title: Longhorn beetle

text: It is known that many longhorns locate and recognize potential hosts by detecting chemical attractants, including monoterpenes (compounds released en masse by woody plants when stressed), ethanol (another compound emitted by damaged plant material), and even bark beetle pheromones. Many scolytinids share the cerambycid's niche of weakened or recently deceased trees; thus, by locating scolytinids, a suitable host can likely be located as well. The arrival of cerambycid larvae is often detrimental to a population of scolytinids, as the cerambycid larvae will typically either outcompete them with their greater size and mobility, or act as direct predators of them (this latter practice is less common, but has been observed in several species, notably "Monochamus carolinensis"). Cerambycids, in turn, have been found to play a role in attracting other wood-borers to a host. Borgemeister, et al. 1998, recorded that cerambycid activity in girdled twigs released volatiles attractive to some bostrichids, especially "Prostephanus truncatus". A few cerambycids, such as "Arhopalus" sp., are adapted to take advantage of trees recently killed or injured by forest fires by detecting and pursuing smoke volatiles.


title: Longhorn beetle

text: In North America native Cerambycids are widely the victims of "Ontsira mellipes". "O. mellipes" may be useful in controlling a forestry pest in this same family, "Anoplophora glabripennis", that is invasive in North America. ("Ontsira" is a genus of parasitoid wasps in the Doryctinae.)


title: Longhorn beetle

text: As with many large families, different authorities have tended to recognize many different subfamilies, or sometimes split subfamilies off as separate families entirely (e.g., Disteniidae, Oxypeltidae, and Vesperidae); there is thus some instability and controversy regarding the constituency of the Cerambycidae. There are few truly defining features for the group as a whole, at least as adults, as there are occasional species or species groups which may lack any given feature; the family and its closest relatives, therefore, constitute a taxonomically difficult group, and relationships of the various lineages are still poorly understood. The oldest unambiguous fossils of the family are "Cretoprionus" and "Sinopraecipuus" from Yixian Formation of Inner Mongolia and Liaoning, China, dating to the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous, approximately 122 million years ago. The former genus was assigned to the subfamily Prioninae in its original description, while the latter could not be placed in any extant subfamily. "Qitianniu" from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber of Myanmar, dating to approximately 100 million years ago, also could not be placed in any extant subfamily.


title: Subsidence

text: Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope movement.


title: Subsidence

text: Processes that lead to subsidence include dissolution of underlying carbonate rock by groundwater; gradual compaction of sediments; withdrawal of fluid lava from beneath a solidified crust of rock; mining; pumping of subsurface fluids, such as groundwater or petroleum; or warping of the Earth's crust by tectonic forces. Subsidence resulting from tectonic deformation of the crust is known as tectonic subsidence and can create accommodation for sediments to accumulate and eventually lithify into sedimentary rock.


title: Subsidence

text: Ground subsidence is of global concern to geologists, geotechnical engineers, surveyors, engineers, urban planners, landowners, and the public in general. Pumping of groundwater or petroleum has led to subsidence of as much as in many locations around the world and incurring costs measured in hundreds of millions of US dollars.


title: Subsidence

text: Subsidence frequently causes major problems in karst terrains, where dissolution of limestone by fluid flow in the subsurface creates voids (i.e., caves). If the roof of a void becomes too weak, it can collapse and the overlying rock and earth will fall into the space, causing subsidence at the surface. This type of subsidence can cause sinkholes which can be many hundreds of meters deep.


title: Subsidence

text: Several types of sub-surface mining, and specifically methods which intentionally cause the extracted void to collapse (such as pillar extraction, longwall mining and any metalliferous mining method which uses "caving" such as "block caving" or "sub-level caving") will result in surface subsidence. Mining-induced subsidence is relatively predictable in its magnitude, manifestation and extent, except where a sudden pillar or near-surface tunnel collapse occurs (usually very old workings). Mining-induced subsidence is nearly always very localized to the surface above the mined area, plus a margin around the outside. The vertical magnitude of the subsidence itself typically does not cause problems, except in the case of drainage (including natural drainage)–rather, it is the associated surface compressive and tensile strains, curvature, tilts and horizontal displacement that are the cause of the worst damage to the natural environment, buildings and infrastructure.


title: Subsidence

text: Where mining activity is planned, mining-induced subsidence can be successfully managed if there is co-operation from all of the stakeholders. This is accomplished through a combination of careful mine planning, the taking of preventive measures, and the carrying out of repairs post-mining.


title: Subsidence

text: If natural gas is extracted from a natural gas field the initial pressure (up to 60 MPa (600 bar)) in the field will drop over the years. The pressure helps support the soil layers above the field. If the gas is extracted, the overburden pressure sediment compacts and may lead to earthquakes and subsidence at the ground level.


title: Subsidence

text: Since exploitation of the Slochteren (Netherlands) gas field started in the late 1960s the ground level over a 250 km area has dropped by a current maximum of 30 cm.


title: Subsidence

text: Extraction of petroleum likewise can cause significant subsidence. The city of Long Beach, California, has experienced over the course of 34 years of petroleum extraction, resulting in damage of over $100 million to infrastructure in the area. The subsidence was brought to a halt when secondary recovery wells pumped enough water into the oil reservoir to stabilize it.


title: Subsidence

text: Land subsidence can occur in various ways during an earthquake. Large areas of land can subside drastically during an earthquake because of offset along fault lines. Land subsidence can also occur as a result of settling and compacting of unconsolidated sediment from the shaking of an earthquake.


title: Subsidence

text: The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan reported immediate subsidence caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. In Northern Japan, subsidence of 0.50 m (1.64 ft) was observed on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Miyako, Tōhoku, while Rikuzentakata, Iwate measured 0.84 m (2.75 ft). In the south at Sōma, Fukushima, 0.29 m (0.95 ft) was observed. The maximum amount of subsidence was 1.2 m (3.93 ft), coupled with horizontal diastrophism of up to 5.3 m (17.3 ft) on the Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture.


title: Subsidence

text: Groundwater-related subsidence is the subsidence (or the sinking) of land resulting from groundwater extraction. It is a growing problem in the developing world as cities increase in population and water use, without adequate pumping regulation and enforcement. One estimate has 80% of serious land subsidence problems associated with the excessive extraction of groundwater, making it a growing problem throughout the world.


title: Subsidence

text: Groundwater fluctuations can also indirectly affect the decay of organic material. The habitation of lowlands, such as coastal or delta plains, requires drainage. The resulting aeration of the soil leads to the oxidation of its organic components, such as peat, and this decomposition process may cause significant land subsidence. This applies especially when groundwater levels are periodically adapted to subsidence, in order to maintain desired unsaturated zone depths, exposing more and more peat to oxygen. In addition to this, drained soils consolidate as a result of increased effective stress. In this way, land subsidence has the potential of becoming self-perpetuating, having rates up to 5 cm/yr. Water management used to be tuned primarily to factors such as crop optimization but, to varying extents, avoiding subsidence has come to be taken into account as well.


title: Subsidence

text: When differential stresses exist in the Earth, these can be accommodated either by geological faulting in the brittle crust, or by ductile flow in the hotter and more fluid mantle. Where faults occur, absolute subsidence may occur in the hanging wall of normal faults. In reverse, or thrust, faults, relative subsidence may be measured in the footwall.


title: Subsidence

text: The crust floats buoyantly in the asthenosphere, with a ratio of mass below the "surface" in proportion to its own density and the density of the asthenosphere. If mass is added to a local area of the crust (e.g., through deposition), the crust subsides to compensate and maintain isostatic balance.


title: Subsidence

text: The opposite of isostatic subsidence is known as isostatic rebound—the action of the crust returning (sometimes over periods of thousands of years) to a state of isostacy, such as after the melting of large ice sheets or the drying-up of large lakes after the last ice age. Lake Bonneville is a famous example of isostatic rebound. Due to the weight of the water once held in the lake, the earth's crust subsided nearly to maintain equilibrium. When the lake dried up, the crust rebounded. Today at Lake Bonneville, the center of the former lake is about higher than the former lake edges.


title: Subsidence

text: Many soils contain significant proportions of clay. Because of the very small particle size, they are affected by changes in soil moisture content. Seasonal drying of the soil results in a lowering of both the volume and the surface of the soil. If building foundations are above the level reached by seasonal drying, they move, possibly resulting in damage to the building in the form of tapering cracks.


title: Subsidence

text: Trees and other vegetation can have a significant local effect on seasonal drying of soils. Over a number of years, a cumulative drying occurs as the tree grows. That can lead to the opposite of subsidence, known as heave or swelling of the soil, when the tree declines or is felled. As the cumulative moisture deficit is reversed, which can last up to 25 years, the surface level around the tree will rise and expand laterally. That often damages buildings unless the foundations have been strengthened or designed to cope with the effect.


title: Simón Bolívar International Airport (Venezuela)

text: Maiquetía "Simón Bolívar" International Airport (, ) is an international airport located in Maiquetía, Vargas, Venezuela, about west of downtown Caracas, the capital of the country. Simply called by the local population, it is the main international air passenger gateway to Venezuela. It handles flights to destinations in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.


text: The airport opened in 1945 as the . The site had been recommended as an appropriate location for an airport by Charles Lindbergh on behalf of Pan Am. The USA subsidised the construction of the airport as part of the Airport Development Program. Luis Malaussena was the architect who designed the original passenger terminal.


text: It was regularly visited by the Anglo-French supersonic airliner Concorde until the 1980s. Commencing in the late 1970s, Air France operated weekly Concorde service between Caracas and Paris via a stop at Santa Maria Airport located in the Atlantic Ocean.


text: Between 1952 and 1962, two new wings were added to the passenger terminal, and the runway was expanded to . Lighting was installed on the runway and approach zones to allow night operations. In 1956 a new runway was built, and in 1962, it was expanded to long by wide.


