title: Motion capture

text: These tracking tags work in natural lighting conditions and can be imperceptibly embedded in attire or other objects. The system supports an unlimited number of tags in a scene, with each tag uniquely identified to eliminate marker reacquisition issues. Since the system eliminates a high speed camera and the corresponding high-speed image stream, it requires significantly lower data bandwidth. The tags also provide incident illumination data which can be used to match scene lighting when inserting synthetic elements. The technique appears ideal for on-set motion capture or real-time broadcasting of virtual sets but has yet to be proven.


title: Motion capture

text: Motion capture technology has been available for researchers and scientists for a few decades, which has given new insight into many fields.


title: Motion capture

text: The vital part of the system, the underwater camera, has a waterproof housing. The housing has a finish that withstands corrosion and chlorine which makes it perfect for use in basins and swimming pools. There are two types of cameras. Industrial high-speed-cameras can also be used as infrared cameras. The infrared underwater cameras comes with a cyan light strobe instead of the typical IR light—for minimum falloff under water and the high-speed-cameras cone with an LED light or with the option of using image processing.


title: Motion capture

text: An underwater camera is typically able to measure 15–20 meters depending on the water quality, the camera and the type of marker used. Unsurprisingly, the best range is achieved when the water is clear, and like always, the measurement volume is also dependent on the number of cameras. A range of underwater markers are available for different circumstances.


title: Motion capture

text: Different pools require different mountings and fixtures. Therefore, all underwater motion capture systems are uniquely tailored to suit each specific pool installment. For cameras placed in the center of the pool, specially designed tripods, using suction cups, are provided.


title: Motion capture

text: Emerging techniques and research in computer vision are leading to the rapid development of the markerless approach to motion capture. Markerless systems such as those developed at Stanford University, the University of Maryland, MIT, and the Max Planck Institute, do not require subjects to wear special equipment for tracking. Special computer algorithms are designed to allow the system to analyze multiple streams of optical input and identify human forms, breaking them down into constituent parts for tracking. ESC entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Pictures created specially to enable virtual cinematography, including photorealistic digital look-alikes for filming "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" movies, used a technique called Universal Capture that utilized 7 camera setup and the tracking the optical flow of all pixels over all the 2-D planes of the cameras for motion, gesture and facial expression capture leading to photorealistic results.


title: Motion capture

text: Traditionally markerless optical motion tracking is used to keep track on various objects, including airplanes, launch vehicles, missiles and satellites. Many of such optical motion tracking applications occur outdoors, requiring differing lens and camera configurations. High resolution images of the target being tracked can thereby provide more information than just motion data. The image obtained from NASA's long-range tracking system on space shuttle Challenger's fatal launch provided crucial evidence about the cause of the accident. Optical tracking systems are also used to identify known spacecraft and space debris despite the fact that it has a disadvantage compared to radar in that the objects must be reflecting or emitting sufficient light.


title: Motion capture

text: An optical tracking system typically consists of three subsystems: the optical imaging system, the mechanical tracking platform and the tracking computer.


title: Motion capture

text: The optical imaging system is responsible for converting the light from the target area into digital image that the tracking computer can process. Depending on the design of the optical tracking system, the optical imaging system can vary from as simple as a standard digital camera to as specialized as an astronomical telescope on the top of a mountain. The specification of the optical imaging system determines the upper-limit of the effective range of the tracking system.


title: Motion capture

text: The mechanical tracking platform holds the optical imaging system and is responsible for manipulating the optical imaging system in such a way that it always points to the target being tracked. The dynamics of the mechanical tracking platform combined with the optical imaging system determines the tracking system's ability to keep the lock on a target that changes speed rapidly.


title: Motion capture

text: The tracking computer is responsible for capturing the images from the optical imaging system, analyzing the image to extract target position and controlling the mechanical tracking platform to follow the target. There are several challenges. First the tracking computer has to be able to capture the image at a relatively high frame rate. This posts a requirement on the bandwidth of the image capturing hardware. The second challenge is that the image processing software has to be able to extract the target image from its background and calculate its position. Several textbook image processing algorithms are designed for this task. This problem can be simplified if the tracking system can expect certain characteristics that is common in all the targets it will track. The next problem down the line is to control the tracking platform to follow the target. This is a typical control system design problem rather than a challenge, which involves modeling the system dynamics and designing controllers to control it. This will however become a challenge if the tracking platform the system has to work with is not designed for real-time.


title: Motion capture

text: The software that runs such systems are also customized for the corresponding hardware components. One example of such software is OpticTracker, which controls computerized telescopes to track moving objects at great distances, such as planes and satellites. Another option is the software SimiShape, which can also be used hybrid in combination with markers.


title: Motion capture

text: RGB-D cameras such as kinect captures both the color and depth images. By fusing the two images, 3D colored voxel can be captured, allowing motion capture of 3D human motion and human surface in real time.


title: Motion capture

text: Because of the use of a single-view camera, motions captured are usually noisy. Machine learning techniques have been proposed to automatically reconstruct such noisy motions into higher quality ones, using methods such as lazy learning and Gaussian models. Such method generate accurate enough motion for serious applications like ergonomic assessment.


title: Motion capture

text: Inertial motion capture technology is based on miniature inertial sensors, biomechanical models and sensor fusion algorithms. The motion data of the inertial sensors (inertial guidance system) is often transmitted wirelessly to a computer, where the motion is recorded or viewed. Most inertial systems use inertial measurement units (IMUs) containing a combination of gyroscope, magnetometer, and accelerometer, to measure rotational rates. These rotations are translated to a skeleton in the software. Much like optical markers, the more IMU sensors the more natural the data. No external cameras, emitters or markers are needed for relative motions, although they are required to give the absolute position of the user if desired. Inertial motion capture systems capture the full six degrees of freedom body motion of a human in real-time and can give limited direction information if they include a magnetic bearing sensor, although these are much lower resolution and susceptible to electromagnetic noise. Benefits of using Inertial systems include: capturing in a variety of environments including tight spaces, no solving, portability, and large capture areas. Disadvantages include lower positional accuracy and positional drift which can compound over time. These systems are similar to the Wii controllers but are more sensitive and have greater resolution and update rates. They can accurately measure the direction to the ground to within a degree. The popularity of inertial systems is rising amongst game developers, mainly because of the quick and easy set up resulting in a fast pipeline. A range of suits are now available from various manufacturers and base prices range from $1,000 to US$80,000.


title: Motion capture

text: Mechanical motion capture systems directly track body joint angles and are often referred to as exoskeleton motion capture systems, due to the way the sensors are attached to the body. A performer attaches the skeletal-like structure to their body and as they move so do the articulated mechanical parts, measuring the performer's relative motion. Mechanical motion capture systems are real-time, relatively low-cost, free from occlusion, and wireless (untethered) systems that have unlimited capture volume. Typically, they are rigid structures of jointed, straight metal or plastic rods linked together with potentiometers that articulate at the joints of the body. These suits tend to be in the $25,000 to $75,000 range plus an external absolute positioning system. Some suits provide limited force feedback or haptic input.


title: Motion capture

text: Magnetic systems calculate position and orientation by the relative magnetic flux of three orthogonal coils on both the transmitter and each receiver. The relative intensity of the voltage or current of the three coils allows these systems to calculate both range and orientation by meticulously mapping the tracking volume. The sensor output is 6DOF, which provides useful results obtained with two-thirds the number of markers required in optical systems; one on upper arm and one on lower arm for elbow position and angle. The markers are not occluded by nonmetallic objects but are susceptible to magnetic and electrical interference from metal objects in the environment, like rebar (steel reinforcing bars in concrete) or wiring, which affect the magnetic field, and electrical sources such as monitors, lights, cables and computers. The sensor response is nonlinear, especially toward edges of the capture area. The wiring from the sensors tends to preclude extreme performance movements. With magnetic systems, it is possible to monitor the results of a motion capture session in real time. The capture volumes for magnetic systems are dramatically smaller than they are for optical systems. With the magnetic systems, there is a distinction between alternating-current(AC) and direct-current(DC) systems: DC system uses square pulses, AC systems uses sine wave pulse.


title: Motion capture

text: Stretch sensors are flexible parallel plate capacitors that measure either stretch, bend, shear, or pressure and are typically produced from silicone. When the sensor stretches or squeezes its capacitance value changes. This data can be transmitted via Bluetooth or direct input and used to detect minute changes in body motion. Stretch sensors are unaffected by magnetic interference and are free from occlusion. The stretchable nature of the sensors also means they do not suffer from positional drift, which is common with inertial systems. Stretchable sensors, on the other hands, due to the material properties of their substrates and conducting materials, suffer from relatively high signal-to-noise ratio, requiring filtering or machine learning to make them usable for motion capture. These solutions result in higher latency when compared to alternative sensors.


title: Motion capture

text: Most traditional motion capture hardware vendors provide for some type of low resolution facial capture utilizing anywhere from 32 to 300 markers with either an active or passive marker system. All of these solutions are limited by the time it takes to apply the markers, calibrate the positions and process the data. Ultimately the technology also limits their resolution and raw output quality levels.


title: Motion capture

text: High fidelity facial motion capture, also known as performance capture, is the next generation of fidelity and is utilized to record the more complex movements in a human face in order to capture higher degrees of emotion. Facial capture is currently arranging itself in several distinct camps, including traditional motion capture data, blend shaped based solutions, capturing the actual topology of an actor's face, and proprietary systems.


