title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: Uzbekistan then took part in the third qualifying round for the 2023 Asian Cup. Designated as the host country of Group C (due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia), the Central Asians took advantage of this advantage and the relative weakness of most of their opponents to win all three games and finish top of their group without conceding a goal, validating their qualification for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.


title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: The Uzbekistan national team has received several nicknames by supporters and media. The most common one used is "The White Wolves" ( "/ ").


title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: Also, the Uzbekistan national football team is called "Asian Italy" ( "/ "). This is due to the similarity of colors (white and blue) clothing teams of Italy and Uzbekistan, as well as similar tactics (defensive football) of these teams. The Uzbekistan Super League is often considered to be similar to Italian Serie A. Also, the history of Uzbekistan is as rich and ancient as the history of Italy.


title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: Also the team of Uzbekistan is called "Huma birds" ( "/ "). The mythical Huma bird is the national bird of Uzbekistan, and is depicted on the state emblem of Uzbekistan. The Huma bird is depicted on the emblem of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan.


title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: Sometimes the Uzbekistan national football is called "Turanians" ( "/ "), because the current country of Uzbekistan is located in the center of this ancient region Turan, and all the ancient and major cities of this region are located in this country, and therefore Uzbekistan is considered by some to be the successor of the Turan.


title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: The main rivals of the Uzbekistan national team are the countries of Central Asia, the national teams of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. However, the main and most important rivals of the national team of Uzbekistan are Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The matches between the countries of Central Asia have always aroused great interest among fans throughout the region, in spite of Uzbekistan's dominance since the fall of the USSR. Football is one of the instruments of rivalry between the states of Central Asia, dating back to the Soviet era.


title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: From the moment of its formation (1992) until the end of 2012, the main home stadium of the Uzbekistan national football team was the Pakhtakor Central Stadium in Tashkent, built and opened in 1956. This stadium is also the venue for home matches of Pakhtakor Football Club. During the USSR, this stadium was home for the Uzbekistan SSR national team. Was reconstructed in 1996, 2008 and 2012 and currently holds 35,000 spectators (before this capacity was 55,000 spectators). For today's time the national team of Uzbekistan holds only some of the matches at Pakhtakor Stadium.


title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: From 2013 to the present, the main home stadium of the Uzbekistan national team is the Milliy Stadium (until 2018 was named Bunyodkor Stadium), built in 2008–2012 and accommodating 34,000 spectators. This stadium is also a home for the Bunyodkor Football Club.


title: Uzbekistan national football team

text: The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.


title: Highgrove House

text: Highgrove House is the family residence of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. It lies southwest of Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England. Built in the late 18th century, Highgrove and its estate were owned by various families until it was purchased in 1980 by the Duchy of Cornwall from Maurice Macmillan. Charles III remodelled the Georgian house with neo-classical additions in 1987. The duchy manages the estate and the nearby Duchy Home Farm.


title: Highgrove House

text: The gardens at Highgrove have been open to the public since 1996. The gardens of the late 18th century home were overgrown and untended when Charles first moved in but have since flourished and now include rare trees, flowers and heirloom seeds. Current organic gardening and organic lawn management techniques have allowed the gardens to serve also as a sustainable habitat for birds and wildlife. The gardens were designed by Charles in consultation with highly regarded gardeners like Rosemary Verey and noted naturalist Miriam Rothschild.


title: Highgrove House

text: The gardens receive more than 30,000 visitors a year. The house and gardens are run according to the King's environmental principles and have been the subject of several books and television programmes. The King frequently hosts charitable events at the house.


title: Highgrove House

text: As the property is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, control of the House was transferred to William, Prince of Wales when his father acceded to the throne and he became Duke of Cornwall on 8 September 2022. The King and Queen Consort will lease the house from the Duchy to use as a country residence.


title: Highgrove House

text: Highgrove House is in Doughton, near Tetbury in the county of Gloucestershire in South West England. Gatcombe Park, the country residence of the King's sister, Anne, Princess Royal, is away, between the villages of Minchinhampton and Avening. In addition, the King's cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, bought nearby Nether Lypiatt Manor shortly after the duchy purchased Highgrove, although he sold it in 2006.


title: Highgrove House

text: As the country residence of the King, Highgrove House is well protected by security. The house is one of several sites designated under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 that are protected by law from criminal trespass, a high stone wall surrounds the estate, and in 1983 the duchy and the chief constable of Gloucestershire supported the moving, for security reasons, of two public footpaths that ran close to the house. Several people have been arrested near Highgrove since the King's occupation, including two French journalists and a photographer from "The Sun". A 1.5 nautical mile aerial exclusion zone for civilian aircraft and microlights was imposed over Highgrove in 1991.


title: Highgrove House

text: The Crawley-Boevey Baronetcy (originally Barrow Baronetcy), termed "of Highgrove in the County of Gloucester", was created on 22 January 1784. The family had inherited Flaxley Abbey in 1727, which was their seat until 1960. Highgrove House was built in 1796 to 1798 by John Paul Paul, and believed to have been designed by architect Anthony Keck. The estate itself came to the family through the marriage in 1771 of Josiah Paul Tippetts later Paul (his mother's family name, which he adopted under the terms of the will of his uncle, her brother) with Mary Clark, whose father Robert was the local squire. It belonged to Paul's descendants until 1860. In 1850 his granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Paul died after her gown caught fire during a soiree held for her brother in the ballroom. The house was sold again in 1864 to a barrister, William Yatman. During his time at Highgrove, Yatman was described as one of the "chief preservers of foxes" in an 1872 discussion on the Duke of Beaufort's hounds. Yatman rebuilt the medieval spire of Tetbury church in honour of his son, and paid for the rehanging of the church bells in 1891. Yatman left Highgrove following a fire in 1893 which destroyed much of the interiors of the house. The house was rebuilt at a cost of £6,000 by Arthur Mitchell, whose son, Lt Col. Francis Mitchell, Commander of the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, lived at nearby Doughton Manor. The Mitchells sold Highgrove after World War II to Lt Col. Gwyn Morgan.


title: Highgrove House

text: The estate had been bought by the Macmillan family in 1956 for £89,000 and was put up for sale by the Conservative politician and businessman Maurice Macmillan, the son of former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, for £730,000 in 1980. Macmillan sold Highgrove so he could spend more time at Birch Grove, his father's Sussex home. At the time of its sale Highgrove was described as a "distinguished Georgian house standing in superb parkland in the Duke of Beaufort's hunt" and possessing , with nine bedrooms and six bathrooms.


title: Highgrove House

text: In August 1980 the Highgrove estate was purchased by the Duchy of Cornwall for a figure believed to be between £800,000 and £1,000,000 with funds raised for its purchase by the sale of three properties from the duchy's holdings, including part of the village of Daglingworth. The Duke of Cornwall, now Charles III, was subsequently appointed a tenant for life of Highgrove by the duchy. Upon its purchase, essential repairs were carried out, the interior was stripped out, and the rooms were painted white, in preparation for their redecoration. The swimming pool at Highgrove was given to The Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales, as a wedding present from the British Army.


title: Highgrove House

text: From 1974, the previous residence of the Prince of Wales was due to be Chevening House in Kent, a house intended for use by a Cabinet member or descendant of King George VI who has been nominated by the Prime Minister. However, the Prince never occupied the house and renounced his interest in Chevening in 1980. The Prince of Wales found the journey from Chevening to Buckingham Palace inconvenient as a result of traffic congestion in South London, and it was also far away from Wales and the Duchy of Cornwall. The estate was also run by a board of trustees, appointed by the government which was seen as a disadvantage to any future changes The Prince of Wales wished to make. As £1 million of renovations had been made to Chevening before The Prince of Wales's occupancy, the purchase of Highgrove was criticised by Labour MP Reg Race, who said that it was "...bloody outrageous on a day that the Government are cutting social security benefits for millions of people". A spokesperson for the duchy said, "It is coincidental that this estate has a house on it which is suitable for the Prince of Wales. The Royal Family are rather short of residences and the prince only has a set of rooms at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle that he can use...when you are 31 you want a place of your own".


title: Highgrove House

text: The Prince of Wales had looked at a number of properties in different counties before the duchy purchased Highgrove. The Prince of Wales rejected houses at Stoke Climsland in Cornwall and Orchardleigh in Somerset. The Prince of Wales was attracted to Gloucestershire as it was equidistant between London and Cornwall and he had known the locality around Badminton since his childhood, often hunting with the Duke of Beaufort's Hunt.


title: Highgrove House

text: The duchy's local holdings were expanded after the purchase of Highgrove, with the addition of Broadfield Farm, a farm on the opposite side of Tetbury and other holdings to a total of by 1993.


title: Highgrove House

text: In 1981 model maker Rosalind Hudson made a scale model of Highgrove as a wedding present for The Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales. Hudson later altered the model as Highgrove was altered.


title: Highgrove House

text: Highgrove was initially occupied at weekends by The Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales, after their 1981 marriage, and their two children, Prince William and Prince Harry, spent much of their childhoods at the house.


title: Highgrove House

text: Two former members of Highgrove's staff, butler Paul Burrell and housekeeper Wendy Berry, have chronicled their time at the house. Burrell's book "A Royal Duty" was published in 2003 and covers his time at Highgrove from the purchase of the house until Burrell's departure with Diana in 1995. Berry's 1995 book, "The Housekeeper's Diary", detailed her time at Highgrove from 1984 to 1993 and it was the subject of a worldwide publishing ban from the High Court.


title: Highgrove House

text: Highgrove House was built between 1796 and 1798; it was believed to have been designed by architect Anthony Keck. The house is a rectangular detached three-storey building made from ashlar blocks with a stone and slate roof. The exterior of the house features neo-classical decorations. In its 1985 listing for the house, English Heritage described its design as "Principal block, rectangular of five bays by three and of 3 storeys. Pilasters through the upper floors, cornice and parapet. The garden front (south-west) of 5 bays with a central canted bay of 2 storeys. Mid C19. 12-pane sashes. Sashes on south-east set in arched recesses." The house has four reception rooms, nine main bedrooms, with a nursery wing and staff quarters.


