title: The Waterboy

text: Despite taking place in Louisiana, "The Waterboy" was mostly filmed in Central Florida and the Orlando area, as well as Daytona Beach, DeLand, and Lakeland.


title: The Waterboy

text: The Mud Dogs home games were filmed at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand, home of the local high school’s football team. The classrooms and gym where Bobby takes the GED are part of Stetson University, also located in DeLand. Stetson's Carlton Student Union building is featured in the scene where Bobby is told his mother has been hospitalized.


title: The Waterboy

text: Coach Klein's office was a stage built inside of the Florida Army National Guard Armory in DeLand. It is home of Btry B 1st Bn 265th ADA. In the background of the practice field scenes, the Armory and some military vehicles can be seen.


title: The Waterboy

text: The initial exterior shot of the University of Louisiana stadium was TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville; the interior of the stadium is actually the Camping World Stadium in Orlando. The Camping World Stadium was also the filming location for the climactic Bourbon Bowl game, while the flyover shot at the beginning of the game is of Williams-Brice Stadium at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina.


title: The Waterboy

text: The "medulla oblongata" lecture scene was filmed at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. The extras in the scene were students at the college, and the scene was shot on campus in Edge Hall.


title: The Waterboy

text: As of July 2022, review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported the film had an approval rating of 33% based on 75 reviews with an average rating of 4.50/10. The site's critical consensus read: ""The Waterboy" is an insult to its genre with low humor and cheap gags." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 41% based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F.


title: The Waterboy

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film a negative review, saying "Sandler is making a tactical error when he creates a character whose manner and voice has the effect of fingernails on a blackboard, and then expects us to hang in there for a whole movie." He also included the film on his most hated list. Lisa Alspector of the "Chicago Reader" also gave the film a negative review, writing "Geek triumphs after all comedies can be charming, but in this one the triumphing begins so early it's hard to feel for the geek."


title: The Waterboy

text: Michael O'Sullivan of "The Washington Post" described the movie as "[a]nother film about . . . a cretinous, grating loser." Manohla Dargis of "LA Weekly" gave the film a mixed review, writing: "Of course it's dumb, but every 10 minutes or so, it's also pretty funny." Glen Lovell of "Variety" wrote of the film, "This yahoos on the bayou farce is neither inventive nor outrageous enough." David Nusair of "Reel Film Reviews" also gave the film a mixed review, calling it "an agreeable yet forgettable comedy."


title: The Waterboy

text: Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote the film was "so cheerfully outlandish that it's hard to resist, and so good hearted that it's genuinely endearing." Mark Savlov of "The Austin Chronicle" also gave the film a positive review, writing that it was "A mildly amusing bayou farce with plenty of 'foosball' action to liven the sometimes plodding proceedings."


title: The Waterboy

text: The film grossed $161,491,646 in the United States, and a further $28,700,000 internationally, for a worldwide total of $190,191,646 worldwide, against an estimated production budget of $20 million. The film opened at number 1 at the US box office, earning $39,414,071 in its opening weekend, a record opening for November. The trailer for "" was released alongside the film, in its second week.


title: The Waterboy

text: The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 30, 1999, and topped the country's box office that weekend. As of 2020, "The Waterboy" is the highest-grossing film in the sports comedy genre.


title: The Waterboy

text: For his role Sandler was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards awarded him Most Annoying Fake Accent in 1998. He also won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award and a MTV Movie Award for his performance. In 2000, the American Film Institute, nominated the film for AFI's 100 Years of Laughs.


title: The Waterboy

text: In September 2022, Sandler stated that he was open to making a sequel. While the actor stated that he has not figured out the story yet, he was looking forward to returning in the titular role at some point.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a "mass spectrum", a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used in many different fields and is applied to pure samples as well as complex mixtures.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A mass spectrum is a type of plot of the ion signal as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. These spectra are used to determine the elemental or isotopic signature of a sample, the masses of particles and of molecules, and to elucidate the chemical identity or structure of molecules and other chemical compounds.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: In a typical MS procedure, a sample, which may be solid, liquid, or gaseous, is ionized, for example by bombarding it with a beam of electrons. This may cause some of the sample's molecules to break up into positively charged fragments or simply become positively charged without fragmenting. These ions (fragments) are then separated according to their mass-to-charge ratio, for example by accelerating them and subjecting them to an electric or magnetic field: ions of the same mass-to-charge ratio will undergo the same amount of deflection. The ions are detected by a mechanism capable of detecting charged particles, such as an electron multiplier. Results are displayed as spectra of the signal intensity of detected ions as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. The atoms or molecules in the sample can be identified by correlating known masses (e.g. an entire molecule) to the identified masses or through a characteristic fragmentation pattern.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: In 1886, Eugen Goldstein observed rays in gas discharges under low pressure that traveled away from the anode and through channels in a perforated cathode, opposite to the direction of negatively charged cathode rays (which travel from cathode to anode). Goldstein called these positively charged anode rays "Kanalstrahlen"; the standard translation of this term into English is "canal rays". Wilhelm Wien found that strong electric or magnetic fields deflected the canal rays and, in 1899, constructed a device with perpendicular electric and magnetic fields that separated the positive rays according to their charge-to-mass ratio ("Q/m"). Wien found that the charge-to-mass ratio depended on the nature of the gas in the discharge tube. English scientist J. J. Thomson later improved on the work of Wien by reducing the pressure to create the mass spectrograph.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The word "spectrograph" had become part of the international scientific vocabulary by 1884. Early "spectrometry" devices that measured the mass-to-charge ratio of ions were called "mass spectrographs" which consisted of instruments that recorded a spectrum of mass values on a photographic plate. A "mass spectroscope" is similar to a "mass spectrograph" except that the beam of ions is directed onto a phosphor screen. A mass spectroscope configuration was used in early instruments when it was desired that the effects of adjustments be quickly observed. Once the instrument was properly adjusted, a photographic plate was inserted and exposed. The term mass spectroscope continued to be used even though the direct illumination of a phosphor screen was replaced by indirect measurements with an oscilloscope. The use of the term "mass spectroscopy" is now discouraged due to the possibility of confusion with light spectroscopy. Mass spectrometry is often abbreviated as "mass-spec" or simply as "MS".


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Modern techniques of mass spectrometry were devised by Arthur Jeffrey Dempster and F.W. Aston in 1918 and 1919 respectively.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Sector mass spectrometers known as calutrons were developed by Ernest O. Lawrence and used for separating the isotopes of uranium during the Manhattan Project. Calutron mass spectrometers were used for uranium enrichment at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee Y-12 plant established during World War II.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: In 1989, half of the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Hans Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul for the development of the ion trap technique in the 1950s and 1960s.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: In 2002, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to John Bennett Fenn for the development of electrospray ionization (ESI) and Koichi Tanaka for the development of soft laser desorption (SLD) and their application to the ionization of biological macromolecules, especially proteins.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A mass spectrometer consists of three components: an ion source, a mass analyzer, and a detector. The "ionizer" converts a portion of the sample into ions. There is a wide variety of ionization techniques, depending on the phase (solid, liquid, gas) of the sample and the efficiency of various ionization mechanisms for the unknown species. An extraction system removes ions from the sample, which are then targeted through the mass analyzer and into the "detector". The differences in masses of the fragments allows the mass analyzer to sort the ions by their mass-to-charge ratio. The detector measures the value of an indicator quantity and thus provides data for calculating the abundances of each ion present. Some detectors also give spatial information, e.g., a multichannel plate.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The following describes the operation of a spectrometer mass analyzer, which is of the sector type. (Other analyzer types are treated below.) Consider a sample of sodium chloride (table salt). In the ion source, the sample is vaporized (turned into gas) and ionized (transformed into electrically charged particles) into sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl) ions. Sodium atoms and ions are monoisotopic, with a mass of about 23 u. Chloride atoms and ions come in two stable isotopes with masses of approximately 35 u (at a natural abundance of about 75 percent) and approximately 37 u (at a natural abundance of about 25 percent). The analyzer part of the spectrometer contains electric and magnetic fields, which exert forces on ions traveling through these fields. The speed of a charged particle may be increased or decreased while passing through the electric field, and its direction may be altered by the magnetic field. The magnitude of the deflection of the moving ion's trajectory depends on its mass-to-charge ratio. Lighter ions get deflected by the magnetic force more than heavier ions (based on Newton's second law of motion, "F" = "ma"). The streams of sorted ions pass from the analyzer to the detector, which records the relative abundance of each ion type. This information is used to determine the chemical element composition of the original sample (i.e. that both sodium and chlorine are present in the sample) and the isotopic composition of its constituents (the ratio of Cl to Cl).