text: In the 1970s a new international terminal was constructed to offer increased capacity with a domestic terminal opening in 1983. Since 2000, the airport has been undergoing major changes in order to meet international standards and to improve passenger traffic, security, immigration areas, and customs areas. Security measures have become top priority since the September 11, 2001 attacks, and now departure areas and arrival areas are completely split into the lower and upper levels of the airport. The Proyecto Maiquetía 2000 (Project Maiquetia 2000) was completed in 2007 which added new customs and immigration areas, a new cargo terminal, and a connecting passageway between the domestic and international terminal.


text: As part of an expansion plan, new international gates are currently in construction, and a section of the parking area has been cleared to build an airport hotel. In the 1950s under the regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, road transport between the airport and the capital was improved by the inauguration of the Caracas-La Guaira highway. However, the La Guaira and Caracas Railway, dating from the nineteenth century, was closed. In May 2007 a maglev train was proposed to link Caracas to La Guaira and Simón Bolívar International Airport. In light of the crisis in Venezuela since 2010, the maglev train is not expected to be operational soon. In 2016, the old jetways in the international terminal were replaced with new glass-walled jetways.


text: During the ongoing crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela, domestic airlines are laboring under tremendous difficulties because of hyperinflation and parts shortages. Many international airlines have left the country. International airlines that have left Venezuela include Aeroméxico, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Air Canada, Alitalia, Avianca, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa, LATAM, and United Airlines, making travel to the country difficult. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Bolivarian government has not paid US$3.8 billion to international airlines in a currency issue involving conversion of local currency to U.S. dollars. Airlines have left for other reasons, including crime against flight crews, stolen baggage, and problems with the quality of jet fuel and maintenance of runways.


text: Following the increasing economic partnership between Venezuela and Turkey in October 2016, Turkish Airlines started offering direct flights from December 2016 connecting between Caracas to Istanbul (via Havana, Cuba) in an effort to "link and expand contacts" between the two countries.


text: By 2018, terminals in the airport lacked air conditioning and utilities such as water and electricity. Flight crews are often sent to different cities to avoid crime that occurs in the area. The company charged with providing sanitation services ceased to exist, so cleaning no longer occurs as frequently at the facility. The Bolivarian National Guard, tasked with providing security, often extorts travelers by force.


text: In support of President Nicolas Maduro's government, Russian Air Force aircraft, including Tupolev Tu-160 bombers, were deployed to the airport in early December 2018. In March 2019, two Russian planes were deployed to the airport carrying 100 troops and 35 tonnes of matériel. The Russian planes left the country 3 months later on 26 June 2019, according to the Russian embassy announcement.


text: American Airlines, the last U.S. airline serving Venezuela, left on 15 March 2019, after its pilots refused to fly to Venezuela, citing safety issues. Two months later, the United States Department of Transportation and Department of Homeland Security indefinitely suspended all flights between Venezuela and the United States, due to safety and security concerns. The suspension affects mainly Venezuelan airlines that flew to Miami: Avior Airlines, LASER Airlines, and Estelar Latinoamerica.


text: Iranian airline Mahan Air (blacklisted by the U.S. government since 2011) began direct flights to Caracas in April 2019, "signifying a growing relationship between the two nations". This route was later terminated.


text: Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the government announced on 3 February 2020 that the country has imposed epidemiological surveillance, restrictions and diagnostic systems to detect possible COVID-19 cases at this airport and that Venezuela will receive a diagnostic kit for the virus strain from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).


text: The following airlines operate regular scheduled passenger flights at Simón Bolívar International Airport:


text: Since 2014, foreign and domestic carriers have reduced and/or terminated their presence due to political instability and their inability to recover US$3.8 billion in funds owed to airlines. For fear of safety, some carriers have avoided overnight flight crews in Caracas, choosing to make a stop in a nearby country instead. The chronology of terminations is as follows:


text: From 1960 to 1997, it was the main hub for Viasa, Venezuela's former flag carrier until it went bankrupt. It was also the hub for Avensa, Servivensa. Conviasa started operation in 2004, hoping to become in a big and leader airline, and flag carrier. However, due to financial crisis in Venezuela, several pilots quit and are leaving Conviasa in order to fly to other nations like Turkey which operates the same type of aircraft. The headquarters of Conviasa is located on the airport grounds.


text: The airport is shown in the 1981 movie "", when a pair of Menudo's friends board a flight during the film's final scenes. The airport is also shown in the 1975 French film "Le Sauvage" starring Catherine Deneuve and Yves Montand, as several soap-opera and movie key scenes were filmed at the airport.


title: Laura Post

text: Laura Post (born June 23) is an American voice actress and voice director known for her works in anime dubbed in English by Bang Zoom! Entertainment and Studiopolis like portraying Aria Lieze in "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's", Ragyo Kiryuin in "Kill la Kill", Rosalia in "Sword Art Online", Eri Watabe in "", Blizzard in "One Punch Man", Bosbos in "Redline", and Witch Regret in "Edens Zero". She also has portrayed characters in video games like Ahri in "League of Legends", Queen Azshara in "", Haruka Sakaki in "", Valentine in "Skullgirls", Harley Quinn in "", and Arfoire in "Hyperdimension Neptunia".


title: Laura Post

text: Post graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2007. She was also taught by various voice actors like Steve Staley, Tony Oliver, Huck Ligget, Bob Bergen, Bill Holmes, and Richard Horvitz. Post started out by providing voices in audio dramas, as well as for commercials, documentaries, and industrial work.


title: Lacosamide

text: Lacosamide, sold under the brand name Vimpat among others, is a medication used for the treatment of partial-onset seizures and primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures. It is used by mouth or intravenously.


title: Lacosamide

text: Lacosamide is indicated for the treatment of partial-onset seizures and adjunctive therapy in the treatment of primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures.


title: Lacosamide

text: As with other anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs), lacosamide may have a variety of off-label uses, including for pain management and treatment of mental health disorders. Lacosamide and other AEDs have been used off-label in the management of bipolar disorder, cocaine addiction, dementia, depression, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, fibromyalgia, headache, hiccups, Huntington's disease, mania, migraine, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, restless leg syndrome, and tinnitus. Combinations of AEDs are often employed for seizure reduction. Studies are underway for the use of lacosamide as a monotherapy for partial onset seizures, diabetic neuropathy, and fibromyalgia.


title: Lacosamide

text: The FDA has assigned lacosamide to pregnancy category C. Animal studies have reported incidences of fetal mortality and growth deficit. Lacosamide has not been tested during human pregnancy, and should be administered with caution. In addition, it has not been determined whether the excretion of lacosamide occurs in breast milk.


title: Lacosamide

text: Lacosamide was generally well tolerated in adult patients with partial-onset seizures. The side-effects most commonly leading to discontinuation were dizziness, ataxia, diplopia (double vision), nystagmus, nausea, vertigo and drowsiness. These adverse reactions were observed in at least 10% of patients. Less common side-effects include tremors, blurred vision, vomiting and headache.


title: Lacosamide

text: Dizziness was the most common treatment-related adverse event. Other CNS effects are headache, drowsiness, blurred vision, involuntary movements, memory problems, diplopia (double vision), trembling or shaking of the hands, unsteadiness, ataxia.


title: Lacosamide

text: Panic attacks; agitation or restlessness; irritability and aggression, anxiety, or depression; suicidality; insomnia and mania; altered mood; false and unusual sense of well-being. Lacosamide appears to have a low incidence of psychiatric side effects with psychosis reported in only 0.3% of patients.


title: Lacosamide

text: Suicidal behavior and ideation have been observed as early as one week after starting treatment with lacosamide, and is an adverse reaction to the use of most AEDs. In clinical trials with a medial treatment duration of 12 weeks, the incidence of suicidal ideation was 0.43% among 27,863 patients as opposed to 0.24% among 16,029 placebo-treated patients. Suicidal behavior was observed in 1 of every 530 patients treated.


title: Lacosamide

text: In a study conducted to assess the teratogenic potential of AEDs in the zebrafish embryo, the teratogenicity index of lacosamide was found to be higher than that of lamotrigine, levetiracetam, and ethosuximide. Lacosamide administration resulted in different malformations in the neonatal zebrafish depending on dosage.


title: Lacosamide

text: Lacosamide is a functionalized amino acid that produces activity in the maximal electroshock seizure (MES) test, that, like some other antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), are believed to act through voltage-gated sodium channels. Lacosamide enhances the slow inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels without affecting the fast inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels. This inactivation prevents the channel from opening, helping end the action potential. Many antiepileptic drugs, like carbamazepine or lamotrigine, slow the recovery from inactivation and hence reduce the ability of neurons to fire action potentials. Inactivation only occurs in neurons firing action potentials; this means that drugs that modulate fast inactivation selectively reduce the firing in active cells. Slow inactivation is similar but does not produce complete blockade of voltage gated sodium channels, with both activation and inactivation occurring over hundreds of milliseconds or more. Lacosamide makes this inactivation happen at less depolarized membrane potentials. This means that lacosamide only affects neurons which are depolarized or active for long periods of time, typical of neurons at the focus of epilepsy. Lacosamide administration results in the inhibition of repetitive neuronal firing, the stabilization of hyperexcitable neuronal membranes, and the reduction of long-term channel availability, but does not affect physiological function. Lacosamide has a dual mechanism of action. It also modulates collapsin response mediator protein 2 (CRMP-2), preventing the formation of abnormal neuronal connections in the brain.


title: Lacosamide

text: Lacosamide does not affect AMPA, kainate, NMDA, GABA, GABA or a variety of dopaminergic, serotonergic, adrenergic, muscarinic or cannabinoid receptors and does not block potassium or calcium currents. Lacosamide does not modulate the reuptake of neurotransmitters including norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin. In addition, it does not inhibit GABA transaminase.


