title: A Monster in Paris

text: A Monster in Paris () is a 2011 French 3D computer-animated musical comedy science fantasy adventure film directed by Bibo Bergeron, and based on a story he wrote. It was produced by Luc Besson, written by Bergeron and Stéphane Kazandjian, and distributed by EuropaCorp Distribution, and features the voices of Sean Lennon, Vanessa Paradis, Adam Goldberg, Danny Huston, Madeline Zima, Matthew Géczy, Jay Harrington, Catherine O'Hara and Bob Balaban. Many plot elements are drawn from Gaston Leroux's novel "The Phantom of the Opera". It was released on 12 October 2011. It was also produced by Bibo Films, France 3 Cinéma, Walking The Dog, uFilm, uFund, Canal+, France Télévisions, CinéCinéma, Le Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral de Belgique and Umedia. Its music was composed by Matthieu Chedid, Sean Lennon and Patrice Renson.


title: A Monster in Paris

text: The film is set in 1910; the story beginning by documenting the flooding of the River Seine that year.


title: A Monster in Paris

text: A shy projectionist Emile Petit has a passion for film and is in love with his co-worker at the cinema, Maud. His friend, an exuberant yet obnoxious inventor and delivery driver, Raoul, picks him up from work to transport him in his bizarre vehicle (called "Catherine"), to obtain a new belt for his projector. In purchasing a new belt, Emile also buys himself a new camera, which would’ve been stolen by a local thief if "Catherine" had not malfunctioned. The story also introduces Lucille, a cabaret singer at the club L'Oiseau Rare ("The Rare Bird") and Raoul's childhood friend with whom he is on bad terms. Her aunt Carlotta is trying to marry her off to the wealthy Police Commissioner and Mayor candidate Victor Maynott, of whom she personally does not approve of for his arrogance. One evening, Raoul brings Emile to make a delivery to the Botanical Gardens. In the absence of the Professor who works there, the place is guarded by his assistant, a proboscis monkey named Charles. Despite the professor's command left to Charles, Raoul experiments with an "Atomize-a-Tune" and an unstable "Super Fertilizer"; the former gives Charles a temporary voice of an opera singer, and the latter grows a sunflower seed into a giant sunflower. The plant topples towards Raoul and Emile, and an explosion occurs as the two chemicals were mixed. Everyone is unscathed, but Emile is convinced he has glimpsed a monstrous creature, with an illustrated interpretation later appearing in the newspapers.


title: A Monster in Paris

text: After a series of fearful sightings, an investigation is launched into the whereabouts of the creature by Maynott's second in command, Pâté, but is fronted by Maynott, in the hope of popular support for his mayoral candidacy. At the same time he tries unsuccessfully to charm Lucille. Lucille begins looking for a new musician for the cabaret, but rejects one of the waiters, Albert, for his terrible singing voice. Trying to vacate the cabaret through the back door, the latter stumbles across the creature and flees, terrified. Lucille is frightened upon seeing the same creature, but hears its euphonious voice as it sang. Through singing, the creature tells of how—as a flea—the chemicals in the laboratory explosion (the two aforementioned mixtures) enlarged itself to human scale and as a result was shunned by everyone in the city. Taking pity of the creature, Lucille therefore welcomes it as "Francœur", after the passageway where she discovered him.


title: A Monster in Paris

text: During the investigation, Emile and Raoul's role in the laboratory incident is discovered. For Maynott's interest in the creature and perceived opportunity to further improve his reputation, he disregards Emile and Raoul's involvement as perpetrators, and awards them the Medal of Honor. On a challenge set earlier by Lucille, Raoul uses this to get the best seats at Lucille's show at "The Rare Bird", where she and a disguised Francœur bond as they sing as a duet. However, unbeknownst to Lucille, the effects of the "Super Fertilizer" aren't permanent and Francœur is slowly shrinking down to his normal size. Emile and Raoul congratulate Lucille on her show after its close, but Lucille accidentally reveals the identity of Francœur, which Albert (who overheard her confession) reports to the police. Emile, Raoul and Francœur narrowly escape and Albert is falsely


title: A Monster in Paris

text: sent to share the thief's cell on suspicion of lying to the police. The trio have trouble trying to figure out where to put Francœur, as he is too frightful looking to be seen on the streets and Maynott is still after him. Suddenly, Lucille comes up with an idea she plans to present during a ceremony tomorrow, in which the trio will reveal Francœur and feign his death.


title: A Monster in Paris

text: The next day, Maynott opens the Montmartre Funicular, which serves Montmartre and the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur. Francœur is seemingly 'killed' after Maynott throws his 'antidote' at the creature and stomps it once it shrinks back down, but he quickly discovers Francœur hiding under the stage. Along with the police, Maynott chases Francœur and his friends through the streets of Paris where it concludes at the tip of the Eiffel Tower. Stranded in the flood, Raoul uses "Catherine’s" flap to swim there, but the vehicle sinks just as they make it to the Tower. Meanwhile, Maud (after receiving a date invite by Emile earlier) arrives at the tower just in time for the ensuing battle, in which she supports Emile and admits her feelings for him. After a battle to protect Francœur from Maynott, a gunshot from Maynott and Francœur's sudden disappearance lead everyone to believe that Francœur is killed. Maynott is then taken away to the same cell as Albert and the thief from earlier, forced to endure the duo's appalling singing, by Pâté—who is disgusted at having aided Maynott in his rampage—for the premeditated murder of Francœur on the basis that the latter is innocent.


title: A Monster in Paris

text: Later that evening, Lucille is distraught by the disappearance of Francœur, but Raoul convinces her to sing anyway. Whilst struggling to begin, she hears Francœur as a normal-sized flea singing in her ear, much to her happiness. Sometime later, the absent Professor returns from his trip to New York and he restores Francœur back to human size with a new mixture upon Raoul and Charles' retelling of the situation. Francœur takes second billing on the posters advertising Lucille's show, while Lucille and Raoul later share their first kiss in Lucille's dressing room after clearing up a misunderstanding from their childhood. Afterwards, Raoul, Lucille, Francœur, Maud, Emile, Charles, Carlotta and Pâté scatter super-fertilized sunflower seeds to drain the flooded Seine of its water.


title: A Monster in Paris

text: The soundtrack includes both songs and short clips from the film, in both French and English. The soundtrack of the English version was released in the UK a few days after the film's release on both CD and digital download. The album is credited to Vanessa Paradis & (-M-)


title: A Monster in Paris

text: The film received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received an aggregate score of 87% based on 23 reviews (20 "fresh" and 3 "rotten").


title: Boiling water reactor

text: A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is a design different from a Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuclear reactor after the pressurized water reactor (PWR), which is also a type of light water nuclear reactor. The main difference between a BWR and PWR is that in a BWR, the reactor core heats water, which turns to steam and then drives a steam turbine. In a PWR, the reactor core heats water, which does not boil. This hot water then exchanges heat with a lower pressure system, which turns water into steam that drives the turbine. The BWR was developed by the Argonne National Laboratory and General Electric (GE) in the mid-1950s. The main present manufacturer is GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, which specializes in the design and construction of this type of reactor.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: A boiling water reactor uses demineralized water as a coolant and neutron moderator. Heat is produced by nuclear fission in the reactor core, and this causes the cooling water to boil, producing steam. The steam is directly used to drive a turbine, after which it is cooled in a condenser and converted back to liquid water. This water is then returned to the reactor core, completing the loop. The cooling water is maintained at about 75 atm (7.6 MPa, 1000–1100 psi) so that it boils in the core at about 285 °C (550 °F). In comparison, there is no significant boiling allowed in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) because of the high pressure maintained in its primary loop—approximately 158 atm (16 MPa, 2300 psi). The core damage frequency of the reactor was estimated to be between 10 and 10 (i.e., one core damage accident per every 10,000 to 10,000,000 reactor years).


