title: Lectio Divina

text: The first step is the reading of Scripture. In order to achieve a calm and tranquil state of mind, preparation before "Lectio Divina" is recommended. The biblical reference for preparation via stillness is : "Be still, and know that I am God." An example would be sitting quietly and in silence and reciting a prayer inviting the Holy Spirit to guide the reading of the Scripture that is to follow.


title: Lectio Divina

text: The biblical basis for the preparation goes back to which emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in revealing the Word of God. As in the statement by John the Baptist in that "in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not," the preparatory step should open the mind to finding Christ in the passage being read.


title: Lectio Divina

text: Following the preparation the first movement of "Lectio Divina" is slow and gradual reading of the scriptural passage, perhaps several times. The biblical basis for the reading goes back to and the presence of God's word in the believer's "mouth or heart". The attentive reading begins the process through which a higher level of understanding can be achieved. In the traditional Benedictine approach the passage is slowly read four times, each time with a slightly different focus.


title: Lectio Divina

text: Although "Lectio Divina" involves reading, it is less a practice of reading than one of listening to the inner message of the Scripture delivered through the Holy Spirit. "Lectio Divina" does not seek information or motivation, but communion with God. It does not treat Scripture as text to be studied, but as the "Living Word".


title: Lectio Divina

text: The second movement in "Lectio Divina" thus involves meditating upon and pondering on the scriptural passage. When the passage is read, it is generally advised not to try to assign a meaning to it at first, but to wait for the action of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the mind, as the passage is pondered upon.


title: Lectio Divina

text: The English word "ponder" comes from the Latin "pondus" which relates to the mental activity of weighing or considering. To ponder on the passage that has been read, it is held lightly and gently considered from various angles. Again, the emphasis is not on analysis of the passage but to keep the mind open and allow the Holy Spirit to inspire a meaning for it.


title: Lectio Divina

text: An example passage may be the statement by Jesus during the Last Supper in : "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you".


title: Lectio Divina

text: An analytical approach would focus on why Jesus said that, the fact that it was said at the Last Supper, and the context within the biblical episode. Other theological analysis may follow, e.g. the cost at which Jesus the Lamb of God provided peace through his obedience to the will of the Father, etc.


title: Lectio Divina

text: However, these theological analyses are generally avoided in "Lectio Divina", where the focus is on Christ as the key that interprets the passage and relates it to the meditator. So rather than "dissecting peace" in an analytical manner, the practitioner of "Lectio Divina" "enters peace" and shares the peace of Christ. The focus will thus be on achieving peace via a closer communion with God rather than a biblical analysis of the passage. Similar other passages may be "Abide in my love", "I am the Good Shepherd", etc.


title: Lectio Divina

text: In the Christian tradition, prayer is understood as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with God who has invited us into an embrace. The constitution "Dei verbum" which endorsed "Lectio Divina" for the general public, as well as in monastic settings, quoted Saint Ambrose on the importance of prayer in conjunction with Scripture reading and stated:


title: Lectio Divina

text: Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the importance of using "Lectio Divina" and prayers on Scripture as a guiding light and a source of direction and stated "It should never be forgotten that the Word of God is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path."


title: Lectio Divina

text: Contemplation takes place in terms of silent prayer that expresses love for God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines contemplative prayer as "the hearing the Word of God" in an attentive mode. It states "Contemplative prayer is , the 'symbol of the world to come' or 'silent love.' Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to the 'outer' man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose; in this silence the Spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus."


title: Lectio Divina

text: The role of the Holy Spirit in contemplative prayer has been emphasized by Christian spiritual writers for centuries. In the 12th century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux compared the Holy Spirit to a kiss by the Eternal Father which allows the practitioner of contemplative prayer to experience union with God. In the 14th century, Richard Rolle viewed contemplation as the path that leads the soul to union with God in love, and considered the Holy Spirit as the center of contemplation.


title: Lectio Divina

text: From a theological perspective, God's grace is considered a principle, or cause, of contemplation, with its benefits delivered through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.


title: Lectio Divina

text: While the "Lectio Divina" has been the key method of meditation and contemplation within the Benedictine, Cistercian and Carthusian orders, other Catholic religious orders have used other methods.


title: Lectio Divina

text: An example is another four-step approach, that by Saint Clare of Assisi shown in the Table 1, which is used by the Franciscan order. Saint Clare's method is more visual than Guigo II's which seems more intellectual in comparison.


title: Lectio Divina

text: Saint Teresa of Avila's method of "recollection" which uses book passages to keep focus during meditation has similarities to the way "Lectio Divina" uses a specific Scriptural passage as the centerpiece of a session of meditation and contemplation. It is likely that Teresa did not initially know of Guigo II's methods, although she may have been indirectly influenced by those teachings via the works of Francisco de Osuna which she studied in detail.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The population of Africa has grown rapidly over the past century and consequently shows a large youth bulge, further reinforced by a low life expectancy of below 50 years in some African countries. Total population as of 2020 is estimated at more than 1.3 billion, with a growth rate of more than 2.5% p.a. The total fertility rate (births per woman) for Sub-Saharan Africa is 4.7 as of 2018, the highest in the world according to the World Bank. The most populous African country is Nigeria with over 206 million inhabitants as of 2020 and a growth rate of 2.6% p.a.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Registration of vital events in most of Africa is incomplete. The website Our World in Data prepared the following estimates based on statistics from the Population Department of the United Nations.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The population of Africa was 177 million in 1950, and it grew 7.6 times to more than 1.341 billion in 2020.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The increase in population is explosive, with a population under the age of 14 in the exponential growth phase, a difference from almost the rest of the world, which is already in balance (USA 1966, Europe 1969, Mexico 1990, Latin America 2000, India 2009, Asia 1977).


title: Demographics of Africa

text: As of 2019, the total population of Africa is estimated at 1.3 billion, representing 16 percent of the world's population. According to UN estimates, the population of Africa may reach 2.49 billion by 2050 (about 26% of the world's total) and 4.28 billion by 2100 (about 39% of the world's total). The number of babies born in Africa compared to the rest of the world is expected to reach approximately 37% in the year 2050.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The population of Africa first surpassed one billion in 2009, with a doubling time of 27 years (growth rate 2.6% p.a.).


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Population growth has continued at almost the same pace, and total population is expected to surpass 2 billion by 2038 (doubling time 29 years, 2.4% p.a.).


