title: QT interval

text: With the increased availability of digital ECGs with simultaneous 12-channel recording, QT measurement may also be done by the 'superimposed median beat' method. In the superimposed median beat method, a median ECG complex is constructed for each of the 12 leads. The 12 median beats are superimposed on each other and the QT interval is measured either from the earliest onset of the Q wave to the latest offset of the T wave or from the point of maximum convergence for the Q wave onset to the T wave offset.


title: QT interval

text: The QT interval changes in response to the heart rate - as heart rate increase the QT interval shortens. These changes make it harder to compare QT intervals measured at different heart rates. To account for this, and thereby improve the reliability of QT measurement, the QT interval can be corrected for heart rate (QTc) using a variety of mathematical formulae, a process often performed automatically by modern ECG recorders.


title: QT interval

text: The most commonly used QT correction formula is the "Bazett's formula", named after physiologist Henry Cuthbert Bazett (1885–1950), calculating the heart rate-corrected QT interval (QTcB).


title: QT interval

text: Bazett's formula is often given in a form that returns QTc in dimensionally suspect units, square root of seconds. The mathematically correct form of Bazett's formula is:


title: QT interval

text: where QTc is the QT interval corrected for heart rate, and RR is the interval from the onset of one QRS complex to the onset of the next QRS complex. This mathematically correct formula returns the QTc in the same units as QT, generally milliseconds.


title: QT interval

text: In some popular forms of this formula, it is assumed that QT is measured in milliseconds and that RR is measured in seconds, often derived from the heart rate (HR) as 60/HR. Therefore, the result will be given in seconds per square root of milliseconds. However, reporting QTc using this formula creates a "requirement regarding the units in which the original QT and RR are measured."


title: QT interval

text: In either form, Bazett's non-linear QT correction formula is generally not considered accurate, as it over-corrects at high heart rates and under-corrects at low heart rates. Bazett's correction formula is one of the most suitable QT correction formulae for neonates.


title: QT interval

text: The Framingham correction, also called as Sagie's formula based on the Framingham Heart Study, which used long-term cohort data of over 5,000 subjects, is considered a better method.


title: QT interval

text: A retrospective study suggests that Fridericia's method and the Framingham method may produce results most useful for stratifying the 30-day and 1-year risks of mortality.


title: QT interval

text: Definitions of normal QTc vary from being equal to or less than 0.40 s (≤ 400 ms), 0.41 s (≤ 410 ms), 0.42 s (≤ 420 ms) or 0.44 s (≤ 440 ms). For risk of sudden cardiac death, "borderline QTc" in males is 431–450 ms; and, in females, 451–470 ms. An "abnormal" QTc in males is a QTc above 450 ms; and, in females, above 470 ms.


title: QT interval

text: If there is not a very high or low heart rate, the upper limits of QT can roughly be estimated by taking QT = QTc at a heart rate of 60 beats per minute (bpm), and subtracting 0.02 s from QT for every 10 bpm increase in heart rate. For example, taking normal QTc ≤ 0.42 s, QT would be expected to be 0.42 s or less at a heart rate of 60 bpm. For a heart rate of 70 bpm, QT would roughly be expected to be equal to or below 0.40 s. Likewise, for 80 bpm, QT would roughly be expected to be equal to or below 0.38 s.


title: QT interval

text: Prolonged QTc causes premature action potentials during the late phases of depolarization. This increases the risk of developing ventricular arrhythmias, including fatal ventricular fibrillation. Higher rates of prolonged QTc are seen in females, older patients, high systolic blood pressure or heart rate, and short stature. Prolonged QTc is also associated with ECG findings called Torsades de Pointes, which are known to degenerate into ventricular fibrillation, associated with higher mortality rates. There are many causes of prolonged QT intervals, acquired causes being more common than genetic.


title: QT interval

text: An abnormally prolonged QT interval could be due to long QT syndrome, whereas an abnormally shortened QT interval could be due to short QT syndrome.


title: QT interval

text: The QTc length is associated with variations in the NOS1AP gene. The autosomal recessive syndrome of Jervell and Lange-Nielsen is characterized by a prolonged QTc interval in conjunction with sensorineural hearing loss.


title: QT interval

text: Some second-generation antihistamines, such as astemizole, have this effect. The mechanism of action of certain antiarrhythmic drugs, like amiodarone or sotalol, involve intentional pharmacological QT prolongation. In addition, high blood alcohol concentrations prolong the QT interval. A possible interaction between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and thiazide diuretics is associated with QT prolongation.


title: QT interval

text: Hypothyroidism, a condition of low function of the thyroid gland, can cause QT prolongation at the electrocardiogram. Acute hypocalcemia causes prolongation of the QT interval, which may lead to ventricular dysrhythmias.


title: QT interval

text: Since 2005, the FDA and European regulators have required that nearly all new molecular entities be evaluated in a Thorough QT (TQT) or similar study to determine a drug's effect on the QT interval. The TQT study serves to assess the potential arrhythmia liability of a drug. Traditionally, the QT interval had been evaluated by having an individual human reader measure approximately nine cardiac beats per clinical timepoint. However, a substantial portion of drug approvals after 2010 have incorporated a partially automated approach, blending automated software algorithms with expert human readers reviewing a portion of the cardiac beats, to enable the assessment of significantly more beats in order to improve precision and reduce cost. In 2014, an industrywide consortium consisting of the FDA, iCardiac Technologies and other organizations released the results of a seminal study indicating how waivers from TQT studies can be obtained by the assessment of early phase data. As the pharmaceutical industry has gained experience in performing TQT studies, it has also become evident that traditional QT correction formulas such as QTcF, QTcB, and QTcLC may not always be suitable for evaluation of drugs impacting autonomic tone.


title: QT interval

text: Electrocardiography is a safe and noninvasive tool that can be used to identify those with a higher risk of mortality. In the general population, there has been no consistent evidence that prolonged QTc interval in isolation is associated with an increase in mortality from cardiovascular disease. However, several studies have examined prolonged QT interval as a predictor of mortality for diseased subsets of the population.


title: QT interval

text: Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory arthritis. Studies have linked rheumatoid arthritis with increased death from cardiovascular disease.


title: QT interval

text: In a 2014 study, Panoulas et al. found a 50 ms increase in QTc interval increased the odds of all-cause mortality by 2.17 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Patients with the highest QTc interval (> 424 ms) had higher mortality than those with a lower QTc interval. The association was lost when calculations were adjusted for C-reactive protein levels. The researchers proposed that inflammation prolonged the QTc interval and created arrhythmias that were associated with higher mortality rates. However, the mechanism by which C-reactive protein is associated with the QTc interval is still not understood.


title: QT interval

text: Compared to the general population, type 1 diabetes may increase the risk of mortality, due largely to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Almost half of patients with type 1 diabetes have a prolonged QTc interval (> 440 ms). Diabetes with a prolonged QTc interval was associated with a 29% mortality over 10 years in comparison to 19% with a normal QTc interval. Anti-hypertensive drugs increased the QTc interval, but were not an independent predictor of mortality.


title: QT interval

text: QT interval dispersion (QTd) is the maximum QT interval minus the minimum QT interval, and is linked with ventricular repolarization. A QTd over 80 ms is considered abnormally prolonged. Increased QTd is associated with mortality in type 2 diabetes.


title: QT interval

text: QTd is a better predictor of cardiovascular death than QTc, which was unassociated with mortality in type 2 diabetes. QTd higher than 80 ms had a relative risk of 1.26 of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to a normal QTd.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (), often simply referred to as the Charter in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the "Constitution Act, 1982". The "Charter" guarantees certain political rights to Canadian citizens and civil rights of everyone in Canada from the policies and actions of all areas and levels of the government. It is designed to unify Canadians around a set of principles that embody those rights. The "Charter" was signed into law by Queen Elizabeth II of Canada on April 17, 1982, along with the rest of the "Constitution Act, 1982".