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Steam exiting the turbine flows into condensers located underneath the low-pressure turbines, where the steam is cooled and returned to the liquid state (condensate). The condensate is then pumped through feedwater heaters that raise its temperature using extraction steam from various turbine stages. Feedwater from the feedwater heaters enters the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) through nozzles high on the vessel, well above the top of the nuclear fuel assemblies (these nuclear fuel assemblies constitute the "core") but below the water level.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The feedwater enters into the downcomer or annulus region and combines with water exiting the moisture separators. The feedwater subcools the saturated water from the moisture separators. This water now flows down the downcomer or annulus region, which is separated from the core by a tall shroud. The water then goes through either jet pumps or internal recirculation pumps that provide additional pumping power (hydraulic head). The water now makes a 180-degree turn and moves up through the lower core plate into the nuclear core, where the fuel elements heat the water. Water exiting the fuel channels at the top guide is saturated with a steam quality of about 15%. Typical core flow may be 45,000,000 kg/h (100,000,000 lb/h) with 6,500,000 kg/h (14,500,000 lb/h) steam flow. However, core-average void fraction is a significantly higher fraction (~40%). These sort of values may be found in each plant's publicly available Technical Specifications, Final Safety Analysis Report, or Core Operating Limits Report.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The heating from the core creates a thermal head that assists the recirculation pumps in recirculating the water inside of the RPV. A BWR can be designed with no recirculation pumps and rely entirely on the thermal head to recirculate the water inside of the RPV. The forced recirculation head from the recirculation pumps is very useful in controlling power, however, and allows achieving higher power levels that would not otherwise be possible. The thermal power level is easily varied by simply increasing or decreasing the forced recirculation flow through the recirculation pumps.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The two-phase fluid (water and steam) above the core enters the riser area, which is the upper region contained inside of the shroud. The height of this region may be increased to increase the thermal natural recirculation pumping head. At the top of the riser area is the moisture separator. By swirling the two-phase flow in cyclone separators, the steam is separated and rises upwards towards the steam dryer while the water remains behind and flows horizontally out into the downcomer or annulus region. In the downcomer or annulus region, it combines with the feedwater flow and the cycle repeats.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The saturated steam that rises above the separator is dried by a chevron dryer structure. The "wet" steam goes through a tortuous path where the water droplets are slowed and directed out into the downcomer or annulus region. The "dry" steam then exits the RPV through four main steam lines and goes to the turbine.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Reactor power is controlled via two methods: by inserting or withdrawing control rods (control blades) and by changing the water flow through the reactor core.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Positioning (withdrawing or inserting) control rods is the normal method for controlling power when starting up a BWR. As control rods are withdrawn, neutron absorption decreases in the control material and increases in the fuel, so reactor power increases. As control rods are inserted, neutron absorption increases in the control material and decreases in the fuel, so reactor power decreases. Differently from the PWR, in a BWR the control rods (boron carbide plates) are inserted from below to give a more homogeneous distribution of the power: in the upper side the density of the water is lower due to vapour formation, making the neutron moderation less efficient and the fission probability lower. In normal operation, the control rods are only used to keep a homogeneous power distribution in the reactor and to compensate for the consumption of the fuel, while the power is controlled through the water flow (see below). Some early BWRs and the proposed ESBWR (Economic Simplified BWR made by General Electric Hitachi) designs use only natural circulation with control rod positioning to control power from zero to 100% because they do not have reactor recirculation systems.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Changing (increasing or decreasing) the flow of water through the core is the normal and convenient method for controlling power from approximately 30% to 100% reactor power. When operating on the so-called "100% rod line", power may be varied from approximately 30% to 100% of rated power by changing the reactor recirculation system flow by varying the speed of the recirculation pumps or modulating flow control valves. As flow of water through the core is increased, steam bubbles ("voids") are more quickly removed from the core, the amount of liquid water in the core increases, neutron moderation increases, more neutrons are slowed to be absorbed by the fuel, and reactor power increases. As flow of water through the core is decreased, steam voids remain longer in the core, the amount of liquid water in the core decreases, neutron moderation decreases, fewer neutrons are slowed enough to be absorbed by the fuel, and reactor power decreases. Thus the BWR has a negative void coefficient.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Reactor pressure in a BWR is controlled by the main turbine or main steam bypass valves. Unlike a PWR, where the turbine steam demand is set manually by the operators, in a BWR, the turbine valves will modulate to maintain reactor pressure at a setpoint. Under this control mode, the turbine output will automatically follow reactor power changes. When the turbine is offline or trips, the main steam bypass/dump valves will open to direct steam directly to the condenser. These bypass valves will automatically or manually modulate as necessary to maintain reactor pressure and control the reactor's heatup and cooldown rates while steaming is still in progress.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Reactor water level is controlled by the main feedwater system. From about 0.5% power to 100% power, feedwater will automatically control the water level in the reactor. At low power conditions, the feedwater controller acts as a simple PID control by watching reactor water level. At high power conditions, the controller is switched to a "Three-Element" control mode, where the controller looks at the current water level in the reactor, as well as the amount of water going in and the amount of steam leaving the reactor. By using the water injection and steam flow rates, the feed water control system can rapidly anticipate water level deviations and respond to maintain water level within a few inches of set point. If one of the two feedwater pumps fails during operation, the feedwater system will command the recirculation system to rapidly reduce core flow, effectively reducing reactor power from 100% to 50% in a few seconds. At this power level a single feedwater pump can maintain the core water level. If all feedwater is lost, the reactor will scram and the Emergency Core Cooling System is used to restore reactor water level.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Steam produced in the reactor core passes through steam separators and dryer plates above the core and then directly to the turbine, which is part of the reactor circuit. Because the water around the core of a reactor is always contaminated with traces of radionuclides due to neutron capture from the water, the turbine must be shielded during normal operation, and radiological protection must be provided during maintenance. The increased cost related to operation and maintenance of a BWR tends to balance the savings due to the simpler design and greater thermal efficiency of a BWR when compared with a PWR. Most of the radioactivity in the water is very short-lived (mostly N-16, with a 7-second half-life), so the turbine hall can be entered soon after the reactor is shut down.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: BWR steam turbines employ a high-pressure turbine designed to handle saturated steam, and multiple low-pressure turbines. The high-pressure turbine receives steam directly from the reactor. The high-pressure turbine exhaust passes through a steam reheater which superheats the steam to over 400 degrees F for the low-pressure turbines to use. The exhaust of the low-pressure turbines is sent to the main condenser. The steam reheaters take some of the turbine's steam and use it as a heating source to reheat what comes out of the high-pressure turbine exhaust. While the reheaters take steam away from the turbine, the net result is that the reheaters improve the thermodynamic efficiency of the plant.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: A modern BWR fuel assembly comprises 74 to 100 fuel rods, and there are up to approximately 800 assemblies in a reactor core, holding up to approximately 140 short tons of low-enriched uranium. The number of fuel assemblies in a specific reactor is based on considerations of desired reactor power output, reactor core size and reactor power density.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: A modern reactor has many safety systems that are designed with a defence in depth philosophy, which is a design philosophy that is integrated throughout construction and commissioning.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: A BWR is similar to a pressurized water reactor (PWR) in that the reactor will continue to produce heat even after the fission reactions have stopped, which could make a core damage incident possible. This heat is produced by the radioactive decay of fission products and materials that have been activated by neutron absorption. BWRs contain multiple safety systems for cooling the core after emergency shut down.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The reactor fuel rods are occasionally replaced by moving them from the reactor pressure vessel to the spent fuel pool. A typical fuel cycle lasts 18–24 months, with about one third of fuel assemblies being replaced during a refueling outage. The remaining fuel assemblies are shuffled to new core locations to maximize the efficiency and power produced in the next fuel cycle.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Because they are hot both radioactively and thermally, this is done via cranes and under water. For this reason the spent fuel storage pools are above the reactor in typical installations. They are shielded by water several times their height, and stored in rigid arrays in which their geometry is controlled to avoid criticality. In the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster this became problematic because water was lost (as it was heated by the spent fuel) from one or more spent fuel pools and the earthquake could have altered the geometry. The fact that the fuel rods' cladding is a zirconium alloy was also problematic since this element can react with steam at temperatures above to produce hydrogen,