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The reason for the uncontrolled population growth since the mid 20th century is the decrease of infant mortality and general increase of life expectancy without a corresponding reduction in fertility rate, due to a very limited use of contraceptives. Further factors generally associated with decreased fertility include wealth, education, and female labor participation. Uncontrolled population growth threatens to overwhelm infrastructure development and crippling economic development. Kenya and Zambia are pursuing programs to promote family planning in an attempt to curb growth rates.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The extreme population growth in Africa is driven by East Africa, Middle Africa and West Africa, which regions are projected to more than quintuple their populations over the 21st century. The most extreme of these is Middle Africa, with an estimated population increase by 681%, from less than 100 million in 2000 to more than 750 million in 2100 (almost half of this figure is driven by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, projected to increase from 47 million in 2000 to 362 million in 2100). Projected population growth is less extreme in Southern Africa and North Africa, which are expected, respectively, to not quite double and triple their populations over the same period.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27.1% of global livebirths.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: In September 1987, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee announced the launching of the Bamako Initiative— chartered in response to financial issues occurring in the region during the 1980s, and with the aim of increasing access to vital medications through community involvement in revolving drug funds. The 1987 Bamako Initiative conference, organized by the WHO was held in Bamako, the capital of Mali, and helped reshape the health policy of sub-Saharan Africa. The meeting was attended by African Ministers of Health who advocated for improvement of healthcare access through the revitalization of primary healthcare. The new strategy substantially increased accessibility through community-based healthcare reform, resulting in more efficient and equitable provision of services. The public health community within the region raised issues in response to the initiative, of which included: equity, access, affordability, integration issues, relative importance given to medications, management, dependency, logistics, and sustainability. As a result of these critiques, the Initiative later transformed to address the increase of accessibility of health services, the enhancement of quality of health services, and the overall improvement of health system management. A comprehensive approach strategy was extended to all areas of health care, with subsequent improvement in the health care indicators and improvement in health care efficiency and cost.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The sub-Saharan African region experiences disproportionate rates of infectious and chronic diseases in comparison to other global regions.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Type 2 diabetes persists as an epidemic in the region posing a public health and socioeconomic crisis for sub-Saharan Africa. Scarcity of data for pathogenesis and subtypes for diabetes in sub-Saharan African communities has led to gaps in documenting epidemiology for the disease. High rates of undiagnosed diabetes in many countries leaves individuals at a high risk of chronic health complications, thus, posing a high risk of diabetes-related morbidity and mortality in the region.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: In 2011, sub-Saharan Africa was home to 69% of all people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. In response, a number of initiatives have been launched to educate the public on HIV/AIDS. Among these are combination prevention programmes, considered to be the most effective initiative, the abstinence, be faithful, use a condom campaign, and the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation's outreach programs. According to a 2013 special report issued by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the number of HIV positive people in Africa receiving anti-retroviral treatment in 2012 was over seven times the number receiving treatment in 2005, with an almost 1 million added in the last year alone. The number of AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 was 33 percent less than the number in 2005. The number of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 was 25 percent less than the number in 2001.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Malaria is an endemic illness in sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of malaria cases and deaths worldwide occur.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Studies show that more than half of the world's maternal deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. However, progress has been made in this area, as maternal mortality rates have decreased for multiple countries in the region by about half since 1990. Additionally, the African Union in July 2003 ratified the Maputo Protocol, which pledges to prohibit female genital mutilation.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The sub-Saharan African region alone accounts for about 45% of global infant and child mortalities. Studies have shown a relationship between infant survival and the education of mothers, as years of education positively correlate with infant survival rates. Geographic location is also a factor, as child mortality rates are higher in rural areas in comparison to urban regions.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Routine immunization has been introduced to countries within sub-Saharan Africa in order to prevent measles outbreaks within the region.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Neglected tropical diseases such as hookworm infection encompass some of the most common health conditions which affect an estimated 500 million individuals in the sub-Saharan African region.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Results of Global Burden of Disease studies reveal that the age-standardized death rates of non-communicable diseases in at least four sub-Saharan countries including South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Ethiopia supersede that of identified high-income countries. Improvement in statistics systems and increase in epidemiological studies with in-depth analysis of disease risk factors could improve the understanding of non-communicable diseases (i.e.: diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, etc.) in sub-Saharan Africa as well as better inform decisions surrounding healthcare policy in the region.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Onchocerciasis ("river blindness"), a common cause of blindness, is also endemic to parts of the region. More than 99% of people affected by the illness worldwide live in 31 countries therein. In response, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) was launched in 1995 with the aim of controlling the disease.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Tuberculosis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality on a global scale, especially in high HIV-prevalent populations in the sub-Saharan African region, with a high case fatality rate.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: National health systems vary between countries. In Ghana, most health care is provided by the government and largely administered by the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Services. The healthcare system has five levels of providers: health posts which are first level primary care for rural areas, health centers and clinics, district hospitals, regional hospitals and tertiary hospitals. These programs are funded by the government of Ghana, financial credits, Internally Generated Fund (IGF), and Donors-pooled Health Fund.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: A shortage of health professionals compounded by migration of health workers from sub-Saharan Africa to other parts of the world (namely English-speaking nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom) has negatively impacted productivity and efficacy of the region's health systems.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: More than 85% of individuals in Africa use traditional medicine as an alternative to often expensive allopathic medical health care and costly pharmaceutical products. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) Heads of State and Government declared the 2000s decade as the African Decade on African Traditional Medicine in an effort to promote The WHO African Region’s adopted resolution for institutionalizing traditional medicine in health care systems across the continent. Public policy makers in the region are challenged with consideration of the importance of traditional/indigenous health systems and whether their coexistence with the modern medical and health sub-sector would improve the equitability and accessibility of health care distribution, the health status of populations, and the social-economic development of nations within sub-Saharan Africa.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger–Congo family) predominate in southern, central and southeast Africa. The Bantu farmers from West Africa's inland savanna progressively expanded over most of Africa. But there are also several Nilotic groups in South Sudan and East Africa, the mixed Swahili people on the Swahili Coast, and a few remaining indigenous Khoisan (San and Khoikhoi) and Pygmy peoples in southern and central Africa, respectively. Native Bantu-speaking Africans also predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and are found in parts of southern Cameroon. In the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the "San" have long been present. Together with the Khoikhoi, they form the Khoisan. The San are the pre-Bantu indigenous people of southern Africa, while Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous African peoples of Central Africa.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The peoples of West Africa primarily speak Niger–Congo languages belonging mostly, though not exclusively, to its non-Bantu branches, though some Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic-speaking groups are also found. The Niger–Congo-speaking Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, Akan and Wolof ethnic groups are the largest and most influential. In the central Sahara, Mandinka or Mande groups are most significant. Chadic-speaking groups, including the Hausa, are found in the more northerly parts of the region nearest to the Sahara and Nilo-Saharan communities such as the Kanuri, Zarma and Songhai are present in eastern parts of West Africa bordering Central Africa.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The peoples of North Africa comprise three main groups: Berbers in the northwest, Egyptians and Libyans in northeast, and Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples in the east. The non-native Muslim settlers who arrived in the 7th century introduced the Arabic language and Islam to the region, initiating a process of linguistic Arabization of the region's inhabitants. The Semitic Phoenicians (who founded Carthage) and Hyksos, the Indo-Iranian Alans, the Indo-European Greeks, Romans and Vandals settled in North Africa as well.Berber-speaking populations still make significant communities within Morocco and Algeria and are still also present in smaller numbers in Tunisia and Libya. The Berber-speaking Tuareg and other often-nomadic peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. In Mauritania, there is a small Berber community and Niger–Congo-speaking peoples in the South, though in both regions Arabic and Arab culture predominates. In Sudan, although Arabic and Arab culture predominates, it is also inhabited by originally Nilo-Saharan-speaking groups such as the Nubians, Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa who over the centuries have variously intermixed with migrants from the Arabian peninsula. Small communities of Afro-Asiatic-speaking Beja nomads can also be found in Egypt and Sudan.In the Horn of Africa, Afro-Asiatic-speaking groups predominate. Ethiopian and Eritrean groups like the Amhara and Tigrayans (collectively known as Habesha) speak languages from the Semitic branch of Afro-Asiatic language family, while the Oromo and Somali speak languages from the Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic. In southern Ethiopia and Eritrea, Nilotic peoples related to those in South Sudan are also found, while Bantu and Khoisan ethnic minorities inhabit parts of southern Somalia near the Kenyan border.Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era, Europeans were represented in every part of Africa. Decolonisation during the 1960s and 1970s often resulted in the mass emigration of European-descended settlers out of Africa – especially from Algeria and Morocco (1.6 million "pieds-noirs" in North Africa), Kenya, Congo, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola. By the end of 1977, more than one million Portuguese were thought to have returned from Africa. Nevertheless, European Africans remain a minority in many African states, particularly South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Réunion. The African country with the largest native European African population is South Africa. The Boers or Afrikaners, the British diaspora and the Coloureds (multiracial) are the largest European-descended groups in Africa today.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: European colonization also brought sizable groups of Asians, particularly people from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies. Large Indian communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya, Tanzania, and some other southern and East African countries. The large Indian community in Uganda was expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972, though many have since returned. The islands in the Indian Ocean are also populated primarily by people of Asian origin, often mixed with Africans and Europeans. The Malagasy people of Madagascar are Austronesian people and native African people, but those along the coast are generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian and European origins. Malay and Indian ancestries are also important components in the group of people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds (people with origins in two or more races and continents). Beginning with the 21st century many Hispanics, primarily Mexicans, Central Americans, Chileans, Peruvians, and Colombians, have immigrated to Africa. Around 500,000 Hispanics have immigrated to Africa, most of whom live in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Ghana. During the 20th century, small but economically important communities of Lebanese and Chinese have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Khoisan languages (probably no phylogenetic unit, see Khoe languages), concentrated in the Kalahari Desert of Namibia and Botswana;


title: Demographics of Africa

text: There are several other small families and language isolates, as well as languages that have yet to be classified.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: In addition, the Afroasiatic languages are spread throughout Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and parts of the Sahel. The Afroasiatic homeland may be either in Western Asia or in Africa.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: More recently introduced to Africa are Austronesian languages spoken in Madagascar, as well as Indo-European languages spoken in South Africa and Namibia (Afrikaans, English, German), which were used as lingua francas in former European colonies.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: The total number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at "over 3,000",


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Around a hundred languages are widely used for inter-ethnic communication. Arabic, Somali, Berber, Amharic, Oromo, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Manding, Fulani and Yoruba are spoken by tens of millions of people.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Twelve dialect clusters (which may group up to a hundred linguistic varieties) are spoken by 75 percent, and fifteen by 85 percent, of Africans as a first or additional language.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Niger–Congo is the largest phylum of African languages, with more than 500 million speakers (2017); it is dominated by the Bantu branch, spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the Bantu expansion, Bantu speakers accounting for about half of Niger–Congo speakers.


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Arabic is the most widely spoken single language in Africa by far, with a population of Arab Africa of the order of 330 million (2017).


title: Demographics of Africa

text: Khoisan groups a number of mostly endangered click languages, the largest being Khoekhoe with of the order of 300,000 speakers (2016).


The 2020 United States presidential election in Missouri was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Missouri voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump of Florida, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence of Indiana against Democratic Party nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware, and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris of California. Missouri has 10 electoral votes in the Electoral College.


title: 2020 United States presidential election in Missouri

text: Trump won Missouri again by a 15.4% margin. This was 3.1% lower than his 2016 margin, but still a better performance in the state than that of any other Republican nominee since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Prior to the election, most news organizations considered this a state Trump would win.


text: This is only the second time that Missouri has voted more Republican than neighboring Kansas, the first time being in 1916. Biden became the second Democrat ever to win the presidency without carrying Missouri, the first being Barack Obama, whom Biden served under as vice president.


text: A bellwether state for the bulk of the 20th century, Missouri has since come to vote reliably Republican in presidential elections. This has been attributed to a shift in Republican policy towards right-wing populism and social conservatism; the platform has found fertile ground in the state, which lies in the Bible Belt, with Trump carrying 86% of White, born-again/Evangelical Christians.


text: Biden won the same four jurisdictions that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did in 2012 and 2016, respectively: Jackson County, home to Kansas City; Boone County, home to the college town of Columbia; and St. Louis County, home to the suburbs of St. Louis, which he also won. Biden also improved Democratic margins in Platte and Clay counties, both suburbs of Kansas City; Platte was carried by Trump by only 3%, and Clay by 4%. In addition, the 61% of the vote that Biden won in St. Louis County was the best performance for a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 landslide.


