with eggs which are commonly poached but can also be scrambled like the Turkish "menemen".


title: Shakshouka

text: Some variations of shakshouka can be made with lamb mince, toasted whole spices, yogurt and fresh herbs. Spices can include ground coriander, caraway, paprika, cumin and cayenne pepper. Tunisian cooks may add potatoes, broad beans, artichoke hearts or courgettes to the dish. The North African dish "matbukha" can be used as a base for shakshouka.


title: Shakshouka

text: A shakhsouka made with a kosher version of Spam (called "loof") was added to IDF army rations in the 1950s. Because eggs are the main ingredient, it is often on breakfast menus in English-speaking countries, but in the Arab world as well as Israel, it is also a popular evening meal, and like hummus and falafel, is a Levantine regional favorite. On the side, pickled vegetables and North African sausage called merguez might be served, or simply bread, with mint tea.


title: Shakshouka

text: In Jewish culture, a large batch of tomato stew is made for the Sabbath dinner and the leftovers used the following morning to make a breakfast shakshouka with eggs. In Andalusian cuisine, the dish is known as ""; this version includes chorizo and serrano ham. in Italian cuisine, there is a version of this dish called (eggs in purgatory) that adds tomato paste, anchovy, garlic, basil or parsley, and sometimes parmesan cheese.


title: António Guterres

text: António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres ( , ; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socialist Party, Guterres served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres served as secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He was elected prime minister in 1995 and resigned in 2002, after his party was defeated in the 2001 Portuguese local elections. After six years governing without an absolute majority and with a poor economy, the Socialist Party did worse than expected because of losses in Lisbon and Porto, where polls indicated they had a solid lead. Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues assumed the Socialist Party leadership, but the general election was lost to the Social Democratic Party, led by José Manuel Barroso. Despite this defeat, polling of the Portuguese public in both 2012 and 2014 ranked Guterres the best prime minister of the previous 30 years.


title: António Guterres

text: He served as president of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005, and was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015. Guterres was elected secretary-general in October 2016, succeeding Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of the following year and becoming the first European to hold this office since Kurt Waldheim in 1981.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres was born in Parede and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, the son of Virgílio Dias Guterres (1913–2009) and Ilda Cândida dos Reis Oliveira Guterres (1923–2021).


title: António Guterres

text: He attended the Camões Lyceum (now Camões Secondary School), where he graduated in 1965, winning the National Lyceums Award ("Prémio Nacional dos Liceus") as the best student in the country. He studied physics and electrical engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of Lisbon in Lisbon. He graduated in 1971 and started an academic career as an assistant professor teaching systems theory and telecommunications signals, before leaving academic life to start a political career. During his university years, he joined the Group of Light, a club for young Catholics, where he met Father Vítor Melícias, a prominent Franciscan priest and church administrator who remains a close friend and confidant.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres's political career began in 1974, when he became a member of the Socialist Party. Shortly thereafter, he quit academic life and became a full-time politician. In the period following the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 that put an end to Caetano's dictatorship, Guterres became involved in Socialist Party leadership and held the following offices:


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres was a member of the team that negotiated the terms of Portugal's entry into the European Union in the late 1970s. He was a founding member of the Portuguese Refugee Council in 1991.


title: António Guterres

text: In 1992, after the Socialists' third consecutive defeat in Parliamentary elections, Guterres became secretary-general of the Socialist Party and leader of the opposition during Aníbal Cavaco Silva's government. At the time, he was the party's third leader in six years. He was also selected as one of the 25 vice presidents of the Socialist International in September 1992.


title: António Guterres

text: His election represented a break with tradition for the Socialists: not only was Guterres not associated with either the faction around then-president and former prime minister Mário Soares or the party's left wing led by Guterres's predecessor Sampaio, but he was also a devout Catholic, running counter to the party's historical secularism. He consulted with Portugal's civil society in formulating policy, meeting a range of intellectuals, scientists and entrepreneurs from across the country and the political spectrum in the run-up to the next general election.


title: António Guterres

text: Aníbal Cavaco Silva did not seek a fourth term as prime minister of Portugal (in order to run for the 1996 presidential election) and the Socialist Party won the 1995 parliamentary election. President Soares appointed Guterres as prime minister and his cabinet took the oath of office on 28 October that year.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres ran on a platform of keeping a tight hold on budget spending and inflation in a bid to ensure that Portugal met the Euro convergence criteria by the end of the decade, as well as increasing rates of participation in the labor market, especially among women, improving tax collection and cracking down on tax evasion, increased involvement of the mutual and nonprofit sectors in providing welfare services, a means-tested guaranteed minimum income (known as the "Rendimento Minimo Garantido"), and increased investment in education. He was then one of seven Social Democratic prime ministers in the European Union, joining political allies in Spain, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece and the Netherlands.


title: António Guterres

text: With a style markedly different from that of his predecessor, and based on dialogue and discussion with all sections of society, Guterres was a popular prime minister in his first years in office. Portugal was enjoying an economic expansion that allowed the Socialists to reduce budget deficits while increasing welfare spending and creating new conditional cash transfer programs. His government also accelerated the program of privatizations that Cavaco Silva's government had begun: 29 companies were privatized between 1996 and 1999, with proceeds from privatizations in 1996–97 greater than those of the previous six years, and the public sector's share of GDP halved from 11% in 1994 to 5.5% five years later. Share ownership was also widened, with 800,000 people investing in Portugal Telecom upon its privatization in 1996 and 750,000 applying for shares in Electricidade de Portugal.


