title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama. Once they were in operation, drama could become a fixed and permanent, rather than transitory, phenomenon. Their construction was prompted when the Mayor and Corporation of London first banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, and then formally expelled all players from the city in 1575. This prompted the construction of permanent playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the liberties of Halliwell/Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink, and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George's Fields in rural Surrey. The Theatre was constructed in Shoreditch in 1576 by James Burbage with his brother-in-law John Brayne (the owner of the unsuccessful Red Lion playhouse of 1567) and the Newington Butts playhouse was set up, probably by Jerome Savage, some time between 1575 and 1577. The Theatre was rapidly followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), the Globe (1599), the Fortune (1600), and the Red Bull (1604).


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Archaeological excavations on the foundations of the Rose and the Globe in the late 20th century showed that all the London theatres had individual differences, but their common function necessitated a similar general plan. The public theatres were three stories high and built around an open space at the centre. Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect, although the Red Bull and the first Fortune were square. The three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open centre, into which jutted the stage: essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience. The rear side was restricted for the entrances and exits of the actors and seating for the musicians. The upper level behind the stage could be used as a balcony, as in "Romeo and Juliet" and "Antony and Cleopatra", or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in "Julius Caesar". The pit was the place where the poor people had their place. And around the 1600's a new area was introduced into the theaters,'a gullet'. A gullet was an invisible corridor that the actors used to go to the wings of the stage where people usually changed clothes quickly.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The playhouses were generally built with timber and plaster. Individual theatre descriptions give additional information about their construction, such as flint stones being used to build the Swan. Theatres were also constructed to be able to hold a large number of people.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: A different model was developed with the Blackfriars Theatre, which came into regular use on a long-term basis in 1599. The Blackfriars was small in comparison to the earlier theatres and roofed rather than open to the sky. It resembled a modern theatre in ways that its predecessors did not. Other small enclosed theatres followed, notably the Whitefriars (1608) and the Cockpit (1617). With the building of the Salisbury Court Theatre in 1629 near the site of the defunct Whitefriars, the London audience had six theatres to choose from: three surviving large open-air public theatres—the Globe, the Fortune, and the Red Bull—and three smaller enclosed private theatres: the Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury Court. Audiences of the 1630s benefited from a half-century of vigorous dramaturgical development; the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare and their contemporaries were still being performed on a regular basis, mostly at the public theatres, while the newest works of the newest playwrights were abundant as well, mainly at the private theatres.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Around 1580, when both the Theater and the Curtain were full on summer days, the total theater capacity of London was about 5000 spectators. With the building of new theater facilities and the formation of new companies, London's total theater capacity exceeded 10,000 after 1610.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Ticket prices in general varied during this time period. The cost of admission was based on where in the theatre a person wished to be situated, or based on what a person could afford. If people wanted a better view of the stage or to be more separate from the crowd, they would pay more for their entrance. Due to inflation that occurred during this time period, admission increased in some theaters from a penny to a sixpence or even higher.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Commercial theaters were largely located just outside the boundaries of the City of London, since City authorities tended to be wary of the adult playing companies, but plays were performed by touring companies all over England. English companies even toured and performed English plays abroad, especially in Germany and in Denmark.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Upper class spectators would pay for seats in the galleries, using cushions for comfort. In the Globe Theatre, nobles could sit directly by the side on the stage.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The acting companies functioned on a repertory system: unlike modern productions that can run for months or years on end, the troupes of this era rarely acted the same play two days in a row. Thomas Middleton's "A Game at Chess" ran for nine straight performances in August 1624 before it was closed by the authorities; but this was due to the political content of the play and was a unique, unprecedented, and unrepeatable phenomenon. The 1592 season of Lord Strange's Men at the Rose Theatre was far more representative: between 19 February and 23 June the company played six days a week, minus Good Friday and two other days. They performed 23 different plays, some only once, and their most popular play of the season, "The First Part of Hieronimo", based on Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy", 15 times. They never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in a week. The workload on the actors, especially the leading performers like Richard Burbage or Edward Alleyn, must have been tremendous.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: One distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males. Female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume. Some companies were composed entirely of boy players. Performances in the public theatres (like the Globe) took place in the afternoon with no artificial lighting, but when, in the course of a play, the light began to fade, candles were lit. In the enclosed private theatres (like the Blackfriars) artificial lighting was used throughout. Plays contained little to no scenery as the scenery was described by the actors or indicated by costume through the course of the play.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: In the Elizabethan era, research has been conclusive about how many actors and troupes there were in the 16th century, but little research delves into the roles of the actors on the English renaissance stage. The first point is that during the Elizabethan era, women were not allowed to act on stage. The actors were all male; in fact, most were boys. For plays written that had male and female parts, the female parts were played by the youngest boy players. Stronger female roles in tragedies were acted by older boy players because they had more experience. As a boy player, many skills had to be implemented such as voice and athleticism (fencing was one).