text: Per exit polls by the Associated Press, Trump's strength in Missouri came from voters who trusted him on economic policy: a 57% majority believed Trump was better able to handle international trade. With a hybrid industrial-service-agricultural economy, 63% of Missourian voters favored increasing taxes on goods imported to the U.S. from other countries, and these voters broke for Trump by 67%. As is the case in many Southern and border states, there was a stark racial divide in voting for this election: White Missourians supported Trump by 62%, while black Missourians supported Biden by 88%. Trump became the first Republican to win Missouri by double digits twice.


text: In other elections, incumbent Republican Mike Parson easily defeated State Auditor Nicole Galloway by 16 points—outperforming Trump—in the governor's race, further testifying to the state's trend towards the GOP, and becoming the best performance for a Republican on the gubernatorial level since John Ashcroft's 1988 victory.


title: Arab Cold War

text: The Arab Cold War ( "al-Harb al-`Arabiyyah al-bāridah") was a period of political rivalry in the Arab world from the early 1950s to the late 1970s as part of the broader Cold War. The generally accepted beginning of the Arab Cold War was the Egyptian revolution of 1952, which ultimately led to Gamal Abdel Nasser becoming President of Egypt in 1956. Thereafter, newly established Arab republics defined by revolutionary secular nationalism, and largely drawing inspiration from Nasser's Egypt, were engaged in political rivalries of varying degrees of ferocity with conservative traditionalist Arab monarchies, led chiefly by Saudi Arabia. The approximate end point of this period of internecine rivalry and conflict is generally viewed as being the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which culminated in the installation of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the leader of Iran's theocratic government. Thereafter, the bitterness of intra-Arab strife was eclipsed by a new era of Arab-Iranian tensions.


title: Arab Cold War

text: Nasser espoused secular, pan-Arab nationalism, and socialism as a response to the Islamism, and rentierism of the Arab monarchies, as well as their perceived complicity in Western meddling in the Arab World. He also saw himself as the foremost champion of Palestinian liberation following the loss of 78% of the former Mandate of Palestine to the newly declared State of Israel in the Palestine War of 1948-1949. Following Egypt's political triumph in the Suez Crisis of 1956, known in the Arab World as the "Tripartite Aggression", Nasser and the ideology associated with him rapidly gained support in other Arab countries from Iraq in the east to French-occupied Algeria in the west. Numerous Arab countries, notably Iraq, North Yemen, and Libya underwent the toppling of conservative regimes and their replacement with revolutionary republican governments, whilst Arab countries under Western occupation, chiefly Algeria, and South Yemen, saw the growth of nationalist insurrections aimed at national liberation. Contemporaneously, the already staunchly Arab nationalist Syria united with Egypt in the short-lived federal union of the United Arab Republic. A number of other attempts to unite the Arab states in various configurations were made, but all ultimately failed.


title: Arab Cold War

text: In turn, the monarchies, namely Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco (and, following their independence in the early 1970s, the Gulf states) drew closer together as they sought to counter Egyptian influence through a variety of direct and indirect means. In particular, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, hitherto rivals due to the competing claims of their respective dynasties, cooperated closely in support of the royalist faction in the North Yemen Civil War that had become a proxy war between Egypt and Saudi Arabia following the establishment of the Nasserist Yemen Arab Republic in 1962.


title: Arab Cold War

text: The expression "Arab Cold War" was coined by American political scientist and Middle East scholar Malcolm H. Kerr in his 1965 book of that title, and subsequent editions. Despite the moniker, however, the Arab Cold War was not a clash between capitalist and communist economic systems. Indeed, with the exception of the Marxist government of South Yemen, all Arab governments expressly rejected communism, and criminalised the activities of communist activists within their territories. Moreover, the Arab states never sought membership of the competing military alliances of NATO, and the Warsaw Pact, with almost all Arab states being members of the Non-Aligned Movement. What tied the Arab Cold War to the wider global confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union was that the United States backed the conservative Saudi Arabian-led monarchies, while the Soviet Union supported the Egyptian-led republics adhering to Arab socialism, notwithstanding their suppression of domestic Arab communist movements. In tandem with this was the Arab revolutionary nationalist republican support for anti-American, anti-Western, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonial revolutionary movements outside the Arab World, such as the Cuban Revolution, and the Arab monarchical support for conservative governments in predominantly Muslim countries, such as Pakistan.


title: Arab Cold War

text: By the late 1970s, the Arab Cold War is considered to have ended due to a number of factors. The unmitigated success of the State of Israel in the Six Day War of 1967 severely undermined the strategic strength of both Egypt and Nasser. Though the subsequent resolution to the North Yemen Civil War brokered by Nasser and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was a victory for the Egyptian-backed Yemeni republicans, the intensity of the Egyptian-Saudi Arabian rivalry faded dramatically, as attention was focused on Egypt's efforts to liberate its own territory now under Israeli occupation. Nasser's death in 1970 was followed by the presidency of Anwar Sadat, who departed radically from Nasser's revolutionary platform, both domestically and in regional and international affairs. In particular, Sadat sought intimate strategic cooperation with Saudi Arabia under King Faisal, forging a relationship that was crucial to Egypt's successes in the first part of the October War of 1973. Capitalising on those initial successes, Sadat completed his departure from Nasserism by abandoning Egypt's strategic partnership with the Soviet Union in favour of the United States, and by making peace with the State of Israel in 1978 in exchange for the evacuation of all Israeli forces, and settlers from Egyptian territory. Sadat's peace treaty not only alienated Nasserists and other secular Arab nationalists, but enraged Islamists, who denounced him as an apostate. Egypt was suspended from the Arab League, entering virtual isolation in the region, whilst Islamism rose in popularity, culminating in the 1979 Iranian Revolution that established Shi'a Iran as a regional power vowing to topple the predominantly Sunni governments of Arab states, both republican and monarchical alike. As the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War heralded the beginning of the 1980s, Egypt under Sadat, whilst still suspended from the Arab League, made common cause with Saudi Arabia in supporting Sunni-led Iraq against Shi'a Iran. Simultaneously, Sunni-Shi'a strife elsewhere in the region, notably Lebanon, took on the character of a new proxy conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslim regional powers.


title: Arab Cold War

text: Over the period, the history of the Arab states varies widely. In 1956, the year of the Suez Crisis, only Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Sudan, among the Arab states were republics; all, to some degree, subscribed to the Arab nationalist ideology, or at least paid lip-service to it. Jordan, and Iraq were both Hashemite monarchies; Morocco, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and North Yemen all had independent dynasties; and Algeria, South Yemen, Oman, and the Trucial States remained under either French colonial rule, or British occupation. By 1960, Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, and North Yemen had republican governments or Arab nationalist insurgencies while Lebanon had a near-civil war between factions within the government which were US-aligned and Arab nationalist factions within the government which were Soviet- and Egyptian-aligned.


title: Arab Cold War

text: Because conflicts in the period varied over time and with different locations and perspectives, it is dated differently, depending on sources. Jordanian sources, for example, date the commencement of the Arab Cold War to April 1957, while Palestinian sources note the period of 1962 to 1967 as being most significant to them but within the larger Arab context.


title: Arab Cold War

text: In the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the Free Officers Movement toppled King Farouk. The Free Officers, led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, initiated a programme to radically change Egypt by dismantling feudalism, ending British influence in Egypt, and abolishing the monarchy and aristocracy. In 1953, they declared Egypt a republic. On 26 July 1956, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, following the withdrawal of an offer by the United Kingdom and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam, which was in response to Egypt's new ties with the Soviet Union. The United Kingdom and France subsequently entered into a secret pact with Israel to jointly invade Egypt, but were forced to back off in what is known as the Suez Crisis. Nasser emerged from the war with great prestige, as the "unchallenged leader of Arab nationalism".


title: Arab Cold War

text: Nasser employed a number of political instruments in order to raise his profile across the Arab world – from radio programs such as the Voice of the Arabs to the organised dispatch of politically active Egyptian professionals, usually teachers.


title: Arab Cold War

text: In July 1958, the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq was overthrown, with the king, crown prince and prime minister all killed by the nationalist revolutionaries. Iraq's monarchy was also replaced by a republic with an Arab nationalist orientation. Forces supporting Nasser and nationalism seemed ascendant, and older Arab monarchies seemed in peril. In 1969, yet another Arab kingdom fell, when the Free Officers Movement of Libya, a group of rebel military officers led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, overthrew the Kingdom of Libya led by King Idris.


title: Arab Cold War

text: In Saudi Arabia, Nasser's popularity was such that some Saudi princes (led by Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz) rallied to his cause of Arab socialism. In 1962, a Saudi Air Force pilot defected to Cairo. There were signs of "unrest and subversion" in 1965 and 1966, "especially" in Saudi's oil-producing region. In 1969, a Nasserist plot was uncovered by the Saudi government "involving 28 army officer, 34 air force officers, nine other military personnel, and 27 civilians."


title: Arab Cold War

text: In the early 1960s, Nasser sent an expeditionary army to Yemen to support the anti-monarchist forces in the North Yemen Civil War. Yemen royalists were supported by Saudi Arabia and Jordan (both monarchies). Egyptian air power struck Saudi border towns like Najran in December 1962.


title: Arab Cold War

text: By the late 1960s, Nasser's prestige was diminished by the political failure of the political union of Egypt and Syria, and the military failures in Yemen where the civil war stalemated despite his commitment of thousands of troops to overthrow the monarchists, and especially with Israel where Egypt lost the Sinai Peninsula and 10,000 to 15,000 troops killed during the Six-Day War. In late 1967, Nasser and Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal signed a treaty under which Nasser would pull out his 20,000 troops from Yemen, Faisal would stop sending arms to Yemen royalists, and three neutral Arab states would send in observers.