title: António Guterres

text: In 1998, Guterres presided over Expo 98 in Lisbon, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the voyage of Vasco da Gama. Also in 1998, two nationwide referendums were held. The first one was held in June and asked voters whether abortion rules should be liberalized. The Socialist Party split over the issue of liberalization, and Guterres led the anti-abortion side, which eventually won the referendum. A second referendum was held in November, this time over the regionalization of the mainland. Both Guterres and his party supported such an administrative reform, but the voters rejected it.


title: António Guterres

text: Contrary to his party stance and following the removal of homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses by the World Health Organization in 1990, Guterres said, in 1995, that "he did not like homosexuality" and that it was "something that bothered him".


title: António Guterres

text: On foreign policy, Guterres campaigned for United Nations intervention in East Timor in 1999, after it was virtually destroyed by Indonesian-backed militias when it voted for independence. He also finalized the 12-year negotiations on the transfer of sovereignty over Macau, which had been a Portuguese colony, to Chinese control in 1999.


title: António Guterres

text: In the 1999 parliamentary election the Socialist Party and the opposition won exactly the same number of MPs (115). Guterres was reappointed to office and from January to July 2000 occupied the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council. His second term in government was not as successful, however. Internal party conflicts, an economic slowdown, and the Hintze Ribeiro Bridge disaster damaged his authority and popularity. Nevertheless, some long-lasting measures were taken during his second term: in October 2000, the Parliament approved the decriminalization of drug use (effective 1 July 2001) and in March 2001, same-sex civil unions were legalized.


title: António Guterres

text: In December 2001, following a disastrous defeat for the Socialist Party in local elections, Guterres resigned to "prevent the country from falling into a political swamp". President Jorge Sampaio dissolved Parliament and called for elections. Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, until then minister for social security, assumed the Socialist Party leadership, but the general election was lost to the Social Democratic Party of José Manuel Durão Barroso, who later became president of the European Commission.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres was elected president of Socialist International in November 1999, overlapping with his second term as prime minister of Portugal until his resignation from the latter post in December 2001. He remained president of the Socialist International until June 2005.


title: António Guterres

text: In 2005, following Guterres's proposal, George Papandreou was elected vice president of the Socialist International; in 2006, Papandreou succeeded him as president of the Socialist International.


title: António Guterres

text: In May 2005, Guterres was elected High Commissioner for Refugees for a five-year term by the UN General Assembly, replacing Ruud Lubbers.


title: António Guterres

text: As High Commissioner, Guterres headed one of the world's largest humanitarian organizations, which at the end of his term had more than 10,000 staff working in 126 countries providing protection and assistance to over 60 million refugees, returnees, internally displaced people and stateless persons. His time in office was marked by a fundamental organizational reform, cutting staff and administrative costs in the UNHCR's Geneva head office and expanding UNHCR's emergency response capacity during the worst displacement crisis since the Second World War.


title: António Guterres

text: On 19–23 March 2006, Guterres visited Beijing, China, and expressed his objection to repatriation of North Korean refugees by the Chinese government.


title: António Guterres

text: In a February 2007 NPR interview devoted mainly to the plight of Iraqi refugees, Guterres said that this was one of the greatest refugee crises in the Middle East since 1948. Among poorly publicized refugee crises, he cited those in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During his final years as High Commissioner, he worked chiefly to secure international aid for the refugees of the Syrian civil war, calling the refugee crisis an "existential" one for host countries (such as Lebanon and Jordan), and calling additional aid a "matter of survival" for the refugees. He was an outspoken advocate for a more coordinated and humane approach by European countries to the Mediterranean refugee crisis. In June 2013, he launched a US$5 billion aid effort, its biggest ever, to help up to 10.25 million Syrians that year.


title: António Guterres

text: In what was widely considered a very effective PR move, Guterres appointed American actress Angelina Jolie as his special envoy to represent UNHCR and himself at the diplomatic level in 2012. Together they visited the Kilis Oncupinar Accommodation Facility in Turkey (2012); the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan (2013); and the Maritime Squadron of the Armed Forces of Malta (2015). They also appeared jointly before the United Nations Security Council (2015).


title: António Guterres

text: In early 2015, the General Assembly voted to extend Guterres's mandate by 6 months to 31 December, on recommendation of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In light of the European migrant crisis, the UNHCR's 98-member executive committee (EXCOM) later requested that Ban recommend extending Guterres's term by another year, but Ban disregarded the request. Guterres left office on 31 December 2015, having served the second-longest term as High Commissioner in the organization's history, after Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan.


title: António Guterres

text: In 2015, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa appointed Guterres to serve as a Member of the Council of State of Portugal; he resigned after being appointed as the UN's 9th secretary-general.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres became United Nations Secretary-General on 1 January 2017, following his formal election by the UN General Assembly on 13 October 2016.


title: António Guterres

text: On 29 February 2016, Guterres submitted his nomination as Portugal's candidate for the 2016 UN secretary-general selection. This was the first time candidates for secretary-general had to present their platform in public hearings in the UN General Assembly, a process during which Guterres emerged as a much stronger candidate than had been initially expected, given that he fit the bill on neither the gender nor the geographic scores.


title: António Guterres

text: On 5 October, the 15-member United Nations Security Council announced that it had agreed to nominate Guterres, after an informal secret ballot in which he gained 13 "encourage" votes and two "no opinion" votes. The Security Council officially nominated Guterres in a formal resolution on 6 October. A week later, he was formally elected by the United Nations General Assembly in its 71st session. Guterres took office on 1 January 2017.