title: Motion capture

text: The two main techniques are stationary systems with an array of cameras capturing the facial expressions from multiple angles and using software such as the stereo mesh solver from OpenCV to create a 3D surface mesh, or to use light arrays as well to calculate the surface normals from the variance in brightness as the light source, camera position or both are changed. These techniques tend to be only limited in feature resolution by the camera resolution, apparent object size and number of cameras. If the users face is 50 percent of the working area of the camera and a camera has megapixel resolution, then sub millimeter facial motions can be detected by comparing frames. Recent work is focusing on increasing the frame rates and doing optical flow to allow the motions to be retargeted to other computer generated faces, rather than just making a 3D Mesh of the actor and their expressions.


title: Motion capture

text: RF (radio frequency) positioning systems are becoming more viable as higher frequency RF devices allow greater precision than older RF technologies such as traditional radar. The speed of light is 30 centimeters per nanosecond (billionth of a second), so a 10 gigahertz (billion cycles per second) RF signal enables an accuracy of about 3 centimeters. By measuring amplitude to a quarter wavelength, it is possible to improve the resolution down to about 8 mm. To achieve the resolution of optical systems, frequencies of 50 gigahertz or higher are needed, which are almost as dependant on line of sight and as easy to block as optical systems. Multipath and reradiation of the signal are likely to cause additional problems, but these technologies will be ideal for tracking larger volumes with reasonable accuracy, since the required resolution at 100 meter distances is not likely to be as high. Many RF scientists believe that radio frequency will never produce the accuracy required for motion capture.


title: Motion capture

text: Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers said in 2015 that they had made a system that tracks motion by RF signals, called RF Tracking.


title: Motion capture

text: An alternative approach was developed where the actor is given an unlimited walking area through the use of a rotating sphere, similar to a hamster ball, which contains internal sensors recording the angular movements, removing the need for external cameras and other equipment. Even though this technology could potentially lead to much lower costs for motion capture, the basic sphere is only capable of recording a single continuous direction. Additional sensors worn on the person would be needed to record anything more.


title: Motion capture

text: Another alternative is using a 6DOF (Degrees of freedom) motion platform with an integrated omni-directional treadmill with high resolution optical motion capture to achieve the same effect. The captured person can walk in an unlimited area, negotiating different uneven terrains. Applications include medical rehabilitation for balance training, bio-mechanical research and virtual reality.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: Kim Joo-hun (; born March 1, 1980) is a South Korean theater, television and movie actor. He debuted in 2009 in Korean adaptation of stage play Marat Sade and become member of Alleyway Theater Company until 2014.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: He is best known for his roles in television series "Encounter" (2018), "Dr. Romantic 2" (2020), "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" (2020), "Now, We Are Breaking Up" (2021), and "Big Mouth" (2022).


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: Kim was born in South Korea on March 1, 1980. Kim studied at the Seoul Institute of the Arts where he received bachelor degree from the Department of Theater and Film. He used to be more interested in the film class and just doing only few theater works. His debut as an actor was in an independent short black and white film "A Matter of Principle" in 2008.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: One day when Kim and actor Shim Jae-hyun were working in a school play, they were approached by Professor Park Geun-hyung. He was one of university professor of the Seoul Institute of the Arts and also leader of Alleyway Theater Company. They were invited to see his play. Those lead Kim into theater world. He soon debuted in a play in Korean adaptation of "Marat, Sade" (2009) by playwright Peter Weiss under direction of Park Geun-hyung himself, produced by the Seoul Theater Company. Since then Kim became member of Alleyway Theater Company.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: In 10th Anniversary Festival of Alleyway Theater Company in 2013, original Korean two person play "Raising the Sun in the Sky" by playwright Kwon Tae was performed. Kim acted as main lead poet Lee Sang. Under direction of Lee Eun-joon. This work properly imprinted the name of Kim Joo-heon in theater world, by winning the 11th Drama Festival Acting Award.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: In the same year he acted in minor role in feature film "Way Back Home" (2013). Kim left Alleyway Theater Company in 2014 and took hiatus as theater actor for around three years. Within those years, Kim still accepted minor roles in various films. He subsequently appeared in "The Con Artists" (2014), "" (2015), "Planck Constant" (2015), "The Accidental Detective" (2015), "A Violent Prosecutor" (2016), and a box office film "Train to Busan" (2016). He also debuted in television with minor roles in OCN drama series "Squad 38".


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: In spring 2017, Kim returned to Daehak-ro as Håkon Håkonsson, King-elect of Norway in a premiere of Korean adaptation of play "The Pretenders", titled "The Claimers of the Crown." The play produced by the Seoul Theater Company and performed at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts M Theater.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: In autumn 2017, Kim starred as French Diplomat, Rene Gallimard in a third korean adaptation of David Henry Hwang’s "M. Butterfly," at the Art One Theater Hall 1.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: Kim also became a scene stealer in tvN drama "Argon" (2017) as Ahn Jae-geun, a whistleblower at Seomyoung Foods. Kim became known to general television audiences in end of 2018 after starring as Lee Dae-chan in tvN drama series "Encounter" (2018) alongside Park Bo-gum and Song He-kyo. Before starting this drama, in October 2018, he signed an exclusive contract with his current agency, S.A.L.T Entertainment.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: In 2020, Kim joined Season 2 of SBS drama series in "Romantic Doctor Kim Sa Bu", as Park Min-kook, a professor of general surgery and the new director of Doldam Hospital who think of Kim Sa Bu, starred Han Suk-kyu, as his rival. His solid performance won Best Supporting Actor in 2020 SBS Drama Awards.


title: Kim Joo-hun

text: He also begin to be recognized internationally for his role in tvN & Netflix drama series "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" (2020). He starred as Lee Sang-in, the CEO of SangsangESang Publishing Company, which publishes Moon-young's children's books. He also starred as lead role in short film Untact alongside Kim Go-eun.


title: Evergrande Group

text: The China Evergrande Group is the second largest property developer in China by sales. It is ranked 122nd on the "Fortune" Global 500. It is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, and headquartered in the Houhai Financial Center in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. It was founded in 1996 by Xu Jiayin. It sells apartments mostly to upper- and middle-income dwellers. In 2018, it became the most valuable real estate company in the world.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In 2021, the payments Evergrande had to make on its debt started the 2020–2022 Chinese property sector crisis; Evergrande's total debts were estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars. This was one of the reasons for a drop in many stock market indices on September 20, 2021. At the end of 2021, the Chinese government was reportedly working to restructure Evergrande in order to resolve the crisis. The group also sought a moratorium on the early repayment option on one of its yuan-denominated bonds from its bondholders on 7 January 2022.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In April 2022, Reuters reported that construction had been started again at many projects and that the company still had liabilities of US$300 billion.


title: Evergrande Group

text: Formerly called the Hengda Group, Evergrande was founded by Xu Jiayin in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 1996, during a period of mass urbanization in China.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In October 2009, the company raised $722 million U.S. in an initial public offering on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK).


title: Evergrande Group

text: In 2022, the company announced it would move its headquarters to Guangzhou due to a need to reduce spending.


title: Evergrande Group

text: Evergrande Group owns of development land and real estate projects in 22 cities, including Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Changsha, Nanning, Xian, Taiyuan and Guiyang in Mainland China. Notable projects by the company include Ocean Flower Island in Hainan.


title: Evergrande Group

text: Evergrande Real Estate is the second-largest real estate developer in Mainland China. It is known as "Wan Heng Bi" with the other two top three real estate companies: Vanke ("Wan"ke) and Country Garden ("Bi"guiyuan). The firm has developed projects in over 170 cities in Mainland China.


title: Evergrande Group

text: Evergrande owns two major theme park brands "Hengda children of the world", "Hengda water world", and Hainan has a large tourist complex "Chinese island of Hainan to spend". The under-construction Ocean Flower Island in Hainan is one of its major projects.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In 2010, it acquired football club Guangzhou Evergrande F.C. and invested heavily to acquire top players. In 2013, under Marcello Lippi, the club won the 2013 AFC Champions League. Alibaba also has a 50% stake in the football club.


title: Evergrande Group

text: On 16 April 2020, Evergrande opened the construction of Guangzhou Evergrande Football Stadium in Xie Village, Panyu District, Guangzhou.


title: Evergrande Group

text: The company was a sponsor of the Women's Guangdong Evergrande Volleyball Club, terminating their contract after 8 years in October 2021.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In 2018, Evergrande acquired a 45% stake in electric vehicle company Faraday Future for $2 billion through its Evergrande Health subsidiary.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In July 2019, the company partnered with State Grid Corporation of China to develop electric vehicle charging stations. Later in November 2019, Evergrande announced that it would invest ¥45 billion over the following three years to develop new energy vehicles, build three production bases in Nansha, Guangzhou and Shanghai, and launch electric vehicles branded as "Evergrande New Energy Vehicle" in 2020, creating the Hengchi electric vehicle brand.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In June 2020, Evergrande Group acquired the remaining 49% of NEVS for $380 million, after having acquired 51% of the shares for $931 million in 2019. Evergrande NEV has stated that it will start making electric cars by 2022.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In March 2015, Evergrande acquired New Media Group Holdings and renamed it Evergrande Health. Evergrande Health Group operates the "Evergrande Health Valley" in Nanning. The Health Valley is a health and wellness park, and retirement community. It also works with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts to manage Boao Evergrande International Hospital in Hainan.


title: Evergrande Group

text: Evergrande Health is both a division and a listed company. However, the listed company portion was renamed into China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Limited in August 2020.


title: Evergrande Group

text: The health division is still part of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Limited and in turn part of Evergrande Group as of 2021.