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The ion source is the part of the mass spectrometer that ionizes the material under analysis (the analyte). The ions are then transported by magnetic or electric fields to the mass analyzer.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Techniques for ionization have been key to determining what types of samples can be analyzed by mass spectrometry.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Electron ionization and chemical ionization are used for gases and vapors. In chemical ionization sources, the analyte is ionized by chemical ion-molecule reactions during collisions in the source. Two techniques often used with liquid and solid biological samples include electrospray ionization (invented by John Fenn) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI, initially developed as a similar technique "Soft Laser Desorption (SLD)" by K. Tanaka for which a Nobel Prize was awarded and as MALDI by M. Karas and F. Hillenkamp).


title: Mass spectrometry

text: In mass spectrometry, ionization refers to the production of gas phase ions suitable for resolution in the mass analyser or mass filter. Ionization occurs in the ion source. There are several ion sources available; each has advantages and disadvantages for particular applications. For example, electron ionization (EI) gives a high degree of fragmentation, yielding highly detailed mass spectra which when skilfully analysed can provide important information for structural elucidation/characterisation and facilitate identification of unknown compounds by comparison to mass spectral libraries obtained under identical operating conditions. However, EI is not suitable for coupling to HPLC, i.e. LC-MS, since at atmospheric pressure, the filaments used to generate electrons burn out rapidly. Thus EI is coupled predominantly with GC, i.e. GC-MS, where the entire system is under high vacuum.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Hard ionization techniques are processes which impart high quantities of residual energy in the subject molecule invoking large degrees of fragmentation (i.e. the systematic rupturing of bonds acts to remove the excess energy, restoring stability to the resulting ion). Resultant ions tend to have "m/z" lower than the molecular ion (other than in the case of proton transfer and not including isotope peaks). The most common example of hard ionization is electron ionization (EI).


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Soft ionization refers to the processes which impart little residual energy onto the subject molecule and as such result in little fragmentation. Examples include fast atom bombardment (FAB), chemical ionization (CI), atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization (APCI), atmospheric-pressure photoionization (APPI), electrospray ionization (ESI), desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI).


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) sources are used primarily for cation analysis of a wide array of sample types. In this source, a plasma that is electrically neutral overall, but that has had a substantial fraction of its atoms ionized by high temperature, is used to atomize introduced sample molecules and to further strip the outer electrons from those atoms. The plasma is usually generated from argon gas, since the first ionization energy of argon atoms is higher than the first of any other elements except He, F and Ne, but lower than the second ionization energy of all except the most electropositive metals. The heating is achieved by a radio-frequency current passed through a coil surrounding the plasma.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Photoionization can be used in experiments which seek to use mass spectrometry as a means of resolving chemical kinetics mechanisms and isomeric product branching. In such instances a high energy photon, either X-ray or uv, is used to dissociate stable gaseous molecules in a carrier gas of He or Ar. In instances where a synchrotron light source is utilized, a tuneable photon energy can be utilized to acquire a photoionization efficiency curve which can be used in conjunction with the charge ratio m/z to fingerprint molecular and ionic species. More recently atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) has been developed to ionize molecules mostly as effluents of LC-MS systems.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Some applications for ambient ionization include environmental applications as well as clinical applications. In these techniques, ions form in an ion source outside the mass spectrometer. Sampling becomes easy as the samples don't need previous separation nor preparation. Some examples of ambient ionization techniques are DESI, SESI, LAESI, desorption atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization (DAPCI), and desorption atmospheric pressure photoionization DAPPI among others.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Others include glow discharge, field desorption (FD), fast atom bombardment (FAB), thermospray, desorption/ionization on silicon (DIOS), Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), spark ionization and thermal ionization (TIMS).


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass analyzers separate the ions according to their mass-to-charge ratio. The following two laws govern the dynamics of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields in vacuum:


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Here F is the force applied to the ion, "m" is the mass of the ion, a is the acceleration, "Q" is the ion charge, E is the electric field, and v × B is the vector cross product of the ion velocity and the magnetic field


title: Mass spectrometry

text: This differential equation is the classic equation of motion for charged particles. Together with the particle's initial conditions, it completely determines the particle's motion in space and time in terms of "m/Q". Thus mass spectrometers could be thought of as "mass-to-charge spectrometers". When presenting data, it is common to use the (officially) dimensionless "m/z", where z is the number of elementary charges ("e") on the ion (z=Q/e). This quantity, although it is informally called the mass-to-charge ratio, more accurately speaking represents the ratio of the mass number and the charge number, "z".


title: Mass spectrometry

text: There are many types of mass analyzers, using either static or dynamic fields, and magnetic or electric fields, but all operate according to the above differential equation. Each analyzer type has its strengths and weaknesses. Many mass spectrometers use two or more mass analyzers for tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). In addition to the more common mass analyzers listed below, there are others designed for special situations.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: There are several important analyzer characteristics. The mass resolving power is the measure of the ability to distinguish two peaks of slightly different "m/z". The mass accuracy is the ratio of the "m/z" measurement error to the true m/z. Mass accuracy is usually measured in ppm or milli mass units. The mass range is the range of "m/z" amenable to analysis by a given analyzer. The linear dynamic range is the range over which ion signal is linear with analyte concentration. Speed refers to the time frame of the experiment and ultimately is used to determine the number of spectra per unit time that can be generated.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A sector field mass analyzer uses a static electric and/or magnetic field to affect the path and/or velocity of the charged particles in some way.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: As shown above, sector instruments bend the trajectories of the ions as they pass through the mass analyzer, according to their mass-to-charge ratios, deflecting the more charged and faster-moving, lighter ions more. The analyzer can be used to select a narrow range of "m/z" or to scan through a range of "m/z" to catalog the ions present.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The time-of-flight (TOF) analyzer uses an electric field to accelerate the ions through the same potential, and then measures the time they take to reach the detector. If the particles all have the same charge, their kinetic energies will be identical, and their velocities will depend only on their masses. Ions with a lower mass will reach the detector first. However, in reality, even particles with the same m/z can arrive at different times at the detector, because they have different initial velocities. The initial velocity is often not dependent on the mass of the ion, and will turn into a difference in the final velocity. Because of this, ions with the same m/z ratio will reach the detector at a variety of times, which broadens the peaks shown on the count vs m/z plot, but will generally not change the central location of the peaks, since the starting velocity of ions is generally centered at zero. To fix this problem, time-lag focusing/delayed extraction has been coupled with TOF-MS.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Quadrupole mass analyzers use oscillating electrical fields to selectively stabilize or destabilize the paths of ions passing through a radio frequency (RF) quadrupole field created between four parallel rods. Only the ions in a certain range of mass/charge ratio are passed through the system at any time, but changes to the potentials on the rods allow a wide range of m/z values to be swept rapidly, either continuously or in a succession of discrete hops. A quadrupole mass analyzer acts as a mass-selective filter and is closely related to the quadrupole ion trap, particularly the linear quadrupole ion trap except that it is designed to pass the untrapped ions rather than collect the trapped ones, and is for that reason referred to as a transmission quadrupole.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A magnetically enhanced quadrupole mass analyzer includes the addition of a magnetic field, either applied axially or transversely. This novel type of instrument leads to an additional performance enhancement in terms of resolution and/or sensitivity depending upon the magnitude and orientation of the applied magnetic field.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A common variation of the transmission quadrupole is the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The “triple quad” has three consecutive quadrupole stages, the first acting as a mass filter to transmit a particular incoming ion to the second quadrupole, a collision chamber, wherein that ion can be broken into fragments. The third quadrupole also acts as a mass filter, to transmit a particular fragment ion to the detector. If a quadrupole is made to rapidly and repetitively cycle through a range of mass filter settings, full spectra can be reported. Likewise, a triple quad can be made to perform various scan types characteristic of tandem mass spectrometry.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The quadrupole ion trap works on the same physical principles as the quadrupole mass analyzer, but the ions are trapped and sequentially ejected. Ions are trapped in a mainly quadrupole RF field, in a space defined by a ring electrode (usually connected to the main RF potential) between two endcap electrodes (typically connected to DC or auxiliary AC potentials). The sample is ionized either internally (e.g. with an electron or laser beam), or externally, in which case the ions are often introduced through an aperture in an endcap electrode.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: There are many mass/charge separation and isolation methods but the most commonly used is the mass instability mode in which the RF potential is ramped so that the orbit of ions with a mass are stable while ions with mass "b" become unstable and are ejected on the "z"-axis onto a detector. There are also non-destructive analysis methods.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Ions may also be ejected by the resonance excitation method, whereby a supplemental oscillatory excitation voltage is applied to the endcap electrodes, and the trapping voltage amplitude and/or excitation voltage frequency is varied to bring ions into a resonance condition in order of their mass/charge ratio.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The cylindrical ion trap mass spectrometer (CIT) is a derivative of the quadrupole ion trap where the electrodes are formed from flat rings rather than hyperbolic shaped electrodes. The architecture lends itself well to miniaturization because as the size of a trap is reduced, the shape of the electric field near the center of the trap, the region where the ions are trapped, forms a shape similar to that of a hyperbolic trap.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A linear quadrupole ion trap is similar to a quadrupole ion trap, but it traps ions in a two dimensional quadrupole field, instead of a three-dimensional quadrupole field as in a 3D quadrupole ion trap. Thermo Fisher's LTQ ("linear trap quadrupole") is an example of the linear ion trap.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A toroidal ion trap can be visualized as a linear quadrupole curved around and connected at the ends or as a cross-section of a 3D ion trap rotated on edge to form the toroid, donut-shaped trap. The trap can store large volumes of ions by distributing them throughout the ring-like trap structure. This toroidal shaped trap is a configuration that allows the increased miniaturization of an ion trap mass analyzer. Additionally, all ions are stored in the same trapping field and ejected together simplifying detection that can be complicated with array configurations due to variations in detector alignment and machining of the arrays.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: As with the toroidal trap, linear traps and 3D quadrupole ion traps are the most commonly miniaturized mass analyzers due to their high sensitivity, tolerance for mTorr pressure, and capabilities for single analyzer tandem mass spectrometry (e.g. product ion scans).