title: António Guterres

text: The UN's role in the Haiti cholera outbreak was widely discussed and criticized after the Ban Ki-moon administration denied the issue for several months. According to the Boston-based Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti as well as numerous conclusive scientific studies, the UN is the proximate cause for bringing cholera to Haiti. Peacekeepers sent to Haiti from Nepal in 2010 were carrying asymptomatic cholera and failed to treat their waste properly before dumping it into one of Haiti's main water streams. During his UNSG informal dialogue, Jamaica, on behalf of the Caribbean Community, asked if the UN should assume liability for any deaths within local populations that result from the introduction of infectious disease by its peacekeepers. Jamaica also asked if Guterres believed compensation should be provided. Guterres responded by calling the situation a "particularly complex question", saying it was difficult to preserve diplomatic immunity while also ensuring there is no impunity, but that he would "pay a lot of attention in trying to find the right equilibrium between these two aspects that are absolutely crucial". In a UN General Assembly meeting in late October 2016, the representative from Haiti called the UN's current and future response to the cholera epidemic "a litmus test of the system's commitment to the promotion of human rights". Though many had hoped Guterres's term would mark a break with the inaction that characterized Ban's response to the epidemic, Guterres has done little to signal a commitment to Haitian cholera victims. As of April 2017, five months into his term as secretary-general, only $10 million had been contributed to the $400 million fund to fight cholera and provide material assistance to victims the UN announced in 2016.


title: António Guterres

text: In 2016, Anders Kompass exposed the sexual assault of children by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic and, as a consequence, was dismissed by Ban's administration before being rehabilitated in court. During the United Nations Secretary-General Candidate informal dialogues, Guterres indicated it was completely unacceptable that there be UN forces committing human rights violations such as rape and sexual violence. "All of us together—states and UN—must do our utmost to ensure that any kind of action of this type is severely punished," he said. The United States raised the question of international tribunals to try peacekeepers for their crimes. Guterres responded by saying an independent jurisdiction would be excellent but that "the only way to get there is through a new compact with all key parties—true contributors, financial contributors—and to make sure that there is an adjustment in the relation between countries, the UN, and the support those that are contributing with troops receive, in order to be able to do it much better."


title: António Guterres

text: On 1 January 2017, on his first day as secretary-general of the United Nations, Guterres pledged to make 2017 a year for peace. "Let us resolve to put peace first," he said. On 12 April 2017, Guterres appointed an 8-member Independent Panel to assess and enhance the effectiveness of UN-Habitat after Adoption of the New Urban Agenda. The panel's recommendation to establish an independent coordinating mechanism, ‘UN-Urban’ met with criticism from urban experts and the African Urban Institute. On 20 June 2017, "Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Trump administration, that if the United States disengages from many issues confronting the international community it will be replaced".


title: António Guterres

text: In response to the death of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died of organ failure while in government custody, Guterres said he was deeply saddened. After the violence during the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, Guterres trusted Spanish institutions to find a solution. He gave the same message when Catalonia declared independence on 27 October 2017 but said the solution should be made under the constitutional framework.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres criticized the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen and the naval, land and air blockade of Yemen. The blockade has further aggravated Yemen's severe humanitarian crisis. Guterres said that the intervention in Yemen "is a stupid war. I think this war is against the interests of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates... [and] of the people of Yemen." Guterres opposed US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. In March 2018, Guterres said the population of Syria's Eastern Ghouta was living in "hell on earth". In one district, 93% of buildings had been damaged or destroyed by December, according to UN satellite imagery analysis. A recent wave of bombings has caused further destruction.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres called the 2018 North Korea–United States summit a "crucial milestone" for nuclear disarmament. He urged both sides to "seize this momentous opportunity" and offered UN assistance to achieve the goal of dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program. In August 2018, Guterres called for an independent investigation into a Saudi Arabian-led coalition air strike in Yemen that killed 51 civilians, including 40 children.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres condemned the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and called for a stronger response to the crisis. In September 2018, during his address to the 73rd United Nations General Assembly, Guterres became the first secretary to say that advancing technology will disrupt labor markets like never before and to advocate stronger safety nets like Universal Basic Income. In 2019, human rights groups criticized Guterres for being "silent" as China sent ethnic Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities to the Xinjiang re-education camps. Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth said that Guterres "has been notably silent on one of the most important, ... the most brazen human rights abuses, ... because he is worried about upsetting the Chinese."


title: António Guterres

text: In June 2019, Guterres stated that the "U.N. has the obligation to assume global leadership" in tackling climate change in the context of a visit to the pacific island of Tuvalu. He had previously supported other multilateral environmental initiatives, such as the Global Pact for the Environment that was put forward by France in September 2017. In September 2019, Guterres condemned Israeli plans to annex the eastern portion of the occupied West Bank known as the Jordan Valley. Guterres expressed his "deep concern" at the spiralling violence in Syria a day after Turkey launched an offensive in Kurdish-controlled areas. He said any solution to the conflict needed to respect the sovereignty of the territory and the unity of Syria.


title: António Guterres

text: Guterres praised the Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement, stating that he welcomes "any initiative that can promote peace and security in the Middle East region." Guterres expressed the hope that the agreement between Israel and Sudan to normalize relations would create opportunities for peace and prosperity. On 10 August 2020, responding to an explosion in Beirut, Guterres expressed his support for all people in need in Lebanon, especially women and girls who are most vulnerable in times of crisis. On 22 September, he appealed for global solidarity to overcome COVID-19, and again called for a global ceasefire by the end of 2020. In September 2020, Guterres stated that he would continue with "a serious dialogue" with UN member states, for a comprehensive Reform of the UN Security Council.


title: António Guterres

text: On 6 October 2020, Guterres expressed deep concern over the escalation of hostilities in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately halt fighting and progress towards a peaceful resolution.


title: António Guterres

text: On 8 June 2021, the United Nations Security Council expressed support for his re-election as secretary-general. On 18 June 2021, Guterres was appointed for a second term by a voting season of the United Nations General Assembly.