title: Arab Cold War

text: Though far smaller in population than Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had oil wealth and prestige as the land of Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities of Islam. To use Islam as a counterweight to Nasser's Arab socialism, Saudi Arabia sponsored an international Islamic conference in Mecca in 1962. It created the Muslim World League, dedicated to spreading Islam and fostering Islamic solidarity. The League was "extremely effective" in promoting Islam, particularly conservative Wahhabi Islam, and also served to combat "radical alien ideologies" (such as Arab socialism) in the Muslim world.


title: Arab Cold War

text: Particularly after the Six-Day War, Islamic revival strengthened throughout the Arab world. After Nasser's death in 1970, his successor, Anwar Sadat, emphasized religion and economic liberalization rather than Arab nationalism and socialism. In Egypt's "shattering" 1967 defeat, "Land, Sea and Air" had been the military slogan; in the perceived victory of the October 1973 war, it was replaced with the Islamic battle cry of "Allahu Akbar". While the October 1973 war was started by Egypt and Syria to take back the land conquered in 1967 by Israel, according to the French political scientist Gilles Kepel the "real victors" of the war were the Arab "oil-exporting countries", whose embargo against Israel's Western allies stopped Israel's counter-offensive. The embargo's political success enhanced the prestige of the embargo-ers and the reduction in the global supply of oil sent oil prices soaring (from US$3 per barrel to nearly $12) and with them, oil exporter revenues. This put Arab oil-exporting states in a "clear position of dominance within the Muslim world". The most dominant was Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter by far (see bar chart above).


title: Arab Cold War

text: In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been suppressed by the Egyptian government and aided by Saudi Arabia, was allowed to publish a monthly magazine, and its political prisoners were gradually released. At universities, Islamists took control and drove (anti-Sadat) student leftist and Pan-Arabist organizations underground. By the late 1970s, Sadat called himself 'The Believer President'. He banned most sales of alcohol and ordered Egypt's state-run television to interrupt programs with "salat" (Islamic call to prayer) on the screen five times a day and to increase religious programming.


title: Tricorne

text: The tricorne or tricorn is a style of hat that was popular during the 18th century, falling out of style by 1800, though actually not called a "tricorne" until the mid-19th century. During the 18th century, hats of this general style were referred to as "cocked hats". At the peak of its popularity, the tricorne varied greatly in style and size, and was worn not only by the aristocracy, but also as common civilian dress, and as part of military and naval uniforms. Typically made from animal fiber, the more expensive being of beaver-hair felt and the less expensive of wool felt, the hat's most distinguishing characteristic was that three sides of the brim were turned up (cocked) and either pinned, laced, or buttoned in place to form a triangle around the crown. The style served two purposes: first, it allowed stylish gentlemen to show off the most current fashions of their wigs, and thus their social status; and secondly, the cocked hat, with its folded brim, was much smaller than other hats, and therefore could be more easily tucked under an arm when going inside a building, where social etiquette dictates that a gentleman should remove his hat. Tricornes with laced sides could have the laces loosened and the sides dropped down to provide better protection from the weather, sun, and rain.


title: Tricorne

text: Tricornes had a rather broad brim, pinned up on either side of the head and at the back, producing a triangular shape. The hat was typically worn with one point facing forward, though it was not at all unusual for soldiers, who would often rest a rifle or musket on their left shoulder, to wear the tricorne pointed above their left eyebrow to allow better clearance. The crown is low, unlike the steeple hats worn by the Puritans or the top hat of the 19th century.


title: Tricorne

text: Tricornes ranged from the very simple and cheap to the extravagant, occasionally incorporating gold or silver lace trimming and feathers. In addition, military and naval versions usually bore a cockade or other national emblem at the front. This style of hat remains in use in a number of countries to the present day as an item of ceremonial dress.


title: Tricorne

text: The tricorne appeared as a result of the evolution of the broad-brim round hat used by Spanish soldiers in Flanders during the 17th century. By pledging (binding) the brims, a triangular shape was obtained. This shape was favored by Spanish soldiers, as when standing at arms their muskets could be held at their shoulders right or left without hitting the hat brim. War broke out between France and Spain in 1667 over the Spanish Netherlands, and during the subsequent struggle its use spread to the French armies. The style was brought back to France, where its usage spread to the French population and the royal court of King Louis XIV, who made it fashionable throughout Europe, both as a civilian and military wear. By the end of the 17th century, the tricorne was popular in both civilian fashion and in military uniforms. They remained one of the predominant European styles of hat throughout the 18th century. In the United States, only the first five Presidents, from George Washington to James Monroe, wore this style of hat according to the fashion of the 18th century. James Monroe earned the nickname "The Last Cocked Hat" because of this.


title: Tricorne

text: The tricorne quickly declined in use at the end of the 18th century. It evolved into the bicorne, which was widely used by military officers in Europe from the 1790s until World War I, not completely fading out of style until World War II. For enlisted soldiers, the tricorne was replaced by the shako at the turn of the 19th century, which had become the new dominant style of military headgear from 1800 on. Also at the turn of the 19th century, as the fashionable hat for civilian men, the tricorne was overtaken by the top hat. In 1917, the Women's Royal Naval Service introduced a smaller, modernised version of the tricorne for female officers.


title: Tricorne

text: Tricornes survive today as part of the traditional dress of the Chelsea Pensioners (UK) and the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps of the United States Army, and the distinctive hat of the Spanish Guardia Civil, called a "tricornio" in Spanish, originates from the tricorne. In the UK, a black feathered tricorne hat is part of the ceremonial dress of most Lord Mayors; at the annual Lord Mayor's Show in November, the newly elected Lord Mayor of the City of London can usually be seen enthusiastically waving his tricorne at the crowds. In the British Parliament until recently, both the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons used to carry plain black tricornes as part of their formal dress each day when on duty; only on rare occasions was it worn (on top of the full bottomed wig): by the Lord Chancellor when acting as a Lord Commissioner of the Sovereign, and by the Speaker when rebuking a Member at the Bar of the House. During the Introduction Ceremony, new members of the House of Lords were required to doff (remove and replace) a tricorne hat three times before the Lord Chancellor; however, hats were removed from the ritual in 1998.


title: Tricorne

text: In the United States, the tricorne is associated with the American Revolution and American Patriots of that era, especially Minutemen (militia members of the American Colonies). Participants in re-enactment events often don tricornes, and they also can be seen in sports culture as worn by fans of teams with Revolutionary names, such as the New England Patriots (an American football team), the New England Revolution (a Major League Soccer team), the United States men's national soccer team, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the George Washington University. The Tea Party movement uses the tricorne as an icon to associate itself with the American Revolution.


title: Tricorne

text: In Spain the traditional headdress of the Guardia Civil, the oldest law enforcement agency covering the whole country, is the "tricornio" hat, originally a tricorne. Its use now is reserved for parades or ceremonies. The Royal Corps of Halberdiers within the Spanish Royal Guard wear blue and white with a silver ribbon tricorne as part of their formal dress.


title: Tricorne

text: In France, synagogue officiants (usually not rabbis), wear the tricorne on formal occasions. In the French navy and air force, tricornes are still worn by women as a piece of uniform.


title: Tricorne

text: The tricorne is a key feature in the University of Minho's academic dress, in Portugal. Its origins are as far as 18th century, as being the academic dress of Colégio de Estudos Superiores de S. Paulo, as depicted by tile panels in the Archbishop's Palace of Braga (now Rectorate of the University of Minho). Designated by "Tricórnio" (Portuguese for "tricorne"), this academic dress was redesigned and officially set 1989.


title: Tricorne

text: In Canada, the tricorne is part of the ceremonial wear of the Speakers, both in the federal Parliament and in some provincial legislatures. It is also part of the ceremonial dress for justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.


title: Tricorne

text: In 1981 the milliner John Boyd made the famous pink tricorne hat for Diana, Princess of Wales. This style became known as the "Lady Di" design and was copied worldwide.


title: Plasticizer

text: A plasticizer (UK: plasticiser) is a substance that is added to a material to make it softer and more flexible, to increase its plasticity, to decrease its viscosity, and/or to decrease friction during its handling in manufacture.


title: Plasticizer

text: Plasticizers are commonly added to polymers such as plastics and rubber, either to facilitate the handling of the raw material during fabrication, or to meet the demands of the end product's application. For example, plasticizers are commonly added to polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which otherwise is hard and brittle, to make it soft and pliable; which makes it suitable for products such as shower curtains, vinyl flooring, clothing, bags, flexible plastic tubing, and electric wire insulation/coating.


title: Plasticizer

text: Plasticizers are also often added to concrete formulations to make them more workable and fluid for pouring, thus allowing the water contents to be reduced. Similarly, they are often added to clays, stucco, solid rocket fuel, and other pastes prior to molding and forming. For these applications, plasticizers largely overlap with dispersants.


title: Plasticizer

text: Plasticizers for polymers are either liquids with low volatility or solids. According to 2017 data, the total global market for plasticizers was 7.5 million metric tonnes. In North America the 2017 volume was ~1.01 million metric tonnes and in Europe the figure was 1.35 million metric tonnes, split between various end-use applications with a chemical type trend moving to higher molecular weight (HMW) orthophthalates and alternative types following regulatory issues concerning lower molecular weight (LMW) orthophthalates.


title: Plasticizer

text: Almost 90% of polymer plasticizers, most commonly phthalate esters, are used in PVC, giving this material improved flexibility and durability. The majority is used in films and cables.