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Orbitrap instruments are similar to Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometers (see text below). Ions are electrostatically trapped in an orbit around a central, spindle shaped electrode. The electrode confines the ions so that they both orbit around the central electrode and oscillate back and forth along the central electrode's long axis. This oscillation generates an image current in the detector plates which is recorded by the instrument. The frequencies of these image currents depend on the mass-to-charge ratios of the ions. Mass spectra are obtained by Fourier transformation of the recorded image currents.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Fourier-transform mass spectrometry (FTMS), or more precisely Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance MS, measures mass by detecting the image current produced by ions cyclotroning in the presence of a magnetic field. Instead of measuring the deflection of ions with a detector such as an electron multiplier, the ions are injected into a Penning trap (a static electric/magnetic ion trap) where they effectively form part of a circuit. Detectors at fixed positions in space measure the electrical signal of ions which pass near them over time, producing a periodic signal. Since the frequency of an ion's cycling is determined by its mass-to-charge ratio, this can be deconvoluted by performing a Fourier transform on the signal. FTMS has the advantage of high sensitivity (since each ion is "counted" more than once) and much higher resolution and thus precision.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) is an older mass analysis technique similar to FTMS except that ions are detected with a traditional detector. Ions trapped in a Penning trap are excited by an RF electric field until they impact the wall of the trap, where the detector is located. Ions of different mass are resolved according to impact time.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The final element of the mass spectrometer is the detector. The detector records either the charge induced or the current produced when an ion passes by or hits a surface. In a scanning instrument, the signal produced in the detector during the course of the scan versus where the instrument is in the scan (at what "m/Q") will produce a mass spectrum, a record of ions as a function of "m/Q".


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Typically, some type of electron multiplier is used, though other detectors including Faraday cups and ion-to-photon detectors are also used. Because the number of ions leaving the mass analyzer at a particular instant is typically quite small, considerable amplification is often necessary to get a signal. Microchannel plate detectors are commonly used in modern commercial instruments. In FTMS and Orbitraps, the detector consists of a pair of metal surfaces within the mass analyzer/ion trap region which the ions only pass near as they oscillate. No direct current is produced, only a weak AC image current is produced in a circuit between the electrodes. Other inductive detectors have also been used.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A tandem mass spectrometer is one capable of multiple rounds of mass spectrometry, usually separated by some form of molecule fragmentation. For example, one mass analyzer can isolate one peptide from many entering a mass spectrometer. A second mass analyzer then stabilizes the peptide ions while they collide with a gas, causing them to fragment by collision-induced dissociation (CID). A third mass analyzer then sorts the fragments produced from the peptides. Tandem MS can also be done in a single mass analyzer over time, as in a quadrupole ion trap. There are various methods for fragmenting molecules for tandem MS, including collision-induced dissociation (CID), electron capture dissociation (ECD), electron transfer dissociation (ETD), infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD), blackbody infrared radiative dissociation (BIRD), electron-detachment dissociation (EDD) and surface-induced dissociation (SID). An important application using tandem mass spectrometry is in protein identification.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Tandem mass spectrometry enables a variety of experimental sequences. Many commercial mass spectrometers are designed to expedite the execution of such routine sequences as selected reaction monitoring (SRM) and precursor ion scanning. In SRM, the first analyzer allows only a single mass through and the second analyzer monitors for multiple user-defined fragment ions. SRM is most often used with scanning instruments where the second mass analysis event is duty cycle limited. These experiments are used to increase specificity of detection of known molecules, notably in pharmacokinetic studies. Precursor ion scanning refers to monitoring for a specific loss from the precursor ion. The first and second mass analyzers scan across the spectrum as partitioned by a user-defined "m/z" value. This experiment is used to detect specific motifs within unknown molecules.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Another type of tandem mass spectrometry used for radiocarbon dating is accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), which uses very high voltages, usually in the mega-volt range, to accelerate negative ions into a type of tandem mass spectrometer.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The METLIN Metabolite and Chemical Entity Database is the largest repository of experimental tandem mass spectrometry data acquired from standards. The tandem mass spectrometry data on over 850,000 molecular standards (as of 24 August 2020) is provided to facilitate the identification of chemical entities from tandem mass spectrometry experiments. In addition to the identification of known molecules it is also useful for identifying unknowns using its similarity searching/analysis. All tandem mass spectrometry data comes from the experimental analysis of standards at multiple collision energies and in both positive and negative ionization modes.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: When a specific combination of source, analyzer, and detector becomes conventional in practice, a compound acronym may arise to designate it succinctly. One example is MALDI-TOF, which refers to a combination of a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization source with a time-of-flight mass analyzer. Other examples include inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), thermal ionization-mass spectrometry (TIMS) and spark source mass spectrometry (SSMS).


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Certain applications of mass spectrometry have developed monikers that although strictly speaking would seem to refer to a broad application, in practice have come instead to connote a specific or a limited number of instrument configurations. An example of this is isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS), which refers in practice to the use of a limited number of sector based mass analyzers; this name is used to refer to both the application and the instrument used for the application.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: An important enhancement to the mass resolving and mass determining capabilities of mass spectrometry is using it in tandem with chromatographic and other separation techniques.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A common combination is gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS or GC-MS). In this technique, a gas chromatograph is used to separate different compounds. This stream of separated compounds is fed online into the ion source, a metallic filament to which voltage is applied. This filament emits electrons which ionize the compounds. The ions can then further fragment, yielding predictable patterns. Intact ions and fragments pass into the mass spectrometer's analyzer and are eventually detected. However, the high temperatures (300°C) used in the GC-MS injection port (and oven) can result in thermal degradation of injected molecules, thus resulting in the measurement of degradation products instead of the actual molecule(s) of interest.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Similarly to gas chromatography MS (GC-MS), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS or LC-MS) separates compounds chromatographically before they are introduced to the ion source and mass spectrometer. It differs from GC-MS in that the mobile phase is liquid, usually a mixture of water and organic solvents, instead of gas. Most commonly, an electrospray ionization source is used in LC-MS. Other popular and commercially available LC-MS ion sources are atmospheric pressure chemical ionization and atmospheric pressure photoionization. There are also some newly developed ionization techniques like laser spray.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry (CE-MS) is a technique that combines the liquid separation process of capillary electrophoresis with mass spectrometry. CE-MS is typically coupled to electrospray ionization.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (IMS/MS or IMMS) is a technique where ions are first separated by drift time through some neutral gas under an applied electrical potential gradient before being introduced into a mass spectrometer. Drift time is a measure of the radius relative to the charge of the ion. The duty cycle of IMS (the time over which the experiment takes place) is longer than most mass spectrometric techniques, such that the mass spectrometer can sample along the course of the IMS separation. This produces data about the IMS separation and the mass-to-charge ratio of the ions in a manner similar to LC-MS.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The duty cycle of IMS is short relative to liquid chromatography or gas chromatography separations and can thus be coupled to such techniques, producing triple modalities such as LC/IMS/MS.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometry produces various types of data. The most common data representation is the mass spectrum.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Certain types of mass spectrometry data are best represented as a mass chromatogram. Types of chromatograms include selected ion monitoring (SIM), total ion current (TIC), and selected reaction monitoring (SRM), among many others.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Other types of mass spectrometry data are well represented as a three-dimensional contour map. In this form, the mass-to-charge, "m/z" is on the "x"-axis, intensity the "y"-axis, and an additional experimental parameter, such as time, is recorded on the "z"-axis.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometry data analysis is specific to the type of experiment producing the data. General subdivisions of data are fundamental to understanding any data.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Many mass spectrometers work in either "negative ion mode" or "positive ion mode". It is very important to know whether the observed ions are negatively or positively charged. This is often important in determining the neutral mass but it also indicates something about the nature of the molecules.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Different types of ion source result in different arrays of fragments produced from the original molecules. An electron ionization source produces many fragments and mostly single-charged (1-) radicals (odd number of electrons), whereas an electrospray source usually produces non-radical quasimolecular ions that are frequently multiply charged. Tandem mass spectrometry purposely produces fragment ions post-source and can drastically change the sort of data achieved by an experiment.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Knowledge of the origin of a sample can provide insight into the component molecules of the sample and their fragmentations. A sample from a synthesis/manufacturing process will probably contain impurities chemically related to the target component. A crudely prepared biological sample will probably contain a certain amount of salt, which may form adducts with the analyte molecules in certain analyses.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Results can also depend heavily on sample preparation and how it was run/introduced. An important example is the issue of which matrix is used for MALDI spotting, since much of the energetics of the desorption/ionization event is controlled by the matrix rather than the laser power. Sometimes samples are spiked with sodium or another ion-carrying species to produce adducts rather than a protonated species.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometry can measure molar mass, molecular structure, and sample purity. Each of these questions requires a different experimental procedure; therefore, adequate definition of the experimental goal is a prerequisite for collecting the proper data and successfully interpreting it.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Since the precise structure or peptide sequence of a molecule is deciphered through the set of fragment masses, the interpretation of mass spectra requires combined use of various techniques. Usually the first strategy for identifying an unknown compound is to compare its experimental mass spectrum against a library of mass spectra. If no matches result from the search, then manual interpretation or software assisted interpretation of mass spectra must be performed. Computer simulation of ionization and fragmentation processes occurring in mass spectrometer is the primary tool for assigning structure or peptide sequence to a molecule. An "a priori" structural information is fragmented "in silico" and the resulting pattern is compared with observed spectrum. Such simulation is often supported by a fragmentation library that contains published patterns of known decomposition reactions. Software taking advantage of this idea has been developed for both small molecules and proteins.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Analysis of mass spectra can also be spectra with accurate mass. A mass-to-charge ratio value ("m/z") with only integer precision can represent an immense number of theoretically possible ion structures; however, more precise mass figures significantly reduce the number of candidate molecular formulas. A computer algorithm called formula generator calculates all molecular formulas that theoretically fit a given mass with specified tolerance.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A recent technique for structure elucidation in mass spectrometry, called precursor ion fingerprinting, identifies individual pieces of structural information by conducting a search of the tandem spectra of the molecule under investigation against a library of the product-ion spectra of structurally characterized precursor ions.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometry has both qualitative and quantitative uses. These include identifying unknown compounds, determining the isotopic composition of elements in a molecule, and determining the structure of a compound by observing its fragmentation. Other uses include quantifying the amount of a compound in a sample or studying the fundamentals of gas phase ion chemistry (the chemistry of ions and neutrals in a vacuum). MS is now commonly used in analytical laboratories that study physical, chemical, or biological properties of a great variety of compounds. Quantitation can be relative (analyzed relative to a reference sample) or absolute (analyzed using a standard curve method).