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The "Charter" was preceded by the "Canadian Bill of Rights", enacted in 1960, which was a federal statute rather than a constitutional document. As a federal statute, the "Bill of Rights" could be amended through the ordinary legislative process and had no application to provincial laws. The Supreme Court of Canada also narrowly interpreted the "Bill of Rights", showing reluctance to declare laws inoperative. The relative ineffectiveness of the "Canadian Bill of Rights" motivated many to improve rights protections in Canada. The movement for human rights and freedoms that emerged after World War II also wanted to entrench the principles enunciated in the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". The British Parliament formally enacted the "Charter" as a part of the "Canada Act 1982" at the request of the Parliament of Canada in 1982, the result of the efforts of the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The "Charter" greatly expanded the scope of judicial review, because the "Charter" is more explicit with respect to the guarantee of rights and the role of judges in enforcing them than was the "Canadian Bill of Rights". The courts, when confronted with violations of "Charter" rights, have struck down unconstitutional federal and provincial statutes and regulations or parts of statutes and regulations, as they did when Canadian case law was primarily concerned with resolving issues of federalism. The "Charter", however, granted new powers to the courts to enforce remedies that are more creative and to exclude more evidence in trials. These powers are greater than what was typical under the common law and under a system of government that, influenced by Canada's parent country the United Kingdom, was based upon Parliamentary supremacy. As a result, the "Charter" has attracted both broad support from a majority of the Canadian electorate and criticisms by opponents of increased judicial power. The "Charter" only applies to government laws and actions (including the laws and actions of federal, provincial, and municipal governments and public school boards), and sometimes to the common law, not to private activity.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Under the "Charter", people physically present in Canada have numerous civil and political rights. Most of the rights can be exercised by any legal person (the "Charter" does not define the corporation as a "legal person"), but a few of the rights belong exclusively to natural persons, or (as in sections 3 and 6) only to citizens of Canada. The rights are enforceable by the courts through section 24 of the "Charter", which allows courts discretion to award remedies to those whose rights have been denied. This section also allows courts to exclude evidence in trials if the evidence was acquired in a way that conflicts with the "Charter" and might damage the reputation of the justice system. Section 32 confirms that the "Charter" is binding on the federal government, the territories under its authority, and the provincial governments.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Section 1 of the "Charter", known as the "limitations clause", allows governments to justify certain infringements of "Charter" rights. If a court finds that a "Charter" right has been infringed, it conducts an analysis under section 1 by applying the "Oakes" test, a form of proportionality review. Infringements are upheld if the government's objective in infringing the right is "pressing and substantial" in a "free and democratic society", and if the infringement can be "demonstrably justified". The Supreme Court of Canada has applied the "Oakes" test to uphold laws against hate speech (e.g., in "R v Keegstra") and obscenity (e.g., in "R v Butler"). Section 1 also confirms that the rights listed in the "Charter" are guaranteed.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: In addition, some "Charter" rights are subject to the "notwithstanding clause" (section 33). The notwithstanding clause authorizes governments to temporarily override the rights and freedoms in sections 2 and 7 through 15 for up to five years, subject to renewal. The Canadian federal government has never invoked it, and some have speculated that its use would be politically costly. In the past, the notwithstanding clause was invoked routinely by the province of Quebec (which did not support the enactment of the "Charter" but is subject to it nonetheless). The provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta have also invoked the notwithstanding clause, to end a strike and to protect an exclusively heterosexual definition of marriage, respectively. In 2021, the government of Ontario under Premier Doug Ford invoked the notwithstanding clause in order to push through Bill 307, the "Protecting Elections and Defending Democracy Act", doubling the amount of time election advertisements could run to 1 year from 6 months. A "Globe and Mail" editorial claimed it was to silence critics of his government during the 12 months leading up to an election. "That means today [June 14, 2021], with just under a year to go before the next Ontario election, citizens are effectively barred from spending their own money to voice their opinion on any political issue." Canadian author Margaret Atwood commented, "Here comes 1984. What kind of Stalinist autocracy does this bunch have in mind?" In 2006, the territory of Yukon also passed legislation that invoked the notwithstanding clause, but the legislation was never proclaimed in force.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Generally, the right to participate in political activities and the right to a democratic form of government are protected:


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Generally, people have the right to use either the English or French language in communications with Canada's federal government and certain provincial governments. Specifically, the language laws in the "Charter" include:


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Many of the rights and freedoms that are protected under the "Charter", including the rights to freedom of speech, habeas corpus, and the presumption of innocence, have their roots in a set of Canadian laws and legal precedents sometimes known as the Implied Bill of Rights. Many of these rights were also included in the "Canadian Bill of Rights", which the Canadian Parliament enacted in 1960. However, the "Bill of Rights" had a number of shortcomings. Unlike the "Charter", it was an ordinary Act of Parliament, applicable only to the federal government, and could be amended by a simple majority of Parliament. Moreover, the courts chose to interpret the "Bill of Rights" only sparingly, and only on rare occasions applied it to find a contrary law inoperative. Additionally, the "Bill of Rights" did not contain all of the rights that are now included in the Charter, omitting, for instance, the right to vote and freedom of movement within Canada.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The centennial of Canadian Confederation in 1967 aroused greater interest within the government in constitutional reform. Such reforms would not only improve the safeguarding of rights, but would also amend the Constitution to free Canada from the authority of British Parliament (also known as "patriation"), ensuring the full sovereignty of Canada. Subsequently, Attorney General Pierre Trudeau appointed law professor Barry Strayer to research a potential bill of rights. While writing his report, Strayer consulted with a number of notable legal scholars, including Walter Tarnopolsky. Strayer's report advocated a number of ideas that would later be evident in the "Charter", including the protection of language rights; exclusion of economic rights; and the allowance of limitations on rights, which would be included in the "Charter"s limitation and notwithstanding clauses. In 1968, Strayer was made the director of the Constitutional Law Division of the Privy Council Office, followed in 1974 by his appointment as assistant deputy Minister of Justice. During these years, Strayer played a role in writing the bill that was ultimately adopted.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Meanwhile, Trudeau, who had become Liberal leader and prime minister in 1968, still very much wanted a constitutional bill of rights. The federal and provincial governments discussed creating one during negotiations for patriation, resulting in the Victoria Charter in 1971, which was never implemented. Trudeau continued his efforts, however, promising constitutional change during the 1980 Quebec referendum. He succeeded in 1982 with the passage of the "Canada Act 1982" in the British Parliament, which enacted the "Constitution Act, 1982" as part of the Constitution of Canada.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The inclusion of a charter of rights in the patriation process was a much-debated issue. Trudeau spoke on television in October 1980, where he announced his intention to constitutionalize a bill of rights that would include: fundamental freedoms, such as the freedom of movement, democratic guarantees, legal rights, language rights and equality rights. However, Trudeau did not want a notwithstanding clause. While his proposal gained popular support, provincial leaders opposed the potential limits on their powers. The federal Progressive Conservative opposition feared liberal bias among judges, should courts be called upon to enforce rights. Additionally, the British Parliament cited their right to uphold Canada's old form of government. At a suggestion of the Conservatives, Trudeau's government thus agreed to a committee of senators and members of Parliament (MPs) to further examine the bill as well as the patriation plan. During this time, 90 hours were spent on the bill of rights alone, all filmed for television, while civil rights experts and advocacy groups put forward their perceptions on the draft charters flaws and omissions and how to remedy them. As Canada had a parliamentary system of government, and as judges were perceived not to have enforced rights well in the past, it was questioned whether the courts should be named as the enforcers of the "Charter", as Trudeau wanted. Conservatives argued that elected politicians should be trusted instead. It was eventually decided that the responsibility should go to the courts. At the urging of civil libertarians, judges could now exclude evidence in trials if acquired in breach of "Charter" rights in certain circumstances, something the "Charter" was not originally going to provide for.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: As the process continued, more features were added to the "Charter", including equality rights for people with disabilities, more sex equality guarantees, and recognition of Canada's multiculturalism. The limitations clause was also reworded to focus less on the importance of parliamentary government and more on the justifiability of limits in free societies; the latter logic was more in line with rights developments around the world after World War II.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: In its decision in the "Patriation Reference" (1981), the Supreme Court ruled there was a constitutional convention that some provincial approval should be sought for constitutional reform. As the provinces still had doubts about the "Charter"s merits, Trudeau was forced to accept the notwithstanding clause to allow governments to opt out of certain obligations. The notwithstanding clause was accepted as part of a deal called the Kitchen Accord, negotiated by the federal attorney general Jean Chrétien, Ontario's justice minister Roy McMurtry, and Saskatchewan's justice minister Roy Romanow. Pressure from provincial governments (which in Canada have jurisdiction over property) and from the New Democratic Party, also prevented Trudeau from including any rights protecting private property.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Quebec did not support the "Charter" (or the "Canada Act 1982"), with conflicting interpretations as to why. The opposition could have owed to the Parti Québécois (PQ) leadership being allegedly uncooperative because it was more committed to gaining sovereignty for Quebec. This could have owed to the exclusion of Quebec leaders from the negotiation of the Kitchen Accord, which they saw as being too centralist. It could have also owed to objections by provincial leaders to the accord's provisions relating to the process of future constitutional amendment. The PQ leaders also opposed the inclusion of mobility rights and minority language education rights. The "Charter" is applicable in Quebec because all provinces are bound by the constitution. However, Quebec's opposition to the 1982 patriation package led to two failed attempts to amend the constitution (the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord) which were designed primarily to obtain Quebec's political approval of the Canadian constitutional order.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: While the "Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms" was adopted in 1982, it was not until 1985 that the main provisions regarding equality rights (section 15) came into effect. The delay was meant to give the federal and provincial governments an opportunity to review pre-existing statutes and strike potentially unconstitutional inequalities.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The "Charter" has been amended since its enactment. Section 25 was amended in 1983 to explicitly recognize more rights regarding Aboriginal land claims, while section 16.1 was added in 1993. There have also been a number of unsuccessful attempts to amend the "Charter", including the failed Charlottetown Accord of 1992. The Charlottetown Accord would have specifically required the "Charter" to be interpreted in a manner respectful of Quebec's distinct society, and would have added further statements to the "Constitution Act, 1867" regarding racial and sexual equality and collective rights, and about minority language communities. Though the Accord was negotiated among many interest groups, the resulting provisions were so vague that Trudeau, then out of office, feared they would actually conflict with and undermine the "Charter"s individual rights. He felt judicial review of the rights might be undermined if courts had to favour the policies of provincial governments, as governments would be given responsibility over linguistic minorities. Trudeau thus played a prominent role in leading the popular opposition to the Accord.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The task of interpreting and enforcing the "Charter" falls to the courts, with the Supreme Court of Canada being the ultimate authority on the matter.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: With the "Charter"s supremacy confirmed by section 52 of the "Constitution Act, 1982", the courts continued their practice of striking down unconstitutional statutes or parts of statutes as they had with earlier case law regarding federalism. However, under section 24 of the "Charter", courts also gained new powers to enforce creative remedies and exclude more evidence in trials. Courts have since made many important decisions, including "R v Morgentaler" (1988), which struck down Canada's abortion law, and "Vriend v Alberta" (1998), in which the Supreme Court found the province's exclusion of sexual orientation as a prohibited grounds of discrimination violated the equality rights under section 15. In the latter case, the Court then read the protection into the law.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Courts may receive "Charter" questions in a number of ways. Rights claimants could be prosecuted under a criminal law that they argue is unconstitutional. Others may feel government services and policies are not being dispensed in accordance with the "Charter", and apply to lower-level courts for injunctions against the government. A government may also raise questions of rights by submitting reference questions to higher-level courts; for example, Prime Minister Paul Martin's government approached the Supreme Court with Charter questions as well as federalism concerns in the case "Re Same-Sex Marriage" (2004). Provinces may also do this with their superior courts. The government of Prince Edward Island initiated the "Provincial Judges Reference" by asking its provincial Supreme Court a question on judicial independence under section 11.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: In several important cases, judges developed various tests and precedents for interpreting specific provisions of the "Charter", including the Oakes test (section 1), set out in the case "R v Oakes" (1986); and the Law test (section 15), developed in "Law v Canada" (1999) which has since become defunct. Since "Reference Re BC Motor Vehicle Act" (1985), various approaches to defining and expanding the scope of fundamental justice (i.e., natural justice or due process) under section 7 have been adopted.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: In general, courts have embraced a purposive interpretation of "Charter" rights. This means that since early cases, such as "Hunter v Southam Inc" (1984) and "R v Big M Drug Mart Ltd" (1985), they have concentrated less on the traditional, limited understanding of what each right meant when the "Charter" was adopted in 1982. Rather, focus has been given towards changing the scope of rights as appropriate to fit their broader purpose. This is tied to the "generous interpretation" of rights, as the purpose of the "Charter" provisions is assumed to be to increase rights and freedoms of people in a variety of circumstances, at the expense of the government powers.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Constitutional scholar Peter Hogg (2003) has approved of the generous approach in some cases, although for others he argues the purpose of the provisions was not to achieve a set of rights as broad as courts have imagined. The approach has not been without its critics. Alberta politician Ted Morton and political scientist Rainer Knopff have been very critical of this phenomenon. Although they believe in the validity of the living tree doctrine, which is the basis for the approach (and the tradition term for generous interpretations of the Canadian Constitution), they argue "Charter" case law has been more radical. When the living tree doctrine is applied correctly, Morton and Knopff (2000) claim, "the elm remained an elm; it grew new branches but did not transform itself into an oak or a willow." The doctrine can be used, for example, so a right is upheld even when a government threatens to violate it with new technology, as long as the essential right remains the same, but the authors claim that the courts have used the doctrine to "create new rights". As an example, the authors note that the "Charter" right against self-incrimination has been extended to cover scenarios in the justice system that had previously been unregulated by self-incrimination rights in other Canadian laws.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Another general approach to interpreting "Charter" rights is to consider international legal precedents with countries that have specific rights protections, such as the U.S. Bill of Rights (which had influenced aspects of the "Charter") and the Constitution of South Africa. However, international precedent is only of guiding value and is not binding. For example, the Supreme Court has referred to the Charter and the U.S. Bill of Rights as being "born to different countries in different ages and in different circumstances".


