title: Pro Tools

text: Brooks and Gotcher rapidly ported Sound Designer to many other sampling keyboards, such as E-mu Emax, Akai S900, Sequential Prophet 2000, Korg DSS-1, and Ensoniq Mirage. Thanks to the universal file specification subsequently developed by Brooks with version 1.5, Sound Designer files could be transferred via MIDI between sampling keyboards of different manufacturers. This universal file specification, along with the printed source code to a 68000 assembly language interrupt-driven MIDI driver, was distributed through Macintosh MIDI interface manufacturer Assimilation, which manufactured the first MIDI interface for the Mac in 1985.


title: Pro Tools

text: Starting from the same year, a dial-up service provided by Beaverton Digital Systems, called MacMusic, allowed Sound Designer users to download and install the entire Emulator II sound library to other less expensive samplers: sample libraries could be shared across different manufacturers platforms without copyright infringement. MacMusic contributed to Sound Designer's success by leveraging both the universal file format and developing the first online sample file download site globally, many years before the World Wide Web use soared. The service used 2400-baud modems and 100 MB of disk space with Red Ryder host on a 1 MB Macintosh Plus.


title: Pro Tools

text: With the release of Apple Macintosh II in 1987, which provided card slots, a hard disk, and more capable memory, Brooks and Gotcher saw the possibility to evolve Sound Designer into a featured digital audio workstation. They discussed with E-mu the opportunity of using the Emulator III as a platform for their updated software, but E-mu rejected this offer. Therefore, they decided to design both the software and the hardware autonomously. Motorola, which was working on its 56K series of digital signal processors, invited the two to participate in its development. Brooks designed a circuit board for the processor, then developed the software to make it work with Sound Designer. A beta version of the DSP was ready by December 1988.


title: Pro Tools

text: The combination of the hardware and the software was called Sound Tools. Advertised as the "first tapeless studio", it was presented on January 20, 1989 at the NAMM annual convention. The system relied on a NuBus card called Sound Accelerator, equipped with one Motorola 56001 processor. The card provided 16-bit playback and 44.1/48 kHz recording through a two-channel A/D converter (AD In), while the DSP handled signal processing, which included a ten-band graphic equalizer, a parametric equalizer, time stretching with pitch preservation, fade-in/fade-out envelopes, and crossfades ("merging") between two sound files.


title: Pro Tools

text: Sound Tools was bundled with Sound Designer II software, which was, at this time, a simple mono or stereo audio editor running on Mac SE or Mac II; digital audio acquisition from DAT was also possible. A two-channel digital interface (DAT-I/O) with AES/EBU and S/PDIF connections was made available later in 1989, while the Pro I/O interface came out in 1990 with 18-bit converters.


title: Pro Tools

text: The file format used by Sound Designer II (SDII) became eventually a standard for digital audio file exchange until the WAV file format took over a decade later. Since audio streaming and non-destructive editing were performed on hard drives, the software was still limited by their performance; densely edited tracks could cause glitches. However, the rapidly evolving computer technology allowed developments towards a multi-track sequencer.


title: Pro Tools

text: The core engine and much of the user interface of the first iteration of Pro Tools was based on Deck. The software, published in 1990, was the first multi-track digital recorder based on a personal computer. It was developed by OSC, a small San Francisco company founded the same year, in conjunction with Digidesign and ran on Digidesign's hardware. Deck could run four audio tracks with automation; MIDI sequencing was possible during playback and record, and one effect combination could be assigned to each audio track (2-band parametric equalizer, 1-band EQ with delay, 1-band EQ with chorus, delay with chorus).


title: Pro Tools

text: The first Pro Tools system was launched on June 5, 1991. It was based on an adapted version of Deck (ProDeck) along with Digidesign's new editing software, ProEdit created by Mark Jeffery; Sound Designer II was still supplied for two-channel editing. Pro Tools relied on Digidesign's Audiomedia card, mounting one Motorola 56001 processor with a clock rate of 22.58 MHz and offering two analog and two digital channels of I/O, and on the Sound Accelerator card. External synchronization with audio and video tape machines was possible with SMPTE timecode and the Video Slave drivers. The complete system was selling for US$6,000.


title: Pro Tools

text: Sound Tools II was launched in 1992 with a new DSP card. Two interfaces were also released: Pro Master 20, providing 20-bit A/D conversion, and Audiomedia II, with improved digital converters and one Motorola 56001 processor running at 33.86 MHz.


title: Pro Tools

text: In 1993, Josh Rosen, Mats Myrberg and John Dalton, the OSC's engineers who developed Deck, split from Digidesign to focus on releasing lower-cost multi-track software that would run on computers with no additional hardware. This software was known as Session (for stereo-only audio cards) and Session 8 (for multichannel audio interfaces) and was selling for US$399.


title: Pro Tools

text: Peter Gotcher felt that the software needed a significant rewrite. Pro Tools II, the first software release fully developed by Digidesign, followed in the same year and addressed its predecessor's weaknesses. The editor and the mixer were merged into a single Pro Tools application that utilized the Digidesign Audio Engine (DAE) created by Peter Richert. DAE was also provided as a separate application to favor hardware support from third-party developers, enabling the use of Pro Tools hardware and plug-ins on other DAWs.


title: Pro Tools

text: In 1994, Pro Tools 2.5 implemented Digidesign's newly developed time-division multiplexing technology, which allowed routing of multiple digital audio streams between DSP cards. With TDM, up to four NuBus cards could be linked, obtaining a 16-track system, while multiple DSP-based plug-ins could be run simultaneously and in real-time. The wider bandwidth required to run the larger number of tracks was achieved with a SCSI expansion card developed by Grey Matter Response, called System Accelerator.


title: Pro Tools

text: In the same year, Digidesign announced that it merged into the American multimedia company Avid, developer of the digital video editing platform Media Composer and one of Digidesign's major customers (25% of Sound Accelerator and Audiomedia cards produced was being bought by Avid). The operation was finalized in 1995.


title: Pro Tools

text: With a redesigned Disk I/O card, Pro Tools III was able to provide 16 tracks with a single NuBus card; the system could be expanded using TDM to up to three Disk I/O cards, achieving 48 tracks. DSP Farm cards were introduced to increase the processing power needed for a more extensive real-time audio processing; each card was equipped with three Motorola 56001 chips running at 40 MHz. Multiple DSP cards could be added for additional processing power; each card could handle the playback of 16 tracks. A dedicated SCSI card was still required to provide the required bandwidth to support multiple-card systems.


title: Pro Tools

text: Along with Pro Tools III, Digidesign launched the 888 interface, with eight channels of analog and digital I/O, and the cheaper 882 interface. The Session 8 system included a control surface with eight faders. A series of TDM plug-ins were bundled with the software, including dynamics processing, EQ, delay, modulation, and reverb.


title: Pro Tools

text: In 1996, following Apple's decision to drop NuBus in favor of PCI bus, Digidesign added PCI support with Pro Tools 3.21. The PCI version of the Disk I/O card incorporated a high-speed SCSI along with DSP chips, while the upgraded DSP Farm PCI card included four Motorola 56002 chips running at 66 MHz.


title: Pro Tools

text: This change of architecture allowed the convergence of Macintosh computers with Intel-based PCs, for which PCI had become the standard internal communication bus. With the PCI version of Digidesign's Audiomedia card in 1997 (Audiomedia III), Sound Tools and Pro Tools could be run on Windows platforms for the first time.


title: Pro Tools

text: With the release of Pro Tools | 24 in 1997, Digidesign introduced a new 24-bit interface (the 888|24) and a new PCI card (the d24). The d24 relied on Motorola 56301 processors, offering increased processing power and 24 tracks of 24-bit audio (later increased to 32 tracks with a DAE software update). A SCSI accelerator was required to keep up with the increased data throughput. Digidesign dropped its proprietary SCSI controller in favor of commercially available ones.


title: Pro Tools

text: 64 tracks with dual d24 support were introduced with Pro Tools 4.1.1 in 1998, while the updated Pro Tools | 24 MIX system provided three times more DSP power with the MIX Core DSP cards. MIXplus systems combined a MIX Core with a MIX Farm, obtaining a performance increase of 700% compared to a Pro Tools | 24 system.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools 5 saw two substantial software developments: extended MIDI functionality and integration in 1999 (an editable piano-roll view in the editor; MIDI automation, quantize and transpose) and the introduction of surround sound mixing and multichannel plug-ins—up to the 7.1 format—with Pro Tools TDM 5.1 in 2001.


title: Pro Tools

text: The migration from traditional, tape-based analog studio technology to the Pro Tools platform took place within the industry: Ricky Martin's "Livin' la Vida Loca" (1999) was the first "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one single to be recorded, edited, and mixed entirely within the Pro Tools environment, allowing a more meticulous and effortless editing workflow (especially on vocals).


title: Pro Tools

text: While consolidating its presence in professional studios, Digidesign began to target the mid-range consumer market in 1999 by introducing the Digi001 bundle, consisting of a rack-mount audio interface with eight inputs and outputs with 24-bit, 44.1/48 kHz capability and MIDI connections. The package was distributed with Pro Tools LE, a specific version of the software without DSP support, limited to 24 mixing tracks.


title: Pro Tools

text: Following the launch of Mac OS X operating system in 2001, Digidesign made a substantial redesign of Pro Tools hardware and software. Pro Tools | HD was launched in 2002, replacing the Pro Tools | 24 system and relying on a new range of DSP cards (HD Core and HD Process, replacing MIX Core and MIX Farm), new interfaces running at up to 192 kHz or 96 kHz sample rates (HD 192 and 96, replacing 888 and 882), along with an updated version of the software (Pro Tools 6) with new features and a redesigned GUI, developed for OS X and Windows XP. Two HD interfaces could be linked together for increased I/O through a proprietary connection. The base system was selling for US$12,000, while the full system was selling for US$20,000.


title: Pro Tools

text: Both HD Core and Process cards mounted nine Motorola 56361 chips running at 100 MHz, each providing 25% more processing power than the Motorola 56301 chips mounted on MIX cards; this translated to about twice the power for a single card. A system could combine one HD Core card with up to two HD Process cards, supporting playback for 96/48/12 tracks at 48/96/192 kHz sample rates (with a single HD Core card installed) and 128/64/24 tracks at 48/96/192 kHz sample rates (with one or two HD Process cards).