title: Mass spectrometry

text: As an analytical technique it possesses distinct advantages such as: Increased sensitivity over most other analytical techniques because the analyzer, as a mass-charge filter, reduces background interference, Excellent specificity from characteristic fragmentation patterns to identify unknowns or confirm the presence of suspected compounds, Information about molecular weight, Information about the isotopic abundance of elements, Temporally resolved chemical data.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: A few of the disadvantages of the method is that it often fails to distinguish between optical and geometrical isomers and the positions of substituent in o-, m- and p- positions in an aromatic ring. Also, its scope is limited in identifying hydrocarbons that produce similar fragmented ions.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometry is also used to determine the isotopic composition of elements within a sample. Differences in mass among isotopes of an element are very small, and the less abundant isotopes of an element are typically very rare, so a very sensitive instrument is required. These instruments, sometimes referred to as isotope ratio mass spectrometers (IR-MS), usually use a single magnet to bend a beam of ionized particles towards a series of Faraday cups which convert particle impacts to electric current. A fast on-line analysis of deuterium content of water can be done using flowing afterglow mass spectrometry, FA-MS. Probably the most sensitive and accurate mass spectrometer for this purpose is the accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS). This is because it provides ultimate sensitivity, capable of measuring individual atoms and measuring nuclides with a dynamic range of ~10 relative to the major stable isotope. Isotope ratios are important markers of a variety of processes. Some isotope ratios are used to determine the age of materials for example as in carbon dating. Labeling with stable isotopes is also used for protein quantification. (see protein characterization below)


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Membrane-introduction mass spectrometry combines the isotope ratio MS with a reaction chamber/cell separated by a gas-permeable membrane. This method allows the study of gases as they evolve in solution. This method has been extensively used for the study of the production of oxygen by Photosystem II.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Several techniques use ions created in a dedicated ion source injected into a flow tube or a drift tube: selected ion flow tube (SIFT-MS), and proton transfer reaction (PTR-MS), are variants of chemical ionization dedicated for trace gas analysis of air, breath or liquid headspace using well defined reaction time allowing calculations of analyte concentrations from the known reaction kinetics without the need for internal standard or calibration.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Another technique with applications in trace gas analysis field is secondary electrospray ionization (SESI-MS), which is a variant of electrospray ionization. SESI consist of an electrospray plume of pure acidified solvent that interacts with neutral vapors.  Vapor molecules get ionized at atmospheric pressure when charge is transferred from the ions formed in the electrospray to the molecules. One advantage of this approach is that it is compatible with most ESI-MS systems.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: An atom probe is an instrument that combines time-of-flight mass spectrometry and field-evaporation microscopy to map the location of individual atoms.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Pharmacokinetics is often studied using mass spectrometry because of the complex nature of the matrix (often blood or urine) and the need for high sensitivity to observe low dose and long time point data. The most common instrumentation used in this application is LC-MS with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Tandem mass spectrometry is usually employed for added specificity. Standard curves and internal standards are used for quantitation of usually a single pharmaceutical in the samples. The samples represent different time points as a pharmaceutical is administered and then metabolized or cleared from the body. Blank or t=0 samples taken before administration are important in determining background and ensuring data integrity with such complex sample matrices. Much attention is paid to the linearity of the standard curve; however it is not uncommon to use curve fitting with more complex functions such as quadratics since the response of most mass spectrometers is less than linear across large concentration ranges.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: There is currently considerable interest in the use of very high sensitivity mass spectrometry for microdosing studies, which are seen as a promising alternative to animal experimentation.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Recent studies show that secondary electrospray ionization (SESI) is a powerful technique to monitor drug kinetics via breath analysis. Because breath is naturally produced, several datapoints can be readily collected. This allows for the number of collected data-points to be greatly increased. In animal studies, this approach SESI can reduce animal sacrifice. In humans, SESI-MS non-invasive analysis of breath can help study the kinetics of drugs at a personalized level.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometry is an important method for the characterization and sequencing of proteins. The two primary methods for ionization of whole proteins are electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). In keeping with the performance and mass range of available mass spectrometers, two approaches are used for characterizing proteins. In the first, intact proteins are ionized by either of the two techniques described above, and then introduced to a mass analyzer. This approach is referred to as "top-down" strategy of protein analysis. The top-down approach however is largely limited to low-throughput single-protein studies. In the second, proteins are enzymatically digested into smaller peptides using proteases such as trypsin or pepsin, either in solution or in gel after electrophoretic separation. Other proteolytic agents are also used. The collection of peptide products are often separated by chromatography prior to introduction to the mass analyzer. When the characteristic pattern of peptides is used for the identification of the protein the method is called peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF), if the identification is performed using the sequence data determined in tandem MS analysis it is called de novo peptide sequencing. These procedures of protein analysis are also referred to as the "bottom-up" approach, and have also been used to analyse the distribution and position of post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation on proteins. A third approach is also beginning to be used, this intermediate "middle-down" approach involves analyzing proteolytic peptides that are larger than the typical tryptic peptide.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: As a standard method for analysis, mass spectrometers have reached other planets and moons. Two were taken to Mars by the Viking program. In early 2005 the Cassini–Huygens mission delivered a specialized GC-MS instrument aboard the Huygens probe through the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn. This instrument analyzed atmospheric samples along its descent trajectory and was able to vaporize and analyze samples of Titan's frozen, hydrocarbon covered surface once the probe had landed. These measurements compare the abundance of isotope(s) of each particle comparatively to earth's natural abundance. Also on board the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft was an ion and neutral mass spectrometer which had been taking measurements of Titan's atmospheric composition as well as the composition of Enceladus' plumes. A Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer mass spectrometer was carried by the Mars Phoenix Lander launched in 2007.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometers are also widely used in space missions to measure the composition of plasmas. For example, the Cassini spacecraft carried the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS), which measured the mass of ions in Saturn's magnetosphere.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Mass spectrometers were used in hospitals for respiratory gas analysis beginning around 1975 through the end of the century. Some are probably still in use but none are currently being manufactured.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: Found mostly in the operating room, they were a part of a complex system, in which respired gas samples from patients undergoing anesthesia were drawn into the instrument through a valve mechanism designed to sequentially connect up to 32 rooms to the mass spectrometer. A computer directed all operations of the system. The data collected from the mass spectrometer was delivered to the individual rooms for the anesthesiologist to use.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The uniqueness of this magnetic sector mass spectrometer may have been the fact that a plane of detectors, each purposely positioned to collect all of the ion species expected to be in the samples, allowed the instrument to simultaneously report all of the gases respired by the patient. Although the mass range was limited to slightly over 120 u, fragmentation of some of the heavier molecules negated the need for a higher detection limit.


title: Mass spectrometry

text: The primary function of mass spectrometry is as a tool for chemical analyses based on detection and quantification of ions according to their mass-to-charge ratio. However, mass spectrometry also shows promise for material synthesis. Ion soft landing is characterized by deposition of intact species on surfaces at low kinetic energies which precludes the fragmentation of the incident species. The soft landing technique was first reported in 1977 for the reaction of low energy sulfur containing ions on a lead surface.