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Advocacy groups frequently intervene in cases to make arguments on how to interpret the "Charter". Some examples are the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Canadian Mental Health Association, Canadian Labour Congress, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and REAL Women of Canada. The purpose of such interventions is to assist the court and to attempt to influence the court to render a decision favourable to the legal interests of the group.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: A further approach to the "Charter", taken by the courts, is the dialogue principle, which involves greater participation by elected governments. This approach involves governments drafting legislation in response to court rulings and courts acknowledging the effort if the new legislation is challenged.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Some Canadian members of Parliament saw the movement to entrench a charter as contrary to the British model of Parliamentary supremacy. Hogg (2003) has speculated that the reason for the British adoption of the Human Rights Act 1998, which allows the European Convention on Human Rights to be enforced directly in domestic courts, is partly because they were inspired by the similar Canadian "Charter".


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The Canadian "Charter" bears a number of similarities to the European Convention, specifically in relation to the limitations clauses contained in the European document. Because of this similarity with European human rights law, the Supreme Court turns not only to the United States Constitution case law in interpreting the "Charter", but also to European Court of Human Rights cases.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The core distinction between the U.S. "Bill of Rights" and the Canadian "Charter" is the existence of the limitations and notwithstanding clauses. Canadian courts have consequently interpreted each right more expansively. However, due to the limitations clause, where a violation of a right exists, the law will not necessarily grant protection of that right. In contrast, rights under the U.S. Bill are absolute, thus a violation will not be found until there has been sufficient encroachment on those rights. The sum effect is that both constitutions provide comparable protection of many rights. Canada's fundamental justice (section 7) is therefore interpreted to include more legal protections than due process, which is the U.S. equivalent.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Freedom of expression (section 2) also has a wider-ranging scope than the freedom of speech guaranteed under the U.S. First Amendment (1A). For instance, a form of picketing, though involving speech that might have otherwise been protected, was deemed as disruptive conduct and not protected by the U.S. 1A, but was considered by the Supreme Court in "RWDSU v. Dolphin Delivery Ltd." (1986). The Supreme Court would rule the picketing, including the disruptive conduct, as fully protected under section 2 of the "Charter", after which section 1 would be used to argue the injunction against the picketing as just.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The limitations clause has also allowed governments to enact laws that would be considered unconstitutional in the U.S. For example, the Supreme Court has upheld some of Quebec's limits on the use of English on signs and has upheld publication bans that prohibit media from mentioning the names of juvenile criminals.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The un-ratified Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S., which garnered many critics when proposed, performs a similar function to that of the "Charter" section 28, which received no comparable opposition. Still, Canadian feminists had to stage large protests to demonstrate support for the inclusion of section 28, which had not been part of the original draft of the Charter.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights" has several parallels with the Canadian "Charter", but in some cases the "Covenant" goes further with regard to rights in its text. For example, a right to legal aid has been read into section 10 of the "Charter" (right to counsel), but the Covenant explicitly guarantees the accused need not pay "if he does not have sufficient means".


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Canada's "Charter" has little to say, explicitly at least, about economic and social rights. On this point, it stands in marked contrast with the "Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms" and with the "International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights". There are some who feel economic rights ought to be read into the rights to security of the person (section 7) and equality rights (section 15) to make the Charter similar to the "Covenant". The rationale is that economic rights can relate to a decent standard of living and can help the civil rights flourish in a livable environment. Canadian courts, however, have been hesitant in this area, stating that economic rights are political questions and adding that as positive rights, economic rights are of questionable legitimacy.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The "Charter" itself influenced the in the Constitution of South Africa. The limitations clause under section 36 of the South African law has been compared to section 1 of the "Charter". Likewise, Jamaica's "Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms" was also influenced, in part, by Canada's "Charter".


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The "Charter" was intended to be a source of Canadian values and national unity. As Professor Alan Cairns noted, "the initial federal government premise was on developing a pan-Canadian identity". Pierre Trudeau himself later wrote in his "Memoirs (1993)" that "Canada itself" could now be defined as a "society where all people are equal and where they share some fundamental values based upon freedom", and that all Canadians could identify with the values of liberty and equality.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The "Charter"s unifying purpose was particularly important to the mobility and language rights. According to author Rand Dyck (2000), some scholars believe section 23, with its minority language education rights, "was the only part of the Charter with which Pierre Trudeau was truly concerned". Through the mobility and language rights, French Canadians, who have been at the centre of unity debates, are able to travel throughout all Canada and receive government and educational services in their own language. Hence, they are not confined to Quebec (the only province where they form the majority and where most of their population is based), which would polarize the country along regional lines. The "Charter" was also supposed to standardize previously diverse laws throughout the country and gear them towards a single principle of liberty.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Former premier of Ontario Bob Rae has stated that the "Charter" "functions as a symbol for all Canadians" in practice because it represents the core value of freedom. Academic Peter Russell has been more skeptical of the "Charter"s value in this field. Cairns, who feels the "Charter" is the most important constitutional document to many Canadians, and that the "Charter" was meant to shape the Canadian identity, has also expressed concern that groups within society see certain provisions as belonging to them alone rather than to all Canadians. It has also been noted that issues like abortion and pornography, raised by the "Charter", tend to be controversial. Still, opinion polls in 2002 showed Canadians felt the "Charter" significantly represented Canada, although many were unaware of the document's actual contents.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: The only values mentioned by the "Charter"s preamble are recognition of the supremacy of God and the rule of law, but these have been controversial and of minor legal consequence. In 1999, MP Svend Robinson brought forward a failed proposal before the House of Commons of Canada that would have amended the "Charter" by removing the mention of God, as he felt it did not reflect Canada's diversity.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Section 27 also recognizes a value of multiculturalism. In 2002, polls found 86% of Canadians approved of this section.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: While the "Charter" has enjoyed a great deal of popularity, with 82 percent of Canadians describing it as a good thing in opinion polls in 1987 and 1999, the document has also been subject to published criticisms from both sides of the political spectrum. According to columnist David Akin (2017), while most Liberals support the "Charter", most Conservatives, most New Democrats, most Indigenous people, and Québécois see the "Charter" as "problematic" and "something to be challenged in order to be Canadian".