title: Highgrove House

text: In 1893 a fire caused severe damage to the house, and it was rebuilt to its former appearance in 1894 by the Bristol architect John Hart. The fire gutted the interior and damaged the west façade, where a window collapsed onto the terrace, bringing down the wall above. A porch was added to the south-east front in 1894. An office wing to the north west of the house was demolished in 1966.


title: Highgrove House

text: At the behest of the King, the artist Felix Kelly created an artist's impression of a remodeled Highgrove with neo-classical additions. Kelly had previously painted a vision of Henbury Hall in Henbury, Cheshire based on Andrea Palladio's Villa Rotonda. Kelly's artwork had formed the basis for the construction of Henbury Hall, and a similar painting of Highgrove subsequently formed the basis for a remodelling of the house in December 1987, undertaken by architect Peter Falconer. The remodeling saw the exterior embellished with a new balustrade, pediment, and classical pilasters. A new single-storey staff annexe was also added. The additions were praised by the Georgian Group.


title: Highgrove House

text: Other buildings built by The King at Highgrove include beehive pavilions and a beef-yard designed by Willie Bertram, built in traditional Cotswold stone. Four semi-detached cottages dubbed 'the council houses' by The Prince of Wales were also renovated.


title: Highgrove House

text: Highgrove House was given Grade II listed status in March 1985. In addition to the main house, the Coach House to the north west, and Lodge and Gate Piers to the east, were also given Grade II listed status.


title: Highgrove House

text: After the marriage of The Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales in 1981 rooms at Highgrove were decorated by Dudley Poplak who regarded the commission as the "most important assignment I have ever had." Poplak's obituary in "The Times" later described his decorations for Highgrove as "...a youthful variant of the chintzy country-house look that was seen everywhere that year..." with a pallet of clean fresh colours – plenty of lime green and aquamarine – he created a gentle relaxed mood with no flights of fancy other than the odd experiment with interesting textures". Poplak also decorated The Prince and Princess of Wales's apartments at Kensington Palace. Following Diana's departure from Highgrove, Poplak's designs were replaced with those of Robert Kime at the behest of Camilla. In 2003 Kime decorated rooms at The Prince of Wales's London residence, Clarence House, following the death of the Queen Mother.


title: Highgrove House

text: The King’s environmental beliefs have been reflected in changes to Highgrove. Solar panels have been installed on the farm and the house is heated by a wood chip boiler, in addition, waste from the house is filtered through a natural sewage system, and the use of aerosols was banned in the house in the 1980s. The lights at Highgrove were turned off for Earth Hour in 2008.


title: Highgrove House

text: The King has created a wild garden, a formal garden and a walled kitchen garden at Highgrove. He has also planted a large number of trees in the grounds, and holds the beech collection under the National Plant Collection scheme. Individual features in the gardens include the Carpet Garden, Southern Hemisphere Garden, Walled Garden, the Autumn Walk, Sundial Garden, and a Woodland Garden featuring two classical temples made from green oak and a stumpery. The King has described his efforts as representing "...one very small attempt to heal the appalling short-sighted damage done to the soil, the landscape and our own souls" and has written that "Some may not like it, others may scoff that it is not in the 'real world' or it is merely an expensive indulgence. Whatever the case, my enduring hope is that those who visit the garden may find something to inspire, excite, fascinate or soothe them".


title: Highgrove House

text: In 1980 The King was especially drawn to the 200-year-old Highgrove Cedar of Lebanon to the west of the house. After the diseased tree had to be felled in 2007 for safety reasons, a new oak pavilion with church-like spire was constructed over the base of the tree. The organic design by Mark Hoare has a rustic cruck frame on Cotswold staddle stones.


title: Highgrove House

text: The Head Gardener is Debs Goodenough, who in July 2008 replaced David Howard. Charles was initially assisted in his creation of Highgrove's gardens by Miriam Rothschild. He was further assisted by Lady Salisbury, who had restored the gardens of Hatfield House, and Rosemary Verey.


title: Highgrove House

text: In 1985, organic farming was introduced on three blocks of land as part of a move to what has been called biologically sustainable farming linked to conservation. The step to full organic status on the whole estate was completed in 1994.


title: Highgrove House

text: Pre-booked tours of the gardens are available to individuals and groups, between April and mid-October. Over 30,000 people visit the gardens annually.


title: Highgrove House

text: The gardens were the source of inspiration for the British composer Patrick Hawes when he was asked to write a piece of music for The King's 60th birthday in 2008. The resultant piece entitled "Goddess of the Woods" was first performed on the Prince's birthday in the Floral Hall of the Royal Opera House. Three further movements ensued to create the "Highgrove Suite" each depicting different areas of the gardens at Highgrove. The suite was premiered at Highgrove on 8 June 2010 with the royal harpist Claire Jones and the Philharmonia orchestra.


title: Highgrove House

text: The Highgrove Florilegium is a two-volume book series containing 124 watercolours of plants from the gardens.


title: Highgrove House

text: The Sundial Garden was the first garden at Highgrove to be created by The King and had formerly been known as the South Garden. It is named for the stone sundial at its centre, sculpted by Walter Crang, a wedding present to The King and Princess of Wales from the Duke of Beaufort and outside staff and gardeners. The garden faces south and its layout has remained largely unchanged since its creation. The Sundial Garden was originally planted with roses, and was briefly planted as a 'black-and-white garden'. The garden is presently planted with herbaceous plants in pinks, blues, and purples, and surrounded by a large yew hedge planted in the winter of 1982.


title: Highgrove House

text: A section of the garden contains busts of people admired by The King, including Debo Devonshire, composer John Tavener, naturalist Dame Miriam Rothschild, poet Kathleen Raine, activist Vandana Shiva, and the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres. Other people honoured by busts in the garden include the former museum director and art historian who helped design the Highgrove gardens Sir Roy Strong, and Léon Krier, who created Poundbury, a village built to The Prince of Wales's architectural principles in Dorset. Busts of the former owner of Highgrove, Maurice Macmillan (sculpted by Angela Conner), the explorer and confidant of The Prince of Wales, Sir Laurens van der Post (sculptured by Frances Baruch), and pilot and psychiatrist Alan McGlashan are displayed in Highgrove's Cottage Garden, in recesses in a yew hedge. A path of stone cobbles leaves the Cottage Garden, before surrounding a stone obelisk inscribed with 'York, Weymouth and Bath', given to The King for his 60th birthday by stone-masonry colleges.


title: Highgrove House

text: In 1992, the then Prince of Wales opened the Highgrove retail shops which sell products, including :Duchy Originals, for home and gardens.


title: Highgrove House

text: The shops are located in Tetbury and in London, where the products are available at Fortnum & Mason. A shop in Bath closed down in 2014. All profits from the sale of the products are paid to The Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation. In 2014, the shops began selling products online.


title: Highgrove House

text: The "Highgrove Florilegium", a book of botanical illustrations limited to 175 copies, was published on the flora of Highgrove in April 2008.


title: Stefanie Martini

text: Stefanie Martini (born 6 October 1990) is an English actress, known for her leading role in ITV's 2017 production "Prime Suspect 1973". She also starred in "Doctor Thorne" (2016), "Emerald City" (2017), the 2017 film "Crooked House" and the TV series "The Last Kingdom".


title: Stefanie Martini

text: Born in Bristol, Martini was raised in villages in North Somerset by her parents. She completed her secondary education locally. Having starred in local youth plays with Winscombe Youth Theatre and undertaken the two week induction at the National Youth Theatre, with an interest in illustration post A Levels at Churchill Academy and Sixth Form, she began an arts foundation course. However, a teacher suggested that if she was interested in acting, then she should try it.


title: Stefanie Martini

text: After failing to get into RADA on her first attempt, Martini joined a one-year programme at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where the company wrote their own plays that they produced in local schools. She was subsequently accepted into RADA the following year.


title: Stefanie Martini

text: During Martini's third year at RADA, she played the supporting role of a suspect in an episode of the TV series "Endeavour". In 2016, she starred as Mary Thorne in "Doctor Thorne", and Princess Langwidere in NBC's "Emerald City". Martini portrayed the lead role of Jane Tennison in ITV's 2017 production "Prime Suspect 1973" (also known as "Prime Suspect: Tennison"), a prequel to the well-known TV series that had starred Helen Mirren. She also played Sophia de Haviland in the 2017 film "Crooked House", an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel of the same name.


title: Stefanie Martini

text: On the 26 June 2021, Martini came out as bisexual in an Instagram post. Since late 2021, Martini has been in a relationship with English photographer/model El Wood, which she announced publicly on social media on the 1st of January 2022.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is a fictional character created by Mark Twain who first appeared in the book "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) and is the protagonist and narrator of its sequel, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884). He is 12 or 13 years old during the former and a year older ("thirteen or fourteen or along there", Chapter 17) at the time of the latter. Huck also narrates "Tom Sawyer Abroad" and "Tom Sawyer, Detective", two shorter sequels to the first two books.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is the son of the town's vagrant drunkard, "Pap" Finn. Sleeping on doorsteps when the weather is fair, in empty hogsheads during storms, and living off of what he gets from others, Huck lives the life of a destitute vagabond. The author metaphorically names him "the juvenile pariah of the village" and describes Huck as "idle, and lawless, and vulgar, and bad", qualities for which he was admired by all the other children in the village, although their mothers "cordially hated and dreaded" him.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Huck is an archetypal innocent, able to discover the "right" thing to do despite the prevailing theology and prejudiced mentality of the South of that era. An example of this is his decision to help Jim escape slavery, even though he believes he will go to Hell for it.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: His appearance is described in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". He wears the clothes of full-grown men which he probably received as charity, and as Twain describes him, "he was fluttering with rags." He has a torn, broken straw hat, his trousers are supported with only one suspender, and "was the first boy who went barefoot in the spring and the last to resume leather in the fall," (Mark Twain believed that it was "tough" or "manly" for young boys to go around barefoot at that time). Even Tom Sawyer, the St. Petersburg hamlet boys' leader sees him as "the banished Romantic".