title: Evan Goldberg

text: Evan D. Goldberg (born September 15, 1982) is a Canadian-American filmmaker and comedian. He has collaborated with his childhood friend Seth Rogen on the films "Superbad", "Pineapple Express", "This Is the End", "The Interview", and "Good Boys".


title: Evan Goldberg

text: Evan Goldberg was born September 15, 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia, to a Jewish family. He was raised in Marpole. He attended Point Grey Secondary School (where he met and befriended Rogen) and McGill University, and is married to Lisa (Yadavaia) Goldberg.


title: Evan Goldberg

text: Goldberg started his writing career joining the staff of "Da Ali G Show" for its 2004 season, along with his childhood friend and comedy partner Seth Rogen. They collaborated on the films, "Knocked Up", "Superbad", "Pineapple Express", "Funny People", and "The Green Hornet" with their production company Point Grey Pictures, named after Point Grey Secondary School.


title: Evan Goldberg

text: In a strategy to garner interest and funding, Goldberg created a pre-production trailer for "Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse", which was later made as "This Is the End", and was released in June 2013.


title: Evan Goldberg

text: During the time, both Rogen and Goldberg through his Point Grey Pictures company had set up a joint venture with major client Good Universe to set up mainstream comedy films.


title: Evan Goldberg

text: Goldberg and Rogen are both "obsessed" fans of "The Simpsons". After learning that "The Simpsons" executive producer James L. Brooks was a fan of "Superbad", they decided to ask the producers of the show if they could write an episode. They were invited to "The Simpsons" writers room, where they pitched several episode ideas. One was accepted, and they wrote an outline with the help of some feedback from the regular writers. It became the episode "Homer the Whopper", which was the season premiere of season twenty-one.


title: Mayor

text: In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as the means by which a mayor is elected or otherwise mandated. Depending on the system chosen, a mayor may be the chief executive officer of the municipal government, may simply chair a multi-member governing body with little or no independent power, or may play a solely ceremonial role. A mayor's duties and responsibilities may be to appoint and oversee municipal managers and employees, provide basic governmental services to constituents, and execute the laws and ordinances passed by a municipal governing body (or mandated by a state, territorial or national governing body). Options for selection of a mayor include direct election by the public, or selection by an elected governing council or board.


title: Mayor

text: The term "mayor" shares a linguistic origin with the military rank of "Major", both ultimately derived from French .


title: Mayor

text: In modern England and Wales, the position of mayor descends from the feudal lord's bailiff or reeve ("see borough"). The chief magistrate of London bore the title of portreeve for considerably more than a century after the Norman Conquest. This official was elected by popular choice, a privilege secured from King John. By the beginning of the 12th century, the title of portreeve gave way to that of mayor as the designation of the chief officer of London, followed around 1190 by that of Winchester. Other boroughs adopted the title later.


title: Mayor

text: In the 19th century, in the United Kingdom, the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, Section 15, regulated the election of mayors. The mayor was to be a fit person elected annually on 9  November by the council of the borough from among the aldermen or councilors or persons qualified to be such. His term of office was one year, but he was eligible for re-election. He might appoint a deputy to act during illness or absence, and such deputy must be either an alderman or councilor. A mayor who was absent from the borough for more than two months became disqualified and had to vacate his office. A mayor was "ex officio" a justice of the peace for the borough during his year of office and the following year. He received such remuneration as the council thought reasonable. These provisions have now been repealed.


title: Mayor

text: In medieval Wales, the Laws of Hywel Dda codified the mayor (Latin: '; Welsh: ') as a position at the royal courts charged with administering the serfs of the king's lands. To maintain its dependence on and loyalty to the Crown, the position was forbidden to the leaders of the clan groups. A separate mayor, known as the "cow dung mayor" (), was charged with overseeing the royal cattle. There were similar offices at the Scottish and Irish courts.


title: Mayor

text: The office of mayor in most modern English and Welsh boroughs and towns did not in the 20th century entail any important administrative duties and was generally regarded as an honor conferred for local distinction, long service on the council, or for past services. The mayor was expected to devote much of his (or her) time to civic, ceremonial, and representational functions, and to preside over meetings for the advancement of the public welfare. The administrative duties of mayors were to act as returning officer at parliamentary elections and to chair the meetings of the council.


title: Mayor

text: The mayor of a town council is officially known as "town mayor" (although in popular parlance, the word "town" is often dropped). The person is known as "mayor" regardless of gender; the partner of a mayor is sometimes known as the "mayoress". Since the 1974 local government reforms, mayors are also appointed to English local government districts which have borough status. This results in mayors of districts which include towns which also have separate mayors. In districts which do not have borough status, the role of civic leader is taken by the chairman of the council, who undertakes exactly the same functions as a mayor of a district with borough status.


title: Mayor

text: In Scotland the post holders are known as convenors, provosts, or lord provosts depending on the local authority.


title: Mayor

text: Since reforms introduced in 2000, a number of English local authorities have directly elected mayors who combine the "civic" mayor role with that of leader of the council and have significantly greater powers than either.


title: Mayor

text: Areas which now have directly elected mayors include cities, local government districts which cover several towns and rural areas, and since 2014 combined authority areas which include two or more local authority districts.


title: Mayor

text: The original Frankish mayors or majordomos were like the Welsh lords commanding the king's lands around the Merovingian courts in Austrasia, Burgundy, and Neustria. The mayorship of Paris eventually became hereditary in the Pippinids, who later established the Carolingian dynasty.


title: Mayor

text: In modern France, since the Revolution, a mayor () and a number of mayoral adjuncts () are selected by the municipal council from among their number. Most of the administrative work is left in their hands, with the full council meeting comparatively infrequently. The model was copied throughout Europe in Britain's mayors, Italy's sindacos, most of the German states' burgomasters, and Portugal's presidents of the municipal chambers.


title: Mayor

text: In Medieval Italy, the city-states who did not consider themselves independent principalities or dukedoms particularly those of the Imperial Ghibelline faction were led by podestàs.


title: Mayor

text: In Denmark all municipalities are led by a political official called "borgmester", 'mayor'. The mayor of Copenhagen is however called "overborgmester" 'lord mayor'. In that city other mayors, (plural), are subordinate to the lord mayor with different undertakings, like ministers to a prime minister. In other municipalities in Denmark there is only a single mayor.


title: Mayor

text: In Norway and Sweden the mayoral title "/" has now been abolished. Norway abolished it in 1937 as a title of the non-political top manager of (city) municipalities and replaced it with the title ('alderman' or 'magistrate'), which is still in use when referring to the top managers of the municipalities of Norway. The top "elected" official of the municipalities of Norway, on the other hand, has the title , which actually means 'word-bearer', i.e. 'chairperson' or 'president', an equivalent to the Swedish word "ordförande".


title: Mayor

text: In Sweden was a title of the senior judge of the courts of the cities, courts which were called , literally 'town hall court', somewhat of an equivalent to an English magistrates' court. These courts were abolished in 1971. Until 1965, these mayor judges on historical grounds also performed administrative functions in the board of magistrates, in Swedish known collegially as . Until 1965 there were also municipal mayors (), who had these non-political administrative roles in smaller cities without a magistrates' court or . This office was an invention of the 20th century as the smaller cities in Sweden during the first half of the 20th century subsequently lost their own courts and magistrates.


title: Mayor

text: In the 16th century in Sweden, king Gustav Vasa considerably centralised government and appointed the mayors directly. In 1693 king Charles XI accepted a compromise after repeated petitions from the Estate of the Burgesses over decades against the royal mayor appointments. The compromise was that the burgesses in a city could normally nominate a mayor under the supervision of the local governor. The nominee was then to be presented to and appointed by the king, but the king could appoint mayors directly in exceptional cases. This was codified in the Instrument of Government of 1720 and on 8 July the same year Riksrådet ("the Council of the Realm") decided, after a petition from the said Estate, that only the city could present nominees, not the king or anyone else. Thus the supervision of the local governor and directly appointed mayors by the king ceased after 1720 (the so-called Age of Liberty). On 16 October 1723, it was decided after a petition that the city should present three nominees, of whom the king (or the Council of the Realm) appointed one. This was kept as a rule from then on in all later regulations and was also kept as a tradition in the 1809 Instrument of Government (§ 31) until 1965.


title: Mayor

text: In Finland, there are two mayors, in Tampere and Pirkkala. Usually in Finland the highest executive official is not democratically elected, but is appointed to a public office by the city council, and is called simply 'city manager' or 'municipal manager', depending on whether the municipality defines itself as a city. The term 'mayor', from Swedish confusingly on historical grounds has referred to the highest official in the registry office and in the city courts (abolished in 1993) as in Sweden, not the city manager. In addition, is also an honorary title, which may be given for distinguished service in the post of the city manager. The city manager of Helsinki is called , which translates to 'chief mayor', for historical reasons. Furthermore, the term "city manager" may be seen translated as "mayor".


title: Mayor

text: The office of the "Alcalde" evolved during the Reconquista as new lands were settled by the expanding kingdoms of León and Castile. As fortified settlements in the area between the Douro and Tagus rivers became true urban centers, they gained, from their feudal lords or the kings of Leon and Castile, the right to have councils. Among the rights that these councils had was to elect a municipal judge ( in Latin and in Spanish). These judges were assisted in their duties by various assistant judges, called , whose number depended on the number of parishes the town had. The title was borrowed from the Arabic "al-qaḍi" (), meaning 'the judge'.