title: Pro Tools

text: When Apple changed the expansion slot architecture of the Mac G5 to PCI Express, Digidesign launched a line of PCIe DSP cards that both adopted the new card slot format and slightly changed the combination of chips. HD Process cards were replaced with HD Accel, each mounting nine Motorola 56321 chips running at 200 MHz and each providing twice the power than an HD Process card; track count for systems mounting an HD Accel was extended to 192/96/36 tracks at 48/96/192 kHz sample rates. The use of PCI Express connection reduced round-trip delay time, while DSP audio processing allowed the use of smaller hardware buffer sizes during recording, assuring stable performance with extremely low latency.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools, offering a solid and reliable alternative to analog recording and mixing, eventually became a standard in professional studios throughout the decade, while editing features such as Beat Detective (introduced with Pro Tools 5.1 in 2001) and Elastic Audio (introduced with Pro Tools 7.4 in 2007) redefined the workflow adopted in contemporary music production.


title: Pro Tools

text: Other software milestones were background tasks processing (such as fade rendering, file conversion or relinking), real-time insertion of TDM plug-ins during playback, and a browser/database environment introduced with Pro Tools 6 in 2003; Automatic plug-in Delay Compensation (ADC), introduced with Pro Tools 6.4 in 2004 and only available with TDM systems with HD Accel; a new implementation of RTAS with multi-threading support and improved performance, Region groups, Instrument tracks, and real-time MIDI processing, introduced with Pro Tools 7 in 2006; VCA and volume trim, introduced with Pro Tools 7.2 in 2006; support for ten track inserts, MIDI Editor, and MIDI Score, introduced with Pro Tools 8 in 2009.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools LE, first introduced and distributed in 1999 with the Digi 001 interface, was a specific Pro Tools version in which the signal processing entirely relied on the host CPU. The software required a Digidesign interface to run, which acted as a copy-protection mechanism for the software. Mbox was the entry-level range of the available interface; Digi 001 and Digi 002/003, which also provided a control surface, were the upper range. The Eleven Rack also ran on Pro Tools LE, included in-box DSP processing via an FPGA chip, offloading guitar amp/speaker emulation, and guitar effects plug-in processing to the interface, allowing them to run without taxing the host system.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools LE shared the same interface of Pro Tools HD but had a smaller track count (24 tracks with Pro Tools 5, extended to 32 tracks with Pro Tools 6 and 48 tracks with Pro Tools 8) and supported a maximum sample rate of 96 kHz (depending on the interface used). Some advanced software features, such as Automatic Delay Compensation, surround mixing, multi-track Beat Detective, OMF/AAF support, and SMPTE Timecode, were omitted. Some of them, as well as support for 48 tracks/96 voices (extended to 64 tracks/128 voices with Pro Tools 8) and additional plug-ins, were made available through an expansion package called "Music Production Toolkit". The "Complete Production Toolkit", introduced with Pro Tools 8, added support for surround mixing and 128 tracks (while the system was still limited to 128 voices).


title: Pro Tools

text: With the acquisition of M-Audio in 2004–2005, Digidesign released a specific variant of Pro Tools, called , which was equivalent to Pro Tools LE and could be run with M-Audio interfaces.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools 9, released in November 2010, dropped the requirement of proprietary hardware to run the software. Any audio device could be used through Core Audio on macOS or the ASIO driver on a Windows. Core Audio allowed device aggregation, enabling using of more than one interface simultaneously. Some Pro Tools HD software features, such as automatic plug-in delay compensation, OMF/AAF file import, Timecode ruler, and multi-track Beat Detective, were included in the standard version of Pro Tools 9.


title: Pro Tools

text: When operating on a machine containing one or more HD Core, Accel, or Native cards, the software ran as Pro Tools HD with the complete HD feature set. In all other cases, it ran as Pro Tools 9 standard, with a smaller track count and some advanced features turned off.


title: Pro Tools

text: In response to Apple's decision to include Emagic's complete line of virtual instruments in Logic Pro in 2004 and following Avid's acquisition of German virtual instruments developer Wizoo in 2005, Pro Tools 8 was supplied with its first built-in virtual instruments library, the AIR Creative Collection, as well as with some new plug-ins, to make it more appealing for music production. An expansion was also available, called AIR Complete Collection.


title: Pro Tools

text: In October 2011, Avid introduced Pro Tools 10 and a new series of DSP PCIe cards named HDX. Each card mounted 18 DSP processors, manufactured by Texas Instruments, allowing an increased computational precision (32-bit floating-point resolution for audio processing and 64-bit floating-point summing, versus the previous 24-bit and 48-bit fixed-point resolution of the TDM engine), thus improving dynamic range performance. Signal processing could be run on the embedded DSP, providing additional computational power and enabling near zero-latency for DSP-reliant plug-ins. Two FPGA chips handled track playback, monitoring, and internal routing, providing a lower round trip latency.


title: Pro Tools

text: A second line of PCIe cards, called HD Native, provided low latency with a single FPGA chip but didn't mount DSP (audio processing relied on the host system's CPU). Round trip latency at 96 kHz was 0.7 ms for HDX and 1.7 ms for HD Native (with a 64-sample buffer).


title: Pro Tools

text: To maintain performance consistency, HDX products were specified with a fixed maximum number of voices (each voice representing a monophonic channel). Each HDX card enabled 256 simultaneous voices at 44.1/48 kHz; voice count halved when the sample rate doubled (128 voices at 88.2/96 kHz, 64 voices at 176.4/192 kHz). Up to three HDX cards could be installed on a single system for a maximum of 768/384/192 total voices and for increased processing power. On Native systems, voice count was limited to 96/48/24 voices with the standard version of Pro Tools and 256/128/64 voices with Pro Tools HD software.


title: Pro Tools

text: With Pro Tools 10, Avid deployed a new plug-in format for both Native and HDX systems called AAX (an acronym for Avid Audio eXtension). AAX Native replaced RTAS plug-ins and AAX DSP, a specific format running on HDX systems, replaced TDM plug-ins. AAX was developed to provide the future implementation of 64-bit plug-ins, although 32-bit versions of AAX were still used in Pro Tools 10. TDM support was dropped with HDX, while Pro Tools 10 would be the final release for Pro Tools | HD Process and Accel systems.


title: Pro Tools

text: Notable software features introduced with Pro Tools 10 were editable clip-based gain automation (Clip gain), the ability to load the session's audio data into RAM to improve transport responsiveness (Disk caching), quadrupled Automatic Delay Compensation length, audio fades processed in real-time, timeline length extended to 24 hours, support for 32-bit float audio and mixed audio formats within the session, and the addition of Avid Channel Strip plug-in (based on Euphonix System 5 console's channel strip, following Avid's acquisition of Euphonix in 2010).


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools 11, released in June 2013, switched from 32-bit to 64-bit software architecture with new audio and video engines, enabling the application and plug-ins to fully take advantage of system memory. The new audio engine (AAE) introduced support of offline bouncing and simultaneous mixdowns multiple sources; dynamic plug-in processing allowed to reduce CPU usage when active native plug-ins don't receive any input. Two separate buffers were used for playback and for monitoring of record-enabled or input-monitored tracks. The new video engine (AVE) improved performance and handling of multiple CPU cores.


title: Pro Tools

text: Support for HD Accel systems, legacy HD interfaces, TDM and 32-bit AAX plug-ins was dropped due to their incompatibility with 64-bit architecture. A free starter edition providing the essential features of Pro Tools, called "First", was launched in 2015 and discontinued in December 2021 for being "unviable to continue on a technical level".


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools workflow is organized into two main windows: the timeline is shown in the Edit window, while the mixer is shown in the Mix window. MIDI and Score Editor windows provide a dedicated environment to edit MIDI. Different window layouts, along with shown and hidden tracks and their width settings, can be stored and recalled from the Window configuration list.


title: Pro Tools

text: The timeline provides a graphical representation of all types of tracks: the audio envelope or waveform (when zoomed in) for audio tracks, a piano roll showing MIDI notes and controller values for MIDI and Instrument tracks, a sequence of frame thumbnails for video tracks, audio levels for auxiliary, master and VCA master tracks. Alternate audio and MIDI content can be recorded, shown, and edited in multiple layers for each track (called playlists), which can be used for track compositing. All the mixer parameters (such as track and sends volume, pan, and mute status) and plug-in parameters can be changed over time through automation. Any automation type can be shown and edited in multiple lanes for each track. Track-based volume automation can be converted to clip-based automation and vice versa; automation of any type can also be copied and pasted to any other automation type.


title: Pro Tools

text: Time can be measured and displayed on the timeline in different scales: bars and beats, time or SMPTE timecode (with selectable frame rates), audio samples, or film stock feet for audio-for-film referencing (based on the 35 mm film format). Tempo and meter changes can also be programmed; both MIDI and audio clips can move or time-stretch to follow tempo changes ("tick-based" tracks) or maintain their absolute position ("sample-based" tracks). Elastic Audio must be enabled to allow time stretching of audio clips.


title: Pro Tools

text: Audio and MIDI clips can be moved, cut, and duplicated non-destructively on the timeline (edits change the clip organization on the timeline, but source files are not overwritten). Time stretching (TCE), pitch shifting, equalization, and dynamics processing can be applied to audio clips non-destructively and in real-time with Elastic Audio and Clip Effects; gain can be adjusted statically or dynamically on individual clips with Clip Gain; fade and crossfades can be applied, adjusted and are processed in real-time. All other types of audio processing can be rendered on the timeline with the AudioSuite (non-real-time) version of AAX plug-ins. Audio clips can be converted to MIDI data using the Celemony Melodyne engine; pitches with timing and velocities are extracted through melodic, polyphonic, or rhythmic analysis algorithms. Pitch and rhythm of audio tracks can also be viewed and manipulated with the bundled Melodyne Essential.


