title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: On the March 14 edition of Raw, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi appeared as a guest star and exchanged insults with Vickie Guerrero backstage. Later that night, Vickie defeated Trish Stratus with the help of LayCool (Michelle McCool and Layla). After the match, Snooki, who observed the match at ringside, took down LayCool after being provoked by McCool. A brawl ensued between Snooki & Stratus and LayCool until LayCool retreated from the ring. Vickie then proposed a six-person mixed tag team match at WrestleMania between LayCool & her boyfriend, Dolph Ziggler, and Snooki, Stratus, and John Morrison which Snooki accepted. In the buildup to the match, a vignette aired, showing Snooki and Stratus in a bar, where Stratus said that they were training for their WrestleMania match. On the vignette, Snooki fought a man, and later Snooki and Stratus fought LayCool on the bar after LayCool started mocking Snooki and Stratus.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In an eight-man tag team match, The Corre (Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater) were originally scheduled to wrestle Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov at WrestleMania. The Corre had been going after Show on "SmackDown", but Show and Kane joined forces to beat down The Corre on Raw two weeks before WrestleMania. Later, Kane and Show helped Kozlov & Marella fend off an attack by The Corre. On April 2, after a WrestleMania Axxess match between Kozlov and Tyler Reks, The Corre attacked Kozlov, leaving his shoulder injured. Kofi Kingston, who recently lost the Intercontinental Championship to Barrett, was chosen as Kozlov's replacement.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: Before the event aired, two dark matches took place. In the first match pitted Sheamus against Daniel Bryan in a lumberjack match for the United States Championship. During the match, a brawl broke out between the lumberjacks outside the ring, resulting in the match ending in a no contest. SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long then called for a battle royal to take place. The Great Khali won the match after last eliminating Sheamus.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: As the show went live on pay-per-view, R&B singer Keri Hilson performed "America the Beautiful". Soon after, The Rock, the guest host, walked to the ring and cut a promo, mocking John Cena as well as firing up the crowd for WrestleMania.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In the first match Edge (with Christian) defended the World Heavyweight Championship against the 2011 Royal Rumble winner Alberto Del Rio (with Ricardo Rodriguez and Brodus Clay). Early in the match, Del Rio focused on Edge's injured arm and Christian fended off Clay and Rodriguez. After some back and forth action, the ending came when Edge applied the Edgecator while Del Rio applied the Cross Armbreaker. When both men got up, Edge delivered the Spear for the win. After the match, Edge and Christian destroyed Del Rio's car. This was Edge's last televised match, as he retired the next week on "Raw" due to a legitimate neck injury. Edge has since been medically cleared to wrestle again, returning to in-ring competition nearly 9 years later at the 2020 Royal Rumble.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: The next match pitted Cody Rhodes against Rey Mysterio, who came out dressed as Captain America. Rhodes dominated most of the match, however, Mysterio managed to gain control later on. The ending saw Mysterio removed Rhodes' face mask and deliver headbutts but Rhodes countered by removing Mysterio's knee brace. When Rey went for a dive, Rhodes knocked out Mysterio with the knee brace and executed the Cross Rhodes for the win.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In the next match, Kane, Big Show, Santino Marella and Kofi Kingston faced The Corre which consists of Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson and WWE Tag Team Champions Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel in an 8-Man Tag Team Match. The match lasted two minutes, ending with Slater receiving a Cobra from Santino and a WMD from Big Show. Big Show then pinned Slater to win.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In the next match, Randy Orton faced CM Punk. The stipulation is The New Nexus were banned from ringside. Punk spent most of the match focusing on Orton's injured knee until Orton gained control later in the match. Orton then attempted a punt kick, but his injured knee stopped him. Punk attempted the GTS, but Orton went for an RKO. Punk dodged and went for a Springboard clothesline, but Orton delivered an RKO for the win.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In the next match, Michael Cole (with Jack Swagger) faced Jerry Lawler, with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the special guest referee. For this match, Booker T and Jim Ross joined Josh Mathews on commentary. The match began with Lawler trying to get Cole out of his "Cole Mine", a small glass box that Cole would announce from. After some time, he did so and started attacking him. Cole managed to counter and had the upper hand on Lawler for most of the match. Swagger tried to help Cole by throwing in the towel when Lawler began to take control but was denied and received a Stone Cold Stunner. Lawler then forced Cole to submit with the ankle lock while Stone Cold mocked him. After the match, Stone Cold shared a beer with Lawler and stunned Booker T, who came out to celebrate with Lawler. After Lawler had seemingly won, the anonymous Raw GM reversed the decision in an email read by Mathews because Stone Cold was a biased referee, making Cole the winner by disqualification. Stone Cold then proceeded to stun Mathews as well in retribution. Lawler then replaced Mathews and Booker T as the color commentator for the rest of the night, with Jim Ross doing the play-by-play.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In the next match, The Undertaker faced Triple H in a No Holds Barred Match. Triple H entered to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica wearing a mask and suit, then removed it for his normal entrance theme. Undertaker entered to "" by Johnny Cash wearing a hat and suit. The match began with Undertaker and Triple H brawling outside of the ring, destroying Michael Cole's "Cole Mine" in the process. Triple H delivered a spinebuster to Undertaker through a broadcast table. The match went back and forth, as Undertaker delivered a Chokeslam and a Last Ride, but Triple H kicked out of both. After, Triple H performed a Pedigree for a near-fall. Undertaker then performed the Tombstone Piledriver for a near-fall. Triple H then hit Undertaker with a chair to the head and delivered a DDT on the chair. After more back and forth action, Triple H executed a second Pedigree for another near-fall. Triple H immediately delivered the third Pedigree for a near-fall. After many steel chair shots, and telling Undertaker to stay down, Triple H executed Undertaker's Tombstone Piledriver for a near-fall. Triple H then grabbed a sledgehammer, but Undertaker applied Hell's Gate on Triple H. Eventually, Triple H submitted, meaning Undertaker's WrestleMania streak continued to 19–0. After the match, WWE Medical Staff had to help the Undertaker after he collapsed outside the ring and couldn't walk under his own power.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: The penultimate match was a six-person mixed tag team match, which saw John Morrison, Trish Stratus, and Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi competing against a team consisting of Dolph Ziggler and LayCool (Michelle McCool & Layla). The match lasted a few minutes, with the ending coming when Morrison delivered Starship Pain on the outside of the ring to Ziggler and Snooki performed a cartwheel splash on McCool to get the win for her team.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In the last match, John Cena challenged WWE Champion The Miz (accompanied by Alex Riley). During the match, Cena delivered the Five Knuckle Shuffle to The Miz. Cena attempted the Attitude Adjustment, but Miz countered with a DDT. There was a lot of back and forth action until The Miz executed the Skull Crushing Finale and Cena executed an Attitude Adjustment on Miz - both for near-falls. Both men fought outside of the ring, knocking each other out in the process, and were counted out. The Rock came out to intervene, when a message from the Anonymous Raw General Manager arrived. The Rock went to read it, but then disregarded it and restarted the match under no disqualification, no count-out, no time limit stipulations. Cena dragged Miz back inside the ring and attempted an Attitude Adjustment. The Rock stalked Cena from behind and performed a Rock Bottom on him, in vengeance for the Attitude Adjustment six nights prior. Taking advantage, The Miz then pinned Cena for the win. After the match, The Rock had a staredown with Miz until Rock delivered a spinebuster and a People's Elbow. WrestleMania XXVII went off the air with The Rock posing on top of the turnbuckles for the fans.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: WrestleMania XXVII received mixed reviews from critics. Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section gave the entire event 6.5 out of 10. The World Heavyweight Championship match received an 8 out of 10, the Undertaker-Triple H match received an 8.5 out of 10, the WWE Championship match received a 5 out of 10 and the CM Punk-Randy Orton match received a 7 out of 10.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: The attendance record for WrestleMania XXVII was announced as 71,617. WWE's number was later confirmed by officials at the Georgia Dome.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: The following night on "Raw", John Cena and The Rock agreed to face each other in a match at WrestleMania XXVIII, marking the first time a match had been announced almost a year in advance for any WrestleMania. Later on Cena won the WWE Championship in a Triple Threat Steel Cage match against The Miz and John Morrison at Extreme Rules. The "Raw" after Extreme Rules, Cena defended the WWE Championship against The Miz in a singles match after being restarted due to the referee noticing interference from Alex Riley after Miz winning, and again later on in an "I Quit" match at Over the Limit against Miz. Later in a backstage segment Cena "congratulated" The Rock on his birthday, telling him to bring it on for WrestleMania while showing off the WWE Championship, implying that their match at WrestleMania XXVIII will be for the WWE Championship, continuing on with their feud. However, Cena would go on to lose the WWE title three times that year, twice to CM Punk, and once to Alberto Del Rio. In November, at Survivor Series, Cena teamed with the Rock, which would be the latter's first match since WrestleMania XX in 2004 (which coincidentally was at Madison Square Garden in New York City), and defeated the Miz and R-Truth, only for Rock giving a "Rock Bottom" on Cena after the match. The Rock defeated Cena at WrestleMania XXVIII, and, in 2013, a rematch at WrestleMania 29 took place, with The Rock's WWE Championship on the line, which saw Cena emerging victorious.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: On the April 11 "Raw", Edge retired due to a legitimate neck injury, marking his last match for the company against Del Rio at WrestleMania. Edge vacated the World Heavyweight Championship on the April 15 edition of "SmackDown", therefore retiring as world champion. At Extreme Rules, Christian won the title for the first time in a ladder match against Del Rio, only to lose the title to Randy Orton, on the May 6 episode of "SmackDown". However, after nine years and two neck surgeries, Edge returned as a surprise entrant in the men's Royal Rumble match at the 2020 Royal Rumble, and then entered into a feud with Randy Orton, 2021 Royal Rumble, won by last eliminating Randy Orton in the Win.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: Following their loss at WrestleMania (not to mention failing to regain the Divas Championship), tension rose in LayCool. After two weeks of couples therapy, a bitter Michelle McCool turned on Layla, dissolving their team. Layla and McCool would face off in a match at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view with no count-outs, no disqualifications, and the loser has to leave WWE. Layla went on to win the match, resulting in McCool's subsequent - and legit - departure from WWE.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: As a consequence of using a chair shot to the head, Triple H and The Undertaker were legitimately fined by the WWE for violating the company's "concussion policy" at the event. After a ten-month hiatus, The Undertaker returned on January 30, 2012 episode of Raw to confront Triple H before challenging him to a rematch at WrestleMania XXVIII, having felt unsatisfied with having to leave victorious not under his own power. After Triple H refused despite insistence from Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker mocked him by calling him a coward and knowing that Michaels was better than him. This angered Triple H to the point that he finally accepted The Undertaker's challenge, but under the stipulation that their match be a Hell in a Cell Match. Soon after the match was made, Michaels confirmed he would officiate the match as special guest referee. Undertaker defeated Triple H at WrestleMania XXVIII with their match dubbed as an "End of an Era" and extended his Undefeated WrestleMania Streak to 20–0.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: WrestleMania XXVII was the last WWE pay-per-view to be promoted under the promotion's full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, as just after the event on April 7, the company began to refer to itself solely as "WWE", with the abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism. It was also the last WrestleMania held under the first brand split, which ended in August, although the brand split was reintroduced in July 2016.