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: One left-wing critic is professor Michael Mandel (1989), who wrote that, in comparison to politicians, judges do not have to be as sensitive to the will of the electorate, nor do they have to make sure their decisions are easily understandable to the average Canadian citizen. This, in Mandel's view, limits democracy. Mandel has also asserted that the "Charter" makes Canada more like the United States, especially by serving corporate rights and individual rights rather than group rights and social rights. He has argued that there are several things that should be included in the "Charter", such as a right to health care and a basic right to free education. Hence, the perceived Americanization of Canadian politics is seen as coming at the expense of values more important for Canadians. The labour movement has been disappointed in the reluctance of the courts to use the "Charter" to support various forms of union activity, such as the "right to strike".


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Conservative critics Morton and Knopff (2000) have raised several concerns about the "Charter", notably by alleging that the federal government has used it to limit provincial powers by allying with various rights claimants and interest groups. In their book "The Charter Revolution & the Court Party" (2000), Morton and Knopff express their suspicions of this alliance in detail, accusing the Pierre Trudeau and Chrétien governments of funding litigious groups. For example, these governments used the Court Challenges Program to support minority language educational rights claims. Morton and Knopff also assert that crown counsel has intentionally lost cases in which the government was taken to court for allegedly violating rights, particularly gay rights and women's rights.


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Political scientist Rand Dyck (2000), in observing these criticisms, notes that while judges have had their scope of review widened, they have still upheld most laws challenged on "Charter" grounds. With regard to litigious interest groups, Dyck points out that "the record is not as clear as Morton and Knopff imply. All such groups have experienced wins and losses."


title: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

text: Political philosopher Charles Blattberg (2003) has criticized the "Charter" for contributing to the fragmentation of the country, at both the individual and group levels. In encouraging discourse based upon rights, Blattberg claims the "Charter" injects an adversarial spirit into Canadian politics, making it difficult to realize the common good. Blattberg also claims that the "Charter" undercuts the Canadian political community since it is ultimately a cosmopolitan document. Finally, he argues that people would be more motivated to uphold individual liberties if they were expressed with terms that are much "thicker" (less abstract) than rights.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: In probability and statistics, the Dirichlet distribution (after Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet), often denoted formula_1, is a family of continuous multivariate probability distributions parameterized by a vector formula_2 of positive reals. It is a multivariate generalization of the beta distribution, hence its alternative name of multivariate beta distribution (MBD). Dirichlet distributions are commonly used as prior distributions in Bayesian statistics, and in fact, the Dirichlet distribution is the conjugate prior of the categorical distribution and multinomial distribution.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: The Dirichlet distribution of order "K" ≥ 2 with parameters "α", ..., "α" > 0 has a probability density function with respect to Lebesgue measure on the Euclidean space R given by


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: The normalizing constant is the multivariate beta function, which can be expressed in terms of the gamma function:


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: The support of the Dirichlet distribution is the set of "K"-dimensional vectors formula_8 whose entries are real numbers in the interval [0,1] such that formula_9, i.e. the sum of the coordinates is equal to 1. These can be viewed as the probabilities of a "K"-way categorical event. Another way to express this is that the domain of the Dirichlet distribution is itself a set of probability distributions, specifically the set of "K"-dimensional discrete distributions. The technical term for the set of points in the support of a "K"-dimensional Dirichlet distribution is the open standard ("K" − 1)-simplex, which is a generalization of a triangle, embedded in the next-higher dimension. For example, with "K" = 3, the support is an equilateral triangle embedded in a downward-angle fashion in three-dimensional space, with vertices at (1,0,0), (0,1,0) and (0,0,1), i.e. touching each of the coordinate axes at a point 1 unit away from the origin.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: A common special case is the symmetric Dirichlet distribution, where all of the elements making up the parameter vector formula_2 have the same value. The symmetric case might be useful, for example, when a Dirichlet prior over components is called for, but there is no prior knowledge favoring one component over another. Since all elements of the parameter vector have the same value, the symmetric Dirichlet distribution can be parametrized by a single scalar value "α", called the concentration parameter. In terms of "α," the density function has the form


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: When "α"=1, the symmetric Dirichlet distribution is equivalent to a uniform distribution over the open standard ("K" − 1)-simplex, i.e. it is uniform over all points in its support. This particular distribution is known as the flat Dirichlet distribution. Values of the concentration parameter above 1 prefer variates that are dense, evenly distributed distributions, i.e. all the values within a single sample are similar to each other. Values of the concentration parameter below 1 prefer sparse distributions, i.e. most of the values within a single sample will be close to 0, and the vast majority of the mass will be concentrated in a few of the values.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: More generally, the parameter vector is sometimes written as the product formula_12 of a (scalar) concentration parameter "α" and a (vector) base measure formula_13 where formula_14 lies within the ("K" − 1)-simplex (i.e.: its coordinates formula_15 sum to one). The concentration parameter in this case is larger by a factor of "K" than the concentration parameter for a symmetric Dirichlet distribution described above. This construction ties in with concept of a base measure when discussing Dirichlet processes and is often used in the topic modelling literature.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: The Dirichlet distribution is the conjugate prior distribution of the categorical distribution (a generic discrete probability distribution with a given number of possible outcomes) and multinomial distribution (the distribution over observed counts of each possible category in a set of categorically distributed observations). This means that if a data point has either a categorical or multinomial distribution, and the prior distribution of the distribution's parameter (the vector of probabilities that generates the data point) is distributed as a Dirichlet, then the posterior distribution of the parameter is also a Dirichlet. Intuitively, in such a case, starting from what we know about the parameter prior to observing the data point, we then can update our knowledge based on the data point and end up with a new distribution of the same form as the old one. This means that we can successively update our knowledge of a parameter by incorporating new observations one at a time, without running into mathematical difficulties.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: This relationship is used in Bayesian statistics to estimate the underlying parameter p of a categorical distribution given a collection of "N" samples. Intuitively, we can view the hyperprior vector α as pseudocounts, i.e. as representing the number of observations in each category that we have already seen. Then we simply add in the counts for all the new observations (the vector c) in order to derive the posterior distribution.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: In Bayesian mixture models and other hierarchical Bayesian models with mixture components, Dirichlet distributions are commonly used as the prior distributions for the categorical variables appearing in the models. See the section on applications below for more information.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: In a model where a Dirichlet prior distribution is placed over a set of categorical-valued observations, the marginal joint distribution of the observations (i.e. the joint distribution of the observations, with the prior parameter marginalized out) is a Dirichlet-multinomial distribution. This distribution plays an important role in hierarchical Bayesian models, because when doing inference over such models using methods such as Gibbs sampling or variational Bayes, Dirichlet prior distributions are often marginalized out. See the article on this distribution for more details.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: The following formula for formula_29 can be used to derive the differential entropy above. Since the functions formula_30 are the sufficient statistics of the Dirichlet distribution, the exponential family differential identities can be used to get an analytic expression for the expectation of formula_30 and its associated covariance matrix:


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: where formula_28 is the digamma function, formula_35 is the trigamma function, and formula_36 is the Kronecker delta.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Another related interesting measure is the entropy of a discrete categorical (one-of-K binary) vector formula_40 with probability-mass distribution formula_41, i.e., formula_42. The conditional information entropy of formula_40, given formula_41 is


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: This function of formula_41 is a scalar random variable. If formula_41 has a symmetric Dirichlet distribution with all formula_48, the expected value of the entropy (in nat units) is


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: then, if the random variables with subscripts "i" and "j" are dropped from the vector and replaced by their sum,


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: This aggregation property may be used to derive the marginal distribution of formula_52 mentioned above.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: If formula_16, then the vector "X" is said to be "neutral" in the sense that "X" is independent of formula_54 where


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: and similarly for removing any of formula_56. Observe that any permutation of "X" is also neutral (a property not possessed by samples drawn from a generalized Dirichlet distribution).


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Combining this with the property of aggregation it follows that "X" + ... + "X" is independent of formula_57. In fact it is true, further, for the Dirichlet distribution, that for formula_58, the pair formula_59, and the two vectors formula_57 and formula_61, viewed as triple of normalised random vectors, are mutually independent. The analogous result is true for partition of the indices {1,2...,"K"} into any other pair of non-singleton subsets.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: The characteristic function of the Dirichlet distribution is a confluent form of the Lauricella hypergeometric series. It is given by Phillips as


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: The sum is over non-negative integers formula_65 and formula_66. Phillips goes on to state that this form is "inconvenient for numerical calculation" and gives an alternative in terms of a complex path integral:


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: where "L" denotes any path in the complex plane originating at formula_68, encircling in the positive direction all the singularities of the integrand and returning to formula_68.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Probability density function formula_70 plays a key role in a multifunctional inequality which implies various bounds for the Dirichlet distribution.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Although the "X"s are not independent from one another, they can be seen to be generated from a set of "K" independent gamma random variable. Unfortunately, since the sum "V" is lost in forming "X" (in fact it can be shown that "V" is stochastically independent of "X"), it is not possible to recover the original gamma random variables from these values alone. Nevertheless, because independent random variables are simpler to work with, this reparametrization can still be useful for proofs about properties of the Dirichlet distribution.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Here formula_75 is a "K"-dimensional real vector and formula_76 is a scalar parameter. The domain of formula_77 is restricted to the set of parameters for which the above unnormalized density function can be normalized. The (necessary and sufficient) condition is:


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: In the published literature there is no practical algorithm to efficiently generate samples from formula_82.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Dirichlet distributions are most commonly used as the prior distribution of categorical variables or multinomial variables in Bayesian mixture models and other hierarchical Bayesian models. (In many fields, such as in natural language processing, categorical variables are often imprecisely called "multinomial variables". Such a usage is unlikely to cause confusion, just as when Bernoulli distributions and binomial distributions are commonly conflated.)


