title: Lou Dobbs

text: On the November 11, 2009, edition of his nightly broadcast "Lou Dobbs Tonight", Dobbs announced his immediate departure from CNN, ending a nearly thirty-year career at the network, citing plans to "pursue new opportunities." CNN President Jon Klein said that Dobbs's departure was not a result of organized opposition to Dobbs's viewpoints.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: After Dobbs left CNN in 2009, he gave an interview where he did not rule out the possibility of running for President of the United States in 2012, saying the final decision would rest with his wife. Former Senator Dean Barkley said he thought Dobbs should run for president.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: From 2008 to 2012, Dobbs hosted "Lou Dobbs Radio" on United Stations Radio Networks. The three-hour daily show had affiliates in several major markets, including its flagship station (WOR) in New York City, Washington D.C. (WHFS), Miami (WZAB-AM) and the San Francisco Bay Area (KDOW), as well as stations such as WGNY-AM in Newburgh, New York. The show was guest-centered and featured political discussion and listener calls. It aired from 2 to 5 pm Eastern, directly competing with "The Sean Hannity Show", "The Tom Sullivan Show" and "The Dave Ramsey Show". Dobbs also hosts the financially themed "Lou Dobbs Minute" on the same network.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In June 2008, Dobbs reached an agreement with Business Talk Radio Network to carry a rebroadcast of the show from 7 to 10 pm Eastern, displacing Bruce Williams. Dobbs's show was also carried live on CRN Digital Talk Radio Networks.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs was among the hosts who tried out for the position vacated by the cancellation of "Imus in the Morning" on WFAN, a position that was eventually filled by "Boomer and Carton in the Morning". Dobbs mentioned on his radio show that he was seeking a position in the US Department of Treasury during the economic crisis. He stated that he believed he could "do more good than the clowns currently in position."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs also is a regular columnist in "Money" magazine, "U.S. News & World Report", and the "New York Daily News".


title: Lou Dobbs

text: On November 10, 2010, Fox Business Network announced that Dobbs would host a show on the channel. The network announced on March 3, 2011, the start date, show title, and time slot of Dobbs's new show. Entitled "Lou Dobbs Tonight", the program debuted on March 14, 2011.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: On February 4, 2021, voting machine company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against multiple parties, including Dobbs and two other Fox Corporation program hosts, asserting they had promoted conspiracy theories alleging the company and its competitor Dominion Voting Systems had participated in an international conspiracy to rig the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump. The three programs had each run a video retraction weeks earlier, after receiving a demand letter from Smartmatic, though neither Dobbs nor the other hosts personally issued retractions.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil sued Dobbs, Fox News and Sidney Powell for $250 million in December 2021, alleging they had falsely implicated him in rigging Dominion and Smartmatic machines. A New York State Supreme Court judge ruled in March 2022 that the Smartmatic suit against Fox News could proceed, dismissing allegations against two individuals, though claims against Dobbs were allowed to stand.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: The show was canceled by Fox News on February 5, 2021. The "Los Angeles Times" reported the decision had been under consideration before the Smartmatic legal issues arose. CNN claimed that, despite being the highest-rated Fox Business Network program, it was a loss leader because many advertisers did not want to be associated with the content.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Since 2009, Dobbs has made regular appearances to discuss issues on other news network programs including CNBC's "The Kudlow Report" and Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor". On October 5, 2010, Dobbs made a guest appearance on an episode of "The Good Wife", entitled "Double Jeopardy", in which he plays himself as a client in search of a new law firm to represent his legal interests.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs is known for his anti-immigration views, warnings about Islamist terrorism, and his opposition to outsourcing. He is also known for his pro-Trump coverage.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In December 2018, Dobbs suggested that the United States should start a war with China because of hacking by Chinese state actors. He compared hacking by the People's Liberation Army of China to the attack by the Japanese military on Pearl Harbor in 1941.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs promoted the theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. His willingness to raise the "birther" issue repeatedly, even though CNN itself considered it a "discredited rumor", led "The Washington Post"s TV critic to remark that this "explains their upcoming documentary: 'The World: Flat. We Report – You Decide.'" The issue had come up in 2008 during the Presidential campaign, and had largely disappeared from the media spotlight until Dobbs picked up the issue again. His statements in support of these conspiracy theories were dubbed "racist" and "defamatory" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The controversy led to Media Matters airing ads critical of Dobbs and of CNN, and to Jon Stewart mocking Dobbs on the satirical Comedy Central television series "The Daily Show". The Associated Press said that Dobbs had "become a publicity nightmare for CNN, embarrassed his boss and hosted a show that seemed to contradict the network's 'no bias' brand."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. Dobbs has misleadingly asserted that "scientists" warned of global cooling in the 1970s, though that was a distinctly minority view. He said of the Obama administration's EPA that it was being run as if it were "part of the apparat of the Soviet Union."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs holds anti-immigration views. Dobbs has been strongly opposed to both illegal immigration and foreign worker programs as the H-1B visa program and guest-worker programs. In a 2006 article, Dobbs expressed frustration at failed legislation to build a southern "border fence to stop the flow of illegal aliens and drugs across our borders." He argued that the "true victims of corporate America's lust for cheap labor" were "American working men and women, taxpayers all." During efforts to implement comprehensive immigration reform during the Bush administration in 2007, Dobbs devoted more than a quarter of all of his airtime during a three-month period to the subject of immigration, and covered it negatively.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs's show has made factually incorrect claims, such as the one that illegal immigrants were responsible for bringing 7,000 new cases of leprosy to the United States in a three-year period, where the actual timeframe was over the last thirty years. In addressing the leprosy issue, Dobbs in May 2007 compared his critics from the left and right political spectrums to "commies" and "fascists." Dobbs has also falsely claimed that "illegal aliens" were a third of the federal prison population in the United States.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs has criticized local officials for their approach to border security. In October 2007 he labeled then-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer an "idiot" for advocating the issuance of driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Hillary Clinton labeled Dobbs's illegal immigration segments as having "all that hot air."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In a November 2009 interview with Telemundo, Dobbs said that the U.S. needed a "rational, effective humane policy" for immigration that included enhanced border security and also "the ability to legalize illegal immigrants on certain conditions."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In October 2010, "The Nation" published the results of a yearlong investigation detailing undocumented workers who had worked on Dobbs's personal properties. The labor involved upkeep of Dobbs's multimillion-dollar estates in New Jersey and Florida, including the horses belonging to his daughter, Hillary, a champion show jumper. The article featured interviews with five immigrants who had worked without papers on Dobbs's properties. Speaking to the Associated Press, Dobbs referred to the article as "a political assault," claiming it was a lie that he hired illegal immigrants. He said: "I have never, do not now, and never will."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In November 2018, Dobbs falsely claimed that "many" undocumented immigrants voted in the 2018 mid-term elections and that they had an "immense impact."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs's critics, including columnist James K. Glassman, author of "Dow 36,000" and member of the American Enterprise Institute think tank, have accused him of inciting xenophobia. Others have accused him of Hispanophobia, a charge he denies and one which he has said offends him deeply, as his wife Debi Segura is a Mexican American.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: After President Donald Trump stated in March 2019 that he supported legal immigration "in the largest numbers ever," Dobbs lamented that Trump was advancing "the interests of the global elite ahead of our citizens," adding, "the White House has simply lost its way."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs's coverage of the Trump presidency was extremely supportive, with some outlets describing it as fawning and sycophantic. Dobbs opened a November 2017 interview with Trump with "You have accomplished so much", and later said to Trump that he was "one of the most loved and respected" presidents "in history". "The New York Times" described the interview as a love-fest and "courtier-like session", as Dobbs "didn't so much ask questions as open his mouth and let rose petals fall out". During Trump's presidency, Dobbs has been described as a "close informal adviser to President Donald Trump". Trump repeatedly calls Dobbs to get his views on various policy issues.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs is a proponent of the Deep State theory. In January 2018, Dobbs called for a "war" on the "Deep State", which he described as the FBI and the Department of Justice. Dobbs said that the FBI and DOJ had destroyed evidence and that they were clandestinely working to bring down the Trump presidency. In June 2018, Dobbs promoted a conspiracy which originated on Reddit and the far-right conspiracy website Gateway Pundit that "the FBI may have initiated a number of spies into the Trump campaign as early as December of 2015". Shortly after Dobbs promoted the unfounded conspiracy theory, Trump retweeted Dobbs's assertion and praised Dobbs for a "great interview". In July 2018, Dobbs said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was on a "jihad" against Trump, and accused him of seeking to "subvert" and "overthrow" Trump's presidency. In December 2018, Dobbs said there was "a legion of evildoers" in the FBI and that "we've got all of the folks in the FBI, corrupt, politically corrupt." That same month, he said that the judge overseeing Michael Flynn's sentencing sounded as if he was part of Mueller's "witch hunt."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In July 2018, Dobbs defended the Trump administration's decision to ban a CNN reporter from a press event. Multiple Fox colleagues, including Fox News President Jay Wallace, had shown solidarity with CNN and called on the White House to rescind the ban. His defense led to charges of hypocrisy: in 2012, when a "Daily Caller" reporter was criticized by the White House for shouting out a question during an address by Obama, Dobbs defended the reporter, saying "What is rude is a president not speaking to the American people and taking the questions of the White House press'. CNN's Jake Tapper suggested that Dobbs was hypocritical.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In August 2018, Dobbs ran a segment pushing unsubstantiated claims that Google was biased against Trump and that Google was promoting anti-Trump stories. Following Dobbs's segment, Trump tweeted that Google was suppressing conservatives and he tasked economic adviser Larry Kudlow to look into regulating Google.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In September 2018, after Trump falsely claimed that the official death count from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was fabricated by Democrats, Dobbs defended Trump's assertion. Dobbs claimed that "the numbers were inflated" and that the organizations behind the numbers "threw out science, statistics, and evidence to discredit the Trump administration".