title: Lacosamide

text: In preclinical trials, the effect of lacosamide administration on animal models of epilepsy was tested using the Frings audiogenic seizures (AGS)-susceptible mouse model of seizure activity with an effective dose (ED) of 0.63 mg/kg, i.p. The effect of lacosamide was also assessed using the MES test to detect inhibition of seizure spread. Lacosamide administration was successful in preventing the spread of seizures induced by MES in mice (ED = 4.5 mg/kg, i.p.) and rats (ED = 3.9 mg/kg, p.o.). In preclinical trials, administration of lacosamide in combination with other AEDs resulted in synergistic anticonvulsant effects. Lacosamide produced effects in animal models of essential tremor, tardive dyskinesia, schizophrenia, and anxiety. Preclinical trials found the S-stereoisomer to be less potent than the R-stereoisomer in the treatment of seizures.


title: Lacosamide

text: When administered orally in healthy individuals, lacosamide is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Little of the drug is lost via the first pass effect, and thus has an oral bioavailability of nearly 100%. In adults, lacosamide demonstrates a low plasma protein binding of <15%, which reduces the potential for interaction with other drugs. Lacosamide is at its highest concentration in blood plasma approximately 1 to 4 hours after oral administration. Lacosamide has a half life of about 12–16 hours, which remains unchanged if the patients is also taking enzyme inducers. Consequently, the drug is administered twice per day at 12-hour intervals. Lacosamide is excreted renally, with 95% of the drug eliminated in the urine. 40% of the compound remains unchanged from its original structure, while the rest of the elimination product consists of metabolites of lacosamide. Just 0.5% of the drug is eliminated in the feces. The major metabolic pathway of lacosamide is CYP2C9, CY2C19, and CYP3A4-mediated demethylation.


title: Lacosamide

text: The dose-response curve for lacosamide is linear and proportional for oral doses of up to 800 mg and intravenous doses of up to 300 mg. Lacosamide has low potential for drug-drug interactions, and no pharmacokinetic interactions have been found to occur with other (AEDs) that act on sodium channels. A study on the binding of lacosamide to CRMP-2 in "Xenopus" oocytes showed both competitive and specific binding. Lacosamide has a K value just under 5μM and a B of about 200 pM/mg. The volume of distribution (V) of lacosamide in plasma is 0.6 L/kg, which is close to the total volume of water. Lacosamide is ampiphilic and is thus hydrophilic while also lipophilic enough to cross the blood-brain barrier.


title: Lacosamide

text: Lacosamide is a powdery, white to light yellow crystalline compound. The chemical name of lacosamide is ("R")-2-acetamido-"N"-benzyl-3-methoxypropionamide and the systemic name is "N2"-Acetyl-"N"-benzyl-"O"-methyl-"D"-serinamide. Lacosamide is a functionalized amino acid molecule that has high solubility in water and DMSO, with a solubility of 20.1 mg/mL in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.5, 25 °C). The molecule has six rotatable bonds and one aromatic ring. Lacosamide melts at 143-144 °C and boils at 536.447 °C at a pressure of 760 mmHg.


title: Lacosamide

text: ("R")-2-amino-3-hydroxypropanoic acid is treated with acetic anhydride and acetic acid. The product is treated first with "N"-methylmorpholine, isobutyl chloroformate, and benzylamine, next with methyl iodide and silver oxide, forming lacosamide.


title: Lacosamide

text: Lacosamide was discovered at the University of Houston in 1996. They hypothesized that modified amino acids may be therapeutically useful in the treatment of epilepsy. A few hundred such molecules were synthesized over several years and these were tested phenotypically in an epilepsy disease model performed in rats. N-benzyl-2-acetamido-3-methoxypropionamide was found to be highly efficacious in this model, with the biological activity traced specifically to its R enantiomer.


title: Lacosamide

text: This compound was to become lacosamide after being licensed by Schwarz Pharma, which completed its pre-clinical and early clinical development. After its purchase of Schwarz Pharma in 2006, UCB completed the clinical development program and obtained marketing approval for lacosamide. Its precise mechanism of action was unknown at the time of approval, and the exact amino acid targets involved remain uncertain to this day.


title: Lacosamide

text: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted UCB's New Drug Application for lacosamide as of November 29, 2007, beginning the approval process for the drug. UCB also filed for marketing approval in the European Union (EU); the European Medicines Agency accepted the marketing application for review in May 2007.


title: Lacosamide

text: The drug was approved in the EU on September 3, 2008. It was approved in the US on October 29, 2008. The release of lacosamide was delayed owing to an objection about its placement into schedule V of the Controlled Substances Act. The FDA issued their final rule of placement into Schedule V on June 22, 2009.


title: Lacosamide

text: Lacosamide was tested in three placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trials of at least 1300 patients. In a multi center, multinational, placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trial conducted to determine the efficacy and safety of different doses of lacosamide on individuals with poorly controlled partial-onset seizures, lacosamide was found significantly to reduce seizure frequency when given in addition to other antiepileptics, at doses of 400 and 600 milligrams a day.


title: Lacosamide

text: In a smaller trial of patients with diabetic neuropathy, lacosamide also provided significantly better pain relief when compared to placebo. Lacosamide administration in combination with 1-3 other AEDs was well tolerated in patients. Lacosamide administered at 400 mg/day was found to significantly reduce pain in patients with diabetic neuropathy in a multi center, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial with a treatment duration of 18 weeks.


title: Lacosamide

text: "Lacosamide" is the international nonproprietary name (INN). It was formerly known as erlosamide, harkeroside, SPM-927, and ADD-234037.


title: Lacosamide

text: Clinical trials are underway for the use of lacosamide as monotherapy for partial-onset seizures. There is no evidence that lacosamide provides additional value over current antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for the treatment of partial-onset seizures, but it may offer a safety advantage. Newer AEDs, including lacosamide, vigabatrin, felbamate, gabapentin, tiagabine, and rufinamide have been found to be more tolerable and safer than older drugs such as carbamazepine, phenytoin, and valproate.


title: Imran N. Hosein

text: Imran Nazar Hosein (born 1942) is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian Islamic scholar, author and philosopher, who specializes in Islamic eschatology, world politics, economics, and modern socio-economic/political issues. He is the author of "Jerusalem in the Qur'an" and other books.


title: Imran N. Hosein

text: Hosein was born into an Indo-Trinidadian family in Trinidad and Tobago. He studied Islam under the guidance of the Islamic scholar, Muhammad Fazlur Rahman Ansari at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies, Karachi, Pakistan. He also did post-graduate studies in Philosophy at Karachi University, and International Relations at the University of West Indies, Trinidad, and the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. He led the Jumu'ah prayers and delivered the sermon at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan once a month for ten years.


title: Imran N. Hosein

text: Sheikh Hosein opposes fiat currency, describing it as 'bogus, fraudulent, Haram and an amazingly dangerous instrument of oppression and universal slavery' although based on the Islamic principle of necessity he states that 'we are permitted to use it until such time as we can escape from its poisonous, deadly and sinful embrace'. He proposes that fiat currency be removed 'through the creation of micro-markets which use only Sunnah money and which are a part of remotely-located Muslim Villages.'


title: Imran N. Hosein

text: Ebrahim Desai, who ran the website Askimam, claimed Hosein has deviant positions, such as rejecting certain authentic hadiths and diverting from the consensus opinion. For example, he issued a fatwa, an Islamic legal opinion, discouraging Muslims from listening to his talks. A second fatwa by the same scholar said that due to his views some hadiths of Sahih al-Bukhari are fabricated and Gog and Magog have already been released.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Badīʿ az-Zaman Abu l-ʿIzz ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ar-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206, , ) was a polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, artisan, artist and mathematician from the Artuqid Dynasty of Jazira in Mesopotamia. He is best known for writing "The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices" () in 1206, where he described 50 mechanical devices, along with instructions on how to construct them. He is credited with the invention of the elephant clock. He has been described as the "father of robotics" and modern day engineering.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari was born in the area of Upper Mesopotamia in 1136. Sources state his exact location is unknown, but they speculate he could have been born in Jazirat ibn Umar, where he got the name Jazari from or Al-Jazira which was used to denote Upper Mesopotamia. The only biographical information known about him is contained in his "Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices". Like his father before him, he served as chief engineer at the Artuklu Palace, the residence of the Mardin branch of the Artuqids which ruled across eastern Anatolia as vassals of the Zengid dynasty of Mosul and later of Ayyubid general Saladin. Although his ethnic origin is not certain, it is suggested that he is of Arab origin.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari was part of a tradition of artisans and was thus more a practical engineer than an inventor who appears to have been "more interested in the craftsmanship necessary to construct the devices than in the technology which lay behind them" and his machines were usually "assembled by trial and error rather than by theoretical calculation". His "Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices" appears to have been quite popular as it appears in a large number of manuscript copies, and as he explains repeatedly, he only describes devices he has built himself. According to Mayr, the book's style resembles that of a modern "do-it-yourself" book.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Some of his devices were inspired by earlier devices, such as one of his monumental water clocks, which was based on that of a Pseudo-Archimedes. He also cites the influence of the Banū Mūsā brothers for his fountains, al-Saghani for the design of a candle clock, and Hibatullah ibn al-Husayn (d. 1139) for musical automata. Al-Jazari goes on to describe the improvements he made to the work of his predecessors, and describes a number of devices, techniques and components that are original innovations which do not appear in the works by his precessors.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: The most significant aspect of al-Jazari's machines are the mechanisms, components, ideas, methods, and design features which they employ.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: A camshaft, a shaft to which cams are attached, was introduced in 1206 by al-Jazari, who employed them in his automata, water clocks (such as the candle clock) and water-raising machines. The cam and camshaft also appeared in European mechanisms from the 14th century.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: The eccentrically mounted handle of the rotary quern-stone in fifth century BCE Spain that spread across the Roman Empire constitutes a crank. The earliest evidence of a crank and connecting rod mechanism dates to the 3rd century AD Hierapolis sawmill in the Roman Empire. The crank also appears in the mid-9th century in several of the hydraulic devices described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their "Book of Ingenious Devices".