title: Plasticizer

text: It was commonly thought that plasticizers work by embedding themselves between the chains of polymers, spacing them apart (increasing the "free volume"), or swelling them and thus significantly lowering the glass transition temperature for the plastic and making it softer; however it was later shown that the free volume explanation could not account for all of the effects of plasticization. The classical picture on the mobility of polymer chain is more complex in the presence of plasticizer than that drawn by Fox&Flory for simple polymer chain. The molecules of plasticizer take control over mobility of the chain, and polymer chain does not show an increase of the free volume around polymer ends; in the case that the plasticizer/ water creates hydrogen bonds with hydrophilic parts of polymer, the associated free volume can be decreased.


title: Plasticizer

text: For plastics such as PVC, the more plasticizer added, the lower their cold flex temperature will be. Plastic items containing plasticizers can exhibit improved flexibility and durability. Plasticizers can become available for exposure due to migration and abrasion of the plastic since they are not bound to the polymer matrix. The "new car smell" is often attributed to plasticizers or their degradation products. However, multiple studies on the makeup of the smell do not find phthalates in appreciable amounts, likely due to their extremely low volatility and vapor pressure.


title: Plasticizer

text: The effect of plasticizers on elastic modulus is dependent on both temperature and plasticizer concentration. Below a certain concentration, referred to as the crossover concentration, a plasticizer can increase the modulus of a material. The material's glass transition temperature will decrease however, at all concentrations. In addition to a crossover concentration a crossover temperature exists. Below the crossover temperature the plasticizer will also increase the modulus.


title: Plasticizer

text: Over the last 60 years more than 30,000 different substances have been evaluated for their suitability as polymer plasticizers. Of these, only a small number – approximately 50 – are today in commercial use.


title: Plasticizer

text: Ester plasticizers are selected based upon cost-performance evaluation. The rubber compounder must evaluate ester plasticizers for compatibility, processibility, permanence and other performance properties. The wide variety of ester chemistries that are in production include sebacates, adipates, terephthalates, dibenzoates, glutarates, phthalates, azelates, and other specialty blends. This broad product line provides an array of performance benefits required for the many elastomer applications such as tubing and hose products, flooring, wall-coverings, seals and gaskets, belts, wire and cable, and print rolls.


title: Plasticizer

text: Low to high polarity esters provide utility in a wide range of elastomers including nitrile, polychloroprene, EPDM, chlorinated polyethylene, and epichlorohydrin. Plasticizer-elastomer interaction is governed by many factors such as solubility parameter, molecular weight, and chemical structure. Compatibility and performance attributes are key factors in developing a rubber formulation for a particular application.


title: Plasticizer

text: Plasticizers used in PVC and other plastics are often based on esters of polycarboxylic acids with linear or branched aliphatic alcohols of moderate chain length. These compounds are selected on the basis of many critieria including low toxicity, compatibility with the host material, nonvolatility, and expense. Phthalate esters of straight-chain and branched-chain alkyl alcohols meet these specifications and are common plasticizers. Ortho-phthalate esters have traditionally been the most dominant plasticizers, but regulatory concerns have led to the move away from classified substances to non-classified which includes high molecular weight ortho-phthalates and other plasticisers, especially in Europe.


title: Plasticizer

text: Antiplasticizers are polymer additives that have effect opposite to those of plasticizers. They increase the modulus while decreasing the glass transition temperature.


title: Plasticizer

text: Substantial concerns have been expressed over the safety of some polymer plasticizers, especially because some low molecular weight ortho-phthalates have been classified as potential endocrine disruptors with some developmental toxicity reported.


title: Plasticizer

text: Bio-based plasticizers have been investigated, such as glycerol triacetate (Triacetin) and acetyltributylcitrate. They are used in niche applications. Epoxidized soybean oil is used broadly as a secondary plasticizer in many vinyl applications.


title: Plasticizer

text: In the concrete technology, plasticizers and superplasticizers are also called high range water reducers. When added to concrete mixtures, they confer a number of properties including improved workability and strength. The strength of concrete is inversely proportional to the amount of water added, i.e., the water-cement (w/c) ratio. In order to produce stronger concrete, less water is added (without "starving" the mix), which makes the concrete mixture less workable and difficult to mix, necessitating the use of plasticizers, water reducers, superplasticizers, fluidizer or dispersants.


title: Plasticizer

text: Plasticizers are also often used when pozzolanic ash is added to concrete to improve strength. This method of mix proportioning is especially popular when producing high-strength concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete.


title: Plasticizer

text: Adding 1-2% plasticizer per unit weight of cement is usually sufficient. Adding an excessive amount of plasticizer will result in excessive segregation of concrete and is not advisable. Depending on the particular chemical used, use of too much plasticizer may result in a retarding effect.


title: Plasticizer

text: Plasticizers are commonly manufactured from lignosulfonates, a by-product from the paper industry. Superplasticizers have generally been manufactured from sulfonated naphthalene condensate or sulfonated melamine formaldehyde, although newer products based on polycarboxylic ethers are now available. Traditional lignosulfonate-based plasticisers, naphthalene and melamine sulfonate-based superplasticisers disperse the flocculated cement particles through a mechanism of electrostatic repulsion (see colloid). In normal plasticisers, the active substances are adsorbed on to the cement particles, giving them a negative charge, which leads to repulsion between particles. Lignin, naphthalene, and melamine sulfonate superplasticisers are organic polymers. The long molecules wrap themselves around the cement particles, giving them a highly negative charge so that they repel each other.


title: Plasticizer

text: Polycarboxylate ether superplasticizer (PCE) or just polycarboxylate (PC), work differently from sulfonate-based superplasticizers, giving cement dispersion by steric stabilisation. This form of dispersion is more powerful in its effect and gives improved workability retention to the cementitious mix.


title: Plasticizer

text: Plasticizers can be added to wallboard stucco mixtures to improve workability. In order to reduce the energy consumed drying wallboard, less water is added, which makes the gypsum mixture very unworkable and difficult to mix, necessitating the use of plasticizers, water reducers, or dispersants. Some studies also show that too much lignosulfonate dispersant could result in a set-retarding effect. Data showed that amorphous crystal formations occurred that detracted from the mechanical needle-like crystal interaction in the core, preventing a stronger core. The sugars, chelating agents in lignosulfonates such as aldonic acids and extractive compounds are mainly responsible for set retardation. These low range water reducing dispersants are commonly manufactured from lignosulfonates, a by-product from the paper industry.


title: Plasticizer

text: High range superplasticizers (dispersants) have generally been manufactured from sulfonated naphthalene condensate, although polycarboxylic ethers represent more modern alternatives. Both of these high range water reducers are used at 1/2 to 1/3 of the lignosulfonate types.


title: Plasticizer

text: Traditional lignosulfonate and naphthalene sulfonate-based plasticisers disperse the flocculated gypsum particles through a mechanism of electrostatic repulsion (see Colloid). In normal plasticisers, the active substances are adsorbed on to the gypsum particles, giving them a negative charge, which leads to repulsion between particles. Lignin and naphthalene sulfonate plasticizers are organic polymers. The long molecules wrap themselves around the gypsum particles, giving them a highly negative charge so that they repel each other.


title: Plasticizer

text: Energetic material pyrotechnic compositions, especially solid rocket propellants and smokeless powders for guns, often employ plasticizers to improve physical properties of the propellant binder or of the overall propellant, to provide a secondary fuel, and ideally, to improve specific energy yield (e.g. specific impulse, energy yield per gram of propellant, or similar indices) of the propellant. An energetic plasticizer improves the physical properties of an energetic material while also increasing its specific energy yield. Energetic plasticizers are usually preferred to non-energetic plasticizers, especially for solid rocket propellants. Energetic plasticizers reduce the required mass of propellant, enabling a rocket vehicle to carry more payload or reach higher velocities than would otherwise be the case. However, safety or cost considerations may demand that non-energetic plasticizers be used, even in rocket propellants. The solid rocket propellant used to fuel the Space Shuttle solid rocket booster employs HTPB, a synthetic rubber, as a non-energetic secondary fuel.


title: Plasticizer

text: Due to the secondary alcohol groups, NG and BTTN have relatively low thermal stability. TMETN, DEGDN, BDNPF, and BDNPA have relatively low energies. NG and DEGDN have relatively high vapor pressure.


title: Kipchak languages

text: The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq, Qypshaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 28 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanning from Ukraine to China. Some of the most widely spoken languages in this group are Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tatar.


title: Kipchak languages

text: The Kipchak languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of these features are shared with other Common Turkic languages; others are unique to the Kipchak family.


title: Kipchak languages

text: The Kipchak languages may be broken down into four groups based on geography and shared features (languages in bold are still spoken today):


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: The Comeback is an American comedy-drama television series produced by HBO that stars Lisa Kudrow as sitcom actress Valerie Cherish in modern-day Los Angeles. It was created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, a former executive producer of "Sex and the City". Kudrow and King are also screenwriters and executive producers of the series, with King also serving as the director of some episodes. The series originally aired for a single season of 13 episodes from June 5 to September 4, 2005, before being cancelled. Nine years later, "The Comeback" was revived for a second season of 8 episodes that aired from November 9 to December 28, 2014.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: "The Comeback" is a satirical and comedic look inside the entertainment television industry. It was shot by a two-camera crew. The first season is presented as found footage shot for the fictional reality show within the series, also called "The Comeback". The second season is presented as found footage shot by a camera crew originally commissioned by Valerie to pitch a pilot to noted reality TV producer Andy Cohen, later repurposed as behind the scenes web content, and then into a full-scale documentary. Kudrow said in an interview that she and Michael Patrick King have discussed potentially working on a third season of "The Comeback" once the latter's work on the "Sex and the City" reboot was done."