title: Mayor

text: The word originally was used for simple judges, as in Andalusian Arabic. Only later was it applied to the presiding municipal magistrate. This early use continued to be reflected in its other uses, such as , the judges in the "audiencias"; , who formed the highest tribunal in Castile and also managed the royal court; , a synonym for "corregidor"; and , who were roughly the equivalent of British parish constables. Because of this, the municipal was often referred to as an .


title: Mayor

text: In Australian councils, the mayor is generally the member of the council who acts as a ceremonial figurehead at official functions, as well as carrying the authority of the council between meetings. Mayoral decisions made between meetings are subject to council and may be confirmed or repealed if necessary. Mayors in Australia may be elected either directly through a ballot for the position of mayor at a local-government election, or alternatively may be elected from within the council at a meeting.


title: Mayor

text: The civic regalia and insignia of local government have basically remained unaltered for centuries. For ceremonial occasions a mayor may wear robes, a mayoral chain and a mace. Mayors have the title of 'His/Her Worship' whilst holding the position.


title: Mayor

text: In councils where councillors are elected representing political parties, the mayor is normally the leader of the party receiving the most seats on council. In Queensland, the lord mayor and mayors are elected by popular vote at the general council election.


title: Mayor

text: Mayors in Bangladesh are elected every five years. They are very powerful in municipal government. The mayor is the highest-ranking official in municipal governments in Bangladesh.


title: Mayor

text: Every municipality in Brazil elects a mayor (Portuguese: ) and a vice-mayor (Portuguese: ) for a four-year term, acting as an executive officer with the city council (Portuguese: ) functioning with legislative powers. The mayor can be re-elected and manage the city for two consecutive terms.


title: Mayor

text: Mayoral elections in Brazil occur in two different ways: in municipalities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, the voting happens in a two-round system, like the presidential and gubernatorial elections. In municipalities with less than 200,000 inhabitants, the voting happens in a relative majority system (with only one round).


title: Mayor

text: The chief executives of boroughs ("arrondissements") in Quebec are termed mayors ( in French). A borough mayor simultaneously serves as head of the borough council and as a regular councillor on the main city council. The scheduling of municipal elections in Canada varies by jurisdiction, as each province and territory has its own laws regarding municipal governance.


title: Mayor

text: As is the practice in most Commonwealth countries, in Canada a mayor is addressed as His/Her Worship while holding office.


title: Mayor

text: In a few municipalities and townships in Ontario, the reeve is the elected head of the municipality, and the second-in-command is referred to as the deputy reeve. Historically, in some small townships, the title "reeve" was used instead of mayor. In some other municipalities, "mayor" and "reeve" were two separate offices, with the mayor retaining leadership powers while the reeve was equivalent to what other municipalities called an "at-large councillor". Today most municipalities in the province now designate their elected municipal government heads as mayors, but a small handful retain the position. This continues to be the case in the following municipalities and townships:


title: Mayor

text: The elected heads of rural municipalities (RM) in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan are also referred to as a reeve.


title: Mayor

text: The mayor of a municipality in the Dominican Republic is called indistinctly or . The latter name is preferred to avoid confusing the title with the similar-sounding (lit. 'prison warden'). Such a person is the governor of the municipality whose township elected him (or her) by direct vote for a term of four years. The daily duties of the mayor's office are restricted to local governance, and as such, it is responsible for the coordination of waste collection, upkeep of public spaces (parks, undeveloped urban parcels, streets, city ornate, traffic light control, sewage and most public utilities). In practice, most of its duties are centered on minor street repairs (new or large road projects, like overpasses, bridges, pedestrian crossings, etc. are handled by the Ministry of Public Works (), under the direct control of the central government. Subcontracting garbage collection and management, overseeing the use of public spaces and arbitrating neighborhood land use disputes which are managed by the National Property office () is also controlled by the mayor's office. Water, electrical supply and public transportation coordination are handled by several central government offices, and as such, are not under the control of the mayor.


title: Mayor

text: Mayors () are elected for a six-year term by the municipal council, whose members are elected by direct universal suffrage in local elections held every six years.


title: Mayor

text: In Germany, local government is regulated by state statutes. Nowadays only the mayors of the three city-states (Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen) are still elected by the respective city-state parliaments. In all the other states the mayors are now elected directly by the EU citizens living in that area. The post of mayor may be said to be a professional one, the mayor being the head of the local government, and requiring, in order to be eligible, training in administration. In big cities (details are regulated by state statutes) the official title is (mayor). In these cities, a "simple" mayor is just a deputy responsible for a distinct task (e.g., welfare or construction works). Big cities are usually "kreisfrei" ('district-free'). That means that the city council also has the powers and duties of a rural district council. The leader of a rural district council is called ('land counsellor'). In that case, the chief mayor also has the duties and powers of a .


title: Mayor

text: There are also some German states that allow smaller cities to have an "Oberbürgermeister" as well. In Saarland, for instance, every city with more than 35,000 inhabitants has one, and in Saxony-Anhalt every city with a population bigger than 25,000 has one. The term is not used in the three city-states, where the mayors are simultaneously head of state governments, but (Governing Mayor of Berlin), (First Mayor of the city-state of Hamburg) and (President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen) are used. However, the term was used for the head of the state government of West Berlin until 1951 and was also used in East Berlin from 1948 to January 1991.


title: Mayor

text: Mayors (, , sing. , "dēmarchos") in Greece were previously elected every four years in local elections and are the head of various municipal governments in which the state is divided. Starting in 2014, mayors are elected for a five-year term. Local administration elections for the new, consolidated municipalities and peripheries will henceforth be held together with the elections for the European Parliament.


title: Mayor

text: Local administration in Greece recently underwent extensive reform in two phases: the first phase, implemented in 1997 and commonly called the Kapodistrias Plan, consolidated the country's numerous municipalities and communities down to approximately 1000. The second phase, initially called Kapodistrias II but eventually called the Kallikratis Plan, was implemented in 2010, further consolidated municipalities down to 370, and merged the country's 54 prefectures, which were disbanded in favour of the larger 13 regions. The Kallikratian municipalities were designed according to several guidelines; for example, each island (except Crete) was incorporated into a single municipality, while the majority of small towns were consolidated so as to have an average municipal population of 25,000.


title: Mayor

text: In India, mayor is the first citizen of a city and the head of Municipal Corporation which is a local government of cities with a population over 1 million. They have a number of roles, both ceremonial and functional. In most Indian states mayors are elected indirectly among the corporators (who are directly elected by the people of their respective wards) of Municipal Corporation, except in nine states: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand, where mayors are elected directly by the public.


title: Mayor

text: In Indonesia, mayor (, formerly called and ) is a regional head of a city or town. A mayor has the same level as a regent ("bupati"), head of a regency ("kabupaten"). Basically, a mayor has the duty and authority to lead the implementation of the policies established by the region along with the city council ("Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Kota", DPRD Kota; formerly called Tier 2-DPRD ("DPRD Tingkat II")). A mayor is elected in a pair with a vice mayor through direct elections and is a political office. An exception is Special Capital Region of Jakarta, where mayoralty is a civil-service career position with limited authority and is designated by the governor. Their regions are called administration cities ("kota administrasi").


title: Mayor

text: Before 1999, there were administrative cities ("kota administratif", ]) which were headed by administrative mayors.


title: Mayor

text: In Iran, the mayor is the executive manager of a city and is elected by the Islamic City Council. The mayor is elected for a four-year term.


title: Mayor

text: In the Republic of Ireland, the head of a borough corporation was called "mayor" from the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 until boroughs were abolished by the Local Government Reform Act 2014. The Local Government Act 2001 allowed county councils to style their chairperson as "mayor" and some do so. City council chairs are "mayor" (or "lord mayor" in the cases of Dublin and of Cork). Since 2000 there have been proposals for a directly elected mayor of the Dublin Metropolitan Area.


title: Mayor

text: In Italy, the mayor is called , or informally ('first citizen'). Every municipality () has a mayor who represents the local government. The mayor is elected every five years by the inhabitants of the municipality; the mayor cannot serve for more than two consecutive terms, except in municipalities of up to 3,000 inhabitants, those not having any term limit.


title: Mayor

text: Japan's Local-Autonomy Law of 1947 defines the structure of Japanese local governments, which were strengthened after World War II. It gives strong executive power to the mayor in local politics like strong mayors in large cities in the United States of America. The titles that are translated as "mayor" by the governments are those of the heads of cities , towns , villages , and Tokyo's special wards (The head of the Tokyo prefecture is the ).


title: Mayor

text: A mayor is elected every four years by direct popular votes held separately from the assembly. A mayor can be recalled by a popular initiative but the prefectural and the national governments cannot remove a mayor from office. Towards the assembly the mayor prepares budgets, proposes local acts and may veto local acts approved by the assembly which can be overridden by two-thirds assembly support. A mayor can dissolve the assembly if the assembly passes a motion of no confidence or if the mayor thinks the assembly has no confidence in fact.


