title: Influence of mass media

text: The influence of "mass media" or 'The media effect' affects many aspects of human life, which can include voting a certain way, individual views and beliefs, or skewing a person's knowledge of a specific topic due to being provided false information. The overall influence of mass media has increased drastically over the years, and will continue to do so as the media itself develops. The influence of the media on the psychosocial development of children is profound. Thus, it is important for physicians to discuss with parents their child's exposure to media and to provide guidance on age-appropriate use of any media, including television, radio, music, video games and the Internet. As mass media evolve, media criticism also often evolve – and grow in strength – during times of media change with new forms of journalism, new media formats, new media markets, new ways of addressing media markets and new media technologies. In the new media environment, we have dual identities. We can not only obtain information through new media, but also disseminate information through new media. Media influence is the actual force exerted by a media message, resulting in either a change or reinforcement in audience or individual beliefs. This is the overall meaning of the social learning theory. It basically talks about how someone may modify themselves or the things they do just because they see someone else doing it. An example would be someone who posts on Facebook to say they agree with one side of an issue. They then see that their friend disagrees with the issue, and they may change their view because they don’t want to be different. People also rely heavily on social media to get their news from. Media effects are measurable effects that result from media influence or a media message. Whether a media message has an effect on any of its audience members is contingent on many factors, including audience demographics and psychological characteristics. These effects can be positive or negative, abrupt or gradual, short-term or long-lasting. Not all effects result in change; some media messages reinforce an existing belief. Researchers examine an audience after media exposure for changes in cognition, belief systems, and attitudes, as well as emotional, physiological and behavioral effects.


title: Influence of mass media

text: There are several scholarly studies which addresses media and its effects. Bryant and Zillmann defined media effects as "the social, cultural, and psychological impact of communicating via the mass media". Perse stated that media effects researchers study "how to control, enhance, or mitigate the impact of the mass media on individuals and society". Lang stated media effects researchers study "what types of content, in what type of medium, affect which people, in what situations". McLuhan points out in his the media ecology theory that "The medium is the message."


title: Influence of mass media

text: The relationship between politics and the mass media is closely related for the reason that media is a source in shaping public opinion and political beliefs. Media is at times referred to as the "fourth branch of government" in democratic countries. As a result, political figures and parties are particularly sensitive towards their media presence and the media coverage of their public appearances. Mass media also establish its influence among powerful institutions such as legislation. Through the proper consent in mediums to advocate, different social groups are able to influence the decision-making that involves child safety, gun control, etc…


title: Influence of mass media

text: Media effects studies have undergone several phases, often corresponding to the development of mass media technologies.


title: Influence of mass media

text: During the early 20th century, developing mass media technologies, such as radio and film, were credited with an almost irresistible power to mold an audience's beliefs, cognition, and behaviors according to the communicators' will. The basic assumption of strong media effects theory was that audiences were passive and homogeneous. This assumption was not based on empirical evidence but instead on assumptions of human nature. There were two main explanations for this perception of mass media effects. First, mass broadcasting technologies were acquiring a widespread audience, even among average households. People were astonished by the speed of information dissemination, which may have clouded audience perception of any media effects. Secondly, propaganda techniques were implemented during war time by several governments as a powerful tool for uniting their people. This propaganda exemplified strong-effect communication. Early media effects research often focused on the power of this propaganda (e.g., Lasswell, 1927). Combing through the technological and social environment, early media effects theories stated that the mass media were all-powerful.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Starting in the 1930s, the second phase of media effects studies instituted the importance of empirical research while introducing the complex nature of media effects due to the idiosyncratic nature of individuals in an audience. The Payne Fund studies, conducted in the United States during this period, focused on the effect of media on young people. Many other separate studies focused on persuasion effects studies, or the possibilities and usage of planned persuasion in film and other media. Hovland et al. (1949) conducted a series of experimental studies to evaluate the effects of using films to indoctrinate American military recruits. Paul Lazarsfeld (1944) and his colleagues' effectiveness studies of democratic election campaigns launched political campaign effect studies.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Researchers uncovered mounting empirical evidence of the idiosyncratic nature of media effects on individuals and audiences, identifying numerous intervening variables such as demographic attributes, social psychological factors, and different media use behaviors. With these new variables added to research, it was difficult to isolate media influence that resulted in any media effects to an audience's cognition, attitude, and behavior. As Berelson (1959) summed up in a widely quoted conclusion: "Some kinds of communication on some kinds of issues have brought to the attention of some kinds of people under some kinds of conditions have some kinds of effect." Though the concept of an all-powerful mass media was diluted, this did not determine that the media lacked influence or effect. Instead, the pre-existing structure of social relationships and cultural contexts were believed to primarily shape or change people's opinions, attitudes, and behaviors, and media merely function within these established processes. This complexity had a dampening effect upon media effects studies.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Limited media effect theory was challenged by new evidence supporting the fact that mass media messages could indeed lead to measurable social effects. Lang and Lang (1981) argued that the widespread acceptance of limited media effect theory was unwarranted and that "the evidence available by the end of the 1950s, even when balanced against some of the negative findings, gives no justification for an overall verdict of 'media importance.'"


title: Influence of mass media

text: In the 1950s and 1960s, widespread use of television indicated its unprecedented power on social lives. Meanwhile, researchers also realized that early investigations, relying heavily on psychological models, were narrowly focused on only short-term and immediate effects. The "stimuli-reaction" model introduced the possibility of profound long-term media effects. A shift from short-term to long-term effect studies marked the renewal of media effects research. More attention was paid to collective cultural patterns, definitions of social reality, ideology, and institutional behavior. Though audiences were still considered in control of the selection of media messages they consumed, "the way media select, process and shape content for their own purposes can have a strong influence on how it is received and interpreted and thus on longer-term consequences" (Mcquail, 2010).


title: Influence of mass media

text: In the late 1970s, researchers examined the media's role in shaping social realities, also referred to as "social constructivism" (Gamson and Modigliani, 1989). This approach evaluated the media's role in constructing meaning and corresponding social realities. First, the media formats images of society in a patterned and predictable way, both in news and entertainment. Second, audiences construct or derive their perception of actual social reality—and their role in it—by interacting with the media-constructed realities. Individuals in these audiences can control their interaction and interpretation of these media-constructed realities. However, when media messages are the only information source, the audience may implicitly accept the media-constructed reality. Alternatively, they may choose to derive their social reality from other sources, such as first-hand experience or cultural environment.


title: Influence of mass media

text: This phase also added qualitative and ethnographic research methods to existing quantitative and behaviorist research methods. Additionally, several research projects focused on media effects surrounding media coverage of minority and fringe social movements.


title: Influence of mass media

text: As early as the 1970s, research emerged on the effects of individual or group behavior in computer-mediated environments. The focus was on the effect of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in interpersonal and group interaction. Early research examined the social interactions and impressions that CMC partners formed of each other, given the restrictive characteristics of CMC such as the anonymity and lack of nonverbal (auditory or visual) cues. The first generation of CMC researches simply compared existing "text-only" internet content (e.g. emails) to face-to-face communication (Culnan & Markus,1987). For example, Daft and Lengel (1986) developed the media richness theory to assess the media's ability of reproducing information.


title: Influence of mass media

text: The internet was widely adopted for personal use in the 1990s, further expanding CMC studies. Theories such as social information processing (Walther, 1992) and social identification/deindividuation (SIDE) model (Postmes et al. 2000) studied CMC effects on users' behavior, comparing these effects to face-to-face communication effects. With the emergence of dynamic user-generated content on websites and social media platforms, research results are even more conducive to CMC studies. For instance, Valkenburg & Peter (2009) developed the internet-enhanced self-disclosure hypothesis among adolescents, stating that social media platforms are primarily used to maintain real-life friendships among young people. Therefore, this media use may enhance those friendships. New CMC technologies are evolving at a rapid pace, calling for new media effects theories.


title: Influence of mass media

text: New media and web technologies, including social media, are forcing communication scholars to rethink traditional effects models (Bennett and Iyengar, 2008). With changing media environments and evolving audience behaviors, some argue that the current paradigm for media effects research is a preference-based effects model (Cacciatore, Scheufele & Iyengar, 2016). This model is called preference-based reinforcement because the increasingly fragmented online news environment matches content with audiences based on their existing beliefs and preferences.


title: Influence of mass media

text: These three factors might also lead to rethinking strong media effects in the new media environment, including the concept of “tailored persuasion”.


title: Influence of mass media

text: The broad scope of media effects studies creates an organizational challenge. Organizing media effects by their targeted audience type, either on an individual (micro) or an audience aggregate (macro) level, is one effective method. Denis McQuail, a prominent communication theorist, organized effects into a graph.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Theories that base their observations and conclusions on individual media users rather than on groups, institutions, systems, or society at large are referred to as micro-level theories.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Theories that base their observations and conclusions on large social groups, institutions, systems, or ideologies are referred to as macro-level theories. Representative theories:


title: Influence of mass media

text: Created by Denis McQuail, a prominent communication theorist who is considered to be one of the most influential scholars in the field of mass communication studies. McQuail organized effects into a graph according to the media effect's intentionality (planned or unplanned) and time duration (short-term or long-term). See Figure 1.