title: Boiling water reactor

text: which can ignite with oxygen in the air. Normally the fuel rods are kept sufficiently cool in the reactor and spent fuel pools that this is not a concern, and the cladding remains intact for the life of the rod.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The BWR concept was developed slightly later than the PWR concept. Development of the BWR started in the early 1950s, and was a collaboration between General Electric (GE) and several US national laboratories.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Research into nuclear power in the US was led by the three military services. The Navy, seeing the possibility of turning submarines into full-time underwater vehicles, and ships that could steam around the world without refueling, sent their man in engineering, Captain Hyman Rickover to run their nuclear power program. Rickover decided on the PWR route for the Navy, as the early researchers in the field of nuclear power feared that the direct production of steam within a reactor would cause instability, while they knew that the use of pressurized water would definitively work as a means of heat transfer. This concern led to the US's first research effort in nuclear power being devoted to the PWR, which was highly suited for naval vessels (submarines, especially), as space was at a premium, and PWRs could be made compact and high-power enough to fit into such vessels.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: But other researchers wanted to investigate whether the supposed instability caused by boiling water in a reactor core would really cause instability. During early reactor development, a small group of engineers accidentally increased the reactor power level on an experimental reactor to such an extent that the water quickly boiled. This shut down the reactor, indicating the useful self-moderating property in emergency circumstances. In particular, Samuel Untermyer II, a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory, proposed and oversaw a series of experiments: the BORAX experiments—to see if a "boiling water reactor" would be feasible for use in energy production. He found that it was, after subjecting his reactors to quite strenuous tests, proving the safety principles of the BWR.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Following this series of tests, GE got involved and collaborated with Argonne National Laboratory to bring this technology to market. Larger-scale tests were conducted through the late 1950s/early/mid-1960s that only partially used directly-generated (primary) nuclear boiler system steam to feed the turbine and incorporated heat exchangers for the generation of secondary steam to drive separate parts of the turbines. The literature does not indicate why this was the case, but it was eliminated on production models of the BWR.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The first generation of production boiling water reactors saw the incremental development of the unique and distinctive features of the BWR: the torus (used to quench steam in the event of a transient requiring the quenching of steam), as well as the drywell, the elimination of the heat exchanger, the steam dryer, the distinctive general layout of the reactor building, and the standardization of reactor control and safety systems. The first, General Electric (GE), series of production BWRs evolved through 6 iterative design phases, each termed BWR/1 through BWR/6. (BWR/4s, BWR/5s, and BWR/6s are the most common types in service today.) The vast majority of BWRs in service throughout the world belong to one of these design phases.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Containment variants were constructed using either concrete or steel for the Primary Containment, Drywell and Wetwell in various combinations.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Apart from the GE designs there were others by ABB (Asea-Atom), MITSU, Toshiba and KWU (Kraftwerk Union). See List of boiling water reactors.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: A newer design of BWR is known as the advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR). The ABWR was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and has been further improved to the present day. The ABWR incorporates advanced technologies in the design, including computer control, plant automation, control rod removal, motion, and insertion, in-core pumping, and nuclear safety to deliver improvements over the original series of production BWRs, with a high power output (1350 MWe per reactor), and a significantly lowered probability of core damage. Most significantly, the ABWR was a completely standardized design, that could be made for series production.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The ABWR was approved by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission for production as a standardized design in the early 1990s. Subsequently, numerous ABWRs were built in Japan. One development spurred by the success of the ABWR in Japan is that General Electric's nuclear energy division merged with Hitachi Corporation's nuclear energy division, forming GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, which is now the major worldwide developer of the BWR design.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Parallel to the development of the ABWR, General Electric also developed a different concept, known as the simplified boiling water reactor (SBWR). This smaller 600 megawatt electrical reactor was notable for its incorporation—for the first time ever in a light water reactor—of "passive safety" design principles. The concept of passive safety means that the reactor, rather than requiring the intervention of active systems, such as emergency injection pumps, to keep the reactor within safety margins, was instead designed to return to a safe state solely through operation of natural forces if a safety-related contingency developed.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: For example, if the reactor got too hot, it would trigger a system that would release soluble neutron absorbers (generally a solution of borated materials, or a solution of borax), or materials that greatly hamper a chain reaction by absorbing neutrons, into the reactor core. The tank containing the soluble neutron absorbers would be located above the reactor, and the absorption solution, once the system was triggered, would flow into the core through force of gravity, and bring the reaction to a near-complete stop. Another example was the Isolation Condenser system, which relied on the principle of hot water/steam rising to bring hot coolant into large heat exchangers located above the reactor in very deep tanks of water, thus accomplishing residual heat removal. Yet another example was the omission of recirculation pumps within the core; these pumps were used in other BWR designs to keep cooling water moving; they were expensive, hard to reach to repair, and could occasionally fail; so as to improve reliability, the ABWR incorporated no less than 10 of these recirculation pumps, so that even if several failed, a sufficient number would remain serviceable so that an unscheduled shutdown would not be necessary, and the pumps could be repaired during the next refueling outage. Instead, the designers of the "simplified boiling water reactor" used thermal analysis to design the reactor core such that natural circulation (cold water falls, hot water rises) would bring water to the center of the core to be boiled.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The ultimate result of the passive safety features of the SBWR would be a reactor that would not require human intervention in the event of a major safety contingency for at least 48 hours following the safety contingency; thence, it would only require periodic refilling of cooling water tanks located completely outside of the reactor, isolated from the cooling system, and designed to remove reactor waste heat through evaporation. The "simplified boiling water reactor" was submitted to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, however, it was withdrawn prior to approval; still, the concept remained intriguing to General Electric's designers, and served as the basis of future developments.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: During a period beginning in the late 1990s, GE engineers proposed to combine the features of the advanced boiling water reactor design with the distinctive safety features of the simplified boiling water reactor design, along with scaling up the resulting design to a larger size of 1,600 MWe (4,500 MWth). This Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) design was submitted to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval in April 2005, and design certification was granted by the NRC in September 2014.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Reportedly, this design has been advertised as having a core damage probability of only 3×10 core damage events per reactor-year. That is, there would need to be 3 million ESBWRs operating before one would expect a single core-damaging event during their 100-year lifetimes. Earlier designs of the BWR, the BWR/4, had core damage probabilities as high as 1×10 core-damage events per reactor-year. This extraordinarily low CDP for the ESBWR far exceeds the other large LWRs on the market.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Reactor start up (criticality) is achieved by withdrawing control rods from the core to raise core reactivity to a level where it is evident that the nuclear chain reaction is self-sustaining. This is known as "going critical". Control rod withdrawal is performed slowly, as to carefully monitor core conditions as the reactor approaches criticality. When the reactor is observed to become slightly super-critical, that is, reactor power is increasing on its own, the reactor is declared critical.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Rod motion is performed using rod drive control systems. Newer BWRs such as the ABWR and ESBWR as well as all German and Swedish BWRs use the Fine Motion Control Rod Drive system, which allows multiple rods to be controlled with very smooth motions. This allows a reactor operator to evenly increase the core's reactivity until the reactor is critical. Older BWR designs use a manual control system, which is usually limited to controlling one or four control rods at a time, and only through a series of notched positions with fixed intervals between these positions. Due to the limitations of the manual control system, it is possible while starting-up that the core can be placed into a condition where movement of a single control rod can cause a large nonlinear reactivity change, which could heat fuel elements to the point they fail (melt, ignite, weaken, etc.). As a result, GE developed a set of rules in 1977 called BPWS (Banked Position Withdrawal Sequence) which help minimize the effect of any single control rod movement and prevent fuel damage in the case of a control rod drop accident. BPWS separates control rods into four groups, A1, A2, B1, and B2. Then, either all of the A control rods or B control rods are pulled full out in a defined sequence to create a "checkerboard" pattern. Next, the opposing group (B or A) is pulled in a defined sequence to positions 02, then 04, 08, 16, and finally full out (48). By following a BPWS compliant start-up sequence, the manual control system can be used to evenly and safely raise the entire core to critical, and prevent any fuel rods from exceeding 280 cal/gm energy release during any postulated event which could potentially damage the fuel.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: MFLCPR, FLLHGR, and APLHGR must be kept less than 1.0 during normal operation; administrative controls are in place to assure some margin of error and margin of safety to these licensed limits. Typical computer simulations divide the reactor core into 24–25 axial planes; relevant quantities (margins, burnup, power, void history) are tracked for each "node" in the reactor core (764 fuel assemblies x 25 nodes/assembly = 19100 nodal calculations/quantity).


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Specifically, MFLCPR represents how close the leading fuel bundle is to "dry-out" (or "departure from nucleate boiling" for a PWR). Transition boiling is the unstable transient region where nucleate boiling tends toward film boiling. A water drop dancing on a hot frying pan is an example of film boiling. During film boiling a volume of insulating vapor separates the heated surface from the cooling fluid; this causes the temperature of the heated surface to increase drastically to once again reach equilibrium heat transfer with the cooling fluid. In other words, steam semi-insulates the heated surface and surface temperature rises to allow heat to get to the cooling fluid (through convection and radiative heat transfer). Nuclear fuel could be damaged by film boiling; this would cause the fuel cladding to overheat and fail.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: MFLCPR is monitored with an empirical correlation that is formulated by vendors of BWR fuel (GE, Westinghouse, AREVA-NP). The vendors have test rigs where they simulate nuclear heat with resistive heating and determine experimentally what conditions of coolant flow, fuel assembly power, and reactor pressure will be in/out of the transition boiling region for a particular fuel design. In essence, the vendors make a model of the fuel assembly but power it with resistive heaters. These mock fuel assemblies are put into a test stand where data points are taken at specific powers, flows, pressures.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: Experimental data is conservatively applied to BWR fuel to ensure that the transition to film boiling does not occur during normal or transient operation. Typical SLMCPR/MCPRSL (Safety Limit MCPR) licensing limit for a BWR core is substantiated by a calculation that proves that 99.9% of fuel rods in a BWR core will not enter the transition to film boiling during normal operation or anticipated operational occurrences. Since the BWR is boiling water, and steam does not transfer heat as well as liquid water, MFLCPR typically occurs at the top of a fuel assembly, where steam volume is the highest.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: FLLHGR (FDLRX, MFLPD) is a limit on fuel rod power in the reactor core. For new fuel, this limit is typically around 13 kW/ft (43 kW/m) of fuel rod. This limit ensures that the centerline temperature of the fuel pellets in the rods will not exceed the melting point of the fuel material (uranium/gadolinium oxides) in the event of the worst possible plant transient/scram anticipated to occur. To illustrate the response of LHGR in transient imagine the rapid closure of the valves that admit steam to the turbines at full power. This causes the immediate cessation of steam flow and an immediate rise in BWR pressure. This rise in pressure effectively subcools the reactor coolant instantaneously; the voids (vapor) collapse into solid water. When the voids collapse in the reactor, the fission reaction is encouraged (more thermal neutrons); power increases drastically (120%) until it is terminated by the automatic insertion of the control rods. So, when the reactor is isolated from the turbine rapidly, pressure in the vessel rises rapidly, which collapses the water vapor, which causes a power excursion which is terminated by the Reactor Protection System. If a fuel pin was operating at 13.0 kW/ft prior to the transient, the void collapse would cause its power to rise. The FLLHGR limit is in place to ensure that the highest powered fuel rod will not melt if its power was rapidly increased following a pressurization transient. Abiding by the LHGR limit precludes melting of fuel in a pressurization transient.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: APLHGR, being an average of the Linear Heat Generation Rate (LHGR), a measure of the decay heat present in the fuel bundles, is a margin of safety associated with the potential for fuel failure to occur during a LBLOCA (large-break loss-of-coolant accident – a massive pipe rupture leading to catastrophic loss of coolant pressure within the reactor, considered the most threatening "design basis accident" in probabilistic risk assessment and nuclear safety and security), which is anticipated to lead to the temporary exposure of the core; this core drying-out event is termed core "uncovery", for the core loses its heat-removing cover of coolant, in the case of a BWR, light water. If the core is uncovered for too long, fuel failure can occur; for the purpose of design, fuel failure is assumed to occur when the temperature of the uncovered fuel reaches a critical temperature (1100 °C, 2200 °F). BWR designs incorporate failsafe protection systems to rapidly cool and make safe the uncovered fuel prior to it reaching this temperature; these failsafe systems are known as the Emergency Core Cooling System. The ECCS is designed to rapidly flood the reactor pressure vessel, spray water on the core itself, and sufficiently cool the reactor fuel in this event. However, like any system, the ECCS has limits, in this case, to its cooling capacity, and there is a possibility that fuel could be designed that produces so much decay heat that the ECCS would be overwhelmed and could not cool it down successfully.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: So as to prevent this from happening, it is required that the decay heat stored in the fuel assemblies at any one time does not overwhelm the ECCS. As such, the measure of decay heat generation known as LHGR was developed by GE's engineers, and from this measure, APLHGR is derived. APLHGR is monitored to ensure that the reactor is not operated at an average power level that would defeat the primary containment systems. When a refueled core is licensed to operate, the fuel vendor/licensee simulate events with computer models. Their approach is to simulate worst case events when the reactor is in its most vulnerable state.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: PCIOMR is a set of rules and limits to prevent cladding damage due to pellet-clad interaction. During the first nuclear heatup, nuclear fuel pellets can crack. The jagged edges of the pellet can rub and interact with the inner cladding wall. During power increases in the fuel pellet, the ceramic fuel material expands faster than the fuel cladding, and the jagged edges of the fuel pellet begin to press into the cladding, potentially causing a perforation. To prevent this from occurring, two corrective actions were taken. The first is the inclusion of a thin barrier layer against the inner walls of the fuel cladding which are resistant to perforation due to pellet-clad interactions, and the second is a set of rules created under PCIOMR.