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: In 1206, al-Jazari invented an early crankshaft, which he incorporated with a crank-connecting rod mechanism in his twin-cylinder pump. Like the modern crankshaft, al-Jazari's mechanism consisted of a wheel setting several crankpins into motion, with the wheel's motion being circular and the pins moving back-and-forth in a straight line. The crankshaft described by al-Jazari transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating motion, and is central to modern machinery such as the steam engine, internal combustion engine and automatic controls.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: He used the crankshaft with a connecting rod in two of his water-raising machines: the crank-driven saqiya chain pump and the double-action reciprocating piston suction pump. His water pump also employed the first known crank-slider mechanism.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari invented a method for controlling the speed of rotation of a wheel using an escapement mechanism.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: According to Donald Hill, al-Jazari described several early mechanical controls, including "a large metal door, a combination lock and a lock with four bolts".


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: A segmental gear is "a piece for receiving or communicating reciprocating motion from or to a cogwheel, consisting of a sector of a circular gear, or ring, having cogs on the periphery, or face." Professor Lynn Townsend White, Jr. wrote:


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari invented five machines for raising water, as well as watermills and water wheels with cams on their axle used to operate automata, in the 12th and 13th centuries, and described them in 1206. It was in these water-raising machines that he introduced his most important ideas and components.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: The first known use of a crankshaft in a chain pump was in one of al-Jazari's saqiya machines. The concept of minimizing intermittent working is also first implied in one of al-Jazari's "saqiya" chain pumps, which was for the purpose of maximising the efficiency of the saqiya chain pump. Al-Jazari also constructed a water-raising saqiya chain pump which was run by hydropower rather than manual labour, though the Chinese were also using hydropower for chain pumps prior to him. Saqiya machines like the ones he described have been supplying water in Damascus since the 13th century up until modern times, and were in everyday use throughout the medieval Islamic world.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Interestingly, the depiction of the chain in al-Jazari's pump appears to be in the form of a Möbius strip, from long before the Möbius strip was first identified as an object of study in mathematics.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Citing the Byzantine siphon used for discharging Greek fire as an inspiration, al-Jazari went on to describe his version of suction pipes, suction pump, double-action pump, and made early uses of valves and a crankshaft-connecting rod mechanism, when he developed a twin-cylinder reciprocating piston suction pump. This pump is driven by a water wheel, which drives, through a system of gears, an oscillating slot-rod to which the rods of two pistons are attached. The pistons work in horizontally opposed cylinders, each provided with valve-operated suction and delivery pipes. The delivery pipes are joined above the centre of the machine to form a single outlet into the irrigation system. This water-raising machine had a direct significance for the development of modern engineering. This pump is remarkable for three reasons:


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari's suction piston pump could lift 13.6 metres of water, with the help of delivery pipes. It was not, however, any more efficient than the noria commonly used by the Muslim world at the time.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: al-Jazari developed the earliest water supply system to be driven by gears and hydropower, which was built in 13th century Damascus to supply water to its mosques and Bimaristan hospitals. The system had water from a lake turn a scoop-wheel and a system of gears which transported jars of water up to a water channel that led to mosques and hospitals in the city.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari built automated moving peacocks driven by hydropower. He also invented the earliest known automatic gates, which were driven by hydropower, created automatic doors as part of one of his elaborate water clocks, and invented water wheels with cams on their axle used to operate automata. According to "Encyclopædia Britannica", the Italian Renaissance inventor Leonardo da Vinci may have been influenced by the classic automata of al-Jazari.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Mark E. Rosheim summarizes the advances in robotics made by Muslim engineers, especially al-Jazari, as follows:


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: One of al-Jazari's humanoid automata was a waitress that could serve water, tea or drinks. The drink was stored in a tank with a reservoir from where the drink drips into a bucket and, after seven minutes, into a cup, after which the waitress appears out of an automatic door serving the drink.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari invented a hand washing automaton incorporating a flush mechanism now used in modern flush toilets. This device is another example of humanoid automata. It consisted of a human figure, made from jointed copper, holding a pitcher resembling a peacock in its right hand. The pitcher is made from brass and holds within it a chamber, divided into two parts by a metal plate. This mechanism aided the pouring of the water from the spout so that it was smooth and would not splutter. The reservoir in which the water is held is situated within the right-hand side of the human figure. An axle is fitted into the right elbow of the human figure so as to allow the liquid to pour from the reservoir through the spout of the pitcher. The left arm of the figure had a fixed weight which would raise and lower the arm which would hold a towel, comb and mirror.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: This automaton was designed to aid the king whilst he performed his ritual ablutions. A servant of the king would carry the figure and place it next to a basin that could hold liquid. The servant then turned a knob on the back of the figure which opened a valve resulting in the pouring of water from the right hand of the figure into the basin. When the reservoir is nearly empty and most of the water has been poured a mechanism is prompted and the left hand of the figure, holding the towel, comb and mirror, is extended out in the direction of the king so that he can dry himself and tend to his beard.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Water and its usages holds particular importance in Islam; both as being an integral part of the pre-prayer washing processes "wudu" and "ghusl", and a key feature in Islamic gardens – four fountains featuring in the Paradise Garden; the Islamic final resting place referenced in the Quran. Additionally, with Mesopotamia being a naturally drought-ridden place, machines relating to water held a significant function; in both a divine and practical sense.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: An entire section of "The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices" was devoted to fountain mechanisms, titled: "‘On the construction in pools of fountains which change their shape, and of machines for the perpetual flute’."


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari's "peacock fountain" was a more sophisticated hand washing device featuring humanoid automata as servants which offer soap and towels. Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows:


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: The basin of the "peacock fountain" formed the basin for performing "wudu," and it would have been operated by a servant, who would have pulled the plug and positioned the peacock's beak; allowing the mechanism to release the water into the basin in front of the user.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: However, whilst water moving objects such as the peacock fountain had ritualistic usage, there is suggestion that water-moving hydraulics were put to profane use. Ayhan Aytes suggests that:Many of the devices also had additional functions that contradicted divine omnipotence. The most profane purpose of several of his hydraulic and pnuematic automata was to get guests at parties drunk as quickly as possible.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari's work described fountains and musical automata, in which the flow of water alternated from one large tank to another at hourly or half-hourly intervals. This operation was achieved through his innovative use of hydraulic switching.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari created a musical automaton, which was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. Professor Noel Sharkey has argued that it is quite likely that it was an early programmable automata and has produced a possible reconstruction of the mechanism; it has a programmable drum machine with (cams) that bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: The water-clock of the drummers, which differs from the Musical robot band in that it lacks a flute-playing doll and instead has two trumpeters, consists of seven wood-jointed male figures, including the aforementioned trumpeters as well as two dolls playing cymbals and the rest playing other percussive instruments. The mechanism in this specific automaton serves as a clock by producing a musical output once every hour, illustrating Al-Jazari’s ability to create multi-faceted automata that functioned on a practical and entertainment level. The motion of the automaton is initiated at daybreak by another male doll, who stands at the edge of the frieze element of the design, moving across until he reaches a specific point at which a carved falcon leans forward dropping a ball from its beak onto a cymbal. All mechanical aspects of the automaton are then driven by water and a series of pistons and cables. Each hour water drains out of the main cistern to cause another bucket to tip over driving a water wheel that is connected to the musicians. The automaton is described to ‘perform a with a clamorous sound which is heard from afar’ and could play several different tunes. Like many other automatons by Al-Jazari, this was created to entertain guests at the royal palace.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari constructed a variety of water clocks and candle clocks. These included a portable water-powered scribe clock, which was a meter high and half a meter wide, reconstructed successfully at the Science Museum in 1976 Al-Jazari also invented monumental water-powered astronomical clocks which displayed moving models of the Sun, Moon, and stars.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: According to Donald Hill, al-Jazari described the most sophisticated candle clocks known to date. Hill described one of al-Jazari's candle clocks as follows:


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari's candle clock also included a dial to display the time and, for the first time, employed a bayonet fitting, a fastening mechanism still used in modern times.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: The elephant clock described by al-Jazari in 1206 is notable for several innovations. It was the first clock in which an automaton reacted after certain intervals of time (in this case, a humanoid robot striking the cymbal and a mechanical robotic bird chirping) and the first water clock to accurately record the passage of the temporal hours to match the uneven length of days throughout the year.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari's largest astronomical clock was the "castle clock", which was a complex device that was about high, and had multiple functions besides timekeeping. It included a display of the zodiac and the solar and lunar orbits, and an innovative feature of the device was a pointer in the shape of the crescent moon which travelled across the top of a gateway, moved by a hidden cart, and caused automatic doors to open, each revealing a mannequin, every hour. Another innovative feature was the ability to reprogram the length of day and night in order to account for their changes throughout the year.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Another feature of the device was five automata musicians who automatically play music when moved by levers operated by a hidden camshaft attached to a water wheel. Other components of the castle clock included a main reservoir with a float, a float chamber and flow regulator, plate and valve trough, two pulleys, crescent disc displaying the zodiac, and two falcon automata dropping balls into vases. Al-Jazari's castle clock is considered to be the earliest programmable analog computer.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Al-Jazari invented water clocks that were driven by both water and weights. These included geared clocks and a portable water-powered scribe clock, which was a meter high and half a meter wide. The scribe with his pen was synonymous to the hour hand of a modern clock. Al-Jazari's famous water-powered scribe clock was reconstructed successfully at the Science Museum, London in 1976.