title: Due Date

text: Due Date is a 2010 American black comedy road film directed by Todd Phillips, who wrote the screenplay with Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, and Adam Sztykiel. The film follows a man (Robert Downey Jr.) who must get across the country to Los Angeles in time for the birth of his child and is forced to road-trip with an aspiring actor (Zach Galifianakis). Michelle Monaghan, Juliette Lewis, and Jamie Foxx also star. Shot in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Atlanta, Georgia, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the film was released on November 5, 2010. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $211 million worldwide.


title: Due Date

text: Peter Highman, a successful architect, is due to fly home from Atlanta to Los Angeles to be with his wife Sarah, who is about to give birth. On the way to the airport, he has a chance encounter with Ethan Tremblay with his dog Sonny, who is going to Los Angeles to be an actor and is planning to scatter his recently deceased father's ashes at the Grand Canyon. When Ethan misuses the words "terrorist" and "bomb" while talking to Peter, they are both escorted off the plane. Peter, now on the No Fly List and missing his wallet, agrees to drive with Ethan to Los Angeles.


title: Due Date

text: Ethan stops to buy marijuana, and Peter discovers that they are nearly out of money. Since Peter has no I.D., he gets his wife to wire money to Ethan, but discovers Ethan had the money wired to his stage name instead of his legal name. When the Western Union employee refuses to accept Ethan's "Stage name I.D." it leads to a violent altercation.


title: Due Date

text: After a night at a rest stop, Peter decides to drive off and abandon Ethan, but realizes that he has forgotten to unload the ashes of Ethan's father when he left. This causes him to wrestle with his conscience, before deciding to return, and covering for his absence by saying he had gone to buy breakfast. Ethan takes over driver duty so Peter can get some rest after a sleepless night, but he falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the car. Peter calls his friend, Darryl, for assistance and decides to part with Ethan, but Darryl persuades Peter otherwise. They arrive at Darryl's house for rest. During their conversation, Ethan discovers hints that Sarah may have been unfaithful, triggering Peter to question Sarah's timely pregnancy. Darryl throws both of them out after mistakenly drinking some of Ethan's father's ashes, which were stored in a coffee tin.


title: Due Date

text: Darryl lets them use his Range Rover to make the rest of the trip. Ethan and Peter get high and begin to bond, but Ethan then mistakenly drives to the Mexico–United States border. Despite assuring Peter that he'll handle the situation, Ethan flees, and Peter is arrested for possession of marijuana. The Mexican Federal Police lock Peter up, but Ethan steals a truck and breaks him out, causing several car crashes in the process.


title: Due Date

text: Peter decides to stop at the Grand Canyon for Ethan, who finally scatters his father's ashes. Peter then confesses that he tried to leave Ethan at the rest area. Ethan makes a confession of his own: he has had Peter's wallet and I.D the entire time. Peter seemingly forgives him but then attacks Ethan in a rage, but is interrupted by a call from Sarah, who has just gone into labor. Peter and Ethan leave for California. Ethan finds a gun in the truck and he accidentally shoots Peter. Arriving at the hospital where Sarah is in labor, Peter passes out from loss of blood.


title: Due Date

text: Sarah delivers the baby safely, and Peter expresses his discomfort at his new daughter being named Rosie Highman. Ethan leaves to meet with a Hollywood agent while telling Peter to call him. At the end, Ethan guest stars on an episode of his favorite television program, "Two and a Half Men" with Peter and Sarah watching it in bed with their daughter. Ethan texts Peter during the episode, indicating that the two have become friends.


title: Due Date

text: The first trailer was released July 14, 2010. It was seen with "Inception", "Dinner for Schmucks" and "The Other Guys". The international trailer was released on September 2, 2010, and the full length trailer was released online on September 16, 2010. It was shown before "The Town", and "Life as We Know It".


title: Due Date

text: Previews for the film feature the songs "New Moon Rising" by Wolfmother and the original version of "Check Yo Self" by Ice Cube.


title: Due Date

text: In the film, Ethan is a huge fan of the sitcom "Two and a Half Men". He also mentions that he started a website called itsrainingtwoandahalfmen.com. As a joke, a website was actually launched with the same name. Ethan is also shown in the film as guest starring in a "Two and a Half Men" episode. This was a special short produced for the film's use, and did not become part of an official episode of the sitcom. The short was partially shown in the film and the full short is available online.


title: Due Date

text: "Due Date" grossed $100.5 million in the U.S. and Canada and $111.2 million in other territories for a total of $211.8 million worldwide, against a production budget of $65 million.


title: Due Date

text: The film earned $12.2 million at the North American domestic box office on its release day and $43.5 million on its first week, placing behind "Megamind" but was number one in the UK for two consecutive weekends. On November 8, 2010, it went up to #1 overtaking "Megamind". On November 12, it went down to #3 behind "Unstoppable" and "Megamind". On November 15, it went up to #2 behind "Unstoppable". On November 24, it went down to #8 behind "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1", "Tangled", "Burlesque", "Megamind", "Love & Other Drugs", "Unstoppable" and "Faster". It closed in theaters on January 27, 2011.


title: Due Date

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 39% based on 195 reviews and an average rating of 5.20/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Shamelessly derivative and only sporadically funny, "Due Date" doesn't live up to the possibilities suggested by its talented director and marvelously mismatched stars." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Due Date

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film two and a half stars out of a possible four, noting "The movie probably contains enough laughs to satisfy the weekend audience. Where it falls short is in the characters and relationships." Ebert compared "Due Date" to the 1987 film "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", but bemoaned that "Due Date" could have learned and offered more.


title: Umbilical cord

text: In placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or funiculus umbilicalis) is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologically and genetically part of the fetus and (in humans) normally contains two arteries (the umbilical arteries) and one vein (the umbilical vein), buried within Wharton's jelly. The umbilical vein supplies the fetus with oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood from the placenta. Conversely, the fetal heart pumps low-oxygen, nutrient-depleted blood through the umbilical arteries back to the placenta.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The umbilical cord develops from and contains remnants of the yolk sac and allantois. It forms by the fifth week of development, replacing the yolk sac as the source of nutrients for the embryo. The cord is not directly connected to the mother's circulatory system, but instead joins the placenta, which transfers materials to and from the maternal blood without allowing direct mixing. The length of the umbilical cord is approximately equal to the crown-rump length of the fetus throughout pregnancy. The umbilical cord in a full term neonate is usually about 50 centimeters (20 in) long and about 2 centimeters (0.75 in) in diameter. This diameter decreases rapidly within the placenta. The fully patent umbilical artery has two main layers: an outer layer consisting of circularly arranged smooth muscle cells and an inner layer which shows rather irregularly and loosely arranged cells embedded in abundant ground substance staining metachromatic. The smooth muscle cells of the layer are rather poorly differentiated, contain only a few tiny myofilaments and are thereby unlikely to contribute actively to the process of post-natal closure.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Umbilical cord can be detected on ultrasound by 6 weeks of gestation and well-visualised by 8 to 9 weeks of gestation.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The umbilical cord lining is a good source of mesenchymal and epithelial stem cells. Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSC) have been used clinically to treat osteoarthritis, autoimmune diseases, and multiple other conditions. Their advantages include a better harvesting, and multiplication, and immunosuppressive properties that define their potential for use in transplantations. Their use would also overcome the ethical objections raised by the use of embryonic stem cells.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The umbilical cord contains Wharton's jelly, a gelatinous substance made largely from mucopolysaccharides that protects the blood vessels inside. It contains one vein, which carries oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood to the fetus, and two arteries that carry deoxygenated, nutrient-depleted blood away. Occasionally, only two vessels (one vein and one artery) are present in the umbilical cord. This is sometimes related to fetal abnormalities, but it may also occur without accompanying problems.


title: Umbilical cord

text: It is unusual for a vein to carry oxygenated blood and for arteries to carry deoxygenated blood (the only other examples being the pulmonary veins and arteries, connecting the lungs to the heart). However, this naming convention reflects the fact that the umbilical vein carries blood towards the fetus's heart, while the umbilical arteries carry blood away.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The blood flow through the umbilical cord is approximately 35 ml / min at 20 weeks, and 240 ml / min at 40 weeks of gestation. Adapted to the weight of the fetus, this corresponds to 115 ml / min / kg at 20 weeks and 64 ml / min / kg at 40 weeks.