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: In Elizabethan entertainment, troupes were created and they were considered the actor companies. They traveled around England as drama was the most entertaining art at the time.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Elizabethan actors never played the same show on successive days and added a new play to their repertoire every other week. These actors were getting paid within these troupes so for their job, they would constantly learn new plays as they toured different cities in England. In these plays, there were bookkeepers that acted as the narrators of these plays and they would introduce the actors and the different roles they played. At some points, the bookkeeper wouldn't state the narrative of the scene, so the audience could find out for themselves. In Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, the plays often exceeded the number of characters/roles and didn't have enough actors to fulfill them, thus the idea of doubling roles came to be. Doubling roles is used to reinforce a plays theme by having the actor act out the different roles simultaneously. The reason for this was for the acting companies to control salary costs, or to be able to perform under conditions where resources such as other actor companies lending actors were not present.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: There are two acting styles implemented. Formal and natural. Formal acting is objective and traditional, natural acting attempts to create an illusion for the audience by remaining in character and imitating the fictional circumstances. The formal actor symbolizes while the natural actor interprets. The natural actor impersonates while the formal actor represents the role. Natural and formal are opposites of each other, where natural acting is subjective. Overall, the use of these acting styles and the doubled roles dramatic device made Elizabethan plays very popular.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: One of the main uses of costume during the Elizabethan era was to make up for the lack of scenery, set, and props on stage. It created a visual effect for the audience, and it was an integral part of the overall performance. Since the main visual appeal on stage were the costumes, they were often bright in colour and visually entrancing. Colours symbolized social hierarchy, and costumes were made to reflect that. For example, if a character was royalty, their costume would include purple. The colours, as well as the different fabrics of the costumes, allowed the audience to know the status of each character when they first appeared on stage.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Costumes were collected in inventory. More often than not, costumes wouldn't be made individually to fit the actor. Instead, they would be selected out of the stock that theatre companies would keep. A theatre company reused costumes when possible and would rarely get new costumes made. Costumes themselves were expensive, so usually players wore contemporary clothing regardless of the time period of the play. The most expensive pieces were given to higher class characters because costuming was used to identify social status on stage. The fabrics within a playhouse would indicate the wealth of the company itself. The fabrics used the most were: velvet, satin, silk, cloth-of-gold, lace, and ermine. For less significant characters, actors would use their own clothes.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Actors also left clothes in their will for following actors to use. Masters would also leave clothes for servants in their will, but servants weren't allowed to wear fancy clothing, instead, they sold the clothes back to theatre companies.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: In the Tudor and Elizabethan eras, there were laws stating that certain classes could only wear clothing fitting of their status in society.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: There was a discrimination of status within the classes. Higher classes flaunted their wealth and power through the appearance of clothing, however, courtesans and actors were the only exceptions – as clothing represented their 'working capital', as it were, but they were only permitted to dress so while working. If actors belonged to a licensed acting company, they were allowed to dress above their standing in society for specific roles in a production.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The growing population of London, the growing wealth of its people, and their fondness for spectacle produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality, and extent. Although most of the plays written for the Elizabethan stage have been lost, over 600 remain.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The people who wrote these plays were primarily self-made men from modest backgrounds. Some of them were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but many were not. Although William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors, the majority do not seem to have been performers, and no major author who came on to the scene after 1600 is known to have supplemented his income by acting. Their lives were subject to the same levels of danger and earlier mortality as all who lived during the early modern period: Christopher Marlowe was killed in an apparent tavern brawl, while Ben Jonson killed an actor in a duel. Several were probably soldiers.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Playwrights were normally paid in increments during the writing process, and if their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from one day's performance. However, they had no ownership of the plays they wrote. Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it, and the playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision, or publication.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The profession of dramatist was challenging and far from lucrative. Entries in Philip Henslowe's Diary show that in the years around 1600 Henslowe paid as little as £6 or £7 per play. This was probably at the low end of the range, though even the best writers could not demand too much more. A playwright, working alone, could generally produce two plays a year at most. In the 1630s Richard Brome signed a contract with the Salisbury Court Theatre to supply three plays a year, but found himself unable to meet the workload. Shakespeare produced fewer than 40 solo plays in a career that spanned more than two decades: he was financially successful because he was an actor and, most importantly, a shareholder in the company for which he acted and in the theatres they used. Ben Jonson achieved success as a purveyor of Court masques, and was talented at playing the patronage game that was an important part of the social and economic life of the era. Those who were purely playwrights fared far less well: the biographies of early figures like George Peele and Robert Greene, and later ones like Brome and Philip Massinger, are marked by financial uncertainty, struggle, and poverty.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Playwrights dealt with the natural limitation on their productivity by combining into teams of two, three, four, and even five to generate play texts. The majority of plays written in this era were collaborations, and the solo artists who generally eschewed collaborative efforts, like Jonson and Shakespeare, were the exceptions to the rule. Dividing the work, of course, meant dividing the income; but the arrangement seems to have functioned well enough to have made it worthwhile. Of the 70-plus known works in the canon of Thomas Dekker, roughly 50 are collaborations. In a single year (1598) Dekker worked on 16 collaborations for impresario Philip Henslowe, and earned £30, or a little under 12 shillings per week—roughly twice as much as the average artisan's income of 1"s". per day. At the end of his career, Thomas Heywood would famously claim to have had "an entire hand, or at least a main finger" in the authorship of some 220 plays. A solo artist usually needed months to write a play (though Jonson is said to have done "Volpone" in five weeks); Henslowe's Diary indicates that a team of four or five writers could produce a play in as little as two weeks. Admittedly, though, the Diary also shows that teams of Henslowe's house dramatists—Anthony Munday, Robert Wilson, Richard Hathwaye, Henry Chettle, and the others, even including a young John Webster—could start a project, and accept advances on it, yet fail to produce anything stageworthy.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Genres of the period included the history play, which depicted English or European history. Shakespeare's plays about the lives of kings, such as "Richard III" and "Henry V", belong to this category, as do Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II" and George Peele's "Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First". History plays also dealt with more recent events, like "A Larum for London" which dramatizes the sack of Antwerp in 1576. A better known play, Peele's "The Battle of Alcazar" (c. 1591), depicts the battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Tragedy was a very popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally successful, such as "Dr. Faustus" and "The Jew of Malta". The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas, such as Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy". The four tragedies considered to be Shakespeare's greatest ("Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", and "Macbeth") were composed during this period.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Comedies were common, too. A subgenre developed in this period was the city comedy, which deals satirically with life in London after the fashion of Roman New Comedy. Examples are Thomas Dekker's "The Shoemaker's Holiday" and Thomas Middleton's "A Chaste Maid in Cheapside".