title: Evergrande Group

text: HengTen Networks was formed in 2015 in partnership with Tencent. In October 2020, HengTen Networks announced that it would acquire Ruyi Pictures for HK$7.2 billion. In August 2021, the company sold a 7% stake in HengTen to Tencent for US$418 million. Later in 2021, Evergrande sold off its remaining stake in HengTen, ending their relationship with Tencent.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In November 2015, Evergrande acquired a 50% stake in Sino-Singapore Great Eastern Life Insurance Company for $617 million and changed its name to Evergrande Life. It also owns shares in Shengjing Bank. Evergrande has also sold wealth management products to consumers.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In 2014, Evergrande Group launched its "Hengda Bingquan" (later "Evergrande Spring") mineral water brand and invested ¥5.54 billion in it, including hiring Jackie Chan to promote the brand. Evergrande's water brand received significant negative attention from Korean consumers, as the water source on the label was listed as "Jang bai shan" (Changbai mountains) rather than the Korean name "Mount Baekdusan." The use of the Chinese name of the mountain—which borders China and North Korea—is a point of stress between China and South Korea.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In September 2016, after a loss of ¥4 billion, Evergrande sold its agribusiness units, which included its mineral water brand, dairy business, and grain and oil business, for ¥2.7 billion. Later that year, Evergrande announced it was investing ¥300 million to build more than 110 pig farms in southwestern Guizhou province.


title: Evergrande Group

text: In 2016, the Hong Kong Market Misconduct Tribunal suspended American short seller and Citron Research founder Andrew Left for five years, due to the publication of a highly critical report on the company, "finding him culpable of disclosing false or misleading information inducing transactions under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) in the publication of a research report on Evergrande Real Estate Group Limited (Evergrande) in June 2012." The trading ban "has raised concerns over freedom of speech in Hong Kong’s financial markets" according to the "New York Times".


title: Evergrande Group

text: In summer of 2021, payments due on its debt, estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars, resulted in the Evergrande liquidity crisis. This was one of the reasons for a drop in many stock market indices on 20 September 2021. On 21 October, 2021, Evergrande announced that a $2.6 billion asset sale that would have been used to pay an $83 million interest payment it missed in September, 2021 had failed to close. On 10 November 2021, Evergrande defaulted on 3 more bonds after missing the grace period for interest payments. Although major news outlets reported they fulfilled the payments after the deadline, these claims can not be verified because anonymous sources are cited in the major financial media outlets about the bond payments since September.


title: Evergrande Group

text: Although the scale of debt is huge, from the perspective of financial data alone, Evergrande has not yet reached the point of "insolvency". According to the aforementioned financial report, Evergrande's current land reserve is worth RMB 456.8 billion, and together with 146 old reform projects, the total value of the land reserve is nearly RMB 2 trillion. In addition, there are many completed commercial properties and holdings, such as the headquarters building in Hong Kong, worth around RMB 10 billion.


title: Evergrande Group

text: On 17 December 2021, Evergrande was officially declared to be in default by S&P Global after missing a bond payment earlier in the month. On 3 January 2022, Evergrande shares were suspended from trading, without a reason being provided by the company. They resumed trading a day later and stock prices rose by 10%. On 15 March 2022, Evergrande's share price sank to a new all-time low of HK$1.16 (US$0.15), down from a high of over HK$31 in October 2017.


title: Evergrande Group

text: On 30 March 2022, Evergrande announced the decision to sell its Crystal City Project in Hangzhou for 3.66 billion yuan to Zhejiang Zhejian Real Estate Group and Zhejiang Construction Engineering Group, using the proceeds to repay construction debt of 920.7 million yuan to Zhejiang Construction Engineering. The deal is expected to post a gain of about 216 million yuan.


title: Anencephaly

text: Anencephaly is the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp that occurs during embryonic development. It is a cephalic disorder that results from a neural tube defect that occurs when the rostral (head) end of the neural tube fails to close, usually between the 23rd and 26th day following conception. Strictly speaking, the Greek term translates as "without a brain" (or totally lacking the inside part of the head), but it is accepted that children born with this disorder usually only lack a telencephalon, the largest part of the brain consisting mainly of the cerebral hemispheres, including the neocortex, which is responsible for cognition. The remaining structure is usually covered only by a thin layer of membrane—skin, bone, meninges, etc., are all lacking. With very few exceptions, infants with this disorder do not survive longer than a few hours or days after birth.


title: Anencephaly

text: The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) describes the presentation of this condition as follows: "A baby born with anencephaly is usually blind, deaf, unaware of its surroundings and unable to feel pain. Although some individuals with anencephaly may be born with a main brain stem, the lack of a functioning cerebrum permanently rules out the possibility of ever gaining awareness of their surroundings. Reflex actions such as breathing and responses to sound or touch may occur."


title: Anencephaly

text: Due to the presence of the brainstem, children with anencephaly have almost all the primitive reflexes of a newborn, responding to auditory, vestibular and painful stimuli. This means that the child can move, smile, suckle and breathe without the aid of devices.


title: Anencephaly

text: Folic acid has been shown to be important in neural tube formation since at least 1991, and as a subtype of neural tube defect, folic acid may play a role in anencephaly. Studies have shown that the addition of folic acid to the diet of women of child-bearing age may significantly reduce, although not eliminate, the incidence of neural tube defects. Therefore, it is recommended that all women of child-bearing age consume 0.4 mg of folic acid daily, especially those attempting to conceive or who may possibly conceive, as this can reduce the risk to 0.03%. It is not advisable to wait until pregnancy has begun, since, by the time a woman knows she is pregnant, the critical time for the formation of a neural tube defect has usually already passed. A physician may prescribe even higher dosages of folic acid (5 mg/day) for women having had a previous pregnancy with a neural tube defect.


title: Anencephaly

text: Neural tube defects can follow patterns of heredity, with direct evidence of autosomal recessive inheritance. As reported by Bruno Reversade and colleagues, the homozygous inactivation of the NUAK2 kinase leads to anencephaly in humans. Animal models indicate a possible association with deficiencies of the transcription factor TEAD2. Studies show that a woman who has had one child with a neural tube defect such as anencephaly has about a 3% risk of having another child with a neural tube defect, as opposed to the background rate of 0.1% occurrence in the population at large. Genetic counseling is usually offered to women at a higher risk of having a child with a neural tube defect to discuss available testing.


title: Anencephaly

text: It is known that people taking certain anticonvulsants and people with insulin-dependent diabetes have a higher risk of having a child with a neural tube defect.


title: Anencephaly

text: Until recently, medical literature did not indicate a connection among many genetic disorders, both genetic syndromes and genetic diseases, that are now being found to be related. As a result of new genetic research, some of these are, in fact, highly related in their root cause despite the widely varying set of medical symptoms that are clinically visible in the disorders. Anencephaly is one such disease, part of an emerging class of diseases called ciliopathies. The underlying cause may be a dysfunctional molecular mechanism in the primary cilia structures of the cell, organelles present in many cellular types throughout the human body. The cilia defects adversely affect "numerous critical developmental signaling pathways" essential to cellular development and, thus, offer a plausible hypothesis for the often multi-symptom nature of a large set of syndromes and diseases. Known ciliopathies include primary ciliary dyskinesia, Bardet–Biedl syndrome, polycystic kidney and liver disease, nephronophthisis, Alström syndrome, Meckel–Gruber syndrome, and some forms of retinal degeneration.


title: Anencephaly

text: Anencephaly can often be diagnosed before birth through an ultrasound examination. The maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP screening) and detailed fetal ultrasound can be useful for screening for neural tube defects such as spina bifida or anencephaly.


title: Anencephaly

text: Meroanencephaly is a rare form of anencephaly characterized by malformed cranial bones, a median cranial defect, and a cranial protrusion called area cerebrovasculosa. Area cerebrovasculosa is a section of abnormal, spongy, vascular tissue admixed with glial tissue ranging from simply a membrane to a large mass of connective tissue, hemorrhagic vascular channels, glial nodules, and disorganized choroid plexuses.


title: Anencephaly

text: The most common type of anencephaly, where the brain has entirely failed to form, except for the brain stem. Infants rarely survive more than one day after birth with holoanencephaly.


title: Anencephaly

text: The most severe type of anencephaly where area cerebrovasculosa and area medullovasculosa fill both cranial defects and the spinal column. Craniorachischisis is characterized by anencephaly accompanied by bony defects in the spine and the exposure of neural tissue as the vault of the skull fails to form. Craniorachischisis occurs in about 1 of every 1000 live births, but various physical and chemical tests can detect neural tube closure during early pregnancy.


title: Anencephaly

text: There is no cure or standard treatment for anencephaly. Prognosis is extremely poor, as many anencephalic fetuses do not survive birth and infants that are not stillborn will usually die within a few hours or days after birth from cardiorespiratory arrest.


title: Anencephaly

text: In the United States, anencephaly occurs in about 1 out of every 10,000 births. Rates may be higher among Africans with rates in Nigeria estimated at 3 per 10,000 in 1990 while rates in Ghana estimated at 8 per 10,000 in 1992. Rates in China are estimated at 5 per 10,000.


title: Anencephaly

text: One issue concerning anencephalic newborns is organ donation. Initial legal guidance came from the case of Baby Theresa in 1992, in which the boundaries of organ donation were tested for the first time. Infant organs are scarce, and the high demand for pediatric organ transplants poses a major public health issue. In 1999, it was found that for American children under the age of two who are waiting for a transplant, 30–50% die before an organ becomes available.


title: Anencephaly

text: Within the medical community, the main ethical issues with organ donation are a misdiagnosis of anencephaly, the slippery slope argument, that anencephalic neonates would rarely be a source of organs, and that it would undermine confidence in organ transplantation. Slippery slope concerns are a major issue in personhood debates, across the board. In regards to anencephaly, those who oppose organ donation argue that it could open the door for involuntary organ donors such as an elderly person with severe dementia. Another point of contention is the number of children who would actually benefit. There are discrepancies in statistics; however, it is known that most anencephalic children are stillborn.