title: Pro Tools

text: MIDI notes, velocities, and controllers can be edited directly on the timeline, each MIDI track showing an individual piano roll, or in a specific window, where several MIDI and Instrument tracks can be shown together in a single piano roll with color-coding. Multiple MIDI controllers for each track can be viewed and edited on different lanes. MIDI tracks can also be shown in musical notation within a score editor. MIDI data such as note quantization, duration, transposition, delay, and velocity can also be altered non-destructively and in real-time on a track-per-track basis.


title: Pro Tools

text: Video files can be imported to one or more video tracks and organized in multiple playlists. Multiple video files can be edited together and played back in real-time. Video processing is GPU-accelerated and managed by the Avid Video Engine (AVE). Video output from one video track is provided in a separate window or can be viewed full screen.


title: Pro Tools

text: The virtual mixer shows controls and components of all tracks, including inserts, sends, input and output assignments, automation read/write controls, panning, solo/mute buttons, arm record buttons, the volume fader, the level meter, and the track name. It also can show additional controls for the inserted virtual instrument, mic preamp gain, HEAT settings, and the EQ curve of supported plug-ins. Each track inputs and outputs can have different channel depths: mono, stereo, multichannel (LCR, LCRS, Quad, 5.0/5.1, 6.0/6.1, 7.0/7.1); Dolby Atmos and Ambisonics formats are also available for mixing.


title: Pro Tools

text: Audio can be routed to and from different outputs and inputs, both physical and internal. Internal routing is achieved using busses and auxiliary tracks; each track can have multiple output assignments. Virtual instruments are loaded on Instrument tracks—a specific type of track that receives MIDI data in input and returns audio in output.


title: Pro Tools

text: Plug-ins are processed in real-time with dedicated DSP chips (AAX DSP format) or using the host computer's CPU (AAX Native format).


title: Pro Tools

text: Audio, auxiliary, and Instrument tracks (or MIDI tracks routed to a virtual instrument plug-in) can be committed to new tracks containing their rendered output. Virtual instruments can be committed to audio to prepare an arrangement project for mixing; track commit is also used to free up system resources during mixing or when the session is shared with systems not having some plug-ins installed. Multiple tracks can be rendered at a time; it is also possible to render a specific timeline selection and define which range of inserts to render.


title: Pro Tools

text: Similarly, tracks can be frozen with their output rendered at the end of the plug-in chain or at a specific insert of their chain. Editing is suspended on frozen tracks, but they can subsequently be unfrozen if further adjustments are needed. For example, virtual instruments can be frozen to free up system memory and improve performance while keeping the possibility to unfreeze them to make arrangement changes.


title: Pro Tools

text: The main mix of the session—or any internal mix bus or output path—can be bounced to disk in real-time (if hardware inserts from analog hardware are used, or if any audio or MIDI source is monitored live into the session) or offline (faster-than-real-time). The selected source can be mixed to mono, stereo, or any other multichannel format. Multichannel mixdowns can be written as an interleaved audio file or in multiple mono files. Up to 24 sources of up to 10 channels each can be mixed down simultaneously—for example, to deliver audio stems.


title: Pro Tools

text: Audio and video can be bounced together to a MOV file; video is transcoded with the DNxHD, DNxHR, Apple ProRes, and H.264 video codecs.


title: Pro Tools

text: Session data can be partially or entirely exchanged with other DAWs or video editing software that support AAF, OMF, or MXF. AAF and OMF sequences embed audio and video files with their metadata; when opened by the destination application, session structure is rebuilt with the original clip placement, edits, and basic track and clip automation.


title: Pro Tools

text: Track contents and any of its properties can be selectively exchanged between Pro Tools sessions with Import Session Data (for example, importing audio clips from an external session to a designated track while keeping track settings or importing track inserts while keeping audio clips). Similarly, the same track data for any track set—a given processing chain, a collection of clips, or a group of tracks with their assignments—can be stored and recalled as Track Presets.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools projects can be synchronized to the Avid Cloud and shared with other users on a track-by-track basis. Different users can simultaneously work on the project and upload new tracks or any changes to existing tracks (such as audio and MIDI clips, automation, inserted plug-ins, and mixer status) or alterations to the project structure (such as tempo, meter, or key).


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools reads embedded metadata in media files to manage multichannel recordings made by field recorders in production sound. All stored metadata (such as scene and take numbers, tape or sound roll name, or production comments) can be accessed in the Workspace browser.


title: Pro Tools

text: Analogous audio clips are identified by overlapping longitudinal timecode (LTC) and by one or more user-defined criteria (such as matching file length, file name, or scene and take numbers). An audio segment can be replaced from matching channels (for example, to replace audio from a boom microphone with the audio from a lavalier microphone) while maintaining edits and fades in the timeline, or any matching channels can be added to new tracks.


title: Pro Tools

text: Up to twelve Pro Tools Ultimate systems with dedicated hardware can be linked together over an Ethernet network—for example, in multi-user mixing environments where different mix components (such as dialog, ADR, effects, and music) reside on different systems, or if a larger track count or processing power is needed. Transport, solo, and mute are controlled by a single system and with a single control surface. One system can also be designated for video playback to optimize performance. Pro Tools can synchronize to external devices using SMPTE/EBU timecode or MIDI timecode.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools software is available in three subscription-based paid versions (Artist, Studio and Ultimate) and one free version (Intro).


title: Pro Tools

text: Before 2022, two different perpetual licenses could be purchased: a standard edition for US$599 (informally called "Vanilla"), which provided all the key features for audio mixing and post-production, and a complete edition for US$2599 (officially called "Ultimate" and known as "HD" between 2002 and 2018), which unlocked functionality for advanced workflows and a higher track count.


title: Pro Tools

text: In the mid-1990s, Digidesign started working on a studio device that could replace classic analog consoles and provide integration with Pro Tools. ProControl (1998) was the first Digidesign control surface, providing motorized, touch-sensitive faders, an analog control room communication section, and connecting to the host computer via Ethernet. ProControl could be later expanded by adding up to five fader packs, each providing eight additional fader strips and controls.


title: Pro Tools

text: Control 24 (2001) added 5.1 monitoring support and included 16 class A preamps designed by Focusrite. Icon D-Control (2004) incorporated an HD Accel system and was developed for larger TV and film productions in mind. Command|8 (2004) and D-Command (2005) were the smaller counterparts of Control 24 and D-Control, connected with the host computer via USB; Venue (2005) was a similar system specifically designed for live sound applications.


title: Pro Tools

text: C|24 (2007) was a revision of Control 24 with improved preamps, while Icon D-Control ES (2008) and Icon D-Command ES (2009) were redesigns of Icon D-Control and D-Command.


title: Pro Tools

text: In 2010 Avid acquired Euphonix, manufacturer of the Artist Series, and System 5 control surfaces. They were integrated with Pro Tools along with the EuCon protocols. Avid S6 (2013) and Avid S3 (2014) control surfaces followed by merging the Icon and System 5 series. Pro Tools Dock (2015) was an iPad-based control surface running Pro Tools Control software.


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, musician and film director. McCulloch is perhaps best known for his work as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, including starring in the TV series of the same name. He was also a writer for "Saturday Night Live". McCulloch has appeared on other series including "Twitch City" and "Gilmore Girls". He directed the films "Dog Park", "Stealing Harvard" and "Superstar".


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: He also wrote and directed the romantic comedy "Comeback Season" which toured film festivals before its release on DVD in 2007. He was the creator and head writer of the 2007-2008 ABC sitcom "Carpoolers".


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: McCulloch was born in Edmonton, Alberta on May 12, 1961. He attended Strathcona Composite High School in Edmonton and competed in both track-and-field and swimming, winning two individual provincial titles. He moved to Calgary and attended Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School. McCulloch is a graduate of Mount Royal University in Calgary. He got his start in performing sketch comedy in a troupe called "The Audience" where he met longtime friend and collaborator Mark McKinney.


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: As a member of The Kids in the Hall comedy troupe, McCulloch starred in the 1989-1995 sketch comedy series "The Kids in the Hall", which aired for five seasons in Canada and the United States. For the show, he frequently wrote surreal monologues, films and songs. He also directed several of the filmed sketches. Memorable characters included the Flying Pig, Cabbage Head, talkative schoolchild Gavin, pop starlet Tammy, secretary Kathie, and grumpy middle-aged man Gordon.


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: McCulloch appeared in "The Kids in the Hall" movie "Brain Candy", released in 1996. McCulloch drew controversy with his Cancer Boy character, introduced on the series' final episode, in which he plays a dying young cancer patient using wheelchair who relates otherwise depressing news, in monotone, with a cheerful smile, and even releases a hit single entitled "Whistle When You're Low." Paramount Pictures fought to edit out the offending scenes, yet they were kept in. Among other characters, McCulloch also appeared as Grivo, a depressed rock star whom becomes upbeat when he starts taking the drug.


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: He co-wrote, starred in, and was executive producer of the Kids in the Hall 2010 reunion project "Death Comes to Town".


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: McCulloch has released two albums: 1995's "Shame-Based Man" produced by Bob Wiseman, (praised by AllMusic as the "most remarkable of comedy albums: one that bears (frequent) repeated listenings") and 2002's "Drunk Baby Project".


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: McCulloch also directed the music video for the Tragically Hip's song "My Music at Work," for which he won the award of "Best Director" at the 2000 MuchMusic Video Awards. McCulloch was close friends with Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie. The video shares much in common with many "The Kids in the Hall" sketches, including its office setting, camera angles, and some thematic elements. McCulloch also starred in and co-directed the music video for 1997's "Make You Mad" by Canadian band Odds.


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: McCulloch played Fred Wright in the 1987 TV mini-series "Anne of Avonlea". He also had a role in the 1999 comedy film "Dick".


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: McCulloch also co-wrote and had a bit part in "Superman's 50th Anniversary: A Celebration of the Man of Steel" (1988). In the CBS prime-time special, (also featuring Dana Carvey, Al Franken, Jan Hooks, and others) he played a patron of a store that, among other things, sold counterfeit Kryptonite. He also played a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer in the movie "Super Troopers 2".