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Though marginalised, the older genres like pastoral ("The Faithful Shepherdess", 1608), and even the morality play ("Four Plays in One", ca. 1608–13) could exert influences. After about 1610, the new hybrid subgenre of the tragicomedy enjoyed an efflorescence, as did the masque throughout the reigns of the first two Stuart kings, James I and Charles I.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Plays on biblical themes were common, Peele's "David and Bethsabe" being one of the few surviving examples.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Only a minority of the plays of English Renaissance theatre were ever printed. Of Heywood's 220 plays, only about 20 were published in book form. A little over 600 plays were published in the period as a whole, most commonly in individual quarto editions. (Larger collected editions, like those of Shakespeare's, Ben Jonson's, and Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, were a late and limited development.) Through much of the modern era, it was thought that play texts were popular items among Renaissance readers that provided healthy profits for the stationers who printed and sold them. By the turn of the 21st century, the climate of scholarly opinion shifted somewhat on this belief: some contemporary researchers argue that publishing plays was a risky and marginal business—though this conclusion has been disputed by others. Some of the most successful publishers of the English Renaissance, like William Ponsonby or Edward Blount, rarely published plays.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The rising Puritan movement was hostile toward theatre, as they felt that "entertainment" was sinful. Politically, playwrights and actors were clients of the monarchy and aristocracy, and most supported the Royalist cause. The Puritan faction, long powerful in London, gained control of the city early in the First English Civil War, and on 2 September 1642, the Long Parliament, pushed by the Parliamentarian party, under Puritan influence, banned the staging of plays in the London theatres though it did not, contrary to what is commonly stated, order the closure, let alone the destruction, of the theatres themselves:


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The Act purports the ban to be temporary ("...while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease and be forborn") but does not assign a time limit to it.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: Even after 1642, during the English Civil War and the ensuing Interregnum (English Commonwealth), some English Renaissance theatre continued. For example, short comical plays called Drolls were allowed by the authorities, while full-length plays were banned. The theatre buildings were not closed but rather were used for purposes other than staging plays.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: The performance of plays remained banned for most of the next eighteen years, becoming allowed again after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The theatres began performing many of the plays of the previous era, though often in adapted forms. New genres of Restoration comedy and spectacle soon evolved, giving English theatre of the later seventeenth century its distinctive character.


title: English Renaissance theatre

text: All references to Shakespeare's plays, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Folger Shakespeare Library's "Folger Digital Editions" texts edited by Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Under their referencing system, 3.1.55 means act 3, scene 1, line 55. Prologues, epilogues, scene directions, and other parts of the play that are not a part of character speech in a scene, are referenced using Folger Through Line Number: a separate line numbering scheme that includes every line of text in the play.


title: Veszprém KC

text: Veszprém KC is a Hungarian handball club from Veszprém, that for sponsorship reasons is called Telekom Veszprém. Veszprém plays in the Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnokság I and are the most successful team in the country, having won the Hungarian Championship a record 26 times and the Hungarian Cup title a record 29 times. Veszprém has also won the regional SEHA League 4 times.


title: Veszprém KC

text: Veszprém are one of the three Hungarian clubs that have won a major European trophy, most recently in 2008, when they overcame Rhein-Neckar Löwen and were crowned as the EHF Cup Winner's Cup champions. They are yet to win the EHF Champions League, having been defeated in the final on four occasions.


title: Veszprém KC

text: The main sponsors of the club were the MKB Bank and the MVM Group. In the summer of 2015, the MKB Bank decided to quit sponsoring after a 10 years interval. Their main focus is now on the younger teams. Currently the main sponsor is Magyar Telekom.


title: Veszprém KC

text: In Veszprém there was a long tradition of handball, and in 1970 the Bakony Chemist TC women's team won the first championship among the rural ensembles. The sports club was founded in 1977 under the wing of the Veszprém County State Construction Company (VÁÉV) under the name Of Veszprém Builders, after a political decision was taken in the city, which urged the men's division of BVTC, which had been relegated from NB II, to be taken over by the VÁÉV.


title: Veszprém KC

text: In 1981, under the executive direction of Csaba Hajnal, the new team was promoted to the first division, where it finished each season with a medal; In the first season, he won a silver medal. Over the next three years, they won one silver and two bronze medals in the championship, two silver medals and one gold medal. In 1985 and 1986, the team won the championship.


title: Veszprém KC

text: Over the next four years, the team won only four silver medals (three times at the Rába ETO, 1990–1992 Bramac, Fotex until 2005, MKB until 2015, MVM until 2017, Telekom-backed team since 2017: since 1992, 23 seasons, 20 championship gold and 3 silver medals have been awarded to Veszprém. (Meanwhile, between May 2008 and October 2011, they did not lose a single league game.)


title: Veszprém KC

text: After the success in 1984, 3 Győr victories came, and from 1988 onwards, 19 cup victories in 24 years were added to the list of glory, the brightest result being four KEK finals (2 wins and 2 silver medals) and four EHF Champions League 2nd place.


title: Veszprém KC

text: Since July 2008, Veszprém Aréna has been the home ground for Telekom Veszprém, previously playing their matches in the 15th street hall.