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In October 2018, when CNN and prominent Democrats were targeted with bomb attempts, Dobbs described the bomb attempts as "fake news" and promoted conspiracy theories that the bomb attempts were by Democrats who sought to increase their support in the upcoming mid-term elections. Several Fox News employees expressed dismay over Dobbs's rhetoric, with one employee telling CNN, "It's people like Dobbs who really ruin it for all the hard working journalists at Fox".


title: Lou Dobbs

text: When the Trump administration rescinded CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta's press pass, Dobbs supported the administration. At the same time, numerous media organizations, including Fox News, spoke out against the Trump administration's decision. When U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee, temporarily restored Acosta's press pass, Dobbs described the ruling as "absurd." When the Trump administration complied with the ruling, Dobbs called on the administration to ignore the ruling and tell the "district court judge to go to hell."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: In January 2019, Dobbs described Mitt Romney as a "traitor" and "treasonous" after he wrote an op-ed published in "The Washington Post" criticizing Trump's character. In July 2019, Dobbs referred to U.S. military generals who raised concerns about Trump's decision to put on a July 4 military show in Washington D.C. as "Snowflake Generals".


title: Lou Dobbs

text: During the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, "The New York Times" reported that former Trump national security advisor and 11-year paid contributor to Fox News John Bolton had written in his forthcoming book that Trump had told him that he wanted to continue withholding aid to Ukraine until the country investigated Democrats and the Bidens. On his show the following day, Dobbs asserted that Bolton had been "reduced to a tool for the radical Dems and the deep state with his allegation."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: The day senior Justice Department officials intervened in the case of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone with a recommendation of a lighter sentence than had been recommended by DOJ prosecutors the prior day, Dobbs stated on his program that attorney general Bill Barr was "doing the Lord's work" by intervening. The intervention raised questions about the political neutrality of the DOJ. The next day, Barr stated in a televised interview that Trump's comments about ongoing DOJ investigations "make it impossible to do my job," causing Dobbs to state on his program, "I guess I am so disappointed in Bill Barr, I have to say this – it's a damn shame when he doesn't get what this president has gone through, and what the American people have gone through, and what his charge is as attorney general." The following day, after the Justice Department stated it would not prosecute former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, a frequent target of Trump's ire, Dobbs stated on his program, "I have serious, serious questions tonight about the integrity of the Justice Department under Attorney General Barr."


title: Lou Dobbs

text: As Trump, his surrogates and supporters made baseless claims of voting fraud in the aftermath of his 2020 election defeat, Dobbs chastised Republicans for not helping the president to claim "what is rightfully his." He said that Republicans who voted to certify Joe Biden's Electoral College win were "criminal." After Attorney General Bill Barr said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the election, Dobbs said that Barr was "compromised" and had become part of the "deep state." In December, Dobbs aired a segment on his show debunking the very same conspiracy theories that had been amplified on his show; this was in response to a legal threat by the voting technology company Smartmatic which had been the subject of some of the conspiracy theorizing. Speaking to Republican consultant Ed Rollins during his January 4, 2021 broadcast, Dobbs said:We're eight weeks from the election, and we still don't have verifiable, tangible support for the crimes that everyone knows were committed — that is, defrauding other citizens who voted with fraudulent votes. We know that's the case in Nevada, we know it's the case in Pennsylvania and a number of other states, but we have had a devil of a time finding actual proof. Why?Following the storming of the United States Capitol by Trump supporters in January 2021, Dobbs was among those who advanced the conspiracy theory that people associated with antifa were responsible for the attack.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs has peddled numerous conspiracy theories about the Jewish-American philanthropist and businessman George Soros. Dobbs has referred to him as an "evil SOB" and insidious.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs's Fox Business Channel shows stirred controversy in October 2018 when a guest on Dobbs's show used what many described as an anti-Semitic trope to suggest that the State Department was "Soros-occupied" territory echoing the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of a "Zionist-occupied government". The remarks came days after bombing attempts on Soros and leading Democrats, and the remarks were replayed on Fox Business hours after an anti-Semitic gunman at a Pittsburgh synagogue killed 11 people.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: After widespread condemnation, Fox stated that the guest, Chris Farrell of Judicial Watch, would no longer be booked and that the program episode would be withdrawn from the Fox News archives. In the midst of the Trump-Ukraine scandal in November 2019, attorney Joseph diGenova made similar comments on Dobbs's program, falsely claiming that "George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department. He also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work for NGOs – work with NGOs. That was very evident in Ukraine." Dobbs did not dispute DiGenova's claim.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: On September 11, 2019, Dobbs warned his viewers on Fox Business that Soros's "tentacles were spreading globally".


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs has stated that he is pro-choice, though in June 2022 he retweeted a post from a Twitter user that said: "So much winning!" in reference to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Dobbs opposes gun control and, though he is a fiscal conservative, supports some government regulations, as revealed in a "60 Minutes" interview. He has been critical of trade policies that he says encourage "sending jobs overseas".


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs's stance on trade has earned plaudits from some trade union activists on the traditional political left, while his stance on immigration tends to appeal to the right. In an interview with Larry King, Dobbs revealed that he is now "an unaffiliated independent" owing to dissatisfaction with both the Republican and Democratic parties.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs is the author of "War on the Middle Class", in which he claims that both Democrats and Republicans are harming the middle class. In it, he comes out strongly against the Bush tax cuts, which he argues favor the wealthy, and argued for raising the U.S. minimum wage from what was then $5.15 an hour.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Journalist Amy Goodman has criticized Dobbs's journalistic ethics, accusing him of making flagrant errors in his reporting and assailing his staff's association with what she describes as disreputable sources.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs has won numerous major awards for his television journalism, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award and a Cable Ace Award. He received the George Foster Peabody Award for his coverage of the 1987 stock market crash. He also has received the Luminary Award of the Business Journalism Review in 1990, the Horatio Alger Association Award for Distinguished Americans in 1999 and the National Space Club Media Award in 2000. "The Wall Street Journal" has named Dobbs "TV's Premier Business News Anchorman". In 2004, Dobbs was awarded the Eugene Katz Award For Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration by the Center for Immigration Studies and in 2005 he received the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution's Statesmanship Award. Dobbs was named "Father of the Year" by the National Father's Day Committee in 1993. In 2008 Dobbs received the American Legion Public Relations Award from the National Commander of The American Legion.


title: Lou Dobbs

text: Dobbs divorced his first wife in 1981 and later married Debi Lee Segura, a former CNN sports anchor. The couple raised four children together. Dobbs resides on a horse farm in Wantage Township, New Jersey.


title: Handmaiden

text: A handmaiden, handmaid or maidservant is a personal maid or female servant. Depending on culture or historical period, a handmaiden may be of slave status or may be simply an employee. However, the term "handmaiden" generally implies lowly status.


title: Handmaiden

text: In the King James translation of the Hebrew Bible, the term handmaid is applied to a female servant who serves her mistress, as in the case of Hagar being described as Sarai's handmaid, Zilpah being Leah's handmaid and Bilhah as Rachel's handmaid. In each of these cases, the mistress "gave" their handmaid to their husbands "to wife", to bear his "seed" (children). The use in the Torah of the prefix "to", as in "gave "to" wife", may indicate that the wife is a concubine or inferior wife. The text repeats that these people remain handmaids of their mistress though they are also the concubine of the mistress's husband. They are referred to interchangeably by the Hebrew terms () and (). Other modern English bible translations use the word slave, slave-girl or servant.


title: Handmaiden

text: In Christianity, Mary, the mother of Jesus is referred to as the "handmaid of the Lord" or "servant of the Lord", both of which are titles of honour for the mother of Jesus. The Gospel of Luke describes Mary as the "handmaid of the Lord" (Greek , ) when she gives her consent to the message of the Angel (see ), and when she proclaims the greatness of the Lord because of "the great things" he has worked in her (see )."