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Tom's Aunt Polly calls Huck a "poor motherless thing." Huck confesses to Tom in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" that he remembers his mother and his parents' relentless fighting that stopped only when she died.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Huck has a carefree life free from societal norms or rules, stealing watermelons and chickens and "borrowing" (stealing) boats and cigars. Due to his unconventional childhood, Huck has received almost no education. At the end of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Tom and Huck recover a treasure worth thousands of dollars, which is invested on their behalf; Huck is adopted by the Widow Douglas, who enrolls him in school in return for his saving her life. In the course of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", the sequel to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", he learns enough to be literate and reads books for entertainment. His knowledge of history as related to Jim is inaccurate but it is not specified if he is being wrong on purpose or as a joke on Jim.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: In "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", the Widow attempts to "sivilize" ["sic"] the newly wealthy Huck. Huck's father takes him from her, but Huck manages to fake his own death and escape to Jackson's Island, where he coincidentally meets up with Jim, a slave who was owned by the Widow Douglas' sister, Miss Watson.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Jim is running away because he overheard Miss Watson planning to "sell him South" for eight hundred dollars. Jim wants to escape to Cairo, Illinois, where he can find work to eventually buy his family's freedom. Huck and Jim take a raft down the Mississippi River, planning to head north on the Ohio River, in hopes of finding freedom from slavery for Jim and freedom from Pap for Huck. Their adventures together, along with Huck's solo adventures, comprise the core of the book.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: In the end, however, Jim gains his freedom through Miss Watson's death, as she freed him in her will. Pap, it is revealed, has died in Huck's absence, and although he could safely return to St. Petersburg, Huck plans to flee west to Indian Territory.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: In "Tom Sawyer Abroad" and "Tom Sawyer, Detective", the sequels to "Huck Finn", however, Huck is living in St. Petersburg again after the events of his eponymous novel. In "Abroad", Huck joins Tom and Jim for a wild, fanciful balloon ride that takes them overseas. In "Detective", which occurs about a year after the events of "Huck Finn", Huck helps Tom solve a murder mystery.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Huck is Tom Sawyer's closest friend. Their friendship is partially rooted in Sawyer's emulation of Huck's freedom and ability to do what he wants, like swearing and smoking when he feels like it. In one moment in the novel, he openly brags to his teacher that he was late for school because he stopped to talk with Huck Finn and enjoyed it, something for which he knew he would (and did) receive a whipping. Nonetheless, Tom remains a devoted friend to Huck in all of the novels they appear in. In "Huckleberry Finn", it's revealed that Huck also considers Tom to be his best friend. At various times in the novel, Huck mentions that Tom would put more "style" in Jim and his adventure.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Jim, a runaway slave whom Huck befriends, is another dominant force in Huck's life. He is the symbol for the moral awakening Huck undergoes throughout "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". This is seen when Huck considers sending a letter to Ms. Watson telling her where Jim is but ultimately chooses to rip it up despite the idea in the south that one who tries helping a slave escape will be sent to eternal punishment.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Pap Finn is Huck's abusive, drunken father who shows up at the beginning of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and forcibly takes his son to live with him. Pap's only method of parenting is physical abuse. Although he seems derisive of education and civilized living, Pap seems to be jealous of Huck and is infuriated that his son would try to amount to more, and live in better conditions than he did. Despite this, early in the novel Huck uses his father's method of "borrowing" though he later feels sorry and stops.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: The character of Huck Finn is based on Tom Blankenship, the real-life son of a sawmill laborer and sometime drunkard named Woodson Blankenship, who lived in a "ramshackle" house near the Mississippi River behind the house where the author grew up in Hannibal, Missouri.


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Twain mentions his childhood friend Tom Blankenship as the inspiration for creating Huckleberry Finn in his autobiography: "In Huckleberry Finn I have drawn Tom Blankenship exactly as he was. He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had. His liberties were totally unrestricted. He was the only really independent person—boy or man—in the community, and by consequence he was tranquilly and continuously happy and envied by the rest of us. And as his society was forbidden us by our parents the prohibition trebled and quadrupled its value, and therefore we sought and got more of his society than any other boy's." – "Mark Twain's Autobiography".


title: Huckleberry Finn

text: Since Mark Twain's death, Huck Finn has also appeared in a number of novels, plays, comic strips, and stories written by various authors that purport to tell the latter adventures of Huck and his friends. The Mark Twain Museum, "CNN" and "The Times" of London have dubbed American canoeist and author Neal Moore "the modern-day Huckleberry Finn.”


title: Americium

text: Americium is a synthetic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Am and atomic number 95. It is a transuranic member of the actinide series, in the periodic table located under the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was named after the Americas.


title: Americium

text: Americium was first produced in 1944 by the group of Glenn T. Seaborg from Berkeley, California, at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago, as part of the Manhattan Project. Although it is the third element in the transuranic series, it was discovered fourth, after the heavier curium. The discovery was kept secret and only released to the public in November 1945. Most americium is produced by uranium or plutonium being bombarded with neutrons in nuclear reactors – one tonne of spent nuclear fuel contains about 100 grams of americium. It is widely used in commercial ionization chamber smoke detectors, as well as in neutron sources and industrial gauges. Several unusual applications, such as nuclear batteries or fuel for space ships with nuclear propulsion, have been proposed for the isotope Am, but they are as yet hindered by the scarcity and high price of this nuclear isomer.


title: Americium

text: Americium is a relatively soft radioactive metal with silvery appearance. Its most common isotopes are Am and Am. In chemical compounds, americium usually assumes the oxidation state +3, especially in solutions. Several other oxidation states are known, ranging from +2 to +7, and can be identified by their characteristic optical absorption spectra. The crystal lattice of solid americium and its compounds contain small intrinsic radiogenic defects, due to metamictization induced by self-irradiation with alpha particles, which accumulates with time; this can cause a drift of some material properties over time, more noticeable in older samples.


title: Americium

text: Although americium was likely produced in previous nuclear experiments, it was first intentionally synthesized, isolated and identified in late autumn 1944, at the University of California, Berkeley, by Glenn T. Seaborg, Leon O. Morgan, Ralph A. James, and Albert Ghiorso. They used a 60-inch cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. The element was chemically identified at the Metallurgical Laboratory (now Argonne National Laboratory) of the University of Chicago. Following the lighter neptunium, plutonium, and heavier curium, americium was the fourth transuranium element to be discovered. At the time, the periodic table had been restructured by Seaborg to its present layout, containing the actinide row below the lanthanide one. This led to americium being located right below its twin lanthanide element europium; it was thus by analogy named after the Americas: "The name americium (after the Americas) and the symbol Am are suggested for the element on the basis of its position as the sixth member of the actinide rare-earth series, analogous to europium, Eu, of the lanthanide series."


title: Americium

text: The new element was isolated from its oxides in a complex, multi-step process. First plutonium-239 nitrate (PuNO) solution was coated on a platinum foil of about 0.5 cm area, the solution was evaporated and the residue was converted into plutonium dioxide (PuO) by calcining. After cyclotron irradiation, the coating was dissolved with nitric acid, and then precipitated as the hydroxide using concentrated aqueous ammonia solution. The residue was dissolved in perchloric acid. Further separation was carried out by ion exchange, yielding a certain isotope of curium. The separation of curium and americium was so painstaking that those elements were initially called by the Berkeley group as "pandemonium" (from Greek for "all demons" or "hell") and "delirium" (from Latin for "madness").


title: Americium

text: Initial experiments yielded four americium isotopes: Am, Am, Am and Am. Americium-241 was directly obtained from plutonium upon absorption of two neutrons. It decays by emission of a α-particle to Np; the half-life of this decay was first determined as years but then corrected to 432.2 years.


title: Americium

text: The second isotope Am was produced upon neutron bombardment of the already-created Am. Upon rapid β-decay, Am converts into the isotope of curium Cm (which had been discovered previously). The half-life of this decay was initially determined at 17 hours, which was close to the presently accepted value of 16.02 h.


title: Americium

text: The discovery of americium and curium in 1944 was closely related to the Manhattan Project; the results were confidential and declassified only in 1945. Seaborg leaked the synthesis of the elements 95 and 96 on the U.S. radio show for children "Quiz Kids" five days before the official presentation at an American Chemical Society meeting on 11 November 1945, when one of the listeners asked whether any new transuranium element besides plutonium and neptunium had been discovered during the war. After the discovery of americium isotopes Am and Am, their production and compounds were patented listing only Seaborg as the inventor. The initial americium samples weighed a few micrograms; they were barely visible and were identified by their radioactivity. The first substantial amounts of metallic americium weighing 40–200 micrograms were not prepared until 1951 by reduction of americium(III) fluoride with barium metal in high vacuum at 1100 °C.


title: Americium

text: The longest-lived and most common isotopes of americium, Am and Am, have half-lives of 432.2 and 7,370 years, respectively. Therefore, any primordial americium (americium that was present on Earth during its formation) should have decayed by now. Trace amounts of americium probably occur naturally in uranium minerals as a result of nuclear reactions, though this has not been confirmed.


title: Americium

text: Existing americium is concentrated in the areas used for the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted between 1945 and 1980, as well as at the sites of nuclear incidents, such as the Chernobyl disaster. For example, the analysis of the debris at the testing site of the first U.S. hydrogen bomb, Ivy Mike, (1 November 1952, Enewetak Atoll), revealed high concentrations of various actinides including americium; but due to military secrecy, this result was not published until later, in 1956. Trinitite, the glassy residue left on the desert floor near Alamogordo, New Mexico, after the plutonium-based Trinity nuclear bomb test on 16 July 1945, contains traces of americium-241. Elevated levels of americium were also detected at the crash site of a US Boeing B-52 bomber aircraft, which carried four hydrogen bombs, in 1968 in Greenland.


title: Americium

text: In other regions, the average radioactivity of surface soil due to residual americium is only about 0.01 picocuries/g (0.37 mBq/g). Atmospheric americium compounds are poorly soluble in common solvents and mostly adhere to soil particles. Soil analysis revealed about 1,900 times higher concentration of americium inside sandy soil particles than in the water present in the soil pores; an even higher ratio was measured in loam soils.