title: Influence of mass media

text: The following are salient examples of media effects studies which examine media influence on individuals.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Individuals often mistakenly believe that they are less susceptible to media effects than others. About fifty percent of the members in a given sample are susceptible to the third-person effect, underestimating their degree of influence. This is largely based on attribution theory, in which "the person tends to attribute his own reactions to the object world, and those of another, when they differ from his own, to personal characteristics." Standley (1994) tested the third-person effect and attribution theory, reporting people are more likely offer situational reasons for television's effect upon themselves, while offering dispositional reasons for other members of an audience.


title: Influence of mass media

text: This is a concept derived from a network model of memory used in cognitive psychology. In this model, information is stored as nodes clustered with related nodes by associated pathways. If one node is activated, nearby nodes are also activated. This is known as spreading activation. Priming occurs when a node is activated, causing related nodes to stand by for possible activation. Both the intensity and amount of elapsed time from the moment of activation determine the strength and duration of the priming effect.


title: Influence of mass media

text: In media effects studies, priming is how exposure to media can alter an individual's attitudes, behaviors, or beliefs. Most media violence research, a popular area of discussion in media effects studies, theorizes that exposure to violent acts may prime an individual to behave more aggressively while the activation lingers.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Miller and Dollard (1941) pioneered social learning theory with their finding that individuals do not need to personally act out a behavior to learn it; they can learn from observation. Bandura (1977) expanded upon this concept, stating that audiences can learn behaviors from observing fictitious characters.


title: Influence of mass media

text: The effects of media violence upon individuals have many decades of research, starting as early as the 1920s. Children and adolescents, considered vulnerable media consumers, are often the target of these studies. Most studies of media violence surround the media categories of television and video games.


title: Influence of mass media

text: The rise of the motion picture industry, coupled with advances in social sciences, spurred the famous Payne Fund studies and others. Though the quality of the research has been called into question, one of the findings suggested a direct role between movies depicting delinquent adolescents and delinquent behaviors in adolescents. Wertham (1954) later suggested that comic books influenced children into delinquent behaviors, provided false worldviews, and lowered literacy in his book "Seduction of the Innocent". This research was too informal to reach a clear verdict, and a recent study suggests information was misrepresented and even falsified, yet it led to public outcry resulting in many discontinued comic magazines.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Television's ubiquity in the 1950s generated more concerns. Since then, studies have hypothesized a number of effects.


title: Influence of mass media

text: "Cognitive effects" include an increased belief of potential violence in the real world from watching violent media content leading to anxiety about personal safety.


title: Influence of mass media

text: The following are salient examples of media effects studies which examine media influence on an audience aggregate.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Not all media effects are instantaneous or short-term. Gerbner (1969) created cultivation theory, arguing that the media cultivates a "collective consciousness about elements of existence." If audiences are exposed to repetitive themes and storylines, over time, they may expect these themes and storylines to be mirrored in real life.


title: Influence of mass media

text: There are two primary areas of media agenda-setting: (i) the media tells us the news and (ii) the media tells us what to think about the news. Press coverage sends signals to audiences about the importance of mentioned issues, while framing the news induces the unsuspecting viewer into a particular response. Additionally, news that is not given press coverage often dissipates, not only because it lacks a vehicle of mass communication, but also because individuals may not express their concerns for fear of being ostracized. This further creates the spiral of silence effect.


title: Influence of mass media

text: News outlets can influence public opinion by controlling variables in news presentation. News gatherers curate facts to underscore a certain angle. Presentation method—such as time of broadcast, extent of coverage and choice of news medium—can also frame the message; this can create, replace, or reinforce a certain viewpoint in an audience. Entman (2007) describes framing as "the process of culling a few elements of perceived reality and assembling a narrative that highlights connections among them to promote a particular interpretation." Not only does the media identify supposed "causes of problems," it can also "encourage moral judgments" and "promote favored policies."


title: Influence of mass media

text: One long-term implication of framing, if the media reports news with a consistent favorable slant, is that it can lend a helping hand to certain overarching institutions of thought and related entities. It can reinforce capitalism, patriarchy, heterosexism, individualism, consumerism, and white privilege. Some theorize this bias may reinforce the political parties that espouse these thought paradigms, although more empirical research is needed to substantiate these claims.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Media outlets contend that gatekeeping, or news filtering that may result in agenda-setting and specific framing, is inevitable. With a never-ending, near-limitless amount of information, filtering will occur by default. Subcultures within news organizations determine the type of published content, while editors and other news organization individuals filter messages to curate content for their target audience.


title: Influence of mass media

text: The rise of digital media, from blogs to social media, has significantly altered the media's gatekeeping role. In addition to more gates, there are also more gatekeepers. Google and Facebook both cater content to their users, filtering though thousands of search results and media postings to generate content aligned with a user's preferences. In 2015, 63 percent of Facebook and Twitter users found news on their feeds, up from 57 percent the previous year. With so many "gates" or outlets, news spreads without the aid of legacy media networks. In fact, users on social media can act as a check to the media, calling attention to bias or inaccurate facts. There is also a symbiotic relationship between social media users and the press: younger journalists use social media to track trending topics.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Legacy media outlets, along with newer online-only outlets, face enormous challenges. The multiplicity of outlets combined with downsizing in the aftermath of the 2008 recession makes reportage more hectic than ever. One study found that journalists write about 4.5 articles per day. Public relations agencies have begun to play a growing role in news creation. "41 percent of press articles and 52 percent of broadcast news items contain PR materials which play an agenda-setting role or where PR material makes up the bulk of the story." Stories are often rushed to publication and edited afterwards, without "having passed through the full journalistic process." Still, audiences seek out quality content—whichever outlet can fulfill this need may acquire the limited attention span of the modern viewer.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Individuals are disinclined to share or amplify certain messages because of a fear of social isolation and a willingness to self-censor. As applies to media effects studies, some individuals may silence their opinions if the media does not validate their importance or their viewpoint. This spiral of silence can also apply to individuals in the media who may refrain from publishing controversial media content that may challenge the status quo.


title: Influence of mass media

text: According to Lazarsfeld' s research in the 1940s, the mass media is not able to change strongly-held attitudes held by most people, as contrary to the popular beliefs. This theory suggests that viewers are selective media messages in accordance with their existing worldviews. The use of mass media simply reinforce these concepts without easily changing their opinion, or with negligible effects because well-informed people are heavily leaned on personal experience and prior knowledge.


title: Influence of mass media

text: This theory suggests that the mass media is able to establish dominance by reflecting the opinion of social elites, who also own and control it, described by sociologist Todd Gitlin as a kind of "importance, similar to the faulty concept of power". By owning, or sponsoring particular medium, the elites are able to alter what people perceived from the use of mass media.


title: Influence of mass media

text: After entering the 21st century, the rapid development of the Internet and Web 2.0 technology is greatly reforming media use patterns. Media effects studies also are more diverse and specified. After conducting a meta-analysis on micro-level media effects theories, Valkenburg, Peter & Walther (2016) identified five main features:


title: Influence of mass media

text: There are two propositions of this selectivity paradigm: (1) among the constellation of messages potentially attracting their attention, people only go to a limited portion of messages; (2) people are only influenced by those messages they select (Klapper 1960, Rubin 2009). Researchers had noticed the selectivity of media use decades ago and considered it as a key factor limiting media effects. Later, two theoretical perspectives, uses-and-gratifications (Katz et al. 1973, Rubin 2009) and selective exposure theory (Knobloch-Westerwick 2015, Zillmann & Bryant 1985), were developed based on this assumption and aimed to pinpoint the psychological and social factors guiding and filtering an audience's media selection. Generally, these theories put the media user in the center of the media effect process, and conceptualize media use as a mediator between antecedents and consequences of media effects. In other words, users (with intention or not) develop their own media use effects.


title: Influence of mass media

text: After the all-powerful assumption of mass media was disproved by empirical evidence, the indirect path of the media's effect on audiences has been widely accepted. An indirect effect indicates that an independent variable (e.g., media use) affecting the dependent variables (e.g., outcomes of media use) via one or more intervening (mediating) variables. The conceptualization of indirect media effects urges attention to be paid to those intervening variables to better explain how and why media effects occur. Additionally, examining indirect effects can lead to a less biased estimation of effects sizes in empirical research (Holbert & Stephenson 2003). In a model including mediating and moderating variables, it is the combination of direct and indirect effects that makes up the total effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable. Thus, "if an indirect effect does not receive proper attention, the relationship between two variables of concern may not be fully considered" (Raykov & Marcoulides 2012)


title: Influence of mass media

text: In correspondence with the statement that media effect is the result of a combination of variables, media effects can also be enhanced or reduced by individual differences and social context diversity. Many media effects theories hypothesize conditional media effects, including uses-and-gratifications theory (Rubin 2009), reinforcing spiral model (Slater 2007), the conditional model of political communication effects (McLeod et al. 2009), the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo 1986).


title: Influence of mass media

text: Many theories assume reciprocal causal relationships between different variables, including characteristics of media users, factors in the environment, and outcomes of media (Bandura 2009). Transactional theories further support the selectivity paradigm (Feature 1), which assumes that the audience shapes their own media effects by selectively engaging in media use; transactional theories make an effort to explain how and why this occurs. Transactional media effects theories are the most complex among the five features. There are three basic assumptions. First, communication technologies (e.g., radio, television, internet) function as reciprocal mediators between information producers and receivers, who engage in transactions through these technologies (Bauer 1964). Second, the effect of media content is reciprocal between producers and receivers of media content, meaning they influence each other. Producers can be influenced by receivers because they learn from what the audience needs and prefers (Webster 2009). Third, transactions can be distinguished as interpersonal.