title: Veszprém KC

text: In April 2020, fans voted for the All Star team in club history, which includes Árpád Sterbik, Gergő Iváncsik, Carlos Pérez, József Éles, László Nagy, Mirza Džomba and Andreas Nilsson.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Golconda diamonds are diamonds mined in the geographic area known as the Godavari delta in the present-day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Golconda Fort, located in the western part of modern Hyderabad, was a seat of the Golconda Sultanate and became an important center for diamond enhancement, lapidary and trading. Golconda diamonds have distinctive characteristics: they are graded as Type IIa, formed of pure carbon, are devoid of nitrogen, and are large in size with high clarity. They are often described as diamonds of the first water, making them among history's most celebrated diamonds. The word "Golconda diamond" became symbolic of diamonds of incomparable quality.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: For 2000 years Golconda diamonds were the only known fine diamonds in the world. Due to centuries of excessive mining, the Golconda diamond production has been exhausted since 1830 AD, therefore gemologists and traders have classified Golconda diamonds as antique, rare, and precious. Some of the world's most famous Golconda diamonds are: the colourless Koh-i-Noor, the Nassak Diamond, the blue Hope Diamond, the Idol's Eye, the pink Daria-i-Noor, the white Regent, the Dresden Green, and the colourless Orlov, as well as now-untraceable diamonds such as the Florentine Yellow, the Akbar Shah, the Nizam and the Great Mogul.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: The 16th-18th centuries were the peak period of the Golconda diamond industry, with 23 mines in the region (of which Kollur Mine was the most active) and 30,000 people working at a time in one mine, The output from all the mines in Golconda was estimated to be around . After decades of disuse, the term "Golconda diamond" was repopularised in the 1950s—(during the De Beers advertising campaigns generally for diamonds) when Marilyn Monroe posed sporting the Moon of Baroda in a promotional event. In 2015, Osmania University and Geological Survey of India in a combined collaboration discovered new potential sites for diamond mining in the region, though mining has not started.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Several literary legends were inspired by the Golconda diamonds. These include such examples as Sindbad the Sailor's valley of the diamonds, the gem lore of Marco Polo and the theme of Russell Conwell's inspirational lecture "Acres of Diamonds". According to folklore some Golconda diamonds are alleged to be cursed, impart good luck to their owners, or possess mystical powers while some diamonds were worn as talismans. In 2013, the Princie Diamond—(from the Jewels of the Nizams), was auctioned for 39.3 million—the highest recorded auction price for Golconda Diamonds and the world record for 1.1 million per carat. In 2019, Dresden White Diamond was stolen along with the jewels worth 1.2 billion in the Green Vault heist.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Medieval records from Europe and the Middle East show India's importance as the famed source of high-quality diamonds. According to Jack Ogden, a scholar known for his publications on diamonds and the history of jewels, these records include those of Pliny, Marco Polo, Muhammed al-Idrisi and others from before the 12th century. The records state that India produced diamonds with "which the gems were engraved". In addition to these sources, ancient texts of Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains, such as the "Arthashastra" (2nd century BCE – 4th century CE), the "Ratna Pariksha", and the "Puranas", refer to cities and regions of India that produced diamonds. The Roman historian Pliny-the Elder (23-79 CE) describes in his encyclopedia the demand and fondness of Roman Imperial ladies for the diamonds of South India. The tales of Sinbad's voyages written in the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809 CE), describes the Valley of the Diamonds featured in the legendary book One Thousand and One Nights ("Arabian Nights" or "Alf Laila Wa Laila" or "Alif Laila"). These regional descriptions have the same features of Deccan in general and the Golconda region in particular. However, these names are difficult to link to modern geographic names.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Until the 17th century, the mines in this region were the only source of diamonds on earth. According to the records of 18th and 19th centuries geologists, researchers, and traders, the following regions are the possible historic sources of diamond in India: a region south of the Kurnool district, which is the area near Krishna river valley in and around the districts of NTR, Palnadu, and Guntur; the area near Godavari delta in Rampachodavaram and Bhadrachalam of erstwhile Rajahmahendravaram district; northeastern Madhya Pradesh; eastern Chhattisgarh; western Jharkhand; northwestern Odisha (Kosala). The most famous region among these was historically known as "Telingana" or "Tilling", renamed Golconda during the Deccan sultanates period and generally known as the Godavari delta. As European travelers and traders increasingly engaged in trading with producers of this region, the famed diamonds of this region came to be referred to as the "Golconda diamonds".


title: Golconda diamonds

text: The peak period of the Golconda diamond mining was the 16th to 18th century CE under the Golconda Sultanate and the Nizams of Hyderabad. The mines were leased under the supervision of regional governors—of whom Mir Jumla of 17th century was a prominent diamond trader who grew into the position of "Grand vizier" (Prime Minister) of Golconda Sultanate. He established a network of diamond merchants in Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia up to China and the Malay Archipelago. Shantidas Jhaveri was also a contemporary diamond trader of the 17th century.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: The mining of the Golconda diamonds occurred in alluvial soil settings, alongside river beds. The depth of the mines was usually up to four fathoms (7.3 meters). When mining reached ground water, digging was halted. Stony substances were then collected for assortment and examination to obtain diamonds. The raw diamonds from the regional mines were typically then transported to the Golconda (now the western part of Hyderabad) for skilled lapidary, enhancement and further evaluation and sale. The art of macle, which is a form of rough diamond used to produce jewellery, was first developed in the Golconda region. Of the 38 diamond mines in India at the time, 23 were located in the Golconda Sultanate, of which the Kollur Mine was prominent where 60,000 workers were employed at once, making Golconda the "Diamond Capital" of the past. Most of these mines were fully active until 1830 CE but were gradually abandoned as they became either submerged by the backwaters or depleted due to excessive mining. Thus mining gradually declined and finally officially closed. In the year 2015, research was conducted by the Centre of Exploration Geophysics (Osmania University) and by the Geological Survey of India. The research identified three zones that contain 21 new potential diamond mining sites near the delta of the Krishna and Bhima rivers, specifically in the riverbeds of the Krishna, Tungabhadra and Penna. According to the research, the sites contain volcanic pipes which probably bear Kimberlite and possibly diamonds.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Through the centuries, Golconda region was a major trading center and the source of the world's most famous diamonds. Until the end of the 19th century, it was the primary source of the finest and largest diamonds in the world, making the legendary name "Golconda diamond" synonymous to the diamonds of good quality. Estimates are that the Golconda region had traded around 10 million carats of diamonds. A unit of measurement for Golconda diamonds was "Ratti" (being 7⁄8 of a carat), and the most common mode of currency was Golconda "Pagoda" (also called "Hun")— equivalent to 5 1⁄2 "Mughal Rupee" and 8 "French livre", though the contemporary gold coins (though with slight variation in weight) such as "Hun", "Rial" and "Dinar" were also in practise.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Golconda had been trading diamonds with various European kingdoms at least since the days of Marco Polo (1254–1324). During the 1420s, Niccolò de' Conti, a prominent Italian traveler and the merchant who resided in India, had a detailed account of diamond valleys in the Golconda region. In the 15th century Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India and 16th century Golconda Sultanate's new port at Machilipatnam had increased the production and trade of Golconda diamond. The emergence of demand for Golconda diamonds led to the new exploration and discoveries of more fertile mines in the region, that produce brilliant diamonds.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: In the 1600s under the Golconda Sultanate, when new mines were discovered and leased to the miners, an agreement (called "Qaul") would be signed under the supervision of regional governors—according to which, for employing 100 workers the miners will pay 4 "Pagodas" per day, monthly rent is charged based on the strength of the workers on the mining site. Provisions were supplied only by the governor with 50 percent extra excise duty and large diamonds from the site were exclusively reserved for the rulers and to be sold with concessions. Bania and Khatri—(merchant and trading communities in India) use to hold the majority of mines, and in the early 1600s some Dutch miners of Dutch East India Company were granted mining rights. The 17th-century French explorer Jean-Baptiste Tavernier reported that he was "permitted to examine" the egg-shaped Great Moghul diamond, now lost and claimed to have been cut into smaller diamonds. He reported having seen a flat diamond called the Great Table diamond in Golconda. Jean de Thévenot and François Bernier were also French traders in "Golconda diamonds".