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Inference over hierarchical Bayesian models is often done using Gibbs sampling, and in such a case, instances of the Dirichlet distribution are typically marginalized out of the model by integrating out the Dirichlet random variable. This causes the various categorical variables drawn from the same Dirichlet random variable to become correlated, and the joint distribution over them assumes a Dirichlet-multinomial distribution, conditioned on the hyperparameters of the Dirichlet distribution (the concentration parameters). One of the reasons for doing this is that Gibbs sampling of the Dirichlet-multinomial distribution is extremely easy; see that article for more information.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Dirichlet distributions are very often used as prior distributions in Bayesian inference. The simplest and perhaps most common type of Dirichlet prior is the symmetric Dirichlet distribution, where all parameters are equal. This corresponds to the case where you have no prior information to favor one component over any other. As described above, the single value "α" to which all parameters are set is called the concentration parameter. If the sample space of the Dirichlet distribution is interpreted as a discrete probability distribution, then intuitively the concentration parameter can be thought of as determining how "concentrated" the probability mass of the Dirichlet distribution to its center, leading to samples with mass dispersed almost equally among all components, i.e., with a value much less than 1, the mass will be highly concentrated in a few components, and all the rest will have almost no mass, and with a value much greater than 1, the mass will be dispersed almost equally among all the components. See the article on the concentration parameter for further discussion.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: One example use of the Dirichlet distribution is if one wanted to cut strings (each of initial length 1.0) into "K" pieces with different lengths, where each piece had a designated average length, but allowing some variation in the relative sizes of the pieces. Recall that formula_17 The "α"/"α" values specify the mean lengths of the cut pieces of string resulting from the distribution. The variance around this mean varies inversely with "α".


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Consider an urn containing balls of "K" different colors. Initially, the urn contains "α" balls of color 1, "α" balls of color 2, and so on. Now perform "N" draws from the urn, where after each draw, the ball is placed back into the urn with an additional ball of the same color. In the limit as "N" approaches infinity, the proportions of different colored balls in the urn will be distributed as Dir("α"...,"α").


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: For a formal proof, note that the proportions of the different colored balls form a bounded [0,1]-valued martingale, hence by the martingale convergence theorem, these proportions converge almost surely and in mean to a limiting random vector. To see that this limiting vector has the above Dirichlet distribution, check that all mixed moments agree.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Each draw from the urn modifies the probability of drawing a ball of any one color from the urn in the future. This modification diminishes with the number of draws, since the relative effect of adding a new ball to the urn diminishes as the urn accumulates increasing numbers of balls.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: With a source of Gamma-distributed random variates, one can easily sample a random vector formula_84 from the "K"-dimensional Dirichlet distribution with parameters formula_85 . First, draw "K" independent random samples formula_86 from Gamma distributions each with density


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: Next, one uses a change of variables, parametrising formula_91 in terms of formula_92 and formula_93 , and performs a change of variables from formula_94 such that formula_95


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: One must then use the change of variables formula, formula_96 in which formula_97 is the transformation Jacobian.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: The determinant can be evaluated by noting that it remains unchanged if multiples of a row are added to another row, and adding each of the first K-1 rows to the bottom row to obtain


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: This formulation is correct regardless of how the Gamma distributions are parameterized (shape/scale vs. shape/rate) because they are equivalent when scale and rate equal 1.0.


title: Dirichlet distribution

text: A less efficient algorithm relies on the univariate marginal and conditional distributions being beta and proceeds as follows. Simulate formula_109 from