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: A self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), sometimes referred to as a compressed air breathing apparatus (CABA) or simply breathing apparatus (BA), is a device worn to provide breathable air in an atmosphere that is immediately dangerous to life or health. They are typically used in firefighting and industry. The term "self-contained" means that the SCBA is not dependent on a remote supply of breathing gas (e.g., through a long hose). If designed for use under water, it is also known as a Scuba set (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). When not used underwater, they are sometimes called industrial breathing sets. Unofficial names include "air pack", "air tank", "oxygen cylinder" or simply "pack", which are mostly used in firefighting.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: An SCBA typically has three main components: a high-pressure tank (e.g., , about 150 to 374 atmospheres), a pressure regulator, and an inhalation connection (mouthpiece, mouth mask or face mask), connected together and mounted to a carrying frame.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: A self-contained breathing apparatus may fall into one of two categories: open-circuit or closed-circuit.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: The closed-circuit type, also known as a rebreather, operates by filtering, supplementing, and recirculating exhaled gas. It is used when a longer-duration supply of breathing gas is needed, such as in mine rescue and in long tunnels, and going through passages too narrow for a big open-circuit air cylinder. Before open-circuit SCBA's were developed, most industrial breathing sets were rebreathers, such as the Siebe Gorman Proto, Siebe Gorman Savox, or Siebe Gorman Salvus. An example of modern rebreather SCBAs would be the SEFA.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: Open-circuit industrial breathing sets are filled with filtered, compressed air, rather than pure oxygen. Typical open-circuit systems have two regulators; a first stage to reduce the pressure of air to allow it to be carried to the mask, and a second stage regulator to reduce it even further to a level just above standard atmospheric pressure. This air is then fed to the mask via either a demand valve (activating only on inhalation) or a continuous positive pressure valve (providing constant airflow to the mask).


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: An open-circuit rescue or firefighter SCBA has a fullface mask, regulator, air cylinder, cylinder pressure gauge, remote pressure gauge (sometimes with an integrated PASS device), and a harness with adjustable shoulder straps and waist belt which lets it be worn on the back. The air cylinder usually comes in one of three standard sizes: 4 liter, 6 liter, or 6.8 liter. The duration of the cylinder can be calculated with this formula: volume (in liters) × pressure (in bars) / 40 - 10 in minutes (the 10 is subtracted to provide a safety margin), so a 6-liter cylinder, of 300 bar, is 6 × 300 / 40 - 10 = 35 minutes working duration. The relative fitness, and especially the level of exertion of the wearer, often results in variations of the actual usable time that the SCBA can provide air, often reducing the working time by 25% to 50%.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: Air cylinders are made of aluminium, steel, or of a composite construction (usually carbon-fiber wrapped.) The composite cylinders are the lightest in weight and are therefore preferred by fire departments (UK: fire and rescue services previously called fire brigades), but they also have the shortest lifespan and must be taken out of service after 15 years. Air cylinders must be hydrostatically tested every 5 years. During extended operations, empty air cylinders can be quickly replaced with fresh ones and then refilled from larger tanks in a cascade storage system or from an air compressor brought to the scene.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: A negative pressure system relies on the internal pressure of the mask dropping to below the ambient pressure to activate flow. if the mask does not seal perfectly, some leakage of ambient gas into the mask will occur, which can be a problem with toxic or irritant smoke and fumes.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: A positive pressure system slightly pressurises the interior of the mask and activates flow when the pressure difference is reduced, but still above ambient. If the mask leaks, there will be continuous flow to maintain the pressure, and no inward leakage is possible. With a good fit this is economical on gas and prevents contamination. If the mask falls off the regulator will continuously expend gas trying to raise the pressure, and may consume a significant amount of gas before it is corrected.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: Although the performance of both types of SCBA may be similar under optimum conditions, this "fail safe" behaviour makes a positive pressure SCBA preferable for most applications. As there is usually no air usage penalty in providing positive pressure, the older negative pressure type is, in most cases, an obsolete configuration and is only seen with older equipment. However some users refuse to use this technology as in case of a damage or loss of the facepiece the air will be released uncontrolled. The leakage rate can be so high that a fully charged SCBA will be drained in less than three minutes, a problem that does not happen with negative pressure SCBA systems.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: The fullface masks of breathing apparatus designed for use out of water are sometimes designed in a way that makes them unsuitable for scuba diving, although some may allow very shallow emergency submersion:


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: Some early industrial rebreathers (e.g., the Siebe Gorman Proto) had a mouthpiece and attached noseclip instead of a mask.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: There are two major application areas for SCBA: firefighting and industrial use. A third use now coming into practice is medical; for example, the American National Institutes of Health prescribe use of SCBAs for medical staff during treatment of ebola.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: For firefighting, the design emphasis is on heat and flame resistance above cost. SCBAs designed for firefighting tend to be expensive because of the exotic materials used to provide the flame resistance, and to a lesser extent, to reduce the weight penalty on the firefighter. In addition, modern firefighting SCBAs incorporate a PASS device (personal alert safety system) or an ADSU (automatic distress signal unit) into their design. These units emit distinctive, high-pitched alarm tones to help locate firefighters in distress by automatically activating if movement is not sensed for a certain length of time (typically between 15 and 30 seconds), also allowing for manual activation should the need arise. In firefighting use, the layout of this breathing set should not interfere with ability to carry a rescued person over the firefighter's shoulders.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: The other major application is for industrial users of various types. Historically, mining was an important area, and in Europe this is still reflected by limitations on use in the construction of SCBAs of metals that can cause sparks. Other important users are petrochemical, chemical, and nuclear industries. The design emphasis for industrial users depends on the precise application and extends from the bottom end which is cost critical, to the most severe environments where the SCBA is one part of an integrated protective environment which includes gas-tight suits for whole-body protection and ease of decontamination. Industrial users will often be supplied with air via an air line, and only carry compressed air for escape or decontamination purposes.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: The pressure gauge's indicated gas pressure changes with ambient temperature. As temperature decreases, the pressure inside the cylinder decreases. The relationship between the temperature and the pressure of a gas is defined by the formula "PV" = "nRT". (See Universal gas constant.) What is particularly important to understand from the formula is that the temperature is in Kelvins, not degrees Fahrenheit. Consider the freezing point of water at 32° F (0° C, 273.15° K) and compare it to 96° F (35.6° C or 308.71° K; normal human body temperature is 37° C). While 96 is arithmetically three times 32, the difference in temperature from a scientific point of view is not threefold. Instead of comparing 32° F to 96° F, temperatures of 273.15° K and 308.71° K should be compared. The scientifically valid change in temperature from is by a factor of 1.13 (308.71 K/273.15 K), not 3. If an air cylinder is pressurized to 4,500 psi at 96° F and later the temperature drops to 32° F, the pressure gauge will indicate 4,000 psi (4,500/1.13). Stated differently, a drop in temperature of 10° F (5.5° C) causes a pressure decrease of about 82 psi (565 kPa). Failure to accurately account for the effect of temperature on pressure readings can result in underfilled air cylinders, which in turn could lead to a firefighter running out of air prematurely.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: In the United States and Canada, SCBAs used in firefighting must meet guidelines established by the National Fire Protection Association, NFPA Standard 1981. If an SCBA is labeled as "1981 NFPA compliant", it is designed for firefighting. The current version of the standard was published in 2018. These standards are revised every five years. Similarly, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a certification program for SCBA that are intended to be used in chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) environments.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: Any SCBA supplied for use in Europe must comply with the requirements of the Personal Protective Equipment Directive (89/686/EEC). In practice this usually means that the SCBA must comply with the requirements of the European Standard EN 137:2006. This includes detailed requirements for the performance of the SCBA, the marking required, and the information to be provided to the user. Two classes of SCBA are recognised, Type 1 for industrial use and Type 2 for firefighting. Any SCBA conforming to this standard will have been verified to reliably operate and protect the user from -30 °C to +60 °C under a wide range of severe simulated operational conditions.


title: Self-contained breathing apparatus

text: The Royal Australian Navy uses the open circuit compressed air breathing apparatus (OCCABA), a backpack-style, positive pressure breathing apparatus, for firefighting roles.


title: Educational assessment

text: Educational assessment or educational evaluation is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skill, attitudes, aptitude and beliefs to refine programs and improve student learning. Assessment data can be obtained from directly examining student work to assess the achievement of learning outcomes or can be based on data from which one can make inferences about learning. Assessment is often used interchangeably with test, but not limited to tests. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community (class, workshop, or other organized group of learners), a course, an academic program, the institution, or the educational system as a whole (also known as granularity). The word 'assessment' came into use in an educational context after the Second World War.


title: Educational assessment

text: As a continuous process, assessment establishes measurable and clear student learning outcomes for learning, providing a sufficient amount of learning opportunities to achieve these outcomes, implementing a systematic way of gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine how well student learning matches expectations, and using the collected information to inform improvement in student learning. Assessment is an important aspect of educational process which determines the level of accomplishments of students.


title: Educational assessment

text: The final purpose of assessment practices in education depends on the "theoretical framework" of the practitioners and researchers, their assumptions and beliefs about the nature of human mind, the origin of knowledge, and the process of learning.


title: Educational assessment

text: The term "assessment" is generally used to refer to all activities teachers use to help students learn and to gauge student progress. Assessment can be divided for the sake of convenience using the following categorizations:


title: Educational assessment

text: Assessment is often divided into initial, formative, and summative categories for the purpose of considering different objectives for assessment practices.


title: Educational assessment

text: Jay McTighe and Ken O'Connor proposed seven practices to effective learning. One of them is about showing the criteria of the evaluation before the test. Another is about the importance of pre-assessment to know what the skill levels of a student are before giving instructions. Giving a lot of feedback and encouraging are other practices.