title: Influence of mass media

text: However, these features are only limited within micro-level media effects studies, which are mostly focused on short-term, immediate, individual effects.


title: Influence of mass media

text: One study concluded that social media is allowing politicians to be perceived as more authentic, with a key finding showing voters feel politicians are more honest on social media compared to in interviews or on TV shows. This opens up a new voter base for politicians to appeal to directly.


title: Influence of mass media

text: Though new media allows for direct voter-politician interaction and transparency in politics, this potential to subvert information on a wide scale is particularly harmful to the political landscape. According to a 2018 report from Ofcom, 64% of adults got their news from the internet and 44% from social media. Features distinct to social media, such as likes, retweets, and shares, can also build an ideological echo chamber with the same piece of real or fake news recirculating.


title: Influence of mass media

text: There are three major societal functions that mass media perform to political decisions raised by the political scientist Harold Lasswell: surveillance of the world to report ongoing events, interpretation of the meaning of events, and socialization of individuals into their cultural settings. The mass media regularly present politically crucial information on huge audiences and also represent the reaction of the audience rapidly through the mass media. The government or the political decision-makers have the chance to have a better understanding of the real reaction from the public to those decisions they have made.


title: Carnauba wax

text: Carnauba (; ), also called Brazil wax and palm wax, is a wax of the leaves of the carnauba palm "Copernicia prunifera" (synonym: "Copernicia cerifera"), a plant native to and grown only in the northeastern Brazilian states of Ceará, Piauí, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Maranhão and Bahia. It is known as the "Queen of Waxes". In its pure state, it is usually available in the form of hard yellow-brown flakes. It is obtained by collecting and drying the leaves, beating them to loosen the wax, then refining and bleaching it.


title: Carnauba wax

text: Carnauba consists mostly of aliphatic esters (40 wt%), diesters of 4-hydroxycinnamic acid (21.0 wt%), ω-hydroxycarboxylic acids (13.0 wt%), and fatty alcohols (12 wt%). The compounds are predominantly derived from acids and alcohols in the C26-C30 range. It is distinctive for its high content of diesters and its methoxycinnamic acid.


title: Carnauba wax

text: It is sold in grades of T1, T3 and T4 according to its purity level, which is accomplished by filtration, centrifugation and bleaching.


title: Carnauba wax

text: Because it creates a glossy finish, carnauba wax is used in automobile waxes, shoe polishes, dental floss, food products (such as sweets), polishes for musical instruments, and floor and furniture waxes and polishes, especially when mixed with beeswax and turpentine. It is commonly used for paper coatings in the United States. In its purest form, it was often used on speedboat hulls in the early 1960s to enhance speed and handling in saltwater. It is also the main ingredient in surfboard wax, combined with coconut oil.


title: Carnauba wax

text: Because of its hypoallergenic and emollient properties as well as its gloss, carnauba wax is used as a thickener in cosmetics such as lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow, foundation, deodorant, and skincare and sun care preparations. It is also used to make cutler's resin.


title: Carnauba wax

text: It is the finish of choice for most briar tobacco and smoking pipes, as it produces a high gloss when buffed that dulls with time, rather than flaking off like most other finishes.


title: Carnauba wax

text: Because it is too brittle to be used alone, carnauba wax is often combined with other waxes (principally beeswax) to treat and waterproof leather products, where it provides a high-gloss finish and increases leather's hardness and durability.


title: Carnauba wax

text: It is also used in the pharmaceutical industry as a coating to make tablets easier to swallow. A very small amount (less than 1/100 of 1% by weight, e.g. 30 grams per 300 kg) is sprinkled onto a batch of tablets after they have been sprayed and dried; they are then tumbled for a few minutes to coat them.


title: Carnauba wax

text: In 1890, Charles Tainter patented the use of carnauba wax on phonograph cylinders as a replacement for the usual paraffin/beeswax mixture.


title: Carnauba wax

text: Carnauba wax may be used as a mold release agent for manufacturing fibre-reinforced plastics. An aerosol mold release agent is formed by dissolving it in a solvent. Unlike silicone or PTFE, carnauba is suitable for use with liquid epoxy, epoxy molding compounds (EMC), and some other plastic types, generally enhancing their properties . It is not very soluble in chlorinated or aromatic hydrocarbons.


title: Carnauba wax

text: It is used in melt/castable explosives to produce an insensitive explosive formula such as Composition B, which is a blend of RDX and TNT.


title: Carnauba wax

text: In 2006, Brazil produced 22,409 tons of carnauba wax, of which 14% was solid and 86% was in powder form.


title: Carnauba wax

text: There are 20 to 25 exporters of carnauba wax in Brazil who, after buying it from middlemen or directly from farmers, refine the wax before shipping it to the rest of the world.


title: Carnauba wax

text: The four largest exporters are Pontes, Brasil Ceras, Foncepi, and Carnauba do Brasil, who together account for around €25 million of the export market. According to the German television program , conditions for many carnauba production workers are quite poor; one Brazilian Labor Ministry official found conditions "that could be described as slavery."


title: Carnauba wax

text: According to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, the major destinations for exported carnauba wax are:


title: Carnauba wax

text: The Initiative for Responsible Carnauba (IRC) was founded in 2018 as part of the Private Business Action for Biodiversity project, in association with the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT). Its aim is to foster responsible production that respects workers’ rights and preserves biodiversity. In an established working group with 20 local manufacturers and international distributors and brands, the IRC has set social, traceability and biodiversity standards and helped local producers implement them, with the UEBT's support. In collaboration with the local NGO Associação Caatinga, the Initiative has created a manual of good practices for the sector and 12 short learning videos, available on YouTube and sharable via WhatsApp, to inform field workers of their rights and about good biodiversity practices.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The 96 TW is the test and evaluation center for Air Force air-delivered weapons, navigation and guidance systems, command and control systems, and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) systems.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin AFB was established in 1935 as the Valparaiso Bombing and Gunnery Base. It is named in honor of Lt. Col. Frederick I. Eglin who was killed in a crash of his Northrop A-17 attack aircraft on a flight from Langley to Maxwell Field, Alabama.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Much of the base was part of a national forest until the outbreak of World War II in Europe when a proving ground for aircraft armament was established at Eglin. The U.S. Forest Service ceded over 340,000 acres of the Choctawhatchee National Forest to the War Department on 18 October 1940.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin Air Force Base evolved from the 1933 creation of the Valparaiso Airport, when an arrowhead-shaped parcel of was cleared for use as an airdrome.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: In 1931, personnel of the Air Corps Tactical School, newly relocated to Maxwell Field, Alabama, sought a location for a bombing and gunnery range. They saw the potential of the sparsely populated forested areas surrounding Valparaiso and the vast expanse of the adjacent Gulf of Mexico.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: From October 1941 to October 1945, a USAAF Fixed Gunnery School operated at the base, supervised by the 75th Flying Training Wing.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: At its peak during World War II, the base employed more than 1,000 officers, 10,000 enlisted personnel and 4,000 civilians.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: After the war, Eglin became a pioneer in developing the techniques for missile launching and handling; and the development of drone or pilotless aircraft beginning with the Republic-Ford JB-2 Loon, an American copy of the V-1. The 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Group was activated at Eglin Field, Florida, on 6 February 1946, operating out of Auxiliary Field 3. By March 1950, the 550th Guided Missiles Wing, comprising the 1st and 2nd Guided Missile Squadrons, had replaced the 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Group. The 2nd Guided Missile Squadron, SSM, had 62 pilots manning 14 B-17s, three B-29s, and four F-80 Shooting Stars, yellow-tailed drone aircraft used in the role of testing guided missiles.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: In December 1955, the Air Munitions Development Laboratory was reassigned from the Wright Air Development Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, to the Air Force Armament Center at Eglin by Headquarters Air Research and Development Command. The responsibility for development of guns, bombs, rockets, fuses, guided missile warheads and other related equipment in the armament field was transferred from the Dayton, Ohio facility at this time. Work on nuclear weapons was not included in this mission.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The USAF Special Air Warfare Center was activated 27 April 1962, with the 1st Combat Applications Group (CAG) organized as a combat systems development and test agency under the SAWC. The 1st CAG concentrated on testing and evaluation of primarily short-term projects which might improve Air Force counter-insurgency (COIN) operations. The Special Air Warfare Center, located at Hurlburt Field, undertook to develop tactical air doctrine while training crews for special air warfare in places like Southeast Asia. By mid-1963, SAW groups were in Vietnam and Panama.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The USAF Tactical Air Warfare Center was activated on 1 November 1963. It would be re-designated as the USAF Air Warfare Center on 1 October 1991.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: With the increasing U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, the need for increased emphasis on conventional weapons development made Eglin's mission even more important. On 1 August 1968, the Air Proving Ground Center was redesignated the Armament Development and Test Center to centralize responsibility for research, development, test and evaluation, and initial acquisition of non-nuclear munitions for the Air Force. On 1 October 1979, the center was given division status. The Armament Division, redesignated Munitions Systems Division on 15 March 1989, placed into production the precision-guided munitions for the laser, television, and infrared guided bombs; two anti-armor weapon systems; and an improved hard target weapon, the GBU-28, used in Operation Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War. The Division was also responsible for developing the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), an Air Force-led joint project with the U.S. Navy.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The Air Force Armament Museum was founded on base in 1975. In 1981 the original building housing the museum was condemned and the facility closed until 1984.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Selected on 27 April 1975, the installation served as one of four main U.S. Vietnamese Refugee Processing Centers operated by the Interagency Task Force for Indochina Refugees, where base personnel housed and processed more than 10,000 Southeast Asian refugees, the first 374 of which arrived on board a Northwest Orient Boeing 747 on 4 May 1975.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: In 1978, the USAF Tactical Air Warfare Center assumed responsibility for the USAF Air Ground Operations School. In the same year, the Electronic Warfare Evaluation Program became another one of the USAFTAWC's weapons system evaluation programs, and resulted in the activation of the 4487th Electronic Warfare Aggressor Squadron in 1990.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Construction began in 1984 on the Bob Hope Village, the only retirement facility that caters to enlisted military, opening in February 1985. Residents pay below market value for the 256 independent apartments. Col. Bob Gates, Bob Hope's USO pilot, was key in getting the comedian's support for the undertaking, as well as lending his name to the project. He was named an honorary board member of the foundation in 1978 and held benefit concerts for nearly two decades.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: During a 1992 reorganization, the Air Force disestablished Eglin's parent major command, Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) and merged its functions with the former Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC). The newly created major command from this merger, Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), remains Eglin's parent command to this day. The Development Test Center, Eglin's host unit, became part of AFMC on 30 June 1992. The 46th Test Wing replaced the 3246th Test Wing in October 1992.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: On 10 August 1994 construction began on the All Conflicts' Veterans War Memorial on the site of the old POW/MIA memorial on the western end of Eglin Boulevard. The memorial was dedicated on 15 August 1995.As part of the military drawdown in the 1990s, the Air Force inactivated the 33d Fighter Wing's 59th Fighter Squadron on 15 April 1999. The wing lost six aircraft and consolidated the remaining aircraft into the 58th and 60th Fighter Squadrons. Originally selected for inactivation in 1997, Air Force officials delayed the decision in recognition of the Nomads' connection with Khobar Towers. The 59th reactivated as the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron on 3 December 2004, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The 59th falls under the 53rd Test Management Group at Eglin.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: In July 2012 the Air Armament Center (AAC) was inactivated. The center had planned, directed and conducted test and evaluation of U.S. and allied air armament, navigation and guidance systems, and command and controlled systems. It operated two Air Force installations, providing host support not only to Eglin AFB, but also Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. It had included the Armament Product Directorate (Eglin), the 46th Test Wing (Eglin), the 96th Air Base Wing (Eglin), and the 377th Air Base Wing (Kirtland).