title: Golconda diamonds

text: In 1621-22 AD when the Golconda rulers learned about the demand for Golconda diamonds in Europe, they seized all the mines and temporarily halt the mining process to increase the price, due to which the price rises up to double. In 1627, seeing the high prices the Dutch traders stop purchasing, and by utilizing this opportunity the British (East India Company) brought investment and purchased the diamonds, their monopoly continued along with indigenous traders (such as Mir Jumla II, Virji Vora, Kasi Veranna, etc...) until the mines were depleted in the 1830s. In the early 1900s private companies such as Cartier, De Beers and Van Cleef & Arpels created monopolies in their expertise in the jewellery trade-(particularly diamond), post World War II and post-Indian Independence, most of the cash-strapped governments and princely rulers came to an end—making them sell their jewels (that also consist of Golconda diamonds) which were later auctioned, and due to royal lineage, its mystical tales and advertising campaigns by these companies, the Golconda diamonds become the status reference globally making it exorbitant worth treasuring.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Historically diamonds of high standard—(mined from the Golconda region.) were reserved for the Emperors and rulers, sometimes diamonds are considered to have supernatural powers and were worn as amulet, talisman,—(Shah Jahan Diamond currently part of Al Saba Collection, use to be an amulet of Mughal emperors), and treasured as gemstones,—believed to be a gift from God for mankind, and owning them was a sign of supremacy. Golconda diamonds were popularized in the Middle East and the Western world by some of the medieval and modern period travelers and traders such as Niccolò de' Conti, Muhammad al-Idrisi, Marco Polo, and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. Diamonds from India—(of which most are Golconda diamonds) are decorated in the crowns and sceptres of European rulers, it was considered a point of pride by any ruler to be the owner of one of the Golconda diamonds. The emergence of industrialisation in the 19th Century brought growth to the world economy and the introduction of sophisticated cutting and polishing techniques led to a higher demand for diamonds around the globe. The popularity of Golconda diamonds has risen since the 1950s because of successful advertising campaigns by traders. They have been special in history and continue to be the modern era connoisseurs' choice.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: The Golconda diamonds are the world's most magnificent diamonds. They are formed of pure carbon, stand high on grading standards and are devoid of nitrogen, giving them the rare Type IIa designation—(Type IIa count less than two percent of the world’s natural diamonds.). They are large in size and occur naturally in many different colors while most of those are known for their colourless clarity, material and some are popular for their colours, for which they are characterised as Diamonds of First water.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Although the Golconda diamonds are known for their size and clarity, the diamond mines of the Golconda region are now depleted and inactive. Later discovery of diamond deposits in regions such as Brazil post-1730 CE, Australia post-1851 CE and in Africa post-1866 CE have provided significant supplies of diamonds, even though their clarity generally do not match the Golconda diamonds. For these reasons, the Golconda diamonds remain among the world's most celebrated diamonds.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Some of the notable Golconda diamonds are: The Daria-i-Noor—(Iranian Crown Jewels collection of the Central Bank of Iran in Tehran), the Nizam Diamond—(missing from Hyderabad after a police action in 1948,), the Great Mogul Diamond—(also Orlov diamond part of the Diamond Fund collection of Moscow's Kremlin Armoury), the Koh-i-Noor—(now part of the Crown Jewels in the Jewel House at the Tower of London), the Hope Diamond—housed in the National Gem and Mineral collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.,), the Regent Diamond—(passed through the Charles X and the Napoleon Bonaparte to the French government and now part of French Crown Jewels on display in the Louvre, Paris), the Idols Eye Diamond—(it was theft by the servant of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II while he was in exile to Paris), it was sold in Paris to an unknown Spanish aristocrat, The Florentine Yellow–(it was owned by Grand Duke Ferdinand I, later became part of Austrian Crown Jewels and now untracable), and the Akbar Shah–(names of three Mughal emperors; Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan was engraved on it, later the diamond was decorated on the Peacock Throne—after Persian ruler Nader Shah lost it, the diamond appeared in Turkey for a sale and it was purchased by a British company—who later reshaped it and sold it to the Indian Prince of Baroda, Malhar Rao Gaekwad. The current possession of diamond is unknown). The top four pink diamonds of the world are from Golconda.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Cardinal Mazarin was an influential Chief minister of France during the reign of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, a connoisseur of Jewels, he sponsored Jean Baptiste Tavernier's journey to India to collect diamonds—among his collection belongs a 19.07 carat light pink which he always kept close to him, Mazarin in his will, asserted to decorate the diamond in the French crown—following the will, all the French rulers from Louis XIV to Napoleon III wear it—and finally after the defeat in Franco-Prussian War (1870) the diamond was sold along with other French Crown Jewels to settle the losses. Frederic Boucheron a jewellery house owner purchased it and sold it to Cartier Jeweller.