title: Boiling water reactor

text: The PCIOMR rules require initial "conditioning" of new fuel. This means, for the first nuclear heatup of each fuel element, that local bundle power must be ramped very slowly to prevent cracking of the fuel pellets and limit the differences in the rates of thermal expansion of the fuel. PCIOMR rules also limit the maximum local power change (in kW/ft*hr), prevent pulling control rods below the tips of adjacent control rods, and require control rod sequences to be analyzed against core modelling software to prevent pellet-clad interactions. PCIOMR analysis look at local power peaks and xenon transients which could be caused by control rod position changes or rapid power changes to ensure that local power rates never exceed maximum ratings.


title: 87North Productions

text: 87North Productions is an American film production company focused on the production of action films and founded by David Leitch and Kelly McCormick. Their credited productions include "Nobody" starring Bob Odenkirk and "Bullet Train", starring Brad Pitt which Leitch directed. In television, Leitch and McCormick have several projects in development, including "My Friend Pedro", based on the popular video game series.


title: 87North Productions

text: Under its first look deal with Universal, 87North is currently in pre-production for Leitch to direct and McCormick and Leitch to produce "The Fall Guy", a big screen take on the 1980s television show starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.


title: 87North Productions

text: On April 22, 2019, David Leitch and Kelly McCormick formed 87North Productions as a partnership with Universal Pictures, and in the process, acquired the 2021 film "Nobody" from STX Entertainment.


title: 87North Productions

text: 87North projects in development at Universal are: the action thriller sequel "Nobody 2"; "Kung Fu", a re-imagining of the 1970s martial arts Western; Versus by Alex Litvak & Michael Finch at Universal Studios. Also in development are the feature films "Ruby", a female assassin action feature written by Kat Wood for Amazon; Dakar Rally, the life story of Jutta Kleinschmidt, the first and only woman to win the brutal off-road endurance race, at Amblin. For television, Leitch and McCormick have several projects in development, including "My Friend Pedro" based on the massively popular video game.


title: Pursuit Special

text: The Pursuit Special, also referred to as the Last of the V8 Interceptors, is the iconic black GT Falcon muscle car featuring a distinctive supercharger driven by the title character Mad Max during much of the "Mad Max" franchise, where it appears in "Mad Max", "" and in "", as well as both video games.


title: Pursuit Special

text: The first car shown in the film with the title of Pursuit Special is a 1972 HQ Holden Monaro V8 coupe stolen by Nightrider (played by Vince Gil), an escaped cop killer, who dies in an accident that destroys the vehicle. The more famous Pursuit Special is a heavily modified Ford Falcon XB GT, built on a vehicle originally assembled stock at the Ford plant in November 1973. Maxwell "Mad Max" Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is offered the black Pursuit Special, as an incentive to stay on the force as their top pursuit man after he reveals his desire to resign. Although Max turns the offer down, he later uses the black car to exact his revenge on an outlaw motorcycle gang who killed his wife and son.


title: Pursuit Special

text: The vehicle started out as a standard white Australian built 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT Hardtop when in 1976, filmmakers Byron Kennedy and George Miller began preproduction on "Mad Max". The movie's art director Jon Dowding designed the Interceptor and commissioned Melbourne-based car customizers Graf-X International to modify the GT Falcon. Peter Arcadipane, Ray Beckerley, John Evans, and painter Rod Smythe transformed the car as specified for the film.


title: Pursuit Special

text: The main modifications are the black paint scheme, roof and boot spoilers, wheel arch flares, and front nose cone and air-dam designed by Arcadipane (marketed as the "Concorde" style). Also, eight individual exhaust side pipes were added (only two of them being functional, others appeared to be working because of the vibrations the first two created). The most famous feature of the car is a Weiand 6-71 supercharger protruding through the bonnet. The impressive looking supercharger, in reality, was nonfunctional; functional superchargers are typically driven constantly by the engine and cannot be switched on and off, as portrayed in the first two "Mad Max" films.


title: Pursuit Special

text: At the completion of filming, the producers could not pay all the creditors, so the black Interceptor was put up for sale. The blower and side pipes were removed to make it suitable for use as a road vehicle. It was then used as a promotional car for the film, before finally being put up for sale. However the car did not sell and was passed on to part-time actor and motor mechanic Murray Smith, who was the head mechanic for the movie's production team, as payment for his services.


title: Pursuit Special

text: In the meantime, the low-budget Australian film had gained worldwide success, prompting a sequel, "Mad Max 2". For the film, the Pursuit Special was reacquired by Kennedy and Miller.


title: Pursuit Special

text: The rear wheels and side pipes were changed. For the second film, the original Weiand blower, which was removed and subsequently lost, was replaced. Unlike in the first film, this time the supercharger was functional (connected directly to the engine's crankshaft pulley) and the effect of the blower being engaged or disengaged was created by placing the vehicle on a low loader, and while in motion, the interceptor's engine was simply started or stopped. The car was cosmetically modified for the new post-apocalyptic setting with the addition of a pair of large cylindrical fuel tanks fitted in the rear (requiring the back window and boot lid to be removed) and its general appearance was given a more used look by painting the vehicle in matte rather than gloss black, and the paint was scrubbed off to appear rusty. The front end was also modified by removing the air dam. A duplicate car was also put together for the film. When the script required it to be destroyed by rolling down an embankment and eventually exploding, the duplicate interceptor was used, leaving the original vehicle intact.


title: Pursuit Special

text: When production was completed, the intact Pursuit Special was sold to a wrecking yard in Broken Hill, along with other wrecks from the movie. The GT Falcon was then onsold to another wrecker in South Australia and in the mid-1980s, the car was rescued by Bob Fursenko, who restored the interceptor by having a new nose cone and air dam fitted, but retaining the fuel tanks from "Mad Max 2". Fursenko confirmed the vehicle's authenticity with Kennedy Miller. It was subsequently shown widely in Australia before being sold by Fursenko and shipped to the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in England, where it stayed until its closure in 2011. It was then relocated to the Dezer Car Museum in Miami, Florida.


title: Pursuit Special

text: While the Pursuit Special did not appear in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", the vehicle returned for the fourth film in the franchise, "". Miller stated, "all the vehicles are kind of hybrid, cobbled together, from the wrecks of the past." The vehicle only features briefly in the film; it is captured along with Max in the opening sequence, and is shown being repaired by a group of Immortan Joe's followers. It returns in the final battle, driven by one of the War Boys, only to be crushed between two larger vehicles. When asked in an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter" if "Fury Road" is a reboot or sequel, George Miller implied that it may not be, saying that "the films are loosely connected." However, the to the film, for which Miller received a story credit, places it after "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome".


title: Pursuit Special

text: On screen, Pursuit Specials are unique, undercover police cruisers which also serve as interceptors. At the opening of the first movie in the series, the only Pursuit Special is a 1972 HQ model Holden Monaro, which is rusty and used. It is stolen by the Night Rider, a member of a motorcycle gang called the Zed Runners (also known as the Acolytes), while escaping police custody, and is later wrecked.


title: Pursuit Special

text: Pursuit Special, when the term is used, generally refers to Max's more famous V8 Interceptor Pursuit Special, a 1973 Ford XB Falcon GT 351, commissioned at great expense by Police Commissioner Labatouche and the Main Force Patrol's (MFP) commander, Fifi Macaffee. Assembled by the MFP's mechanic, Barry, it features port exhaust pipes and a Weiand "blower" supercharger (nonfunctional film props). When Max's family is murdered by the gang, he steals the Pursuit Special from the MFP garage and goes on a vengeful rampage.


title: Pursuit Special

text: In "Mad Max 2", set roughly five years after the events of the previous film, the Pursuit Special has suffered from the effects of the desert: it loses the front end early in the first chase sequence of the film (as Max forcefully rear-ends a raider vehicle), the car is rusty, and the tires appear to be in a poor state. The car itself has been modified, presumably by Max: the rear window and the boot lid have been removed to make room for two huge fuel tanks. (With a capacity of over of petrol, these would have significantly improved the vehicle's range.) The car only appears at the beginning of the movie, where Max escapes a group of raiders, then rescues a mortally wounded member of an oil rig settlement; and then again later, when it is destroyed during Max's failed attempt to escape the settlement.


title: Pursuit Special

text: The Pursuit Special returns in "Mad Max: Fury Road". The movie never explains its reappearance; however, the "Fury Road" comic series, set just before the movie, includes a story arc where Max gathers parts to rebuild the vehicle before the events of "Fury Road". The car is shown very briefly in the movie, having been driven by Max before it is destroyed by Immortan Joe's men. It is then repaired by Joe's War Boys, taken back to bare metal, giving it a silver appearance. It is then redubbed the 'Razor Cola' and used as one of their vehicles. It is destroyed by being crushed between two larger trucks.