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The US Navy's VFA-101 "Grim Reapers" deactivated on 23 May 2019 after seven years of F-35C training at Eglin.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Initial construction of a railroad line into the region had been discussed as early as 1927 as part of the Choctawhatchee and Northern Railroad, though military-use proposals didn't come forward until 1941. German POWs were used in clearing and grading the alignment during World War II. There was one commercial customer served by the line, a lumber pulp yard at Niceville which is now community athletic fields. The line was later abandoned in the late 1970s and the southern end, west of State Road 285, lifted by the mid-1980s.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin is an Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) base serving as the focal point for all Air Force armaments. Eglin is responsible for the development, acquisition, testing, deployment and sustainment of all air-delivered non-nuclear weapons.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The base plans, directs, and conducts test and evaluation of U.S. and allied air armament, navigation and guidance systems, and command and control systems.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Severe-weather testing of aircraft and other equipment is carried out here at the McKinley Climatic Laboratory.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The residential portion of the base is a census-designated place; its population was 8,082 at the 2000 census. Eglin Air Force Base had 2,359 military family housing units. Unmarried junior enlisted members generally live in one of Eglin's seven dormitories located near the dining hall, chapel, base gym, enlisted club, and bus lines on base. Each individual unit generally handles dormitory assignments. Bachelor Officer Quarters are not available. Several units and one dormitory were being renovated in 2011. The base covers 463,128 acres (1,874.2 km / 723.6 sqm).


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The 96 TW is the test and evaluation wing for Air Force air-delivered weapons, navigation and guidance systems, command and control (C2) systems, and Air Force Special Operations Command systems. The Eglin Gulf Test Range provides approximately of over water airspace. The 96 TW supports other tenant units on the installation with traditional military services as well as all the services of a small city, to include civil engineering, personnel, logistics, communications, computer, medical, security. The 96 TW reports to the Air Force Test Center at Edwards AFB.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The 33d FW "Nomads" is the largest tenant unit at Eglin. The 33 FW is a joint graduate flying and maintenance training wing for the F-35 Lightning II, organized under Air Education and Training Command's 19th Air Force. First established as the 33d Pursuit Group, the wing's contribution to tactical airpower during its 50-year history has been significant with participation in campaigns around the world, while flying various fighter aircraft. Reactivated at Eglin on 1 April 1965 with F-4C Phantom IIs, the wing operated, successively, F-4D and E models into the 1970s before transitioning to the F-15 Eagle. As of 1 October 2009, the 33d FW transitioned to a training wing for the new F-35. The final F-15s assigned to the 33d departed the base in September 2009. As the first of its kind in the Department of Defense, the joint wing is responsible for F-35 pilot and maintainer training for the Air Force, Marine Corps and the Navy. The first of 59 F-35s arrived from Lockheed Martin Fort Worth, Texas on 14 July 2011.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The 58th FS "Mighty Gorillas" are authorized to operate 24 assigned F-35A aircraft, planning and executing a training curriculum in support of USAF and international partner pilot training requirements. The F-35A is a conventional take-off and landing, low-observable, multi-role fighter aircraft, designed with 5th-generation sensors and weapons, and is able to perform air superiority, air interdiction and close air support missions. The F-35A made its first flight on 15 December 2006.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The 53 WG is headquartered at Eglin and serves as the USAF's focal point for operational test and evaluation of armament and avionics, aircrew training devices, chemical defense, aerial reconnaissance improvements, electronic warfare systems, and is responsible for the QF-4 Phantom II Full Scale Aerial Target (FSAT) program and subscale drone programs (located at Tyndall AFB, Florida). The wing tests every fighter, bomber, unmanned aerial vehicle, and associated weapon system in the Air Force inventory. The wing reports to the United States Air Force Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, a Direct Reporting Unit (DRU) to Headquarters, Air Combat Command (ACC).


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The 49 TES is attached to the 53d Wing but located at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The squadron plans, executes and reports ACC's weapon system evaluation programs for bombers (B-52, B-1 and B-2) and nuclear-capable fighters (F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16). These evaluations include operational effectiveness and suitability, command and control, performance of aircraft hardware and software systems, employment tactics, and accuracy and reliability of associated precision weapons. These weapons include air-launched cruise missiles, standoff missiles, and gravity bombs. Results and conclusions support acquisition decisions and development of war plans. The unit also performs operational testing on new systems and tactics development for the B-52.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The Armament Directorate located at Eglin is responsible for management of air and ground dominance weapon system programs. Led by the Air Force Program Executive Officer for Weapons, the directorate concurrently reports to the Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Washington, D.C. and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: AFRL/RW develops, demonstrates, and transitions science and technology for air-launched munitions for defeating ground fixed, mobile/relocatable, air and space targets to assure pre-eminence of U.S. air and space forces. The directorate conducts basic research, exploratory development, and advanced development and demonstrations. It also participates in programs focused on technology transfer, dual-use technology and small business development.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: In 2011, the United States Army's 7th Special Forces Group relocated to a newly constructed cantonment on the Eglin Air Force Base reservation from Fort Bragg, as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round realigning Fort Bragg. It is tasked with conducting special operations in Latin America.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Tenant units at an Air Force installation are units which have a mission that is significantly different than that of the host unit, and rely heavily upon the host unit for day-to-day operations (sewer, power, security, recreation).


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field No. 6 (Biancur Field) is the site of Camp James E. Rudder and the home of the U.S. Army's 6th Ranger Training Battalion. The 6th RTB conducts the final phase of the U.S. Army Ranger Course. The entire course is 61 days long and is divided into three phases. Each phase is conducted at different geographical and environmental locations.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The mission of the 20 SPCS is to detect, track, identify, and report near earth and deep space objects in earth's orbit, and provide space object identification data in support of United States Space Command's space control mission. A unit of the United States Space Force (USSF), the men and women of the 20th SPCS operate and maintain the AN/FPS-85 radar, the Space Force's only phased-array radar dedicated to tracking earth-orbiting objects.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: This unit, which is apparently not a test squadron at all, operates Boeing C-32Bs in discrete missions for the United States Department of State's Foreign Emergency Support Team.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The 919 SOW, located about five miles (8 kilometers) south of Crestview and from Eglin main at Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field No. 3 (Duke Field) and is the only special operations wing in the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). In wartime or a contingency, the 919 SOW reports to Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) at Hurlburt Field, Florida, its gaining major command.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center stood up Detachment 2 at Eglin to provide realistic operational testing for new and modified weapon systems.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The Naval School of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (NAVSCOLEOD) is a Navy-managed command, jointly staffed by Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps personnel. NAVSCOLEOD opened its new consolidated training facility in April 1999.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Directorate of the Joint Staff, JDAT conducts field analysis of C2 information systems and procedures producing decision-quality data to improve Joint C2 integration and interoperability.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin is also one of the few military air bases in the U.S. to have scheduled passenger airline service as the Destin–Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS) is co-located on the base property.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Eglin, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: For units permanently based at Eglin's auxiliary airfields, see the airfield's respective page (Biancur Field, Duke Field and Hurlburt Field).