title: Ismail al-Jazari

text: Alongside his accomplishments as an inventor and engineer, al-Jazari was also an accomplished artist. In "The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices", he gave instructions of his inventions and illustrated them using miniature paintings, a medieval style of Islamic art.


title: Yailin La Más Viral

text: Georgina Lulú Guillermo Díaz, known professionally as Yailin La Más Viral, is a Dominican rapper and singer. Guillermo was born on July 4, 2002 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.


title: Yailin La Más Viral

text: Yailin is a Dominican dembow artist. She signed with Akino Mundial Music in 2019. In August 2020, she released "Quien Me Atraca A Mi Remix" featuring Haraca Kiko under Gatty Music. In December 2020, she released "Yo No Me Voy Acostar" with Tokischa and La Perversa. She quickly gained popularity on TikTok in 2021 after releasing the hit song "Chivirika" with El Villano RD. In April 2022, Yailin commenced her first concert tour in the United States.


title: Yailin La Más Viral

text: On 1 April 2022, Anuel AA and Yailin released their single "Si Tu Me Busca". The song was produced by Súbelo Neo.


title: Yailin La Más Viral

text: In late 2022, it was confirmed that Yailin appears on Anuel AA’s album LLNM2 in the single “La Maquina” alongside Jowell & Randy and De La Ghetto.


title: Yailin La Más Viral

text: Guillermo and Puerto Rican rapper and Latin trap artist Anuel AA publicly confirmed their relationship via a social media post in January 2022. Later in June 2022, the couple got married. In November, Guillermo and Gazmey announced that they are expecting a daughter named Cataleya Gazmey Guillermo.


title: Arabella Weir

text: Arabella Weir (born 6 December 1957) is a Scottish comedian, actress and writer. She played roles in the comedy series "The Fast Show" and "Posh Nosh", and has written several books, including "Does My Bum Look Big in This?" Weir has also written for "The Independent" and "The Guardian" and the latter's "Weekend" magazine.


title: Arabella Weir

text: Weir was born in 1957, in San Francisco, California, to Scottish parents. She is the daughter of former British ambassador Sir Michael Weir and his wife, Alison ( Walker) Weir. She attended nursery school in Washington D.C., where her father was posted as a member of the British diplomatic corps. She later attended the Sacre Coeur Convent in Cairo, and the French Lycee in London.


title: Arabella Weir

text: Both her parents were Scottish, and met while they were studying at the University of Oxford; her father was from Dunfermline and her mother was from the Scottish Borders, daughter of the headmaster of a small boarding school. As a child, Weir spent many holidays in Scotland and describes herself as "culturally Scottish". After her parents' divorce she initially lived with her mother, her two older brothers and her younger sister in the UK. At the age of nine she moved to Bahrain with her father while her brothers were at prep school and her younger sister stayed with their mother.


title: Arabella Weir

text: Weir returned to London after passing the eleven-plus in Bahrain and her father was posted to New York. She was a pupil at the Camden School for Girls, where her mother was a teacher, and then studied drama at Middlesex Polytechnic. As a teenager, she was a backing singer in the British pub rock band Bazooka Joe, whose bass player was Stuart Goddard, who later became famous as Adam Ant. Weir's terse relationship with her mother later became the subject of her debut one-woman show, "Does My Mum Loom Big in This?"


title: Arabella Weir

text: Weir's television career breakthrough came in 1994 in BBC's "The Fast Show"; she later also became widely known for her roles in "Posh Nosh" and "Two Doors Down". In addition to acting, Weir contributed several episodes as a writer on "The Fast Show" and "Posh Nosh" and has also written for "The Independent" magazine and for "The Guardian" newspaper and its "Weekend" magazine.


title: Arabella Weir

text: In 1998, Weir published the international bestseller "Does My Bum Look Big in This?", the title of which was a catchphrase of her character "Insecure Woman" in "The Fast Show". In 2000, she published her second novel "Onwards and Upwards", followed by "Stupid Cupid" in 2002.


title: Arabella Weir

text: In 2001, Weir took part in the "Weakest Link" Comedians Special. In 2006, Weir appeared as a contestant in the first series on Celebrity MasterChef. In 2007, Weir appeared in "Skins".


title: Arabella Weir

text: Weir joined the cast of "Calendar Girls" at London's Noël Coward Theatre in November 2009. She played the role of "Chris Harper" until the play's run in the West End ended in January 2010.


title: Arabella Weir

text: Weir voiced the female incarnation of the Doctor in the "Doctor Who Unbound" Big Finish episode "Exile". American alternative weekly "Houston Press"s Jef Rouner described her portrayal as "one of the most melancholy of all the Doctors."


title: Arabella Weir

text: Weir performed with the original cast from "The Fast Show" (with the exception of Mark Williams) in six online-only episodes sponsored by the Fosters brand.


title: Arabella Weir

text: From 2013 until 2016 she starred as Jenny in "Drifters". In 2015 she joined the team of presenters for BBC Two's "Food and Drink" programme. She also played a small role in Citizen Khan, in the mid-2010s. She has also appeared with "Ready Steady Cook".


title: Arabella Weir

text: Since 2016, she has been starring in the BBC Scotland sitcom "Two Doors Down". Weir's performance was criticised by Ben Arnold, commenting in "The Guardian" "her Scottish accent [is] still a work in progress, it would seem." When Weir was asked about this comment on Richard Herring's "RHLSTP" comedy podcast, she said she was doing specifically a Paisley accent on the show and that both her parents were from Scotland, which she considers her home. Weir added that Scottish actor David Tennant had responded to the Guardian's comment with the words "What the f*** are they on about, it's impeccable!", and that Ben Arnold (who himself is English) had later said to her he was sorry for making the comment.


title: Arabella Weir

text: In June 2019, Weir premiered her debut one-woman show, "Does My Mum Loom Big in This?", a comedic analysis of Weir's helter-skelter childhood and her difficult relationship with her late mother. The show's title is a pun on Weir's bestselling novel "Does My Bum Look Big in This?" She took the show to the 2019 Edinburgh Festival.


title: Arabella Weir

text: The actor David Tennant is a close friend of Weir's and is godfather to her younger child They met while filming the six-part comedy drama "Takin' Over the Asylum" for BBC Scotland in 1994. Shortly after, Tennant moved to London and lodged with Weir at her house in Crouch End for five years.


title: False gharial

text: The false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii), also known by the names Malayan gharial, Sunda gharial and tomistoma is a freshwater crocodilian of the family Gavialidae native to Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and Java. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, as the global population is estimated at around 2,500 to 10,000 mature individuals.


title: False gharial

text: The scientific name "Crocodilus (Gavialis) schlegelii" was proposed by Salomon Müller in 1838 who described a specimen collected in Borneo. In 1846, he proposed to use the name "Tomistoma schlegelii", if it needs to be placed in a distinct genus.


title: False gharial

text: The genus "Tomistoma" potentially also contains several extinct species like "T. cairense", "T. lusitanicum", "T. taiwanicus", and "T. coppensi". However, these species may need to be reclassified to different genera as are paraphyletic.


title: False gharial

text: The false gharial's snout broadens considerably towards the base and so is more similar to those of true crocodiles than to the gharial ("Gavialis gangeticus"), whose osteology indicated a distinct lineage from all other living crocodilians. However, although more morphologically similar to Crocodylidae based on skeletal features, recent molecular studies using DNA sequencing consistently indicate that the false gharial and by inference other related extinct forms traditionally viewed as belonging to the crocodylian subfamily Tomistominae actually belong to Gavialoidea and Gavialidae.


title: False gharial

text: Fossils of extinct "Tomistoma" species have been found in deposits of Paleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary ages in Taiwan, Uganda, Italy, Portugal, Egypt and India, but nearly all of them are likely to be distinct genera due to older age compared to the false gharial.


title: False gharial

text: The below cladogram of the major living crocodile groups is based on molecular studies and shows the false gharial's close relationships:


title: False gharial

text: The following cladogram shows the false gharial's placement within the Gavialidae; it is based on a tip dating study, for which morphological, DNA sequencing and stratigraphic data were analysed:


title: False gharial

text: The false gharial is dark reddish-brown above with dark brown or black spots and cross-bands on the back and tail. Ventrals are grayish-white, with some lateral dark mottling. Juveniles are mottled with black on the sides of the jaws, body, and tail. The smooth and unornamented snout is extremely long and slender, parallel sided, with a length of 3.0 to 3.5 times the width at the base. All teeth are long and needle-like, interlocking on the insides of the jaws, and are individually socketed. The dorsal scales are broad at midbody and extend onto the sides of the body. The digits are webbed at the base. Integumentary sensory organs are present on the head and body scalation. Scales behind the head are frequently a slightly enlarged single pair. Some individuals bear a number of adjoining small keeled scales. Scalation is divided medially by soft granular skin. Three transverse rows of two enlarged nuchal scales are continuous with the dorsal scales, which consist of 22 transverse rows of six to eight scales, are broad at midbody and extend onto the sides of the body. Nuchal and dorsal rows equals a total of 22 to 23 rows. It has 18 double-crested caudal whorls and 17 single-crested caudal whorls. The flanks have one or two longitudinal rows of six to eight very enlarged scales on each side.


title: False gharial

text: The false gharial has one of the slimmest snouts of any living crocodilian, comparable to that of the slender-snouted crocodile and the freshwater crocodile in slenderness; only that of the gharial is noticeably slimmer. Males can reportedly grow up to in length. Three mature males kept in captivity measured and weighed , while a female measured and weighed . Females have been recorded at lengths of up to . The false gharial apparently has the largest skull of any extant crocodilian, in part because of the great length of the slender snout. Out of the eight longest crocodilian skulls from existing species that could be found in museums around the world, six of these belonged to false gharials. The longest crocodilian skull belonging to an extant species was of this species and measured in length, with a mandibular length of . Most of the owners of these enormous skulls had no confirmed (or even anecdotal) total measurements for the animals, but based on the known skull-to-total length ratio for the species they would measure approximately in length. The false gharial is considered to be a large crocodilian, with one large male individual weighing .