title: Mayor

text: In Kazakhstan, the mayor is called "akim", who is the head of an , a municipal, district, or provincial government (), and serves as the presidential representative. "s" of provinces and cities are appointed to the post by the president on the advice of the prime minister. Meanwhile, the "s" of other administrative and territorial units are appointed or elected to the post in an order defined by the president. The president may also dismiss "s" from their posts. The ' powers end upon the newly elected president of the republic taking office. Thus, the continue to fulfill their duties before the appointment of the corresponding by the President of Kazakhstan.


title: Mayor

text: The mayor functions as the head of the local government of the cities in Malaysia. To date, there are 14 officially-recognised cities in the country.


title: Mayor

text: In cities which lie within the jurisdiction of any one of the 13 Malaysian states, the mayor is appointed by the state government. Kuala Lumpur, the country's capital, is a notable exception, as it forms part of the Federal Territories which come under the purview of the Malaysian federal government, via the Ministry of Federal Territories. Thus, the mayor of Kuala Lumpur is selected by, and subordinate to, the Minister of Federal Territories.


title: Mayor

text: Following the 2018 general election, which saw the country undergoing its first ever regime change, there have been calls to revive local government elections, which had been the practice in certain cities such as Kuala Lumpur, George Town, Ipoh and Melaka until their abolishment in 1965. The reinstatement of local government elections would lead to the mayoral position being elected, instead of being appointed as per the current system.


title: Mayor

text: In Malta, the mayor (Maltese: ) is the leader of the majority party in the local council. The members of the local councils are directly elected and collectively serve as a basic form of local government.


title: Mayor

text: The mayor of the municipality in Moldova is elected for four years. In Chișinău, the last mayoral elections had to be repeated three times because of the low rate of participation.


title: Mayor

text: In the Netherlands, the mayor (in ) is the leader of the college of mayor and aldermen ("College van Burgemeester en Wethouders"), the municipal executive. In the Netherlands, "s" are "de facto" appointed by the national cabinet, "de jure" by the monarch. Appointment is generally preceded by a selection procedure and nomination by the municipal council and king's commissioner (head of the provincial executive), and a nomination is only very rarely not followed by an appointment. Mayors preside over both the municipal executive and the legislative ("gemeenteraad"), although they can vote in the former and not in the latter. The title is sometimes translated as burgomaster, to emphasise the appointed, rather than elected, nature of the office. The appointment procedure was brought for discussion in the early 2000s (decade), as some of the political parties represented in parliament regarded the procedure as undemocratic. Generally, mayors in the Netherlands are selected from the established political parties, although since the late 2010s mayors without political affiliation have become more common. Alternatives proposed were direct election of the mayor by the people or official appointment by the municipal council (). A constitutional change to allow for this failed to pass the Senate in March 2005, but succeeded in 2018.


title: Mayor

text: Mayors in Nepal are elected every five years in the local elections. They are very powerful in municipal government. The mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government in Nepal.


title: Mayor

text: In Pakistan, a city is headed by the district "nazim" (the word means 'administrator' in Urdu, but is sometimes translated as 'mayor') and assisted by the "naib nazim", who is also speaker of the district council. The district is elected by the of union councils, union councillors and by tehsil , who themselves are elected directly by the votes of the local public. Council elections are held every four years.


title: Mayor

text: In the Philippines, mayors () are the head of a municipality or a city, with the vice mayor as the second-highest position in the city. They are elected every three years during the midterm and national elections, and they can serve up to three consecutive terms of office. , there are 1,635 mayors in the Philippines.


title: Mayor

text: As of 30 April 2022, there are altogether 2477 municipalities (gmina) in Poland, including 1513 rural gminas, while the remaining 968 ones contain cities and towns. Among them, 666 towns are part of an urban-rural gmina while 302 cities and towns are standalone as an urban gmina. The latter group includes 107 cities (governed by a "prezydent miasta"), including 66 cities with powiat rights. 37 cities among the latter group are over 100,000, including 18 cities serving as a seat for voivode or voivodeship sejmik, informally called voivodeship cities.


title: Mayor

text: All municipalities in Poland including cities and towns are governed under the mandatory mayor–council government system. Executive power is vested in an official called one of the following:


title: Mayor

text: They are elected by a two-round direct election for a five-year term concurrently with the five-year term of the municipal council and cannot serve in the latter or in any higher-level deliberative bodies: a county council, a voivodeship sejmik, the Parliament of Poland or the European Parliament. Citizens with a criminal record cannot run for mayor, but only if sentenced for intentional criminal offence prosecuted ex officio. The municipal/town/city council is the legislative, budget-making and oversight body. City mayors or town mayors may appoint a deputy mayor if needed. A town or city mayor may be scrutinized or denied funding for his/her projects by the council, but is not politically responsible to it and does not require its confidence to remain in office; therefore, cohabitation is not uncommon. A recall referendum may however be triggered through a petition supported by at least 1/10 of eligible voters, but the turnout in the recall referendum must be at least 3/5 of the number of people voting in the original election in order for the referendum to be valid and binding. A town/city mayor can also be dismissed by the prime minister in case of persistent transgression of the law.


title: Mayor

text: Town/city mayors manage the municipal estate, issue administrative decisions and minor regulations, and incur liabilities within limits set by the municipal council. They prepare and present the planned budget to the municipal council, subject to its acceptation and amendments. After the municipal council votes to accept the budget, the town/city mayor is responsible for its realization. Town/city mayors are heads of the town/city hall (office), the register office (the town/city mayor may appoint deputies for these specific tasks), as well as the parent authority for all public kindergartens and elementary schools in the municipality. They are also personally responsible for the emergency management and civil defense in a municipality. A municipality itself is responsible among others for public transport, water supply and treatment, and waste management. A town/city mayor has the legal capacity to act as employer for all the officials of a town/city hall. Town/city mayors in Poland have wide administrative and staffing authority: the only municipal executive official that the town/city mayor cannot appoint or dismiss is a city treasurer, who is appointed by the town/city council. Although they do not have in Poland power to veto city council resolutions, their position is relatively strong and should be classified as a mayor-council government.In a city with powiat rights, the city mayor also has the powers and duties of a powiat executive board and a starosta.


title: Mayor

text: In addition, an office of quarter mayor ("burmistrz dzielnicy") exists in the auxiliary units of the city of Warsaw, called quarters. In spite of remaining an integral part of the city as an entity, the quarters have a degree of autonomy legally guaranteed through a form of an own local self-government exercising some powers devolved by law from the city. Each of the 18 city quarters has an own council ("rada dzielnicy") which elects an executive board ("zarząd dzielnicy") headed by a quarter mayor ("burmistrz dzielnicy"), the latter elected by the council among several candidates nominated by the city mayor of Warsaw among the council's members, as opposed to a town or a city mayor, both elected under direct suffrage.


title: Mayor

text: In Portugal and many other Portuguese-speaking countries the mayor of a municipality is called the ('President of the Municipal Chamber').


title: Mayor

text: In Romania, the mayor of a commune, town or city is called . The is elected for a period of four years. In carrying out their responsibilities they are assisted by an elected local council (). Bucharest has a general mayor () and six sector mayors (), one for each sector. The responsibilities of the mayor and of the local council are defined by Law 215/2001 of the Romanian Parliament.


title: Mayor

text: In Russia, the , from French (transliteration: – not to be confused with the NATO OF-3 rank – English: "major"), is one of the possible titles of the head of the administration of a city or municipality. This title is equivalent to that of the head of a Russian rural district. Exceptionally, the of Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and Sevastopol are equivalent to governors in Russia, since these three federal cities are Russian federal subjects.


title: Mayor

text: Except for the aforementioned three large cities, the governance system of a Russian municipality (city, county, district or town) is subordinate to the representative council of the federation in which it is located. The is either directly elected in municipal elections (citywide referendum) or is elected by the members of the municipality's representative council. Election by council members is now more widespread because it better integrates with the Russian federal three-level vertical governance structure:


title: Mayor

text: The typical term of office of a in Russia is four years. The "'s" office administers all municipal services, public property, police and fire protection, and most public agencies, and enforces all local and state laws within a city or town.


title: Mayor

text: According to Medialogy, the of Novosibirsk, Anatoly Lokot', is mentioned in the media more than any other Russian mayor. The of Kazan, Il'sur Metshin, is the most popular in Russia, scoring 76 out of 100, according to the Russian People's Rating of "s".


title: Mayor

text: In Serbia, the mayor is the head of the city or a town. The mayor acts on behalf of the city, and performs an executive function. The position of the mayor of Belgrade is important as the capital city is the most important hub of economics, culture and science in Serbia. Furthermore, the post of the mayor of Belgrade is the third most important position in the government after the prime minister and president.


title: Mayor

text: "Alcalde" is the most common Spanish term for the mayor of a town or city. It is derived from the (), i.e., 'the (Sharia) judge', who often had administrative, as well as judicial, functions. Although the Castilian and the Andalusian had slightly different attributes (the oversaw an entire province, the only a municipality; the former was appointed by the ruler of the state but the latter was elected by the municipal council), the adoption of this term reflects how much Muslim society in the Iberian Peninsula influenced the Christian one in the early phases of the "Reconquista". As Spanish Christians took over an increasing part of the Peninsula, they adapted the Muslim systems and terminology for their own use.