title: Umbilical cord

text: For terms of location, the "proximal" part of an umbilical cord refers to the segment closest to the embryo or fetus in embryology and fetal medicine, and closest to the placenta in placental pathology, and opposite for the "distal" part, respectively.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The umbilical cord enters the fetus via the abdomen, at the point which (after separation) will become the umbilicus (or navel). Within the fetus, the umbilical vein continues towards the transverse fissure of the liver, where it splits into two. One of these branches joins with the hepatic portal vein (connecting to its left branch), which carries blood into the liver. The second branch (known as the ductus venosus) bypasses the liver and flows into the inferior vena cava, which carries blood towards the heart. The two umbilical arteries branch from the internal iliac arteries and pass on either side of the urinary bladder into the umbilical cord, completing the circuit back to the placenta.


title: Umbilical cord

text: After birth, the umbilical cord stump will dry up and drop away by the time the baby is three weeks old. If the stump still has not separated after three weeks, it might be a sign of an underlying problem, such as an infection or immune system disorder.


title: Umbilical cord

text: In absence of external interventions, the umbilical cord occludes physiologically shortly after birth, explained both by a swelling and collapse of Wharton's jelly in response to a reduction in temperature and by vasoconstriction of the blood vessels by smooth muscle contraction. In effect, a natural clamp is created, halting the flow of blood. In air at 18 °C, this physiological clamping will take three minutes or less. In water birth, where the water temperature is close to body temperature, normal pulsation can be 5 minutes and longer.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Closure of the umbilical artery by vasoconstriction consists of multiple constrictions which increase in number and degree with time. There are segments of dilatations with trapped uncoagulated blood between the constrictions before complete occlusion. Both the partial constrictions and the ultimate closure are mainly produced by muscle cells of the outer circular layer. In contrast, the inner layer seems to serve mainly as a plastic tissue which can easily be shifted in an axial direction and then folded into the narrowing lumen to complete the closure. The vasoconstrictive occlusion appears to be mainly mediated by serotonin and thromboxane A. The artery in cords of preterm infants contracts more to angiotensin II and arachidonic acid and is more sensitive to oxytocin than in term ones. In contrast to the contribution of Wharton's jelly, cooling causes only temporary vasoconstriction.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Within the child, the umbilical vein and ductus venosus close up, and degenerate into fibrous remnants known as the round ligament of the liver and the ligamentum venosum respectively. Part of each umbilical artery closes up (degenerating into what are known as the medial umbilical ligaments), while the remaining sections are retained as part of the circulatory system.


title: Umbilical cord

text: A number of abnormalities can affect the umbilical cord, which can cause problems that affect both mother and child:


title: Umbilical cord

text: The cord can be clamped at different times; however, delaying the clamping of the umbilical cord until at least one minute after birth improves outcomes as long as there is the ability to treat the small risk of jaundice if it occurs. Clamping is followed by cutting of the cord, which is painless due to the absence of nerves. The cord is extremely tough, like thick sinew, and so cutting it requires a suitably sharp instrument. While umbilical severance may be delayed until after the cord has stopped pulsing (1–3 minutes after birth), there is ordinarily no significant loss of either venous or arterial blood while cutting the cord. Current evidence neither supports, nor refutes, delayed cutting of the cord, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) guidelines.


title: Umbilical cord

text: There are umbilical cord clamps which incorporate a knife. These clamps are safer and faster, allowing one to first apply the cord clamp and then cut the umbilical cord. After the cord is clamped and cut, the newborn wears a plastic clip on the navel area until the compressed region of the cord has dried and sealed sufficiently.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The length of umbilical left attached to the newborn varies by practice; in most hospital settings the length of cord left attached after clamping and cutting is minimal. In the United States, however, where the birth occurred outside of the hospital and an emergency medical technician (EMT) clamps and cuts the cord, a longer segment up to in length is left attached to the newborn.


title: Umbilical cord

text: A Cochrane review in 2013 came to the conclusion that delayed cord clamping (between one and three minutes after birth) is "likely to be beneficial as long as access to treatment for jaundice requiring phototherapy is available". In this review delayed clamping, as contrasted to early, resulted in no difference in risk of severe maternal postpartum hemorrhage or neonatal mortality, and a low Apgar score. On the other hand, delayed clamping resulted in an increased birth weight of on average about 100 g, and an increased hemoglobin concentration of on average 1.5 g/dL with half the risk of being iron deficient at three and six months, but an increased risk of jaundice requiring phototherapy.


title: Umbilical cord

text: In 2012, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists officially endorsed delaying clamping of the umbilical cord for 30–60 seconds with the newborn held below the level of the placenta in all cases of preterm delivery based largely on evidence that it reduces the risk of intraventricular hemorrhage in these children by 50%. In the same committee statement, ACOG also recognize several other likely benefits for preterm infants, including "improved transitional circulation, better establishment of red blood cell volume, and decreased need for blood transfusion". In January 2017, a revised Committee Opinion extended the recommendation to term infants, citing data that term infants benefit from increased hemoglobin levels in the newborn period and improved iron stores in the first months of life, which may result in improved developmental outcomes. ACOG recognized a small increase in the incidence of jaundice in term infants with delayed cord clamping, and recommended policies be in place to monitor for and treat neonatal jaundice. ACOG also noted that delayed cord clamping is not associated with increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Several studies have shown benefits of delayed cord clamping: A meta-analysis showed that delaying clamping of the umbilical cord in full-term neonates for a minimum of 2 minutes following birth is beneficial to the newborn in giving improved hematocrit, iron status as measured by ferritin concentration and stored iron, as well as a reduction in the risk of anemia (relative risk, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.40–0.70). A decrease was also found in a study from 2008. Although there is higher hemoglobin level at 2 months, this effect did not persist beyond 6 months of age. Not clamping the cord for three minutes following the birth of a baby improved outcomes at four years of age. A delay of three minutes or more in umbilical cord clamping after birth reduce the prevalence of anemia in infants.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Negative effects of delayed cord clamping include an increased risk of polycythemia. Still, this condition appeared to be benign in studies. Infants whose cord clamping occurred later than 60 seconds after birth had a higher rate of neonatal jaundice requiring phototherapy.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Delayed clamping is not recommended as a response to cases where the newborn is not breathing well and needs resuscitation. Rather, the recommendation is instead to immediately clamp and cut the cord and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The umbilical cord pulsating is not a guarantee that the baby is receiving enough oxygen.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Some parents choose to omit cord severance entirely, a practice called "lotus birth" or umbilical nonseverance. The entire intact umbilical cord is allowed to dry and separates on its own (typically on the 3rd day after birth), falling off and leaving a healed umbilicus.


title: Umbilical cord

text: As the umbilical vein is directly connected to the central circulation, it can be used as a route for placement of a venous catheter for infusion and medication. The umbilical vein catheter is a reliable alternative to percutaneous peripheral or central venous catheters or intraosseous canulas and may be employed in resuscitation or intensive care of the newborn.


title: Umbilical cord

text: From 24 to 34 weeks of gestation, when the fetus is typically viable, blood can be taken from the cord in order to test for abnormalities (particularly for hereditary conditions). This diagnostic genetic test procedure is known as percutaneous umbilical cord blood sampling.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The blood within the umbilical cord, known as cord blood, is a rich and readily available source of primitive, undifferentiated stem cells (of type CD34-positive and CD38-negative). These cord blood cells can be used for bone marrow transplant.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Some parents choose to have this blood diverted from the baby's umbilical blood transfer through early cord clamping and cutting, to freeze for long-term storage at a cord blood bank should the child ever require the cord blood stem cells (for example, to replace bone marrow destroyed when treating leukemia). This practice is controversial, with critics asserting that early cord blood withdrawal at the time of birth actually increases the likelihood of childhood disease, due to the high volume of blood taken (an average of 108ml) in relation to the baby's total supply (typically 300ml). The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists stated in 2006 that "there is still insufficient evidence to recommend directed commercial cord blood collection and stem-cell storage in low-risk families".


title: Umbilical cord

text: The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that cord blood banking for self-use should be discouraged (as most conditions requiring the use of stem cells will already exist in the cord blood), while banking for general use should be encouraged. In the future, cord blood-derived embryonic-like stem cells (CBEs) may be banked and matched with other patients, much like blood and transplanted tissues. The use of CBEs could potentially eliminate the ethical difficulties associated with embryonic stem cells (ESCs).


title: Umbilical cord

text: While the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages private banking except in the case of existing medical need, it also says that information about the potential benefits and limitations of cord blood banking and transplantation should be provided so that parents can make an informed decision.


title: Umbilical cord

text: In the United States, cord blood education has been supported by legislators at the federal and state levels. In 2005, the National Academy of Sciences published an Institute of Medicine (IoM) report which recommended that expectant parents be given a balanced perspective on their options for cord blood banking. In response to their constituents, state legislators across the country are introducing legislation intended to help inform physicians and expectant parents on the options for donating, discarding or banking lifesaving newborn stem cells. Currently 17 states, representing two-thirds of U.S. births, have enacted legislation recommended by the IoM guidelines.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The use of cord blood stem cells in treating conditions such as brain injury and Type 1 Diabetes is already being studied in humans, and earlier stage research is being conducted for treatments of stroke, and hearing loss.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Cord blood stored with private banks is typically reserved for use of the donor child only. In contrast, cord blood stored in public banks is accessible to anyone with a closely matching tissue type and demonstrated need. The use of cord blood from public banks is increasing. Currently it is used in place of a bone marrow transplant in the treatment of blood disorders such as leukemia, with donations released for transplant through one registry, Netcord.org, passing 1,000,000 as of January 2013. Cord blood is used when the patient cannot find a matching bone marrow donor; this "extension" of the donor pool has driven the expansion of public banks.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The umbilical cord in some mammals, including cattle and sheep, contains two distinct umbilical veins. There is only one umbilical vein in the human umbilical cord.


title: Umbilical cord

text: In some animals, the mother will gnaw through the cord, thus separating the placenta from the offspring. The cord along with the placenta is often eaten by the mother, to provide nourishment and to dispose of tissues that would otherwise attract scavengers or predators. In chimpanzees, the mother leaves the cord in place and nurses her young with the cord and placenta attached until the cord dries out and separates naturally, within a day of birth, at which time the cord is discarded. (This was first documented by zoologists in the wild in 1974.)