title: Americium

text: Americium is produced mostly artificially in small quantities, for research purposes. A tonne of spent nuclear fuel contains about 100 grams of various americium isotopes, mostly Am and Am. Their prolonged radioactivity is undesirable for the disposal, and therefore americium, together with other long-lived actinides, must be neutralized. The associated procedure may involve several steps, where americium is first separated and then converted by neutron bombardment in special reactors to short-lived nuclides. This procedure is well known as nuclear transmutation, but it is still being developed for americium. The transuranic elements from americium to fermium occurred naturally in the natural nuclear fission reactor at Oklo, but no longer do so.


title: Americium

text: Americium has been produced in small quantities in nuclear reactors for decades, and kilograms of its Am and Am isotopes have been accumulated by now. Nevertheless, since it was first offered for sale in 1962, its price, about of Am, remains almost unchanged owing to the very complex separation procedure. The heavier isotope Am is produced in much smaller amounts; it is thus more difficult to separate, resulting in a higher cost of the order .


title: Americium

text: Americium is not synthesized directly from uranium – the most common reactor material – but from the plutonium isotope Pu. The latter needs to be produced first, according to the following nuclear process:


title: Americium

text: The capture of two neutrons by Pu (a so-called (n,γ) reaction), followed by a β-decay, results in Am:


title: Americium

text: The plutonium present in spent nuclear fuel contains about 12% of Pu. Because it beta-decays to Am, Pu can be extracted and may be used to generate further Am. However, this process is rather slow: half of the original amount of Pu decays to Am after about 15 years, and the Am amount reaches a maximum after 70 years.


title: Americium

text: The obtained Am can be used for generating heavier americium isotopes by further neutron capture inside a nuclear reactor. In a light water reactor (LWR), 79% of Am converts to Am and 10% to its nuclear isomer Am:


title: Americium

text: Americium-242 has a half-life of only 16 hours, which makes its further conversion to Am extremely inefficient. The latter isotope is produced instead in a process where Pu captures four neutrons under high neutron flux:


title: Americium

text: Most synthesis routines yield a mixture of different actinide isotopes in oxide forms, from which isotopes of americium can be separated. In a typical procedure, the spent reactor fuel (e.g. MOX fuel) is dissolved in nitric acid, and the bulk of uranium and plutonium is removed using a PUREX-type extraction (Plutonium–URanium EXtraction) with tributyl phosphate in a hydrocarbon. The lanthanides and remaining actinides are then separated from the aqueous residue (raffinate) by a diamide-based extraction, to give, after stripping, a mixture of trivalent actinides and lanthanides. Americium compounds are then selectively extracted using multi-step chromatographic and centrifugation techniques with an appropriate reagent. A large amount of work has been done on the solvent extraction of americium. For example, a 2003 EU-funded project codenamed "EUROPART" studied triazines and other compounds as potential extraction agents. A "bis"-triazinyl bipyridine complex was proposed in 2009 as such a reagent is highly selective to americium (and curium). Separation of americium from the highly similar curium can be achieved by treating a slurry of their hydroxides in aqueous sodium bicarbonate with ozone, at elevated temperatures. Both Am and Cm are mostly present in solutions in the +3 valence state; whereas curium remains unchanged, americium oxidizes to soluble Am(IV) complexes which can be washed away.


title: Americium

text: Metallic americium is obtained by reduction from its compounds. Americium(III) fluoride was first used for this purpose. The reaction was conducted using elemental barium as reducing agent in a water- and oxygen-free environment inside an apparatus made of tantalum and tungsten.


title: Americium

text: In the periodic table, americium is located to the right of plutonium, to the left of curium, and below the lanthanide europium, with which it shares many physical and chemical properties. Americium is a highly radioactive element. When freshly prepared, it has a silvery-white metallic lustre, but then slowly tarnishes in air. With a density of 12 g/cm, americium is less dense than both curium (13.52 g/cm) and plutonium (19.8 g/cm); but has a higher density than europium (5.264 g/cm)—mostly because of its higher atomic mass. Americium is relatively soft and easily deformable and has a significantly lower bulk modulus than the actinides before it: Th, Pa, U, Np and Pu. Its melting point of 1173 °C is significantly higher than that of plutonium (639 °C) and europium (826 °C), but lower than for curium (1340 °C).


title: Americium

text: At ambient conditions, americium is present in its most stable α form which has a hexagonal crystal symmetry, and a space group P6/mmc with cell parameters "a" = 346.8 pm and "c" = 1124 pm, and four atoms per unit cell. The crystal consists of a double-hexagonal close packing with the layer sequence ABAC and so is isotypic with α-lanthanum and several actinides such as α-curium. The crystal structure of americium changes with pressure and temperature. When compressed at room temperature to 5 GPa, α-Am transforms to the β modification, which has a face-centered cubic ("fcc") symmetry, space group Fmm and lattice constant "a" = 489 pm. This "fcc" structure is equivalent to the closest packing with the sequence ABC. Upon further compression to 23 GPa, americium transforms to an orthorhombic γ-Am structure similar to that of α-uranium. There are no further transitions observed up to 52 GPa, except for an appearance of a monoclinic phase at pressures between 10 and 15 GPa. There is no consistency on the status of this phase in the literature, which also sometimes lists the α, β and γ phases as I, II and III. The β-γ transition is accompanied by a 6% decrease in the crystal volume; although theory also predicts a significant volume change for the α-β transition, it is not observed experimentally. The pressure of the α-β transition decreases with increasing temperature, and when α-americium is heated at ambient pressure, at 770 °C it changes into an "fcc" phase which is different from β-Am, and at 1075 °C it converts to a body-centered cubic structure. The pressure-temperature phase diagram of americium is thus rather similar to those of lanthanum, praseodymium and neodymium.


title: Americium

text: As with many other actinides, self-damage of the crystal structure due to alpha-particle irradiation is intrinsic to americium. It is especially noticeable at low temperatures, where the mobility of the produced structure defects is relatively low, by broadening of X-ray diffraction peaks. This effect makes somewhat uncertain the temperature of americium and some of its properties, such as electrical resistivity. So for americium-241, the resistivity at 4.2 K increases with time from about 2 µOhm·cm to 10 µOhm·cm after 40 hours, and saturates at about 16 µOhm·cm after 140 hours. This effect is less pronounced at room temperature, due to annihilation of radiation defects; also heating to room temperature the sample which was kept for hours at low temperatures restores its resistivity. In fresh samples, the resistivity gradually increases with temperature from about 2 µOhm·cm at liquid helium to 69 µOhm·cm at room temperature; this behavior is similar to that of neptunium, uranium, thorium and protactinium, but is different from plutonium and curium which show a rapid rise up to 60 K followed by saturation. The room temperature value for americium is lower than that of neptunium, plutonium and curium, but higher than for uranium, thorium and protactinium.


title: Americium

text: Americium is paramagnetic in a wide temperature range, from that of liquid helium, to room temperature and above. This behavior is markedly different from that of its neighbor curium which exhibits antiferromagnetic transition at 52 K. The thermal expansion coefficient of americium is slightly anisotropic and amounts to along the shorter "a" axis and for the longer "c" hexagonal axis. The enthalpy of dissolution of americium metal in hydrochloric acid at standard conditions is , from which the standard enthalpy change of formation (Δ"H"°) of aqueous Am ion is . The standard potential Am/Am is .


title: Americium

text: Americium metal readily reacts with oxygen and dissolves in aqueous acids. The most stable oxidation state for americium is +3. The chemistry of americium(III) has many similarities to the chemistry of lanthanide(III) compounds. For example, trivalent americium forms insoluble fluoride, oxalate, iodate, hydroxide, phosphate and other salts. Compounds of americium in oxidation states 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 have also been studied. This is the widest range that has been observed with actinide elements. The color of americium compounds in aqueous solution is as follows: Am (yellow-reddish), Am (yellow-reddish), ; (yellow), (brown) and (dark green). The absorption spectra have sharp peaks, due to "f"-"f" transitions' in the visible and near-infrared regions. Typically, Am(III) has absorption maxima at ca. 504 and 811 nm, Am(V) at ca. 514 and 715 nm, and Am(VI) at ca. 666 and 992 nm.


title: Americium

text: Americium compounds with oxidation state +4 and higher are strong oxidizing agents, comparable in strength to the permanganate ion () in acidic solutions. Whereas the Am ions are unstable in solutions and readily convert to Am, compounds such as americium dioxide (AmO) and americium(IV) fluoride (AmF) are stable in the solid state.


title: Americium

text: The pentavalent oxidation state of americium was first observed in 1951. In acidic aqueous solution the ion is unstable with respect to disproportionation. The reaction


title: Americium

text: is typical. The chemistry of Am(V) and Am(VI) is comparable to the chemistry of uranium in those oxidation states. In particular, compounds like and are comparable to uranates and the ion is comparable to the uranyl ion, . Such compounds can be prepared by oxidation of Am(III) in dilute nitric acid with ammonium persulfate. Other oxidising agents that have been used include silver(I) oxide, ozone and sodium persulfate.


title: Americium

text: Three americium oxides are known, with the oxidation states +2 (AmO), +3 (AmO) and +4 (AmO). Americium(II) oxide was prepared in minute amounts and has not been characterized in detail. Americium(III) oxide is a red-brown solid with a melting point of 2205 °C. Americium(IV) oxide is the main form of solid americium which is used in nearly all its applications. As most other actinide dioxides, it is a black solid with a cubic (fluorite) crystal structure.


title: Americium

text: The oxalate of americium(III), vacuum dried at room temperature, has the chemical formula Am(CO)·7HO. Upon heating in vacuum, it loses water at 240 °C and starts decomposing into AmO at 300 °C, the decomposition completes at about 470 °C. The initial oxalate dissolves in nitric acid with the maximum solubility of 0.25 g/L.


title: Americium

text: Halides of americium are known for the oxidation states +2, +3 and +4, where the +3 is most stable, especially in solutions.