title: Mayor

text: Today, it refers to the executive head of a municipal or local government, who usually does not have judicial functions. The word "intendente" is used in Argentina and Paraguay for the office that is analogous to a mayor.


title: Mayor

text: In "municipios" and larger cities in Mexico, the chief executive is known as both or as ('municipal president'), with the latter being more widely used.


title: Mayor

text: The Swedish title (burgomaster) was abolished in the court reform of 1971 when also the towns of Sweden were officially abolished.


title: Mayor

text: The function and title for mayor vary from one canton to another. Generally, the mayor presides over an executive council of several members governing a municipality.


title: Mayor

text: In the Republic of China in Taiwan the mayor is the head of the city's government and its city's council, which is in charge of legislative affairs. The mayor and city council are elected separately by the city's residents.


title: Mayor

text: Mayors (Turkish: ) in Turkey are elected by popular vote for five years alongside the municipal council. As a rule, there are municipalities in all province centers and district centers as well as towns () which are actually villages with a population in excess of 2000. However, beginning by 1983, a new level of municipality was introduced in the Turkish administrative system. In big cities, metropolitan municipalities () are established. (See metropolitan municipalities in Turkey) In a metropolitan municipality there may be several district municipalities (hence mayors). Mayors are elected in local elections.


title: Mayor

text: In Ukraine the title "head of the city" (; unofficially the foreign adaptation also is present) was introduced in 1999. Since then, the post is elected by all residents of the city. Before that date, the post was elected by members of the city council only and was known as head of the city council, which "ex officio" also serves as the head of the executive committee. For the cities that carry special status such as Kyiv and Sevastopol, the head of the city was a matter of long debate and the post is regulated by special laws.


title: Mayor

text: Since 2015 a post of ('elder') has been implemented at the lower level of the administrative-territorial pyramid. Candidates to the post are also elected by members of the territorial community (). The post is historical and existed in the territory of Ukraine during the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


title: Mayor

text: The mayor is the municipal head of government, the maximum civil authority at the municipal level, in most United States municipalities (such as cities, townships, etc.). In the United States, there are several distinct types of mayors, depending on whether the system of local government is council-manager government or mayor-council government.


title: Mayor

text: Under the council-manager government system, the mayor is a first among equals on the city council, which acts as a legislative body while executive functions are performed by the appointed manager. The mayor may chair the city council, but lacks any special legislative powers. The mayor and city council serve part-time, with day-to-day administration in the hands of a professional city manager. The system is most common among medium-sized cities from around 25,000 to several hundred thousand, usually rural and suburban municipalities.


title: Mayor

text: Under the mayor-council system, the mayoralty and city council are separate offices. This system may be of two types, either a strong mayor system or a weak mayor system. Under the "strong mayor" system, the mayor acts as an elected executive with the city council exercising legislative powers. They may select a chief administrative officer to oversee the different departments. This is the system used in most of the United States' large cities, primarily because mayors serve full-time and have a wide range of services that they oversee. In a "weak mayor" or "ceremonial mayor" system, the mayor has appointing power for department heads but is subject to checks by the city council, sharing both executive and legislative duties with the council. This is common for smaller cities, especially in New England. Charlotte, North Carolina, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, are two notable large cities with a ceremonial mayor.


title: Mayor

text: In several countries, where there is no local autonomy, mayors are often appointed by some branch of the national or regional government. In some cities, subdivisions such as boroughs may have their own mayors; this is the case, for example, with the arrondissements of Paris, Montreal, and Mexico City. In Belgium, Brussels is administratively one of the federation's three regions, and is subdivided, without the other regions' provincial level, into 19 rather small municipalities, with one, the City of Brussels, being the kingdom's capital, which each have an elected—formally appointed—burgomaster (i.e., mayor, responsible to his/her elected council); while Antwerp, the other major metropolitan area, has one large city (where the boroughs, former municipalities merged into it, elect a lower level, albeit with very limited competence) and several smaller surrounding municipalities, each under a normal burgomaster as in Brussels.


title: Mayor

text: In the People's Republic of China, the mayor () may be the administrative head of any municipality, provincial, prefecture-level, or county-level. The mayor is usually the most recognized official in cities, although the position is the second-highest-ranking official in charge after the local Communist Party secretary. In principle, the mayor (who also serves as the deputy Communist Party secretary of the city) is responsible for managing the city administration while the Communist Party secretary is responsible for general policy and managing the party bureaucracy, but in practice the roles blur, frequently causing conflict.


title: Mayor

text: In many cities and towns, the charter or some similar fundamental document provides that in the event of the death, illness, resignation, or removal from office of the incumbent mayor, another official will lead the municipality for a temporary period, which, depending on the jurisdiction, may be for a stated period of days or months until a special election can be held, or until the original end of the term to which the vacating mayor was elected.


title: Mayor

text: Some cities may also provide for a deputy mayor to be temporarily designated as "acting mayor" in the event that the incumbent mayor is temporarily unavailable, such as for health reasons or out-of-town travel, but still continues to hold the position and is expected to return to the duties of the office. In this latter capacity, the acting mayor's role is to ensure that city government business can continue in the regular mayor's absence, and the acting mayor is not deemed to have actually held the office of mayor. In some jurisdictions, however, when a mayor resigns or dies in office, the mayor's successor is not considered to be an acting mayor but rather fully mayor in their own right.


title: Mayor

text: The position of acting mayor is usually of considerably more importance in a mayor-council form of municipal government, where the mayor performs functions of day-to-day leadership, than it is in a council-manager form of government, where the city manager provides day-to-day leadership and the position of mayor is either a largely or entirely ceremonial one.


title: Pottery

text: Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made by a "potter" is also called a "pottery" (plural "potteries"). The definition of "pottery", used by the ASTM International, is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products". In art history and archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, "pottery" often means vessels only, and sculpted figurines of the same material are called "terracottas".


title: Pottery

text: Pottery is one of the oldest human inventions, originating before the Neolithic period, with ceramic objects like the Gravettian culture Venus of Dolní Věstonice figurine discovered in the Czech Republic dating back to 29,000–25,000 BC, and pottery vessels that were discovered in Jiangxi, China, which date back to 18,000 BC. Early Neolithic and pre-Neolithic pottery artifacts have been found, in Jōmon Japan (10,500 BC), the Russian Far East (14,000 BC), Sub-Saharan Africa (9,400 BC), South America (9,000s–7,000s BC), and the Middle East (7,000s–6,000s BC).


title: Pottery

text: Pottery is made by forming a ceramic (often clay) body into objects of a desired shape and heating them to high temperatures (600–1600 °C) in a bonfire, pit or kiln and induces reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing the strength and rigidity of the object. Much pottery is purely utilitarian, but some can also be regarded as ceramic art. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing.


title: Pottery

text: Clay-based pottery can be divided into three main groups: earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. These require increasingly more specific clay material, and increasingly higher firing temperatures. All three are made in glazed and unglazed varieties, for different purposes. All may also be decorated by various techniques. In many examples the group a piece belongs to is immediately visually apparent, but this is not always the case. The fritware of the Islamic world does not use clay, so technically falls outside these groups. Historic pottery of all these types is often grouped as either "fine" wares, relatively expensive and well-made, and following the aesthetic taste of the culture concerned, or alternatively "coarse", "popular", "folk" or "village" wares, mostly undecorated, or simply so, and often less well-made.


title: Pottery

text: Cooking in clay pots became less popular once metal pots became available, but is still used for dishes that depend on the qualities of pottery cooking, such as biryani, cassoulet, daube, tagine, jollof rice, kedjenou, cazuela, and baked beans.


title: Pottery

text: The earliest forms of pottery were made from clays that were fired at low temperatures, initially in pit-fires or in open bonfires. They were hand formed and undecorated. Earthenware can be fired as low as 600 °C, and is normally fired below 1200 °C. Because unglazed biscuit earthenware is porous, it has limited utility for the storage of liquids or as tableware. However, earthenware has had a continuous history from the Neolithic period to today. It can be made from a wide variety of clays, some of which fire to a buff, brown or black colour, with iron in the constituent minerals resulting in a reddish-brown. Reddish coloured varieties are called terracotta, especially when unglazed or used for sculpture. The development of ceramic glaze made impermeable pottery possible, improving the popularity and practicality of pottery vessels. The addition of decoration has evolved throughout its history.


title: Pottery

text: Stoneware is pottery that has been fired in a kiln at a relatively high temperature, from about 1,100 °C to 1,200 °C, and is stronger and non-porous to liquids. The Chinese, who developed stoneware very early on, classify this together with porcelain as high-fired wares. In contrast, stoneware could only be produced in Europe from the late Middle Ages, as European kilns were less efficient, and the right type of clay less common. It remained a speciality of Germany until the Renaissance.


title: Pottery

text: Stoneware is very tough and practical, and much of it has always been utilitarian, for the kitchen or storage rather than the table. But "fine" stoneware has been important in China, Japan and the West, and continues to be made. Many utilitarian types have also come to be appreciated as art.