title: António Guterres

text: In April 2022, Guterres went to Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine War. He was surprised to see that the Russian army shelled parts of Kyiv even when he was there. In response to evacuation efforts initiated by the UN on 30 April following Guterres's visit to Ukraine and Russia, dozens of civilians were photographed by Reuters as being allowed by Russian troops to be evacuated from their entrenched positions in the Azovstal iron works in Mariupol. Guterres stated that "instead of hitting the brakes on the decarbonization of the global economy, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal towards a renewable energy future."


title: António Guterres

text: In May 2022, Guterres went on a tour through West Africa. There, he met families who had been affected by the Islamist insurgency, and pushed for robust African peace initiatives and other counter-terrorism operations under the wing of the African Union.


title: António Guterres

text: On 22 July 2022, together with Turkey, the United Nations under the leadership of Guterres brokered a deal between Russia and Ukraine clearing the way for the export of grain from Ukrainian ports.


title: António Guterres

text: In 1972, Guterres married child psychiatrist Luísa Amélia Guimarães e Melo, with whom he had two children, Pedro Guimarães e Melo Guterres (born 1977) and Mariana Guimarães e Melo de Oliveira Guterres (born 1985). His wife died of cancer at the Royal Free Hospital in London in 1998 at the age of 51.


title: António Guterres

text: In 2001, Guterres married Catarina Marques de Almeida Vaz Pinto (born 1960), a former Portuguese state secretary for culture and culture secretary for the City Council of Lisbon.


title: Katrina Law

text: Katrina Law is an American actress. She is known for playing the roles of Mira on the Starz television series "" and "", Nyssa al Ghul on The CW television series "Arrow", Karen Beach on the Sony Crackle series "The Oath" and Quinn Liu on the CBS series "Hawaii Five-0".


title: Katrina Law

text: Law was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Deptford Township, New Jersey. Her mother is Taiwanese and her father is of German and Italian descent. As a teenager, she was crowned Miss New Jersey Teen USA. She graduated from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (now Stockton University) with a B.A. in Performing Arts (Theatre Performance) in 1999.


title: Katrina Law

text: Law worked alongside director Adrian Picardi with producers Eric Ro and Don Le, to create a low budget web series called "The Resistance". Picardi was the series' official creator and director. The show was later picked up by Starz which led to Law's casting in "" in 2009. In 2011, Law completed an action-oriented project called "3 Minutes" with director Ross Ching, producers Don Le and George Wang, starring Harry Shum, Jr., Stephen "tWitch" Boss (the runner up on season 4 of Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance"), and herself.


title: Katrina Law

text: From 2014 to 2020, she had a recurring role on The CW television series "Arrow" as Nyssa al Ghul, the daughter of the notorious leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's al Ghul.


title: Katrina Law

text: In 2019, Law was cast as co-lead in the CBS pilot "Alive", as medical examiner Elizabeth Lavenza, whose husband Mark Escher (Ryan Phillipe) is brought back to life by the mysterious Dr Frankenstein (Aaron Staton). Later that year she joined the cast of CBS's "Hawaii Five-0" for the series' tenth season. In March 2021, Law was cast in the eighteenth season of "NCIS" in the role of Jessica Knight. She appeared in the final two episodes of the season with the potential to become a series regular if the series is renewed for a nineteenth season; it was later confirmed that Law would become a series regular beginning with the nineteenth season. In January 2022, it was announced that Law's "NCIS" character would cross over to "" for an episode.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The Britons (*"Pritanī", ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were people of Celtic language and culture who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age and into the Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons (among others). They spoke the Common Brittonic language, the ancestor of the modern Brittonic languages.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The earliest written evidence for the Britons is from Greco-Roman writers and dates to the Iron Age. Celtic Britain was made up of many tribes and kingdoms, associated with various hillforts. The Britons followed an Ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids. Some of the southern tribes had strong links with mainland Europe, especially Gaul and Belgica, and minted their own coins. The Roman Empire conquered most of Britain in the 1st century, creating the province of Britannia. The Romans invaded northern Britain, but the Britons and Caledonians in the north remained unconquered and Hadrian's Wall became the edge of the empire. A Romano-British culture emerged, mainly in the southeast, and British Latin coexisted with Brittonic. It is unclear what relationship the Britons had to the Picts, who lived outside the empire in northern Britain, though most scholars now accept that the Pictish language was closely related to Common Brittonic.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Following the end of Roman rule in Britain during the 5th century, Anglo-Saxon settlement of eastern and southern Britain began. The culture and language of the Britons fragmented, and much of their territory gradually became Anglo-Saxon, while small parts of the northwest became Gaelic. The extent to which this cultural change was accompanied by wholesale population changes is still debated. During this time, Britons migrated to mainland Europe and established significant colonies in Brittany (now part of France), the Channel Islands, and Britonia (now part of Galicia, Spain). By the 11th century, Brittonic-speaking populations had split into distinct groups: the Welsh in Wales, the Cornish in Cornwall, the Bretons in Brittany, the Cumbrians of the "Hen Ogledd" ("Old North") in southern Scotland and northern England, and the remnants of the Pictish people in northern Scotland. Common Brittonic developed into the distinct Brittonic languages: Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish and Breton.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The earliest known reference to the inhabitants of Britain was by Pytheas, a Greek geographer who made a voyage of exploration around the British Isles between 330 and 320 BC. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them. Pytheas called the people of Britain the "Pretanoí" or "Bretanoí". Pliny's "Natural History" (77 AD) says the older name for the island was "Albion", and Avienius calls it "insula Albionum", "island of the Albions". The name could have reached Pytheas from the Gauls. The Latin name for the Britons was "Britanni".