title: Americium

text: Reduction of Am(III) compounds with sodium amalgam yields Am(II) salts – the black halides AmCl, AmBr and AmI. They are very sensitive to oxygen and oxidize in water, releasing hydrogen and converting back to the Am(III) state. Specific lattice constants are:


title: Americium

text: Americium(III) fluoride (AmF) is poorly soluble and precipitates upon reaction of Am and fluoride ions in weak acidic solutions:


title: Americium

text: The tetravalent americium(IV) fluoride (AmF) is obtained by reacting solid americium(III) fluoride with molecular fluorine:


title: Americium

text: Another known form of solid tetravalent americium fluoride is KAmF. Tetravalent americium has also been observed in the aqueous phase. For this purpose, black Am(OH) was dissolved in 15-M NHF with the americium concentration of 0.01 M. The resulting reddish solution had a characteristic optical absorption spectrum which is similar to that of AmF but differed from other oxidation states of americium. Heating the Am(IV) solution to 90 °C did not result in its disproportionation or reduction, however a slow reduction was observed to Am(III) and assigned to self-irradiation of americium by alpha particles.


title: Americium

text: Most americium(III) halides form hexagonal crystals with slight variation of the color and exact structure between the halogens. So, chloride (AmCl) is reddish and has a structure isotypic to uranium(III) chloride (space group P6/m) and the melting point of 715 °C. The fluoride is isotypic to LaF (space group P6/mmc) and the iodide to BiI (space group R). The bromide is an exception with the orthorhombic PuBr-type structure and space group Cmcm. Crystals of americium hexahydrate (AmCl·6HO) can be prepared by dissolving americium dioxide in hydrochloric acid and evaporating the liquid. Those crystals are hygroscopic and have yellow-reddish color and a monoclinic crystal structure.


title: Americium

text: Oxyhalides of americium in the form AmOX, AmOX, AmOX and AmOX can be obtained by reacting the corresponding americium halide with oxygen or SbO, and AmOCl can also be produced by vapor phase hydrolysis:


title: Americium

text: The known chalcogenides of americium include the sulfide AmS, selenides AmSe and AmSe, and tellurides AmTe and AmTe. The pnictides of americium (Am) of the AmX type are known for the elements phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth. They crystallize in the rock-salt lattice.


title: Americium

text: Americium monosilicide (AmSi) and "disilicide" (nominally AmSi with: 1.87 < x < 2.0) were obtained by reduction of americium(III) fluoride with elementary silicon in vacuum at 1050 °C (AmSi) and 1150−1200 °C (AmSi). AmSi is a black solid isomorphic with LaSi, it has an orthorhombic crystal symmetry. AmSi has a bright silvery lustre and a tetragonal crystal lattice (space group "I"4/amd), it is isomorphic with PuSi and ThSi. Borides of americium include AmB and AmB. The tetraboride can be obtained by heating an oxide or halide of americium with magnesium diboride in vacuum or inert atmosphere.


title: Americium

text: Analogous to uranocene, americium forms the organometallic compound amerocene with two cyclooctatetraene ligands, with the chemical formula (η-CH)Am. A cyclopentadienyl complex is also known that is likely to be stoichiometrically AmCp.


title: Americium

text: Formation of the complexes of the type Am(n-CH-BTP), where BTP stands for 2,6-di(1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)pyridine, in solutions containing n-CH-BTP and Am ions has been confirmed by EXAFS. Some of these BTP-type complexes selectively interact with americium and therefore are useful in its selective separation from lanthanides and another actinides.


title: Americium

text: Americium is an artificial element of recent origin, and thus does not have a biological requirement. It is harmful to life. It has been proposed to use bacteria for removal of americium and other heavy metals from rivers and streams. Thus, Enterobacteriaceae of the genus "Citrobacter" precipitate americium ions from aqueous solutions, binding them into a metal-phosphate complex at their cell walls. Several studies have been reported on the biosorption and bioaccumulation of americium by bacteria and fungi.


title: Americium

text: The isotope Am (half-life 141 years) has the largest cross sections for absorption of thermal neutrons (5,700 barns), that results in a small critical mass for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass for a bare Am sphere is about 9–14 kg (the uncertainty results from insufficient knowledge of its material properties). It can be lowered to 3–5 kg with a metal reflector and should become even smaller with a water reflector. Such small critical mass is favorable for portable nuclear weapons, but those based on Am are not known yet, probably because of its scarcity and high price. The critical masses of two other readily available isotopes, Am and Am, are relatively high – 57.6 to 75.6 kg for Am and 209 kg for Am. Scarcity and high price yet hinder application of americium as a nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors.


title: Americium

text: There are proposals of very compact 10-kW high-flux reactors using as little as 20 grams of Am. Such low-power reactors would be relatively safe to use as neutron sources for radiation therapy in hospitals.


title: Americium

text: About 19 isotopes and 8 nuclear isomers are known for americium. There are two long-lived alpha-emitters; Am has a half-life of 7,370 years and is the most stable isotope, and Am has a half-life of 432.2 years. The most stable nuclear isomer is Am; it has a long half-life of 141 years. The half-lives of other isotopes and isomers range from 0.64 microseconds for Am to 50.8 hours for Am. As with most other actinides, the isotopes of americium with odd number of neutrons have relatively high rate of nuclear fission and low critical mass.


title: Americium

text: Americium-241 decays to Np emitting alpha particles of 5 different energies, mostly at 5.486 MeV (85.2%) and 5.443 MeV (12.8%). Because many of the resulting states are metastable, they also emit gamma rays with the discrete energies between 26.3 and 158.5 keV.


title: Americium

text: Americium-242 is a short-lived isotope with a half-life of 16.02 h. It mostly (82.7%) converts by β-decay to Cm, but also by electron capture to Pu (17.3%). Both Cm and Pu transform via nearly the same decay chain through Pu down to U.


title: Americium

text: Nearly all (99.541%) of Am decays by internal conversion to Am and the remaining 0.459% by α-decay to Np. The latter subsequently decays to Pu and then to U.


title: Americium

text: Americium-243 transforms by α-emission into Np, which converts by β-decay to Pu, and the Pu changes into U by emitting an α-particle.


title: Americium

text: Americium is used in the most common type of household smoke detector, which uses Am in the form of americium dioxide as its source of ionizing radiation. This isotope is preferred over Ra because it emits 5 times more alpha particles and relatively little harmful gamma radiation.


title: Americium

text: The amount of americium in a typical new smoke detector is 1 microcurie (37 kBq) or 0.29 microgram. This amount declines slowly as the americium decays into neptunium-237, a different transuranic element with a much longer half-life (about 2.14 million years). With its half-life of 432.2 years, the americium in a smoke detector includes about 3% neptunium after 19 years, and about 5% after 32 years. The radiation passes through an ionization chamber, an air-filled space between two electrodes, and permits a small, constant current between the electrodes. Any smoke that enters the chamber absorbs the alpha particles, which reduces the ionization and affects this current, triggering the alarm. Compared to the alternative optical smoke detector, the ionization smoke detector is cheaper and can detect particles which are too small to produce significant light scattering; however, it is more prone to false alarms.


title: Americium

text: As Am has a roughly similar half-life to Pu (432.2 years vs. 87 years), it has been proposed as an active element of radioisotope thermoelectric generators, for example in spacecraft. Although americium produces less heat and electricity – the power yield is 114.7 mW/g for Am and 6.31 mW/g for Am (cf. 390 mW/g for Pu) – and its radiation poses more threat to humans owing to neutron emission, the European Space Agency is considering using americium for its space probes.


title: Americium

text: Another proposed space-related application of americium is a fuel for space ships with nuclear propulsion. It relies on the very high rate of nuclear fission of Am, which can be maintained even in a micrometer-thick foil. Small thickness avoids the problem of self-absorption of emitted radiation. This problem is pertinent to uranium or plutonium rods, in which only surface layers provide alpha-particles. The fission products of Am can either directly propel the spaceship or they can heat a thrusting gas. They can also transfer their energy to a fluid and generate electricity through a magnetohydrodynamic generator.


title: Americium

text: One more proposal which utilizes the high nuclear fission rate of Am is a nuclear battery. Its design relies not on the energy of the emitted by americium alpha particles, but on their charge, that is the americium acts as the self-sustaining "cathode". A single 3.2 kg Am charge of such battery could provide about 140 kW of power over a period of 80 days. Even with all the potential benefits, the current applications of Am are as yet hindered by the scarcity and high price of this particular nuclear isomer.


title: Americium

text: In 2019, researchers at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory and the University of Leicester demonstrated the use of heat generated by americium to illuminate a small light bulb. This technology could lead to systems to power missions with durations up to 400 years into interstellar space, where solar panels do not function.


title: Americium

text: The oxide of Am pressed with beryllium is an efficient neutron source. Here americium acts as the alpha source, and beryllium produces neutrons owing to its large cross-section for the (α,n) nuclear reaction:


title: Americium

text: The most widespread use of AmBe neutron sources is a neutron probe – a device used to measure the quantity of water present in soil, as well as moisture/density for quality control in highway construction. Am neutron sources are also used in well logging applications, as well as in neutron radiography, tomography and other radiochemical investigations.


title: Americium

text: Americium is a starting material for the production of other transuranic elements and transactinides – for example, 82.7% of Am decays to Cm and 17.3% to Pu. In the nuclear reactor, Am is also up-converted by neutron capture to Am and Am, which transforms by β-decay to Cm:


title: Americium

text: Irradiation of Am by C or Ne ions yields the isotopes Es (einsteinium) or Db (dubnium), respectively. Furthermore, the element berkelium (Bk isotope) had been first intentionally produced and identified by bombarding Am with alpha particles, in 1949, by the same Berkeley group, using the same 60-inch cyclotron. Similarly, nobelium was produced at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia, in 1965 in several reactions, one of which included irradiation of Am with N ions. Besides, one of the synthesis reactions for lawrencium, discovered by scientists at Berkeley and Dubna, included bombardment of Am with O.