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: McCulloch's memoir -- "Let's Start A Riot: How A Young Drunk Punk Became A Hollywood Dad" ()-- was published by HarperCollins in 2014.


title: Bruce McCulloch

text: McCulloch played the judge in "To Kill a Chupacabraj" in season 3 of "Workaholics", Father Marsala in season 4 of "Arrested Development", and Tobin on "Gilmore Girls". He created and starred in the sitcom "Young Drunk Punk", which debuted in 2015, and wrote and played a small part in the 2018 web series "This Blows".


title: Lucky number

text: In number theory, a lucky number is a natural number in a set which is generated by a certain "sieve". This sieve is similar to the Sieve of Eratosthenes that generates the primes, but it eliminates numbers based on their position in the remaining set, instead of their value (or position in the initial set of natural numbers).


title: Lucky number

text: The term was introduced in 1956 in a paper by Gardiner, Lazarus, Metropolis and Ulam. They suggest also calling its defining sieve, "the sieve of Josephus Flavius" because of its similarity with the counting-out game in the Josephus problem.


title: Lucky number

text: Lucky numbers share some properties with primes, such as asymptotic behaviour according to the prime number theorem; also, a version of Goldbach's conjecture has been extended to them. There are infinitely many lucky numbers. Twin lucky numbers and twin primes also appear to occur with similar frequency. However, if "L" denotes the "n"-th lucky number, and "p" the "n"-th prime, then "L" > "p" for all sufficiently large "n".


title: Lucky number

text: Because of their apparent similarites with the prime numbers, some mathematicians have suggested that some of their common properties may also be found in other sets of numbers generated by sieves of a certain unknown form, but there is little theoretical basis for this conjecture.


title: Lucky number

text: Continue removing the "n"th remaining numbers, where "n" is the next number in the list after the last surviving number. Next in this example is 9.


title: Lucky number

text: One way that the application of the procedure differs from that of the Sieve of Eratosthenes is that for "n" being the number being multiplied on a specific pass, the first number eliminated on the pass is the "n"-th remaining number that has not yet been eliminated, as opposed to the number "2n". That is to say, the list of numbers this sieve counts through is different on each pass (for example 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 19... on the third pass), whereas in the Sieve of Eratosthenes, the sieve always counts through the entire original list (1, 2, 3...).


title: Lucky number

text: When this procedure has been carried out completely, the remaining integers are the lucky numbers (those that happen to be prime are in bold):


title: Agent Game

text: Agent Game is a 2022 American spy action-thriller film directed by Grant S. Johnson from a screenplay by Mike Langer and producer Tyler W. Konney. It stars Dermot Mulroney, Adan Canto, Katie Cassidy, Annie Ilonzeh, Rhys Coiro, Barkhad Abdi, Jason Isaacs, and Mel Gibson. Filming took place in Augusta, Georgia, from March to April 2021.


title: Agent Game

text: The film was released in the United States on April 8, 2022, by Saban Films. It was panned by critics.


title: Agent Game

text: CIA officer Harris is involved in missions to detain and relocate foreign nationals for interrogation. When Harris' superior is murdered, he finds himself the scapegoat for the killing of a detainee and must run from a team of operatives sent to bring him in, led by a ruthless double agent.


title: Agent Game

text: The independent film "Agent Game" was announced on March 5, 2021, when it was reported that Mel Gibson, Dermot Mulroney, Katherine McNamara, Rhys Coiro, and Annie Ilonzeh had been cast in the project from director Grant S. Johnson and writers Mike Langer and Tyler W. Konney. Soon after, Katie Cassidy, Jason Isaacs, Barkhad Abdi, and Adan Canto joined the cast.


title: Agent Game

text: Principal photography for the film began in Augusta, Georgia, on March 29, 2021, and concluded the following month on April 23. Filming locations included the Augusta University Building on 699 Broad Street, Thomson-McDuffie Regional Airport, and a warehouse on Evans to Locks Road used to replicate a European airplane hangar, where a shootout scene and multiple explosions were shot. The Sibley Mill on the Augusta Canal was also used to create the "secret spy detention center" in the film. Due to the presence of gunfire, a letter was sent to local residents before the production shot a scene in which Gibson fires a prop gun multiple times towards a moving vehicle.


title: Agent Game

text: In shooting the film in Georgia, production manager Mark Crump said he spoke with line producer Warren Ostergard to take the project to the state. Konney, who also co-produced the film, said that the production would help the local economy, with the Film Augusta designee, Jennifer Bowen, estimating its economic impact to be in the region of $1 million. In a separate interview, Konney also mentioned that the project was able to hire local people from Augusta for every department in the film, allowing the production crew to accomplish their "big ambitions".


title: Agent Game

text: The film was released online and in select theaters in the United States on April 8, 2022, by Saban Films.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: Mommy is a 2014 Canadian drama film written, produced, directed and edited by Xavier Dolan and starring Anne Dorval, Antoine Olivier Pilon, and Suzanne Clément. The story concerns a mother with a sometimes-violent teenage son, struggling to control his behaviour in a desperate attempt to avoid seeing him being institutionalized.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: The story focuses on mother–son relationships, a reoccurring theme in Dolan's work, and also marks his fourth collaboration with Dorval and his third with Clément. Inspiration for this particular story was drawn from Dolan's discovery of Pilon and the music of Ludovico Einaudi. It was shot in Quebec in an unconventional 1:1 aspect ratio.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: The film debuted at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize. It subsequently became a critical and financial success, grossing over $13 million worldwide. "Mommy" went on to win numerous other awards, among them nine Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: In a fictional outcome for the 2015 Canadian federal election, a political party comes to power and establishes a law called S-14. This legislation allows parents of troubled children and limited finances to place their children in hospitals, without regard for fundamental justice.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: Diane "Die" Després, a widowed mother and 46-year-old advice columnist, picks up her son Steve from an institution. Steve, who has ADHD and an attachment disorder, was being discharged after starting a fire in which another youth was injured. Die brings Steve to their new home in Saint-Hubert and struggles to care for him under financial distress. When Steve gives her a cart full of groceries and a necklace reading "Mommy", Die suspects that he has stolen the items. Enraged by the accusation, Steve begins choking her, and she defends herself by hitting him with a glass frame. Whilst chaos ensues, Kyla, a neighbour and teacher on sabbatical, shows up to tend to their wounds.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: Kyla, who is dealing with a stuttering problem and recently moved into the area with her husband and daughter, begins to tutor Steve. After a disastrous tutoring session where Steve goads Kyla, she snaps and attacks him. After the confrontation, Steve mellows and indicates he is glad to know her and respects her boundaries and expectations. Kyla notes Steve reminds her of her late son. The three have bonded and their situation improves: Die has a cleaning job and translation work on the side, Kyla's speech problem is resolving, and Steve is receiving better marks on his school work. All is looking up, until Die is served papers by the parents of the injured boy, indicating she and Steve are being sued for the injuries caused by his fire.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: Die finds a lawyer, a neighbour and a potential love interest, who is willing to help them with Steve's case. The three of them go out to a karaoke restaurant for the evening. Over the night, Steve is increasingly agitated by the atmosphere and what he sees as his mother's sexual interest in the lawyer. Steve decides to sing, but is taunted by the audience, leading to a fight. They are thrown out. Steve, Die and their lawyer argue, ending with Die slapping the lawyer in retaliation for him slapping Steve, driving the lawyer away. Die in turn shouts at Steve for continually being an issue in her life, whereupon Steve runs away. He returns the following morning.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: Die continues to try and help her son and rebuild their lives, but while out shopping with Steve and Kyla, Steve disappears. He is found by Kyla after slitting his wrists. Although he survives, Die comes to realise she is running out of options. One day Die and Kyla surprise Steve with a picnic, and on the drive Die finds herself reflecting on all the dreams she had for her son to live a fulfilled, happy life. The trio end up not at a picnic site as the faux ending implies, but at a hospital to commit Steve under S-14. Upon realising the deception by the two women, Steve angrily resists attempts to apprehend him by hospital staff. Die begins to regret the decision when she helplessly watches the officials use violence and tasers to subdue him.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: Kyla announces she is moving to Toronto and Die encourages her. Kyla is relieved Die is not upset. While explaining how much she enjoyed her time with Die and Steve, she accidentally makes a faux-pas about 'abandoning her family'. Die responds that she holds on to hope that her life and the life she envisages for her son will come to fruition. Kyla returns home as Die privately breaks down in tears. While preparing dinner and doing translation work, Die misses a phone call from Steve.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: Back at the hospital, Steve, restrained in a straitjacket, apologises to his mother in a voicemail. Immediately after the straps of his jacket are removed by two officials, Steve runs full speed towards a large, bright window.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: Director Xavier Dolan wrote the screenplay, though he said at the time he had never known a person with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or the same behavioural disorders that the character Steve exhibits. However, Dolan said his own mother is an inspiration for his writing.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: With Dolan acknowledging mother-son relationships have always been an underlying theme in his work, the specific idea for "Mommy" came about after directing Antoine Olivier Pilon in the music video for "College Boy" by Indochine, finding him to be a great actor. Inspired by another song, "Experience" by Ludovico Einaudi, he wrote a scene about a mother fantasizing about a future with her son that will never come to be, and wrote a story around it. Dolan stated it was important to show how unpredictable mental illness can be in a home. The concept of the S-14 law was inspired by an article he had read about a mother who used a law to transfer custody of a child to the state, although in an interview with "Le Devoir", Dolan could not recall which country this happened in.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: "Mommy" was filmed in Longueuil, Quebec. Dolan said that when filming, the actors and crew were often rewriting their lines. In casting actresses Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clément, whom Dolan had worked with before, he assigned them roles that he felt were the opposite of what each had previously played.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: The film was shot with a handheld camera, in a 1:1 aspect ratio, although most modern films are shot in 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 aspect ratios. On the unusual aspect ratio, Xavier Dolan said, "I know a lot of people are saying, 'Oh, 1:1, how pretentious.' But for me, it seems a more humble and private format, a little more fitting to these lives we're diving into. Cinemascope [2.35:1] would have been extremely pretentious and incompatible for "Mommy". To try to get in that apartment and film these people in that aspect ratio would have been unseemly." He also said cinematographer André Turpin had long wanted to experiment with the format. Dolan denied the ratio was meant to invoke the website Instagram, emphasizing this is the original aspect ratio in film history.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: The film premiered on 22 May 2014, at the Cannes Film Festival, concluding with a 13-minute standing ovation. The film opened in Montreal on 8 September, and in Toronto on 3 October. In France, the film was distributed by Diaphana Films, with associate company agnès b. selling Mommy necklaces to promote the film. The film's U.S. distributor Roadside Attractions waited until 2015 for its release.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: The film became available on the U.K. Netflix in 2016, with Dolan publicly criticizing the company for altering the unconventional aspect ratio and demanding, "Take it as it is, or remove it." Netflix corrected the ratio hours later.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: On its opening weekend in Quebec, the film grossed $471,902. "Mommy" was Dolan's first film to achieve success at the box office, grossing over $3.5 million domestically in 2014, becoming the highest-selling film in Quebec for 2014. In Canada alone, it reached the $2 million gross on 16 October.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: According to the "Montreal Gazette", over one million people went to see the film in France. The film ended its run on 19 March 2015 after making $3.5 million in North America and $9.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $13.1 million.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 88%, with an average score of 7.86/10 based on 129 reviews; the site's consensus states: "As challenging as it is rewarding, "Mommy" finds writer-director Xavier Dolan taking another impressive step forward". On Metacritic, the film holds an average score of 74, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews" in accordance with the website's standards.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: In Canada, David Berry of the "National Post" gave the film four stars, writing, "As a movie, "Mommy" is a very similar thing to its namesake jewellery, a flashy, scary, gorgeous little piece of home, a shiny bauble that still manages to hang very close to the heart". Brendan Kelly of the "Montreal Gazette" gave it five out of five stars, calling it "the absurdly prolific young auteur's best film yet" and "an ode to the strength of tough working-class single mothers everywhere", and praising Anne Dorval as "extraordinary". Brian D. Johnson of "Maclean's" credited Dorval for an award-worthy "powerhouse performance". Johnson saw "Mommy" as more mature than Dolan's previous "I Killed My Mother", writing "the tables are turned" in writing the film from the mother's perspective. Peter Howell of the "Toronto Star" gave the film four stars, saying its smartphone-style picture made it timely and concluding it was "one of the best movies of the year, period". Liam Lacey at "The Globe and Mail" gave the film three stars, calling the introductory information about S-14 "clumsy", but added "What makes the flaws forgivable is Dolan's love of his characters".