title: Umbilical cord

text: Some species of shark—hammerheads, requiems and smooth-hounds—are viviparous and have an umbilical cord attached to their placenta.


title: Umbilical cord

text: Animals that lay eggs seem to have a false umbilical-cord that attaches the embryo and yolk together in much the same way.


title: Umbilical cord

text: The term "umbilical cord" or just "umbilical" has also come to be used for other cords with similar functions, such as the hose connecting surface-supplied divers to their surface supply of air and/or heating, or space-suited astronauts to their spacecraft. Engineers sometimes use the term to describe a complex or critical cable connecting a component, especially when composed of bundles of conductors of different colors, thickness and types, terminating in a single multi-contact disconnect.


title: Umbilical cord

text: In multiple American and international studies, cancer-causing chemicals have been found in the blood of umbilical cords. These originate from certain plastics, computer circuit boards, fumes and synthetic fragrances among others. Over 300 chemical toxicants have been found, including bisphenol A (BPA), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), Teflon-related perfluorooctanoic acid, galaxolide and synthetic musks among others. The studies in America showed higher levels in African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans due, it is thought, to living in areas of higher pollution.


title: Enkidu

text: Enkidu ( "EN.KI.DU") was a legendary figure in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, wartime comrade and friend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Their exploits were composed in Sumerian poems and in the Akkadian "Epic of Gilgamesh", written during the 2nd millennium BC. He is the oldest literary representation of the wild man, a recurrent motif in artistic representations in Mesopotamia and in Ancient Near East literature. The apparition of Enkidu as a primitive man seems to be a potential parallel of the Old Babylonian version (1300–1000 BC), in which he was depicted as a servant-warrior in the Sumerian poems.


title: Enkidu

text: There have been suggestions that he may be the "bull-man" shown in Mesopotamian art, having the head, arms, and body of a man, and the horns, ears, tail and legs of a bull. Thereafter a series of interactions with humans and human ways bring him closer to civilization, culminating in a wrestling match with Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Enkidu embodies the wild or natural world. Though equal to Gilgamesh in strength and bearing, he acts in some ways as an antithesis to the cultured, city-bred warrior-king.


title: Enkidu

text: The tales of Enkidu’s servitude are narrated in five surviving Sumerian poems, developing from a slave of Gilgamesh into a close comrade by the last poem, which describes Enkidu as Gilgamesh's friend. In the epic, Enkidu is created as a rival to king Gilgamesh, who tyrannizes his people, but they become friends and together slay the monster Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven; because of this, Enkidu is punished and dies, representing the mighty hero who dies early. The deep, tragic loss of Enkidu profoundly inspires in Gilgamesh a quest to escape death by obtaining godly immortality.


title: Enkidu

text: Enkidu has virtually no existence outside the stories relating to Gilgamesh. To the extent of current knowledge, he was never a god to be worshipped, and is absent from the lists of deities of ancient Mesopotamia. He seems to appear in an invocation from the Paleo-Babylonian era aimed at silencing a crying baby, a text which also evokes the fact that Enkidu would be held to have determined the measurement of the passage of time at night, apparently in relation to his role as herd keeper at night in the epic.


title: Enkidu

text: The name of Enkidu is Sumerian, and generally written in texts in this language by the sequence of signs en.ki.du10. The phrase ki.du10 ("good place") is well attested in the Early Dynastic personal names, and the name en.ki.du10.ga ("Lord of the good place") is cited on the Fara tablets. The lack of genitive or any grammatical element was common until the late third millennium. However, an alternate translation has been proposed as "Creation of Enki".


title: Enkidu

text: In the epic, his name is preceded by the determinative sign of the divinity "dingir" 𒀭, which means that this character was considered to be of divine essence.


title: Enkidu

text: Uruk refuses to participate in the digging of wells for the benefit of Kish, whose kingdom had the hegemony of Sumer. Its king Agga submits the city to a siege. Enkidu is sent to prepare the weapons and wait for Gilgamesh's order. After the battle, Gilgamesh defeats Agga, and makes him return, defeated and humiliated, to Kish.


title: Enkidu

text: Gilgamesh, disturbed by the death of his subjects and by the brevity of human existence, decides to make a name for himself. The king of Uruk and Enkidu make an expedition to the Forest of the Cedars, where, with Utu's blessing, they traverse seven mountains. Enkidu warns the king that the monster Huwawa inhabits the mountain region, armed by seven supernatural Auras. However, Gilgamesh has no fear, his fifty men cut the trees, until Huwawa appears. Gilgamesh offers him seven gifts in exchange for leaving his seven Auras, but it is a trap. He strikes Huwawa several times, who asks for mercy. Gilgamesh softens his heart, nevertheless, Enkidu decapitates the monster. Enlil reproaches them for his death, and distributes the seven auras to the fields, the rivers, the reed-beds, the lions, the palace, the forest and Nungal, which would explain the fear and fascination they give to the humans.


title: Enkidu

text: Inanna is enraged with Gilgamesh, she forbids him from administering justice in her temple, the Eanna, causing unrest in the environment of the King of Uruk. Finally, Inanna demands, with threats, from her father the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh. The bull is released in Uruk, whose insatiable hunger destroys crops and rivers. Enkidu grabs the bull by his tail and Gilgamesh smashes its head. Finally they distribute the meat among the poor and transform the horns into cups for ointments for the Eanna.


title: Enkidu

text: An oak tree grows on the banks of the Euphrates, the south wind blows it away and the goddess Inanna gathers it, planting it in her garden to use her wood as a throne. Suddenly, a snake takes refuge between its roots, a giant eagle on its top and a female demon between them. Inanna asks her brother Utu for help, in vain, and then Gilgamesh. He cuts the tree, kills the serpent, expels the eagle to the mountain and the devil to the desert. Inanna gives Gilgamesh a drum (ellag) and drumsticks (ekidma), in some versions a rod and a ring. Eventually they end up falling to the Netherworld.


title: Enkidu

text: Enkidu offers to rescue them, but not before receiving explanations from Gilgamesh on how to behave in hell, to not seem alive in the residence of the dead. Enkidu however, ignores them; consequently, Enkidu ends up being held forever in the Netherworld.


title: Enkidu

text: After Gilgamesh pleads to the gods to set him free, Enki finally causes the shade of Enkidu to rise to briefly reunite with Gilgamesh. The latter interrogates the former (whom from now on he calls his "friend") the fate of the dead, Enkidu answers each of his questions. The text is lost here.


title: Enkidu

text: Gilgamesh is dying. The gods judge his exploits, after his position as future judge of the underworld has been revealed to him, he offers gifts and sacrifices to the gods. Then he takes comfort in the words of the gods; after death, he will be reunited with his family, his priests, his warriors and his best friend, Enkidu. Finally, he dies.


title: Enkidu

text: The Akkadian epic Gilgamesh is found in various versions, including "Surpassing all other kings" () and "He who saw the Deep" (), which was compiled by Sin-liqe-unninni from earlier texts, later discovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal in 1853.


title: Enkidu

text: Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, abuses his people. In response to complaints from the citizens, the goddess Aruru creates Enkidu in the steppe. Abundantly hairy and primitive, he lives roaming with the herds and grazing and drinking from rivers with the beasts.


title: Enkidu

text: One day a hunter watches Enkidu destroying the traps he has prepared for the animals. The hunter informs his father, who sends him to Uruk to ask Gilgamesh for help. The king sends Shamhat, a sacred prostitute, who seduces and teaches Enkidu. After two weeks with her, he becomes human, intelligent and understanding words, however the beasts flee when they see him.


title: Enkidu

text: Shamhat convinces Enkidu to face the tyrant Gilgamesh in combat. Meanwhile, in Uruk, the king has two dreams prophesying the arrival of his enemy.


title: Enkidu

text: Enkidu learns to behave like a man with the shepherds eating, drinking and defending them from wolves and lions at night. Upon reaching Uruk, Enkidu closes the path to Gilgamesh who was going to sleep with a newlywed. Enraged, they fight brutally until the two end up tired, but at the end both appreciate each other's strength, and decide to be friends.


title: Enkidu

text: Enkidu is depressed by having abandoned his old wild life, to which Gilgamesh proposes an expedition to the Cedar Forest to kill Humbaba. But his friend explains that he knew the forest while he was a wild being, and that the expedition is dangerous. At the end, Gilgamesh decides to march without fear, the decision is acclaimed by the citizens of Uruk, but not by the elders and advisers. Faced with Gilgamesh's disregard, the elders charge Enkidu to protect their king.


title: Enkidu

text: In this same episode the goddess Ninsun adopts Enkidu and also entrusts him with protecting the king.


title: Enkidu

text: Ninsun, the mother of Gilgamesh adopts Enkidu as her son, and seeks protection of the sun-god Shamash (the protector of the Uruk dynasty). Gilgamesh and Enkidu journey to the Cedar Forest. They perform a dream ritual in every mountain they cross; although dreams are representations of Humbaba (falling mountains, a thunderbird that breathes fire…), Enkidu interprets them as good omens. At the entrance to the forest they hear the fearsome bellow of Humbaba, which petrifies them with fear.


title: Enkidu

text: Humbaba descends from the mountain face to face with both heroes, there accuses Enkidu of betrayal against the beasts and threatens Gilgamesh to disembowel him and feed his flesh to the birds. Gilgamesh is terrified, but Enkidu encourages him, and the battle begins. First, Gilgamesh strikes Humbaba so hard it splits the Mount Hermon in two, and the skies turn black, and starts “raining death”. Shamash binds Humbaba with 13 winds and he is captured. Humbaba pleads for his life, offers him to be his slave and to cut the sacred trees for him, Gilgamesh pities him, but Enkidu argues that his death will establish his reputation forever. Humbaba then, curses both heroes, but they strike him, decapitating his head. They cut down cedars and a gigantic tree that Enkidu plans to use for a gate for the temple of Enlil. They return home along the Euphrates with the trees and the head of Humbaba.