title: Celtic Britons

text: The P-Celtic ethnonym has been reconstructed as *"Pritanī", from Common Celtic *"kʷritu", which became Old Irish "cruth" and Old Welsh "pryd". This likely means "people of the forms", and could be linked to the Latin name "Picti" (the Picts), which is usually explained as meaning "painted people". The Old Welsh name for the Picts was "Prydyn". Linguist Kim McCone suggests the name became restricted to inhabitants of the far north after "Cymry" displaced it as the name for the Welsh and Cumbrians. The Welsh "prydydd", "maker of forms", was also a term for the highest grade of bard.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The medieval Welsh form of Latin "Britanni" was "Brython" (singular and plural). "Brython" was introduced into English usage by John Rhys in 1884 as a term unambiguously referring to the P-Celtic speakers of Great Britain, to complement "Goidel"; hence the adjective "Brythonic" referring to the group of languages. "Brittonic languages" is a more recent coinage (first attested 1923 according to the "Oxford English Dictionary") intended to refer to the ancient Britons specifically.


title: Celtic Britons

text: In English, the terms "Briton" and "British" for many centuries originally denoted only the ancient Celtic Britons and their descendants, most particularly the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons, who were seen as heirs to the ancient British people.


title: Celtic Britons

text: From the early 16th century, and especially after the Acts of Union 1707, the terms "British" and "Briton" could be applied to all inhabitants of the Kingdom of Great Britain, including the English, Scottish and some Irish, or the subjects of the British Empire generally.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The Britons spoke an Insular Celtic language known as Common Brittonic. Brittonic was spoken throughout the island of Britain (in modern terms, England, Wales and Scotland), as well as offshore islands such as the Isle of Man, Isles of Scilly, Orkney, Hebrides, Isle of Wight and Shetland. According to early medieval historical tradition, such as "The Dream of Macsen Wledig", the post-Roman Celtic-speakers of Armorica were colonists from Britain, resulting in the Breton language, a language related to Welsh and identical to Cornish in the early period and still used today. Thus the area today is called Brittany (Br. "Breizh", Fr. "Bretagne", derived from "Britannia").


title: Celtic Britons

text: Common Brittonic developed from the Insular branch of the Proto-Celtic language that developed in the British Isles after arriving from the continent in the 7th century BC. The language eventually began to diverge; some linguists have grouped subsequent developments as Western and Southwestern Brittonic languages. Western Brittonic developed into Welsh in Wales and the Cumbric language in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain (modern northern England and southern Scotland), while the Southwestern dialect became Cornish in Cornwall and South West England and Breton in Armorica. Pictish is now generally accepted to descend from Common Brittonic, rather than being a separate Celtic language. Welsh and Breton survive today; Cumbric and Pictish became extinct in the 12th century. Cornish had become extinct by the 19th century but has been the subject of language revitalization since the 20th century.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Celtic Britain was made up of many territories controlled by Brittonic tribes. They are generally believed to have dwelt throughout the whole island of Great Britain, at least as far north as the Clyde–Forth isthmus. The territory north of this was largely inhabited by the Picts; little direct evidence has been left of the Pictish language, but place names and Pictish personal names recorded in the later Irish annals suggest it was indeed related to the Common Brittonic language. Their Goidelic (Gaelic) name, "Cruithne", is cognate with "Pritenī".


title: Celtic Britons

text: The following is a list of the major Brittonic tribes, in both the Latin and Brittonic languages, as well as their capitals during the Roman period.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The La Tène style, which covers British Celtic art, was late arriving in Britain, but after 300 BC the ancient British seem to have had generally similar cultural practices to the Celtic cultures nearest to them on the continent. There are significant differences in artistic styles, and the greatest period of what is known as the "Insular La Tène" style, surviving mostly in metalwork, was in the century or so before the Roman conquest, and perhaps the decades after it.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The carnyx, a trumpet with an animal-headed bell, was used by Celtic Britons during war and ceremony.


title: Celtic Britons

text: There are competing hypotheses for when Celtic peoples, and the Celtic languages, first arrived in Britain, none of which have gained consensus. The traditional view during most of the twentieth century was that Celtic culture grew out of the central European Hallstatt culture, from which the Celts and their languages reached Britain in the second half of the first millennium BC. More recently, John Koch and Barry Cunliffe have challenged that with their 'Celtic from the West' theory, which has the Celtic languages developing as a maritime trade language in the Atlantic Bronze Age cultural zone before it spread eastward. Alternatively, Patrick Sims-Williams criticises both of these hypotheses to propose 'Celtic from the Centre', which suggests Celtic originated in Gaul and spread during the first millennium BC, reaching Britain towards the end of this period.


title: Celtic Britons

text: In 2021, a major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain during the Bronze Age, over a 500 year period from 1,300 BC to 800 BC. The migrants were "genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France" and had higher levels of Early European Farmers ancestry. From 1000 to 875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, making up around half the ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in this area, but not in northern Britain. The "evidence suggests that, rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between mainland Britain and Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small scale movements of family groups". The authors describe this as a "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". There was much less migration into Britain during the subsequent Iron Age, so it is more likely that Celtic reached Britain before then. Barry Cunliffe suggests that a branch of Celtic was already being spoken in Britain, and that the Bronze Age migration introduced the Brittonic branch.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", which was originally compiled by the orders of King Alfred the Great in approximately 890, starts with this sentence: "The island Britain is 800 miles long, and 200 miles broad. And there are in the island five nations; English, Welsh (or British), Scottish, Pictish, and Latin. The first inhabitants were the Britons, who came from Armenia, and first peopled Britain southward" ("Armenia" is possibly a mistaken transcription of Armorica, an area in northwestern Gaul including modern Brittany).