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: A number of auxiliary fields were constructed on the Eglin reservation during World War II, many of which are still in service in various roles, either in support of flight operations or special test activities.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin employs more than 8,500 civilians and approximately 4,500 military, with an additional 2,200 jobs due to move to Eglin under the 2005 BRAC.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 8,082 people, 2,302 households, and 2,262 families residing on the base. The population density was 2,640.1 people per square mile (1,019.8/km). There were 2,320 housing units at an average density of 757.9/sq mi (292.7/km). The racial makeup of the base was 71.8% White, 14.8% Black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 3.0% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 4.2% from other races, and 5.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 11.2% of the population.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: There were 2,302 households, out of which 79.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 89.8% were married couples living together, 5.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 1.7% were non-families. 1.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 0.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.50 and the average family size was 3.51.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: On the base the population was spread out, with 43.5% under the age of 18, 15.2% from 18 to 24, 39.6% from 25 to 44, 1.6% from 45 to 64, and 0.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 22 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.6 males.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The median income for a household on the base was $31,951, and the median income for a family was $31,859. Males had a median income of $25,409 versus $19,176 for females. The per capita income for the base was $10,670. About 4.5% of families and 4.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.5% of those under the age of 18 and none of those 65 and older.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: There are two U.S. National Historic Landmark Districts with connections to the base: Camp Pinchot and Eglin Field.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: On 6 October 1997, the McKinley Climatic Laboratory was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The forests and shores of Eglin Air Force Base are at the center of one of the most biodiverse locations in North America. Over 50 species threatened in Florida are found on the base, including sea turtles that nest on its white-sand beaches and red-cockaded woodpeckers that thrive in its longleaf pine forests. The base has a natural resources management team that constantly monitors important species within the base with the goal of balancing their national defense mission with environmental stewardship. Longleaf pine forest, a forest type reduced to 5% of its former range in the last few centuries, covers of the base. Part of this forest, , is old growth, making the base home to one of the most extensive old-growth longleaf pine forests in the world.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Warm, subtropical weather lasts longer than the average summer. The annual precipitation ranges from . Year-round, the average temperatures run:


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: January–March: 60–69 High and 42–51 LowApril–June: 76–88 High and 58–72 LowJuly–September: 86–98 High and 70–77 LowOctober–December: 63–79 High and 44–69 Low


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: The area gets only 50 to 60 days of annual precipitation or more rainfall. There are few days without sunshine, which allows year-round outdoor activities.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: In order to deal with the high noise levels of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, officials from Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties are studying which homes, businesses and public buildings will require additional noise protection.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin Air Force Base was also a launch site for civil rockets of NASA. There are three launch pads: one at 29.6700 N, 85.3700 W at Cape San Blas; and two on Santa Rosa Island at 30.3800 N, 86.7400 W and 30.3800 N, 86.8170 W. Rockets launched here have included Arcas, Nike Cajun, Nike Apaches, and Nike Iroquois. This site was formerly operated by the 4751st ADMS with CIM-10 Bomarcs, which inactivated in 1979. In the 1940s, captured V-1 flying bombs and American copies, Republic-Ford JB-2 LOONs, were launched out over the Gulf of Mexico from these sites. Two concrete launch ramps were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. A rusting Loon launch ramp still exists at Auxiliary Field 1, Wagner Field.


title: Eglin Air Force Base

text: Eglin is known to have been used for 441 launches from 1959 to 1980, reaching up to 686 kilometers altitude.


title: Dorian Electra

text: Dorian Electra Fridkin Gomberg (born 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and performance artist. Their debut studio album, "Flamboyant", was released in 2019, followed by their second studio album, "My Agenda," in 2020. Electra is known for their non-conforming fashion, queer aesthetics, and experimental pop sound. Electra identifies as genderfluid.


title: Dorian Electra

text: Electra's father is Paul Gomberg, known as "the Rockstar Realtor" in Houston, and originally from Beverly Hills. Their mother is an artist and jewelry designer Paula Fridkin. Electra graduated from School of the Woods, a Montessori high school in Houston, Texas. They attended Shimer College, a Great Books school in Chicago, Illinois, from 2010 to 2014.


title: Dorian Electra

text: Electra first drew national attention in 2010 with the music video "I'm in Love with Friedrich Hayek", which lauded the philosophy of the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek and garnered commentary from the modern Austrian theory professor Steven Horwitz.


title: Dorian Electra

text: In 2011, they released two more videos, "Roll with the Flow" and "We Got it 4 Cheap". Both were covered by mainstream political media. "We Got it 4 Cheap" came in second in the Lloyd V. Hackley Endowment's "Supply and Demand Video Contest".


title: Dorian Electra

text: In 2012, they interned at production company Emergent Order. Emergent Order had previously published "Fear the Boom and Bust", a similar Hayek-oriented rap video.


title: Dorian Electra

text: Electra then produced a new, similarly economics-oriented pop video, "FA$T CA$H", with the support of an award from the Moving Picture Institute.


title: Dorian Electra

text: In September 2012, Electra released the music video "Party Milk", which they describe as an attempt to merge common party scene symbolism with something one would never associate with a party, but that everyone is familiar with in another context.


title: Dorian Electra

text: In 2014, Electra (as Dorian Electra & The Electrodes) released a music video called "What Mary Didn't Know", based on Frank Jackson's philosophical thought experiment of the same name (1986).


title: Dorian Electra

text: 2015 saw the release of Electra's video "Forever Young: A Love Song to Ray Kurzweil", a tribute to the futurist Ray Kurzweil.


title: Dorian Electra

text: In 2016, Electra released "Ode to the Clitoris" on Refinery29 detailing the history of the clitoris from ancient Greece to modern 3D models. In an interview Electra stated it was to "desensitize people to the word CLITORIS and help bring it more into popular consciousness." In June 2016 Electra released "Mind Body Problem" on Bullett Media, a song and video "about femininity as a performance—when being a 'woman' feels like putting on a costume and the costume doesn't seem to come off with the clothes".


title: Dorian Electra

text: Electra continued their music video series with Refinery29 about intersectional feminism and queer histories with "The History of Vibrators" (2016), the "Dark History of High Heels" (2016), "2000 Years of Drag" (2016), and "Control" (2017). These videos focused on the histories of intersectional feminist and queer issues, collaborating with many artists including Imp Queen, London Jade, The Vixen, Lucy Stoole, Eva Young, Zuri Marley, K Rizz, and Chynna. "2000 Years of Drag" was accepted and screened at The East Village Queer Film Festival, NewFest, Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest, TWIST: Seattle Queer Film Festival, Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF), Art All Night - Trenton: 6th Annual Film Festival, Desperado LGBT Film Festival, QUEER-Streifen Regensburg, Filmfest homochrom, Flatpack Film Festival, CINEMQ.


title: Dorian Electra

text: In 2017, Electra released the single Jackpot through Grindr's digital publication Into More, a song that "addresses gender fluidity, but in a more subtle, less explicitly educational way." Later that year, Electra was featured on the Charli XCX track "Femmebot" with Mykki Blanco on the mixtape "Pop 2".


title: Dorian Electra

text: In 2019, Electra released their debut album, "Flamboyant". In August 2019, Electra embarked on the Flamboyant: Chapter I tour, which lasted until November 2019. They began the second leg, Flamboyant: Chapter II, in early 2020. However, in March of the same year, the rest of the tour dates were postponed due to COVID-19.


title: Dorian Electra

text: In 2020, Electra released the single "Thirsty (For Love)", a collaboration with fans. They also released a deluxe version of "Flamboyant" later that year. Following this, they released the singles "Sorry Bro (I Love You)", "Give Great Thanks", "Gentleman", and "M'Lady". On September 21, 2020, Electra announced their project "My Agenda", featuring appearances from Rebecca Black, Sega Bodega, Lil Mariko, Mood Killer, Faris Badwan, Pussy Riot, Village People, and Dylan Brady among others. The project was released on October 16, 2020, and is described as exploring "crisis in masculinity".


title: Dorian Electra

text: Electra is queer and genderfluid, and uses they/them pronouns. They have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Electra is Jewish.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The Golden Horseshoe is a secondary region of Southern Ontario, Canada, which lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Lake Scugog, Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The region is the most densely populated and industrialized in Canada. With a population of 7,759,635 people in its core and 9,765,188 in its greater area, the Golden Horseshoe accounts for over 20 percent of the population of Canada and more than 54 percent of Ontario's population. It is part of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, itself part of the Great Lakes megalopolis.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The core of the Golden Horseshoe starts from Niagara Falls at the eastern end of the Niagara Peninsula and extends west, wrapping around the western end of Lake Ontario at Hamilton and then turning northeast to Toronto (on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario), before finally terminating at Clarington in Durham Region. The term Greater Golden Horseshoe is used to describe a broader region that stretches inland from the core to the area of the Trent–Severn Waterway, such as Peterborough, in the northeast, to Barrie and Lake Simcoe in the north, and to the Grand River area, including centres such as Brantford, Waterloo Region, and Guelph to the west. The extended region's area covers approximately , out of this, or approximately 22 per cent of the area is covered by the environmentally protected Greenbelt. The Greater Golden Horseshoe forms the neck of the Ontario Peninsula.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The "horseshoe" part of the region's name is derived from the characteristic horseshoe shape of the west end of Lake Ontario. The "golden" part is historically attributed to the region's wealth and prosperity, according to the "Canadian Oxford Dictionary".