title: Enkidu

text: The goddess Ishtar, fascinated by the beauty of Gilgamesh, offers to be his wife in exchange for wealth and fame; these offerings do not sway Gilgamesh, who recalls all the misadventures her previous loves had, such as Tammuz.


title: Enkidu

text: Ishtar, furious and crying, goes to her father Anu, to demand the Bull of Heaven take revenge, or she will scream so loud that the dead will devour the living. Anu, in fear, gives her the Bull from Heaven in exchange for preparing food for the seven years of famine that the city will suffer from the destruction of the bull. Ishtar obeys (or lies) and releases the bull in Uruk, which kills a large percentage of people. Enkidu grabs the bull by the horns and Gilgamesh stabs his neck. Hearing Ishtar's cry, Enkidu ridicules the goddess by throwing a bull's leg at her head. The city prepares a great celebration at night.


title: Enkidu

text: Enkidu has a dream where the gods decide that the heroes must die, since they have killed Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. Samash protests against the decision, but that doesn't change anything, and Enkidu is sentenced to death. This makes Enkidu curse the door he built with the wood of the forest and Shamhat, for having changed his wild life. However then he repents and blesses her. He discusses his nightmares with Gilgamesh about witnessing before Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld.


title: Enkidu

text: After this, sick, and bedridden for twelve days, he asks Gilgamesh not to forget him. Finally, he dies.


title: Enkidu

text: Gilgamesh calls upon the mountains and all of Uruk to mourn for his friend. He recalls their adventures together, makes a funerary statue of Enkidu and provides grave gifts, so Enkidu has a favourable life in the realm of the dead. Enkidu is buried in the river, like Gilgamesh in the Sumerian poem.


title: Enkidu

text: There is another non-canonical tablet in which Enkidu journeys into the underworld, but many scholars consider the tablet to be a sequel or add-on to the original epic inspired by the Sumerian poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld.


title: Enkidu

text: It has often been suggested that these descriptions reflect the semi-nomadic Amorites who, from their homeland in the Syrian Desert, infiltrated southern Mesopotamia and came to dominate it in the early second millennium. The phraseology generally includes a reference to "not knowing", which is also used in the epic. Comparing their behaviour to animals, "people plotting destruction like beasts, like wolves". However, Amorites ate uncooked meat and lived in tents while Enkidu lived in the steppe and ate grass; meaning there is no correlation between both since Enkidu wasn’t even a human yet.


title: Enkidu

text: However, Morris Jastrow suggested that Enkidu's early life was modeled on a tradition about can be seen in etiological texts, in parallel to the description of Enkidu.


title: Enkidu

text: After bouts of love-making with Shamhat over two weeks, Enkidu tries to reunite with his herd. But the gazelles run from him, indicating that he is not accepted any more amongst the savage kind. Enkidu has lost his primitive nature, such as running as fast as a gazelle.


title: Enkidu

text: We can see here the motif of transferring negative or positive qualities (weakness or knowledge) from one being to another through intimate contact. Another motif is the role of women as seducer towards civilization, such as Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. By offering Adam the fruit of the tree of knowledge, Eve ultimately drew him to civilized life.


title: Enkidu

text: Jastrow and Clay are of the opinion that the story of Enkidu was originally a separate tale to illustrate "man's career and destiny, how through intercourse with a woman he awakens to the sense of human dignity..."


title: Enkidu

text: There is a theme that contrasts life with human culture and the life without. It can be seen when Enkidu curses Shamhat, because she took him away from the wild life and brought him to civilization, leading to his death. The sun god Shamash convinces him that he had a new life worth enjoying.


title: Enkidu

text: Enkidu’s mistakes that makes him prisoner of the netherworld forever resembles the barmaids advices. Which made the dead recognize him as a live man, a civilized man.


title: Enkidu

text: The first translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh was produced in the early 1870s by George Smith, a scholar at the British Museum, who published the Flood story from Tablet XI in 1880 under the title The Chaldean Account of Genesis. There, Enkidu's name was originally misread as Eabani.


title: CPU socket

text: In computer hardware, a CPU socket or CPU slot contains one or more mechanical components providing mechanical and electrical connections between a microprocessor and a printed circuit board (PCB). This allows for placing and replacing the central processing unit (CPU) without soldering.


title: CPU socket

text: Common sockets have retention clips that apply a constant force, which must be overcome when a device is inserted. For chips with many pins, zero insertion force (ZIF) sockets are preferred. Common sockets include Pin Grid Array (PGA) or Land Grid Array (LGA). These designs apply a compression force once either a handle (PGA type) or a surface plate (LGA type) is put into place. This provides superior mechanical retention while avoiding the risk of bending pins when inserting the chip into the socket. Certain devices use Ball Grid Array (BGA) sockets, although these require soldering and are generally not considered user replaceable.


title: CPU socket

text: CPU sockets are used on the motherboard in desktop and server computers. Because they allow easy swapping of components, they are also used for prototyping new circuits. Laptops typically use surface-mount CPUs, which take up less space on the motherboard than a socketed part.


title: CPU socket

text: As the pin density increases in modern sockets, increasing demands are placed on the printed circuit board fabrication technique, which permits the large number of signals to be successfully routed to nearby components. Likewise, within the chip carrier, the wire bonding technology also becomes more demanding with increasing pin counts and pin densities. Each socket technology will have specific reflow soldering requirements. As CPU and memory frequencies increase, above 30 MHz or thereabouts, electrical signalling increasingly shifts to differential signaling over parallel buses, bringing a new set of signal integrity challenges. The evolution of the CPU socket amounts to a coevolution of all these technologies in tandem.


title: CPU socket

text: Modern CPU sockets are almost always designed in conjunction with a heat sink mounting system, or in lower power devices, other thermal considerations.


title: CPU socket

text: A CPU socket is made of plastic, and often comes with a lever or latch, and with metal contacts for each of the pins or lands on the CPU. Many packages are keyed to ensure the proper insertion of the CPU. CPUs with a PGA (pin grid array) package are inserted into the socket and, if included, the latch is closed. CPUs with an LGA (land grid array) package are inserted into the socket, the latch plate is flipped into position atop the CPU, and the lever is lowered and locked into place, pressing the CPU's contacts firmly against the socket's lands and ensuring a good connection, as well as increased mechanical stability.


title: Strontium

text: Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is exposed to air. Strontium has physical and chemical properties similar to those of its two vertical neighbors in the periodic table, calcium and barium. It occurs naturally mainly in the minerals celestine and strontianite, and is mostly mined from these.


title: Strontium

text: Both strontium and strontianite are named after Strontian, a village in Scotland near which the mineral was discovered in 1790 by Adair Crawford and William Cruickshank; it was identified as a new element the next year from its crimson-red flame test color. Strontium was first isolated as a metal in 1808 by Humphry Davy using the then newly discovered process of electrolysis. During the 19th century, strontium was mostly used in the production of sugar from sugar beets (see strontian process). At the peak of production of television cathode-ray tubes, as much as 75% of strontium consumption in the United States was used for the faceplate glass. With the replacement of cathode-ray tubes with other display methods, consumption of strontium has dramatically declined.


title: Strontium

text: While natural strontium (which is mostly the isotope strontium-88) is stable, the synthetic strontium-90 is radioactive and is one of the most dangerous components of nuclear fallout, as strontium is absorbed by the body in a similar manner to calcium. Natural stable strontium, on the other hand, is not hazardous to health.


title: Strontium

text: Strontium is a divalent silvery metal with a pale yellow tint whose properties are mostly intermediate between and similar to those of its group neighbors calcium and barium. It is softer than calcium and harder than barium. Its melting (777 °C) and boiling (1377 °C) points are lower than those of calcium (842 °C and 1484 °C respectively); barium continues this downward trend in the melting point (727 °C), but not in the boiling point (1900 °C). The density of strontium (2.64 g/cm) is similarly intermediate between those of calcium (1.54 g/cm) and barium (3.594 g/cm). Three allotropes of metallic strontium exist, with transition points at 235 and 540 °C.


title: Strontium

text: The standard electrode potential for the Sr/Sr couple is −2.89 V, approximately midway between those of the Ca/Ca (−2.84 V) and Ba/Ba (−2.92 V) couples, and close to those of the neighboring alkali metals. Strontium is intermediate between calcium and barium in its reactivity toward water, with which it reacts on contact to produce strontium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. Strontium metal burns in air to produce both strontium oxide and strontium nitride, but since it does not react with nitrogen below 380 °C, at room temperature it forms only the oxide spontaneously. Besides the simple oxide SrO, the peroxide SrO can be made by direct oxidation of strontium metal under a high pressure of oxygen, and there is some evidence for a yellow superoxide Sr(O). Strontium hydroxide, Sr(OH), is a strong base, though it is not as strong as the hydroxides of barium or the alkali metals. All four dihalides of strontium are known.


title: Strontium

text: Due to the large size of the heavy s-block elements, including strontium, a vast range of coordination numbers is known, from 2, 3, or 4 all the way to 22 or 24 in SrCd and SrZn. The Sr ion is quite large, so that high coordination numbers are the rule. The large size of strontium and barium plays a significant part in stabilising strontium complexes with polydentate macrocyclic ligands such as crown ethers: for example, while 18-crown-6 forms relatively weak complexes with calcium and the alkali metals, its strontium and barium complexes are much stronger.


title: Strontium

text: Organostrontium compounds contain one or more strontium–carbon bonds. They have been reported as intermediates in Barbier-type reactions. Although strontium is in the same group as magnesium, and organomagnesium compounds are very commonly used throughout chemistry, organostrontium compounds are not similarly widespread because they are more difficult to make and more reactive. Organostrontium compounds tend to be more similar to organoeuropium or organosamarium compounds due to the similar ionic radii of these elements (Sr 118 pm; Eu 117 pm; Sm 122 pm). Most of these compounds can only be prepared at low temperatures; bulky ligands tend to favor stability. For example, strontium dicyclopentadienyl, Sr(CH), must be made by directly reacting strontium metal with mercurocene or cyclopentadiene itself; replacing the CH ligand with the bulkier C(CH) ligand on the other hand increases the compound's solubility, volatility, and kinetic stability.