title: False gharial

text: False gharials are native to Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak, and Indonesia (Sumatra, and Borneo), but were extirpated in Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand. It is unclear if they remain in Java. Apart from rivers, they inhabit swamps and lakes. The species is almost entirely found today in peat swamps and lowland swamp forests. In the 1990s, information and sightings were available from 39 localities in 10 different river drainages, along with the remote river systems of Borneo.


title: False gharial

text: Prior to the 1950s, "Tomistoma" occurred in freshwater ecosystems along the entire length of Sumatra east of the Barisan Mountains. The current distribution in eastern Sumatra has been reduced by 30-40% due to hunting, logging, fires, and agriculture.


title: False gharial

text: Until recently, very little was known about the diet or behaviour of the false gharial in the wild. Details are slowly being revealed. In the past, the false gharial was thought to have a diet of only fish and very small vertebrates, but more recent evidence indicates that it has a generalist diet despite its narrow snout. In addition to fish and smaller aquatic animals, mature adults prey on larger vertebrates, including proboscis monkeys, long-tailed macaques, deer, water birds, and reptiles. There is an eyewitness account of a false gharial attacking a cow in East Kalimantan.


title: False gharial

text: The false gharial may be considered an ecological equivalent to Neotropical crocodiles such as the Orinoco and American crocodiles, which both have slender snouts but a broad diet.


title: False gharial

text: False gharials are mound-nesters. Females lay small clutches of 13 to 35 eggs per nest, and appear to produce the largest eggs of extant crocodilians. Sexual maturity in females appears to be attained around , which is large compared to other crocodilians.


title: False gharial

text: It is not known when they breed in the wild or when the nesting season is. Once the eggs are laid, and construction of the mound is completed, the female abandons her nest. Unlike most other crocodilians, the young receive no parental care and are at risk of being eaten by predators, such as mongooses, tigers, leopards, and wild dogs. The young hatch after 90 days and are left to fend for themselves.


title: False gharial

text: In 2008, a 4-m female false gharial attacked and ate a fisherman in central Kalimantan; his remains were found in the gharial's stomach. This was the first verified fatal human attack by a false gharial. However, by 2012, at least two more verified fatal attacks on humans by false gharials had occurred indicating perhaps an increase of human-false gharial conflict possibly correlated to the decline of habitat, habitat quality, and natural prey numbers.


title: False gharial

text: The false gharial is threatened with extinction throughout most of its range due to the drainage of its freshwater swamplands and clearance of surrounding rainforests. The species is also hunted frequently for its skin and meat, and the eggs are often harvested for human consumption.


title: False gharial

text: The false gharial is listed on CITES Appendix I. Currently population surveys indicate that while the false gharial is not for the most extirpated from areas it used to inhabit, the distribution of individuals is much more spotty than the previously more connective distribution, putting the animals at risk of genetic isolation. In large part, the isolation of false gharials is due to extremely extensive habitat destruction and disturbance within the species' area of distribution, few areas outside of legally protected areas are likely to bear viable breeding populations.


title: False gharial

text: Steps have been taken by the Malaysian and Indonesian governments to prevent its extinction in the wild. There are reports of some populations rebounding in Indonesia, yet with this slight recovery, mostly irrational fears of attacks have surfaced amongst the local human population. Yayasan Ulin (The Ironwood Foundation) is currently attempting to manage a wetland area in East Kalimantan, which is known to contain the false gharials.


title: Cuteness

text: Cuteness is a subjective term describing a type of attractiveness commonly associated with youth and appearance, as well as a scientific concept and analytical model in ethology, first introduced by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz proposed the concept of baby schema ("Kindchenschema"), a set of facial and body features that make a creature appear "cute" and activate ("release") in others the motivation to care for it. Cuteness may be ascribed to people as well as things that are regarded as attractive or charming.


title: Cuteness

text: Doug Jones, a visiting scholar in anthropology at Cornell University, said that the proportions of facial features change with age due to changes in hard tissue and soft tissue, and Jones said that these "age-related changes" cause juvenile animals to have the "characteristic 'cute' appearance" of proportionately smaller snouts, higher foreheads and larger eyes than their adult counterparts. In terms of hard tissue, Jones said that the neurocranium grows a lot in juveniles while the bones for the nose and the parts of the skull involved in chewing food only reach maximum growth later. In terms of soft tissue, Jones said that the cartilaginous tissues of the ears and nose continue to grow throughout a person's lifetime, starting at age twenty-five the eyebrows descend on the "supraorbital rim" from a position above the supraorbital rim to a position below it, the "lateral aspect of the eyebrows" sags with age, making the eyes appear smaller, and the red part of the lips gets thinner with age due to loss of connective tissue.


title: Cuteness

text: A study found that the faces of "attractive" Northern Italian Caucasian children have "characteristics of babyness" such as a "larger forehead", a smaller jaw, "a proportionately larger and more prominent maxilla", a wider face, a flatter face and larger "anteroposterior" facial dimensions than the Northern Italian Caucasian children used as a reference.


title: Cuteness

text: Konrad Lorenz argued in 1949 that infantile features triggered nurturing responses in adults and that this was an evolutionary adaptation which helped ensure that adults cared for their children, ultimately securing the survival of the species. Some later scientific studies have provided further evidence for Lorenz's theory. For example, it has been shown that human adults react positively to infants who are stereotypically cute. Studies have also shown that responses to cuteness—and to facial attractiveness in general—seem to be similar across and within cultures. In a study conducted by Stephan Hamann of Emory University, he found using an fMRI, that cute pictures increased brain activity in the orbital frontal cortex.


title: Cuteness

text: Desmond Collins, who was an Extension Lecturer of Archaeology at London University, said that the lengthened youth period of humans is part of neoteny.


title: Cuteness

text: Physical anthropologist Barry Bogin said that the pattern of children's growth may intentionally increase the duration of their cuteness. Bogin said that the human brain reaches adult size when the body is only 40 percent complete, when "dental maturation is only 58 percent complete" and when "reproductive maturation is only 10 percent complete". Bogin said that this allometry of human growth allows children to have a "superficially infantile" appearance (large skull, small face, small body and sexual underdevelopment) longer than in other "mammalian species". Bogin said that this cute appearance causes a "nurturing" and "care-giving" response in "older individuals".


title: Cuteness

text: The perceived cuteness of an infant is influenced by the gender and behavior of the infant. In the Koyama et al. (2006) research, female infants are seen as cute for the physical attraction that female infants display more than male infants; whereas research by Karraker (1990) demonstrates that a caregiver's attention and involvement in the male infant's protection could be solely based on the perception of happiness and attractiveness of the child.


title: Cuteness

text: The gender of an observer can determine their perception of the difference in cuteness. In a study by Sprengelmeyer et al. (2009) it was suggested that women were more sensitive to small differences in cuteness than the same aged men. This suggests that reproductive hormones in women are important for determining cuteness.


title: Cuteness

text: This finding has also been demonstrated in a study conducted by T.R. Alley in which he had 25 undergraduate students (consisting of 7 men and 18 women) rate cuteness of infants depending on different characteristics such as age, behavioral traits, and physical characteristics such as head shape, and facial feature configuration.


title: Cuteness

text: Borgi et al. stated that young children demonstrate a preference for faces with a more "infantile facial" arrangement i.e. a rounder face, a higher forehead, bigger eyes, a smaller nose and a smaller mouth. In a study that used three- to six-year-old children, Borgi et al. (2014) asserted that the children showed a viewing time preference toward the eyes of "high infantile" faces of dogs, cats and humans as opposed to "low infantile" faces of those three species.


title: Cuteness

text: There are suggestions that hormone levels can affect a person's perception of cuteness. Konrad Lorenz suggests that "caretaking behaviour and affective orientation" towards infants as an innate mechanism, and this is triggered by cute characteristics such as "chubby cheeks" and large eyes. The Sprengelmeyer et al. (2009) study expands on this claim by manipulating baby pictures to test groups on their ability to detect differences in cuteness. The studies show that premenopausal women detected cuteness better than same aged postmenopausal women. Furthermore, to support this claim, women taking birth control pills that raise levels of reproductive hormones detect cuteness better than same aged women not taking the pill.


title: Cuteness

text: Sprengelmeyer gathered 24 young women, 24 young men, and 24 older women to participate in his study. He ran three studies in which images of white European babies were shown, and the participants were asked to rate them on a cuteness scale of one to seven. The study found differences among the groups in cuteness discrimination, which ruled out cohort and social influences on perceived cuteness. In the second study it was found that premenopausal women discriminated cuteness at a higher level than their postmenopausal female peers. This finding suggested a biological factor, which was then investigated further in the third study. Here, Sprengelmeyer compared cuteness sensitivity between premenopausal women who were, and were not taking oral contraceptives. The study concluded that post-perceptual processes were impacted by hormone levels (progesterone and estrogen specifically) in females, and thus impacted sensitivity to cuteness.


title: Cuteness

text: A study by Konrad Lorenz in the early 1940s found that the shape of an infant's head positively correlated with adult caregiving and an increased perception of "cute". However a study by Thomas Alley found no such correlation and pointed out faulty procedures in that study. Alley's study found that cephalic head shape of an infant did induce a positive response from adults, and these children were considered to be more "cute". In his study, Alley had 25 undergraduate students rate line drawings of an infant's face. The same drawing was used each time, however the cephalic head shape was changed using a cardioidal transformation (a transformation that models cephalic growth in relation to ageing process) to adjust the perceived age; other features of the face were not changed. The study concluded that a large head shape increased perceived cuteness, which then elicited a positive response in adult caretaking. The study also noted that perceived cuteness was also dependent on other physical and behavioural characteristics of the child, including age.