title: Pursuit Special

text: In the 2015 video game, Immortan Joe's son, Scabrous Scrotus, is a warlord of Gastown (the settlement referred to in "Fury Road"). His men steal the Pursuit Special (referred to as the 'Black-on-Black' in the game) from Max at the start of the game and dismantle it. Max spends time with Chumbucket, an expert mechanic, building a replacement throughout the game known as "the Magnum Opus", so he may cross the Plains of Silence, a barren stretch of salt flats that Max believes will relieve him of his nightmarish memories. In the final battle of the game, the Opus, now on par with the Interceptor, is destroyed along with both Scrotus' Land Mover, and the designer/caretaker of the Opus, Chumbucket. Max thinks he is now without a car, only to have Scrotus emerge with Max's Interceptor. After dispatching the warlord, Max reclaims his car, returns the picture of his family to the dashboard, and drives off into the wasteland.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: Diatomic molecules () are molecules composed of only two atoms, of the same or different chemical elements. If a diatomic molecule consists of two atoms of the same element, such as hydrogen () or oxygen (), then it is said to be homonuclear. Otherwise, if a diatomic molecule consists of two different atoms, such as carbon monoxide () or nitric oxide (), the molecule is said to be heteronuclear. The bond in a homonuclear diatomic molecule is non-polar.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: The only chemical elements that form stable homonuclear diatomic molecules at standard temperature and pressure (STP) (or typical laboratory conditions of 1 bar and 25 °C) are the gases hydrogen (), nitrogen (), oxygen (), fluorine (), and chlorine ().


title: Diatomic molecule

text: The noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon) are also gases at STP, but they are monatomic. The homonuclear diatomic gases and noble gases together are called "elemental gases" or "molecular gases", to distinguish them from other gases that are chemical compounds.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: At slightly elevated temperatures, the halogens bromine () and iodine () also form diatomic gases. All halogens have been observed as diatomic molecules, except for astatine and tennessine, which are uncertain.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: Other elements form diatomic molecules when evaporated, but these diatomic species repolymerize when cooled. Heating ("cracking") elemental phosphorus gives diphosphorus (). Sulfur vapor is mostly disulfur (). Dilithium () and disodium () are known in the gas phase. Ditungsten () and dimolybdenum () form with sextuple bonds in the gas phase. Dirubidium () is diatomic.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: All other diatomic molecules are chemical compounds of two different elements. Many elements can combine to form heteronuclear diatomic molecules, depending on temperature and pressure.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: Many 1:1 binary compounds are not normally considered diatomic because they are polymeric at room temperature, but they form diatomic molecules when evaporated, for example gaseous MgO, SiO, and many others.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: Hundreds of diatomic molecules have been identified in the environment of the Earth, in the laboratory, and in interstellar space. About 99% of the Earth's atmosphere is composed of two species of diatomic molecules: nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). The natural abundance of hydrogen (H) in the Earth's atmosphere is only of the order of parts per million, but H is the most abundant diatomic molecule in the universe. The interstellar medium is dominated by hydrogen atoms.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: All diatomic molecules are linear and characterized by a single parameter which is the bond length or distance between the two atoms. Diatomic nitrogen has a triple bond, diatomic oxygen has a double bond, and diatomic hydrogen, fluorine, chlorine, iodine, and bromine all have single bonds.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: Diatomic elements played an important role in the elucidation of the concepts of element, atom, and molecule in the 19th century, because some of the most common elements, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, occur as diatomic molecules. John Dalton's original atomic hypothesis assumed that all elements were monatomic and that the atoms in compounds would normally have the simplest atomic ratios with respect to one another. For example, Dalton assumed water's formula to be HO, giving the atomic weight of oxygen as eight times that of hydrogen, instead of the modern value of about 16. As a consequence, confusion existed regarding atomic weights and molecular formulas for about half a century.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: As early as 1805, Gay-Lussac and von Humboldt showed that water is formed of two volumes of hydrogen and one volume of oxygen, and by 1811 Amedeo Avogadro had arrived at the correct interpretation of water's composition, based on what is now called Avogadro's law and the assumption of diatomic elemental molecules. However, these results were mostly ignored until 1860, partly due to the belief that atoms of one element would have no chemical affinity toward atoms of the same element, and also partly due to apparent exceptions to Avogadro's law that were not explained until later in terms of dissociating molecules.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: At the 1860 Karlsruhe Congress on atomic weights, Cannizzaro resurrected Avogadro's ideas and used them to produce a consistent table of atomic weights, which mostly agree with modern values. These weights were an important prerequisite for the discovery of the periodic law by Dmitri Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: Diatomic molecules are normally in their lowest or ground state, which conventionally is also known as the formula_1 state. When a gas of diatomic molecules is bombarded by energetic electrons, some of the molecules may be excited to higher electronic states, as occurs, for example, in the natural aurora; high-altitude nuclear explosions; and rocket-borne electron gun experiments. Such excitation can also occur when the gas absorbs light or other electromagnetic radiation. The excited states are unstable and naturally relax back to the ground state. Over various short time scales after the excitation (typically a fraction of a second, or sometimes longer than a second if the excited state is metastable), transitions occur from higher to lower electronic states and ultimately to the ground state, and in each transition results a photon is emitted. This emission is known as fluorescence. Successively higher electronic states are conventionally named formula_2, formula_3, formula_4, etc. (but this convention is not always followed, and sometimes lower case letters and alphabetically out-of-sequence letters are used, as in the example given below). The excitation energy must be greater than or equal to the energy of the electronic state in order for the excitation to occur.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: In quantum theory, an electronic state of a diatomic molecule is represented by the molecular term symbol


title: Diatomic molecule

text: where formula_6 is the total electronic spin quantum number, formula_7 is the total electronic angular momentum quantum number along the internuclear axis, and formula_8 is the vibrational quantum number. formula_7 takes on values 0, 1, 2, ..., which are represented by the electronic state symbols formula_10, formula_11, formula_12...


title: Diatomic molecule

text: For example, the following table lists the common electronic states (without vibrational quantum numbers) along with the energy of the lowest vibrational level (formula_13) of diatomic nitrogen (N), the most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: The subscripts and superscripts after formula_7 give additional quantum mechanical details about the electronic state. The superscript formula_15 or formula_16 determines whether reflection in a plane containing the internuclear axis introduces a sign change in the wavefunction. The sub-script formula_17 or formula_18 applies to molecules of identical atoms, and when reflecting the state along a plane perpendicualr to the molecular axis, states that does not change are labelled formula_17 (gerade), and states that change sign are labelled formula_18 (ungerade).


title: Diatomic molecule

text: The aforementioned fluorescence occurs in distinct regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, called "emission bands": each band corresponds to a particular transition from a higher electronic state and vibrational level to a lower electronic state and vibrational level (typically, many vibrational levels are involved in an excited gas of diatomic molecules). For example, N formula_2-formula_1 emission bands (a.k.a. Vegard-Kaplan bands) are present in the spectral range from 0.14 to 1.45 μm (micrometres). A given band can be spread out over several nanometers in electromagnetic wavelength space, owing to the various transitions that occur in the molecule's rotational quantum number, formula_23. These are classified into distinct sub-band branches, depending on the change in formula_23. The formula_25 branch corresponds to formula_26, the formula_27 branch to formula_28, and the formula_29 branch to formula_30. Bands are spread out even further by the limited spectral resolution of the spectrometer that is used to measure the spectrum. The spectral resolution depends on the instrument's point spread function.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: The molecular term symbol is a shorthand expression of the angular momenta that characterize the electronic quantum states of a diatomic molecule, which are also eigenstates of the electronic molecular Hamiltonian. It is also convenient, and common, to represent a diatomic molecule as two-point masses connected by a massless spring. The energies involved in the various motions of the molecule can then be broken down into three categories: the translational, rotational, and vibrational energies.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: Concerning history, the first treatment of diatomic molecules with quantum mechanics was made by Lucy Mensing in 1926.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: For microscopic, atomic-level systems like a molecule, angular momentum can only have specific discrete values given by


title: Diatomic molecule

text: So, substituting the angular momentum and moment of inertia into E, the rotational energy levels of a diatomic molecule are given by:


title: Diatomic molecule

text: Another type of motion of a diatomic molecule is for each atom to oscillate—or vibrate—along the line connecting the two atoms. The vibrational energy is approximately that of a quantum harmonic oscillator:


title: Diatomic molecule

text: The spacing, and the energy of a typical spectroscopic transition, between vibrational energy levels is about 100 times greater than that of a typical transition between rotational energy levels.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: The good quantum numbers for a diatomic molecule, as well as good approximations of rotational energy levels, can be obtained by modeling the molecule using Hund's cases.


title: Diatomic molecule

text: The mnemonics "BrINClHOF", pronounced "Brinklehof", "HONClBrIF", pronounced "Honkelbrif", and "HOFBrINCl", pronounced "Hofbrinkle", have been coined to aid recall of the list of diatomic elements. Another method, for English-speakers, is the sentence: ""Never Have Fear of Ice Cold Beer"" as a representation of Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Fluorine, Oxygen, Iodine, Chlorine, Bromine.


title: Darren James

text: Darren James (born Darren Keith Edwards; February 25, 1964) is an American former pornographic actor and director. He gained notoriety after he contracted HIV and infected three pornographic actresses in 2004.


title: Darren James

text: In an attempt to prevent a possible outbreak, an urgent search was initiated for potentially infected performers. The search and subsequent testing were conducted by the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, where James had received his diagnosis. It was concluded that James had possibly been infected while engaging in unprotected anal sex with Brazilian actress Bianca Biaggi during a scene for the video "Split That Booty 2" in Rio de Janeiro.


title: Darren James

text: It was discovered that three actresses who had worked with James shortly after his return to the United States had also become infected: Canadian newcomer Lara Roxx, American Mareisa Arroyo, and Czech-born Jessica Dee. Roxx had entered the adult industry only two months before contracting the virus. Upon learning about the HIV outbreak, she has said, "It totally made me realize how I trusted this system that wasn't to be trusted at all, because it obviously doesn't work," and "I thought porn people were the cleanest people in the world."