title: Golconda diamonds

text: Being the world's most famous, large, and high in value with interesting histories, the Golconda diamonds attract envy and fascination, for which many controversies, heists, larceny, and scandals are circumlocutory to Golconda diamonds. The infamous affair of the Diamond Necklace (1784–86) was about a 2800-carat necklace containing 647 gems— the incident brought ignominy to Queen Marie Antoinette and later it instigated the revolutionaries during French Revolution. In 1792 the French Crown Jewels were stolen from the "Garde Meuble" (Royal Treasury), though not all, most of the jewels were tracked, the Sancy and the Regent Diamonds were sold by the brigands, and the Royal French Blue Diamond—according to the connoisseurs of jewels, it has been cut and renamed as the Hope Diamond, and the Mazarin Diamond—the thief returned it in exchange of pardon and the diamond was restored in the French crown. In 1811, Napoleon Bonaparte gifted Marie Louise his wife a Napoleon Diamond Necklace, it became a sensation during the Great Depression (1929) when Archduke Leopold of Austria was imprisoned for larceny charges connected with the necklace sale. In 1980, a heist was executed at Sydney Town Hall to steal the 95-carat yellow Golconda d'or diamond from an exhibition display. During 2019, the Al Thani Collection of Qatar has to face a trial after purchasing the Princie Diamond in an auction, without its heir's consent. However, the matter was settled out of court. and in the same year Jewels worth 1.2 billion were theft in a heist from the Green Vault in Dresden Castle, Germany, along with an array of other treasures the 49-carat rose cut Dresden White Diamond was also stolen. The diamond belonged to 18th-Century ruler Frederick Augustus I of Kingdom of Saxony.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The "Entwicklung" series (from German "Entwicklung", "development"), more commonly known as the E-Series, was a late-World War II attempt by Nazi Germany to produce a standardised series of tank designs. There were to be standard designs in five different weight classes (E-10, E-25, E-50, E-75 and E-100) from which several specialised variants were to be developed. This intended to reverse the favor of extremely complex tank designs that had resulted in poor production rates and mechanical unreliability.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The E-series designs were simpler, cheaper to produce and more efficient than their predecessors; however, their design offered only modest improvements in armour and firepower over the designs they were intended to replace, such as the Jagdpanzer 38(t), Panther Ausf. G or Tiger II; and would have represented the final standardization of German armoured vehicle design. Indeed, nearly all of the E-series vehicles — up through and including the E-75 — were intended to use what were essentially the Tiger II's eighty centimeter diameter, steel-rimmed road wheels for their suspension, meant to overlap each other (as on the later production Tiger E and Panther designs that also used them), abandoning the interleaved "Schachtellaufwerk" roadwheel system that first appeared on German military half-tracks in the early 1930s.


title: Entwicklung series

text: Said to have been designed by the Klockner-Humboldt-Deutz Magirus AG firm in Ulm, the E-10 project (development name - "Hetzer") was developed as a replacement for the Jagdpanzer 38(t). The name "Hetzer" was never officially used for the 38(t).


title: Entwicklung series

text: The designs based on this new chassis would all be in the 10 to 25 tonnes weight class, and using only four Tiger II-style but larger all-steel road wheels per side in an overlapping layout for its main "slack-track" suspension with no return rollers and a rear drive sprocket. Much simplified was the suspension, which was intended to be based on the concept of using conical-spring Belleville washers for the E-series AFVs as a whole. These were simply bolted on to the chassis and could be easily removed for repair or replacement. This suspension system was later used on the Swiss Panzer 61. A most interesting aspect was the ability to lower the hull by placing the pivot points of the suspension units higher in respect to the hull bottom; by not having torsion-bars occupying the entire hull planform in the lowermost interior areas of the hull, but via cranks driven by hydraulic actuators on the sides of the hull. This reduced the height of the vehicles from 176 cm to 140 cm.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The intention was to create several new light tank destroyers as a replacement for the Jagdpanzer 38(t), as well as a new family of gun platforms ("Waffenträger") armed with heavy anti-tank guns. However, from September 1944 the design was abandoned in favour of a redesigned and enlarged Jagdpanzer 38(t), using German parts as opposed to the Czech parts for the Jagdpanzer 38(t). This new design was called Jagdpanzer 38D, and was to use a Tatra 12-cylinder air-cooled diesel engine similar to the one fitted to the Sd.Kfz. 234 'Puma'. None of these vehicles reached series production.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The E-25 designs, in the 25-50 tonnes weight class, were to be the replacements of all Panzer III and Panzer IV based designs, with involvement of the Alkett, Argus, Adler and Porsche firms. This family would include medium reconnaissance vehicles, medium "Jagdpanzer" vehicles and heavy "Waffenträger" vehicles. All would use five Tiger II style road wheels but larger per side in a similar overlapping layout to the lighter E-10 suspension, as well as "slack-track" design and a rear drive sprocket.