title: Educational assessment

text: Educational researcher Robert Stake explains the difference between formative and summative assessment with the following analogy:


title: Educational assessment

text: Summative and formative assessment are often referred to in a learning context as "assessment of learning" and "assessment for learning" respectively. Assessment of learning is generally summative in nature and intended to measure learning outcomes and report those outcomes to students, parents and administrators. Assessment of learning generally occurs at the conclusion of a class, course, semester or academic year. Assessment for learning is generally formative in nature and is used by teachers to consider approaches to teaching and next steps for individual learners and the class.


title: Educational assessment

text: A common form of formative assessment is "diagnostic assessment". Diagnostic assessment measures a student's current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning. "Self-assessment" is a form of diagnostic assessment which involves students assessing themselves. "Forward-looking assessment" asks those being assessed to consider themselves in hypothetical future situations.


title: Educational assessment

text: "Performance-based assessment" is similar to summative assessment, as it focuses on achievement. It is often aligned with the standards-based education reform and outcomes-based education movement. Though ideally, they are significantly different from a traditional multiple choice test, they are most commonly associated with standards-based assessment which use free-form responses to standard questions scored by human scorers on a standards-based scale, meeting, falling below or exceeding a performance standard rather than being ranked on a curve. A well-defined task is identified and students are asked to create, produce or do something, often in settings that involve real-world application of knowledge and skills. Proficiency is demonstrated by providing an extended response. Performance formats are further differentiated into products and performances. The performance may result in a product, such as a painting, portfolio, paper or exhibition, or it may consist of a performance, such as a speech, athletic skill, musical recital or reading.


title: Educational assessment

text: Assessment (either summative or formative) is often categorized as either objective or subjective. Objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer). There are various types of objective and subjective questions. Objective question types include true/false answers, multiple choice, multiple-response and matching questions. Subjective questions include extended-response questions and essays. Objective assessment is well suited to the increasingly popular computerized or online assessment format.


title: Educational assessment

text: Some have argued that the distinction between objective and subjective assessments is neither useful nor accurate because, in reality, there is no such thing as "objective" assessment. In fact, all assessments are created with inherent biases built into decisions about relevant subject matter and content, as well as cultural (class, ethnic, and gender) biases.


title: Educational assessment

text: Test results can be compared against an established criterion, or against the performance of other students, or against previous performance:


title: Educational assessment

text: Assessment can be either "formal" or "informal". Formal assessment usually implies a written document, such as a test, quiz, or paper. A formal assessment is given a numerical score or grade based on student performance, whereas an informal assessment does not contribute to a student's final grade. An informal assessment usually occurs in a more casual manner and may include observation, inventories, checklists, rating scales, rubrics, performance and portfolio assessments, participation, peer and self-evaluation, and discussion.


title: Educational assessment

text: Internal assessment is set and marked by the school (i.e. teachers). Students get the mark and feedback regarding the assessment. External assessment is set by the governing body, and is marked by non-biased personnel. Some external assessments give much more limited feedback in their marking. However, in tests such as Australia's NAPLAN, the criterion addressed by students is given detailed feedback in order for their teachers to address and compare the student's learning achievements and also to plan for the future.


title: Educational assessment

text: In general, high-quality assessments are considered those with a high level of reliability and validity. Other general principles are practicality, authenticity and washback.


title: Educational assessment

text: Reliability relates to the consistency of an assessment. A reliable assessment is one that consistently achieves the same results with the same (or similar) cohort of students. Various factors affect reliability—including ambiguous questions, too many options within a question paper, vague marking instructions and poorly trained markers. Traditionally, the reliability of an assessment is based on the following:


title: Educational assessment

text: formula_3 and formula_4 are the variability in 'true' (i.e., candidate's innate performance) and measured test scores respectively. formula_2 can range from 0 (completely unreliable), to 1 (completely reliable).


title: Educational assessment

text: There are four types of reliability: student-related which can be personal problems, sickness, or fatigue, rater-related which includes bias and subjectivity, test administration-related which is the conditions of test taking process, test-related which is basically related to the nature of a test.


title: Educational assessment

text: Valid assessment is one that measures what it is intended to measure. For example, it would not be valid to assess driving skills through a written test alone. A more valid way of assessing driving skills would be through a combination of tests that help determine what a driver knows, such as through a written test of driving knowledge, and what a driver is able to do, such as through a performance assessment of actual driving. Teachers frequently complain that some examinations do not properly assess the syllabus upon which the examination is based; they are, effectively, questioning the validity of the exam.


title: Educational assessment

text: Validity of an assessment is generally gauged through examination of evidence in the following categories:


title: Educational assessment

text: A good assessment has both validity and reliability, plus the other quality attributes noted above for a specific context and purpose. In practice, an assessment is rarely totally valid or totally reliable. A ruler which is marked wrongly will always give the same (wrong) measurements. It is very reliable, but not very valid. Asking random individuals to tell the time without looking at a clock or watch is sometimes used as an example of an assessment which is valid, but not reliable. The answers will vary between individuals, but the average answer is probably close to the actual time. In many fields, such as medical research, educational testing, and psychology, there will often be a trade-off between reliability and validity. A history test written for high validity will have many essay and fill-in-the-blank questions. It will be a good measure of mastery of the subject, but difficult to score completely accurately. A history test written for high reliability will be entirely multiple choice. It isn't as good at measuring knowledge of history, but can easily be scored with great precision. We may generalize from this. The more reliable our estimate is of what we purport to measure, the less certain we are that we are actually measuring that aspect of attainment.


title: Educational assessment

text: It is well to distinguish between "subject-matter" validity and "predictive" validity. The former, used widely in education, predicts the score a student would get on a similar test but with different questions. The latter, used widely in the workplace, predicts performance. Thus, a subject-matter-valid test of knowledge of driving rules is appropriate while a predictively valid test would assess whether the potential driver could follow those rules.


title: Educational assessment

text: This principle refers to the time and cost constraints during the construction and administration of an assessment instrument. Meaning that the test should be economical to provide. The format of the test should be simple to understand. Moreover, solving a test should remain within suitable time. It is generally simple to administer. Its assessment procedure should be particular and time-efficient.


title: Educational assessment

text: The assessment instrument is authentic when it is contextualized, contains natural language and meaningful, relevant, and interesting topic, and replicates real world experiences.


title: Educational assessment

text: This principle refers to the consequence of an assessment on teaching and learning within classrooms. Washback can be positive and negative. Positive washback refers to the desired effects of a test, while negative washback refers to the negative consequences of a test. In order to have positive washback, instructional planning can be used.


title: Educational assessment

text: In the field of evaluation, and in particular educational evaluation, the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation has published three sets of standards for evaluations. The "Personnel Evaluation Standards" were published in 1988, "The Program Evaluation Standards" (2nd edition) were published in 1994, and "The Student Evaluation Standards" were published in 2003.


title: Educational assessment

text: Each publication presents and elaborates a set of standards for use in a variety of educational settings. The standards provide guidelines for designing, implementing, assessing and improving the identified form of evaluation. Each of the standards has been placed in one of four fundamental categories to promote educational evaluations that are proper, useful, feasible, and accurate. In these sets of standards, validity and reliability considerations are covered under the accuracy topic. For example, the student accuracy standards help ensure that student evaluations will provide sound, accurate, and credible information about student learning and performance.


title: Educational assessment

text: In the UK, an award in Training, Assessment and Quality Assurance (TAQA) is available to assist staff learn and develop good practice in relation to educational assessment in adult, further and work-based education and training contexts.


title: Educational assessment

text: The following table summarizes the main "theoretical frameworks" behind almost all the theoretical and research work, and the instructional practices in education (one of them being, of course, the practice of assessment). These different frameworks have given rise to interesting debates among scholars.


title: Educational assessment

text: Concerns over how best to apply assessment practices across public school systems have largely focused on questions about the use of high-stakes testing and standardized tests, often used to gauge student progress, teacher quality, and school-, district-, or statewide educational success.


title: Educational assessment

text: For most researchers and practitioners, the question is not whether tests should be administered at all—there is a general consensus that, when administered in useful ways, tests can offer useful information about student progress and curriculum implementation, as well as offering formative uses for learners. The real issue, then, is whether testing practices as currently implemented can provide these services for educators and students.


title: Educational assessment

text: President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on January 8, 2002. The NCLB Act reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. President Johnson signed the ESEA to help fight the War on Poverty and helped fund elementary and secondary schools. President Johnson's goal was to emphasize equal access to education and establish high standards and accountability. The NCLB Act required states to develop assessments in basic skills. To receive federal school funding, states had to give these assessments to all students at select grade level.


title: Educational assessment

text: In the U.S., the No Child Left Behind Act mandates standardized testing nationwide. These tests align with state curriculum and link teacher, student, district, and state accountability to the results of these tests. Proponents of NCLB argue that it offers a tangible method of gauging educational success, holding teachers and schools accountable for failing scores, and closing the achievement gap across class and ethnicity.


title: Educational assessment

text: Opponents of standardized testing dispute these claims, arguing that holding educators accountable for test results leads to the practice of "teaching to the test." Additionally, many argue that the focus on standardized testing encourages teachers to equip students with a narrow set of skills that enhance test performance without actually fostering a deeper understanding of subject matter or key principles within a knowledge domain.


title: Educational assessment

text: The assessments which have caused the most controversy in the U.S. are the use of high school graduation examinations, which are used to deny diplomas to students who have attended high school for four years, but cannot demonstrate that they have learned the required material when writing exams. Opponents say that no student who has put in four years of seat time should be denied a high school diploma merely for repeatedly failing a test, or even for not knowing the required material.