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: In the series, Nami is the Straw Hat Pirates' navigator, who dreams of drawing a map of the entire world. Despite her initial distrust of pirates, Nami eventually changes her mind after being around Luffy and the rest of the crew. Nami is depicted as an intelligent girl who is obsessed with obtaining money. She is able to use her three-sectioned staff and her climate skills to create powerful attacks; the most prominent of these staff weapons is the Clima-Tact, in which she manipulates the climate to create weather-based attacks.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: Nami was based on two of Eiichiro Oda's earlier characters named Silk and Ann, from his one-shot manga "Romance Dawn". In these stories, Silk and Ann were parentless and had tragic pasts. Oda designed Nami as a human girl. At first, Oda wanted Nami to use a large axe, but he replaced it with a pole-based weapon. In an early concept of the Straw Hats, Nami was the only woman on the crew.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: Nami is fashionable and her style changes throughout "One Piece". She was first introduced wearing a white-and-blue striped shirt, an orange mini-skirt and orange boots. Throughout the series, Nami is commonly seen wearing a shirt or bikini top, a skirt and high-heeled sandals. Nami often wears blue tattoos throughout the course of the series; the first is a symbol of Arlong's crew which is later removed and replaced with a symbol of a tangerine and pinwheel on her left bicep. Eventually, Nami starts wearing earrings and has her hair, once just barely shoulder-length, grown down to the middle of her back, while usually wearing bikini tops with blue jeans. Concerning her ethnic appearance, Oda revealed that he imagines Nami to be of Swedish nationality, albeit in a real-world context.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: In the Japanese version of the entire "One Piece" anime series, and later spin-offs, Nami has been voiced by Akemi Okamura. In 2001, Okamura temporarily left the series due to her pregnancy; Wakana Yamazaki acted as a substitute for episodes 70-78. In the OVA "Defeat the Pirate Ganzack!", Nami was voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi. In 4Kids Entertainment’s dub of the anime, Nami is voiced by Kerry Williams. In Funimation Entertainment's dub of the anime, Nami is voiced by Luci Christian.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: Nami possesses several abilities. She can tell climate changes and draw sea charts. She is also a pickpocket. During the early part of the series, Nami possesses a three-sectioned bo staff until Usopp creates a variation of her staff, known as the , which can control the weather at will. Later, Usopp upgrades her weapon to the , using Dials to increase her attacks.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: Eventually, Nami adds the Sorcery Clima-Tact (Sorcery Climate Baton in the Viz manga and Funimation subs) with Weatheria's technology, which not only has improved abilities, but can also be used for other uses such as producing Milky Clouds for riding across. As with her original staff, these three weapons are also tri-sectional. Later, Usopp gives Nami an improved Sorcery Clima-Tact model she wanted him to make (which he had Franky help him a little bit). Using the knowledge he acquired over the time-skip with the plant-based Pop Greens, Usopp combined this with the Weatheria technology Nami provided him and designed the new Sorcery Clima-Tact to be smaller and more compact than the previous models. Instead, it uses the Pop Greens' growth abilities for the staff to extend and contract, through the use of squeezing or releasing the handle. This improvement also allows Nami to now be able to directly attack with her staff from a distance. Nami later teamed up with Big Mom's thundercloud-based accomplice Zeus, eventually forcing him to become her servant, and is currently part of her arsenal, now living inside her Clima-Tact. Though Zeus' body was later destroyed by his former master, his soul was able to survive and has now completely merged with the Clima-Tact, improving its capabilities and giving it shape-changing abilities, such as transforming it into a mace.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: Nami first appears in the manga chapter , first published in Japan's "Weekly Shōnen Jump" magazine on September 22, 1997. She first appears as a thief who robs treasure from pirates, and partners with Luffy and Zoro after joining forces to obtain a map of the Grand Line from the clown-like pirate Buggy. As the crew defends the seafaring restaurant Baratie from Don Krieg's pirates, Nami learns of a bounty on the fish-man pirate Arlong and departs with the crew's ship and accumulated treasure, intending to buy back her home village Cocoyashi from Arlong's control.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: The crew learns of Nami's past from her adoptive sister Nojiko: Nami and Nojiko were orphaned infants rescued from a war-torn kingdom and adopted by the Marine Bellemere, who raised them as her own. As a child, Nami developed a love for cartography and navigation, dreaming of creating a map of the entire world. One day, Arlong and his crew invaded Cocoyashi and demanded a monetary tribute from the villagers. Bellemere used her entire remaining fortune to spare Nami and Nojiko, and was killed by Arlong to set an example for the villagers. Arlong then kidnapped Nami upon discovering her talent for cartography and forced her to chart maps for him, while promising that the village would be freed for a price. Nami was driven for the following eight years to rob from pirates in order to buy back her village. When Nami's loot is confiscated by a corrupt Marine, she learns that Arlong has been bribing the Navy into ignoring his crimes, and she begs Luffy for help in her despair. Luffy and the others successfully defeat Arlong, freeing the village as a result. Nami rejoins the crew as they sail off to the Grand Line to pursue their dreams.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: At Whiskey Peak, the crew is entrusted to escort the princess Nefertari Vivi to her kingdom Alabasta. While fending off pursuers of Vivi on Little Garden, Nami is bitten by a poisonous tick and falls ill. She is treated and cured on Drum Island, where the medic Tony Tony Chopper joins the crew. In an effort to better protect Vivi, Nami requests a weapon – the Clima-Tact – from the crew's sniper Usopp, which she uses (with some initial difficulty) to defeat Miss Doublefinger in Alabasta. When the crew rescues their archaeologist Nico Robin at Enies Lobby, Nami receives a bounty along with the rest of the crew. In Thriller Bark, Nami is kidnapped by the zombie Absalom, who tries to force her to marry him. The crew's cook Sanji tries to rescue her, but Absalom incapacitates him and attempts to complete the wedding. Nami is saved by the zombie Lola, who later gives Nami her mother's Vivre Card, a piece of paper representing the owner's soul. While attempting to reach Fish-Man Island, the crew meets the mermaid Camie and rescues her friend, who turns out to be Hatchan, a former member of Arlong's crew. While Nami does not yet completely forgive Hatchan for his previous association, she appreciates his takoyaki.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: After being separated from the crew by Bartholomew Kuma, Nami ends up on the floating island Weatheria, where she masters the meteorological arts. Two years later, Nami reunites with Luffy and the others and they head to Fish-Man Island. Reuniting with Camie, the crew is invited to King Neptune's palace. There, they encounter a new crew of fish-man pirates led by Hody Jones, who has inherited Arlong's will. Nami and Camie escape to the Sea Forest, where they meet Jimbei, a fish-man pirate who formerly served as a World Government Warlord and released Arlong into the East Blue. Nami comforts Jimbei after he tells the history of discrimination rooted into Fish-Man Island and expresses his guilt over Arlong. At Jimbei's request, Nami steals a letter in Hody's possession, and engages with the New Fish-Man Pirates. When the crew travels to Punk Hazard, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, and the crew's shipwright Franky are abducted by Caesar Clown, and they decide to rescue the children being used in Caesar's experiments. Upon escaping the laboratory, they encounter the World Government Warlord Trafalgar Law, whose ability swaps Nami's mind into Franky's body. When Luffy and Law form an alliance, Law swaps Nami's mind into Sanji's body (as Nami's body is not present) when attempting to return the crew members to normal. While rescuing the children from Caesar, Nami regroups with the crew and is returned to her own body. She later prevents Caesar's escape with Usopp's help, and she entrusts the children with the Marine Tashigi.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: In Dressrosa, Nami stays on the Thousand Sunny with Chopper and the crew's musician Brook to guard Caesar and the ship. They are attacked by Giolla of the Donquixote Pirates and turned into abstract art, but Brook defeats Giolla and returns them to normal. Due to the Big Mom Pirates also targeting Caesar, Nami and half of the crew are forced to head to Zou to avoid creating more problems for the Dressrosa mission. Following the Dressrosa incident, her bounty increases along with those of the rest of the crew. In Zou, the group rescues Tristan, a member of the Mink Tribe, from Sheepshead of the Beast Pirates. Upon discovering the Mink Tribe's devastation caused by Caesar's poison gas weapon, Nami's group decides to come to the Minks' aid and rescue them. The grateful Minks thank Nami as a benefactor, and she exchanges clothes with the tribeswoman Wanda as a customary token of friendship. Two days before Luffy and the rest of the crew arrive at Zou, Nami's group is detained by Capone Bege of the Big Mom Pirates, but Sanji's quick wit spares them as he is taken away. When Luffy arrives, Nami explains what had happened on Zou. Taking responsibility for Sanji's capture, she accompanies Luffy as the crew leaves for Whole Cake Island to rescue Sanji.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: While trekking through Whole Cake Island's Seducing Woods, Nami's group is attacked by Big Mom's children Brulee and Cracker as well as the "homies", a race of animals, plants and objects granted sentience. Nami learns that Big Mom is Lola's mother, and that the homies will not attack as long as she carries Big Mom's Vivre Card. Nami uses this advantage to support Luffy, and she creates rainclouds that weaken Cracker's "Biscuit Soldiers". Following Cracker's defeat, Luffy and Nami reunite with Sanji and try to bring him back, but Sanji hides his situation and repels them. The pair are defeated by Cracker's avenging army, robbed of the Vivre Card (which Nami had split in two in advance), and imprisoned in Mont-d'Or's book. Before Nami can be tortured by Opera for Lola's whereabouts, she and Luffy are rescued by Jimbei. They then join up with Chopper and others to go into the Mirro-World and rescue Brook, who was captured by Big Mom. After receiving Luffy's decision to rescue Sanji's family, Nami joins forces with Capone Bege's operation to assassinate Big Mom. On the day of Sanji's arranged wedding, she infiltrates the venue as Luffy throws it into chaos and assists in rescuing the Vinsmoke family. When the assassination attempt fails, Nami is caught by Smoothie while attempting to retreat into Capone Bege's body, but is rescued by Sanji's sister Reiju. After escaping from Big Mom's collapsing castle, Nami wields the Vivre Card and pits the homies Kingbaum and Zeus against the pursuing Big Mom. She promises to meet Luffy — who has taken refuge in the Mirro-World — on Cacao Island at a later time. In the battle with Big Mom, who has boarded the Thousand Sunny, Nami works with Brook to capture Big Mom's homie Zeus and make him Nami's servant.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: Just before arriving in Wano, the Thousand Sunny is caught in a violent whirlpool, during which Nami is carried by Sanji to safety. They subsequently reunite with Luffy at the ruins of Oden Castle, where the samurai Kin'emon discusses a decisive battle against the Beast Pirates, led by Kaido. Nami is entrusted with her role in the operation as the kunoichi "Onami". Together with Shinobu, she travels to the Flower Capital and obtains information on the distribution of weapons. When Nico Robin is called to Orochi's castle, Nami infiltrates it as an escort and attacks Orochi, allowing her and Robin to escape. The next day, after hiding out in a cemetery, she is discovered in a bathhouse by the Beast Pirate Hawkins, but is rescued by Sanji and escapes to Ebisu Town. Following a ruckus in Rasetsu Town, Nami receives a final message by Yasuie from Bepo. She delivers it to Kin'emon, and goes to Amigasa Village to prepare for a raid on Onigashima. During the raid, Nami is spotted by the homie Prometheus, who contacts Big Mom. Nami loses control of Zeus, but is rescued by Franky and Brook. Within Kaido's stronghold, Nami and Usopp provoke and attract the attention of Beast Pirates Ulti and Page One, and are nearly killed. With Tama's intervention, they barely manage to escape, and use Tama's power to turn the Beast Pirates' elite soldiers into allies. While continuing to flee from Ulti and Page One, Nami and Usopp encounter Big Mom, who angrily joins Nami in attacking Ulti for harming Tama. Big Mom resumes her pursuit of Nami and Usopp when Ulti is momentarily knocked out. After Zeus is forsaken by Big Mom, he integrates with Nami's Clima-Tact, becoming Nami's partner. She and Usopp escape Big Mom after the pirate Eustass Kid ambushes her, and they finally defeat Ulti with the aid of Nami's newly-powered weapon.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: Nami has made several appearances in other media, including, but not limited to, every "One Piece" licensed electronic video game to date, including "Jump Super Stars" and "Jump Ultimate Stars". In 2006, she is featured in the "Dragon Ball"/"One Piece"/"Naruto" crossover game "Battle Stadium D.O.N.". In addition to her in-game appearances, Nami has also been featured and mentioned in some songs. "Music" features Nami singing about herself listening to music while chasing her dreams. "Between the Wind" features Nami singing about weather and drawing sea charts.


title: Nami (One Piece)

text: Nami ranked in the Top 10 of all three "Shōnen Jump" character popularity polls. Her backstory has been found to be a "touching story" as it "unfolds with a lot of emotion" by Mania Entertainment writer, Jarred Pine. Pine also mentioned Nami was his favorite character from the series, and satisfied with how the manga showed her past. While reviewing the eighth DVD from Viz Media, Activeanime mentioned Nami is one of the best characters from the series as "She’s got guts, smarts, and can heft a mean punch when needed". Like Pined, Activeanime liked Nami's background and added that his "itty bitty heart went out to her". Nami was ranked as #28 in a survey conducted by Newtype Japan for Favorite Anime Heroine in 2002. In the SPJA 2008, Nami was nominated in the category "Best Female Character".


title: Synovial joint

text: A synovial joint, also known as diarthrosis, joins bones or cartilage with a fibrous joint capsule that is continuous with the periosteum of the joined bones, constitutes the outer boundary of a synovial cavity, and surrounds the bones' articulating surfaces. This joint unites long bones and permits free bone movement and greater mobility. The synovial cavity/joint is filled with synovial fluid. The joint capsule is made up of an outer layer of fibrous membrane, which keeps the bones together structurally, and an inner layer, the synovial membrane, which seals in the synovial fluid.


title: Synovial joint

text: They are the most common and most movable type of joint in the body of a mammal. As with most other joints, synovial joints achieve movement at the point of contact of the articulating bones.


title: Synovial joint

text: The bone surrounding the joint on the proximal side is sometimes called the "plafond", especially in the talocrural joint. A damage to this occurs in a Gosselin fracture.


title: Synovial joint

text: The blood supply of a synovial joint is derived from the arteries sharing in the anastomosis around the joint.


title: Synovial joint

text: There are seven types of synovial joints. Some are relatively immobile, but are more stable. Others have multiple degrees of freedom, but at the expense of greater risk of injury. In ascending order of mobility, they are:


title: Synovial joint

text: The "joint space" equals the distance between the involved bones of the joint. A "joint space narrowing" is a sign of either (or both) osteoarthritis and inflammatory degeneration. The normal joint space is at least 2 mm in the hip (at the superior acetabulum), at least 3 mm in the knee, and 4–5 mm in the shoulder joint. For the temporomandibular joint, a joint space of between 1.5 and 4 mm is regarded as normal. Joint space narrowing is therefore a component of several radiographic classifications of osteoarthritis.