title: Entwicklung series

text: As main armament, a 75 mm Pak 42 L/70 was planned, with a possible MG in a small turret. Overall, this vehicle would have been similar to the Hetzer tank destroyer. The tank would have been very maneuverable, and due to its low profile, hard to spot on the battlefield.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The E-50 "Standardpanzer" was intended as a standard medium tank, replacing the Panther and Tiger I and the conversions based on these tanks. The E-50 hull was to be longer than the Panther – in fact it was practically identical to the Königstiger (Tiger II) in overall dimensions except for the upper and lower glacis plate layout. Compared to these earlier designs however, the amount of drilling and machining involved in producing these "Standardpanzer" was reduced drastically, which would have made them quicker, easier and cheaper to produce, as would the proposed conical spring system, replacing their predecessors' torsion bar system which required a special steel alloy.


title: Entwicklung series

text: A new turret was to be designed for the E-50 and E-75, but drawings were never made and the turret was never even conceptualised. Armament is also not confirmed in any sources.


title: Entwicklung series

text: As indicated by its name, the weight of the E-50 would fall between 50 and 75 tonnes. The engine was an improved Maybach HL234 which had 900 hp. Maximum speed was supposed to be 60 km/h.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The E-75 Standardpanzer was intended to be the standard heavy tank to be used as a replacement of the Tiger II and Jagdtiger. The E-75 would have been built on the same production lines as the E-50 for ease of manufacture, and the two vehicles were to share many components, including the same Maybach HL 234 engine.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The E-75 would have had much thicker armour however, and in fact compared to the Tiger II the E-75 had improved hull armour all round. As its name indicates, the resulting vehicle would have weighed in at over 75 tonnes, reducing its speed to around 40 km/h. To offset the increased weight, the bogies were spaced differently than on the E-50, with an extra pair added on each side, giving the E-75 a slightly improved track to ground contact length. According to some sources, the similarities between the E-50 and the E-75 went further; they were to be equipped with the same turret and 88 mm L/71 or L/100 gun, along with an optical rangefinder for increased long range accuracy (German scientists and engineers had successfully designed a 'schmal' or narrow turret and infra-red lighting and sights for use on the prototype [Panther F], as the war drew to a close).


title: Entwicklung series

text: Other sources however, indicate that the E-75 was to be fitted with the much larger Tiger II turret, which could be adapted to accommodate an even more powerful high velocity 10.5 cm gun.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The earliest ancestor of the E-100 was the Tiger-Maus. It was supposed to be a simplified Maus. The Tiger-Maus was never built, but it was to use components from the Tiger I Ausf. H and a slightly modified turret from the Maus.


title: Entwicklung series

text: The E-100 was to be a superheavy combat tank designed to be the replacement for the prototype-only, Porsche-designed "Maus". Development and building of a prototype E-100 started in 1944 but was largely abandoned after Adolf Hitler ordered an end to the development of the "Maus".


title: Entwicklung series

text: Only the chassis was finished. It was taken to the United Kingdom for evaluation purposes and eventually scrapped.


title: Entwicklung series

text: During early development the Maus turret was used on the E-100, but later a modified Maus II turret was proposed to have been used. It would have housed 128 mm KwK 44 L/55 (75 rounds) and a 7.5 cm KwK 37 L/24.


title: Entwicklung series

text: According to Panzer Tracts 6-3, there was a proposal for the 15 cm KwK 44 L/38 to be mounted on the E-100 as well. The US military magazine "Armor" reported in its


title: Entwicklung series

text: January–February 1959 edition that a 150 mm cannon was considered for the E-100 during the Second World War. This was also reported by Anthony Tucker-Jones. According to Kenneth Estes, a 150 mm or even 170 mm gun was proposed for the E-100 but Estes reports that Dr Karl Jenschke, the Adler works technical director and chief constructor, considered this only possible on an assault gun variant of such a vehicle, because the turret space could not support such weapons.


title: Entwicklung series

text: After the war, the French designed and built the AMX-50 series of armoured fighting vehicles, which used a 1000 hp Maybach engine with rear drive, as had been intended for the E-50 and E-75, whilst the idea of external Belleville washer suspension - which was also developed with the Entwicklung series in mind - resurfaced on the Swiss Panzer 61.


title: Auto Focus

text: Auto Focus is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Paul Schrader and starring Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on Robert Graysmith's book "The Murder of Bob Crane" (1993).


title: Auto Focus

text: "Auto Focus" tells a dramatized story of the actor Bob Crane, an affable radio show host and amateur drummer who found success on "Hogan's Heroes", a popular television sitcom, and his dramatic descent into the underbelly of Hollywood after the series was cancelled and he formed a friendship with John Henry Carpenter.


title: Auto Focus

text: Carpenter was later tried, and acquitted in 1994 of Crane's murder. Although the crime remains officially unsolved, Carpenter has remained the main subject of suspicion even after his death in 1998.


title: Auto Focus

text: Disc-jockey-turned-actor Bob Crane develops a secret personal life, focusing on his relationship with John Henry Carpenter, an electronics expert involved with the nascent home video market. Encouraged by Carpenter and enabled by his expertise, Crane—a church-going, clean-cut family man—becomes a sex addict obsessed with women and with recording his encounters using video and photographic equipment, usually with Carpenter participating.


title: Auto Focus

text: As the years pass, the relationship between Crane and Carpenter unravels in a dangerous way. Crane is divorced by his wife Anne before marrying Patricia Olson, a former co-star from his hit television series "Hogan's Heroes". After the show goes off the air, Crane struggles to find work while dealing with money troubles. By the time Walt Disney Productions hires him for the leading role in a family movie, "Superdad", his reputation for being obsessed with sex and pornography starts to jeopardize his image.


title: Auto Focus

text: Confined to doing dinner theater in mid-sized cities, Crane's attempts to distance himself from Carpenter fail as their sexual escapades continue. Carpenter soon becomes "my only friend", but after a final falling-out between them in Scottsdale, Arizona, someone bludgeons Crane to death inside a motel room. Carpenter is tried for the murder, but many years later, he is acquitted in 1994. To this day, Crane's murder remains unsolved.