title: Strontium

text: Because of its extreme reactivity with oxygen and water, strontium occurs naturally only in compounds with other elements, such as in the minerals strontianite and celestine. It is kept under a liquid hydrocarbon such as mineral oil or kerosene to prevent oxidation; freshly exposed strontium metal rapidly turns a yellowish color with the formation of the oxide. Finely powdered strontium metal is pyrophoric, meaning that it will ignite spontaneously in air at room temperature. Volatile strontium salts impart a bright red color to flames, and these salts are used in pyrotechnics and in the production of flares. Like calcium and barium, as well as the alkali metals and the divalent lanthanides europium and ytterbium, strontium metal dissolves directly in liquid ammonia to give a dark blue solution of solvated electrons.


title: Strontium

text: Natural strontium is a mixture of four stable isotopes: Sr, Sr, Sr, and Sr. Their abundance increases with increasing mass number and the heaviest, Sr, makes up about 82.6% of all natural strontium, though the abundance varies due to the production of radiogenic Sr as the daughter of long-lived beta-decaying Rb. This is the basis of rubidium–strontium dating. Of the unstable isotopes, the primary decay mode of the isotopes lighter than Sr is electron capture or positron emission to isotopes of rubidium, and that of the isotopes heavier than Sr is electron emission to isotopes of yttrium. Of special note are Sr and Sr. The former has a half-life of 50.6 days and is used to treat bone cancer due to strontium's chemical similarity and hence ability to replace calcium. While Sr (half-life 28.90 years) has been used similarly, it is also an isotope of concern in fallout from nuclear weapons and nuclear accidents due to its production as a fission product. Its presence in bones can cause bone cancer, cancer of nearby tissues, and leukemia. The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident contaminated about 30,000 km with greater than 10 kBq/m with Sr, which accounts for about 5% of the Sr which was in the reactor core.


title: Strontium

text: Strontium is named after the Scottish village of Strontian (Gaelic "Sròn an t-Sìthein"), where it was discovered in the ores of the lead mines.


title: Strontium

text: In 1790, Adair Crawford, a physician engaged in the preparation of barium, and his colleague William Cruickshank, recognised that the Strontian ores exhibited properties that differed from those in other "heavy spars" sources. This allowed Crawford to conclude on page 355 "... it is probable indeed, that the scotch mineral is a new species of earth which has not hitherto been sufficiently examined." The physician and mineral collector Friedrich Gabriel Sulzer analysed together with Johann Friedrich Blumenbach the mineral from Strontian and named it strontianite. He also came to the conclusion that it was distinct from the witherite and contained a new earth (neue Grunderde). In 1793 Thomas Charles Hope, a professor of chemistry at the University of Glasgow studied the mineral and proposed the name "strontites". He confirmed the earlier work of Crawford and recounted: "... Considering it a peculiar earth I thought it necessary to give it an name. I have called it Strontites, from the place it was found; a mode of derivation in my opinion, fully as proper as any quality it may possess, which is the present fashion." The element was eventually isolated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1808 by the electrolysis of a mixture containing strontium chloride and mercuric oxide, and announced by him in a lecture to the Royal Society on 30 June 1808. In keeping with the naming of the other alkaline earths, he changed the name to "strontium".


title: Strontium

text: The first large-scale application of strontium was in the production of sugar from sugar beet. Although a crystallisation process using strontium hydroxide was patented by Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut in 1849 the large scale introduction came with the improvement of the process in the early 1870s. The German sugar industry used the process well into the 20th century. Before World War I the beet sugar industry used 100,000 to 150,000 tons of strontium hydroxide for this process per year. The strontium hydroxide was recycled in the process, but the demand to substitute losses during production was high enough to create a significant demand initiating mining of strontianite in the Münsterland. The mining of strontianite in Germany ended when mining of the celestine deposits in Gloucestershire started. These mines supplied most of the world strontium supply from 1884 to 1941. Although the celestine deposits in the Granada basin were known for some time the large scale mining did not start before the 1950s.


title: Strontium

text: During atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, it was observed that strontium-90 is one of the nuclear fission products with a relatively high yield. The similarity to calcium and the chance that the strontium-90 might become enriched in bones made research on the metabolism of strontium an important topic.


title: Strontium

text: Strontium commonly occurs in nature, being the 15th most abundant element on Earth (its heavier congener barium being the 14th), estimated to average approximately 360 parts per million in the Earth's crust and is found chiefly as the sulfate mineral celestine (SrSO) and the carbonate strontianite (SrCO). Of the two, celestine occurs much more frequently in deposits of sufficient size for mining. Because strontium is used most often in the carbonate form, strontianite would be the more useful of the two common minerals, but few deposits have been discovered that are suitable for development. Because of the way it reacts with air and water, strontium only exists in nature when combined to form minerals. Naturally occurring strontium is stable, but its synthetic isotope Sr-90 is only produced by nuclear fallout.


title: Strontium

text: In groundwater strontium behaves chemically much like calcium. At intermediate to acidic pH Sr is the dominant strontium species. In the presence of calcium ions, strontium commonly forms coprecipitates with calcium minerals such as calcite and anhydrite at an increased pH. At intermediate to acidic pH, dissolved strontium is bound to soil particles by cation exchange.


title: Strontium

text: The mean strontium content of ocean water is 8 mg/L. At a concentration between 82 and 90 μmol/L of strontium, the concentration is considerably lower than the calcium concentration, which is normally between 9.6 and 11.6 mmol/L. It is nevertheless much higher than that of barium, 13 μg/L.


title: Strontium

text: The three major producers of strontium as celestine as of 2015 are China (150,000 t), Spain (90,000 t), and Mexico (70,000 t); Argentina (10,000 t) and Morocco (2,500 t) are smaller producers. Although strontium deposits occur widely in the United States, they have not been mined since 1959.


title: Strontium

text: A large proportion of mined celestine (SrSO) is converted to the carbonate by two processes. Either the celestine is directly leached with sodium carbonate solution or the celestine is roasted with coal to form the sulfide. The second stage produces a dark-coloured material containing mostly strontium sulfide. This so-called "black ash" is dissolved in water and filtered. Strontium carbonate is precipitated from the strontium sulfide solution by introduction of carbon dioxide. The sulfate is reduced to the sulfide by the carbothermic reduction:


title: Strontium

text: The metal is produced commercially by reducing strontium oxide with aluminium. The strontium is distilled from the mixture. Strontium metal can also be prepared on a small scale by electrolysis of a solution of strontium chloride in molten potassium chloride:


title: Strontium

text: Consuming 75% of production, the primary use for strontium was in glass for colour television cathode-ray tubes, where it prevented X-ray emission. This application for strontium has been declining because CRTs are being replaced by other display methods. This decline has a significant influence on the mining and refining of strontium. All parts of the CRT must absorb X-rays. In the neck and the funnel of the tube, lead glass is used for this purpose, but this type of glass shows a browning effect due to the interaction of the X-rays with the glass. Therefore, the front panel is made from a different glass mixture with strontium and barium to absorb the X-rays. The average values for the glass mixture determined for a recycling study in 2005 is 8.5% strontium oxide and 10% barium oxide.


title: Strontium

text: Because strontium is so similar to calcium, it is incorporated in the bone. All four stable isotopes are incorporated, in roughly the same proportions they are found in nature. However, the actual distribution of the isotopes tends to vary greatly from one geographical location to another. Thus, analyzing the bone of an individual can help determine the region it came from. This approach helps to identify the ancient migration patterns and the origin of commingled human remains in battlefield burial sites.


title: Strontium

text: Sr/Sr ratios are commonly used to determine the likely provenance areas of sediment in natural systems, especially in marine and fluvial environments. Dasch (1969) showed that surface sediments of Atlantic displayed Sr/Sr ratios that could be regarded as bulk averages of the Sr/Sr ratios of geological terrains from adjacent landmasses. A good example of a fluvial-marine system to which Sr isotope provenance studies have been successfully employed is the River Nile-Mediterranean system. Due to the differing ages of the rocks that constitute the majority of the Blue and White Nile, catchment areas of the changing provenance of sediment reaching the River Nile Delta and East Mediterranean Sea can be discerned through strontium isotopic studies. Such changes are climatically controlled in the Late Quaternary.


title: Strontium

text: More recently, Sr/Sr ratios have also been used to determine the source of ancient archaeological materials such as timbers and corn in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Sr/Sr ratios in teeth may also be used to track animal migrations.


title: Strontium

text: Strontium aluminate is frequently used in glow in the dark toys, as it is chemically and biologically inert.


title: Strontium

text: Strontium carbonate and other strontium salts are added to fireworks to give a deep red colour. This same effect identifies strontium cations in the flame test. Fireworks consume about 5% of the world's production. Strontium carbonate is used in the manufacturing of hard ferrite magnets.


title: Strontium

text: Strontium chloride is sometimes used in toothpastes for sensitive teeth. One popular brand includes 10% total strontium chloride hexahydrate by weight. Small amounts are used in the refining of zinc to remove small amounts of lead impurities. The metal itself has a limited use as a getter, to remove unwanted gases in vacuums by reacting with them, although barium may also be used for this purpose.


title: Strontium

text: The ultra-narrow optical transition between the [Kr]5s S electronic ground state and the metastable [Kr]5s5p P excited state of Sr is one of the leading candidates for the future re-definition of the second in terms of an optical transition as opposed to the current definition derived from a microwave transition between different hyperfine ground states of Cs. Current optical atomic clocks operating on this transition already surpass the precision and accuracy of the current definition of the second.


title: Strontium

text: Sr is the active ingredient in Metastron, a radiopharmaceutical used for bone pain secondary to metastatic bone cancer. The strontium is processed like calcium by the body, preferentially incorporating it into bone at sites of increased osteogenesis. This localization focuses the radiation exposure on the cancerous lesion.