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: On 21 May 2014, "Mommy" received a four-star rating from "The Guardian" reviewer Peter Bradshaw, who described the film as "a splashy, transgressive treat, from trailer-trash chat to unexpected sex and surprising emotional depth". Following Dolan's receipt of the Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, "Guardian" writer Xan Brooks introduced the film as "a boisterous Oedipal comedy". Peter Debruge of "Variety" called it "A funny, heartbreaking and, above all, original work". Mark Olsen of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote the film "feels like nothing less than Dolan's magnum opus, for the time being at least". Sandra Hall of the "Sydney Morning Herald" wrote that while she initially found there was "too much noise, too many emotional eruptions and too many tone-deaf subtitles", she found Pilon and Dorval's performances to be "remarkable". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film three and a half stars, calling it rattling. "The Wall Street Journal"s Joe Morgenstern, while finding the acting "powerful", found fault in the aspect ratio. Richard Brody of "The New Yorker" panned the film, saying the depiction of Steve "has no basis in psychology; rather, it appears as Dolan's own pseudo-transgressive artistic tantrum".


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize. The film also won nine awards at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015, including Best Motion Picture and 10 awards at the 17th Jutra Awards, including Best Film. It was also Best Foreign Film at the 40th César Awards.


title: Mommy (2014 film)

text: "Mommy" was selected as the Canadian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated. The film was included in the list of "Canada's Top Ten" feature films of 2014, selected by a panel of filmmakers and industry professionals organized by TIFF.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose is a non-absorbable sugar used in the treatment of constipation and hepatic encephalopathy. It is used by mouth for constipation and either by mouth or in the rectum for hepatic encephalopathy. It generally begins working after 8–12 hours, but may take up to 2 days to improve constipation.


title: Lactulose

text: Common side effects include abdominal bloating and cramps. A potential exists for electrolyte problems as a result of the diarrhea it produces. No evidence of harm to the baby has been found when used during pregnancy. It is generally regarded as safe during breastfeeding. It is classified as an osmotic laxative.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose was first made in 1929, and has been used medically since the 1950s. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic and brand-name product. Lactulose is made from the milk sugar lactose, which is composed of two simple sugars, galactose and glucose.


title: Lactulose

text: In 1957, Peitele discovered that lactulose is a "bifidobacterium" proliferation factor. In 1964, Hoffman found that only "bifidobacteria", "Lactobacillus" and "Streptococcus" could metabolise lactulose into lactic acid and acetic acid. In 1966, Baicier found that lactulose can promote the growth of basophilic gram-positive bacteria lacking urease (e.g. "Escherichia coli") and reduce ammonia production. It has been proven that lactulose reduces blood ammonia, and it has been successfully used in the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy. In 1979, Nianmoleyou treated viral hepatitis with lactulose and he found that lactulose has the effect of reducing plasma endotoxin. From 1980 to 1981, Leicier found that the limulus test agglutination reaction of lactulose inhibits endotoxin in vitro, alleviating the liver injury of rats induced by D-amino galactose. He believed that lactulose had anti-endotoxin activity, meaning that and it can be used in the treatment of liver and kidney syndrome.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose is used in the treatment of chronic constipation in patients of all ages as a long-term treatment. The dosage of lactulose for chronic idiopathic constipation is adjusted depending on the constipation severity and desired effect, from a mild stool softener to causing diarrhea. Lactulose is contraindicated in case of galactosemia, as most preparations contain the monosaccharide galactose due to its synthesis process.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose may be used to counter the constipating effects of opioids, and in the symptomatic treatment of hemorrhoids as a stool softener.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose is commonly prescribed for children who develop fear of their bowel movements and are withholders. This is because lactulose, when dosed in the proper amount, causes a bowel movement that is impossible to retain for very long. Lactulose is also used for the elderly because of its gentle and consistent results.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose is useful in treating hyperammonemia (high blood ammonia), which can lead to hepatic encephalopathy. Lactulose helps trap the ammonia (NH) in the colon and bind to it. It does this by using gut flora to acidify the colon, transforming the freely diffusible ammonia into ammonium ions (), which can no longer diffuse back into the blood. It is also useful for preventing hyperammonemia caused as a side effect of administration of valproic acid.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose is used as a test of small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Recently, the reliability of it for diagnosing SIBO has been seriously questioned. A large amount of it is given with subsequent testing of molecular hydrogen gas in the breath. The test is positive if an increase in exhaled hydrogen occurs before that which would be expected by normal digestion by the normal gut flora in the colon. An earlier result has been hypothesized to indicate digestion occurring within the small intestine. An alternate explanation for differences in results is the variance in small bowel transit time among tested subjects.


title: Lactulose

text: No evidence of harm to the baby has been found when used during pregnancy. It is generally regarded as safe during breastfeeding.


title: Lactulose

text: Common side effects of lactulose are abdominal cramping, borborygmus, and flatulence. In normal individuals, overdose is considered uncomfortable, but not life-threatening. Uncommon side effects are nausea and vomiting. In sensitive individuals, such as the elderly or people with reduced kidney function, excess lactulose dosage can result in dehydration and electrolyte disturbances such as low magnesium levels. Ingestion of lactulose does not cause a weight gain because it is not digestible, with no nutritional value. Although lactulose is less likely to cause dental caries than sucrose, as a sugar, a potential for this exists. This should be taken into consideration when taken by people with a high susceptibility to this condition.


title: Lactulose

text: It is a disaccharide formed from one molecule each of the simple sugars (monosaccharides) fructose and galactose. Lactulose is not normally present in raw milk, but is a product of heat processes: the greater the heat, the greater amount of this substance (from 3.5 mg/L in low-temperature pasteurized milk to 744 mg/L in in-container sterilized milk). It is produced commercially by isomerization of lactose.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose is not absorbed in the small intestine nor broken down by human enzymes, thus stays in the digestive bolus through most of its course, causing retention of water through osmosis leading to softer, easier-to-pass stool. It has a secondary laxative effect in the colon, where it is fermented by the gut flora, producing metabolites which have osmotic powers and peristalsis-stimulating effects (such as acetate), but also methane associated with flatulence.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose is metabolized in the colon by bacterial flora into short-chain fatty acids, including lactic acid and acetic acid. These partially dissociate, acidifying the colonic contents (increasing the H concentration in the gut). This favors the formation of the nonabsorbable from NH, trapping NH in the colon and effectively reducing plasma NH concentrations. Lactulose is therefore effective in treating hepatic encephalopathy. Specifically, it is effective as secondary prevention of hepatic encephalopathy in people with cirrhosis. Moreover, research showed improved cognitive functions and health-related quality of life in people with cirrhosis with minimal hepatic encephalopathy treated with lactulose.


title: Lactulose

text: Lactulose is available as a generic medication. It is available without prescription in most countries, but a prescription is required in the United States and Austria.


title: Lactulose

text: In some countries where lactulose may be obtained without a prescription, lactulose is commonly used as a food additive to improve taste and promote intestinal transit.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Karolína Hrdličková (née Plíšková; ; born 21 March 1992) is a Czech professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in singles, reaching the top of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings on 17 July 2017 and holding the position for eight weeks. On 31 October 2016, she peaked at world No. 11 in the doubles rankings. Known for her powerful serve and forehand, Plíšková has won 16 singles and five doubles titles on the WTA tour, 10 singles and six doubles titles on the ITF Circuit, and over $20 million in prize money. She has reached two Grand Slam singles finals at the 2016 US Open and the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. As a junior, Plíšková won the girls' singles event at the 2010 Australian Open. She has also played for the Czech Republic in Fed Cup competition.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková was born in Louny to Radek Plíšek and Martina Plíšková, and has an identical twin sister, Kristýna, who is two minutes older and is also a tennis player.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She currently lives in Monte Carlo. In 2018 she married her boyfriend Michal Hrdlička. As she took his surname, her present official name is Karolína Hrdličková ().