title: Educational assessment

text: High-stakes tests have been blamed for causing sickness and test anxiety in students and teachers, and for teachers choosing to narrow the curriculum towards what the teacher believes will be tested. In an exercise designed to make children comfortable about testing, a Spokane, Washington newspaper published a picture of a monster that feeds on fear. The published image is purportedly the response of a student who was asked to draw a picture of what she thought of the state assessment.


title: Educational assessment

text: Other critics, such as Washington State University's Don Orlich, question the use of test items far beyond standard cognitive levels for students' age.


title: Educational assessment

text: Compared to portfolio assessments, simple multiple-choice tests are much less expensive, less prone to disagreement between scorers, and can be scored quickly enough to be returned before the end of the school year. Standardized tests (all students take the same test under the same conditions) often use multiple-choice tests for these reasons. Orlich criticizes the use of expensive, holistically graded tests, rather than inexpensive multiple-choice "bubble tests", to measure the quality of both the system and individuals for very large numbers of students. Other prominent critics of high-stakes testing include Fairtest and Alfie Kohn.


title: Educational assessment

text: The use of IQ tests has been banned in some states for educational decisions, and norm-referenced tests, which rank students from "best" to "worst", have been criticized for bias against minorities. Most education officials support criterion-referenced tests (each individual student's score depends solely on whether he answered the questions correctly, regardless of whether his neighbors did better or worse) for making high-stakes decisions.


title: Educational assessment

text: It has been widely noted that with the emergence of social media and Web 2.0 technologies and mindsets, learning is increasingly collaborative and knowledge increasingly distributed across many members of a learning community. Traditional assessment practices, however, focus in large part on the individual and fail to account for knowledge-building and learning in context. As researchers in the field of assessment consider the cultural shifts that arise from the emergence of a more participatory culture, they will need to find new methods of applying assessments to learners.


title: Educational assessment

text: Large-scale learning assessments (LSLAs) are system-level assessments that provide a snapshot of learning achievement for a group of learners in a given year, and in a limited number of domains. They are often categorized as national or cross-national assessments and draw attention to issues related to levels of learning and determinants of learning, including teacher qualification; the quality of school environments; parental support and guidance; and social and emotional health in and outside schools.


title: Educational assessment

text: The Sudbury model of democratic education schools do not perform and do not offer assessments, evaluations, transcripts, or recommendations. They assert that they do not rate people, and that school is not a judge; comparing students to each other, or to some standard that has been set is for them a violation of the student's right to privacy and to self-determination. Students decide for themselves how to measure their progress as self-starting learners as a process of self-evaluation: real lifelong learning and the proper educational assessment for the 21st century, they allege.


title: Educational assessment

text: According to Sudbury schools, this policy does not cause harm to their students as they move on to life outside the school. However, they admit it makes the process more difficult, but that such hardship is part of the students learning to make their own way, set their own standards and meet their own goals.


title: Educational assessment

text: The no-grading and no-rating policy helps to create an atmosphere free of competition among students or battles for adult approval, and encourages a positive cooperative environment amongst the student body.


title: Educational assessment

text: The final stage of a Sudbury education, should the student choose to take it, is the graduation thesis. Each student writes on the topic of how they have prepared themselves for adulthood and entering the community at large. This thesis is submitted to the Assembly, who reviews it. The final stage of the thesis process is an oral defense given by the student in which they open the floor for questions, challenges and comments from all Assembly members. At the end, the Assembly votes by secret ballot on whether or not to award a diploma.


title: Educational assessment

text: A major concern with the use of educational assessments is the overall validity, accuracy, and fairness when it comes to assessing English language learners (ELL). The majority of assessments within the United States have normative standards based on the English-speaking culture, which does not adequately represent ELL populations. Consequently, it would in many cases be inaccurate and inappropriate to draw conclusions from ELL students' normative scores. Research shows that the majority of schools do not appropriately modify assessments in order to accommodate students from unique cultural backgrounds. This has resulted in the over-referral of ELL students to special education, causing them to be disproportionately represented in special education programs. Although some may see this inappropriate placement in special education as supportive and helpful, research has shown that inappropriately placed students actually regressed in progress.


title: Educational assessment

text: It is often necessary to utilize the services of a translator in order to administer the assessment in an ELL student's native language; however, there are several issues when translating assessment items. One issue is that translations can frequently suggest a correct or expected response, changing the difficulty of the assessment item. Additionally, the translation of assessment items can sometimes distort the original meaning of the item. Finally, many translators are not qualified or properly trained to work with ELL students in an assessment situation. All of these factors compromise the validity and fairness of assessments, making the results not reliable. Nonverbal assessments have shown to be less discriminatory for ELL students, however, some still present cultural biases within the assessment items.


title: Educational assessment

text: When considering an ELL student for special education the assessment team should integrate and interpret all of the information collected in order to ensure a non biased conclusion. The decision should be based on multidimensional sources of data including teacher and parent interviews, as well as classroom observations. Decisions should take the students unique cultural, linguistic, and experiential backgrounds into consideration, and should not be strictly based on assessment results.


title: Educational assessment

text: Assessment can be associated with disparity when students from traditionally underrepresented groups are excluded from testing needed for access to certain programs or opportunities, as is the case for gifted programs. One way to combat this disparity is universal screening, which involves testing all students (such as for giftedness) instead of testing only some students based on teachers' or parents' recommendations. Universal screening results in large increases in traditionally underserved groups (such as Black, Hispanic, poor, female, and ELLs) identified for gifted programs, without the standards for identification being modified in any way.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: In economics, elasticity measures the percentage change of one economic variable in response to a percentage change in another. If the price elasticity of the demand of something is -2, a 10% increase in price causes the demand quantity to fall by 20%.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Elasticity is an important concept in neoclassical economic theory, and enables in the understanding of various economic concepts, such as the incidence of indirect taxation, marginal concepts relating to the theory of the firm, distribution of wealth, and different types of goods relating to the theory of consumer choice. An understanding of elasticity is also important when discussing welfare distribution, in particular consumer surplus, producer surplus, or government surplus.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Elasticity is present throughout many economic theories, with the concept of elasticity appearing in several main indicators. These include price elasticity of demand, price elasticity of supply, income elasticity of demand, elasticity of substitution between factors of production, cross-price elasticity of demand, and elasticity of intertemporal substitution.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: In differential calculus, elasticity is a tool for measuring the responsiveness of one variable to changes in another causative variable. Elasticity can be quantified as the ratio of the percentage change in one variable to the percentage change in another variable when the latter variable has a causal influence on the former and all other conditions remain the same. For example, the factors that determine consumers' choice of goods mentioned in consumer theory include the price of the goods, the consumer's disposable budget for such goods, and the substitutes of the goods.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Within microeconomics, elasticity and slope are closely linked. For price elasticity, the relationship between the two variables on the x-axis and y-axis can be obtained by analyzing the linear slope of the demand or supply curve or the tangent to a point on the curve. When the tangent of the straight line or curve is steeper, the price elasticity (demand or supply) is smaller; when the tangent of the straight line or curve is flatter, the price elasticity (demand or supply) is higher.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Elasticity is a unitless ratio, independent of the type of quantities being varied. An "elastic" variable (with an absolute elasticity value greater than 1) responds more than proportionally to changes in other variables. A "unit elastic" variable (with an absolute elasticity value equal to 1) responds proportionally to changes in other variables. In contrast, an "inelastic" variable (with an absolute elasticity value less than 1) changes less than proportionally in response to changes in other variables. A variable can have different values of its elasticity at different starting points. For example, for the suppliers of the goods, the quantity of a good supplied by producers might be elastic at low prices but inelastic at higher prices, so that a rise from an initially low price might bring on a more-than-proportionate increase in quantity supplied. In contrast, a raise from an initially high price might bring on a less-than-proportionate rise in quantity supplied.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: In empirical work, an elasticity is the estimated coefficient in a linear regression equation where both the dependent variable and the independent variable are in natural logs. Elasticity is a popular tool among empiricists because it is independent of units and thus simplifies data analysis.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: The concept of price elasticity was first cited in an informal form in the book "Principles of Economics" published by the author Alfred Marshall in 1890.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Subsequently, a major study of the price elasticity of supply and the price elasticity of demand for US products was undertaken by Joshua Levy and Trevor Pollock in the late 1960s.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Elasticity is the measure of the sensitivity of one variable to another. A highly elastic variable will respond more dramatically to changes in the variable it is dependent on. The x-elasticity of y measures the fractional response of y to a fraction change in x, which can be written as


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: In economics, the common elasticities (price-elasticity of demand, price elasticity of supply, and cross-price elasticity) all have the same form:


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Suppose price rises by 1%. If the elasticity of supply is 0.5, quantity rises by .5%; if it is 1, quantity rises by 1%; if it is 2, quantity rises by 2%.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Seller revenue (or, alternatively, consumer expenditure) is maximized when formula_6 (unit elasticity) because at that point a change in price is exactly cancelled by the quantity response, leaving formula_7 unchanged. To maximize revenue, a firm must:


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: The elasticity of demand is different at different points of a demand curve, so for most demand functions, including linear demand, a firm following this advice will find some price at which formula_10 and further price changes would reduce revenue. (This is not true for some theoretical demand functions: formula_11 has an elasticity of -.5 for any value of formula_12, so revenue rises infinitely as price rises to infinity even though quantity approaches zero. See Isoelastic function.)