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: The series initially follows Valerie Cherish (Kudrow), a veteran B-list sitcom actress who found fame on a sitcom called "I'm It!", which ran from 1989 to 1993. Thereafter, she failed to find substantial acting work and fell out of the spotlight for more than a decade. In 2005, Valerie is cast as Aunt Sassy on a new network sitcom called "Room and Bored" and as part of landing the role, agrees to chronicle her return to the television industry on a reality television series called "The Comeback". However, she continuously struggles with the matter of being an aging, non-influential performer in an increasingly youthful Hollywood, while her every move on and off the set is being documented for the companion reality series.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: In 2014, Valerie initially attempts to produce her own reality television pilot for producer Andy Cohen, having found that reality television has become significantly more popular since she made "The Comeback" nine years earlier. After she is cast as a fictionalized version of herself on an HBO series called "Seeing Red", which chronicles the career of the sitcom writer and producer who tormented her nine years earlier on "Room and Bored", the footage is repurposed as a documentary film capturing her second career resurgence as it threatens to destroy her personal life.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: Because the show is set in modern-day Hollywood, celebrities and media personalities such as Andy Cohen, Chelsea Handler, Jane Kaczmarek, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, RuPaul, among others, often play themselves in cameo appearances.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: "The Comeback" was conceived in 2004 by Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, following the final seasons of the sitcom "Friends" (in which Kudrow starred as Phoebe Buffay) and the HBO comedy "Sex and the City", on which King was a director, writer, and executive producer. The central character, Valerie Cherish, was an extension of a recurring character that Kudrow invented while doing improvisational comedy with The Groundlings in Los Angeles. The character, which Kudrow named "your favourite actress on a talkshow", was an egotistical celebrity who lacked self-awareness. Kudrow has cited "The Office" as an influence on the show's found-footage documentary format, as well as being inspired by the rise of reality television, and the humiliation such shows inflicted upon their participants.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: Despite a coveted time slot after the hit series "Entourage", "The Comeback" debuted to low ratings. It was also met with a mixed critical response, yet it was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Kudrow. HBO confirmed on September 21, 2005, that the series had been canceled after being on the air only 13 weeks. Its initial lukewarm reception and short run notwithstanding, "The Comeback" has been retrospectively lauded.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: The show placed #79 on "Entertainment Weekly"s "New TV Classics" list. In 2009, the publication named "The Comeback" one of the 10 best shows of the decade, calling it "the most brilliantly brutal satire of reality TV ever captured on screen." In 2012, the magazine listed the show at #8 in the "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years," saying, "Both painfully uncomfortable and deadpan hilarious, "The Comeback" was spot-on in its inside-showbiz look at the making of a sitcom – while featuring one of the decade's biggest sitcom stars, no less. But it was so inside, it was too inaccessible to a mass audience, or even an audience that might have returned for a second season on HBO." "Entertainment Weekly" also voted Valerie Cherish on "The Comeback" as Lisa Kudrow's second best performance.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: "The New York Times" gave the show a lukewarm review, dubbing it "interesting", but also complaining about a lack of originality in the concept and finding "The Comeback" ultimately less entertaining than its fellow HBO series "Entourage".


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: In a commemorative article in 2012, UK newspaper "The Guardian" praised the show for its "bittersweet comedy" and Lisa Kudrow for her "ego-free acting." The newspaper questions whether, in an era where "you can't move for meta-sitcoms," this sitcom was just "too far ahead of its time."


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: The second season was met with critical acclaim. On the review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes the second season received an 84% approval rating giving it a "fresh" rating. It also scored a 71 out of 100 on Metacritic Robert Loyd of the Los Angeles Times praised the show saying "The current episodes have more weight and intensity; they come off a shade darker and yet more sympathetic to its cast of co-dependent lost souls." Joshua Alston of "The A.V. Club" also praised it, writing: ""The Comeback" is the same as it ever was, and more highly concentrated. It still out-metas anything else on television. The performances remain stellar all around." On the other hand, Kristi Turnquist gave the show a mixed review, writing: "While the first few episodes of the new "Comeback" make stingingly accurate points about the sexism and ageism Valerie has to contend with, "The Comeback" has its own problems. As in the first go-round, Valerie comes off as cartoonish, a caricature of a so-so celebrity." The last episode of Season 2, "Valerie Gets What She Really Wants", received almost universal praise, scoring 10/10 and A scores across the board.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: According to HBO, the show drew an average of 1.4 million viewers across its channels and on demand – Kudrow said she has not "heard it officially," but that she and King have gotten the impression that the door is open for more. Soon, she hopes she and King will begin to "talk about what more would look like."


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: In a 2014 interview with E!, Kudrow also had this to say: "I would love to do more. In 2005, that was an ending, that was definitely an ending because I guess now we see that those episodes were a piece and these episodes were a piece and then if we do more then we will be doing that piece."


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: On July 21, 2020, the cast reunited on the live streamed web series "Stars in the House", raising money for Actors Fund of America.


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: ""The Comeback" – The Complete Only Season" was released on Region 1 DVD on August 1, 2006, with the Region 2 version released on September 18, 2006. The discs include all thirteen aired episodes as well as the following special features:


title: The Comeback (TV series)

text: Season 2 was released on DVD August 4, 2015 in a combo-pack along with Season 1 entitled "The Comeback: Limited Series". It will contain all 21 episodes of the series.


title: Automated clearing house

text: An automated clearing house (ACH) is a computer-based electronic network for processing transactions, usually domestic low value payments, between participating financial institutions. It may support both credit transfers and direct debits. The ACH system is designed to process batches of payments containing numerous transactions, and it charges fees low enough to encourage its use for low value payments.


title: Automated clearing house

text: The first automated clearing house was BACS in the United Kingdom, which started processing payments in April 1968.


title: Automated clearing house

text: In the U.S. in the late 1960s, a group of banks in California sought a replacement for check payments. This led to the first automated clearing house in the US in 1972, operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.


title: Automated clearing house

text: BACS operated from the beginning on a net settlement basis. Netting ACH transactions reduces the amount of deposits a bank must hold.


title: Automated clearing house

text: ACHs process large volumes of credit and debit transactions in batches. ACH credit transfers are initiated by the payer and include payments such as: direct deposits, payrolls, retail payments and vendor payments. ACH direct debit collections are initiated by the payee with pre-authorization from the payer; ACH direct debits include consumer payments such as utility bills, insurance premiums, mortgage loans, and other types of bills. Transactions received by the bank during the day are stored and transmitted in batches to the ACH. ACHs are net settlement systems, so settlement may be delayed for days, and there is some settlement risk. ACHs may allow for the transfer of a limited amount of additional information along with payment instructions.


title: Automated clearing house

text: ACH payments contrast with real-time gross settlement (RTGS) payments which are processed immediately by the central RTGS system and not subject to any waiting period on a one-to-one basis. ACH systems are typically used for low-value, non-urgent transactions while RTGS systems are typically used for high-value, urgent transactions.


title: Automated clearing house

text: This section describes in a generic way the typical operation of an ACH system. Each ACH system has its own specifics; see, for example, quick facts for the Nacha ACH Network in the United States and its terminology.


title: Automated clearing house

text: There are various ACH systems around the world. The World Bank identified 87 systems in their 2010 Survey and 98 systems in their 2012 survey, while other sources have made qualitative analysis of a smaller number of ACH systems.


title: Automated clearing house

text: In addition, there are various ACH associations such as the European Automated Clearing House Association.


title: Automated clearing house

text: There are various usages of ACH systems; the terminology related to different types of transactions varying in different countries. Most ACH payment systems support the following types:


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (published in United States as The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) is a novel by Stuart Turton which won the Best First Novel prize in the 2018 Costa Book Awards and reached number one on "The" "Saturday Times" Bestseller list and number five on "The Sunday Times" Bestseller list.


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: It was published in the UK by Raven Books on 8 February 2018 () and in the US by Sourcebooks Landmark on 28 September 2018 () It has been translated into 28 languages, sold over 200,000 copies in the UK, and television rights have been optioned. In December 2020, Netflix announced that a seven-episode series was in production in the UK.


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: At the start of the book, the novel's protagonist awakes in a forest, suffering from memory loss, and calling for someone named Anna. He doesn't remember his own name. He finds his way to a manor, where his friends tell him that he is a doctor called Sebastian Bell who is attending a party thrown by the Hardcastles, the family of Blackheath Manor. After he falls asleep that night, however, he awakes to find himself in the body of the butler, and it is the morning of the previous day.


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: He learns that he has eight days, and eight different incarnations, to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, which will take place at 11pm at the party that evening. He will only be allowed to leave Blackheath once he finds the killer. If he is unable to solve the mystery in the eight allocated days, the process will start again and he will awake again in the body of Sebastian Bell with his memory wiped. He also learns that there are two other people competing to find out the murderer, and that only one person will be permitted to leave Blackheath.


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: The novel has similar characteristics to an Agatha Christie novel, with precise clues scattered in (almost) every chapter and a murderer to be identified. The endpapers of the book show a detailed plan of the villa and the lands around it; there is also a list of all the characters. It is structured in sixty chapters.