title: Strontium

text: Sr has been used as a power source for radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Sr produces approximately 0.93 watts of heat per gram (it is lower for the form of Sr used in RTGs, which is strontium fluoride). However, Sr has one third the lifetime and a lower density than Pu, another RTG fuel. The main advantage of Sr is that it is cheaper than Pu and is found in nuclear waste. The Soviet Union deployed nearly 1000 of these RTGs on its northern coast as a power source for lighthouses and meteorology stations.


title: Strontium

text: Acantharea, a relatively large group of marine radiolarian protozoa, produce intricate mineral skeletons composed of strontium sulfate. In biological systems, calcium is substituted to a small extent by strontium.


title: Strontium

text: In the human body, most of the absorbed strontium is deposited in the bones. The ratio of strontium to calcium in human bones is between 1:1000 and 1:2000, roughly in the same range as in the blood serum.


title: Strontium

text: The human body absorbs strontium as if it were its lighter congener calcium. Because the elements are chemically very similar, stable strontium isotopes do not pose a significant health threat. The average human has an intake of about two milligrams of strontium a day. In adults, strontium consumed tends to attach only to the surface of bones, but in children, strontium can replace calcium in the mineral of the growing bones and thus lead to bone growth problems.


title: Strontium

text: The biological half-life of strontium in humans has variously been reported as from 14 to 600 days, 1,000 days, 18 years, 30 years and, at an upper limit, 49 years. The wide-ranging published biological half-life figures are explained by strontium's complex metabolism within the body. However, by averaging all excretion paths, the overall biological half-life is estimated to be about 18 years. The elimination rate of strontium is strongly affected by age and sex, due to differences in bone metabolism.


title: Strontium

text: The drug strontium ranelate aids bone growth, increases bone density, and lessens the incidence of vertebral, peripheral, and hip fractures. However, strontium ranelate also increases the risk of venous thromboembolism, pulmonary embolism, and serious cardiovascular disorders, including myocardial infarction. Its use is therefore now restricted. Its beneficial effects are also questionable, since the increased bone density is partially caused by the increased density of strontium over the calcium which it replaces. Strontium also bioaccumulates in the body. Despite restrictions on strontium ranelate, strontium is still contained in some supplements. There is not much scientific evidence on risks of strontium chloride when taken by mouth. Those with a personal or family history of blood clotting disorders are advised to avoid strontium.


title: Strontium

text: Strontium has been shown to inhibit sensory irritation when applied topically to the skin. Topically applied, strontium has been shown to accelerate the recovery rate of the epidermal permeability barrier (skin barrier).


title: Strontium

text: Strontium-90 is a radioactive fission product produced by nuclear reactors used in nuclear power. It is a major component of high level radioactivity of nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel. Its 29-year half life is short enough that its decay heat has been used to power arctic lighthouses, but long enough that it can take hundreds of years to decay to safe levels. Exposure from contaminated water and food may increase the risk of leukemia, bone cancer and primary hyperparathyroidism.


title: Strontium

text: Algae has shown selectivity for strontium in studies, where most plants used in bioremediation have not shown selectivity between calcium and strontium, often becoming saturated with calcium, which is greater in quantity and also present in nuclear waste.


title: Strontium

text: Researchers have looked at the bioaccumulation of strontium by "Scenedesmus spinosus" (algae) in simulated wastewater. The study claims a highly selective biosorption capacity for strontium of S. spinosus, suggesting that it may be appropriate for use of nuclear wastewater.


title: Strontium

text: A study of the pond alga "Closterium moniliferum" using non-radioactive strontium found that varying the ratio of barium to strontium in water improved strontium selectivity.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: Romeo Must Die is a 2000 American martial arts action film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak in his feature film directorial debut, and featuring fight choreography by Corey Yuen. The film stars Jet Li and Aaliyah in her feature film debut, It follows a Chinese former police officer travelling to the United States in order to avenge his brother's death. He falls in love with a rival mobster's daughter as they struggle against both the Chinese and the American mobs. The plot is loosely related to William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" transplanted to contemporary Oakland, California, with African-American and Chinese-American gangs representing the feuding families.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: Frustrated by the lack of originality in Hollywood action films, producer Joel Silver built the film around Hong Kong action films. He cast established Hong Kong actor Jet Li following his role in "Lethal Weapon 4". R&B singer Aaliyah was cast, and sung the soundtrack's lead single "Try Again" which topped the US Billboard Hot 100.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: "Romeo Must Die" was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on March 24, 2000. Despite mixed critical reviews, it was a box office success, grossing $91 million against a production budget of $25 million. The film was considered Li's American film breakthrough and Aaliyah's acting breakthrough. Retrospectively, the film has received attention for the pairing of an Asian-American and African-American in the lead roles.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: Po Sing, the youngest son of Chinese Triad boss Ch'u Sing, is accosted by African-Americans in a nightclub in Oakland, California. He is rescued and then admonished by Kai, Ch'u's chief lieutenant. Po leaves the club, but he is found murdered the next day by a bicycle kid.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: Han Sing, a skilled martial artist and former police officer who has been imprisoned in Hong Kong, learns of his brother's death and escapes. He travels to Oakland to investigate, where Ch'u is engaged in a joint business venture with Isaak O'Day, a black real estate developer and gang leader. The two have been acquiring deeds to properties along the waterfront to sell to Vincent Roth, a business magnate who plans to buy a new NFL franchise and build a stadium. Despite Ch'u's assurances that their partnership remains intact, Isaak fears retribution following Po's death and has his chief lieutenant, Mac, place security details on his son Colin and his daughter Trish, the latter of whom refuses to be involved in her father's illegal enterprises.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: In a chance encounter, Han befriends Trish by helping her ditch her assigned security, and then discovers Po called Trish's clothing store the day before he was killed. At his brother's funeral, Han confronts his estranged father, blaming him for failing to protect Po after Han helped them both flee to America to escape Chinese authorities, which resulted in Han's imprisonment. Kai informs Han that Po's death has been the result of the escalating gang war between the Chinese and African-Americans. Meanwhile, Colin tells his father that he was supposed to meet someone at the club to discuss information that could end the war. That night, Colin and his girlfriend are murdered by an unseen assailant.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: Trish and Han team up, and realize that Po wanted to show Colin a list of businesses that were either destroyed or being threatened for failing to sell their properties. The two visit one of the remaining businesses on Po's list, but the Chinese owner and his employees have been killed. After killing the Chinese hitmen responsible, Han questions his father, who deflects suspicion by suggesting Isaak may have used outside contractors. Later, Ch'u is shown ordering the death of several other Triad bosses to acquire their territories. Trish and Han visit the last holdout on Po's list: the nightclub where Po was last seen. The duo meet with the owner, but Mac arrives and kills him for his deed, and then abducts Trish and Han. At a remote location, Han defeats Mac's henchmen and goes to rescue Trish.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: Isaak and Ch’u meet with Roth to sell him the deeds for the properties they now control. After Ch’u takes a multimillion-dollar payment and departs, Isaak refuses his payment, stating that "his" compensation will be in the form of an ownership share of the new franchise. An enraged Mac threatens Isaak to take the deal, using Trish as a hostage. He also reveals that the "gang war" was a ruse he and Ch'u concocted to cover their murder and intimidation of businessmen who refused to sign away their properties, and admits to killing Colin. In the ensuing shootout, Isaak is wounded while Roth escapes via helicopter, but Mac shoots Roth's briefcase out of his hand and the deeds scatter into the wind. Han arrives and confronts Mac about his brother, who reveals that it was the Chinese who killed Po, and is about to shoot Han when Trish shoots and kills Mac first. Trish waits with her father for an ambulance while Han leaves to find Ch'u.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: At the Sing compound, Kai admits he personally killed Po for interfering with Ch'u's dealings with Roth. Han engages Kai in a fist fight, and eventually kills him. Han berates his father for killing Po out of greed, and declares that he will leave him to be punished by either the police or the other Triad families. As Han walks away, Ch'u picks up his gun and shoots himself. Han finds Trish waiting for him outside, and the two walk away together as the police arrive.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: During the late 1990s, the producer Joel Silver became annoyed that he did not see anything fresh or original in American action films. For inspiration, he turned to Hong Kong action cinema, where Jet Li was an established movie star. In addition to the influence of Hong Kong martial arts films, the production team also introduced a new visual effect technique: the presentation of martial arts fighting in X-ray vision. They initially experimented with it for a single fight scene with Jet Li and tested it in front of an American audience, which gave an overwhelmingly positive response, before using it in more action scenes throughout the film.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: The film's setting is Oakland, California, but other than a few establishing shots, film production was entirely in Vancouver, British Columbia. Principal photography began on May 3, 1999 and ended on July 23, 1999. Filming locations included Gastown, Grandview–Woodland, Vanier Park, Chinatown, Versatile Pacific Shipyards, and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: According to the documentary "The Slanted Screen", Han and Trish were supposed to have a kissing scene, which explains the title of Romeo, but this did not test well with an urban audience. Jet Li stated on his personal website that they had filmed both versions of the scene (with kiss and without), and decided to use the latter because it would be "somewhat strange and awkward" for Han to have witnessed his father's suicide and then to come out and kiss someone.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: "Romeo Must Die" debuted at #2 at the U.S. box office behind "Erin Brockovich", which had come out a week earlier. The film was produced with a budget of US$25 million. In North America, "Romeo Must Die" earned $18,014,503 (2,641 theaters, $6,821 per screen average) in its opening weekend. "Romeo Must Die"s total North American gross is $55,973,336. The film's worldwide box office gross is $91,036,760.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: The film has a 32% approval rating from 94 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator; the critical consensus reads: "In his second Hollywood movie, Jet Li impresses. Unfortunately, when he's not on screen, the movie slows to a crawl. Though there's some spark between Jet and Aaliyah, there isn't any threat of a fire. And as impressive as the action sequences are, some critics feel they are over-edited."