title: Anencephaly

text: Proposals have been made to bypass the legal and ethical issues surrounding organ donation. These include waiting for death to occur before procuring organs, expanding the definition of death, creating a special legal category for anencephalic infants, and defining them as non-persons.


title: Anencephaly

text: In the United Kingdom, a child born with anencephaly was reported as the country's youngest organ donor. Teddy Houlston was diagnosed as anencephalic at 12 weeks of gestation. His parents, Jess Evans and Mike Houlston, decided against abortion and instead proposed organ donation. Teddy was born on 22 April 2014, in Cardiff, Wales, and lived for 100 minutes, after which his heart and kidneys were removed. His kidneys were later transplanted into an adult in Leeds. Teddy's twin, Noah, was born healthy.


title: Anencephaly

text: There are four different concepts used to determine brain death: failure of heart, failure of lungs, whole brain death, and neocortical death.


title: Anencephaly

text: Neocortical death, similar to a persistent vegetative state (PVS), involves loss of cognitive functioning of the brain. A proposal by law professor David Randolph Smith, in an attempt to prove that neocortical death should legally be treated the same as brain death, involved PET scans to determine the similarities. However, this proposal has been criticized on the basis that confirming neocortical death by PET scan may risk indeterminacy.


title: Anencephaly

text: Anencephaly can be diagnosed before delivery with a high degree of accuracy. Although anencephaly is a fatal condition, the option of abortion is dependent on the abortion laws in the state. According to a 2013 report, 26% of the world's population reside in a country where abortion is generally prohibited. In 2012, Brazil extended the right of abortion to mothers with anencephalic fetuses. This decision is, however, receiving much disapproval by several religious groups.


title: Anencephaly

text: The case of baby Theresa was the beginning of the ethical debate over anencephalic infant organ donation. The story of baby Theresa remains a focus of basic moral philosophy. Baby Theresa was born with anencephaly in 1992. Her parents, knowing that their child was going to die, requested that her organs be given for transplantation. Although her physicians agreed, Florida law prohibited the infant's organs from being removed while she was still alive. By the time she died nine days after birth, her organs had deteriorated past the point of being viable.


title: Anencephaly

text: The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) is a model bill, adopted by many US states, stating that an individual who has sustained either 1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or 2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. This bill was a result of much debate over the definition of death and is applicable to the debate over anencephaly. A related bill, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA), grants individuals and, after death, their family members the right to decide whether or not to donate organs. Because it is against the law for any person to pay money for an organ, the person in need of an organ transplant must rely on a volunteer.


title: Anencephaly

text: There have been two state bills that proposed to change current laws regarding death and organ donation. California Senate Bill 2018 proposed to amend the UDDA to define anencephalic infants as already dead, while New Jersey Assembly Bill 3367 proposed to allow anencephalic infants to be organ sources even if they are not dead.


title: Anencephaly

text: Some genetic research has been conducted to determine the causes of anencephaly. It has been found that cartilage homeoprotein (CART1) is selectively expressed in chondrocytes (cartilage cells). The CART1 gene to chromosome 12q21.3–q22 has been mapped. Also, it has been found that mice homozygous for deficiency in the Cart1 gene manifested acrania and meroanencephaly, and prenatal treatment with folic acid will suppress acrania and meroanencephaly in the Cart1-deficient mutants.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main tenant is Salesforce, a cloud-based software company. The building is tall, with a top roof height of . Designed by César Pelli and developed by Hines Interests Limited Partnership and Boston Properties, it was the last building designed by Pelli to be completed in his lifetime. As of 2018, Salesforce Tower is the tallest building in San Francisco and the second-tallest building west of the Mississippi River after the Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: Salesforce Tower is obelisk-shaped, with a grid of metal fins running from the base of the building to the roof. The building sits on a land fill, and multiple load-bearing pillars reach below the foundation and into bedrock. The exterior of the building consists of a glass and steel curtain wall with a steel frame and a concrete core. Each floor of the building uses "brise soleil" to deflect sunlight. Salesforce Tower is designed to be a green building, with the building employing water conservation measures and air intake systems. A public art light sculpture at the top of the building, consisting of 11,000 LEDs, displays video animations every evening that can be seen from up to 30 miles away.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: Throughout the 2000s, the city of San Francisco invested into a redevelopment plan in the area surrounding the Transbay Transit Center. The plan was adopted by the city in 2005, and following an architectural design competition in 2007, Pelli became the chief architect behind the plan. In 2011, the San Francisco Transbay Terminal was completely demolished, beginning the plan, and in 2013, construction on the building began. Salesforce Tower was completed in 2018 for over $1.1 billion. By 2019, Boston Properties had acquired 100% of the property.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: Salesforce Tower is located at 415 Mission Street, at the intersection of First and Fremont Street, south of Market Street and within the Financial District of San Francisco. The building's land lot is rectangular and covers , while its frontage is .


title: Salesforce Tower

text: Salesforce Tower is adjacent to the Transbay Transit Center, a transit station that replaced the San Francisco Transbay Terminal, which had been severely damaged as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and served as the central focus of the San Francisco redevelopment plan. The building is located near Millennium Tower.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: Salesforce Tower was designed by Argentine-American architect César Pelli and developed by Hines Interests Limited Partnership and Boston Properties. It was one of Pelli's last finished works before his death in 2019. Other companies involved with the project include glass manufacturer Guardian Industries, plumbing manufacturer Kohler Co., elevator manufacturer Schindler Group, engineering consultant Morrison Hershfield, and structural engineering firm Magnusson Klemencic Associates. As of 2019, Boston Properties owns the building.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: Salesforce Tower is 61 stories tall, and covers of floorspace. The 61st floor is known as the "Ohana Floor" and serves as an observation deck and lounge for Salesforce employees and guests. It is made available for use by nonprofits on evenings and weekends. On February 5, 2019, the company announced and opened advance registration for public tours of the "Ohana Floor" once every month starting February 23. The building's top 150 feet above the 61st floor have been described as "largely ornamental".


title: Salesforce Tower

text: The Salesforce Tower consists of a glass and steel curtain wall, surrounding a structural steel frame, which surrounds a reinforced concrete core. The building is enclosed in a lattice consisting of white aluminum fins and perforated sunshades, which reach out as much as two feet beyond the glass skin. The tower's silhouette is smoothly tapering off toward the top.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: In 2017, Pelli stated that the aim had been something "very tall, very big, but still polite and appropriate."


title: Salesforce Tower

text: The footprint of Salesforce Tower rests on land fill near San Francisco's original waterfront, an area prone to soil liquefaction during earthquakes. To account for this seismic risk, the tower uses a design that is modeled to withstand the strongest earthquakes expected in the region. Its foundation includes 42 piles driven down nearly to bedrock and a thick foundation mat.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: The Transbay Transit Center is located directly adjacent to the building, and is connected to the park level by a bridge on the 5th floor.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: The crown of the tower features a nine-story electronic light sculpture, "Day for Night", by artist Jim Campbell. At its activation on May 21, 2018, it was considered the tallest public art piece in the world, visible from up to 30 miles away. At the time, its daily schedule began at dusk with a display of the sunset's colors, followed by low resolution videos derived from footage filmed during the day by 12 cameras in various San Francisco locations (including the Ferry Building and the Cliff House), and concluded with displaying a star constellation from midnight to sunrise. The installation went toward fulfilling the requirement of San Francisco's "Downtown Plan" that one percent of construction costs have to be set aside for public art. The animations are generated by 11,000 inward-facing LED lights on the top six floors (which are unoccupied), supported by color lighting on the three floors below them (which house building infrastructure).


title: Salesforce Tower

text: By 2022, "Day for Night" was also featuring monthly "Midnight Artist Series" by other artists, and sometimes themed content for occasions such as Lunar New Year or Pride. For Halloween 2018, in response to a petition that gathered 11,000 signatures, the light installation was made to look like the Eye of Sauron. As of 2021, this has happened on every subsequent Halloween, too.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: Developer Hines Interests Limited Partnership, with a proposal by architect César Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, was selected as the winner of a global competition in 2007 to entitle and purchase the site. A seven-member jury of development experts assembled by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) selected Hines over proposals from Forest City Enterprises and architect Richard Rogers; and from Rockefeller Development Group Corp. and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In 2012, Boston Properties acquired a 50% stake in the project and in 2013 acquired most of Hines' remaining interest to become 95% owners of the project.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: The site of the tower was in a dilapidated area, formerly used as a ground-level entrance to the San Francisco Transbay Terminal, which was demolished in 2011. The TJPA sold the parcel to Boston Properties and Hines for US$192 million, and ceremonial groundbreaking for the new tower occurred on March 27, 2013, with below-grade construction work starting in late 2013. The project is a joint venture between general contractors Clark Construction and Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: The development was originally contracted on spec, as Hines did not have a major tenant lease secured beforehand. On April 11, 2014, Salesforce.com announced that it signed a lease for to become the building's anchor tenant. Previously known as the Transbay Tower, the building was renamed Salesforce Tower. The lease was valued at US$560 million over years starting in 2017.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: The tower opened in 2018 and has 61 floors, with a decorative crown reaching . The original proposal called for a tower, but the height was later reduced. The building's first tenants began moving in on January 8, 2018. Upon opening, the building was 97% leased to tenants including Salesforce, Covington & Burling, WeWork, Bain & Company, Accenture, McDermott Will & Emery and Hellman & Friedman.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: In May 2019, Boston Properties bought out Hines' remaining 5% stake in the building to become the sole owner and operator.