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The phrase "Golden Horseshoe" was first used by Westinghouse Electric Corporation president Herbert H. Rogge in a speech to the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce on January 12, 1954:


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The speech writer who actually penned the phrase was Charles Hunter MacBain, executive assistant to five Westinghouse presidents including Rogge.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The Golden Horseshoe has been recognised as a geographic region since the 1950s, but it was only on July 13, 2004, that a report from the provincial Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal entitled "Places to Grow" coined the term "Greater Golden Horseshoe", extending the boundaries west to Waterloo Region, north to Barrie/Simcoe County, and northeast to the county and city of Peterborough. A subsequent edition released February 16, 2005, broadened the term further, adding Brant, Haldimand and Northumberland Counties to the now quasi-administrative region. The Greater Golden Horseshoe region is officially designated in Ontario Regulation 416/05 under the "Places to Grow Act". The designation Greater Golden Horseshoe has legal significance with respect to taxation: in April 2017, the Government of Ontario announced plans to impose a 15 per cent Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) on non-Canadian citizens, non-permanent residents and non-Canadian corporations (with exceptions or rebates for refugees, qualifying students and certain people working in Ontario) buying residential properties containing one to six units in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH).


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The provincial transit authority Metrolinx makes use of the term Greater Golden Horseshoe. The Metrolinx definition is consistent with the original 2004 "Places to Grow" definition. However, the city and county of Peterborough is not included.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The economy of this region is very diverse. The Toronto Stock Exchange is the third-largest in North America by market capitalization (after the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq), and seventh-largest in the world.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: Cities including Hamilton, Oshawa, Oakville, Whitby and Kitchener all contain major large-scale industrial production facilities, Hamilton being dominated by the steel industry and Oakville and Oshawa primarily in the automotive industry. Other significant automotive-production facilities also exist in Brampton, and St. Catharines. While manufacturing remains important to the economy of the region, the manufacturing sector has experienced a significant decline since 2000 as a result of unfavourable currency exchange rates, increasing energy costs, and reduced demand from the United States, which is by far the largest market for Ontario's goods.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The Port of Hamilton and the Port of Toronto are the two largest seaports on Lake Ontario. The Welland Canal system handles tanker ship and recreational traffic through the Great Lakes. Large rail and truck distribution facilities are located in Toronto, Vaughan and Brampton. Food processing is also a key ingredient in the economy.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: Niagara Falls has one of the world's largest per-capita tourist economies, benefiting from millions of tourists coming to see its majestic waterfalls, shop in its numerous stores, and visit its many attractions. The winemaking and fruit-growing industries of the Niagara Peninsula produce award-winning wines, which are beginning to attract attention around the world, in particular, the ice wine for which the region is known.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: As of 2014, sectors such as information technology, health care, Agtech, tourism, research and finance provide the bulk of growth in the Golden Horseshoe. The cities of Brampton, Markham, Waterloo Region and Mississauga, are emerging as hubs for technology and innovation. The region is one of the largest tech cluster in North America outside of Silicon Valley. The area is home to more than 15,000 tech companies, including 5,000+ startups, and nearly 300,000 employees in high-tech industries. About two-thirds of those employees are classified as “tech workers,” which includes programmers, developers, etc. with 8 percent of the total workforce employed in tech.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The Golden Horseshoe is home to several universities, including the University of Toronto and McMaster University in Hamilton, which are ranked 1st and 4th in Canada, respectively, by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Other universities in the region include Brock University in St. Catharines, Trent University in Peterborough, York University in northern Toronto near Vaughan, OCAD University in downtown Toronto, University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), University of Guelph, University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, and Université de l'Ontario français in downtown Toronto.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: Public primary and secondary schooling is typically provided by school boards, largely organized at the municipal or county/regional level. The only school board that operates throughout the Golden Horseshoe is Conseil scolaire Viamonde, a public French-language school board, and Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir, a public French-language separate school board. Both of these public French-language school boards operate across the Ontario Peninsula.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The CN Tower in Toronto is among the most internationally notable attractions in the Golden Horseshoe.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The region is home to several shopping malls such as Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Toronto Eaton Centre, Fairview Mall, Scarborough Town Centre, and Sherway Gardens. Located in the suburbs of Toronto are Vaughan Mills in Vaughan, Bramalea City Centre in Brampton, Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga, and Pacific Mall and Markville Shopping Centre in Markham.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: Annual cultural festivals that draw tourists and local alike include the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (formerly known as Caribana) and Taste of the Danforth in Toronto.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The Niagara Escarpment, a world biosphere reserve as designated by the United Nations, runs from the north at Bruce Peninsula and then east through the region cutting the Niagara Gorge at Niagara Falls. The Bruce Trail runs along the escarpment through mostly protected woodlands. The Cheltenham Badlands in Caledon is an environmentally degraded area along the Niagara Escarpment. Similar protection of some wooded areas exists on the Oak Ridges Moraine running east–west in the north end of the Greater Toronto Area, although development pressures continue to threaten the natural habitat.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The Niagara Region has become one of the major wine-production areas in Canada. The Golden Horseshoe contains many small towns with historic main streets, most notably the community of Niagara-on-the-Lake, located near the Niagara River. Niagara Falls has one of the world's largest waterfalls and attracts millions to Clifton Hill, a neighbourhood with souvenir stores, small attractions, restaurants and skyline-defining hotels. There are also two casinos: Casino Niagara and Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: Hamilton has the historical reputation of being a blue-collar city; however, waterfront redevelopments and large-scale gentrification have been rapidly changing the perception of the city, although it retains a dominant industrial base. Hamilton has over 100 waterfalls and cascades throughout the region.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: Seasonal theme parks in the Golden Horseshoe include Canada's Wonderland, run by Cedar Fair in Vaughan; Wet'n'Wild Toronto (formerly Wild Water Kingdom) in Brampton; African Lion Safari in Hamilton and Cambridge; and Marineland in Niagara Falls. Though not a theme park per se, the Exhibition Place hosts the annual Canadian National Exhibition.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The Golden Horseshoe is home to a number of amateur and professional sports clubs, and university and college varsity programs. Many professional sports clubs in the city form a part of a larger sports league. Most university varsity programs are regulated by U Sports, while college varsity programs are regulated by the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: In addition to the number of sports clubs and programs based in the region, the Golden Horseshoe has also hosted a number of international multi-sport events, including the 1930 British Empire Games (predecessor to the Commonwealth Games), the 1976 Summer Paralympics, the 2015 Pan American Games and Parapan American Games, the 2017 Invictus Games, the 2017 North American Indigenous Games, and the 2018 NACAC Championships. Although the 1976 Summer Olympics was held in Montreal, several matches for the event's soccer tournament were played in Toronto. Toronto is among various cities in North America to host matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: Note that the Toronto Blue Jays temporarily played their home games in the United States (more specifically Dunedin, Florida and Buffalo, New York) due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North America in 2020 and 2021, while the Toronto Raptors played their home games in the United States (more specifically Tampa, Florida) during the pandemic to minimize cross-border travel.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The Golden Horseshoe is served by an network of expressways, the backbone of which are the Queen Elizabeth Way and Highway 401, one of the widest and busiest expressways in the world. Public transit in the region is coordinated by Metrolinx. Regional transit is provided by GO Transit trains and buses, and by intercity bus operators such as Ontario Northland and Coach Canada. GO Transit's train network encompasses seven commuter rail lines linking municipalities in the Golden Horseshoe to Toronto's Union Station, which is the busiest railway station in Canada and the second busiest railway station in North America, with 72 million passengers per year. Expansion is underway to facilitate all-day 15-minute or better commuter train service, electrification and increased ridership on five of the busiest lines. Local transit is provided by municipal agencies, the largest of which is the Toronto Transit Commission, which operates three subway lines and one light metro line and an extensive bus and streetcar network. Rapid transit systems outside Toronto include the VIVA bus rapid transit in York Region, the ION light rail system in Kitchener-Waterloo, and the Mississauga transitway. Line 5 and Line 6 are under construction LRT lines in Toronto that are part of its subway system. The Hurontario LRT is currently under construction in Peel Region, as well as various bus rapid transit projects in Peel and York Regions.