title: Darren James

text: Judy Star appeared in several movies Roxx also appeared in and was known to have performed a sex scene with a female actress who had performed a scene with James. Star, however, tested negative for HIV. The ensuing fears of HIV infection (as well as the public scandal and criticism of the industry that followed the outbreak) caused a temporary shutdown of production of adult movies in Southern California.


title: Darren James

text: According to James, his diagnosis and the public disclosure thereof — which was how his family learned of his pornographic career — left him so distraught that he attempted suicide. After his recovery, he sued the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation for publicly disclosing his condition. The lawsuit was settled out of court, with terms remaining confidential. James went on to find employment as a security guard. In 2005, the porn industry shutdown was the subject of the first episode of "The Dark Side of Porn", a British documentary series produced for Channel 4.


title: Darren James

text: James has remained very vocal about the incident and about adult filmmakers' continuing their habits "as usual". He is a staunch advocate of the mandatory use of condoms on porn sets to protect performers from HIV. Canadian documentary filmmaker Mia Donovan made a documentary film "Inside Lara Roxx" (2011), after following Roxx's life for five years, with candid interviews and documentation, in addition to footage from Darren James.


title: Therapeutic index

text: The therapeutic index (TI; also referred to as therapeutic ratio) is a quantitative measurement of the relative safety of a drug. It is a comparison of the amount of a therapeutic agent that causes the therapeutic effect to the amount that causes toxicity. The related terms therapeutic window or safety window refer to a range of doses which optimize between efficacy and toxicity, achieving the greatest therapeutic benefit without resulting in unacceptable side-effects or toxicity.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Classically, in an established clinical indication setting of an approved drug, TI refers to the ratio of the dose of drug that causes adverse effects at an incidence/severity not compatible with the targeted indication (e.g. toxic dose in 50% of subjects, TD) to the dose that leads to the desired pharmacological effect (e.g. efficacious dose in 50% of subjects, ED). In contrast, in a drug development setting TI is calculated based on plasma exposure levels.


title: Therapeutic index

text: In the early days of pharmaceutical toxicology, TI was frequently determined in animals as lethal dose of a drug for 50% of the population (LD) divided by the minimum effective dose for 50% of the population (ED). Today, more sophisticated toxicity endpoints are used.


title: Therapeutic index

text: For many drugs, there are severe toxicities that occur at sublethal doses in humans, and these toxicities often limit the maximum dose of a drug. A higher therapeutic index is preferable to a lower one: a patient would have to take a much higher dose of such a drug to reach the toxic threshold than the dose taken to elicit the therapeutic effect.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Generally, a drug or other therapeutic agent with a narrow therapeutic range (i.e. having little difference between toxic and therapeutic doses) may have its dosage adjusted according to measurements of the actual blood levels achieved in the person taking it. This may be achieved through therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) protocols. TDM is recommended for use in the treatment of psychiatric disorders with lithium due to its narrow therapeutic range.


title: Therapeutic index

text: A high therapeutic index (TI) is preferable for a drug to have a favorable safety and efficacy profile. At early discovery/development stage, the clinical TI of a drug candidate is not known. However, understanding the preliminary TI of a drug candidate is of utmost importance as early as possible since TI is an important indicator of the probability of the successful development of a drug. Recognizing drug candidates with potentially suboptimal TI at earliest possible stage helps to initiate mitigation or potentially re-deploy resources.


title: Therapeutic index

text: In a drug development setting, TI is the quantitative relationship between efficacy (pharmacology) and safety (toxicology), without considering the nature of pharmacological or toxicological endpoints themselves. However, to convert a calculated TI to something that is more than just a number, the nature and limitations of pharmacological and/or toxicological endpoints must be considered. Depending on the intended clinical indication, the associated unmet medical need and/or the competitive situation, more or less weight can be given to either the safety or efficacy of a drug candidate with the aim to create a well balanced indication-specific safety vs efficacy profile.


title: Therapeutic index

text: In general, it is the exposure of a given tissue to drug (i.e. drug concentration over time), rather than dose, that drives the pharmacological and toxicological effects. For example, at the same dose there may be marked inter-individual variability in exposure due to polymorphisms in metabolism, DDIs or differences in body weight or environmental factors. These considerations emphasize the importance of using exposure rather than dose for calculating TI. To account for delays between exposure and toxicity, the TI for toxicities that occur after multiple dose administrations should be calculated using the exposure to drug at steady state rather than after administration of a single dose.


title: Therapeutic index

text: A review published by Muller and Milton in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery critically discusses the various aspects of TI determination and interpretation in a translational drug development setting for both small molecules and biotherapeutics.


title: Therapeutic index

text: For instance, the opioid painkiller remifentanil is very forgiving, offering a therapeutic index of 33,000:1, while Diazepam, a benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotic and skeletal muscle relaxant, has a less forgiving therapeutic index of 100:1. Morphine is even less so with a therapeutic index of 70. Paracetamol, also known by its common trade name Tylenol, has a therapeutic index of 10.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Less safe are cocaine (a stimulant and local anaesthetic) and ethanol (colloquially, the "alcohol" in alcoholic beverages, a widely available sedative consumed worldwide): the therapeutic indices for these substances are 15:1 and 10:1, respectively.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Even less safe are drugs such as digoxin, a cardiac glycoside; its therapeutic index is approximately 2:1.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Other examples of drugs with a narrow therapeutic range, which may require drug monitoring both to achieve therapeutic levels and to minimize toxicity, include dimercaprol, theophylline, warfarin and lithium carbonate.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Some antibiotics and antifungals require monitoring to balance efficacy with minimizing adverse effects, including: gentamicin, vancomycin, amphotericin B (nicknamed 'amphoterrible' for this very reason), and polymyxin B.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Radiotherapy aims to minimize the size of tumors and kill cancer cells with high energy. The source of high energy arises from x-rays, gamma rays, charged particles and heavy particles. The therapeutic ratio in radiotherapy for cancer treatment is related to the maximum radiation dose by which death of cancer cells is locally controlled and the minimum radiation dose by which cells in normal tissues have low acute and late morbidity. Both of these parameters have sigmoidal dose-response curves. Thus, a favorable outcome in dose-response curve is the response of tumor tissue is greater than that of normal tissue to the same dose, meaning that the treatment is effective to tumors and does not cause serious morbidity to normal tissue. Reversely, overlapping response of two tissues is highly likely to cause serious morbidity to normal tissue and ineffective treatment to tumors. The mechanism of radiation therapy is categorized into direct and indirect radiation. Both direct and indirect radiations induce DNA to have a mutation or chromosomal rearrangement during its repair process. Direct radiation creates a free DNA radical from radiation energy deposition that damages DNA. Indirect radiation occurs from radiolysis of water, creating a free hydroxyl radical, hydronium and electron. Then, hydroxyl radical transfers its radical to DNA. Or together with hydronium and electron, a free hydroxyl radical can damage base region of DNA.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Cancer cells have imbalance of signals in cell cycle. G1 and G2/M arrest are found to be major checkpoints by irradiation in human cells. G1 arrest delays repair mechanism before synthesis of DNA in S phase and mitosis in M phase, suggesting key checkpoint to lead survival of cells. G2/M arrest occurs when cells need to repair after S phase before the mitotic entry. It was also known that S phase is the most resistant to radiation and M phase was the most sensitive to radiation. p53, a tumor suppressor protein that plays a role in G1 and G2/M arrest, enabled the understanding of the cell cycle by radiation. For example, irradiation to myeloid leukemia cell leads to an increase in p53 and a decrease in the level of DNA synthesis. Patients with Ataxia telangiectasia delays have hypersensitivity to radiation due to the delay of accumulation of p53. In this case, cells are able to replicate without repair of their DNA, prone to incidence of cancer. Most cells are in G1 and S phase and irradiation at G2 phase showed increased radiosensitivity and thus G1 arrest has been on focus for therapeutic treatment.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Irradiation to a tissue creates response to both irradiated and non-irridiated cells. It was found that even cells up to 50–75 cell diameter distant from irradiated cells have phenotype of enhanced genetic instability such as micronucleation. This suggests the effect of cell-to-cell communication such as paracrine and juxtacrine signaling. Normal cells do not lose their DNA repair mechanism whereas cancer cells often lose it during radiotherapy. However, the nature of high energy radiation can override the ability of damaged normal cells to repair, leading to cause another risk for carcinogenesis. This suggests a significant risk associated with radiation therapy. Thus, it is desirable to improve the therapeutic ratio during radiotherapy. Employing IG-IMRT, protons and heavy ions are likely to minimize dose to normal tissues by altered fractionation. Molecular targeting to DNA repair pathway can lead to radiosensitization or radioprotection. Examples are direct and indirect inhibitors on DNA double-strand breaks. Direct inhibitors target proteins (PARP family) and kinases (ATM, DNA-PKCs) that are involved in DNA repair. Indirect inhibitors target protein tumor cell signaling proteins such as EGFR and insulin growth factor.


title: Therapeutic index

text: The effective therapeutic index can be affected by targeting, in which the therapeutic agent is concentrated in its area of effect. For example, in radiation therapy for cancerous tumors, shaping the radiation beam precisely to the profile of a tumor in the "beam's eye view" can increase the delivered dose without increasing toxic effects, though such shaping might not change the therapeutic index. Similarly, chemotherapy or radiotherapy with infused or injected agents can be made more efficacious by attaching the agent to an oncophilic substance, as is done in peptide receptor radionuclide therapy for neuroendocrine tumors and in chemoembolization or radioactive microspheres therapy for liver tumors and metastases. This concentrates the agent in the targeted tissues and lowers its concentration in others, increasing efficacy and lowering toxicity.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Sometimes the term safety ratio is used instead, particularly when referring to psychoactive drugs used for non-therapeutic purposes, e.g. recreational use. In such cases, the "effective" dose is the amount and frequency that produces the "desired" effect, which can vary, and can be greater or less than the therapeutically effective dose.