title: Salesforce Tower

text: At the time of the building's opening in January 2018, the San Francisco Chronicle's architecture critic John King characterized it as "Immense but understated. Overwhelming yet refined. A study in thick-walled minimalism that seems to hover more than soar. All of which makes for a nuanced tower, conscientious and self-assured even as it reorients the skyline and redefines San Francisco’s visual image." King also reported that "[a]rchitecture buffs already dismiss Salesforce Tower as old hat, another Pelli Clarke Pelli shaft with a tapered silhouette — just like the International Finance Centre in Hong Kong or Torre Costanera in Santiago, Chile" (the tallest building in South America). However, he defended it against such criticism, pointing out differences like the Salesforce Tower's "smooth ascent".


title: Salesforce Tower

text: On 10 April 2019, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) named Salesforce Tower as the “Best Tall Building Worldwide" for 2019.


title: Tagliatelle

text: Tagliatelle (; from the Italian "tagliare", meaning "to cut") are a traditional type of pasta from the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions of Italy. Individual pieces of "tagliatelle" are long, flat ribbons that are similar in shape to fettuccine and are traditionally about wide. "Tagliatelle" can be served with a variety of sauces, though the classic is a meat sauce or Bolognese sauce.


title: Tagliatelle

text: Tagliatelle are traditionally made with egg pasta. The traditional ratio is one egg to one hundred grams of flour.


title: Tagliatelle

text: Legend has it that tagliatelle was created by a talented court chef, who was inspired by Lucrezia d'Este's hairdo on the occasion of her marriage to Annibale II Bentivoglio, in 1487. In reality, this was a joke invented by humorist Augusto Majani in 1931.


title: Tagliatelle

text: The recipe was called "tagliolini di pasta e sugo, alla maniera di Zafiran" (tagliolini of pasta and sauce in the manner of Zafiran) and it was served on silver plates. Over the years, tagliatelle has become considered a more common food.


title: Tagliatelle

text: A glass case in the Bologna Chamber of Commerce holds a solid gold replica of a piece of tagliatella, demonstrating the correct width of when cooked, equivalent to uncooked, depending on the hardness of the dough.


title: Tagliatelle

text: The texture is porous and rough, making it ideal for thick sauces, generally made with beef, veal, or pork (such as bolognese sauce), and occasionally with rabbit, as well as several other less rich (and more vegetarian) options, such as "briciole e noci" (with breadcrumbs and nuts), "uovo e formaggio" (with eggs and cheese), or simply "pomodoro e basilico" (with tomatoes and basil).


title: Morchella

text: Morchella, the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales (division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges with pits composing their caps. Morels are prized by gourmet cooks, particularly in Catalan and French cuisine. Due to difficulties in cultivation, commercial harvesting of wild morels has become a multimillion-dollar industry in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in particular North America, Turkey, China, the Himalayas, India, and Pakistan where these highly prized fungi are found in abundance.


title: Morchella

text: Typified by "Morchella esculenta" in 1794, the genus has been the source of considerable taxonomical controversy throughout the years, mostly with regard to the number of species involved, with some mycologists recognising as few as three species and others over thirty. Current molecular phylogenetics suggest there might be over seventy species of "Morchella" worldwide, most of them exhibiting high continental endemism and provincialism.


title: Morchella

text: The genus is currently the focus of extensive phylogenetic, biogeographical, taxonomical and nomenclatural studies, and several new species have been described from Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Israel, Spain, and Turkey.


title: Morchella

text: "Morchella" Dill. ex Pers. : Fr. was typified by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1794, with "Morchella esculenta" designated as the type species for the genus. Among early pioneers who took an interest in the genus, were mycologists Julius Vincenz von Krombholz and Émile Boudier, who, in 1834 and 1897 respectively, published several species and varieties, accompanied by meticulously illustrated iconographic plates. The seminal taxon "Morchella elata", whose true identity still remains unresolved, was described by Elias Fries in 1822, from a fir forest in Sweden. Other classical, early-proposed names include "Morchella deliciosa", also described by Fries in 1822, "Morchella semilibera", the half-free morel, originally described by de Candolle and sanctioned by Fries in 1822, "Morchella vulgaris", which was recombined by Samuel Gray as a distinct species in 1821 following a "forma" of "M. esculenta" previously proposed by Persoon, and "Morchella angusticeps", a large-spored species described by American mycologist Charles Peck in 1887. "Morchella purpurascens", the purple morel, was first described by Boudier as a variety of "M. elata" in 1897 based on an 1834 plate by Krombholz, and was recombined as a distinct species in 1985 by Emile Jacquetant. "Morchella eximia", a globally-occurring fire-associated species was also described by Boudier in 1910. The old, widely applied name "Morchella conica", featuring in many field guides and literature across several countries, has been shown by Richard and colleagues to be illegitimate.


title: Morchella

text: Early phylogenetic analyses supported the hypothesis that the genus comprises only a few species with considerable phenotypic variation. Subsequent multigenic DNA studies, however, have revealed more than a dozen genealogically distinct species in North America and at least as many in Europe. DNA studies revealed three discrete clades, or genetic groups, consisting of the "white morels" ("Morchella rufobrunnea" and "Morchella anatolica"), the "yellow morels" ("Morchella esculenta" and others), and the "black morels" ("Morchella elata" and others). The fire-associated species "Morchella tomentosa", commonly known as the "gray morel", is distinct for its fine hairs on the cap ridges and sclerotia-like underground structures, and may also deserve its own clade based on DNA evidence. Within the yellow and black clades, there are dozens of distinct species, many endemic to individual continents or regions. This species-rich view is supported by studies in Western Europe, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, China, Patagonia, and the Himalayas.


title: Morchella

text: The fruit bodies of "Morchella" species are highly polymorphic, varying in shape, color, and size. While in many cases they do not exhibit clear-cut distinguishing features microscopically, this has historically contributed to uncertainties in taxonomy. Discriminating between the various taxa described is further hindered by uncertainty over which of these are truly biologically distinct. Remarkably, some authors in the past had suggested that the genus contains as few as 3 to 6 species, while others recognised as many as 34. Efforts to clarify the situation and re-evaluate old classical names (such as "Morchella elata" and others) in accordance to current phylogenetic data have been challenging, due to vague or ambiguous original descriptions and loss of holotype material. In 2012, the simultaneous description of several new taxa from Europe by Clowez and North America by Kuo and colleagues resulted in several synonymities further complicating matters, until a transatlantic study by Richard and colleagues resolved many of these issues in 2014. The genus is currently undergoing extensive re-evaluation with regards to the taxonomic status of several species.


title: Morchella

text: About 80 species of "Morchella" were described until the turn of the 21st century (http://www.indexfungorum.org/), a number of which were later shown to be illegitimate or synonyms. As molecular tools became widely available in the new millennium, a revived interest in the genus commenced and several new species were proposed. In 2008 Kuo described "Morchella tomentosa" from burned coniferous forests in western North America. In 2010 Işiloğlu and colleagues described "Morchella anatolica", a basal species from Turkey later shown to be sister to "Morchella rufobrunnea". A study by Clowez described over 20 new species in 2012, while later in the same year, another study by Kuo and colleagues described 19 species from North America. However, several of these newly proposed names later turned out to be synonyms. An extensive taxonomical and nomenclatural revision of the genus provided by Richard and colleagues in 2014, applied names to 30 of the genealogical lineages recognized so far and clarified several synonymities. Also in 2014, Elliott and colleagues described "Morchella australiana" from sclerophyll forests in Australia, while Clowez and colleagues described "Morchella fluvialis" from riparian forests in Spain.


title: Morchella

text: In 2015, Loizides and colleagues clarified the taxonomy of "Morchella tridentina", a cosmopolitan species described under many names, and recombined "Morchella kakiicolor" as a distinct species. Later in the same year, Clowez and colleagues described "Morchella palazonii" from Spain, while Voitk and colleagues described "Morchella laurentiana" from Canada and "Morchella eohespera", a cosmopolitan species present in several continents. In an extensive phylogenetic and morphological study from Cyprus in 2016, Loizides and colleagues added two more Mediterranean species, "Morchella arbutiphila" and "Morchella disparilis", and resurrected "Morchella dunensis" as an autonomous species. In the same year, Taşkın and colleagues described four of the previously unnamed phylospecies from Turkey: "Morchella conifericola", "Morchella feekensis", "Morchella magnispora" and "Morchella mediteterraneensis".


title: Morchella

text: Early ancestral reconstruction tests by O'Donnell and collaborators postulated a western North American origin of morels and the genus was estimated to have diverged from its closest genealogical relatives "Verpa" and "Disciotis" in the early Cretaceous, approximately 129 million years ago (Mya). This date was later revised by Du and collaborators, placing the divergence of the genus in the late Jurassic, approximately 154 Mya. However, neither of these reconstructions had included "Morchella anatolica" in the analyses, whose phylogenetic placement remained at the time unresolved. Following genetic testing of isotype collection of "M. anatolica" by Taşkın and colleagues, this species was shown to nest in the ancestral /Rufobrunnea clade, together with the transcontinental "Morchella rufobrunnea". This cast doubts over the accuracy of the original reconstructions, since both species of the ancestral /Rufobrunnea clade are present in the Mediterranean, while "M. anatolica" is altogether absent from North America. Updated ancestral area reconstructions by Loizides and colleagues using an expanded 79-species data set, have in 2021 refuted the previous hypothesis and designated the Mediterranean basin as the most probable place of origin of morels.