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková played her first senior Grand Slam tournament main draw at the 2012 French Open. To qualify, she defeated Dia Evtimova, Tamaryn Hendler and Laura Robson. She lost in the first round to world No. 8, Marion Bartoli, in straight sets.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková started the year in Brisbane International. She however lost to Olga Puchkova in the first round in two sets. Then in her next tournament in Sydney she qualified, beating Alexandra Panova, Irina Falconi and Estrella Cabeza Candela. In the first round she lost to the third seed, Sara Errani.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková won her maiden WTA Tour title at the Malaysian Open. She defeated several seeded players to reach the final against the American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, defeating her in three sets.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the Generali Ladies Linz in October, Plíšková won her first WTA title in doubles alongside sister Kristýna, becoming the first set of twins in history to win a doubles title together on the tour.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: 2014 was a breakthrough year for Plíšková. After consecutive second-round finishes in Auckland and at the Australian Open, she reached her second career WTA tour final in Pattaya City, defeating top-50 players Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sorana Cîrstea before losing to Ekaterina Makarova in the final. She then reached the third round of Indian Wells, the quarterfinals of the Monterrey Open and the semifinals in Kuala Lumpur between March and April. In May, she reached her third career final in Nuremberg, losing to second seed Eugenie Bouchard in three sets. She broke into the top-50 in July and defeated world number 9 Ana Ivanovic in the second round of the US Open. After playing in America, she reached two finals in two consecutive weeks – in Hong Kong, where she lost to Sabine Lisicki, and in Seoul, which she won, defeating Varvara Lepchenko in the final to take her second career title. A third overall title (and second of the year) in Linz ensured Plíšková finished the year ranked world No. 24.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: As an alternate, Plíšková made a round-robin appearance at the season-closing Tournament of Champions, in lieu of top seed Ekaterina Makarova, losing her sole match against Flavia Pennetta of Italy.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: After reaching five finals and winning two of them, and appearing to a broader public at the US Open with a big win over a former world No. 1, 2014 was a breakthrough year for Plíšková. She leaped from world No. 67 to 24.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková began her year at the Brisbane International where she defeated former world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion, Victoria Azarenka, in the first round before losing in the second. She reached her first WTA Premier-level final at the Apia International Sydney, defeating Carla Suárez Navarro and Angelique Kerber before losing to fellow Czech, Petra Kvitová, in two tie-breaking sets. As a consequence of this run, she broke into the world's top-20 for the first time in her career.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the first Grand Slam event of the year in Australia, Plíšková reached the third round before losing to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She made her debut for the Czech Republic Fed Cup team in the first round of the 2015 Fed Cup World Group in February, winning both of her rubbers against Françoise Abanda and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada to help the Czechs to a 4–0 win in Québec.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: As the eighth seed, Plíšková reached semifinal at Diamond Games Antwerp, before losing to eventual runner-up Carla Suárez Navarro. She then played at the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Championships and reached the final as the 17th seed, along the way beating No. 4 seed Ana Ivanovic, fellow Czech Lucie Šafářová, and the rising Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza. She lost in the final against the top seed Simona Halep.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková then played in Indian Wells, where she won a rematch with Muguruza in the third round before losing again to Halep. In Miami, Plíšková reached the quarterfinals where she lost to Andrea Petkovic. She was the top seed in her home tournament in Prague and reached the final by defeating Annika Beck, Tsvetana Pironkova, Denisa Allertová and Yanina Wickmayer, going to a third set in three of her four matches. In the final, she defeated fellow Czech Lucie Hradecká in another three-set battle to claim her fourth WTA title.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the Madrid Open she beat Sílvia Soler Espinosa in the first round, but lost to Caroline Garcia in the second. At the Italian Open she lost in the first round to Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets. She lost in the second round of French Open as 12th seed to unseeded Andreea Mitu in straight sets after beating Zhang Shuai in the first round.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She reached another final at Aegon Classic, losing to Angelique Kerber in three sets. She lost to Agnieszka Radwańska at Aegon International in the third round. At Wimbledon, Plíšková defeated Irina Falconi in three sets before losing to CoCo Vandeweghe in the second round.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She made another final at Stanford Classic, losing once again to Angelique Kerber. Plíšková lost in the first round at Canadian Open to Mirjana Lučić-Baroni and in the third round of the Western & Southern Open to Jelena Janković and reached the quarterfinals of the Connecticut Open, losing to Lesia Tsurenko. Seeded 8th at the US Open, Plíšková suffered a shocking loss to Anna Tatishvili in the first round.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She made another two quarterfinals at Toray Pan Pacific Open and Wuhan Open, losing to Agnieszka Radwańska and Roberta Vinci respectively, but lost in the first round of China Open to Sloane Stephens in straight sets. Her next tournament was the Tianjin Open where she reached the semifinals, losing to Radwańska for the third time in 2015. She lost in second round of the Kremlin Cup to Anastasija Sevastova.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She reached a tour-leading sixth final at the WTA Elite Trophy but lost to Venus Williams in straight sets. She ended the year ranked No. 11 in singles and was the 13th most popular player of the year according to the WTA's website. Plíšková played as Czech No. 2 in the Fed Cup Final, losing to Maria Sharapova on Saturday. The following day, she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in singles and won the deciding doubles rubber with Barbora Strýcová, against Pavlyuchenkova and Elena Vesnina, to win her first Fed Cup title.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková began her season at the 2016 Hopman Cup, where she partnered with Jiří Veselý to represent the Czech Republic. She recorded singles wins over Jarmila Wolfe and Victoria Duval.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She reached quarterfinals in Sydney by defeating Ana Ivanovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, both in straight sets, but lost to world No. 2, Simona Halep, in straight sets. At the 2016 Australian Open, Plíšková defeated Kimberly Birrell and Julia Görges (both in straight sets) in the first two rounds. However, she again lost to Makarova, who defeated her at the same round at last year's Australian Open. After the tournament, she competed at Fed Cup and earned important wins over Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu in Czech Republic's tie against Romania.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Her next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she was defending the previous year's points as a finalist; however, she fell to CoCo Vandeweghe in straight sets. Struggles continued as she lost to Margarita Gasparyan in the first round of the Qatar Open.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: After receiving a first round bye in Indian Wells, Plíšková defeated Shelby Rogers and Ana Ivanovic, both in straight sets. She then defeated Johanna Konta in three sets and earned another straight sets win over rising star Daria Kasatkina, before losing in three sets to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka. Despite her good campaign in Indian Wells, Plíšková lost in the second round of the Miami Open to Tímea Babos after another first-round bye.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková opened her clay court season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. She defeated the 2015 French Open finalist Lucie Šafářová in the first round in three sets and Ana Ivanovic in straight sets. However, she would fall to the top seed Agnieszka Radwańska in the third round. She next competed at the Prague Open. She cruised by Stefanie Vögele, Kateřina Siniaková, and Camila Giorgi in the first three rounds. However, she would lose in straight sets to Lucie Šafářová in the semifinals. Plíšková lost in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open to Madison Keys in straight sets and fell in the first round of the Italian Open to Daria Kasatkina. Her clay court season would come to a disappointing end as she would lose to the 108th ranked player in the world, Shelby Rogers in the first round of the French Open.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková won her first title of the year at the Nottingham Open. After a three set match with Anastasija Sevastova in the first round, she cruised to the final and beat Alison Riske for her first grass title. She then lost in the first round of the Birmingham Classic to Barbora Strýcová and reached the final of the Eastbourne International where she lost to Dominika Cibulková. At Wimbledon, Plíšková beat Yanina Wickmayer in three sets before losing to Misaki Doi in the second round.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková began her hardcourt season at the Rogers Cup, where she beat Kateryna Bondarenko and Sara Errani (who had to withdraw from the match) before losing in straight sets to eventual champion Simona Halep. She then pulled out of the Olympics. Plíšková won her maiden WTA Premier tournament at the Western & Southern Open, defeating Germany's Angelique Kerber in straight sets in the final. Her victory denied Kerber the opportunity to take over the world No. 1 ranking from Serena Williams and enabled Williams to tie Steffi Graf's record of 186 consecutive weeks at #1. At the US Open, Plíšková beat wildcard Sofia Kenin, qualifier Montserrat González and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova en route to her first Grand Slam round of 16, where she defeated No. 6 seed and two-time champion, Venus Williams, in three sets and ensured her first ever major quarterfinal where she faced Ana Konjuh. She beat the Croatian in straight sets and reached her first Major semifinal, where she beat Serena Williams in straight sets to reach the final, where Serena Williams was attempting to vie her seventh US Open title. In the final, she lost to incoming No. 1, Angelique Kerber, despite winning the second set and being 3–1 up in the final set.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková continued the season with playing in Asia and the first tournament was in Tokyo, however she lost in the first match to qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich. In the next tournament in Wuhan she had bye in the first round and in the second round she defeated countrywoman Lucie Šafářová and the easily lost to Dominika Cibulková. Her run ended in the third round in Beijing. In the first round she met Šafářová again and beat her in three sets and then won over Daria Kasatkina by winning 9–7 in tie-break third set. Then she lost to Johanna Konta in three sets.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková qualified for 2016 WTA Finals and was in the group with Agnieszka Radwańska, Garbiñe Muguruza and Svetlana Kuznetsova. The first match was against Muguruza, which Plíšková won and had to face Muguruza's matchpoints. In other matches the opponents were more successful and Plíšková ended the tournament in Singapore with one win and two losses. Plíšková played her final matches of 2016 in the Fed Cup Final in France. She beat Kristina Mladenovic in the first singles rubber, which saw the third set end in a score of 14–12. This was the longest rubber in a Fed Cup Final, in terms of games played. In the next singles rubber against Caroline Garcia, Plíšková lost in three sets. The tie was even after the four singles rubbers, setting up a decisive doubles contest in which Plíšková partnered with Barbora Strýcová to defeat the WTA No. 1 ranked doubles team of Mladenovic/Garcia. With this victory over France, Plíšková and her Czech teammates completed a Fed Cup hat trick. It was also the second consecutive year that Plíšková and Strýcová won a decisive doubles rubber in the final.