title: Therapeutic index

text: The "Certain Safety Factor", also referred to as the "Margin of Safety (MOS)", is the ratio of the lethal dose to 1% of population to the effective dose to 99% of the population (LD/ED). This is a better safety index than the LD for materials that have both desirable and undesirable effects, because it factors in the ends of the spectrum where doses may be necessary to produce a response in one person but can, at the same dose, be lethal in another.


title: Therapeutic index

text: A therapeutic index does not consider drug interactions or synergistic effects. For example, the risk associated with benzodiazepines increases significantly when taken with alcohol, opiates, or stimulants when compared with being taken alone. Therapeutic index also does not take into account the ease or difficulty of reaching a toxic or lethal dose. This is more of a consideration for recreational drug users, as the purity can be highly variable.


title: Therapeutic index

text: The protective index is a similar concept, except that it uses TD (median "toxic" dose) in place of LD. For many substances, toxic effects can occur at levels far below those needed to cause death, and thus the protective index (if toxicity is properly specified) is often more informative about a substance's relative safety. Nevertheless, the therapeutic index is still useful as it can be considered an upper bound for the protective index, and the former also has the advantages of objectivity and easier comprehension.


title: Therapeutic index

text: The "therapeutic window" (or pharmaceutical window) of a drug is the range of drug dosages which can treat disease effectively without having toxic effects. Medication with a small therapeutic window must be administered with care and control, frequently measuring blood concentration of the drug, to avoid harm. Medications with narrow therapeutic windows include theophylline, digoxin, lithium, and warfarin.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Optimal biological dose (OBD) is the quantity of a drug that will most effectively produce the desired effect while remaining in the range of acceptable toxicity.


title: Therapeutic index

text: The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) refers to the highest dose of a radiological or pharmacological treatment that will produce the desired effect without unacceptable toxicity. The purpose of administering MTD is to determine whether long-term exposure to a chemical might lead to unacceptable adverse health effects in a population, when the level of exposure is not sufficient to cause premature mortality due to short-term toxic effects. The maximum dose is used, rather than a lower dose, to reduce the number of test subjects (and, among other things, the cost of testing), to detect an effect that might occur only rarely. This type of analysis is also used in establishing chemical residue tolerances in foods. Maximum tolerated dose studies are also done in clinical trials.


title: Therapeutic index

text: MTD is an essential aspect of a drug's profile. All modern healthcare systems dictate a maximum safe dose for each drug, and generally have numerous safeguards (e.g. insurance quantity limits and government-enforced maximum quantity/time-frame limits) to prevent the prescription and dispensing of quantities exceeding the highest dosage which has been demonstrated to be safe for members of the general patient population.


title: Therapeutic index

text: Patients are often unable to tolerate the theoretical MTD of a drug due to the occurrence of side-effects which are not innately a manifestation of toxicity (not considered to severely threaten a patient's health) but cause the patient sufficient distress and/or discomfort to result in non-compliance with treatment. Such examples include emotional "blunting" with antidepressants, pruritus with opiates, and blurred vision with anticholinergics.


title: Bear spray

text: Bear spray is a specific aerosol spray bear deterrent, whose active ingredients are highly irritant capsaicin and related capsaicinoids, that is used to deter aggressive or charging bears.


title: Bear spray

text: Capsaicin bear spray was developed in the mid-1980s under principal investigator Carrie Hunt, a University of Montana graduate student working under the supervision of Dr. Charles Jonkel and Dr. Bart O'Gara. Hunt had identified commercial pepper sprays as an effective deterrent for bears in previous research; however, they were unreliable and required close proximity. Hunt's thesis was published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1984. Bill Pounds, who eventually founded Counter Assault bear spray, assisted Hunt and offered to help devise a prototype for a reliable aerosol bear spray canister for Hunt's research. They developed a bear spray formula with a spray range of over 30 feet (9 meters) and a spray time of over 7 seconds. Pounds played an important part in developing the ingredients, the dispersal system, and the recommended specifications of bear spray. The product produced by the company he founded, Counter Assault, became the first Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered aerosol bear spray.


title: Bear spray

text: Bear spray is intended to deter an aggressive or charging bear; a user points the canister at an aggressive bear and sprays the contents for 2–3 seconds. The maximum range of sprays by different manufacturers varies, but they are reported to be effective when sprayed at a charging or aggressive bear from a distance of .


title: Bear spray

text: Bear spray is a very effective deterrent when used properly. In a 2008 review of bear attacks in Alaska from 1985–2006, Smith et al. found that bear spray stopped a bear's "undesirable behavior" in 92% of cases. Further, 98% of persons using bear spray in close-range encounters escaped uninjured.


title: Bear spray

text: The efficacy of bear spray depends on the situation and circumstances of the attack. In the 2008 study, Tom Smith of Brigham Young University reported, "No bear spray has ever been reported to kill a bear. It is our belief that widespread use of bear spray will promote human safety and bear conservation." On the other hand, latent spray (on an object) has also led to the attraction of bears, which usually end up with the bear destroying the spray-covered object.


title: Bear spray

text: A United States Geological Survey article, "Bear Spray Safety Program," says that bear spray is effective in fending off aggressive bears while also preventing injury to both the human and the bear. It also states, "No deterrent is 100-percent effective." In "Living with Grizzlies," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states, "The Service supports the pepper spray policy of the Interagency Grizzly bear Committee, which states that bear spray is not a substitute for following proper bear avoidance safety techniques, and that bear spray should be used as a deterrent only in an aggressive or attacking confrontation with a bear."


title: Bear spray

text: Studies suggest that bear spray is effective at reducing the risk of injury or death in these situations. While bear spray can be effective, authorities stress that proper bear-awareness and avoidance techniques are the best ways to minimize injuries due to human–bear conflict.


title: Bear spray

text: It should be understood, however, that the absolute risk from bears—even in grizzly (brown bear) country—is so low that bear spray cannot much decrease that risk. Bears are known to fatally attack only a relatively small number of backpackers in North America every decade, out of many millions—for instance, about 45,000 backcountry backpackers camp overnight in Yellowstone per year, roughly half of whom (48 percent) do not carry bear spray.


title: Bear spray

text: Bear spray is legal across the United States. It can be purchased even in Hawaii, New York, or Massachusetts, where standard pepper sprays are illegal unless bought locally by certified firearms dealers or pharmacists. In Canada, while legal for use against bears, bear spray is a prohibited weapon if intended to be used against humans.


title: Bear spray

text: While bear spray is illegal in some U.S. National Parks, visitors to the backcountry areas of Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks are encouraged to carry it. However, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources website notes that "Most people who hike in Alaska's wilderness don't carry a weapon. They know that the best defense is common sense. Traveling and camping carefully are all that they need." but goes on to advise those seeking greater protection to opt for bear spray, saying "This incapacitating spray teaches bears a lesson without permanently maiming them."


title: Bear spray

text: Bear sprays are considered a pesticide in the U.S. and must be registered with the EPA. The capsaicin in products sold in the U.S. are regulated by the EPA, under the FIFRA act by Congress.


title: Steven Erikson

text: Steve Rune Lundin (born October 7, 1959), known by his pseudonym Steven Erikson, is a Canadian novelist who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist.


title: Steven Erikson

text: He is best known for his ten-volume spanning epic fantasy series "Malazan Book of the Fallen", which began with the publication of "Gardens of the Moon" (1999) and was completed with the publication of "The Crippled God" (2011). By 2012 over 1 million copies of the series had been sold worldwide, and over 3 million copies by 2018. "SF Site" has called the series "the most significant work of epic fantasy since Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant," and "Fantasy Book Review" described it as "the best fantasy series of recent times." Fellow author Glen Cook has called the series a masterwork, while Stephen R. Donaldson has praised him for his approach to the fantasy genre.


title: Steven Erikson

text: Set in the Malazan world, Erikson has written a prequel trilogy, "The Kharkanas Trilogy", seven novellas, a short story, and is currently working on a sequel trilogy, the first book of which, titled The God is Not Willing, was published in 2021.


title: Steven Erikson

text: His foray into science fiction has produced a comedic trilogy, the "Willful Child Trilogy", a spoof on "Star Trek" and other tropes common in the genre, and a First Contact novel titled "Rejoice, a Knife To the Heart", published in 2018.


title: Steven Erikson

text: Steven Rune Lundin was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He subsequently lived in the UK with his wife and son, but has since returned to Canada. He is an anthropologist and archaeologist by training and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. For his thesis at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Erikson wrote a "story cycle" of short stories titled "A Ruin of Feathers" about an archaeologist in Central America. Subsequently, he received a grant to finish the work which was published by TSAR, a small Canadian publishing house. For his next work he co-won the Anvil Press International 3-Day Novel Contest for which he signed away the rights, a mistake he attributes to inexperience. Erikson's third book was also published by TSAR, and consisted of a novella and short stories titled "Revolvo and other Canadian Tales". Later, upon moving to England, he sold what he refers to as his "first real novel" to Hodder and Stoughton — "This River Awakens" — written when he still lived in Winnipeg. Before assuming the pseudonym Erikson (as an homage to his mother's maiden name), he published his first four books, out of print , under his real name. In addition to writing, he paints using oil paints.


title: Steven Erikson

text: Erikson has stated that apart from examining the "human condition", all his literary work share "compassion" as a theme, or main driving force.