title: Golden Horseshoe

text: The primary airport of the region is Toronto Pearson International Airport (officially Lester B. Pearson International Airport), located in Mississauga. Handling 49.5 million passengers in 2018, it is the busiest in Canada and the 31st busiest in the world. Other regional airports of significance include John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport located in southern Hamilton, which is a major regional freight and courier location as well as the Region of Waterloo International Airport in Kitchener; Buttonville Airport and Billy Bishop airport in the Greater Toronto Area. Within driving distance is Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Cheektowaga, New York, in the United States. Buffalo Niagara carries the second largest passenger volume in the region, serving over 5 million passengers in 2018. It is frequently used by Canadian passengers flying to US destinations.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The Airports Authority of India, or AAI, is a public sector enterprise under the ownership of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining, and managing civil aviation infrastructure in India. It provides Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) services over Indian airspace and adjoining oceanic areas. AAI is currently managing a total of 137 airports, including 34 international airports, 10 Customs Airports, 81 domestic airports, and 23 Civil enclaves at defense airfields. AAI also has ground installations at all airports and 25 other locations to ensure the safety of aircraft operations. AAI covers all major air routes over Indian landmass via 29 Radar installations at 11 locations along with 700 VOR/DVOR installations co-located with Distance Measuring Equipment (DME). 52 runways are provided with Instrument landing system (ILS) installations with Night Landing Facilities at most of these airports and an Automatic Message Switching System at 15 Airports.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The Government of India constituted the International Airports Authority of India (IAAI) in 1972 to manage the nation's international airports while the National Airports Authority of India (NAAI) was constituted in 1986 to look after domestic airports. The organisations were merged in April 1995 by an Act of Parliament, namely, the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994 and has been constituted as a Statutory Body and was named as Airports Authority of India (AAI). This new organisation was to be responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure both on the ground and air space in the country.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: AAI's implementation of the Automatic Dependence Surveillance System (ADSS) at Kolkata and Chennai Air Traffic Control Centres, made India the first country to use this technology in the South East Asian region thus enabling Air Traffic Control over oceanic areas using satellite mode of communication. Performance Based Navigation (PBN) procedures have already been implemented at Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad Airports. AAI is implementing the GAGAN project in technological collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The navigation signals thus received from the GPS will be augmented to achieve the navigational requirement of aircraft. The first phase of the technology demonstration system was completed in February 2008.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: AAI board consists of a Chairman and five whole time members which are appointed by the central government. Director General of Civil Aviation is an ex-officio member of AAI board. Apart from this, AAI board also has part-time members. AAI is divided into five administrative regions, each headed by a Regional Executive Director (RED).


title: Airports Authority of India

text: AAI having its corporate headquarters at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, New Delhi is operating from its five regional headquarters namely-


title: Airports Authority of India

text: An Aerodrome Visual Simulator (AVS) has been provided at CATC and non-radar procedural ATC simulator equipment is being supplied to CATC Allahabad and Hyderabad Airport. AAI has a dedicated Flight Inspection Unit (FIU) with a fleet of three aircraft fitted with a flight inspection system to inspect Instrument Landing Systems up to Cat-III, VORs, DMEs, NDBs, VGSI (PAPI, VASI) and RADAR (ASR/MSSR). In addition to in-house flight calibration of its navigational aids, AAI undertakes flight calibration of navigational aids for the Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and other private airfields in the country.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The Eastern region of AAI controls 20 airports (including 12 non-operational airports) and four aeronautical communications stations. Eastern regional headquarters located in Kolkata, West Bengal, coordinates and controls the entire activities of all the airports and aeronautical communication stations listed below.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The Regional Executive Director (RED) of the Airports Authority of India is the Executive Head of the Eastern Region. He is the overall in charge of all activities (Operations, Security, Commercial, Safety, Finance & Administration) of the Eastern Region of the Airports Authority of India. The Eastern Region of the Airports Authority of India is presently headed by Sh. Manoj Gangal, Regional Executive Director.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Among the FIRs (Flight Information Regions) in Indian Airspace, almost one-third of the entire Airspace is controlled/ managed by Kolkata ACC. The responsibility of providing ANS (CNS/ATM) infrastructure for this huge Airspace is undertaken by CNS, Kolkata with installations at Remote stations located in the Eastern & North- East Region and beyond. In fact, with active persuasion from CNS, Kolkata ADS-B data from COCO Islands & SITTWE in Myanmar is now integrated with the Kolkata Automation system.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The ANS infrastructure and data/voice connectivity (i.e. Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Automation) to manage this coverage is provided and maintained by CNS, Kolkata.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The Aviation Safety Directorate in the region takes care of many responsibilities which are essential for the functionality of the Airports. Like it performs safety audits of all eastern region airports including RCS airports and CNS vital installation stations and monitoring of all AVS-ER audit observations. It also conducts yearly Safety Management System (SMS) training and provides assistants to all field stations to conduct safety assessments of different projects whenever required. Apart from this, the Aviation Safety Directorate also conducts the quarterly Regional Safety Committee meeting, and yearly aviation safety week and is responsible for the vetting of safety assessment documents of all Eastern Region Airports among others.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Management of Air-side, Terminal/City side, Slot Allocation & Airport Operations Control Centre (AOCC), Public Grievances, RTI and Quality Management Issues


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Plan and project the requirements regarding construction/up-gradation of the aerodrome and related facilities for safe aircraft operations


title: Airports Authority of India

text: To advise and assist top management in framing corporate policies on Terminal Management of all AAl airports.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Monitoring implementation of ICAO standards and recommended practices (SARP's), and Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR's) formulated by Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) for Aerodrome Operations and Airport Management.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Coordinate with DGCA for safety assessment on the planning, construction& commissioning of changes to airport infrastructure, and maintenance programs.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Liaise at the apex level with the various ministries, regulatory bodies like DGCA and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), and Immigration and Customs on issues related to Airport Management (Operations) and Aviation Security.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Monitoring the implementation of recommendations made by various courts of enquiries in respect of aircraft incidents/accidents.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Coordinate with Dept. of Engg. / Planning/ lT/ Security w.r.t. all planned/ modification / repair works in the terminals.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Finalizing training programmes for staff and officers of the Operations Department in coordination with Indian Aviation Academy (IAA).


title: Airports Authority of India

text: For any association Engineering Department is the spine that plane and executes different common and electrical attempts to give the infrastructural offices required. Here in the eastern Region Engineering Department does likewise for ATC/NAV-AIDS according to the necessity alongside legitimate checking and control of development and upkeep of runways/Taxiways/Apron and different structures and workplaces according to the prerequisite. At present work on the 51.4m-high ATC tower and 33.2-m key position in addition to a five-level specialized block at NSCBI Airport, Kolkata is under development. The ATS complex will be a 4-star Griha evaluated green structure right from the development stage. Notwithstanding green practices like water reaping and a decrease in power load from 9,200 kW to 4,800 kW, the structure will likewise have 31,000sqft green region. While the pinnacle tallness will increment from 34m to 51.4m, the floor region of the complicated will go up from 75,500sqm to 2,84,000sqm. The specialized square will house around 750 individuals, for the most part, regulators and designers. Likewise, there will be an office to leave 200 vehicles and 100 bikes.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The principal objective of Airport Rescue and Fire Services is to “Save lives in the event of an aircraft accident or incident” occurring at, or near, an airport.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The Rescue and Fire Services are provided to create and maintain survivable conditions, to provide egress routes for occupants and initiate the rescue of those occupants unable to make their escape without direct aid. This also applies to any other incident where life and property can be saved. The safety of the passengers is paramount at airports run by the Airports Authority of India. AAI's highly trained Rescue and Fire Services stand ready to provide rescue and fire protection at all times.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: There is an airport emergency plan to coordinate the efforts of mutual aid agencies within the airport and its immediate vicinity. The Rescue and Fire Services is responsible for managing the Airport Emergency Plan and deal the situation accordingly at the aircraft accident or incident as well as safety of the occupants and avoidance of the fire risks in the terminal building & other vital installations at the airport.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Maintain the level of Fire protection at airports, Fire prevention & Fire Protection at the Terminal & Related buildings and Vital Installation, Fire Service Personnel & Equipment and monitor the performance & ensure compliance by necessary remedial measures wherever required.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The department deals with print and electronic media and is responsible for the media briefing, arranging press conferences, analysis of media reports, managing the social media accounts, NlTs, publishing of in-house Journals of AAI and also deals with matters concerning AAl's branding. The Corporate Communication (CC) Department deals with the allocation of Media for AAl's Advertisements through the empanelled Agencies while maintaining the implementation of Raj Bhasha Guidelines applicable in this regard. CC Department also deals with matters concerning Sponsorships, Exhibitions, Seminars etc. within the preamble of CC Policy.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Operations include Air Traffic Services (like Air Traffic Control, Landing & Takeoff, en route flying, search and rescue services, aeronautical information services etc.), Communication, and Navigation & Surveillance (CNS). This also includes Aviation Security Services, Fire Services at airports and Passenger Facilitation in Airport Terminals.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: a. Air Traffic Control Services: The Air Traffic Control Services i.e. Aerodrome Control, Surface Movement Control, Approach Control at terminal airports and Area Control Center are provided by personnel stationed in the concerned Air Traffic Control positions of the respective airports and on designated frequencies. The terminal airports operate in coordination with the Area Control Center in Kolkata. The communication with the Aircraft is mostly through two-way VHF R/T and a supplementary cover is provided by CPDLC, H/F and AFTN network.  The Area Control centre provides the Area Control Service, Flight Information Service and the Alerting Service. The Area Control centres are connected to the terminal airports and adjacent Area Control Centers by Direct Speech Circuits. Area Control Center receives feed from 11 radars (ARSR/MSSR) with a range of 250 nautical miles and 9 ADS-B Ground Stations covering the entire continental airspace and portion of Oceanic airspace (the portion of Bay of Bengal) under its jurisdiction. The major routes transiting through the FIR are R460, L759, A465, A791, G450, R581, R325, R344, L507, P646, M770, M773, N895, G472, L301, L510, N877, L524, M875 and P628.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata is equipped with an ELDIS ASR/MSSR and INDRA MSSR with a range of 250 nautical miles and an automated ATC system developed by INDRA. Specially designed standard procedures like SIDS and STARS are used to complement laid down ATS routes. To cope with the periods of very low visibility due to fog, special ILS CAT III (B) equipment is installed at NSCBI Airport, Kolkata. The automation of ATS facilities are at Biju Patnaik Airport, Bhubaneswar, Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi, Jai Prakash Narayan International Airport, Patna, Swami Vivekananda Airport, Raipur and Gaya airports also. Other operational active Airports in the Eastern Region are Jharsuguda, Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, Durgapur (Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited), Pakyong, Cooch Behar, Port Blair (Civil Enclave), Darbhanga (Civil Enclave) and Bagdogra (Civil Enclave).