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Price Elasticity of Demand measures sensitivity of demand to price. Thus, it measures the percentage change in demand in response to a change in price. More precisely, it gives the percentage change in quantity demanded in response to a one per cent change in price (ceteris paribus, i.e. holding constant all the other determinants of demand, such as income). Expressing this mathematically, price elasticity of demand is calculated by dividing the percentage change in the quantity demanded by the percentage change in the price.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: If price elasticity of demand is calculated to be less than 1, the good is said to be inelastic. An inelastic good will respond less than proportionally to a change in price; for example, a price increase of 40% that results in a decrease in demand of 10%. Goods that are inelastic often have at least one of the following characteristics:


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: For goods with a high elasticity value, consumers will be more sensitive to price changes. For the average consumer, an increase in price of an inessential good with many available substitutes will often result in that consumer not purchasing the good at all, or purchasing one of the substitutes instead.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: The Price Elasticity of Supply measures how the amount of a good that a supplier wishes to supply changes in response to a change in price. In a manner analogous to the price elasticity of demand, it captures the extent of horizontal movement along the supply curve relative to the extent of vertical movement. If supply elasticity is zero, the supply of a good supplied is "totally inelastic", and the quantity supplied is fixed. It is calculated by dividing the percentage change in quantity supplied by the percentage change in price.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Income Elasticity of Demand is a measure used to show the responsiveness of the quantity demanded of a good or service to a change in the consumer income. Mathematically, this is calculated by dividing the percentage change in the quantity demanded by the percentage change in income. Generally, a higher income will increase quantity demanded as consumers will be willing to spend more.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Cross Price Elasticity of Demand measures the sensitivity between the quantity demanded in one good when there is a change in price in another good. As a common elasticity, it follows a similar formula to Price Elasticity of Demand. Thus, to calculate it the percentage change in the quantity of the first good is divided by the percentage change in price in the second good. The related goods that may be used to determine sensitivity can be complements or substitutes. Finding a high-cross price elasticity between the goods may indicate that they are more likely substitutes and may have similar characteristics. If cross-price elasticity is negative, the goods are likely to be complements.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: "Elasticity of scale" or "output elasticity" measures the percentage change in output induced by a collective percent change in the usages of all inputs. A production function or process is said to exhibit constant returns to scale if a percentage change in inputs results in an equal percentage in outputs (an elasticity equal to 1). It exhibits increasing returns to scale if a percentage change in inputs results in greater percentage change in output (an elasticity greater than 1). The definition of decreasing returns to scale is analogous.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: There are various factors that may affect elasticity, and these factors differ for the types of elasticity.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: If a product has various available substitutes that exist in the market, it is likely that it would be elastic. If a product has a competitive product at a cheaper price in the market in which it shares many characteristics with, it is likely that consumers would deviate to the cheaper substitute. Thus, if many substitutions existed in the market, a consumer would have more choices and the elasticity of demand would be higher (elastic). In contrast, if there were few substitutions that existed in the market, consumers will have fewer choices and little to no available substitutes which means elasticity of demand would be lower (inelastic).


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: If a product is a necessity to the survival or daily life of a consumer, it is likely to be inelastic. This is due to the fact that if a product is so intrinsically important to the daily life of a consumer, a change in price is not likely to affect its demand.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: If the price of a product is increasing and it has little available substitutes, it is likely that the consumer will still continue to pay this higher price. The fact that the consumer needs the good in the short-run, means that he is likely to continue this action regardless in the long-run. This shows inelasticity of demand, because even if there is a huge increase of a product's price, there is no reduction of demand. However, if the consumer could not afford the new price of the product, they would likely have to learn to live without it, making the price elastic in the long-run.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Alternatively, we may also determine the factors affecting demand elasticity by considering three “Intuitive factors. Firstly, we may consider that there is different nature of elasticity when weighting a “brand” of a product or a “category” of a product, a particular brand of product is subject to elasticity as other brand may replace it, while a “category” of a product may not be easily replaced by other category of products. Secondly, like a complementary product, there are some commodities that is inelastic as buyer may have proceeding commitment to purchase it in the future, such as vehicle spare part. Thirdly, consumer mostly pay attention to product which cost a majority of share of their spending, hence any change of price in this product or services would be immediately affect consumer demand, hence this kind of product is elastic, while a product which is not part of consumer majority of purchase is inelastic due to “low involvement to products” effect.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Like Price Elasticity of Demand, time also affects Price Elasticity of Supply. Though, there are other varying factors that affect this too, such as: capacity, availability of raw materials, flexibility, and the number of competitors in the market. Though, the time horizon is arguably the most influential detriment to price elasticity of supply.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: The longer the time horizon, the easier it is for commodity buyers to choose alternative products (substitutes). Further, as the time for suppliers to respond to price changes increases, a given price change will have a more significant impact on supply. However, suppliers can also hire more labour overtime, raise more funds, build more new factories to expand production capacity, and ultimately increase supply. In general, long-term supply is more elastic than short-term supply because producers need some time to adjust their ability to adapt to changes in demand.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: The concept of elasticity has an extensive range of applications in economics. In particular, an understanding of elasticity is fundamental in understanding the response of supply and demand in a market.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Elasticity is also an important concept for enterprises and governments. For enterprises, elasticity is relevant in the calculation of the fluctuation of commodity prices, and its relation to income.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: For enterprise, the concept of elasticity also can be applied for pricing strategy. At one hand a businessman has to calculate as if reducing price will necessarily increasing the demand of their products, or will it not be necessary so and resolving a lost for the company At the other hand, enterprise have to consider whether Increasing price and cutting production quantity led to greater revenue. To answer that, it is suggested that if the demand of that product is elastic enough, it is profitable for enterprises to cut price and let the demand to increase over time. But in other hand if the price is inelastic, it is profitable to cut the quantity of production and let the price to rise, because as the product is inelastic enough, so consumer have no alternative to purchase other type of product or services to replace it. Though it is clear that the enterprise should not let their product price to pass by that inelasticity threshold, if so, then the product will be subject to price elasticity and be affected by declining demand over time.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: For governments, the concept is important for the implementation of taxation. When a government wants to increase taxes on goods, it can use elasticity to judge whether increasing the tax rate will be beneficial. Often, the demand for goods will be significantly reduced when a government increases taxes on them. Whilst a tax increase on inelastic goods will not impact their demand, it may affect goods that are elastic. Aside from taxation, elasticity can also assist in analysing the need for government intervention.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: Additionally, for essential goods, the government must ensure that they are available to most consumers. Through setting price ceilings and floors, the government is intervening by ensuring that these goods are reasonably available.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: As stated by British political economist David Ricardo, luxury goods taxes have certain advantages over necessities taxes. They are usually paid from income and, therefore, will not reduce the country's production capital. For instance, when the price of wine products rises due to increased taxes, consumers can give up drinking wine.


title: Elasticity (economics)

text: In some cases the discrete (non-infinitesimal) arc elasticity is used instead. In other cases, such as modified duration in bond trading, a percentage change in output is divided by a unit (not percentage) change in input, yielding a semi-elasticity instead.


title: Norman Powell

text: Norman WC Powell (born May 25, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Powell played college basketball with the UCLA Bruins, where he was an all-conference player in the Pac-12. He was selected in the second round of the 2015 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, who subsequently traded his draft rights to the Toronto Raptors. He won an NBA championship with Toronto in 2019.


title: Norman Powell

text: Powell was a two-time all-state high school player in California and led his team to a state championship before joining UCLA. After entering his senior year in 2014–15 as the Bruins' top returning player, he emerged as a team leader and received first-team All-Pac-12 honors.


title: Norman Powell

text: Powell was born in San Diego, California, to Sharon and Norman Powell Sr. He was introduced to basketball by his uncle, Raymond Edwards. Powell decided to attend high school at Lincoln High, which had just been rebuilt and lost many athletes. He helped rebuild their basketball program, leading the team to consecutive California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) San Diego Section 2A championships in 2009 and 2010. The team also captured the 2010 CIF Division II Boys' State Championship, with Powell scoring 24 points in a 74–59 win over Mountain View St. Francis. He finished his junior season averaging 19.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.7 steals, and earned first-team all-state as well as Western League Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors.


title: Norman Powell

text: In his senior year, he was again first-team all-state and league MVP, and averaged 20.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.4 steals. Lincoln was 32–2 and won the league title with a 12–0 record. They were ranked No. 3 in California and No. 15 nationally, but were defeated 74–69 by Summit in the state semifinals. He finished his high school career winning the San Diego County All Star Game Dunk Contest.


title: Norman Powell

text: Considered a four-star recruit by ESPN.com, Powell was listed as the No. 15 shooting guard and the No. 52 player in the nation in 2011. Powell chose to play college basketball for UCLA over San Diego State, Arizona and Oregon.


title: Norman Powell

text: In his first year at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he was the only true freshman to play significant minutes in 2011–12, when he averaged 17.8 minutes and contributed 4.6 points and 2.2 rebounds in 33 games, joining Tyler Lamb and Lazeric Jones as the only Bruins to play in every game that season. While he excelled as a driving guard in high school, his role transformed at UCLA, taking less than one-fourth of his shots around the rim and close to half from outside on three-point attempts, connecting on 38.5% over the last 18 games.