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: When the identity of the protagonist changes, the day on which it takes place is recorded at the beginning of the chapter. The incarnations are:


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: Although the novel refers to different days (first, second, etc), the day in which the plot takes place is always the same: only the protagonist, changing identity, has the feeling of different days, so he has the opportunity to remember what he did in the shoes of his previous incarnations and to make different choices, changing the course of events. It is not explained how the protagonist can pass from one incarnation to another: it is said that the reconstruction of the mansion and of the Hardcastle crimes are a sort of virtual prison where the perpetrators of very serious crimes are imprisoned, but that the protagonist ended up there of his own free will for a precise reason (which he will have to discover, since his memory becomes weaker every time it overlaps with that of the characters whose personalities he takes possession of). The Plague Doctor, who is evidently part of the "staff" of the virtual prison, explains to him that there are thousands of other similar prisons, with different "scripts" but always focused on solving puzzles. The person who solves the riddle of his or her prison will be granted freedom; the other two competitors will have their memories erased and repeat the same day in a loop. It is also mentioned that the cycle has been repeating for decades and that the order of Bishop's incarnations has been changed several times. It is up to the reader to imagine an explanation, from the purely dreamlike/fantastic to the dystopian/fantasy-scientific.


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: According to Turton, the novel's title was changed in America since it was similar to the previously published "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo."


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: "The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" reached number one on "The" "Saturday Times" Bestseller list and number five on "The Sunday Times" Bestseller list, earning critical acclaim.


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: "The Guardian"'s review said "With time loops, body swaps and a psychopathic footman, this is a dazzling take on the murder mystery", while "The Times" said "The plot of this complex, fascinating and bewildering murder-mystery is impossible to summarise" and called it "an astonishingly polished debut".


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: "The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" won the Best First Novel prize in the 2018 Costa Book Awards and Best Novel in the 2018 Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards, as voted for by booksellers. In the same year, it was shortlisted for a New Writers' Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards, Debut of the Year at The British Book Awards, and longlisted for a New Blood Dagger and Gold Dagger at the CWA Awards. Val McDermid selected Stuart Turton, author of "The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle", to appear on her prestigious New Blood panel at the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival. In 2019, it was shortlisted for Best Debut Novel at the Strand Magazine Critics Awards and longlisted for The Glass Bell Award.


title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

text: In December 2020 it was announced that Netflix had bought the rights to a seven-part series adaptation of the novel produced by House Productions, who had acquired the television rights in 2018, to be written by Sophie Petzal.


title: Jack Casady

text: John William "Jack" Casady (born April 13, 1944) is an American bass guitarist, best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Jefferson Airplane became the first successful exponent of the San Francisco Sound. Singles including "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" charted in 1967 and 1968. Casady, along with the other members of Jefferson Airplane, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.


title: Jack Casady

text: Casady was born in Washington D.C., the son of Mary Virginia ("née" Quimby) and William Robert Casady. His father was of half Irish Protestant and half Polish Jewish ancestry. His mother was a relative of aviator Harriet Quimby; some of her family had been in North America since the 1600s.


title: Jack Casady

text: First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington, D.C.-area rhythm and blues band The Triumphs, he switched to bass during his high school years, and while still underage (and with a forged I.D.) played the Washington D.C. club scene, backing artists such as Little Anthony and the Imperials.


title: Jack Casady

text: Casady became the bass player for Jefferson Airplane when lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, a high school friend and former Triumphs rhythm guitarist, invited him to join in late September 1965. He replaced original Jefferson Airplane bassist Bob Harvey the following month.


title: Jack Casady

text: Casady stepped beyond the conventional rhythmic and chord-supporting role of rock & roll, in order to explore other possible melodic ideas offered by the rhythm and chord progressions. His impact is immediately evident on Airplane debut album "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off" (1966) on tracks such as "Let Me In" and "Run Around".


title: Jack Casady

text: The "Takes Off" LP quotes Marty Balin as saying "He carries it. He's been with James Brown and other groups and he knows." There is, however, no evidence Casady had ever played with James Brown. The live Airplane album "Bless Its Pointed Little Head", recorded in 1968, demonstrates Casady's unique walking line style to the fullest, as his Guild Starfire bass signal was delivered through a Versatone amplifier which gave his instrument a distinctive growling sound when played in the higher register. The Fred Neil track "The Other Side of This Life" remains the quintessential example of his style. On later Airplane albums, such as "Bark", "Long John Silver" and the live "Thirty Seconds Over Winterland", Casady switched over to a $4,000 custom-made Alembic bass ( 001, the first made by the company). The extraordinarily grand sound Casady produced during his 1968–1971 heyday—nowhere better heard than in his multi-tracked playing on "Sunrise", a song from Paul Kantner's 1970 solo album "Blows Against the Empire"—inspired fans to assign him the affectionate nickname of "God".


title: Jack Casady

text: Other noteworthy Casady performances on Jefferson Airplane recordings include the seminal Top 10 hit "White Rabbit" (on the album "Surrealistic Pillow," 1967), "Rejoyce" and "Watch Her Ride" ("After Bathing at Baxter's", 1967), "Crown of Creation", "If You Feel" and "The House at Pooneil Corners" ("Crown of Creation", 1968), and "Crazy Miranda" and "War Movie" ("Bark", 1971) and the co-written composition "Long John Silver" ("Long John Silver", 1972). Several of these tracks are remarkable for their groundbreaking infusions of jazz and raga bass lines into the rock format. For years in live performance with the Airplane, Casady's showcase was the Paul Kantner composition "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", which gave the bassist the opportunity to improvise an open-ended solo that was different every night and often astonishing. The "Fly Jefferson Airplane" DVD includes one such performance videotaped at "The Family Dog", where Casady pulls off a ragingly inventive solo that visibly impresses fellow band member Grace Slick. He was likewise adept at complementing the musicianship of his fellow players; the live version of "Volunteers" on the album is a notable example of cooperating bass and keyboard rhythm with session pianist Nicky Hopkins.


title: Jack Casady

text: Casady's appetite for playing led him to do extensive moonlighting during his Airplane tenure. Not only did he perform live on stage with Jimi Hendrix during 1968, he also played bass on the Jimi Hendrix song "Voodoo Chile", from the "Electric Ladyland" album released in the same year (some copies of the album misspell his name as Cassidy). He also occasionally played with other key San Francisco bands Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish and James and the Good Brothers. Furthermore, he was a member of two short-lived splinter groups, Mickey and the Heartbeats (with Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart) and Jack Casady and the Degenerates, an ensemble that included teenage friend Danny Gatton alongside Kaukonen. Neither of these groups ever recorded, though live tapes are in circulation. Later, Casady was to appear on David Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember My Name" (1971), Roky Erickson's album "Don't Slander Me" (1982) and Warren Zevon's "Transverse City" (1989). He also produced Jorma Kaukonen's first solo album, the critically acclaimed "Quah", in 1975.


title: Jack Casady

text: Casady and Kaukonen formed Hot Tuna in 1969, and they still perform to the present day. The group has morphed over the years from an acoustic blues unit to an electric boogie band to a rampaging metal act and back again. Casady is equally comfortable accompanying an acoustic Kaukonen ("Mann's Fate", 1970) or electric jamming ("John's Other", 1971). Casady's solo on "Candy Man" (Hot Tuna's "First Pull Up, Then Pull Down", 1971) also shows his ability at carrying the melody rather than just playing rhythmic scales, a key characteristic of his bass solo work. Some exquisitely intricate playing is evident on the 1972 album "Burgers", particularly the sparkling instrumental track "Water Song", which Casady has described as featuring "lead bass". Another Burgers track, " Sunny Day Strut", has Casady's bass dueling with Kaukonen's lead guitar. When Tuna became a power trio in the mid-1970s, Casady's Guild Flying V custom bass became his trademark. Later works, especially "Live in Japan" (1997), still testify to his creativity as evidenced by the continually evolving bass solos on "Candy Man", "Good Shepherd" and "99 Year Blues".


title: Jack Casady

text: In the late 1970s, Casady and Kaukonen found that they needed some creative time apart, and Hot Tuna disbanded for several years. During this time, Casady helped found a modern rock band, SVT, with Brian Marnell, a promising songwriter and frontman, keyboardist Nick Buck, and drummer Bill Gibson, later replaced by Paul Zahl. Again, Casady's versatility was demonstrated as this band played in a convincing New Wave style, totally removed from Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane. During his SVT tenure, Casady actually taped his fingers together to force himself to simplify his highly articulated playing style. He and Zahl formed an exemplary rhythm section, as evidenced on the LP "No Regrets" (1981). After Marnell's death from a drug overdose Casady and Zahl continued the basic SVT sound with guitarist Jack Johnson and singer/songwriter/guitarist Owen Masterson in a band called The Yanks. Also during the 1980s, Casady joined former Airplane members Paul Kantner and Marty Balin in the KBC Band.


title: Jack Casady

text: In 1992, he joined Paul Kantner's recreated Jefferson Starship, and appeared on the albums Deep Space / Virgin Sky and Windows of Heaven. In 2000, Kantner used the name Jefferson Airplane against the terms of his 1985 settlement with Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, Bill Thompson, and Casady. Casady left Jefferson Starship after this incident. Casady appears with Kantner again on the 2008 Jefferson Starship release, "Jefferson's Tree of Liberty" from a track previously recorded for the German release of "Windows of Heaven".


title: Jack Casady

text: Not a singer and never a prolific songwriter, it was not until June 2003 that Casady released his first solo album, "Dream Factor", which he co-produced with Greg Hampton. Like other Airplane-related solo works it featured substantial support from other players such as Warren Haynes, Doyle Bramhall II, Jorma Kaukonen, Fee Waybill, Ivan Neville, the group Box Set, and many other musician friends.