title: Americium

text: Americium-241 has been used as a portable source of both gamma rays and alpha particles for a number of medical and industrial uses. The 59.5409 keV gamma ray emissions from Am in such sources can be used for indirect analysis of materials in radiography and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, as well as for quality control in fixed nuclear density gauges and nuclear densometers. For example, the element has been employed to gauge glass thickness to help create flat glass. Americium-241 is also suitable for calibration of gamma-ray spectrometers in the low-energy range, since its spectrum consists of nearly a single peak and negligible Compton continuum (at least three orders of magnitude lower intensity). Americium-241 gamma rays were also used to provide passive diagnosis of thyroid function. This medical application is however obsolete.


title: Americium

text: As a highly radioactive element, americium and its compounds must be handled only in an appropriate laboratory under special arrangements. Although most americium isotopes predominantly emit alpha particles which can be blocked by thin layers of common materials, many of the daughter products emit gamma-rays and neutrons which have a long penetration depth.


title: Americium

text: If consumed, most of the americium is excreted within a few days, with only 0.05% absorbed in the blood, of which roughly 45% goes to the liver and 45% to the bones, and the remaining 10% is excreted. The uptake to the liver depends on the individual and increases with age. In the bones, americium is first deposited over cortical and trabecular surfaces and slowly redistributes over the bone with time. The biological half-life of Am is 50 years in the bones and 20 years in the liver, whereas in the gonads (testicles and ovaries) it remains permanently; in all these organs, americium promotes formation of cancer cells as a result of its radioactivity.


title: Americium

text: Americium often enters landfills from discarded smoke detectors. The rules associated with the disposal of smoke detectors are relaxed in most jurisdictions. In 1994, 17-year-old David Hahn extracted the americium from about 100 smoke detectors in an attempt to build a breeder nuclear reactor. There have been a few cases of exposure to americium, the worst case being that of chemical operations technician Harold McCluskey, who at the age of 64 was exposed to 500 times the occupational standard for americium-241 as a result of an explosion in his lab. McCluskey died at the age of 75 of unrelated pre-existing disease.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: The geographic center of the United States is a point approximately north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota at . It has been regarded as such by the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (NGS) since the additions of Alaska and Hawaii to the United States in 1959.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: This is distinct from the contiguous geographic center, which has not changed since the 1912 admissions of New Mexico and Arizona to the 48 contiguous United States, and falls near the town of Lebanon, Kansas. This served as the overall geographic center of the United States for 47 years, until the 1959 admissions of Alaska and Hawaii moved the geographic center of the overall United States approximately northwest by north.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: While any measurement of the exact center of a land mass will always be imprecise due to changing shorelines and other factors, the NGS coordinates identify the spot as an uninhabited parcel of private pastureland approximately east of the cornerpoint where the South Dakota–Wyoming–Montana borders meet. According to the NGS data sheet, the actual marker is "set in an irregular mass of concrete 36 inches below the surface of the ground."


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: For public commemoration, a nearby proxy marker is located in a park in Belle Fourche, where one will find a flag atop a small concrete slab bearing a U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Reference Marker.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: The geographic center of the 48 contiguous or conterminous United States, determined in a 1918 survey, is located at , about northwest of the center of Lebanon, Kansas, approximately south of the Kansas–Nebraska border.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: While any measurement of the exact center of a land mass will always be imprecise due to changing shorelines and other factors, the NGS coordinates are recognized in a historical marker in a small park at the intersection of AA Road and K-191. It is accessible by a turn-off from U.S. Route 281.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: It is distinct from the geographic center of the 50 United States located at a point northeast of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, reflecting the 1959 additions of the states of Alaska and Hawaii.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: In a technical glitch, a farmstead northeast of Potwin, Kansas, became the default geolocation of 600 million IP addresses (due to a lack of fine granularity) when the Massachusetts-based digital mapping company MaxMind changed the putative geographic center of the contiguous United States from to .


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: In order to protect the privacy of the private land owner where the point identified by the 1918 survey falls, a proxy marker was erected in 1940 about half a mile away.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: Located by L.T. Hagadorn of Paulette & Wilson – Engineers and L.A. Beardslee – County Engineer. From data furnished by U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: An American flag usually flies atop a pole placed on the monument. A covered picnic area and the U.S. Center Chapel, a small eight-pew chapel, are nearby.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: In 1918, the Coast and Geodetic Survey found this location by balancing on a point a cardboard cutout shaped like the U.S. This method was accurate to within 20 miles, but while the Geodetic Survey no longer endorses any location as the center of the U.S., the identification of Lebanon, Kansas, has remained.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: The geographic center of the contiguous United States is mentioned in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" as a neutral ground where the modern and the old gods can meet despite the war between them.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: In the 1969 Disney movie "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes", the final question of the college knowledge program is, "A small Midwest city is located exactly on an area designated as the 'geographic center of the United States.' For ten points and $100,000, can you tell us the name of that city?" The answer of Lebanon, Kansas is accepted as correct.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: A 2021 Jeep Super Bowl commercial titled "The Middle", starring Bruce Springsteen, features the U.S. Center Chapel in Lebanon, Kansas.


title: Geographic center of the United States

text: North of Belle Fourche, South Dakota is referenced as the geographic center of the U.S. in "A Serpent's Tooth: A Longmire Mystery Book 9" by Craig Johnson.


title: Dvach

text: Dvach (', from "dva" "two" and "chan"), also known as 2ch, is the largest Russian anonymous imageboard. It originally began in 2006 and was shut down in 2009. It was succeeded by many copies, one of which became more popular than the original. It is currently known as 2ch.hk and run by Nariman Namazov, nicknamed Abu. After a major DDoS-attack in 2016, it has been hosted by a state-affiliated company, the Mail.Ru Group, leading many users to believe that it was sold to the company for an undisclosed sum.


title: Dvach

text: Many users avoid using the name Dvach for 2ch.hk, because they believe the name is only appropriate for the original imageboard. They use various derogatory names instead, such as Kharkach (from (), "to spit", referencing the .hk domain), Sosach (from (), "to suck", from the previous domain name 2ch.so), Mailach (from alleged connections with the Mail.Ru Group), and Abuchan (from Abu) to refer to the newer site.


title: Dvach

text: Dvach is often accused of cyberbullying, misogyny, and toxic trolling, but it has also doxxed criminals.


title: Dvach

text: The "old Dvach", 2ch.ru, was launched in February 2006 by Vikentiy Fesunov and was allegedly administered by Konstantin Grusha, who also co-owned several other Russian websites like and anime.ru. Its userbase was mostly anime fans, influenced by 4chan, 2channel, and Russian communities popular at the time, especially LiveJournal bloggers.


title: Dvach

text: 2ch.ru was the first Russian-language imageboard. Later in 2007, some other websites were created, including Iichan, a heavily moderated imageboard that was a "polite and non-toxic" alternative to Dvach, and now-defunct 0chan, an imageboard for tech geeks, which later developed into a refuge for Dvach users.


title: Dvach

text: In January 2009, 2ch.ru was closed. The domain name was still owned by Fesunov so that nobody would claim it. Some of the users went to 0chan, but numerous copies of Dvach were also launched, most notable being 2-ch.ru, known as Tirech (from , ), run by Vitalik and his moderation team.


title: Dvach

text: In November 2010, Vitalik resigned as an administrator, and a user named Abu succeeded him. He later revealed in an interview with his former classmate, Russian YouTube blogger Ilya Varlamov, that he had bought 2-ch for 10,000 dollars. Abu tolerated some of the derogatory and mocking names given to him and the board by the users, like Macaque or Sosach. He used images of Abu from Disney's "Aladdin".


title: Dvach

text: Abu changed the moderation team and banned some of the former moderators for their abuse of tripcodes and avatars. He also repressed many in-site user communities, such as "Rozen Maiden" and "My Little Pony" fans, child porn posters, and anime fans posting outside of the /a/ board.


title: Dvach

text: Unlike previous owners and copy-cats, who tried to preserve the original image of Dvach, Abu introduced many innovations. The welcoming message was changed to "." (), becoming an informal slogan of 2ch.hk. The site used Makaba, a custom version of the widespread Wakaba engine. Abu was criticized by users for promoting the imageboard in social networks like Twitter and VK. When the board was advertised in MDK, one of the largest VK communities, the 2ch thread discussing this fact was deleted by Abu, who became a moderator in the community.


title: Dvach

text: Abu also introduced subscriptions to the site, "passcodes", which allow users who have bought them to avoid captchas and attach up to eight images to their posts instead of the default four.


title: Dvach

text: In 2011, Abu was doxxed. His identity was revealed as Nariman Namazov (), a 27-year-old Azerbaijani SEO specialist from Moscow. Initially, Abu tried to ridicule and dismiss the revealing, but it was confirmed in 2013. Since then, he officially represented 2ch.hk in media, and address users with annual New Year speeches.


title: Dvach

text: In September 2016, during alleged DDoS attacks on 2ch.hk, the Mail.Ru Group, a state-affiliated company that owned a popular e-mail service and VK, provided its services to defend the website. It is widely believed that 2ch.hk was sold to the company, which was criticized by users. The speculated deal raised concerns about the disclosure of user data and anonymity principle violations. Many users left the website, and a large part of them migrated to Lolifox, a Brazilian imageboard, later abandoned by its original users and completely taken over by Russians.


title: Dvach

text: Many Dvach terms have become widespread in Russian Internet slang, such as (, "girl") and (, "guy"), both of which are derived from Japanese honorifics, (, "ugly", literally "shitted up"), and expressions like ( instead of "ask your questions").


title: Dvach

text: Many terms have been borrowed from the West. Some of them have undergone Russification, like (influenced by a Russian proper name, from English "same person", a poster who pretends to be several different people in a discussion) or "sazha" (literally "soot", from "sage", a Japanese term for replying into a thread without bumping it). Sometimes 2ch serves as an introduction for Western memes to enter the Russian Internet.