title: Synovial joint

text: In rheumatoid arthritis, the clinical manifestations are primarily synovial inflammation and joint damage. The fibroblast-like synoviocytes, highly specialized mesenchymal cells found in the synovial membrane, have an active and prominent role in the pathogenic processes in the rheumatic joints. Therapies that target these cells are emerging as promising therapeutic tools, raising hope for future applications in rheumatoid arthritis.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa (; born 12 December 1948) is a Portuguese politician and academic. He is the 20th and current president of Portugal, since 9 March 2016. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, though he suspended his party membership for the duration of his presidency. Rebelo de Sousa has previously served as a government minister, parliamentarian in the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic, legal scholar, journalist, political analyst, law professor, and pundit.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: Born in Lisbon, Rebelo de Sousa is the eldest son of Baltasar Rebelo de Sousa (1921–2001) and his wife Maria das Neves Fernandes Duarte (1921–2003). He has claimed that his mother had Jewish ancestry. He is named after his godfather, Marcello Caetano, the last prime minister of the Estado Novo regime.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: Rebelo de Sousa became a professor and publicist specialized in constitutional law and administrative law, earning his doctorate at the University of Lisbon, where he taught law.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: Rebelo de Sousa started his career during the Estado Novo as a lawyer, and later as a journalist. He joined the Popular Democratic Party, becoming a Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic. During that time, he helped draft Portugal's constitution in 1976. Later he rose to Minister of Parliamentary Affairs under Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão. Together with him he was a co-founder, Director and Administrator of the "Expresso" newspaper, owned by Pinto Balsemão. He was also a founder of Sedes. He worked with another newspaper, "Semanário", between 1983 and 1987. He started as a political analyst and pundit on the radio broadcaster TSF with his "Exams", in which he gave marks (0 to 20) to the main political players.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: In 1989 he ran for President of the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon (Mayor of Lisbon) but lost to Jorge Sampaio, though he did win a seat as City Councilor ("Vereador"). In that campaign he took a plunge into the waters of the Tagus River to prove they were not polluted despite claims to the contrary. In other local elections, he also became the President of the Municipal Assembly of Cascais (1979–1982) and the President of the Municipal Assembly of Celorico de Basto (1997–2009).


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: Rebelo de Sousa was the leader of the Social Democratic Party from 29 March 1996 to 27 May 1999. He created a center-right coalition, the Democratic Alliance, with the People's Party in 1998. He became, however, the Vice-President of the European People's Party–European Democrats. The coalition did not please large parts of its own party, due to the role the People's Party leader, Paulo Portas, had in undermining Aníbal Cavaco Silva's government while director of the weekly "O Independente".


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: He had a weekly program of political analysis every Sunday on public TV station RTP after previously having a similar program on the private TV station TVI. President Jorge Sampaio dissolved the Assembly of the Republic, a move that also meant dismissing the Government at a time when it had a stable coalition majority, and calling for anticipated elections, which led to the defeat of Santana Lopes and the election of the Socialists under José Sócrates.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: He was made a Member of the Council of State, by President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, and was sworn in on 6 April 2006.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: He was a leading figure on the anti-abortion side of the 2007 abortion referendum. He even founded a website titled "Assim Não" (Not like this), which was divulged with a famous introductory video. It became so well known that it was parodied in "Saturday Night Live"-fashion by famous humour group Gato Fedorento.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: On 24 January 2016, Rebelo de Sousa was elected as President of Portugal in the first round of voting. He stood as an independent, appealing for moderation and cross-party consensus. During his election campaign, he promised to repair political divisions and the hardship of Portugal's 2011–14 bailout. Unlike his predecessor, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, he had never previously held a top state position.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: In March 2020, Rebelo de Sousa asked parliament to authorize a state of emergency to contain the COVID-19 pandemic; this marked the first time the country declared a state of emergency nationwide in 46 years of democratic history.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: In December 2020, Rebelo de Sousa announced his intention to run for office again in the 2021 Portuguese presidential election. Marcelo was re-elected president in January 2021, with 60.7% of the votes, the third highest vote margin ever in presidential elections in Portugal since the Carnation Revolution. He was also the first candidate ever to win the vote in all municipalities, ranging from 51.3% in the Beja District to 72.16% in Madeira.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: Rebelo de Sousa, as President of Portugal, has visited the Vatican, Spain, Mozambique, Morocco, Brazil, Switzerland, Cuba, United Kingdom, Greece, United States of America and Angola. The first visit was to the Vatican City to meet the Pope Francis and the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. In 2019, he joined President Emmanuel Macron for the traditional Bastille Day military parade in Paris, which honoured European military cooperation and the European Intervention Initiative that year.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: In December 2017, Rebelo de Sousa underwent emergency surgery at Curry Cabral Hospital in order to treat an incarcerated umbilical hernia. The procedure was performed by , a friend of the president. He was discharged from the hospital and lauded the Portuguese National Health Service, considering it an important achievement of Portuguese democracy.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: In June 2018, Rebelo de Sousa was briefly hospitalized after he collapsed after a visit to Bom Jesus do Monte sanctuary in Braga; the incident was caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure alongside acute gastroenteritis.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: In October 2019, he underwent planned cardiac catheterization at Santa Cruz Hospital, Carnaxide, in the outskirts of Lisbon, after accumulated calcium was detected in one of his blood vessels.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: On 8 March 2020, Rebelo de Sousa suspended all his public agenda and returned to his private home in Cascais, entering a voluntary quarantine period for 14 days after being revealed that a group of students from Felgueiras, who had visited Belém Palace some days before, had also been quarantined after a positive case of COVID-19 was detected in their school. Marcelo subsequently tested negative for the virus and worked remotely for a period during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: On 11 January 2021, Rebelo de Sousa tested positive for COVID-19, after a contact with a positive case in his staff. He was reportedly asymptomatic, and canceled his appointments, opting to remain in self-isolation. Three further COVID-19 tests yielded negative results. Some physicians said that a false positive PCR-RT test, although possible, was unlikely, and tentatively attributed the subsequent negative tests to a low viral load. On 13 January, however, the Lisbon and Tagus Valley regional public health authority confirmed that the President was considered to have had a low-risk exposure, and was therefore simply under passive surveillance for two weeks: the President was instructed that he could resume his agenda save for any events in crowded public places.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: In December 2021, he underwent planned surgery to remove two inguinal hernias at the Military Hospital in Lisbon.


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: On 27 July 1972, Rebelo de Sousa married Ana Cristina da Gama Caeiro da Mota Veiga in the parish of São Bento do Mato in Évora. His wife, born on 4 June 1950 in the Santos-o-Velho parish of Lisbon, is the daughter of António da Mota Veiga and Maria Emília da Gama Caeiro. In the following years, Sousa and Mota Veiga had two children:


title: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

text: The couple separated in 1980 but never got divorced, with Sousa citing his Roman Catholic faith as the reason behind his wish to keep up the marital bond. He started dating his former student Rita Amaral Cabral in 1981, who at the time was his fellow lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. They continue to entertain a casual relationship, but live separately.


title: Morgan dollar

text: The Morgan dollar is a United States dollar coin minted from 1878 to 1904, in 1921, and beginning again in 2021. It was the first standard silver dollar minted since the passage of the Coinage Act of 1873, which ended the free coining of silver and the production of the previous design, the Seated Liberty dollar. It contained 412.5 grains of 90% pure silver (or 371.25 gr = 24.056 g = 0.7735 oz t of pure silver). The coin is named after its designer, United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan. The obverse depicts a profile portrait representing Liberty, modeled by Anna Willess Williams, while the reverse depicts an eagle with wings outstretched. The mint mark, if present, appears on the reverse above between D and O in "Dollar".


title: Morgan dollar

text: The dollar was authorized by the Bland–Allison Act. Following the passage of the 1873 act, mining interests lobbied to restore free silver, which would require the Mint to accept all silver presented to it and return it, struck into coin. Instead, the Bland–Allison Act was passed, which required the Treasury to purchase between two and four million dollars' worth of silver at market value to be coined into dollars each month. In 1890, the Bland–Allison Act was repealed by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the Treasury to purchase of silver each month, but only required further silver dollar production for one year. This act, once again, was repealed in 1893.


title: Morgan dollar

text: In 1898, Congress approved a bill that required all remaining bullion purchased under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to be coined into silver dollars. When those silver reserves were depleted in 1904, the Mint ceased to strike the Morgan dollar. The Pittman Act, passed in 1918, authorized the melting and recoining of millions of silver dollars. Pursuant to the act, Morgan dollars resumed mintage for one year in 1921. The design was replaced by the Peace dollar later the same year.


title: Morgan dollar

text: In the early 1960s, a large quantity of uncirculated Morgan dollars in their original bags were discovered in the Treasury vaults, including issues once thought rare. Individuals began purchasing large quantities of the pieces at face value and then removed them from circulation through hoarding, and eventually the Treasury ceased exchanging silver certificates for silver coin. Beginning in the 1970s, the Treasury conducted a sale of silver dollars minted at the Carson City Mint through the General Services Administration. In 2006, Morgan's reverse design was used on a silver dollar issued to commemorate the old San Francisco Mint building. The US Mint began striking Morgan Dollars again in 2021, initially as a commemorative to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of the design’s final usage, then as an annual release starting in 2023.