title: Steven Erikson

text: Furthermore, when envisioning the Malazan world, both he and his collaborator Ian Cameron Esslemont agreed to create societies and cultures that never knew sexism and gender based hierarchies of power.


title: Steven Erikson

text: Erikson has stated explicitly that he enjoys playing with and overturning the conventions of fantasy, presenting characters that violate the stereotypes associated with their roles. They embody the multidimensional characteristics found in human beings, making them more realistic and giving the story more depth, which is why his books are anything but predictable. He deliberately began "Gardens of the Moon" mid-plot rather than beginning with a more conventional narrative. The writer's style of writing includes complex plots with masses of characters. In addition, he has been praised for his willingness to kill central characters when it enhances the plot.


title: Steven Erikson

text: The first novel of the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series, "Gardens of the Moon" (1999), was well received. It was short-listed for a World Fantasy Award. It has also earned Erikson the reputation as one of the best authors in the fantasy genre, and was described as "An astounding début". The novel was acclaimed for its "combination of originality and intelligent, strong and exciting storytelling". The second book in the series, "Deadhouse Gates" (2000), was voted one of the ten best fantasy novels of 2000 by "SF Site".


title: Steven Erikson

text: Fellow author Glen Cook has called the series a masterwork of the imagination that may be the high water mark of the epic fantasy genre. In his treatise written for "The New York Review of Science Fiction", fellow author Stephen R. Donaldson has also praised Erikson for his approach to the fantasy genre, the subversion of classical tropes, the complex characterizations, the social commentary — pointing explicitly to parallels between the fictional Letheras Economy and the US Economy — and has referred to him as "an extraordinary writer", comparing him to the likes of Joseph Conrad, Henry James, William Faulkner, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.


title: Steven Erikson

text: Erikson attributes paper and pen Role-Playing games, specifically AD&D and GURPS, as being the biggest influence in his writing career, and even calls it the fundament of the Malazan Empire, from his "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series, is based on. Stephen R. Donaldson's, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Glen Cook's The Black Company, both ushering post-Tolkien style of writing, are some of the works that have influenced his storytelling. He also credits the works of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Homer, Arthur C. Clarke, Roger Zelazny, John Gardner, Gustav Hasford, Mark Helprin and Robin Hobb as influences on the Malazan works.


title: Narmer Palette

text: The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, belonging, at least nominally, to the category of cosmetic palettes. It contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. The tablet is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer. Along with the Scorpion Macehead and the Narmer Maceheads, also found together in the main deposit at Nekhen, the Narmer Palette provides one of the earliest known depictions of an Egyptian king. On one side, the king is depicted with the bulbed White Crown of Upper (southern) Egypt, and the other side depicts the king wearing the level Red Crown of Lower (northern) Egypt, which also makes it the earliest known example of a king wearing both types of headdress. The Palette shows many of the classic conventions of Ancient Egyptian art, which must already have been formalized by the time of the Palette's creation. The Egyptologist Bob Brier has referred to the Narmer Palette as "the first historical document in the world".


title: Narmer Palette

text: The Palette, which has survived five millennia in almost perfect condition, was discovered by British archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green, in what they called the Main Deposit in the Temple of Horus at Nekhen, during the dig season of 1897–98. Also found at this dig were the Narmer Macehead and the Scorpion Macehead. The exact place and circumstances of these finds were not recorded very clearly by Quibell and Green. In fact, Green's report placed the Palette in a different layer one or two yards away from the deposit, which is considered to be more accurate on the basis of the original excavation notes. It has been suggested that these objects were royal donations made to the temple. Nekhen, or Hierakonpolis, was one of four power centers in Upper Egypt that preceded the consolidation of Upper Egypt at the end of the Naqada III period. Hierakonpolis's religious importance continued long after its political role had declined. Palettes were typically used for grinding cosmetics, but this palette is too large and heavy (and elaborate) to have been created for personal use and was probably a ritual or votive object, specifically made for donation to, or use in, a temple. One theory is that it was used to grind cosmetics to adorn the statues of the deities.


title: Narmer Palette

text: The Narmer Palette is part of the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It is one of the initial exhibits which visitors have been able to see when entering the museum. It has the "Journal d'Entrée" number JE32169 and the "Catalogue Général" number CG14716.


title: Narmer Palette

text: The Narmer Palette is a , shield-shaped, ceremonial palette, carved from a single piece of flat, soft dark gray-green siltstone. The stone has often been wrongly identified, in the past, as being slate or schist. Slate is layered and prone to flaking, and schist is a metamorphic rock containing large, randomly distributed mineral grains. Both are unlike the finely grained, hard, flake-resistant siltstone, whose source is from a well-attested quarry that has been used since pre-dynastic times at Wadi Hammamat. This material was used extensively during the pre-dynastic period for creating such palettes and also was used as a source for Old Kingdom statuary. A statue of the 2nd dynasty pharaoh Khasekhemwy, found in the same complex as the Narmer Palette at Hierakonpolis, also was made of this material.


title: Narmer Palette

text: The Palette is carved in low relief. At the top of both sides is an identical royal insignia called a serekh, which is "a composite hieroglyphic symbol standing for the king/crown/state and the state's property." The serekhs bear the rebus symbols "n'r" (catfish) and "mr" (chisel) inside, being the phonetic representation of Narmer's name. Both serekhs are flanked by a pair of bovine heads with highly curved horns, thought to represent the cow goddess Bat. She was the patron deity of the seventh nome of Upper Egypt, and was also the deification of the cosmos within Egyptian mythology during the pre-dynastic and Old Kingdom periods of Ancient Egyptian history.


title: Narmer Palette

text: As on the other side, two human-faced bovine heads, thought to represent the patron cow goddess Bat, flank the serekhs. The goddess Bat is, as she often was, shown in portrait, rather than in profile as is traditional in Egyptian relief carving. Hathor, who shared many of Bat's characteristics, is often depicted in a similar manner. Some authors suggest that the images represent the vigor of the king as a pair of bulls.


title: Narmer Palette

text: The largest relief on this side depicts Narmer, who lifts a royal mace in his right hand while with his left he pulls up a kneeling captive by the hair. In contrast to the verso depiction of Narmer, where he is shown with the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, on this side he wears the White Crown of Upper Egypt. His pose reflects the Ancient Egyptian convention of showing an important figure from multiple perspectives at once. His feet, legs and head are shown in profile, while the torso and hips turn slightly and his shoulders face the front. One eye, even though it would normally not be seen if this were an actual profile head, is also shown from the front. The purpose was to provide the most complete information possible about a person on a flat surface. The Palette also shows the Egyptian canon of body proportions. Based on an established unit correlating to the distance across the knuckles of human fist, this conventional form of measurement was a means of standardizing the proportions of important figures in Egyptian art. The standard measurement, which is already apparent in the Palette, was 18 fists from the ground to the hairline on the forehead. Both artistic conventions remained in use until at least the conquest by Alexander the Great over 3,000 years later. The minor figures in active poses, such as the king's captive, the corpses and the handlers of the serpopard beasts, are much more freely depicted.


title: Narmer Palette

text: Attached to the belt worn by Narmer are four beaded tassels, each capped with an ornament in the shape of the head of the goddess Hathor. They also are the same heads as those that adorn the top of each side of the palette. At the back of the belt is attached a long fringe representing a lion's tail.


title: Narmer Palette

text: On the left of the king is a man bearing the king's sandals, flanked by a rosette symbol. To the right of the king is a kneeling prisoner, who is about to be struck by the king. A pair of symbols appear next to his head perhaps indicating his name (Wash) or indicating the region where he was from. Above the prisoner is a falcon, representing Horus, perched above a set of papyrus flowers, the symbol of Lower Egypt. In his talons, he holds a rope-like object which appears to be attached to the nose of a man's head that also emerges from the papyrus flowers.


title: Narmer Palette

text: Below the bovine heads is what appears to be a procession. Narmer is significantly larger than anyone else on that register, an artistic convention known variously as hierarchical proportion, hierarchic scale or hierarchy of scale. As on the recto, his disproportionate size reinforces the ideas of conquest and political power as a god-like leader. He wears a Red Crown of Lower Egypt, symbolized by a papyrus. He holds a mace and a flail, two traditional symbols of kingship. To his right are the hieroglyphic symbols for his name, though not contained within a serekh. Behind him is his sandal-bearer, whose name may be represented by the rosette appearing adjacent to his head, and a second rectangular symbol that has no clear interpretation, but which has been suggested may represent a town or citadel.


title: Narmer Palette

text: Immediately in front of the pharaoh is a long-haired man, accompanied by a pair of hieroglyphs that have been interpreted as his name: "Tshet" (this assumes that these symbols had the same phonetic value used in later hieroglyphic writing). Before this man are four standard bearers, holding aloft an animal skin, a dog, and two falcons. At the far right of this scene are ten decapitated corpses with their heads at their feet and their severed genitals protruding from their mouths. These figures are generally understood to be victims of Narmer's conquest. Above them are the symbols for a ship, a falcon, and a harpoon, which may indicate the names of the towns that were conquered.


title: Narmer Palette

text: Below the procession, two men are holding ropes tied to the outstretched, intertwining necks of two serpopards confronting each other. The serpopard is a mythological creature, a mix of serpent and leopard. The circle formed by their curving necks is the central part of the Palette, which is the area where the cosmetics would have been ground. Upper and Lower Egypt each worshipped lioness war goddesses as protectors; the intertwined necks of the serpopards may thus represent the unification of the state. Similar images of such mythical animals are known from other contemporaneous cultures, and there are other examples of late-predynastic objects (including other palettes and knife handles such as the Gebel el-Arak Knife) which borrow similar elements from Mesopotamian iconography, suggesting Egypt-Mesopotamia relations.