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the end of the season she changed coaches. Jiří Vaněk was substituted by David Kotyza, former coach of compatriot and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: In 2017, Plíšková started the season by playing in Brisbane, where she beat Yulia Putintseva and qualifier Asia Muhammad in two sets and then Roberta Vinci in three sets. She then defeated Elina Svitolina and Alizé Cornet (both in straight sets) and won her 7th title.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the 2017 Australian Open, she defeated easily Sara Sorribes Tormo and Anna Blinkova and beat Jelena Ostapenko in three sets despite being down 2–5 in the third. In the fourth round she defeated Daria Gavrilova and reached her second straight Grand Slam quarterfinal, where she was defeated by unseeded Mirjana Lučić-Baroni in three sets. Her ranking increased to a career-high of 3 in the world.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: In February, Plíšková played first round of Fed Cup against Spain in Ostrava. She defeated Lara Arruabarrena and Garbiñe Muguruza, both in straight sets. Her next tournament was Doha, where she had a bye in the first round. She played against Caroline Garcia in the second round and revenged the loss from the end of 2016 with a straight sets win. Then she played two matches in one day due to rain and won both of them. The quarterfinal against Zhang Shuai lasted overall about 7 hours. However, she outlasted Shuai in two sets before edging No. 5 Dominika Cibulková in three sets, a match in which she hit a career-best 21 aces to beat the Slovakian for the first time. In the final she beat Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to win her 8th WTA title. Plíšková lost in the second round to Kristina Mladenovic in Dubai.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: In the second round of the BNP Paribas Open, she defeated Monica Puig in three sets in a match full of errors. Although Plíšková's performance was not so confident, she defeated Irina-Camelia Begu in two sets, Timea Bacsinszky, who retired at the end of the sixth game, and Garbiñe Muguruza in two tie-breaks. In the semifinal against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Plíšková fell in straight tie-breaks. She reached the semifinals of the Miami Open, recording straight-set victories against qualifier Madison Brengle, Yulia Putintseva, countrywoman Barbora Strýcová, and Mirjana Lučić-Baroni before falling to Caroline Wozniacki in three sets.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková kicked off the clay-court season in Stuttgart, where she defeated CoCo Vandeweghe in straight sets, but then lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Laura Siegemund. She then lost in the first round of home tournament Prague to Camila Giorgi. She also reached her first quarterfinals in Rome. In the first round she beat Lauren Davis, then Timea Bacsinszky before losing to eventual champion Elina Svitolina in straight sets in which was also her first defeat to Svitolina in her career. At the 2017 French Open, she beat Zheng Saisai, Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Carina Witthöft before winning a close fourth-round match against Verónica Cepede Royg. She then defeated Caroline Garcia to set up a semifinal encounter with Simona Halep, which she lost in three sets. The defeat prevented her from claiming the world No. 1 ranking at the conclusion of the tournament.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: For the 2017 grass season, Plíšková attended the Eastbourne International as the third seed at the end of June and won the tournament after defeating Caroline Wozniacki in the final in straight sets. At Wimbledon, Plíšková was again regarded as one of the pre-tournament favourites following her Eastbourne victory, but she suffered an unexpected second-round exit after losing in three-sets to world No. 87 Magdaléna Rybáriková, which made her the highest-ranked player to exit the draw at that point. However, on 17 July, after Simona Halep lost in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, Plíšková reached the WTA world No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career. She became the sixth player to reach the No. 1 position without having won a Grand Slam tournament and the first female player representing the Czech Republic to achieve the feat. Czechoslovakian-born Martina Navratilova had also achieved a WTA world No. 1 ranking, but was already representing the United States when she first topped the rankings in 1978.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková attained solid results during the U.S. summer swing, reaching the quarterfinals and semifinals of the Canadian Open and the Western & Southern Open respectively. Pliskova participated in the US Open, where she was the top seed for the first time in a major. Plíšková easily defeated Magda Linette in straight sets in the first round, and outlasted American Nicole Gibbs after dropping the first set. In the third round she made a furious comeback after being a set down and facing match point in the second set to defeat 27th seed Zhang Shuai. She defeated Jennifer Brady by dropping just one game and advanced to the quarterfinals. Plíšková lost to CoCo Vandeweghe in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the US Open.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the Pan Pacific Open, she defeated Magda Linette before losing to Angelique Kerber. At the Wuhan Open, Plíšková reached the quarterfinal stage before losing to Ashleigh Barty in three sets. At the China Open, she defeated Carla Suárez Navarro and Andrea Petkovic to reach the third round, where she lost to Sorana Cîrstea. At the WTA Finals, Plíšková defeated Venus Williams in straight sets, and then faced Garbiñe Muguruza whom she also defeated in straight sets. These victories ensured that she would reach the semifinals of the WTA Finals for the first time. She then lost to Wozniacki in straight sets.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: In Brisbane, Plíšková lost in semifinals to Elina Svitolina. At the Australian Open Plíšková reached quarterfinals for the second time, having defeated Verónica Cepede Royg, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Lucie Šafářová and Barbora Strýcová. In quarterfinals she lost to Simona Halep in straight sets. In Qatar Open, she reached the third round after receiving a first round bye and defeating Alizé Cornet in second round in straight sets. In third round she fell to American teenager Cici Bellis in straight sets, thus failing to defend her title. In Dubai after receiving first round bye, she defeated Carla Suárez Navarro in three sets in the second round. In the quarterfinals she was defeated by Angelique Kerber in straight sets. In Indian Wells Plisková reached the quarterfinals, where she lost to eventual champion Naomi Osaka. At the following tournament, the Miami Open, Plíšková was defeated by wildcard and former champion Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Then Plíšková reached the quarterfinals in Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami. In April, she won the Stuttgart Open, defeating CoCo Vandeweghe in the final. She played also in the semifinals of Madrid.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: After reaching the quarterfinals in New York, Plíšková defeated the newly crowned US Open champion Naomi Osaka to take Pan Pacific Open, her eleventh career title.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková opened her season at the Brisbane International, seeded fifth. She defeated Yulia Putintseva, Marie Bouzková, Ajla Tomljanović, Donna Vekić, and Lesia Tsurenko to win the title.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková was seeded seventh at the 2019 Australian Open. She defeated qualifier Karolína Muchová, Madison Brengle, 27th seed Camila Giorgi, and 18th seed Garbiñe Muguruza to reach her third consecutive quarterfinal at the tournament. There, she faced 16th seed Serena Williams, who had defeated top seed Simona Halep in the previous round. After going up a set and a break, Plíšková lost ground to Serena and found herself facing match point at five games to one in the third set. However, she pulled off a stunning comeback, winning six consecutive games and saving three additional match points at 5–4 to win the set 7–5. She thus advanced to her first Australian Open semifinal, which she lost the next day to fourth seed Naomi Osaka in three sets.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková managed to carry her momentum through the early hard-court season, making the quarterfinals in both Dubai and Indian Wells. She then managed to reach her first career Premier Mandatory final at the Miami Open, after beating reigning French Open champion Simona Halep in the semifinals. However, she was defeated in the final by Ashleigh Barty in straight sets.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková got off to a disappointing start to the clay-court season, losing to former world No. 1, Victoria Azarenka, in her opening match in Stuttgart and Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Kozlova in the second round in Madrid. She rebounded, however, to win the biggest clay-court title of her career, and her second career Premier-5 title, at the Italian Open, avenging her previous defeat against Azarenka by defeating her in the quarterfinals, before beating Maria Sakkari in the semifinals and a resurgent Johanna Konta in the final. Plíšková rose back up to No. 2 in the rankings following her victory. At the French Open, she was seeded second and had an opportunity to take over the world No. 1 ranking from Osaka if she reached the final. However, despite being labeled a heavy favorite, she was upset in the third round by the 31st seed Petra Martić.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the Birmingham Classic in June, she and her sister Kristýna became the first identical twins in WTA history to play each other in a main draw match. Karolina lost to her sister, who was ranked 112th.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková's final grass court warmup tournament before Wimbledon was at the Eastbourne International, where she defeated Margarita Gasparyan, Elise Mertens, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Kiki Bertens and Angelique Kerber all in straight sets to pick up her 14th career title and her second at Eastbourne. She reached the last 16 at Wimbledon, but was upset by the unseeded Karolína Muchová, with the match going to 13–11 in the final set.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At Brisbane, Plíšková defeated Ajla Tomljanović, Alison Riske, Naomi Osaka, and Madison Keys to successfully defend her title, and set a record for the most Brisbane International titles. At the Australian Open, she defeated Kristina Mladenovic and Laura Siegemund, before falling to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round. At Dubai, Plíšková defeated Kristina Mladenovic, losing just three games, before losing in the quarterfinals to eventual finalist Elena Rybakina. She next competed at Doha, where she defeated Bernarda Pera before losing to Ons Jabeur. Before the suspension of the WTA tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Plíšková was ranked No. 3 in the world.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Her first tournament following the suspension was the Western & Southern Open where, as the top seed, she lost to Veronika Kudermetova in the second round. At the US Open, she defeated Anhelina Kalinina, before losing to Caroline Garcia in the second round.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She reached the final at Rome, where she was the defending champion, defeating Barbora Strýcová, Anna Blinkova, Elise Mertens, and Markéta Vondroušová, before retiring in the final against Simona Halep. At the French Open, she defeated Mayar Sherif in the first round, before losing to former champion Jeļena Ostapenko in the second round. Plíšková's final event of the year was at her home tournament of Ostrava, where, in receipt of a second round bye, she lost to Kudermetova for the second time in the year. Plíšková ended the year ranked No. 6 in the world.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková's first tournament of the year was at Abu Dhabi. She defeated lucky loser Despina Papamichail in the first round. In the second round, Plíšková was defeated by qualifier and world No. 292 Anastasia Gasanova in straight sets, despite this being Gasanova's first appearance in a WTA main draw. This was Plíšková's worst defeat by ranking since 2013.