title: Celtic Britons

text: In 43 AD, the Roman Empire invaded Britain. The British tribes opposed the Roman legions for many decades, but by 84 AD the Romans had decisively conquered southern Britain and had pushed into Brittonic areas of what would later become northern England and southern Scotland. During the same period Belgic tribes from the Gaelic-Germanic borderlands settled in southern Britain. Caesar asserts the Belgae had first crossed the channel as raiders, only later establishing themselves on the island. 122 AD, the Romans fortified the northern border with Hadrian's Wall, which spanned what is now Northern England. In 142 AD, Roman forces pushed north again and began construction of the Antonine Wall, which ran between the Forth–Clyde isthmus, but they retreated back to Hadrian's Wall after only twenty years. Although the native Britons south of Hadrian's Wall mostly kept their land, they were subject to the Roman governors, whilst the Brittonic-Pictish Britons north of the wall probably remained fully independent and unconquered. The Roman Empire retained control of "Britannia" until its departure about AD 410, although parts of Britain had already effectively shrugged off Roman rule decades earlier.


title: Celtic Britons

text: An undercurrent of British influence is found in artefacts from the Roman period, such as the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, and it appears that it was from this, passing to Ireland in the late Roman and post-Roman period, that the "Celtic" element in Early Medieval Insular art derived.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Thirty years or so after the time of the Roman departure, the Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons began a migration to the south-eastern coast of Britain, where they began to establish their own kingdoms, and the Gaelic-speaking Scots migrating from Dál nAraidi (modern Northern Ireland) did the same on the west coast of Scotland and the Isle of Man.


title: Celtic Britons

text: At the same time, Britons established themselves in what is now called Brittany and the Channel Islands. There they set up their own small kingdoms and the Breton language developed from Brittonic Insular Celtic rather than Gaulish or Frankish. A further Brittonic colony, Britonia, was also set up at this time in Gallaecia in northwestern Spain.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Many of the old Brittonic kingdoms began to disappear in the centuries after the Anglo-Saxon and Scottish Gaelic invasions; Parts of the regions of modern East Anglia, East Midlands, North East England, Argyll and South East England were the first to fall to the Germanic and Gaelic Scots invasions.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The kingdom of Ceint (modern Kent) fell in 456 AD. Linnuis (which stood astride modern Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire) was subsumed as early as 500 AD and became the English Kingdom of Lindsey.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Rhegin (essentially modern Sussex and eastern Hampshire) was likely fully conquered by 510 AD. Ynys Weith (Isle of Wight) fell in 530 AD, Caer Colun (essentially modern Essex) by 540 AD. The Gaels arrived on the northwest coast of Britain from Ireland, dispossessed the native Britons, and founded Dal Riata which encompassed modern Argyll, Skye and Iona between 500 and 560 AD. Deifr (Deira) which encompassed modern-day Teesside, Wearside, Tyneside, Humberside, Lindisfarne (Medcaut) and the Farne Islands fell to the Anglo-Saxons in 559 AD and Deira became an Anglo-Saxon kingdom after this point. Caer Went had officially disappeared by 575 AD becoming the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia. Gwent was only partly conquered; its capital Caer Gloui (Gloucester) was taken by the Anglo-Saxons in 577 AD, handing Gloucestershire and Wiltshire to the invaders, while the westernmost part remained in Brittonic hands, and continued to exist in modern Wales.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Caer Lundein, encompassing London, St. Albans and parts of the Home Counties, fell from Brittonic hands by 600 AD, and Bryneich, which existed in modern Northumbria and County Durham with its capital of Din Guardi (modern Bamburgh) and which included Ynys Metcaut (Lindisfarne), had fallen by 605 AD becoming Anglo-Saxon Bernicia. Caer Celemion (in modern Hampshire and Berkshire) had fallen by 610 AD. Elmet, a large kingdom that covered much of modern Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire and likely had its capital at modern Leeds, was conquered by the Anglo-Saxons in 627 AD. Pengwern, which covered Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, was largely destroyed in 656 AD, with only its westernmost parts in modern Wales remaining under the control of the Britons, and it is likely that Cynwidion, which had stretched from modern Bedfordshire to Northamptonshire, fell in the same general period as Pengwern, though a sub-kingdom of Calchwynedd may have clung on in the Chilterns for a time.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Novant, which occupied Galloway and Carrick, was soon subsumed by fellow Brittonic-Pictish polities by 700 AD. Aeron, which encompassed modern Ayrshire, was conquered by the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria by 700 AD.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Some Brittonic kingdoms were able to successfully resist these incursions: Rheged (encompassing much of modern Northumberland and County Durham and areas of southern Scotland and the Scottish Borders) survived well into the 8th century AD, before the eastern part peacefully joined with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia–Northumberland by 730 AD, and the west was taken over by the fellow Britons of Ystrad Clud. Similarly, the kingdom of Gododdin, which appears to have had its court at Din Eidyn (modern Edinburgh) and encompassed parts of modern Northumbria, County Durham, Lothian and Clackmannanshire, endured until approximately 775 AD before being divided by fellow Brittonic Picts, Gaelic Scots and Anglo-Saxons.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The Kingdom of Cait, covering modern Caithness, Sutherland, Orkney, and Shetland, was conquered by Gaelic Scots in 871 AD. Dumnonia (encompassing Cornwall, Devonshire and the Isles of Scilly) was partly conquered during the mid 9th century AD, with most of modern Devonshire being annexed by the Anglo-Saxons, but leaving Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly (Enesek Syllan), and for a time part of western Devonshire (including Dartmoor), still in the hands of the Britons, where they became the Brittonic state of Kernow. The Channel Islands (colonised by Britons in the 5th century) came under attack from Norse and Danish Viking attack in the early 9th century AD, and by the end of that century had been conquered by Viking invaders.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The Kingdom of Ce, which encompassed modern Marr, Banff, Buchan, Fife, and much of Aberdeenshire, disappeared soon after 900 AD. Fortriu, the largest Brittonic-Pictish kingdom which covered Strathearn, Morayshire and Easter Ross, had fallen by approximately 950 AD to the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba (Scotland). Other Pictish kingdoms such as Circinn (in modern Angus and The Mearns), Fib (modern Fife), Fidach (Inverness and Perthshire), and Ath-Fotla (Atholl), had also all fallen by the beginning of the 11th century AD or shortly after.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The Brythonic languages in these areas were eventually replaced by the Old English of the Anglo-Saxons, and Scottish Gaelic, although this was likely a gradual process in many areas.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Similarly, the Brittonic colony of Britonia in northwestern Spain appears to have disappeared soon after 900 AD.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The kingdom of Ystrad Clud (Strathclyde) was a large and powerful Brittonic kingdom of the Hen Ogledd (the 'Old North') which endured until the end of the 11th century, successfully resisting Anglo-Saxon, Gaelic Scots and later also Viking attacks. At its peak it encompassed modern Strathclyde, Dumbartonshire, Cumbria, Stirlingshire, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Argyll and Bute, and parts of North Yorkshire, the western Pennines, and as far as modern Leeds in West Yorkshire. Thus the Kingdom of Strathclyde became the last of the Brittonic kingdoms of the 'old north' to fall in the 1090s when it was effectively divided between England and Scotland.