title: Morchella

text: The ecology of "Morchella" species is not well understood. Many species appear to form symbiotic or endophytic relationships with trees, while others appear to act as saprotrophs. Yellow morels ("Morchella esculenta" and related species) are more commonly found under deciduous trees rather than conifers, while black morels ("Morchella elata" and related species) are mostly found in coniferous forests, disturbed ground and recently burned areas. "Morchella galilaea", and occasionally "Morchella rufobrunnea", appear to fruit in the autumn or winter months rather than spring, which is the typical fruiting season for morels.


title: Morchella

text: Tree species associated with "Morchella" vary greatly depending on the individual species, continent, or region. Trees commonly associated with morels in Europe and across the Mediterranean include "Abies" (fir), "Pinus" (pine), "Populus" (poplar), "Ulmus" (elm), "Quercus" (oak), "Arbutus" (strawberry trees), "Castanea" (chestnut), "Alnus" (alder), "Olea" (olive trees), "Malus" (apple trees), and "Fraxinus" (ash). In western North America morels are often found in coniferous forests, including species of "Pinus" (pine), "Abies" (fir), "Larix" (larch), and "Pseudotsuga" (Douglas-fir), as well as in "Populus" (cottonwood) riparian forests. Deciduous trees commonly associated with morels in the northern hemisphere include "Fraxinus" (ash), "Platanus" (sycamore), "Liriodendron" (tulip tree), dead and dying elms, cottonwoods, and old apple trees (remnants of orchards). Due to their springtime phenology (March–May), morels are hardly ever found in the vicinity of common poisonous mushrooms such as the death cap ("Amanita phalloides"), the sulphur tuft ("Hypholoma fasciculare"), or the fly agaric ("Amanita muscaria"). They can, however, occur alongside false morels ("Gyromitra" and "Verpa" species) and elfin saddles ("Helvella" species), which also appear in spring.


title: Morchella

text: Efforts to cultivate morels at a large scale have rarely been successful and the commercial morel industry relies on the harvest of wild mushrooms.


title: Morchella

text: Certain "Morchella" species ("M. eximia", "M. importuna", "M. tomentosa" and others) exhibit a pyrophilic behaviour and may grow abundantly in forests which have been recently burned by a fire. Moderate-intensity fires are reported to produce higher abundances of morels than low- or high-intensity fires. This is caused by the soil becoming more alkaline as the result of wood ash combining with water and being absorbed into the soil which triggers the morels to fruit. Alkaline soil conditions which trigger fruiting have been observed and exploited with small-scale commercial cultivation of morels. Where fire suppression is practiced, morels often grow in small numbers in the same spot, year after year. If these areas are overrun by wildfire they often produce a bumper crop of black morels the following spring. Commercial pickers and buyers in North America target recently burned areas for this reason. These spots may be closely guarded by mushroom pickers, as morels are widely regarded as a delicacy and often a cash crop.


title: Morchella

text: Although many species within "Morchella" exhibit continental endemism and provincialism, several species have been phylogenetically shown to be present in more than one continent. So far, the list of transcontinental species includes "M. americana", "M. eohespera", "M. eximia", "M. exuberans", "M. galilaea", "M. importuna", "M. populiphila", "M. pulchella", "M. rufobrunnea", "M. semilibera", "M. sextelata", "M. steppicola", and "M. tridentina". The reasons behind the widespread, cosmopolitan distribution of these species, are still puzzling. Some authors have hypothesized that such transcontinental occurrences are the result of accidental anthropogenic introductions, but this view has been disputed by others, who suggested an old and natural distribution, at least for some of these species which appear to be linked to indigenous flora. Long-distance spore dispersal has also been suggested as a possible dispersal mechanism for some species, especially those belonging to fire-adapted lineages. It has been suggested that the widespread but disjunct distribution of some morel species, especially early diverging lineages like "M. rufobrunnea" and "M. tridentina", may be the result of climatic refugia from the Quaternary glaciation.


title: Morchella

text: Morel hunting is a common springtime activity. Mushroom collectors may carry a mesh collecting bag, so the spores can scatter as one carries the harvest.


title: Morchella

text: Every spring, hundreds of morel enthusiasts gather in Boyne City, Michigan for the National Morel Mushroom Festival, a century-old event. As one observer stated, "if there is a modern, North American reenactment of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales this is it." Other festivals and hunting competitions in North America include the Illinois State Morel Mushroom Hunting Championship, the Ottawa Midwest Morel Fest and the Mesick Michigan Mushroom Festival.


title: Morchella

text: In the survival horror video game , morel mushrooms are featured as one of the many edible items that the survivors can gather in the forests. They typically can be picked from underbrushes during summer and autumn, and can be boiled, fried, or preserved via drying.


title: Morchella

text: "Morchella" species have been called by many local names; some of the more colorful include "dryland fish", because when sliced lengthwise then breaded and fried, their outline resembles the shape of a fish; "hickory chickens", as they are known in many parts of Kentucky; and "merkels" or "miracles", based on folklore, of how a mountain family was saved from starvation by eating morels. In parts of West Virginia, they are known as "molly moochers", "muggins", or "muggles". Due to the partial structural and textural similarity to some species of "Porifera" (sponges), other common names for any true morel are "sponge mushroom" and "waffle mushroom". In the Appalachian woodlands, morels have also been called "haystacks", or "snakeheads". The Finnish vernacular name "huhtasieni", refers to "huhta", area cleared for agriculture by the slash and burn method.


title: Morchella

text: The scientific name of the genus "Morchella" itself, is thought to have derived from "morchel", an old German word close to "Möhre", carrot or beet, due to similarity in shape.


title: Morchella

text: Morels, “almost universally associated with spring,” can be found in many habitats. Morel may be more likely to fruit during a period of increasing heat following a chilly period, a preference which is credited for their abundance in areas with cold winters.


title: Morchella

text: Due to the mushroom's prized fruit bodies, several attempts have been made to grow the fungus in culture. In 1901, Repin reported successfully obtaining fruit bodies in a cave in which cultures had been established in flower pots nine years previously in 1892.


title: Morchella

text: More recently, small-scale commercial growers have had success growing morels by using partially shaded rows of mulched wood. The rows of mulch piles are inoculated with morel mushroom spores in a solution of water and molasses which are poured over the piles of mulch and then they are allowed to grow undisturbed for several weeks. A solution of wood ashes mixed in water and diluted is subsequently poured over the rows of wood mulch which triggers fruiting of the morels. Morels are known to appear after fires and the alkalinity produced by wood ash mixed with water initiate fruit body formation for most species of morels.


title: Morchella

text: In 2021 it was announced that indoor cultivation of Black Morel mushrooms had been successfully achieved after decades of research and experimentation with methods by The Danish Morel Project. The project has been able to cultivate 20 lbs of morels per square yard or around 10kg per square metre with cost estimates expected to be similar to producing white button mushrooms ("Agaricus bisporus"). Previous attempts at cultivation had managed to produce sclerotia but encountered issues in getting them to reliably fruit. One of the breakthroughs with this project was growing them in a climate controlled environment in conjunction with grass which is involved in stimulating fruiting in the morel mycelium. Cultivation in this manner has been noted to produce superior morels for culinary uses since they can be assured to be insect, slug and dirt free and therefore do not need to be washed and cleaned like foraged morels. Since washing morels can negatively impact the texture, reliable cultivation may result in more versatility with this ingredient in the kitchen as well as making the delicacy more affordable and accessible.


title: Morchella

text: Raw morel mushrooms are 90% water, 5% carbohydrates, 3% protein, and 1% fat. A 100 gram reference amount supplies 31 calories, and is a rich source of iron (94% of the Daily Value, DV), manganese, phosphorus, zinc, and vitamin D (34% DV, if having been exposed to sunlight or artificial ultraviolet light). Raw morels contain moderate levels of several B vitamins (table).


title: Morchella

text: Known as “prized delicacies…they are so esteemed in Europe that people used to set fire to their own forests in hopes of eliciting a bountiful morel crop the next spring!”


title: Morchella

text: Morels are a feature of many cuisines, including Provençal. Their unique flavor is prized by chefs worldwide, with recipes and preparation methods designed to highlight and preserve it. As with most edible fungi, they are best when collected or bought fresh. One of the simplest ways to enjoy morels is by gently sauteeing them in butter, cracking pepper on top and sprinkling with salt. They are good additions to meat and poultry dishes and soups, and can be used as pasta fillings. However, as morels are known to contain thermolabile toxins, they must always be cooked before eating.


title: Morchella

text: Morels can be preserved in several ways: They can be 'flash frozen' by simply running under cold water or putting them in a bucket to soak for a few minutes, then spread on a baking tray and placed into a freezer. After freezing, they keep very well with the frozen glaze for a long time in airtight plastic containers. However, when thawed they can sometimes turn slightly mushy, so they are best frozen after steaming or frying. Due to their natural porosity, morels may contain trace amounts of soil which cannot be easily washed out. Any visible soil should be removed with a brush, after cutting the body in half lengthwise, if needed. Mushroom hunters sometimes recommend soaking morels in a bowl of salt water briefly prior to cooking, although many chefs would disagree.


title: Morchella

text: Drying is a popular and effective method for long-term storage, and morels are widely available commercially in this form. Any insect larvae which might be present in the fruit bodies usually drop out during the drying process.<ref name="http://www.mssf.org/cookbook/morels.html">Wild About Mushrooms: Morels. Mssf.org. Retrieved on 2012-04-17.</ref> Dried morels can then be reconstituted by soaking for 10–20 minutes in warm water or milk, and the soaking liquid can be used as stock.


title: Morchella

text: The supreme flavor of morels is not just appreciated by humans; in Yellowstone National Park, black morels are also known to be consumed by grizzly bears ("Ursus arctos horribilis").