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the Australian Open warmup tournament, Plíšková received a first-round bye and defeated Elisabetta Cocciaretto in straight sets. In the third round, she was defeated by Danielle Collins in straight sets, 7–6, 7–6. At the Australian Open, she defeated Jasmine Paolini in the first round, before avenging defeat against Collins in the second round, to the loss of just nine games across both matches. In the third round, she faced Karolína Muchová for the first time since her shock defeat at Wimbledon in 2019. Muchová won the first set 7–5, and then Plíšková raced to a 5–0 lead in the second set. Plíšková then lost seven games in a row, being defeated by Muchová in straight sets. This extended Plíšková's streak in losing at Grand Slam tournaments before the quarterfinals to seven consecutive Slams.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At Doha, Plíšková defeated Ons Jabeur in three sets in the second round, before losing to Jessica Pegula. At Dubai, she defeated Anastasija Sevastova, before losing again to Pegula. At Miami, where she was a defending finalist, she defeated Zheng Saisai, before losing for the third time to Pegula in the third round. As a result of her early loss, Plíšková's ranking fell to No. 9 in the world, her lowest ranking since August 2018.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the Italian Open, Plíšková saved match points against Jeļena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals to ultimately reach her third straight Italian Open final. She lost in the final to reigning French Open champion Iga Świątek, 0–6, 0–6, in the most lopsided defeat in a tournament final of her career and the shortest completed final since Istanbul 2009. It was also the first double bagel to decide the Rome title, and the most one-sided Italian Open final since 1983.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: At the 2021 French Open Plíšková partnered with twin sister Kristýna and reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam in doubles for the first time in their careers when playing together. She had less success in singles after she was upset by Sloane Stephens in the second round.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Her struggles continued into the year's grass season. She headed to the Eastbourne International tournament as the defending champion, but crashed out in the first round to Camila Giorgi in straight sets. As a result, she left the top 10 in the WTA rankings for the first time since August 2016. However, Plíšková's fortunes turned around at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. She reached the quarterfinals and semifinals for the first time at this Major, defeating wildcard Ludmilla Samsonova and Viktorija Golubic respectively. With her quarterfinal victory, Plíšková had reached the semifinal stage or better of all 4 Grand Slams and became the sixth active female player to have reached all the Majors semis after Serena and Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep, and Kim Clijsters. She went on to reach her first Wimbledon final and second ever Grand Slam final since the 2016 US Open after defeating second seed Aryna Sabalenka in three sets. She was later defeated by Ashleigh Barty in the final 3–6, 7–6, 3–6, but by being runner-up, she returned to the top 10.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: In late July, Plíšková made her first Olympics appearance at the 2020 Summer Olympics and was the fifth seed going into the singles tournament. She eased past Alizé Cornet in straight sets and Carla Suárez Navarro in three sets, but lost to Camila Giorgi in the third round in straight sets.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: For the beginning of the US Open Series, Plíšková attended the Canadian Open as the fourth seed. After defeating Donna Vekić and Amanda Anisimova, she landed Sara Sorribes Tormo in the quarterfinal, whom she beat in straight sets. For the semifinal, Plíšková faced a rematch with top seed Aryna Sabalenka, whom she had already beaten in the Wimbledon semifinal just two months prior; this time, she beat Sabalenka in straight sets after breaking early in the match and just losing the lead once in the second set, before breaking back to seal the win. This victory meant Plíšková had reached her seventh WTA 1000 final and first final at this tournament. She faced Camila Giorgi in the final, their third match against each other for the year, and lost once more in straight sets, 6–3, 7–5. By reaching the final, Plíšková reentered the Top 5 of the WTA singles rankings at World No. 4 on 16 August 2021.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková's next tournament was the Cincinnati Masters, where she entered as the fifth seed and received a first round bye. In the second round, she defeated Yulia Putintseva in straight sets, before facing Jessica Pegula for the fifth time in the year. For the first time, Plíškova defeated Pegula, doing so in straight sets; in the process, she came back from a 1–4 deficit in the first set, and a 0–5 deficit in the second set, saving two set points in the process. After defeating Spaniard Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals following Badosa's retirement in the second set, she was defeated by Swiss wildcard Jil Teichmann in straight sets in the semifinals.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: She reached World No. 3 on 13 September 2021 following the 2021 US Open where she reached the quarterfinals. The following week, due to wrist injury Plíšková had to withdraw from the J&T Banka Ostrava Open. At Indian Wells, she was upset by lucky loser Beatriz Haddad Maia in the third round. Plíšková qualified for the WTA Finals for the fifth straight time. During the round robin stage, she defeated Garbiñe Muguruza and Barbora Krejčíková, each in 3 sets, but lost to Anett Kontaveit in straight sets. Although she posted a 2–1 record, she finished third in the group due to the tiebreaker rule that considers the ratio of sets won to lost, therefore failing to qualify for the semifinals.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková was forced to withdraw from all events held during the Australian swing, after sustaining a hand injury during training. This marked the first time that Plíšková did not appear in a Grand Slam main draw since the 2012 US Open, when she failed to qualify for the main draw.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková lost her first two matches of the season, at Indian Wells to Danka Kovinić and at Miami to Anna Kalinskaya, before winning her first match at Charleston to Katarina Zavatska; she would lose her second-round match to Ekaterina Alexandrova. Defeating compatriot Petra Kvitová at Stuttgart, she would lose her next two matches, to Liudmila Samsonova, and to Marie Bouzková at Madrid. Pliskova then returned to Rome where she had been in the final for three consecutive years. She lost in the first round to Jil Teichmann. At the French open, she lost to French wildcard ranked 227th Leolia Jeanjean in the second round.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: In Berlin, she defeated Kaia Kanepi and Bianca Andreescu before losing to Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals. Then, she was defeated by Katie Boulter in Eastbourne second round. At Wimbledon, she lost to Boulter again in the second round.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Pliskova started the 2022 North American hard court swing in San Jose. She finally defeated Boulter in the first round before falling to Amanda Anisimova in the second round. Pliskova regained her form at Toronto. She reached the semifinals cruising by Krejcikova, Anisimova, Maria Sakkari and Zheng Qinwen where she lost to Beatriz Haddad Maia in straight sets. This was followed by a second round exit to Elise Mertens in Cincinnati. Seeded 22nd at the US Open, she reached the fourth round defeating Magda Linette, Marie Bouzkova and Belinda Bencic. In the fourth round, Pliskova defeated Victoria Azarenka hitting 53 winners and 36 errors compared to Azarenka's 46 winners and 39 errors before losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková utilizes an extremely aggressive style, highlighted by her powerful, accurate serve, forceful groundstrokes, and aggressive net play, to extract errors from opponents or win points outright. Her greatest strength is her serve, which is known for its pace, power, and precision. She typically generates high first-serve percentages, and is able to serve numerous aces. Her first serve speed averages , and peaks at ; the fast speed of her first serve combined with its accurate placement and disguise make her first serve effective. Between 2013 and 2019, Plíšková ranked within the top 10 of the WTA ace count, and served the most aces of any player in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019; in 2016, she served 530 aces, the most of any player in a single year in WTA history. She double faults infrequently, although she tends to take risks on her second serve when nervous, causing double faults to accumulate. Her groundstrokes are powerful, allowing her to hit winners from any position on the court. Her strongest groundstroke is her forehand, which she hits flat, with significant pace and power; this shot is responsible for most of the winners she hits on the court. She can generate extreme angles with both her forehand and her backhand, allowing her to hit winners at will. She also shows accuracy and power on mid-court shots, sometimes following them up to the net, where she can hit the most challenging volleys with ease due to her doubles experience. Although she mainly plays from the baseline until she creates the opportunity to approach the net and hit low-risk volley winners, Plíšková will occasionally utilise the serve-and-volley tactic to surprise her opponents. This tactic is highly effective – in the 2016 US Open final, she won 80% of her serve-and-volley points. Despite her considerable strengths, Plíšková's game is hampered by her poor movement, and lacklustre footwork. Although her movement has improved significantly since turning professional, it is still the weakest area of her game, allowing opponents to hit low-risk winners, due to the fact that she cannot reach the winning shot fast enough. Due to her poor movement, she struggles against defensive players who counterpunch, and aim to move her around the baseline – she possesses losing head-to-head records against many elite defensive players, including Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, Caroline Wozniacki, Elina Svitolina, Ashleigh Barty, and Sloane Stephens. Plíšková's game is remarkably malleable, and is suited to all surfaces; she has won titles on hard, clay, and grass courts, although her quick and aggressive style of play is especially suited to grass courts.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková has had several coaches throughout her career; Jiří Vaněk (2014–16), David Kotyza (2017), and Tomáš Krupa (2017–18). After parting with Krupa, she united with Rennae Stubbs for the 2018 US Open, although the partnership ended at the end of the year, so that Stubbs could return to her career as a TV tennis commentator. She was coached by Conchita Martínez throughout the 2019 season; their partnership ended that year when Martínez began to coach Garbiñe Muguruza. In 2019, Plíšková announced that she would be coached by ATP coach Daniel Vallverdú for the 2020 season. Due to a string of poor results, their partnership ended at the end of 2020.She than announced that she would be coached by former WTA doubles player Olga Savchuk. This partnership has produced success at the highest level and is continued through the US Open 2022.


title: Karolína Plíšková

text: Plíšková has been endorsed by Fila for clothing and footwear since 2016, and uses Babolat racquets, specifically endorsing the Pure Drive range of racquets.


title: Sadako Sasaki

text: Sadako Sasaki was at home, about away from ground zero, when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. She was blown out of the window and her mother ran out to find her, suspecting she may be dead, but instead finding her two-year-old daughter alive with no apparent injuries. While they were fleeing, Sasaki and her mother were caught in black rain. Her grandmother ran back inside and died near the house, apparently trying to escape fires by hiding in a cistern.


title: Sadako Sasaki

text: Sadako grew up like her peers and became an important member of her class relay team. In November 1954, Sasaki developed swellings on her neck and behind her ears. In January 1955, purpura had formed on her legs. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with acute malignant lymph gland leukemia (her mother and others in Hiroshima referred to it as "atomic bomb disease"). She was hospitalized on February 21, 1955, and given no more than a year to live.