title: Dvach

text: Officially, underage people are not allowed on the site. There are 18+ boards, which are explicitly related to sex. If a user is found to be underage, they are banned from all boards. Porn, both real-life and drawn, is generally tolerated and posted freely on all boards, except child pornography or zoophilia, which is forbidden by Russian law.


title: Dvach

text: Despite child porn being forbidden, some girls previously involved in child porn, such as Masha Babko or LiinaLiiis, became memes on 2ch.


title: Dvach

text: There is generally no common political stance among website users. Some of them do not like politics at all, and fiery political discussions outside of /po/ and similar boards may result in bans for participants. Nevertheless, Dvach shares a large part of its audience with many alt-right forums, such as PLUM community on VK or Uebermarginal Twitch streamer, as well as prominent libertarian activists like Mikhail Svetov.


title: Dvach

text: Many widespread political memes originated on 2ch.hk. Users who do not like Vladimir Putin call him "Pynya", while his supporters may call his opponent, Alexei Navalny, "Sisyan" (literally "tittied", referencing a photo of Navalny being overweight with manboobs).


title: Dvach

text: In October 2018, Dvach users disclosed true identity of one of suspects who was allegedly involved in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and other British subjects in Salisbury. They emailed several Bellingcat investigators to whom they provided public photos of him showing his real name on a board of honorably awarded military serviceman and his participation in public events in the Russian .


title: Dvach

text: Namazov has said that he is "left-leaning". As an ethnic Azerbaijani, he does not support Russian nationalists. Abu described Navalny, who associated with nationalists in the past, as a populist, and actively promoted the Sisyan meme denigrating Navalny. Some users say Namazov cooperates tightly with Russian police and special services, revealing the data of the users who promote mass protests or advocate for extremist organisations.


title: Dvach

text: After incidents like terrorist attacks or mass shootings, Dvach users prank people on social networks with fake eulogies, featuring the site owner Nariman Namazov or former porn star Sasha Grey as victims or perpetrators, akin to how Sam Hyde is accused of being the perpetrator of various shootings by users on 4chan.


title: Dvach

text: In January 2019, "Novaya Gazeta" reported that according to its sources, the perpetrator of the 2018 Magnitogorsk gas explosion was "Norimonov Namazjon Wakabliyevich", later refuting this information.


title: Dvach

text: In September 2017, a Dvach user placed a large poster with the Sisyan meme on a railway bridge during a Navalny demonstration in Novosibirsk.


title: Dvach

text: In November 2018, three activists installed a Putin doll with the inscription "War criminal Pynya V.V." in Perm. All of them were arrested.


title: Dvach

text: In August 2015, the /g/ ("naked girls") board was blocked in Russia after alleged posts of child pornography.


title: Dvach

text: In November 2019, Russian Internet regulators demanded that Dvach delete posts degrading state symbols, and threatened the site with blocking.


title: Dvach

text: Dvach's official Twitter account was blocked on 14 March 2020. Representatives said it was due to copyright infringement on the new account, but users speculated that it was related to a conflict with Russian feminist activists.


title: Dvach

text: After the Kerch Polytechnic College massacre, the perpetrator's (Vladislav Roslyakov) accounts were hacked and his direct messages were posted on Dvach. He gained a lot of fans on the site.


title: Dvach

text: In July 2019, hackers stole 7.5 TB of data from the SyTech company, an FSB contractor. They also defaced the company's website with the Yoba meme.


title: Dvach

text: In October 2019, a Dvach user hacked the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps – Italy website. He replaced the info about the corps commander with a derisive biography of Namazov. He placed a link to 2ch.hk accompanied by the Yoba meme.


title: Dvach

text: Dvach is often criticized for their attitude towards women. In April 2016, Dvach users doxxed Russian porn actresses, outing them to their friends and families. They used FindFace, a face recognition service that searched in the photos uploaded on VK.


title: Dvach

text: In early 2020, Dvach users doxxed Russian women who participated in a porn-horror video by Till Lindemann, a Rammstein vocalist. The users criticized them for "degrading the image of Russian women". Russian feminist activist Zalina Marshenkulova, who stood up for the women, accused Dvach users of death threats and cyberbullying against her.


title: Dvach

text: Users from the site often attack Russian celebrities. In October 2019, Russian comedian Garik Kharlamov was deemed a "cuckold" after his wife Kristina Asmus filmed an erotic scene in "Text". The couple later divorced, but said it was not related to the Dvach trolling.


title: Dvach

text: In March 2020, TV host Andrey Malakhov was called "the chief scavenger" in the official 2ch Twitter for hyping on tragedies and deadly incidents.


title: Dvach

text: In October 2016, Dvach doxxed two teenage girls from Khabarovsk who bragged about torturing animals and offending homeless people in their social networks. They got prison sentences.


title: Dvach

text: In February 2019, users doxxed a child porn studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and officials arrested its organizers.


title: Dvach

text: In February 2020, a 2ch user posted photos from a hospital, claiming to be a male nurse, and said that he "loves disabling the ventilators and watching the agony of dying old (World War II) veterans", saying that he had already killed more than ten people. Sergey Kalinin, 26, from Perm apologized and said that it was a prank and he actually did not kill anyone; he was fired from the hospital.


title: Terrazzo

text: Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical binding), polymeric (for physical binding), or a combination of both. Metal strips often divide sections, or changes in color or material in a pattern. Additional chips may be sprinkled atop the mix before it sets. After it is cured it is ground and polished smooth or otherwise finished to produce a uniformly textured surface. "Terrazzo" is also often used to describe any pattern similar to the original terrazzo floors.


title: Terrazzo

text: Although the history of terrazzo can be traced back to the ancient mosaics of Egypt, its more recent predecessors come from Italy. The form of terrazzo used today derives partly from the 18th century "pavimento alla Veneziana" (Venetian pavement) and the cheaper "seminato." "Pavimento alla Veneziana" had workers place marble fragments next to each other in a mortar base. Terrazzo is also related to the technique "seminato" for which workers tossed larger marble chips into the cement that was then ground and polished. Together, these methods create the generic form of terrazzo that involves pieces of stone that are bonded to a cement bed. Terrazzo was first introduced in the United States in the late 1890s, but did not achieve popularity until the 1920s. Until then it was hand polished with a long handled tool called a "galera". Due to its likelihood of cracking, terrazzo was used at a small scale in comparison to the large expanses we see today. Two inventions resulted in its rise in popularity: divider strips and the electric grinding machine. The invention of divider strips by L. Del Turco and Bros. in 1924 contained the cracking of terrazzo by allowing the material greater space to expand and shrink after installation. This invention made terrazzo a durable and reliable material in addition to allowing for further design work within the floor. Installers use the dividing strips as guides when they work with different colored terrazzo. The electric grinding machine and mechanization of the production process cut down on costs and time making terrazzo an affordable flooring option.


title: Terrazzo

text: Art Deco and Moderne styles from the 1920s to 1940s favored terrazzo with the dividers allowing for straight or curved lines that increased the decorative potential. The popularity of terrazzo led to an increase in installers in the 1920s. The National Terrazzo and Mosaic Organization was formed in 1931 to further professionalize the practice of terrazzo installation. One of the best-known examples of terrazzo is the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Created in 1958, the walk honors celebrities in the form of a terrazzo star that displays their name.


title: Terrazzo

text: Archaeologists have adopted the term "terrazzo" to describe the floors of early Neolithic buildings (PPNA and PPNB, ca. 9,000–8,000 BC) in Western Asia constructed of burnt lime and clay, colored red with ochre and polished. The embedded crushed limestone gives it a slightly mottled appearance. The use of fire to produce burnt lime, which was also used for the hafting of implements, predates production of fired pottery by almost a thousand years. In the early Neolithic settlement of Çayönü in eastern Turkey about of terrazzo floors have been uncovered. The floors of the PPN B settlement of Nevalı Çori measure about . They are thick, and contain about 10–15% lime.


title: Terrazzo

text: These floors are almost impenetrable to moisture and very durable, but their construction involved a high input of energy. Gourdin and Kingery (1975) estimate that the production of any given amount of lime requires about five times that amount of wood. Recent experiments by Affonso and Pernicka have shown that only twice the amount is needed, but that would still amount to 4.5 metric tonnes of dry wood for the floors in Çayönü. Other sites with terrazzo floors include Nevalı Çori, Göbekli Tepe, Jericho, and Kastros (Cyprus).


title: Terrazzo

text: Terrazzo artisans create walls, floors, patios, and panels by exposing marble chips and other fine aggregates on the surface of finished concrete or epoxy-resin. Much of the preliminary work of terrazzo workers is similar to that of cement masons. Marble-chip, cementitious terrazzo requires three layers of materials. First, cement masons or terrazzo workers build a solid, level concrete foundation that is deep. After the forms are removed from the foundation, workers add a layer of sandy concrete. Before this layer sets, terrazzo workers partially embed metal divider strips in the concrete wherever there is to be a joint or change of color in the terrazzo. For the final layer, terrazzo workers blend and place into each of the panels a fine marble chip mixture that may be color-pigmented. While the mixture is still wet, workers toss additional marble chips of various colors into each panel and roll a weighted roller () over the entire surface.


title: Terrazzo

text: In the 1970s, polymer-based terrazzo was introduced and is called thin-set terrazzo. Initially polyester and vinyl ester resins were used as the binder resin. Today, most of the terrazzo installed is epoxy terrazzo. The advantages of this material over cementitious terrazzo include a wider selection of colors, installation thickness, lighter weight, faster installation, impermeable finish, higher strength, and less susceptibility to cracking. The disadvantage of epoxy resin–based terrazzo is that it can only be used for interior, not exterior, applications. Epoxy-based terrazzo will lose its color and slightly peel when used outdoors, whereas cement-based terrazzo will not. In addition to marble aggregate blends, other aggregates have been used, such as mother of pearl and abalone shell. Recycled aggregates include: glass, porcelain, concrete, and metal. Shapes and medallions can be fabricated on site by bending divider strips, or off site by water-jet cutting.