title: Morgan dollar

text: In 1873, Congress enacted the Fourth Coinage Act, which effectively ended the bimetallic standard in the United States by demonetizing silver bullion. Prior to enactment of the Coinage Act, silver could be brought to the mints and coined into legal tender for a small fee. With such a system in place, bullion producers could have silver coined into dollars when the intrinsic value of a silver dollar was lower than the face value, thus making a profit, flooding the money supply and causing inflation. The act ended production of the standard silver dollar (then the Seated Liberty dollar, as designed by Christian Gobrecht) and provided for mintage of a silver trade dollar, which was intended to compete with Mexican dollars for use in the Orient. Under the act, bullion producers were allowed to bring bullion to the mints in order to be cast into bars or coined into the newly authorized trade dollars for a small fee. Trade dollars initially held legal tender status, but it was revoked in 1876 to prevent bullion producers from making a profit by coining silver into trade dollars when the value of the metal was low. The restrictions on free coinage laid out in the Coinage Act initially met little resistance from mining interests until the price of silver declined rapidly due to increased mining in the Western United States. Protests also came from bankers, manufacturers and farmers, who felt an increased money supply would have a positive impact. Groups were formed that demanded the free coinage of silver (or "free silver") in order to inflate the dollar following the Panic of 1873.


title: Morgan dollar

text: Beginning in 1876, several bills were introduced in the House of Representatives in an effort to resume the free coinage of silver. One such bill introduced into the House by Democratic Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri was passed in the fall of 1876. Republican senator William B. Allison of Iowa added important amendments to the bill in the Senate. The House bill allowed Free Silver; one of Allison's amendments struck that provision. This same amendment allowed for the issuance of silver certificates for the first time in United States history. The bill was vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes. The president's veto was overridden on February 28, 1878. What came to be known as the Bland–Allison Act required that the Treasury purchase between two and four million dollars' worth of silver per month, to be coined into silver dollars at the former gold/silver value ratio of 16:1, meaning that one ounce of gold would be valued the same as sixteen ounces of silver.


title: Morgan dollar

text: In 1876, Director of the Mint Henry Linderman began efforts to redesign the nation's silver coins. Linderman contacted C.W. Fremantle, Deputy Master of the Royal Mint in London, requesting him to "find a first class die-sinker who would be willing to take the position of Assistant Engraver at the Mint at Philadelphia." In response to Linderman's request, Fremantle wrote "My inquiries as to an Assistant Engraver lead me very strongly to recommend for the post Mr. George Morgan, age 30, who has made himself a considerable name, but for whom there is not much opening at present in this country." An agreement was reached between Linderman and Morgan for the engraver to work at the Philadelphia Mint under Chief Engraver William Barber on a six-month trial basis.


title: Morgan dollar

text: Morgan arrived in Philadelphia on October 9, 1876. His earliest pattern coins designed during his tenure at the Philadelphia Mint were intended for the half dollar. In 1876, Morgan enrolled as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to prepare to create a new Liberty head design. Morgan also obtained studies from nature of the bald eagle for preparation of the reverse design. For the representation of Liberty, Morgan sought to depict an American woman rather than the usual Greek–style figures. Morgan's friend, artist Thomas Eakins, suggested he use Anna Willess Williams of Philadelphia as a model. In total, Morgan had five sittings with Williams; he declared her profile to be the most perfect he had seen.


title: Morgan dollar

text: On October 18, 1877, Linderman requested Superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint James Pollock to "instruct Mr. Morgan to prepare without delay, dies for a silver dollar, the designs, inscriptions, and arrangement thereof to be the same as the enclosed impression for the Half Dollar and numbered '2' substituting the words 'one dollar' in place of 'half dollar'". Linderman also ordered Pollock to "instruct Mr. Barber to prepare a reverse die for a dollar with a representation of an eagle as well as the inscriptions required by law. He will select whichever of his Heads of Liberty he prefers for the obverse of the same." Linderman evidently preferred the designs of Morgan over those of the Chief Engraver; he wrote Pollock on February 21, 1878, "I have now to state for your information, that it is my intention, in the event of the silver bill now pending in Congress, becoming law, to request the approval by the Secretary of the Treasury, of the dies prepared by Mr. Morgan."


title: Morgan dollar

text: Production of the coins did not commence until March 11, more than a week after the passage of the Bland–Allison Act. The first acceptable strike, after adjustments to the press, was coined at 3:17 p.m. at the Philadelphia Mint. This piece was given to President Hayes; the second and third were given to Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman and Mint Director Henry Linderman.


title: Morgan dollar

text: Linderman desired to involve the western mints of San Francisco and Carson City in production in order to help reach the monthly quota necessary under the Bland–Allison Act. Pressure was so great at the Philadelphia Mint that it halted production of all other coins and began operating overtime. Use of the western mints was delayed, however, as all dies were prepared at the Philadelphia Mint, and it was believed that the Western mints did not have the proper equipment to prepare the dies for use. During the second week of production, Linderman pointed out what he called a "slight imperfection" in the dies for the dollar. The reason for the changes was to reduce the relief of the designs and to change the number of tail feathers on the eagle from eight to seven; this was done because all prior United States coinage depicted the bald eagle as having an odd number of tail feathers. The high relief had caused the dies to have a shorter life. Dies were eventually sent to the Western mints, arriving in both San Francisco and Carson City on April 16, 1878. The New Orleans Mint began striking the new silver dollars in 1879.


title: Morgan dollar

text: The Denver Mint, established in 1906, struck the coins for only one year, in 1921. The mint marks appearing on the coins are none, representing Philadelphia, "" for Carson City, "" for San Francisco, "" for New Orleans and "" for Denver. In order to conform to the Coinage Act of 1837, the Morgan dollar contained ninety percent silver and ten percent copper, measured in diameter and weighed . Thus the pure silver content was 371.25 gr = 24.056 g = 0.7735 oz t.


title: Morgan dollar

text: Mintage of the Morgan dollar remained relatively steady until the passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act on July 14, 1890. The act, authored by Ohio senator and former Treasury secretary John Sherman, forced the Treasury to increase the amount of silver purchased to each month. Supporters of the act believed that an increase in the amount of silver purchased would result in inflation, helping to relieve the nation's farmers. The act also received support from mining interests because such large purchases would cause the price of silver to rise and increase their profits. Despite the Act's requiring large purchases of silver indefinitely, it provided that the Mint must coin 2,000,000 silver dollars each month only until 1891. Since the Treasury already had a surplus of silver dollars, minting of dollars dropped sharply beginning in 1892. The silver that remained after mintage of the dollars was used to mint dimes, quarters and half dollars.


title: Morgan dollar

text: Beginning early in 1893, a number of industrial firms, including the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company went bankrupt. The resulting bank runs and failures became known as the Panic of 1893. In June of that year, President Grover Cleveland, who believed that the Panic was caused by the inflation generated by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, called a special session of Congress in order to repeal it. The act was repealed on November 1, 1893. On June 13, 1898, Congress ordered the coining of all the remaining bullion purchased under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act into silver dollars. Silver dollar production rose again, until the bullion was exhausted in 1904, when it ceased.


title: Morgan dollar

text: The German government began a propaganda campaign during World War I to discredit the United Kingdom's currency in India. The Germans convinced Indian citizens that British banknotes in that country could not be redeemed for silver. This led to a run on the British supply of silver. In response, United States Democratic senator Key Pittman of Nevada introduced legislation in 1918 that was intended to offer financial relief to the British government. The bill, passed on April 22, 1918, stated that "sales of silver bullion under authority of this act may be made for the purpose of conserving the existing stock of gold in the United States, of providing silver for subsidiary coinage and for commercial use, and of assisting foreign governments at war with the enemies of the United States". The Pittman Act authorized the U.S. to melt up to 350,000,000 silver dollars, and this commenced immediately after the Act's passage. The U.S. eventually melted a total of 270,232,722 silver dollars. Of that amount, 259,121,554  were sold to the United Kingdom at the cost of one dollar per troy ounce.


title: Morgan dollar

text: The U.S. only minted the Morgan dollar again during 1921, the only year in which Morgan dollars were struck at the Denver mint. Since the Treasury had destroyed the obsolete Morgan dollar dies in 1910, Morgan had to create an entirely new master die. Another provision of the Pittman Act authorized the U.S. to mint a replacement coin for every silver dollar melted. During the same year, the Peace dollar was first issued to commemorate the end of World War I. The Peace dollar was supposedly minted to replace the Morgan dollar under the terms of the Pittman Act but without congressional authorization, despite the fact that the Act did not describe the coin design. The change in design was actually authorized under an 1890 act of Congress, which stated:


title: Morgan dollar

text: Until 1964, U.S. citizens could redeem paper money known as silver certificates for silver dollars at a U.S. Treasury mint on demand. In 1962, an individual redeemed a silver certificate and received a rare and valuable Morgan dollar in exchange. The coin was from a bag of silver dollars in the vault of the Philadelphia Mint. This incident triggered huge interest, and between November 1962 and March 1964, millions of Morgan and Peace dollars were sold to the general public. The demand to exchange silver certificates for silver dollars was so great that lines formed outside of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. Some people in line were pushing wheelbarrows. The U.S. Treasury discovered previously unknown mint bags in its vaults containing slightly more than 2.8 million Carson City silver dollars. Treasury officials decided to hold them back because the total number of coins minted at the Carson City mint were generally lower than others.