title: Morchella

text: "Morchella" species are thought to contain small amounts of hydrazine toxins or an unknown toxin that is destroyed through cooking, (the presence of hydrazine is controversial since there are no primary references of hydrazine having been detected in the species); because of this, morels should never be eaten raw. It has been reported that even cooked morels can sometimes cause symptoms of upset stomach when consumed with alcohol.


title: Morchella

text: When eating this fungus for the first time it is wise to consume a small amount to minimize any allergic reaction. As with all fungi, morels for consumption must be clean and free of decay. Morels growing in old apple orchards previously treated with the now-banned insecticide lead arsenate may accumulate levels of toxic lead and arsenic that are unsuitable for human consumption.


title: Morchella

text: When gathering morels for the table, care must be taken to distinguish them from the poisonous "false morels", a term loosely applied to describe "Gyromitra esculenta", "Verpa bohemica", and other morel lookalikes. Although false morels are sometimes eaten without ill effect, they can cause severe gastrointestinal upset, loss of muscular coordination (including cardiac muscle), or even death. Incidents of poisoning usually occur when they are eaten in large quantities, inadequately cooked, or over several days in a row. False morels contain gyromitrin, an organic carcinogenic poison, hydrolyzed in the body into monomethylhydrazine (MMH). "Gyromitra esculenta" in particular, has been reported to be responsible for up to 23% of mushroom fatalities each year in Poland.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh Moo-hyun (; ; 1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea between 2003 and 2008.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for student activists in South Korea. His electoral career later expanded to a focus on overcoming regionalism in South Korean politics, culminating in his election to the presidency. He achieved a large following among younger internet users, which aided his success in the presidential election.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh's election was notable for the arrival in power of a new generation of Korean politicians, the so-called 386 Generation (people in their thirties, when the term was coined, who had attended university in the 1980s and who were born in the 1960s). This generation had been veterans of student protests against authoritarian rule and advocated a conciliatory approach towards North Korea, even at the expense of good relations with the United States. Roh himself was the first South Korean president to be born after the end of Japanese rule in Korea.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: South Korea received the highest marks on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index under his administration. The value of the South Korean won against the US dollar was the strongest during his administration since 1997. Due to the strong currency, for the first time in history, South Korea became the world's 10th largest economy and exceeded the $20,000 milestone in nominal GDP per capita during his administration.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Despite high expectations at the beginning of his presidency, Roh encountered strong opposition from both the opposition conservative Grand National Party and media, and he was frequently accused of incompetence. As a result, many of Roh's policies, such as a plan to move the capital of South Korea and a plan to form a coalition with the opposition, made little progress. Because of his poor performance in economy and diplomacy, Roh was not a popular president, having the worst approval rating on average ever recorded in South Korean political history. His economic policy was often criticized for persisting with certain obsolete economic views and failing certain livelihood issues.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: After leaving office, Roh returned to his hometown of Bongha Maeul. He ran a duck farm and lived an ordinary life, sharing it through his blog. He also ran a website called "Democracy 2.0" to promote healthy online discussions. Fourteen months later, Roh was suspected of bribery by prosecutors, and the subsequent investigations attracted public attention. Roh died by suicide on 23 May 2009 when he jumped from a mountain cliff behind his home, after saying that "there are too many people suffering because of me" on a suicide note on his computer. About 4 million people visited Roh's hometown Bongha Village in the week following his death. His suicide was confirmed by police. Public opinion on Roh has improved considerably since his death, which take into account his humans rights background and national economic progress during his presidency. In a 2019 Gallup Korea poll, Roh was cited as the most popular president in South Korean history amongst the general public.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh was born into a poor farming family on 1 September 1946, in Bongha Village near Gimhae and Pusan, in what is now southeastern South Korea. His ancestor was in Dongyang, Zhejiang. His parents had three boys and two girls, and Roh was the youngest of his family. In 1953, he entered Dae Chang Elementary School. He received high grades, but was quite often absent from school to assist his parents. While in sixth grade, with the encouragement of his school teacher, he became the president of the school. As he entered Jin-yeong middle school, a writing contest was held to commemorate Syngman Rhee's birthday. Roh tried to start a student movement against it, but was caught and suspended from the school.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh Moo-Hyun decided to become a lawyer due to the influence of his elder brother who had studied law but had died in a car accident. Roh studied on his own to pass the bar exam in 1975 (South Korea does not currently require bar examinees to have graduated from college, university, or law school). In 1977, he became a regional judge in Daejeon, but quit in 1978, and became a lawyer.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: In 1981, he defended students who had been tortured for suspicion of possession of contraband literature. Following this he decided to become a human rights lawyer. In early 2003, he was quoted as saying, "After that defense, my life was totally changed. At first, even I couldn't believe that they had been tortured that harshly. However, when I saw their horrified eyes and their missing toenails, my comfortable life as a lawyer came to an end. I became a man that wanted to make a difference in the world." With fellow human rights lawyers, he pointed out that this case was forged, then claimed that the National Security Act (South Korea) itself should be judged.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: In 1985 he started to participate in civic movements by assuming permanent power of attorney on behalf of the Busan council of citizen democracy. He opposed the autocratic regime in place at the time in South Korea, and participated in the pro-democracy June Democracy Movement in 1987 against Chun Doo-hwan. The same year he was jailed while investigating the cause of death of the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering factory worker Lee Seok-Kyu, who had been killed by a stray police tear gas bullet while on strike. Roh was accused of 'unapproved interference in the case' and 'hindering the funeral'. Although he was released in twenty days because of public opinion against the arrest, his lawyer's license was revoked after the incident in political retribution. His lawyer's license was reinstated and he, along with Chun Jung Bae and Im Jong In, founded Haemaru Law firm.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh was baptized as a Catholic (baptismal name: Justin) in 1986 but then lapsed while continuing to identify as a Catholic, though later years he was non-religious while practicing a form of Mahayana Buddhism.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh entered politics in 1988 when he was invited by Kim Young-sam to join the Democratic Reunification Party (Korean: 통일민주당). That same year, he was elected as a member of the National Assembly, representing Dong-gu, Busan. He came to wider public attention with his cross-examination of the government over political corruption allegations in a parliamentary hearing.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: In 1990, Kim Young-sam merged his party with the Democratic Justice Party to form the Democratic Liberal Party, a forerunner of the Grand National Party. Roh did not participate in the party and he criticized it as "betrayal against the democracy movement".


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: In 1991, before the election of the national assembly, the "Weekly Chosun" posted an article that alleging that Roh was a politician with hidden wealth. Roh sued the company for defamation and won, but lost the election for his seat.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Having lost his seat in the 1992 Assembly elections, he later ran for the mayorship of Busan in 1995, where he lost again. Shortly after the election, Kim Dae-jung founded the National Congress for New Politics, but Roh did not join. In 1996, he ran for the Assembly seat for Jung-gu in Seoul, losing to another future president, Lee Myung-bak.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh founded the new party with Lee Bu-Yeong, Lee Chul, Kim Won-Gi, and Kim Jeong-Gil, but before the presidential election, after the New Korea Party merged with the United Democratic Party, he decided to reconcile with Kim Dae-jung to 'bring the military government and their political heir into justice'.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Subsequently, Roh reconciled with Kim when he endorsed his candidacy in the 1997 Presidential election. At the meeting, Kim Dae-jung welcomed Roh and his party saying "Today is a very pleasant day. That pleasure is not only because we now work together, but also because I could relieve a burden in my mind that I have been carrying (since we separated)." Roh returned to office in 1998, when Lee Myung-bak resigned his seat because of a violation of election law, winning a seat in the ensuing by-election.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: In 2000, Roh ran for the National Assembly representing Buk-gu and Gangseo-gu in Busan as part of a campaign to overcome regionalism in Korean politics, but was defeated. His defeat in the election, however, proved fortuitous when his supporters formed Nosamo, the first political fan club in Korea. His supporters were inspired by his commitment to overcoming regionalism.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: In 2000, Roh was appointed Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries under Kim Dae-jung, and this position would constitute his major government experience prior to the presidency.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh got public attention when he participated in candidate election of his party. The candidate election itself also got high public attention because it allowed the vote not only from the party members, but also the local citizens. At first, his approval rate was 10%, allowing much gap with leading candidate Lee In-Jae, but Roh constantly earned much supporters by his notable speeches, especially in Ulsan, and the result of poll that Roh's approval rate was 41.7%, 1.1% higher than the Lee Hoi-chang, candidate of the opponent party, convinced the voters of his party.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh won the presidency on 19 December 2002, by defeating Lee Hoi-chang with a narrow 2% margin of victory. At 2003, right before his inauguration, he described his plan as "I will root the method of discussion inside the government.", and added, "discussion should be familiarized until we are called 'Republic of discussion'."