title: Cuteness

text: In a study by McCabe (1984) of children whose ages ranged from toddlers to teenagers, the children with more "adult-like" facial proportions were more likely to have experienced physical abuse than children of the same age who had less "adult-like" facial proportions.


title: Cuteness

text: A study by Karraker (1990) suggested that "an adult's beliefs about the personality and expected behavior of an infant can influence the adult's interaction with the infant", and gave evidence that in this way "basic cuteness effects may occasionally be obscured in particular infants". Koyama (2006) said that an adult caregiver's perception of an infant's cuteness can motivate the amount of care and protection the caregiver provides, and the admiration demonstrated toward the infant, and concluded that "the adults' protective feeling for children appeared to be a more important criterion for the judgment of a boy's cuteness."


title: Cuteness

text: Melanie Glocker (2009) provided experimental evidence that infants' cuteness motivates caretaking in adults, even if they are not related to the infant. Glocker asked individuals to rate the level of cuteness of pictured infants and noted the motivation that these participants had to care for the infants. The research suggested that individuals' rating of the perceived cuteness of an infant corresponded to the level of motivation an individual had to care for this infant. Glocker and colleagues then used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to demonstrate that baby faces with higher content of baby schema features, generated more activation in the nucleus accumbens, a small brain area central to motivation and reward. This work elucidated the neural mechanism through which baby schema ("Kindchenschema") may motivate ("release") caretaking behavior. Furthermore, cute infants were more likely to be adopted and rated as more "likeable, friendly, healthy and competent" than infants who were less cute. There is an implication that baby schema response is crucial to human development because it lays the foundation for caregiving and the relationship between child and caretaker.


title: Cuteness

text: Sherman, Haidt, & Coan (2009), in two experiments, found that exposure to high cuteness stimuli increased performance when playing the Operation game, a task that requires extreme carefulness. The study said that the shift in behavior toward greater carefulness is consistent with the viewpoint that cuteness is something that releases the human caregiving system. The study said that the shift in behavior toward greater carefulness also makes sense as an adaptation for caring for small children.


title: Cuteness

text: Doug Jones, a visiting scholar in anthropology at Cornell University, said that the faces of monkeys, dogs, birds and even the fronts of cars can be made to appear cuter by morphing them with a "cardioidal" (heart-shaped) mathematical transformation. Jones said that negative cardioidal strain results in faces appearing less mature and cuter by causing facial features at the top of the face to expand outward and upward while causing features at the bottom of the face to contract inward and upward.


title: Cuteness

text: Stephen Jay Gould said that over time Mickey Mouse had been drawn to resemble a juvenile more with a relatively larger head, larger eyes, a larger and more bulging cranium, a less sloping and more rounded forehead, shorter, thicker and "pudgier" legs, thicker arms and a thicker snout which gave the appearance of being less protrusive. Gould suggested that this change in Mickey's image was intended to increase his popularity by making him appear cuter and "inoffensive". Gould said that the neotenous changes to Mickey's form were similar to the neotenous changes that occurred in human evolution.


title: Cuteness

text: Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D. in psychology from Boston University, said "cartoonists capitalize on our innate preferences for juvenile features", and she mentioned Mickey Mouse and Bambi as examples of this trend. She said Mickey Mouse's bodily proportions "aged in reverse" since his inception, because "[h]is eyes and head kept getting bigger while his limbs kept getting shorter and thicker", culminating in him resembling a "human infant". She further mentioned the "exaggerated high forehead" and the "doe eyes" of Bambi as another example of this trend.


title: Cuteness

text: Mark J. Estren, Ph.D. in psychology from the University at Buffalo, said cute animals get more public attention and scientific study due to having physical characteristics that would be considered neotenous from the perspective of human development. Estren said that humans should be mindful of their bias for cute animals, so animals that would not be considered cute are also valued in addition to cute animals.


title: Cuteness

text: The perception of cuteness is culturally diverse. The differences across cultures can be significantly associated to the need to be socially accepted.


title: Cuteness

text: Sherman, Haidt, & Coan (2009) used images of puppies and kittens for the study's "high cuteness" stimuli in two experiments.


title: Cuteness

text: William R. Miller, assistant professor of biology at Baker University in Kansas, said that most people, upon seeing tardigrades, say that they are the cutest invertebrates.


title: Cuteness

text: Kenta Takada (2016) said that Miyanoshita (2008) said that the design of chocolates made to look like rhinoceros beetle larvae is a design that is both cute and disgusting.


title: Cuteness

text: Evolutionary biologists suspect that "puppy dog eyes", a trait absent from wild wolves, were unintentionally selected for by humans during the domestication of dogs. In order to obtain pets with particularly cute faces, some breeds of dogs have been bred with increasingly severe cranial deformities called brachycephaly, for example, the French bulldog who consequently suffer from Brachycephalic airway obstructive syndrome.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: Giuliano de' Medici (25 October 1453 – 26 April 1478) was the second son of Piero de' Medici (the Gouty) and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. As co-ruler of Florence, with his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent, he complemented his brother's image as the "patron of the arts" with his own image as the handsome, sporting "golden boy." He was killed in a plot known as the Pazzi conspiracy.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: Giuliano was promised in marriage to Semiramade Appiani Aragona, daughter of Iacopo IV Appiani, the Lord of Piombino, though died before the wedding could take place.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: Giuliano had an illegitimate son by his mistress Fioretta Gorini, Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, who would later become Pope Clement VII.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: The Pazzi conspirators attempted to lure Giuliano and Lorenzo away from Florence to kill them outside the boundaries of the city – first on the road to Piombino, then in Rome, and finally at a banquet hosted by the Medici at their villa in Fiesole. Giuliano did not come, claiming to be ill. The choice to commit the murder at high mass was a last minute choice.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: As the opening stroke of the Pazzi conspiracy, Giuliano was assassinated on 26 April 1478 – in the Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, by Francesco de' Pazzi and Bernardo Baroncelli. During Mass, at the sounding of the Elevation, he received a fatal sword wound to the head and was stabbed 19 times. He died lying on the cathedral floor. Lorenzo, who had escaped to the Medici palace, did not learn of his brother's death for several hours.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: After a modest funeral on 30 April 1478, Giuliano was buried in his father's tomb in the Church of San Lorenzo, but later, with his brother Lorenzo, was reinterred in the Medici Chapel of the same church, in a tomb surmounted by a statue of the "Madonna and Child" of Michelangelo. After his death, at least two sonnets about Giuliano circulated in Florence, one of them written by Luigi Pulci for Lucrezia Tornabuoni the mother of Giuliano.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: Angelo Poliziano wrote two works which include Giuliano de' Medici as a major character. "Stanze cominciate per la giostra del Magnifico Giuliano de’ Medici" was written to commemorate a joust that Giuliano won in 1475. It is mostly fictionalized and involves Giuliano's love for Simonetta Vespucci. It was left unfinished, for both of his protagonists (Giuliano and Simonetta) died. The other work is "Coniurationis Commentarium", which was written in 1478 to commemorate Giuliano's murder. It explains the people involved in the plot and the events of the day of his assassination.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: Giuliano's portrait by Sandro Botticelli is thought to have been painted shortly after his death. The open window and dove were known symbols of death, and some have suggested that the lowered eyelids suggest that a death mask may have been used as reference.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: Giuliano makes a brief appearance in the video game "Assassin's Creed II" (2009) where he is murdered by Francesco de' Pazzi and other conspirators of the Pazzi conspiracy who were seeking to take over Florence under the command of Rodrigo Borgia, the future Pope Alexander VI.


title: Giuliano de' Medici

text: Giuliano is portrayed by Tom Bateman in Starz's original series "Da Vinci's Demons" (2013–2015). He has an affair with Vanessa, who becomes pregnant with his child. He is murdered in the season 1 finale. Giuliano de' Medici was portrayed by Bradley James in the second season of the TV series "" (2016–2019).


title: Weebly

text: Weebly () is a web hosting service, headquartered in San Francisco. Weebly is a subsidiary of Block, Inc.


title: Weebly

text: Weebly was founded in 2006 by Chief Executive Officer David Rusenko, Chief Technology Officer Chris Fanini, and former Chief Product Officer Dan Veltri. Rusenko and Fanini both attended the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). Veltri attended the university's Smeal College of Business. At the time, Penn State required all students to maintain an Internet portfolio, so they built upon this idea and created software that made it easy for anyone to build a personal website.


title: Weebly

text: Formal development of Weebly began in January 2006. The invitational beta release was announced in June 2006. The official private-beta launched in September 2006.


title: Weebly

text: In 2007, Weebly raised a US$650,000 financing round from several angel investors, including Ron Conway, Steve Anderson, Mike Maples, and Paul Buchheit. In 2011, Weebly raised a growth-stage round from Sequoia Capital and added Roelof Botha to its board of directors. In April 2014, Weebly raised $35 million in Series C funding from Sequoia Capital and Tencent Holdings Ltd.


title: Weebly

text: In March 2007, Weebly re-launched with its "WYSIWYG" editing interface. In 2008 Weebly added "Pro" accounts and Google AdSense monetization features, as well as compatibility with Google Chrome and Safari. In 2010, the company added French, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese languages. In April 2016, Weebly integrated JotForm software on its services. On October 1, 2015, Weebly Carbon was released to allow plugin integration among other features. In 2016, Weebly began to focus in on its ecommerce offerings with the release of Weebly 4 and Weebly Promote, an integrated marketing tool.


title: Weebly

text: As more sellers began using the company, the company created features for one click taxes, integrations with Shippo to streamline the shipping process, Facebook Ad creator, integrated email marketing and lead capture, abandoned cart features, the release of Mobile 5.0 to help sellers run their store from anywhere and deep integrations with Square payment processing.