title: Jack Casady

text: Currently, as well as performing with Hot Tuna, Casady teaches bass workshops at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch in Ohio.


title: Jack Casady

text: Casady helped design, in conjunction with Epiphone, the "Jack Casady Signature Bass", a 34-inch scale hollow-body electric bass with single low-impedance humbucker pickup and a floating bridge. The instrument is based on Casady's mid-1970s Gibson Les Paul Signature bass which he bought in the 1980s.


title: Jack Casady

text: In 2007, Casady joined a new band, Moonalice, whose members include former Jefferson Starship bassist and Hot Tuna keyboardist Pete Sears, along with G. E. Smith, Barry Sless, Ann McNamee, Roger McNamee, and Jimmy Sanchez. The first Moonalice studio album was released in April 2009.


title: Jack Casady

text: Casady is widely known for the commanding tonal quality of his playing, something that he acknowledges is deliberate. He has remarked that tone is the most essential quality for an electric bassist, stating "Tone is your signature as to who you are... The music builds around the tone. It isn’t just a series of notes or the articulation or the technique. The signature sound of a great musician is his tone and that sets him apart from others."


title: Nivkh people

text: The Nivkh, or Gilyak (also Nivkhs or Nivkhi, or Gilyaks; ethnonym: Нивхгу, "Nʼivxgu" (Amur) or Ниғвңгун, "Nʼiɣvŋgun" (E. Sakhalin) "the people"), are an indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the northern half of Sakhalin Island and the lower Amur River and coast on the adjacent Russian mainland and historically possibly parts of Manchuria.


title: Nivkh people

text: Nivkh were traditionally fishermen, hunters, and dog breeders. They were semi-nomadic, living near the coasts in the summer and wintering inland along streams and rivers to catch salmon. The land the Nivkh inhabit is characterized as taiga forest with cold snow-laden winters and mild summers with sparse tree cover. The Nivkh are believed to be the original inhabitants of the region, and to derive from a proposed Neolithic people that migrated from the Transbaikal region during the Late Pleistocene.


title: Nivkh people

text: The Nivkh had long maintained trade and cultural relations with neighboring China and Japan. Previously within the Qing China sphere of influence, the Russian Empire annexed the region following two treaties in 1858 and 1860. Subsequently, traditional Nivkh lifestyle was significantly altered by colonization and collectivization. Today, the Nivkh live in Russian-style housing and with the overfishing and pollution of the streams and seas, they have adopted many foods from Russian cuisine. The Nivkh practice shamanism, which is important for the winter Bear Festival, though some have converted to Russian Orthodoxy.


title: Nivkh people

text: As of the 2002 Russian Federation census, 5,287 Nivkh exist. Most speak Russian today, and about 10 percent speak their native Nivkh language. Nivkh is considered a language isolate, although it is grouped, for convenience, with the Paleosiberian languages. The Nivkh language is divided into four dialects.


title: Nivkh people

text: "Nivkh" (plural "Nivkhgu" in the Nivkh language), an endonym, means "person" in the Nivkh language. They may also be referred to as Nivkhi in 1920s Western literature, due to the romanization of the Russian term plural "" from "" ("nivkh"). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Russian explorers first termed the group "Gilyak" (also "Giliaks" or "Giliatski"). The etymology of the name "Gilyak" is disputed by linguists, with some believing the name originated from an exonym given to the Nivkhs by a nearby Tungusic group. Other scholars believe that "Gilyak" derives from "Kile", another nearby Tungusic group that the Russians had mistakenly named Nivkhs. "Gilyak" is the Russian rendering of terms derived from the Tungusic "Gileke" and Manchu-Chinese "Gilemi" (Gilimi, Gilyami) for culturally similar peoples of the Amur River region, and was applied principally to the Nivkh in Western literature.


title: Nivkh people

text: The origins of the Nivkh are hard to discern from current archaeological research. Their subsistence by fishing and coastal sea-mammal hunting is very similar to the Koryak and Itelmen on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The rigging of dog-sledges is also similar to these Chukotko-Kamchatkan groups. Spiritual beliefs are similar to those of the Northwest Coast Indians of North America, whose ancestors migrated from this area. The Nivkh are physically and genetically different from the surrounding peoples, and scholars believe they are the indigenous inhabitants of the area. The current archaeological model suggests that a sub-Arctic technological culture originating from the Transbaikal region, termed the microlithic culture, migrated across Siberia and populated the Amur and Sakhalin region during the Late Pleistocene, perhaps earlier. Scientists believe that people of this microlithic (small tool) culture were the first to migrate eastward into the Americas.


title: Nivkh people

text: The microlithic culture was technologically adept in the harsh climate of Siberia during the last ice age. After the ice receded, Tungusic peoples from the south pressed into the warmer northern areas, soon dominating the settled peoples. The Nivkh are considered the last surviving ethnic group able to adapt to the warmer climate and not be assimilated or squeezed out by the newcomers, hence the Nivkh isolate language. The earliest archeological radiocarbon dating for Northern Sakhalin as of 2004 is the Neolithic Age "Imchin Site 2", dated to 4950–4570 BCE near the Tym' River Estuary on the west coast.


title: Nivkh people

text: Michael Fortescue suggests that Nivkh might be related to the Mosan languages of North America (however, Mosan is generally considered a "Sprachbund" rather than a language family). Fortescue also presents evidence that Nivkh is related to the Chukotko-Kamchatkans, forming a Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric family, though the evidence was judged to be "insufficient" by "Glottolog".


title: Nivkh people

text: More recently, Sergei Nikolaev argued in two papers for a systematic relationship between Nivkh and the Algic languages of North America and a more distant relationship between these two together and the Wakashan languages of coastal British Columbia.


title: Nivkh people

text: The Sakhalin Nivkhs populated the island during the Late Pleistocene period, when the island was connected to the Continent of Asia via the exposed Strait of Tartary. When the ice age receded, the oceans rose and the Nivkh were split into two groups. It is suggested that the Nivkh people were present in a wide area of Northeast Asia and influenced other people and their cultures. Several historians suggest that the Nivkh were present in the kingdom of Goguryeo. There are indications that the ancestors of the Nivkh may have played a much more prominent role in pre- and protohistorical Manchuria. Nivkh lands extended along the northern coast of Manchuria from the Russian fortress at Tugur Bay eastward to the mouth of the Amur River at Nikolayevsk, then south through the Strait of Tartary as far as De Castries Bay. Formerly their territories had extended westwards at least as far as the Uda river and the Shantar Islands until pushed out by the Manchus and, later, the Russians.


title: Nivkh people

text: The earliest mention of the Nivkh in history is believed to be a 12th-century Chinese chronicle, referring to a people called "Jílièmí" (), who were in contact with the Mongol rulers of Yuan China. They were allied with the Mongols since 1263, and the Mongols invaded Sakhalin to aid the Nivkh against the Ainu, who had been encroaching on Sakhalin from Hokkaido. In 1643, Vassili Poyarkov was the first Russian to write of the Nivkh, calling them "Gilyak", a Tungus exonym, by which they would be referred until the 1920s.


title: Nivkh people

text: After the Yuan period, Ainu and Nivkh of Sakhalin became tributaries to the Ming dynasty of China after Manchuria came under Ming rule as part of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission. Boluohe, Nanghar and Wuliehe were Yuan posts set up to receive tribute from the Ainu after their war with the Yuan ended in 1308. Ming Chinese outposts in Sakhalin and the Amur river area received animal skin tribute from Ainu on Sakhalin, Uilta and Nivkh in the 15th century after the Tyr based Yongning Temple was set up along with the Nurkan (Nurgan) outposts by the Yongle emperor in 1409. The Ming also held the post at Wuliehe and received marten pelt fur tribute from the assistant commander Alige in 1431 from Sakhalin after the Ming assigned titles like weizhenfu (official charged with subjugation), zhihui qianshi (assistance commander), zhihui tongzhi (vice commander) and Zhihuishi (commander) from Sakhalin indigenous headmen. The Ming received tribute from the headmen Alingge, Tuolingha, Sanchiha and Zhaluha in 1437. The position of headman among Sakhalin indigenous peoples was inherited paternally from father to son and the sons came with their fathers to Wuliehe. Ming officials gave silk uniforms with the appropriate rank to the Sakhalin Ainu, Uilta and Nivkh after they gave tribute. The Maritime Province region had the Ming "system for subjugated peoples' implementers in it for the Sakhalin indigenous peoples. Sakhalin received iron tools from mainland Asia through this trade as Tungus groups joined in from 1456-1487. Local indigenous hierarchies had Ming Chinese given political offices integrated with them. The Ming system on Sakhalin was imitated by the Qing.


title: Nivkh people

text: Nivkh women in Sakhalin married Han Chinese Ming officials when the Ming took tribute from Sakhalin and the Amur river region. Local Sakhalin native chiefs had their daughters taken as wives by Manchu officials as sanctioned by the Qing dynasty when the Qing exercised jurisdiction in Sakhalin and took tribute from them.


title: Nivkh people

text: Due to Ming rule in Manchuria, Chinese cultural and religious influence such as Chinese New Year, the "Chinese god", Chinese motifs like the dragon, spirals, scrolls, and material goods like agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking pots, silk, and cotton spread among the Amur natives like the Udeghes, Ulchis, and Nanais.


title: Nivkh people

text: For many centuries, the Nivkh were tributary to the Manchus. After the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, they functioned as intermediaries between the Russians, Manchu and Japanese, also with the Ainu who were vassals of the Japanese. Early contact with the southern Sakhalin Ainu was generally hostile, although trade between the two was apparent.