title: Norman Powell

text: Powell averaged 6.1 points in 22.1 minutes in 2012–13, making nine starts while playing all 35 games. He began the season as a starter, but was later moved to the bench. His minutes declined from an average of 28.4 in the first seven games to 19 the following 26 games. After replacing injured starter Jordan Adams, Powell's minutes increased to 37 per game. He considered transferring to San Diego State after the season, but decided to stay primarily because UCLA coach Ben Howland was fired. Powell credited Howland for his development on defense, but he stated that "there were a lot of things going on that weren’t fair for me" and "I definitely wanted to see a change." The Bruins hired Steve Alford as their new coach.


title: Norman Powell

text: In 2013–14, Powell started all 37 games and was third on the team in scoring (11.4). Under Alford, he became an offensive threat and a staunch defender. He was more aggressive taking the ball to the basket, and dunked more than he could in Howland's system. The team's best on-ball defender, Powell was routinely assigned the opponent's best offensive player and earned honorable mention for the Pac-12 Conference All-Defensive Team. UCLA opened the 2014 NCAA tournament in San Diego, enabling him to play in his hometown for the first time since high school. UCLA advanced to the Sweet 16, and Powell averaged 13.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in three tournament contests. After the season, he considered playing professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and requested an evaluation of his prospects for the upcoming 2014 NBA draft.


title: Norman Powell

text: Informed that he was unlikely to be drafted, Powell decided to return for his senior year, and became UCLA's top returning player and scorer for 2014–15 after underclassmen Adams, Kyle Anderson and Zach LaVine each declared for the NBA draft, while seniors Travis and David Wear graduated. During the offseason, Powell worked to improve his jump shot. As the season progressed, he grew to be a leader of the team, and increasingly took on more of the offensive load. Although freshman teammate Kevon Looney was seen as a potential NBA lottery pick, Powell became the Bruins' most consistent performer. On March 1, 2015, Powell scored a career-high 28 points in a 72–67 win over Washington State. He averaged 26 points and 5.5 rebounds in two games that week, and was honored with his conference-high third Pac-12 Player of the Week for the season. The Bruins went 2–0, helping them secure an eventual No.4 seed and first-round bye in the 2015 Pac-12 tournament, and maintaining their hopes of receiving a bid to the NCAA Tournament. At season's end, Powell was voted first-team All-Pac-12, and again received honorable mention for the All-Defensive Team. He was also named first-team all-district by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), and second-team all-district by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). He finished as the team leader in scoring with 16.4 points per game, the sixth highest in the conference.


title: Norman Powell

text: On June 25, 2015, Powell was selected with the 46th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. His draft rights, along with a 2017 first-round draft pick, were subsequently traded to the Toronto Raptors for Greivis Vásquez. After signing with Toronto on July 15, he played with the Raptors in the 2015 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, where he was the only rookie to be named to the All-NBA Summer League First Team. Powell received playing time early in 2015–16 due to injuries to Terrence Ross and DeMarre Carroll. He later received multiple assignments to Raptors 905, Toronto's D-League affiliate.


title: Norman Powell

text: With Carroll out after knee surgery and James Johnson sidelined with a sprained ankle, Powell made his first NBA start on February 2, 2016, going scoreless with two steals in 15 minutes in a 104–97 win over the Phoenix Suns. On March 15, he made his eighth career start and scored a then season-high 17 points in a 107–89 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. He topped that mark on March 28, scoring 18 points in a 119–100 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Two days later, he scored 10 points in a 105–97 win over the Atlanta Hawks, helping the Raptors record a 50-win season for the first time in franchise history. On April 8, with All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry resting, Powell set a new season high with 27 points in a 111–98 win over the Indiana Pacers. In the Raptors' regular-season finale, Powell topped that mark again with 30 points in a 103–96 win over the Brooklyn Nets. After averaging an Eastern Conference-leading 15.3 points per game in April, he was named the conference's NBA Rookie of the Month.


title: Norman Powell

text: Powell played sparingly for the Raptors over the first half of the 2016–17 season. With DeMarre Carroll sitting out back-to-back games early on in the season, Powell received a number of starting assignments. He would rise to the occasion every time he got an opportunity, only to go missing in action for a handful of games before his services were needed again. On December 20, 2016, Powell scored a season-high 21 off the bench in a 116–104 win over the Brooklyn Nets. He had three more 21-point games over the next three months. On April 24, 2017, in Game 5 of the Raptors' first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks, Powell scored a playoff career-high 25 points to help the Raptors take a 3–2 series lead with a 118–93 win.


title: Norman Powell

text: On October 8, 2017, Powell signed a four-year, $42 million contract extension with the Raptors. The deal, which started with the 2018–19 season, included a player option on the fourth year.


title: Norman Powell

text: On November 5, 2018, against the Utah Jazz, Powell partially dislocated his left shoulder joint, and was ruled out indefinitely. He returned to action on December 19 against the Indiana Pacers after missing 21 games. On January 6, 2019, he scored a season-high 23 points in a 121–105 win over the Pacers. On March 22, he had a career-high 11 rebounds in a 116–109 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. On April 7, he matched his season high with 23 points in a 117–109 overtime win over the Miami Heat. Powell won his first championship when the Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals in six games.


title: Norman Powell

text: In 2019–20, Fred VanVleet became the starting shooting guard after Toronto lost Danny Green in free agency. Powell began the season scoring in double digits only once in the first seven games. On November 29, 2019, he scored 19 of his career-high 33 points in the third quarter in a 90–83 win over the Orlando Magic. As a starter in December in place of an injured VanVleet, he scored 20 or more points in three straight contests for the first time in his career. Later in the month, Powell injured his shoulder against the Detroit Pistons, and was out for three weeks before returning in mid-January. On January 31, 2020, he fractured the fourth metacarpal of his left hand against the Pistons. He returned at the end of February after missing nine games. On March 5, Powell scored a career-high 37 points in a 121–113 win over the Golden State Warriors. After averaging a conference-leading 31.3 points on 56 percent shooting and helping the Raptors win three road games that week, he was named the NBA's Eastern Conference player of the week for the first time in his career. Toronto advanced in the playoffs to the conference semifinals against the Boston Celtics, which Powell helped tie the series at 3 after scoring 15 of his 23 points in the two overtime periods in a 125–122 win in Game 6.


title: Norman Powell

text: The following season in 2020–21, Powell moved into the starting lineup in mid-January 2021. On March 17, he scored a career-high 43 points in a close loss at Detroit.


title: Norman Powell

text: On March 25, 2021, the Portland Trail Blazers acquired Powell from Toronto in exchange for Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood. At the time, Powell had made 31 starts in his 41 games and was averaging a career-high 19.6 points, while his 3-point field goal percentage of 43.9% ranked 10th in the league. On March 27, Powell made his debut and recorded a game-high 22 points in 36 minutes in a 112–105 victory over Orlando Magic. On August 6, 2021, Powell signed a new, five-year, $90 million contract with the Trail Blazers.


title: Norman Powell

text: On February 4, 2022, Powell was traded, alongside Robert Covington, to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson, and a 2025 second-round pick. The trade reunited Powell with former Toronto teammates Kawhi Leonard and Serge Ibaka, the latter of which would be traded to the Milwaukee Bucks on February 10. In his Clippers debut on February 6, Powell scored 28 points and recorded 4 assists in a 137–113 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. On February 10, he suffered a medial sesamoid bone fracture in his left foot, which sidelined him for two months. Powell played in a total of seven games for the Clippers after the trade, including two play-in games, and averaged a career-high 20 points.


title: Norman Powell

text: In October 2017, Powell teamed with web host GoDaddy to launch his website and his first single "No Problem".


title: Nightshift (song)

text: "Nightshift" is a 1985 song by the Commodores and the title track from their album of the same name. The song was written by lead singer Walter Orange in collaboration with Dennis Lambert and Franne Golde as a tribute to soul/R&B singers Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye, both of whom died in 1984. The song was released as the album's first single in January 1985 by Motown Records. "Nightshift" was recorded in 1984 and became the Commodores' first hit after Lionel Richie's departure from the group.


title: Nightshift (song)

text: The song features a lead vocal from drummer Walter Orange, who had sung lead years earlier on "Brick House". Lionel Richie's replacement, J.D. Nicholas, sings the second verse and then Orange and Nicholas share lead vocals on the remaining choruses.


title: Nightshift (song)

text: The first verse mentions Gaye's song "What's Going On", while the second verse mentions Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops" ("Say you will"), "Baby Workout" and "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher".


title: Nightshift (song)

text: "Nightshift" became their biggest hit after Richie's departure, peaking at number three for the week of April 20 on both the "Billboard" Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart, and rising to number one on the Hot Black Singles chart; the single also became a success on the Adult Contemporary and the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales charts in the first half of that year. As of 2021, it was the group's final top ten hit.


title: Nightshift (song)

text: Although the band was against the label decision to release it as a single, it won a Grammy Award in 1985 for Best Vocal R&B Performance by a Duo/Group.