title: Celtic Britons

text: The Britons also retained control of Wales and Kernow (encompassing Cornwall, parts of Devon including Dartmoor, and the Isles of Scilly) until the mid 11th century AD when Cornwall was effectively annexed by the English, with the Isles of Scilly following a few years later, although at times Cornish lords appear to have retained sporadic control into the early part of the 12th century AD.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Wales remained free from Anglo-Saxon, Gaelic Scots and Viking control, and was divided among varying Brittonic kingdoms, the foremost being Gwynedd (including Clwyd and Anglesey), Powys, Deheubarth (originally Ceredigion, Seisyllwg and Dyfed), Gwent, and Morgannwg (Glamorgan). These Brittonic-Welsh kingdoms initially included territories further east than the modern borders of Wales; for example, Powys included parts of modern Merseyside, Cheshire and the Wirral and Gwent held parts of modern Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Somerset and Gloucestershire, but had largely been confined to the borders of modern Wales by the beginning of the 12th century.


title: Celtic Britons

text: However, by the early 1100s, the Anglo-Saxons and Gaels had become the dominant cultural force in most of the formerly Brittonic ruled territory in Britain, and the language and culture of the native Britons was thereafter gradually replaced in those regions, remaining only in Wales, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Brittany, and for a time in parts of Cumbria, Strathclyde, and eastern Galloway.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Cornwall (Kernow, Dumnonia) had certainly been largely absorbed by England by the 1050s to early 1100s, although it retained a distinct Brittonic culture and language. Britonia in Spanish Galicia seems to have disappeared by 900 AD.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Wales and Brittany remained independent for a considerable time, however, with Brittany united with France in 1532, and Wales united with England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 in the mid 16th century during the rule of the Tudors (Y Tuduriaid), who were themselves of Welsh heritage on the male side.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isles of Scilly continued to retain a distinct Brittonic culture, identity and language, which they have maintained to the present day. The Welsh and Breton languages remain widely spoken, and the Cornish language, once close to extinction, has experienced a revival since the 20th century. The vast majority of place names and names of geographical features in Wales, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Brittany are Brittonic, and Brittonic family and personal names remain common.


title: Celtic Britons

text: During the 19th century, many Welsh farmers migrated to Patagonia in Argentina, forming a community called Y Wladfa, which today consists of over 1,500 Welsh speakers.


title: Celtic Britons

text: In addition, a Brittonic legacy remains in England, Scotland and Galicia in Spain, in the form of often large numbers of Brittonic place and geographical names. Examples of geographical Brittonic names survive in the names of rivers, such as the Thames, Clyde, Severn, Tyne, Wye, Exe, Dee, Tamar, Tweed, Avon, Trent, Tambre, Navia, and Forth. Many place names in England and Scotland are of Brittonic rather than Anglo-Saxon or Gaelic origin, such as London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Carlisle, Caithness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Barrow, Exeter, Lincoln, Dumbarton, Brent, Penge, Colchester, Gloucester, Durham, Dover, Kent, Leatherhead, and York.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Schiffels et al. (2016) examined the remains of three Iron Age Britons buried ca. 100 BC. A female buried in Linton, Cambridgeshire carried the maternal haplogroup H1e, while two males buried in Hinxton both carried the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a2, and the maternal haplogroups K1a1b1b and H1ag1. Their genetic profile was considered typical for Northwest European populations. Though sharing a common Northwestern European origin, the Iron Age individuals were markedly different from later Anglo-Saxon samples, who were closely related to Danes and Dutch people.