title: Airports Authority of India

text: b. Flight Information Service: The Aircraft operating beyond the radar coverage and outside the control areas are provided with flight information service and advisory service by the Area Control Centres. The Nodal Centre of NOTAM is also at NSCBI Airport, Kolkata.


title: Airports Authority of India

text: c. Alerting Service (Search and Rescue): All the airports are established alerting posts and the specific Alerting Services are provided by the concerned Area Control centres. For this purpose close liaison is maintained with agencies like INMCC, THE INDIAN AIR FORCE and the adjacent Search and Rescue coordination centres. The distress signals picked by SARSAT and COSPAS are linked to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).


title: Airports Authority of India

text: The department deals with providing various facilities for the passengers such as Retail, F&B, Duty-Free, Money Exchange, Car Rental, Vehicle Parking etc.


title: Deuterostome

text: Deuterostomia (; in Greek) are animals typically characterized by their anus forming before their mouth during embryonic development. The group's sister clade is Protostomia, animals whose digestive tract development is more varied. Some examples of deuterostomes include vertebrates (and thus humans), sea stars, and crinoids.


title: Deuterostome

text: In deuterostomy, the developing embryo's first opening (the blastopore) becomes the anus, while the mouth is formed at a different site later on. This was initially the group's distinguishing characteristic, but deuterostomy has since been discovered among protostomes as well. This group is also known as enterocoelomates, because their coelom develops through enterocoely.


title: Deuterostome

text: The three major clades of deuterostomes are Chordata (e.g. vertebrates), Echinodermata (e.g. starfish), and Hemichordata (e.g. acorn worms). Together with Protostomia and their out-group Xenacoelomorpha, these compose the Bilateria, animals with bilateral symmetry and three germ layers.


title: Deuterostome

text: Initially, Deuterostomia included the phyla Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Chaetognatha, and Phoronida based on morphological and embryological characteristics. However, "Superphylum Deuterostomia" was redefined in 1995 based on DNA molecular sequence analyses when the lophophorates were removed from it and combined with other protostome animals to form superphylum Lophotrochozoa. The phylum Chaetognatha (arrow worms) may belong here, but molecular studies have placed them in the protostomes more often.


title: Deuterostome

text: While protostomes as a monophyletic group has strong support, research have shown that deuterostomes may be paraphyletic, and what was once considered traits of deuterostomes could instead be traits of the last common bilaterian ancestor. This suggests the deuterostome branch is very short or non-existent. The Xenambulacraria's sister group could be both the chordates or the protostomes, or be equally distantly related to them both.


title: Deuterostome

text: Echinodermata and Hemichordata form the clade Ambulacraria. Moreover, there is a possibility that Ambulacraria can be the sister clade to Xenacoelomorpha, and form the Xenambulacraria group.


title: Deuterostome

text: In both deuterostomes and protostomes, a zygote first develops into a hollow ball of cells, called a blastula. In deuterostomes, the early divisions occur parallel or perpendicular to the polar axis. This is called radial cleavage, and also occurs in certain protostomes, such as the lophophorates.


title: Deuterostome

text: Most deuterostomes display indeterminate cleavage, in which the developmental fate of the cells in the developing embryo is not determined by the identity of the parent cell. Thus, if the first four cells are separated, each can develop into a complete small larva; and if a cell is removed from the blastula, the other cells will compensate.


title: Deuterostome

text: In deuterostomes the mesoderm forms as evaginations of the developed gut that pinch off to form the coelom. This process is called enterocoely.


title: Deuterostome

text: Another feature present in both the Hemichordata and Chordata is pharyngotremy; the presence of spiracles or gill slits into the pharynx, which is also found in some primitive fossil echinoderms (mitrates). A hollow nerve cord is found in all chordates, including tunicates (in the larval stage). Some hemichordates also have a tubular nerve cord. In the early embryonic stage, it looks like the hollow nerve cord of chordates.


title: Deuterostome

text: Except for the echinoderms, both the hemichordates and the chordates have a thickening of the aorta, homologous to the chordate heart, which contracts to pump blood. This suggests a presence in the deuterostome ancestor of the three groups, with the echinoderms having secondarily lost it.


title: Deuterostome

text: The highly modified nervous system of echinoderms obscures much about their ancestry, but several facts suggest that all present deuterostomes evolved from a common ancestor that had pharyngeal gill slits, a hollow nerve cord, circular and longitudinal muscles and a segmented body.


title: Deuterostome

text: The defining characteristic of the deuterostome is the fact that the blastopore (the opening at the bottom of the forming gastrula) becomes the anus, whereas in protostomes the blastopore becomes the mouth. The deuterostome mouth develops at the opposite end of the embryo, from the blastopore, and a digestive tract develops in the middle, connecting the two.


title: Deuterostome

text: In many animals these early development stages later evolved in ways that no longer reflect these original patterns. For instance, humans have already formed a gut tube at the time of formation of the mouth and anus. Then the mouth forms first, during the fourth week of development, and the anus forms four weeks later, temporarily forming a cloaca.


title: Deuterostome

text: The majority of animals more complex than jellyfish and other Cnidarians are split into two groups, the protostomes and deuterostomes. Chordates (which include all the vertebrates) are deuterostomes. It seems likely that the "Kimberella" was a member of the protostomes. That implies that the protostome and deuterostome lineages split some time before "Kimberella" appeared — at least , and hence well before the start of the Cambrian , "i.e." during the later part of the Ediacaran Period (circa 635-539 Mya, around the end of global Marinoan glaciation in the late Neoproterozoic). The oldest proposed deuterostome is "Saccorhytus coronarius", which lived approximately 540 million years ago, but this later challenged and an ecdysozoan connection is proposed.


title: Deuterostome

text: Fossils of one major deuterostome group, the echinoderms (whose modern members include sea stars, sea urchins and crinoids), are quite common from the start of Series 2 of the Cambrian, . The Mid Cambrian fossil "Rhabdotubus johanssoni" has been interpreted as a pterobranch hemichordate. Opinions differ about whether the Chengjiang fauna fossil "Yunnanozoon", from the earlier Cambrian, was a hemichordate or chordate. Another Chengjiang fossil, "Haikouella lanceolata", is interpreted as a chordate and possibly a craniate, as it shows signs of a heart, arteries, gill filaments, a tail, a neural chord with a brain at the front end, and possibly eyes — although it also had short tentacles round its mouth. "Haikouichthys" and "Myllokunmingia", also from the Chengjiang fauna, are regarded as fish. "Pikaia", discovered much earlier but from the Mid Cambrian Burgess Shale, is also regarded as a primitive chordate.


title: Deuterostome

text: On the other hand, fossils of early chordates are very rare, as non-vertebrate chordates have no bone tissue or teeth, and fossils of no Post-Cambrian non-vertebrate chordates are known aside from the Permian-aged "Paleobranchiostoma", trace fossils of the Ordovician colonial tunicate "Catellocaula", and various Jurassic-aged and Tertiary-aged spicules tentatively attributed to ascidians.


title: Deuterostome

text: Below is a phylogenetic tree showing consensus relationships among deuterostome taxa. Phylogenomic evidence suggests the enteropneust family, Torquaratoridae, fall within the Ptychoderidae. The tree is based on 16S +18S rRNA sequence data and phylogenomic studies from multiple sources. The approximate dates for each radiation into a new clade are given in millions of years ago (Mya). Not all dates are consistent, as of date ranges only the center is given.


title: Deuterostome

text: Support for the clade Deuterostomia is not unequivocal. In particular, the Ambulacraria appear to be related to the Xenacoelomorpha. If upheld, this raises two possibilities: either the Ambulacraria are taken out of the deuterostome-protostome dichotomy (in which case the grouping Deuterostomia dissolves), or the Xenacoelomorpha are re-positioned next to Ambulacraria within the Deuterostomia as in the above diagram.