title: Terrazzo

text: When the terrazzo is thoroughly cured, helpers grind it with a terrazzo grinder, which is somewhat like a floor polisher, only much heavier. Slight depressions left by the grinding are filled with a matching grout material and hand-troweled for a smooth, uniform surface; it is then cleaned, polished, and sealed.


title: Terrazzo

text: Terrazzo installation includes both bonded and unbonded methods. Bonded systems include: bonded underbed, monolithic, chemically bonded, and the most recent, thin set method (epoxy resin). Bonded terrazzo is applied over a sand-cement mortar underbed which sits on top of a concrete slab. The sand-cement layer allows for variations in the finished concrete slab that it sits on. Monolithic terrazzo is applied directly over an extremely flat and high quality concrete sub-floor. Thin-set terrazzo does not require a concrete sub-floor. Instead, a flexible membrane can be installed so that cracks do not appear on the surface. Unbonded includes the sand cushion method which uses wire reinforcing, an isolation sheet, and sand dusting that absorbs any movement from the concrete slab.


title: Terrazzo

text: Although terrazzo derives from the mosaic artform, it does not place individual pieces in a decorative pattern. Instead, small pieces are thrown into the mortar base creating a more uniform surface appearance. Decorative patterns are created by using dividers which creates lines between different colored terrazzo mixtures.


title: Terrazzo

text: Cracking is the most common form of failure and is typically caused by the structural system that supports the terrazzo topping rather than the material itself. Contact with alkalis or acids can deteriorate the bonding agents used in terrazzo. As the aggregates are often marble dust which is calcium carbonate, strong acid can also cause deterioration to the aggregates. When partial replacement is necessary, a "bracketing" system mixing and matching different chips is used to create potential matches. Aged terrazzo can be resurfaced to restore its original look by re-polishing.


title: ATA 100

text: "ATA 100" contains the reference to the ATA numbering system which is a common referencing standard for commercial aircraft documentation. This commonality permits greater ease of learning and understanding for pilots, aircraft maintenance technicians, and engineers alike. The standard numbering system was published by the Air Transport Association on June 1, 1956. While the ATA 100 numbering system has been superseded, it continued to be widely used until it went out of date in 2015, especially in documentation for general aviation aircraft, on aircraft Fault Messages (for Post Flight Troubleshooting and Repair) and the electronic and printed manuals.


title: ATA 100

text: The Joint Aircraft ...System/Component (JASC) Code Tables was a modified version of the Air Transport Association of America (ATA), Specification 100 code. It was developed by the FAA's, Regulatory Support Division (AFS-600). This code table was constructed by using the new JASC code four digit format, along with an abbreviated code title. The abbreviated titles have been modified in some cases to clarify the intended use of the accompanying code. The final version of the JASC/ATA 100 code was released by the FAA in 1999.


title: ATA 100

text: In 2000 the ATA Technical Information and Communications Committee (TICC) developed a new consolidated specification for the commercial aviation industry, ATA iSpec 2200. It includes an industry-wide approach for aircraft system numbering, as well as formatting and data content standards for documentation output. The main objectives of the new specification are to minimize cost and effort expended by operators and manufacturers, improve information quality and timeliness, and facilitate manufacturers' delivery of data that meet airline operational needs.


title: ATA 100

text: More recently, the international aviation community developed the S1000D standard, an XML specification for preparing, managing, and using equipment maintenance and operations information.


title: ATA 100

text: The unique aspect of the chapter numbers is its relevance for all aircraft. Thus a chapter reference number for a Boeing 747 will be the same for other Boeing aircraft, a BAe 125 and Airbus Aircraft. Examples of this include Oxygen (Chapter 35), Electrical Power (Chapter 24) and Doors (Chapter 52). Civil aviation authorities will also organize their information by ATA chapter like the Master Minimum Equipment List (MMEL) Guidebook from Transport Canada.


title: ATA 100

text: The ATA chapter format is always CC-SS where CC is the chapter and SS the section, see ATA extended list section below for details. Some website, like aircraft parts resellers, will sometimes refer to ATA 72R or 72T for reciprocating and turbine engines (jet or turboprop), this nomenclature is not part per se of the ATA numbering definition. The ATA 72 subchapter are different for reciprocating engines and turbine engines. Under JASC/ATA 100 the reciprocating engine are now under ATA 85.


title: ATA 100

text: The ATA extended List is a breakdown to para (second two numbers e.g. 5-00) and sub para (third two numbers e.g. 5-10-00) for each ATA chapter.


title: Languages of Sri Lanka

text: Several languages are spoken in Sri Lanka within the Indo-Aryan, Austronesian, and Dravidian families. Sri Lanka accords official status to Sinhala and Tamil, and English as a recognised language. The languages spoken on the island nation are deeply influenced by the various languages in India, Europe and Southeast Asia. Arab settlers and the colonial powers of Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain have also influenced the development of modern languages in Sri Lanka. See below for the most-spoken languages of Sri Lanka.


title: Languages of Sri Lanka

text: As per 2016, the Sinhala language is mostly spoken by the Sinhalese people, who constitute approximately 74.9% of the national population and total about 16.6 million. It uses the Sinhala abugida script, which is derived from the ancient Brahmi script. About 300 of the Veddah people, totaling barely 2,500 in 2002, speak the Veddah language, of which the origin is debated. The Tamil language is spoken by Sri Lankan Tamils, as well as by Tamil migrants from the neighboring Indian state of Tamil Nadu and by most Sri Lankan Moors. Tamil speakers number around 5 million. There are more than 40,000 speakers of the Sri Lankan Malay language.


title: Languages of Sri Lanka

text: English in Sri Lanka is fluently spoken by approximately 23.8% of the population, and widely used for official and commercial purposes. It is the native language of approximately 74,000 people, mainly in urban areas. A handful of the 3,400 people of Portuguese descent speak Sri Lankan Portuguese creole.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: The president of Bangladesh ( — ) officially the President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh ( —) is the head of state of Bangladesh and commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: The role of the president has changed three times since Bangladesh achieved independence in 1971. Presidents had been given executive power. In 1991, with the restoration of a democratically elected government, Bangladesh adopted a parliamentary democracy based on a Westminster system. The President is now a largely ceremonial post elected by the Parliament.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: In 1996, Parliament passed new laws enhancing the president's executive authority, as laid down in the constitution, after the Parliament is dissolved. The president resides at the Bangabhaban, which is his office and residence. The president is elected by the 350 parliamentarians in an open ballot, and thus generally represents the majority party of the legislature. He continues to hold office after his five-year term expires until a successor is elected to the presidency.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: Currently, although the position of president holds "de jure" importance, its "de facto" powers are largely ceremonial. The Constitution allows the president to act only upon the advice of the prime minister and his/her Cabinet.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: The president has the prerogative of mercy by Article 49 of the Constitution, which allows him to grant a pardon to anybody, overriding any court verdict in Bangladesh.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: By Article 80, the president can refuse to assent to any bill passed by the parliament, sending it back for review. A bill is enacted only after the president assents to it. But when the bill is passed again by the parliament, if the president further fail or refuse to assent a bill, after a certain period of days, the bill will be automatically transformed into law and will be considered as assented by the president.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: Chancellor is a titular position at universities in Bangladesh, always held by the incumbent president of Bangladesh under the Private Universities Act 1992. The position in public universities is not fixed for the president under any acts or laws (since the erection of a state university in Bangladesh requires an act to be passed in itself), but it has been the custom so far to name the incumbent president of the country as chancellor of all state universities thus established.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: The Constitution of Bangladesh sets the principle qualifications one must meet to be eligible to the office of the president.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: Certain conditions, as per Article 27 of the Constitution, debar any eligible citizen from contesting the presidential elections.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: Whenever the office becomes vacant, the new president is chosen by members of Parliament. Although presidential elections involve actual voting by MPs, they tend to vote for the candidate supported by their respective parties. The president may be impeached and subsequently removed from office by a two-thirds majority vote of the parliament.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: The president is required to make and subscribe in the presence of the Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad, an oath or affirmation that he/she shall protect, preserve and defend the Constitution as follows:


title: President of Bangladesh

text: The president is granted immunity for all his actions by Article 51 of the Constitution and is not answerable to anybody for his actions, and no criminal charges can be brought to the Court against him. The only exception to this immunity is if the Parliament seeks to impeach the President.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: Article 54 of the Constitution of Bangladesh provides for the succession of the president. It states that in case of absence due to illness or other reasons, the Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad will act as the president of Bangladesh until the president resumes office. This Article was used during the ascension of Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar as the acting president of the State following the resignation of former president A. Q. M. Badruddoza Chowdhury, and when President Zillur Rahman could not discharge his duties due to his illness, and later, death.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: Since Bangladesh is a parliamentary system, it does not have a vice-president. However, during the presidential system of governance, Bangladesh had a vice-president who would assume the president's role in his absence; the post was abolished by the twelfth amendment to the Constitution in 1991.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: A president can resign from office by writing a letter by hand to the Speaker. The president can also be impeached by the Parliament. In case of impeachment, the Parliament must bring specific charges against the president, and investigate it themselves, or refer it to any other body for investigation. The president will have the right to defend himself. Following the proceedings, the president is impeached immediately if two-thirds of the Parliament votes in favour, and the Speaker ascends to power.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: The principal Presidential residence at Bangabhaban is located in Dhaka. There is also a Presidential Palace at Uttara Ganabhaban in Natore District.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: At the beginning of the Bangladesh war of independence in April 1970, Bangladesh Forces and Bangladesh Government in exile were both established. After the oath ceremony was held at Meherpur, Kushtia, the government-in-exile set up its headquarters at 8 Theatre Road, in Kolkata (then Calcutta), India. The first president of Bangladesh was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the first vice president to take oath of office was Syed Nazrul Islam with Tajuddin Ahmad as the first prime minister. After the war ended, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the prime minister with the election of the first parliament a year later in January, 1972.


title: President of Bangladesh

text: Later in 1973 under a new constitution, the set up began under a parliamentary system of government where the president was a nominal head of the state while all the executive powers were vested in the prime minister. In 1974, the government under Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman switched from parliamentary to a single party presidential system banning all press, political parties and activities under the State of Emergency.