title: Celtic Britons

text: Martiano et al. (2016) examined the remains of a female Iron Age Briton buried at Melton between 210 BC and 40 AD. She was found to be carrying the maternal haplogroup U2e1e. The study also examined seven males buried in Driffield Terrace near York between the 2nd century AD and the 4th century AD during the period of Roman Britain. Six of these individuals were identified as native Britons. The six examined native Britons all carried types of the paternal R1b1a2a1a, and carried the maternal haplogroups H6a1a, H1bs, J1c3e2, H2, H6a1b2 and J1b1a1. The indigenous Britons of Roman Britain were genetically closely related to the earlier Iron Age female Briton, and displayed close genetic links to modern Celts of the British Isles, particularly Welsh people, suggesting genetic continuity between Iron Age Britain and Roman Britain, and partial genetic continuity between Roman Britain and modern Britain. On the other hand, they were genetically substantially different from the examined Anglo-Saxon individual and modern English populations of the area, suggesting that the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain left a profound genetic impact.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (5 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and a national nature reserve by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland in 1987. In a 2005 poll of "Radio Times" readers, the Giant's Causeway was named the fourth-greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are


title: Giant's Causeway

text: hexagonal, although some have four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: Much of the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is owned and managed by the National Trust. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland, receiving over 998,000 visitors in 2019. Access to the Giant's Causeway is free of charge: it is not necessary to go via the visitor centre, which charges a fee. The remainder of the site is owned by the Crown Estate and several private landowners.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: Around 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleocene Epoch, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive volcanic plateau. As the lava cooled, contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillarlike structures, which also fractured horizontally into "biscuits". In many cases, the horizontal fracture resulted in a bottom face that is convex, while the upper face of the lower segment is concave, producing what are called "ball and socket" joints. The size of the columns was primarily determined by the speed at which lava cooled. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today. The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau, which formed during the Paleocene.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: In respect of its key role in the development of volcanology as a geoscience discipline, and notably the origin of basalt, the Palaeocene rocks of the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast were included by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in its assemblage of 100 "geological heritage sites" around the world in a listing published in October 2022.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he is. Fionn's wife, Sadhbh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the "baby", he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn would be unable to chase him down. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: Overall in Irish mythology, Fionn mac Cumhaill is not a giant but a hero with supernatural abilities, contrary to what this particular legend may suggest. In "Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry" (1888), it is noted that, over time, "the pagan gods of Ireland [...] grew smaller and smaller in the popular imagination until they turned into the fairies; the pagan heroes grew bigger and bigger until they turned into the giants". There are no surviving pre-Christian stories about the Giant's Causeway, but it may have originally been associated with the Fomorians ("Fomhóraigh"); the Irish name "Clochán na bhFomhóraigh" or "Clochán na bhFomhórach" means "stepping stones of the "Fomhóraigh"". The "Fomhóraigh" are a race of mythological beings in Irish mythology who were sometimes described as giants and who may have originally been part of a pre-Christian pantheon.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: The Bishop of Derry visited the site in 1692. The existence of the causeway was announced to the wider world the following year by the presentation of a paper to the Royal Society from Sir Richard Bulkeley, a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. The Giant's Causeway received international attention when Dublin artist Susanna Drury made watercolour paintings of it in 1739; they won Drury the first award presented by the Royal Dublin Society in 1740 and were engraved in 1743. In 1765, an entry on the causeway appeared in volume 12 of the French "Encyclopédie", which was informed by the engravings of Drury's work; the engraving of the "East Prospect" appeared in a 1768 volume of plates published for the "Encyclopédie". In the caption to the plates, French geologist Nicolas Desmarest suggested, for the first time in print, that such structures were volcanic in origin.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: The site first became popular with tourists during the 19th century, particularly after the opening of the Giant's Causeway Tramway, and only after the National Trust took over its care in the 1960s were some of the vestiges of commercialism removed. Visitors can walk over the basalt columns that are at the edge of the sea, a half-mile walk from the entrance of the site.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: The causeway was without a permanent visitor centre between 2000 and 2012, as the previous building, built in 1986, burned down in 2000. While preliminary approval was given for a publicly funded (but privately managed) development by then Environment Minister and DUP member Arlene Foster in 2007, the public funding was frozen due to a perceived conflict-of-interest between the proposed private developer and the DUP. Ultimately, the private developer dropped a legal challenge to the publicly funded plan, and the new visitor centre was officially opened by 2012. Its construction was funded by the National Trust, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, the Heritage Lottery Fund and public donations. Since opening, the new visitor centre has garnered mixed reviews from those visiting the causeway, for its pricing, design, contents and placement across the causeway walk descent. In 2018, the visitor centre was visited by 1,011,473 people.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: There was some controversy regarding the content of some exhibits in the visitor centre, which refer to the Young Earth Creationist view of the age of the Earth. While these inclusions were welcomed by the chairman of the Northern Irish evangelical group, the Caleb Foundation, the National Trust stated that the inclusions formed only a small part of the exhibition and that the Trust "fully supports the scientific explanation for the creation of the stones 60 million years ago." An online campaign to remove creationist material was launched in 2012, and following this, the Trust carried out a review and concluded that they should be amended to have the scientific explanation on the causeway's origin as their primary emphasis. Creationist explanations are still mentioned but presented as a traditional belief of some religious communities rather than a competing explanation for the causeway's origins.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: Some of the structures in the area, having been subject to several million years of weathering, resemble objects, such as the "Organ" and "Giant's Boot" structures. Other features include many reddish, weathered low columns known as "Giant's Eyes", created by the displacement of basalt boulders; the "Shepherd's Steps"; the "Honeycomb"; the "Giant's Harp"; the "Chimney Stacks"; the "Giant's Gate" and the "Camel's Hump".


title: Giant's Causeway

text: The area is a haven for seabirds, such as fulmar, petrel, cormorant, shag, redshank, guillemot and razorbill, while the weathered rock formations host numerous plant types, including sea spleenwort, hare's-foot trefoil, vernal squill, sea fescue and frog orchid. A stromatolite colony was reportedly found at the Giant's Causeway in October 2011 – an unusual find, as stromatolites are more commonly found in warmer waters with higher saline content than that found at the causeway.


title: Giant's Causeway

text: Basalt columns are a common volcanic feature, and they occur on many scales, with faster cooling producing smaller columns.