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh dubbed his administration the "Participatory Government," and entered office intent on introducing an ambitious new agenda. Policy goals for the Roh administration included the continuance of the Sunshine Policy of engagement towards North Korea, the establishment of Korea as a business hub in Northeast Asia, the expansion of social welfare, the pursuit of "balanced national development" to help underdeveloped areas, the eradication of corruption, reform of education and tax systems, reform of labor-management relations, reform of mass media, and a recasting of the relationship with the United States and Japan.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: As his policy for eradicating corruption inside the government had included many administrative reforms, he had to face high opposition. During the reformation of the prosecution, to resolve the opposition, he suggested a TV forum. The prosecutors insisted that Roh appointed the major positions of the prosecutor's office without consulting the personnel committee, and Roh answered that "The current members of the personnel committee themselves represent the old prosecution which has to be changed, if we do not change now, it would sustain the old prosecution at least few months." Three months into his presidency, He commented about the opposition problem, stating "I'm worrying the opposition that maybe I cannot continue the presidency while I get that much of it." That comment was quoted partly by conservative media, ('I cannot continue the presidency') and Roh was beset by skepticism about his ability and experience. Roh set the tone of his administration with a number of adventurous policies, and measures to uncover and reveal the names of the descendants of Japanese collaborators. The investigations, criticized by opposition parties as a covert means of attacking them, and coming too late to provide substantive redress, mostly resulted in damage to his own party members.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Also in his first year in office, Roh announced S Korea's Free Trade Agreement Policy Roadmap. Roh successfully pushed for free trade agreements in spite of domestic opposition from his traditional leftist constituency (who denounced it as "neoliberal") and various groups (particularly farmers) opposed to market opening.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh and his supporters left the Millennium Democratic Party in 2003 to form a new party, the Uri Party (). Directly ahead of the National Assembly elections, Roh voiced support for the Uri Party, which constituted a technical violation of Constitutional provisions mandating presidential impartiality. After Roh refused to apologize, led by the opposition parties holding the majority, the Assembly voted to impeach him for illegal electioneering on 12 March 2004. The vote was 193–2 (Uri Party members abstained from the vote). Roh's supporters physically blocked the motion for three days in open combat, and had to be hauled out by security guards. Roh's executive power was suspended pending a final decision by the Constitutional Court, and Prime Minister Goh Kun ran the country as the Acting President.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: The National Assembly's attempt to impeach Roh was largely opposed by the public. From 12 March 2004, to 27 March, protest against the impeachment motion was led by 'citizen's movement for eradicating corruption'. According to the police, 50,000 people gathered to protest on 13 March alone.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Although Roh's popularity had hovered around 30%, the impeachment was taken as a power struggle against the political reform and the choice of the citizen, and Roh's popularity went up soon after the assembly's vote to impeach Roh. The results of the April 2004 parliamentary election showed public support for him, with the Uri Party winning a majority of seats.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: On 14 May 2004, the Constitutional Court overturned the impeachment decision, restoring Roh as president. After the incident, Roh joined the Uri party as a member, officially making the Uri party as the ruling party. It was the first time that a liberal party achieved a majority in the National Assembly.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: As a part of his balanced national development campaign to reverse the concentration of wealth in Seoul, Roh also pursued a plan to relocate the capital 100 miles away to South Chungcheong Province, ostensibly to relieve congestion. Roh had made this promise during his campaign, and pursued its fulfillment, despite convincing few voters outside the Chungcheong region of the benefits of the move. After much controversy, the Constitutional Court obviated Roh's plans by ruling that the relocation of the capital was unconstitutional because it 'opposes the custom that has to be considered as the constitution', thus inflicting a huge blow to Roh's political standing. Roh's plan was then amended to the creation of an "administrative capital," though this plan has also not yet seen completion. The issue of the proposed "administrative capital" remains controversial as of 2010 in plans for Sejong City, the exact nature of which continues to be a politically divisive issue even within the ruling Grand National Party.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: With the controversies concerning the capital, perceptions of neglect and mismanagement of the economy had grown. Although exports performed at record levels and the economy grew, growth still lagged behind both the previous administration and the rest of the world, while the domestic economy stagnated. At the same time regulations proliferated, investment capital exited the country, unemployment (especially among the young) increased, wealthy students flocked overseas as the education system stagnated, and housing prices in Seoul soared far beyond the reach of the average citizen. Roh responded by dismissing criticism as "shameless mudslinging," and touted the achievements of his government in increasing national competitiveness, strengthening the economy. This somewhat cavalier attitude led to his Uri Party suffering consecutive defeats in the Assembly, before eventually collapsing. Roh's unpopularity had become a liability for his party, and a new party was needed to disassociate from him. The Uri Party would thus be revamped and renamed as the Democratic Party, and is currently the main opposition party in the National Assembly.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh's ambitious initial promises to establish Korea as an international business hub in Asia faded soon after his election. Instead, Korea under Roh suffered negative publicity in the foreign business community due to prosecutorial investigations on the purchase and sale of Korea Exchange Bank by the Lone Star Fund, spurring foreign investors to join their domestic counterparts in leaving the country. When housing prices soared, to prevent speculative bubble like Japanese asset price bubble crisis, Roh introduced additional 1~3% of property tax on real estate exceeding 600 million won(about 600,000US$). This efficiently slowed down the bubble, but this policy met high opposition from the richest who had to pay higher tax. At the same time, Roh also increased welfare spending by 18% a year, and drastically increased spending by increasing the size of the civil service by more than 95,700 new hires, or approximately 60 people a day. Criticism of lax discipline among the civil service and police force was high during his government.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: The remainder of Roh's term was characterized by a number of campaigns pursued to varying degrees of success and completion. One of the more successful campaigns (at least during his term) was Roh's pursuit of an FTA with the United States, concluded in April 2007 after many months of negotiations by Kim Hyun-jong, the deputy minister for trade.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: As a result of the controversy concerning the capital, and public dissatisfaction of economic development, Uri party lost much of its popularity. When the Uri party was defeated in by-elections held on 30 April 2005, losing every one of the 23 electoral districts, Uri Party lost its majority in the National Assembly. Facing the outcome of his unpopularity, Roh took a rather strange measure to manage the government when he proposed a grand coalition with the opposition Grand National Party. Roh's rationale was that since it was impossible to continue his presidency with an approval rate of around 20 percent, a grand coalition comprising the Uri party and the Grand National Party was desirable, and that the difference between both parties in terms of political agendas was actually minute. Roh promised he would yield much of his power and might even resign from office if a grand coalition was successfully launched.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh's proposal for the grand coalition stirred yet another national controversy. Many called his plan "reckless and completely ignorant" of the sentiments of people still ailing from repeated political controversies and economic hardships. Many of the Uri party's supporters who identify as liberals were enraged at Roh holding that his party was not really different from the conservative opposition. The Grand National Party, enjoying relatively strong approval rate but still bent on revenge for the party's defeat in major elections, repeatedly declined to initiate a negotiation for the coalition. While the Uri Party grudgingly supported the President's proposal, a lawmaker defected from the party in protest of Roh's plan, and the loss of popularity was felt when the party suffered yet another complete defeat in the by-election on 26 October 2005, this time including one of the party's stronghold electoral districts. Roh's plan was scrapped, having failed to garner support from either political faction.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Roh was perceived as an anti-American before the presidential race, which was not a handicap during the presidential campaign. Public antipathy to the United States was prevalent in 2002, particularly evoked by the Yangju highway incident, where two South Korean middle school girls were crushed to death by a U.S. Army armored bridge-laying vehicle. The American soldiers involved were tried by a U.S. Army court martial, but the Roh administration continued to demand a South Korean trial, although the incident occurred 'on duty' (as part of a convoy) and thus was an American responsibility under the Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and South Korea.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: However, except for the policy toward the North Korea, Roh was supportive toward the United States. Roh endeavored to improve relations with North Korea, becoming the first president to cross the border by foot and meeting Kim Jong-il. He dispatched the Zaytun Division to support the US in the Iraq War by carrying out peacekeeping and other reconstruction-related tasks. Roh explained the deployment as only a peacekeeping mission and claimed that such commitment was required to bring favor from the United States in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis. He also pursued the KORUS FTA. In 2004, the Roh administration reached an agreement with the US to move out all US forces in the capital to Camp Humphreys, a rural area far away from the capital or major cities, as he deemed the USFK's presence in the capital unnecessary and harming its reputation and development.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: In February 2006, Roh announced that South Korea would initiate negotiations with the United States for a free trade agreement.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: In April 2007, Roh presided over an emergency meeting of his aides to discuss the diplomatic fallout from the massacre at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the United States by a South Korean student, Cho Seung-hui, concerning its negative impact on South Korea-U.S. relations. They were discussing comprehensive measures to cope with the unprecedented incident, including issuance of presidential messages of apology and plans to prevent possible harassment of South Koreans living in the United States. Roh issued two messages of condolence already on 17 April 2007.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates described Roh as "anti-American and probably a little crazy" in his book titled "Duty", and professed astonishment at Roh telling him at the meeting in November 2007 that "the two biggest security threats in Asia were the United States and Japan".


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: South Korea's relationship with Japan was in a healthy condition when Roh entered office. However, his first visit to the neighboring country in 2003 was scheduled on a date that coincided with Korean Memorial Day.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: During the visit, Roh proclaimed he would not seek any more apologies from Japan over its colonial occupation, in the hope of maintaining a friendly relationship between the two countries. Although Roh's proclamation was made in good faith, some expressed concern that Japan may have interpreted this as the termination of its responsibility for the colonial past, and use it as an excuse to deny any claims for compensation that may arise in the future.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: Despite Roh's hope, relations with Japan deteriorated henceforth, in several areas of conflict such as compensation issues for comfort women, denial of the colonial past in Japanese history textbooks, and disputes over the Liancourt Rocks. Another sensitive issue, former Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine were harshly criticized in South Korea, and Roh declared no further meetings with Koizumi would take place unless he stopped visiting the shrine.


title: Roh Moo-hyun

text: According to Rep. Chung Mong-joon, former leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, "The Roh Moo-hyun administration proposed that the U.S. define Japan as a hypothetical enemy," at the Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul in October 2005. "President Roh proposed it because the general public had bad feelings against Japan and Korea had a territorial dispute over the Dokdo islets with Japan, Washington was very embarrassed since it had hoped Korea and Japan would go hand-in-hand as free and democratic countries. A hypothetical enemy in English implies a main enemy."