title: Nightshift (song)

text: Bruce Springsteen recorded a version of the song for his 2022 album, "Only the Strong Survive". The song was released as a single and music video in October 2022.


title: Devdas

text: Devdas (, transliterated as "Debdās") is a Bengali romance novel written by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. The story pivots a tragic triangle linking Devdas, an archetypal lover in viraha (separation); Paro, his forbidden childhood love; and Chandramukhi, a reformed courtesan. Devdas has been adapted on screen 20 times for film and 5 times for single song.


title: Devdas

text: The character of Parvati was based on a real life second wife of zamindar Bhuvan Mohan Chowdhury, it was said that even the writer visited the village. According to sources, the original village was called Hatipota.


title: Devdas

text: Devdas is a young man from a wealthy Bengali family in India in the early 1900s. Parvati (Paro) is a young woman from a middle class Bengali Brahmin family. The two families live in a village called Taalshonapur in Bengal, and Devdas and Parvati are childhood friends.


title: Devdas

text: Devdas goes away for a couple of years to live and study in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata). During vacations, he returns to his village. Suddenly, both realise that their easy comfort in each other's innocent comradeship has changed to something deeper. Devdas sees that Parvati is no longer the small girl he knew. Parvati looks forward to their childhood love blossoming into a happy lifelong journey in marriage. According to prevailing social custom, Parvati's parents would have to approach Devdas's parents and propose marriage of Parvati to Devdas as Parvati longs for.


title: Devdas

text: Parvati's mother approaches Devdas's mother, Harimati, with a marriage proposal. Although Devdas's mother loves Parvati very much, she isn't so keen on forming an alliance with the family next door. Besides, Parvati's family has a long-standing tradition of accepting dowry from the groom's family for marriage rather than sending dowry with the bride. The alternative family tradition of Parvati's family influences Devdas's mother's decision not to consider Parvati as Devdas' bride, especially as Parvati belongs to a trading ("becha-kena chottoghor") lower family. The "trading" label is applied in context of the marriage custom followed by Parvati's family. Devdas's father, Narayan Mukherjee, who also loves Parvati, does not want Devdas to get married so early in life and isn't keen on the alliance. Parvati's father, Nilkantha Chakravarti, feeling insulted at the rejection, finds an even richer husband for Parvati.


title: Devdas

text: When Parvati learns of her planned marriage, she stealthily meets Devdas at night, desperately believing that he will accept her hand in marriage. Devdas has never previously considered Parvati as his would-be wife. Surprised by Parvati's boldly visiting him alone at night, he also feels pained for her. Making up his mind, he tells his father he wants to marry Parvati. Devdas's father disagrees.


title: Devdas

text: In a confused state, Devdas flees to Calcutta. From there, he writes a letter to Parvati, saying that they should simply continue only as friends. Within days, however, he realises that he should have been bolder. He goes back to his village and tells Parvati that he is ready to do anything needed to save their love.


title: Devdas

text: By now, Parvati's marriage plans are in an advanced stage. She refuses to go back to Devdas and chides him for his cowardice and vacillation. She, however, requests Devdas to come and see her before he dies. He vows to do so.


title: Devdas

text: Devdas goes back to Calcutta and Parvati is married off to the widower, Bhuvan Choudhuri, who has three children. An elderly gentleman and zamindar of Hatipota he had found his house and home so empty and lustreless after his wife's death, that he decided to marry again. After marrying Parvati, he spent most of his day in Pujas and looking after the zamindari.


title: Devdas

text: In Calcutta, Devdas's carousing friend, Chunni Lal, introduces him to a courtesan named Chandramukhi. Devdas takes to heavy drinking at the courtesan's place; she falls in love with him, and looks after him. His health deteriorates through excessive drinking and despair – a drawn-out form of suicide. In his mind, he frequently compares Parvati and Chandramukhi. Strangely he feels betrayed by Parvati, though it was she who had loved him first, and confessed her love for him. Chandramukhi knows and tells him how things had really happened. This makes Devdas, when sober, hate and loathe her very presence. He drinks more and more to forget his plight. Chandramukhi sees it all happen, suffering silently. She senses the real man behind the fallen, aimless Devdas he has become, and can't help but love him.


title: Devdas

text: Knowing death approaches him fast, Devdas goes to Hatipota to meet Parvati to fulfill his vow. He dies at her doorstep on a dark, cold night. On hearing of his death, Parvati runs towards the door, but her family members prevent her from stepping out of the house.


title: Devdas

text: The novella powerfully depicts the customs of society that prevailed in Bengal in the early 1900s, which largely prevented a happy ending to a true and tender love story.


title: Devdas

text: The novel has been made into films in many Indian languages, including Bengali, Hindustani, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese and Malayalam. It is the most filmed non-epic story in India.


title: Clare Higgins

text: Clare Frances Elizabeth Higgins (born 10 November 1955) is an English actress. Her film appearances include "Hellraiser" (1987),


title: Clare Higgins

text: A six-time Olivier Award nominee for her work in the theatre, Higgins received her first nomination in 1984 for her role as Stella Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire". She has since won the Olivier Award for Best Actress three times; for "Sweet Bird of Youth" in 1995, "Vincent in Brixton" in 2003 and "Hecuba" in 2005. She made her Broadway debut in 2003 in "Vincent in Brixton", receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. She returned to Broadway in the 2014 revival of "A Delicate Balance".


title: Clare Higgins

text: Higgins, the second of five children, was born in Bradford, to Paula Cecilia (née Murphy) and James Stephen Higgins. Her parents were from working class Irish Catholic backgrounds, and worked as teachers. Higgins was interested in acting since her childhood. After being expelled from a convent school, she ran away from home at seventeen. At 19, she gave birth to a boy but gave him up for adoption at her social worker's insistence.


title: Clare Higgins

text: At 23, Higgins graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Through the 1980s, she became a dynamic stage actress, both in London and on Broadway. She starred in the premiere of David Hare's "The Secret Rapture", and won the first of her three Olivier Awards in 1995. In 1983, she starred with Ben Cross in the BBC's serial version of A.J. Cronin's "The Citadel", playing the role of Christine Manson. For the big screen, Higgins played Julia Cotton in Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" (1987), based on Barker's novella "The Hellbound Heart". She reprised the role for Tony Randel's "" (1988). Her other film credits include the Scottish film "Small Faces" (1996). In 2000 she appeared in Catherine Cookson's "The Secret" TV mini series as Maggie Hewitt, also in Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream" (2007), and "The Golden Compass" (2007).


title: Clare Higgins

text: Higgins appeared as Jocasta in the National Theatre's critically acclaimed production of "Oedipus", opposite Ralph Fiennes in the title role. From April to May 2009, she appeared in Wallace Shawn's "The Fever" at the Royal Court Theatre.


title: Clare Higgins

text: From mid-May to September 2009, she appeared as the Countess Rossillion in "All's Well That Ends Well" at the National Theatre (Olivier stage).


title: Clare Higgins

text: On 30 September 2012, Higgins appeared in Season 3, episode 3 of "Downton Abbey" as Mrs Bartlett, a friend of Mrs Bates who eventually helps in the release of Mr Bates from prison.


title: Clare Higgins

text: On 14 November 2013, she appeared in the "Doctor Who" mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor", which starred Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. Higgins played Ohila, the leader of the Sisterhood of Karn. In 2014 she appeared in Father Brown "The Daughters of Jerusalem" as Dinah Fortescue. Higgins returned to the role of Ohila in 2015 in "The Magician's Apprentice", which originally aired on 19 September 2015, and in the series finale "Hell Bent" on 5 December 2015. The same year she appeared in "EastEnders", as prosecuting lawyer Hazel Warren.


title: Clare Higgins

text: In January 2017, Higgins appeared in CBBC's adaptation of Jill Murphy's "The Worst Witch" as Miss Ada Cackle, and her wicked twin sister Agatha.


title: Clare Higgins

text: Higgins was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1995 (1994 season) for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in "Sweet Bird of Youth" at the Royal National Theatre. She won the same award in both 2002 and 2005: in 2002 for her performance in "Vincent in Brixton" performed at the Royal National Theatre, Cottesloe and Wyndham's Theatres, and in 2005 for her performance as Hecuba in the Euripides tragedy at the Donmar Warehouse. She was awarded the 2002 London Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in "Vincent in Brixton". Additionally, she was awarded the 1994 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre) for Best Actress for her performances in "The Children's Hour" and "Sweet Bird of Youth". She was also awarded the 2002 "London Evening Standard" Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in "Vincent in Brixton" at the Donmar Warehouse in London. In 2003, she was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play for "Vincent in Brixton" on Broadway, and garnered the 2003 Theatre World Award for outstanding major Broadway debut.


title: Fragaria

text: Fragaria () is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. There are more than 20 described species and many hybrids and cultivars. The most common strawberries grown commercially are cultivars of the garden strawberry, a hybrid known as "Fragaria" × "ananassa". Strawberries have a taste that varies by cultivar, and ranges from quite sweet to rather tart. Strawberries are an important commercial fruit crop, widely grown in all temperate regions of the world.


title: Fragaria

text: Strawberries are not berries in the botanical sense. The fleshy and edible part of the "fruit" is a receptacle, and the parts that are sometimes mistakenly called "seeds" are achenes and therefore the true botanical fruits.