title: Romeo Must Die

text: Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" called the movie "dreary" but said it was bound to be a hit due to its combination of martial arts action and hip hop. Writing for the "San Francisco Chronicle", Bob Graham likened it to "The Matrix", describing it as a "cross-cultural kung fu extravaganza" that shines during Li's stunts. In his review for the "Chicago Tribune", Rene Rodriguez said the film is "needlessly convoluted" and should not have added special effects on top of Li's stunts, which he said makes them seem less impressive because of the artificiality. Roger Ebert rated the film 1.5/4 stars and also criticized the use of computer-generated special effects in a martial arts film, saying that it "misses the point" of having audiences be impressed by realistic stunts. Aaliyah received praise for her role.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: The film's soundtrack, "Romeo Must Die: The Album", is a hip hop and R&B soundtrack released by Blackground Records and Virgin Records America in association with Warner Bros. Records (who helped co-financed the soundtrack) on March 28, 2000. It debuted at #3 on the "Billboard" 200 selling 203,000 in its first week. The soundtrack sold 1.3 million copies by the end of 2000 and 1.5 million copies in the US as of 2001.


title: Romeo Must Die

text: Produced by Aaliyah, Timbaland, Barry Hankerson, and Jomo Hankerson, it was recorded between May 1999 and January 2000. It includes four songs by Aaliyah, as well as works by Chante Moore, Destiny's Child, Ginuwine, Joe, Timbaland & Magoo and more. Three singles & videos were released from the album: Aaliyah's number one pop hit "Try Again" (directed by Wayne Isham), Aaliyah and DMX duet "Come Back in One Piece" (directed by Little X), and Timbaland & Magoo's "We At It Again" (directed by Chris Robinson), which introduced Timbaland's younger brother, rapper Sebastian, to audiences. "Q" magazine included the soundtrack album in their list of the "5 Best Compilations of 2000".


title: Romeo Must Die

text: In August 2021, it was reported that Aaliyah's recorded work for Blackground (since rebranded as Blackground Records 2.0) would be re-released on physical, digital, and, for the first time ever, streaming services in a deal between the label and Empire Distribution "Romeo Must Die: The Album" was rereleased September 3, 2021.


title: Hammam

text: A hammam (, ) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited from the model of the Roman "thermae." Muslim bathhouses or hammams were historically found across the Middle East, North Africa, al-Andalus (Islamic Spain and Portugal), Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and in Southeastern Europe under Ottoman rule. A variation on the Muslim bathhouse, the Victorian Turkish bath, became popular as a form of therapy, a method of cleansing, and a place for relaxation during the Victorian era, rapidly spreading through the British Empire, the United States of America, and Western Europe.


title: Hammam

text: In Islamic cultures the significance of the hammam was both religious and civic: it provided for the needs of ritual ablutions but also provided for general hygiene in an era before private plumbing and served other social functions such as offering a gendered meeting place for men and for women. Archeological remains attest to the existence of bathhouses in the Islamic world as early as the Umayyad period (7th–8th centuries) and their importance has persisted up to modern times. Their architecture evolved from the layout of Roman and Greek bathhouses and featured a regular sequence of rooms: an undressing room, a cold room, a warm room, and a hot room. Heat was produced by furnaces which provided hot water and steam, while smoke and hot air was channeled through conduits under the floor.


title: Hammam

text: In a modern hammam visitors undress themselves, while retaining some sort of modesty garment or loincloth, and proceed into progressively hotter rooms, inducing perspiration. They are then usually washed by male or female staff (matching the gender of the visitor) with the use of soap and vigorous rubbing, before ending by washing themselves in warm water. Unlike in Roman or Greek baths, bathers usually wash themselves with running water instead of immersing themselves in standing water since this is a requirement of Islam, though immersion in a pool used to be customary in the hammams of some regions such as Iran. While hammams everywhere generally operate in fairly similar ways, there are some regional differences both in usage and architecture.


title: Hammam

text: The word "hammam" () is a noun meaning "bath", "bathroom", "bathhouse", "swimming pool", etc. derived from the Arabic triconsonantal root ح م م which yields meanings related to heat or heating. This is also the root of the word "al-ḥamma" () meaning hot spring, origin of the name of the Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon. From Arabic , it passed on to Persian () and Turkish (). The first recorded use of the term 'Turkish bath' in English was in 1644.


title: Hammam

text: Public bathhouses were a prominent civic and urban institution in Roman and Hellenistic culture and were found throughout the Mediterranean world. They remained important in the cities of the early Byzantine Empire up to around the mid-6th century, after which the construction of new bathhouses declined and existing ones were gradually abandoned.


title: Hammam

text: Following the expansion of Arab Muslim rule over much of the Middle East and North Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries, the emerging Islamic societies were quick to adapt the hammam to their own needs. Its importance to Muslim society lay in the religious requirement to perform ablutions ("wudu" and "ghusl") before praying and because of the general Islamic emphasis on physical and spiritual purity, although the scholar Mohammed Hocine Benkheira has argued that hammams were not in fact necessary for religious purposes in early Islam and that this relationship was partly assumed by later historians. He suggests that the hammam's initial appeal derived at least in part from its convenience for other services (such as shaving), from its endorsement by some Muslim doctors as a form of therapy, and from the continued popular appreciation of its pleasures in a region where they had already existed for centuries. He also notes that there was initially strong opposition from many Islamic scholars ("ulama"), especially Maliki scholars, to the use of hammams. These scholars viewed hammams as unnecessary for full-body ablutions ("ghusl") and questioned whether public bathing spaces could be sufficiently clean to achieve proper purification. They also worried that spaces for collective bathing could become spaces for illicit sexual activity. Nevertheless, this opposition progressively faded and by the 9th century most scholars were no longer interested in debating the validity of hammams, although it continued to be seen with suspicion in some conservative circles.


title: Hammam

text: The earliest known Islamic hammams were built in Syria and Jordan during the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) as part of palaces and desert castles at Qusayr 'Amra, Hammam al-Sarah, Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, and Khirbat al-Majfar. Shortly after this period, archaeology reveals the existence of Islamic bathhouses across much of the Muslim world, with hammams appearing as far west as Volubilis (itself a former Roman colony) in Morocco during the Idrisid period (late 8th to early 9th centuries). Historical texts and archeological evidence also indicate the existence of hammams in Cordoba and other cities of al-Andalus in the 8th century. In Iran, which did not previously have a strong culture of public bathing, historical texts mention the existence of bathhouses in the 10th century as well as the use of hot springs for therapeutic purposes; however, there has been relatively little archeological investigation to document the early presence and development of hammams in this region.


title: Hammam

text: Muslims retained many of the main elements of the classical bathhouses while leaving out functions which were less relevant to their practices. For example, the progression from cold room to hot room was maintained, but it was no longer common practice to take a plunge in cold water after leaving the hot room, nor was exercise incorporated into bathing culture as it was in classical gymnasiums. Likewise, Muslim bathers usually washed themselves in running water rather than immersing themselves in standing water. Although in early Islamic history women did not normally patronise hammams, by around the 10th century many places started to provide separate hours (or separate facilities) for men and women. The hammam then took on an important role in women's social life as one of the few public spaces where they could gather and socialise apart from men. Some hammams were privately owned or formed parts of palaces and mansions, but in many cases they were civic or charitable institutions which formed part of larger religious/civic complexes. Such complexes were governed by "waqf" agreements, and hammams often acted as a source of revenue for the upkeep of other institutions such as mosques.


title: Hammam

text: In the 11th century the Seljuk Empire conquered much of Anatolia from the Byzantine Empire, eventually leading to the complete conquest of the remnants of the old empire in the 15th century. During those centuries of war, peace, alliance, trade and competition, these intermixing cultures (Eastern Roman, Islamic Persian and Turkic) had tremendous influence on each other.


title: Hammam

text: Later the Ottomans became prolific patrons of hammams. Since they were social centres as well as baths, they were built in almost every city across their European, Asian, and African territories. The Ottomans were thus responsible for introducing hammams to much of eastern and central Europe, where many still exist today in various states of restoration or disrepair. Such Turkish baths are found as far as Greece and Hungary. Many early Ottoman hammams survive in Bursa and Edirne, as well as in Eastern Europe and Anatolia, but hammams became even more numerous and architecturally ambitious in Constantinople (Istanbul), thanks to its royal patronage, its large population and its access to plentiful water. The city's Greek inhabitants had retained a strong Eastern Roman bath culture, with the Baths of Zeuxippus constituting one early example. Ottoman architects expanded on the experience of Byzantine architects to create particularly well-balanced designs with greater symmetry and regularity in the arrangement of space than could be seen in hammams in other parts of the Muslim world. Some of the city's oldest monumental hammams are the Tahtakale Hamam (probably built right after 1454), the Mahmut Pasha Hamam (built in 1466), and the Bayezid II Hamam (built some time between 1500 and 1507). The monumental hammams designed by the 16th-century Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan (1489–1588), such as the Çemberlitaş Hamamı, the Süleymaniye Hamam (in the complex of the Süleymaniye Mosque), and the Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam, are major examples of hammams that were built later in the era of classical Ottoman architecture. When Sultan Mustafa III issued a decree halting the construction of new public baths in the city in 1768, it seems to have resulted in an increase in the number of private hammams among the wealthy and the elites, especially in the Bosphorus suburbs where they built luxurious summer homes.


title: Hammam

text: In Iran, many examples of hammams survive from the Safavid period (16th–18th centuries) onward, with the historic city of Isfahan in particular containing many examples. The spread of Muslim rule in the Indian subcontinent also introduced hammams to this region, with many examples surviving in Mughal architecture (16th–19th centuries).


title: Hammam

text: Hammams continued to be a vital part of urban life in the Muslim world until the early 20th century when the spread of indoor plumbing in private homes rendered public baths unnecessary for personal hygiene. This has resulted in a decline in their use – although to varying degrees depending on regional cultural practices. In many regions hammams have been abandoned, demolished or converted to serve as commercial buildings or cultural venues. Some have been converted into museums or art galleries, as with the examples of the Bayezid II Hamam in Istanbul, which now houses a hammam museum, and the Davud Pasha (or Daut Pasha) Hamam in Skopje, North Macedonia.