title: Weebly

text: During its initial startup years, Weebly received criticism for its lack of CSS/HTML editing support, and in 2009 added this functionality.


title: Weebly

text: Rusenko stated in August 2013 that the company signed a lease for a warehouse in San Francisco, based on an expectation of ongoing growth. The new office will house the majority of a global team of 600 employees in 2014 when it moves into the property. As of August 25, 2013, Weebly had 80 employees and was based in an space in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. In October 2015, Weebly announced it would open a Berlin office in late 2015/early 2016 to offer European-based support and marketing.


title: Weebly

text: On April 26, 2018, Square, Inc. announced it would acquire Weebly for approximately $365 million in cash and stock. On acquisition in April 2018, Weebly had "millions of customers and more than 625,000 paid subscribers. The Weebly acquisition was completed on June 4, 2018.


title: Weebly

text: Weebly's free online website creator uses a widget-based site builder that operates in the web browser. All the site elements are drag-and-drop, and it automatically generates a mobile version of each website. Storage is unlimited, but the service restricts individual file sizes. Consumers are given the option to have any url ending in .weebly.com, .com, .net, .org, .co, .info, or .us. (example.weebly.com)


title: Weebly

text: Android and iPhone apps are available that allow users to monitor their website traffic statistics, update blog posts and respond to comments, and add or update products if the user has an e-commerce online store. Basic features for blogging and e-Commerce are supported: as of 2018, site owners could develop simple stores with payments through either PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net. Users can choose to incorporate advertisements in their pages, and visitor statistics can be tracked through an in-house tracking tool or Google Analytics. Weebly also has integrated newsletter marketing features.


title: Weebly

text: As of 2020, Weebly was offered in 15 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Polish, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Turkish.


title: Weebly

text: In April 2012, Weebly co-sponsored a hackathon hosted by Pennsylvania State University titled the "PSUhackathon." Rusenko and Fanini, who are both alumni of the College of Information Sciences and Technology, spoke at and judged the event.


title: Weebly

text: "TIME" listed Weebly among the 50 Best Websites of 2007. In 2011, "Business Insider" included Weebly into its "15 Cool New Apps That Are Crushing It On Chrome" list. Also in 2011, David Rusenko, Weebly's CEO and co-founder, earned a spot in "Forbes" "30 Under 30: social/mobile" list.


title: Weebly

text: In December 2014, the Indian government blocked Weebly in India, due to fears that ISIS propaganda was being spread through the site. On December 31, the site was again made available throughout India.


title: Weebly

text: Weebly also applies censorship to its availability with a wide selection of geoblocked countries where Weebly is unavailable to internet users. Site owners are unable to login from these geoblocked locations to administer the site just as internet users cannot reach the site. According to Weebly official support forum, the exact list of blocked countries is secret, but the employees confirmed blocking of Côte d'Ivoire, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, as well as much of Middle East, West and Central Africa.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: On 5 March 2020, Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize had confirmed the spread of the virus to South Africa, with the first known patient being a male citizen who tested positive upon his return from Italy. On 15 March 2020, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, declared a national state of disaster, and announced measures such as immediate travel restrictions and the closure of schools from 18 March. On 17 March, the "National Coronavirus Command Council" was established, "to lead the nation's plan to contain the spread and mitigate the negative impact of the coronavirus". On 23 March, a national lockdown was announced, starting on 27 March 2020. The first local death from the disease was reported on 27 March 2020. On 21 April, a 500 billion rand stimulus was announced in response to the pandemic. Ramaphosa announced that from 1 May 2020, a gradual and phased easing of the lockdown restrictions would begin, lowering the national alert level to 4. From 1 June, the national restrictions were lowered to level 3. The restrictions were lowered to alert level 2 on 17 August 2020. From 21 September 2020, restrictions were lowered to alert level 1.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: In December 2020, the country experienced a 2nd wave of COVID-19 infections, mostly with infections from the SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant. The lockdown was tightened from an adjusted level 1 to an adjusted level 3 starting on 29 December 2020. The lockdown was lowered from an adjusted level 3 to an adjusted level 1 starting on 1 March 2021. On 17 February 2021, the national COVID-19 vaccination program was officially rolled out.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: On 8 May 2021, local cases of variants of concern Delta (first detected in India, which has a higher transmissibility than the dominant strain, Beta) and Alpha were reported. On 31 May 2021 the country was moved from adjusted level 1 to an adjusted alert level 2, due to a 3rd wave of infections, mostly with infections from the Delta variant. On 15 June 2021 the country was moved to alert level 3. On 28 June 2021, the country was moved to adjusted level 4, with the Delta variant fast becoming the dominant strain in the country. On 9 July 2021, sixteen months into the pandemic, doctors in Johannesburg described the system there as beyond its breaking point, with insufficient beds and barely enough oxygen. On 25 July 2021 the country was lowered to adjusted level 3. On 13 September 2021, an adjusted alert level 2 took effect, and on 1 October 2021 more restrictions were eased by moving to adjusted alert level 1.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: On 26 November 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the Omicron variant, first identified in Botswana but first reported to the WHO by South Africa, as a variant of concern. Several countries announced travel bans from South Africa and its neighboring countries. The country was entering its 4th wave by 1 December 2021, mostly with infections from the standard BA.1 subvariant of the Omicron variant. On 4 February 2022 it was announced that South African scientists had replicated the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Further easing of restrictions came into effect on 23 March 2022, including dropping the requirement to wear masks outdoors though still required indoors in public vehicles and spaces, allowing proof of vaccination or a COVID-19 test not older than 72 hours as an alternative for entering certain venues, and reducing distancing to 1 metre except in schools. On midnight 4 April 2022, the National State of Disaster was terminated, though some transitional provisions remained in place for a period of 30 days.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: A limited 5th wave from late-April 2022 was mostly from infections from the BA.4, BA.5, and BA.2 subvariants of the Omicron variant. Deaths were more decoupled from cases, likely due to high levels of population immunity from infection and/or vaccination. Eminent risk declined by mid-June 2022, and on 22 June 2022 all remaining health regulations regarding COVID-19 were ended.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: During the first two years, 2020 and 2021, excess deaths were estimated at 292.3 per population. there have been excess deaths of persons older than 1 years from natural causes since 3 May 2020, with 85%–95% of these excess deaths attributable to COVID-19, and the remaining 5%–15% probably mainly due to overwhelmed health services.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: Since the first patient with COVID-19 was confirmed in South Africa on 3 March 2020 the country has experienced five waves of the pandemic.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a Public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020, an emergency operation centre was immediately activated.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) started testing people in South Africa for SARS-CoV-2 on 28 January 2020, and by 7 February had conducted 42 such tests.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: On 30 March 2020, the government announced its intentions of initiating an enhanced screening and testing programme. On 3 April 2020, the NICD made alterations to its testing guidelines to further allow for anyone who presented with relevant COVID-19 symptoms to be tested (previously there were additional requirements such as history of foreign travel or recent contact with a confirmed case).


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: By the start of April, 67 mobile testing units had been established and people had been tested, some in drive-through facilities.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: On 8 April, the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) detailed its testing capacity through the country. The NHLS would be able to perform approximately tests per day.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: Many private clinical pathology laboratories were also conducting tests. The CEO of the NHLS, Dr Kamy Chetty, said that by 9 April 2020 the majority of tests had been done in the private sector as the initial cases had been linked to international travellers who were likely to be on private medical aids.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: By 9 April 2020, South Africa had conducted tests at 1.2 tests per thousand, considerably lower than for example Turkey (3.3), the United Kingdom (3.6), and South Korea (9.7). However, the ratio of positive tests to total tests conducted was significantly lower than most countries. By 10 April, the number of tests had increased to , making the average number of tests per day in the first 10 days of April roughly . The chair of the board of the NHLS, Eric Buch, stated that it had a capacity of tests per day and would welcome doing more tests.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: On 14 April, Stavros Nicolaou, head of Business for South Africa's healthcare working group and Aspen Pharmacare executive, said that South Africa had the capacity and kits to do tests a day.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: By 23 April the total number of tests was . The number of daily tests increased: for the first 14 days of April the daily average number of tests was 3394; for the next 9 days the daily average was 6283. The rate of positive tests versus total tests remained less than 3%. The Minister of Health released figures that showed that of all the tests done up to 23 April 62% had been done in the private sector and 38% in the public sector. However, that ratio was changing as the public sector increased capacity. The public sector performed 63% of the new tests reported on 23 April 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: By 27 April, tests had been performed on South African residents, with the public sector doing the majority of the tests. Provincial test coverage varied by over a factor of 8. The number of tests per residents (based on 2019 population estimates) was Northwest 66, Limpopo 69, Mpumalanga 101, Northern Cape 111, Eastern Cape 247, KwaZulu-Natal 270, Free State 284, Gauteng 439, and Western Cape 541 (national average 317). A surveillance programme was started to monitor community transmission (as opposed to tests done on people who displayed symptoms or who had been in contact with COVID-19 patients). In the three arms of the programme 812 tests had been done and two positive cases had been detected.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: By 28 June, the total number of tests was . The private sector had now overtaken the public sector, in terms of tests completed. The private sector had done test with the public sector only doing .


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: South Africa had created a sizable genomic surveillance consortium by May 2020. Due to this, scientists from Southern Africa, lead by Tulio de Oliveira, discovered and confirmed the COVID-19 virus's Beta variant in 2020 and its Omicron variant in November 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: On 17 March 2020, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority announced that it would expedite review of treatments, vaccines and clinical trials.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

text: A team from 8 universities and 14 hospitals led by Helen Rees and Jeremy Nel from the University of the Witwatersrand participated in the World Health Organization Solidarity Clinical Trials that investigated medications.