title: Auto Focus

text: The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was shown at the San Sebastián Film Festival, the Helsinki International Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, the New Orleans Film Festival, and the Bergen International Film Festival before going into limited release on eleven screens in the US, earning $123,761 on its opening weekend. It grossed $2,063,196 in the US and $641,755 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $2,704,951.


title: Auto Focus

text: The DVD release includes a 50-minute documentary, "Murder in Scottsdale," which delves into the initial murder investigation and the reopening of the case some 15 years later. The DVD also features several audio commentary tracks.


title: Auto Focus

text: The film met with a largely positive reception from critics. A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" said the film "gets to you like a low-grade fever, a malaise with no known antidote. When it was over, I wasn't sure if I needed a drink, a shower or a lifelong vow of chastity ... there is [a] severe, powerful moralism lurking beneath the film's dispassionate matter-of-factness. Mr. Schrader is indifferent to the sinner, but he cannot contain his loathing of the sin, which is not so much sex as the fascination with images ... To argue that images can corrupt the flesh and hollow out the soul is, for a filmmaker, an obviously contradictory exercise, but not necessarily a hypocritical one. There is plenty of nudity in "Auto Focus," but you can always glimpse the abyss behind the undulating bodies, and the director leads you from easy titillation to suffocating dread, pausing only briefly and cautiously to consider the possibility of pleasure."


title: Auto Focus

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four stars, calling it "a hypnotic portrait ... pitch-perfect in its decor, music, clothes, cars, language and values ... Greg Kinnear gives a creepy, brilliant performance as a man lacking in all insight ... Crane was not a complex man, but that should not blind us to the subtlety and complexity of Kinnear's performance."


title: Auto Focus

text: Edward Guthmann of the "San Francisco Chronicle" called it "a compelling, sympathetic portrait ... Kinnear undercuts the seaminess of the Crane story, and shows us a man with more dimension and complexity than his behavior might suggest."


title: Auto Focus

text: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" awarded it 3½ out of 4 stars and added, "Schrader, the writer of "Taxi Driver" and the director of "American Gigolo", is a poet of male sexual pathology. Shot through with profane laughs and stinging drama, "Auto Focus" ranks with his best films."


title: Auto Focus

text: Todd McCarthy of "Variety" called it "one of director Paul Schrader's best films, and like "Boogie Nights" ranks as a shrewd exposé of recent Hollywood's slimy underside ... Schrader directs with a very smooth hand, providing a good-natured and frequently amusing spin to eventually grim material that aptly reflects the protagonist's almost unfailing good humor ... Pic overall has an excellent period in Los Angeles feel without getting elaborate about it, and musical contributions by Angelo Badalamenti and a host of pop tunes are tops."


title: Auto Focus

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 163 reviews, and an average rating of 6.64/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Kinnear and Dafoe help make this downward spiral of one man's life a compelling watch." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Auto Focus

text: One of Bob Crane's sons, Scotty, bitterly attacked the film as being inaccurate. In an October 2002 article, Scotty said that his father was not a regular church-goer and had only been to church three times in the last dozen years of his life, including his own funeral. There is no evidence that Crane engaged in S&M, and director Paul Schrader told Scotty that the S&M scene was based on Schrader's own personal experience. Scotty claims that his father and John Carpenter did not become close friends who socialized together until 1975, and that Crane was already a sex addict and had recorded his sexual encounters since 1956, long before he became famous.


title: Auto Focus

text: Scotty and his mother had written their own script for a film biography on Crane. The spec script, alternately titled "F-Stop" and "Take Off Your Clothes and Smile", was written up in "Variety" by columnist Army Archerd, but after "Auto-Focus" was announced, interest in Scotty's script ceased.


title: Auto Focus

text: Paul Schrader was nominated for the Golden Seashell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Willem Dafoe was nominated for Best Supporting Actor by the Chicago Film Critics Association but lost to Tim Robbins for "Mystic River".


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( "Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa", "Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā"; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was the third President of Sri Lanka from 2 January 1989 to 1 May 1993. Before that, he served as the prime minister in the government headed by J. R. Jayewardene from 6 February 1978 to 1 January 1989. He was awarded Sri Lanka's highest award to a civilian Sri Lankabhimanya in 1986 by President Junius Richard Jayewardene, the first to receive in Sri Lankan history.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Ranasinghe Premadasa was born on 23 June 1924 at Dias Place, Colombo 11, to the family of Richard Ranasinghe (Ranasinghe Mudalali) of Kosgoda and Battuwita Jayasinghe Arachchige Ensina Hamine of Batuwita, Horana. Premadasa was the oldest of five children, three sisters, and one brother. His father was engaged in the transport business in Colombo employing rickshaws.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: He received his early education at the Purwarama temple under Ven. Welitara Sri Pannananda and secondary education at Lorenz College, Skinner's Road, South Maradana and at Saint Joseph's College, Colombo under Rector Fr. Le Goc.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: At age fifteen, Premadasa started the Sucharita Children's Society, which later became the Sucharitha Movement, a volunteers organisation with the objectives of uplifting the economic, social and spiritual development of the low income people living in shanty areas of the capital. He was the full-time organizer of the community development project of the area in 1939. These youth who enrolled in his development movement refrained from taking liquor and avoided smoking and gambling. Premadasa too was a teetotaler.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Allying with A. E. Goonesinghe, the founder leader of the Ceylon Labour movement, Premadasa started his political career in 1946 joining the Ceylon Labour Party as a full time member and campaigned for Goonesinghe in the 1947 general election. In 1950, he was elected to the Colombo Municipal Council as a member of San Sebastian's Ward.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Having realized limited future prospects in the Labour Party in the mid 1950s, he supported Sir John Kotelawala's move to remove LSSP Mayor of Colombo, Dr N. M. Perera. In 1955, he succeeded T. Rudra as Deputy Mayor and joined the United National Party in 1956 following the successful removal of Dr N. M. Perera as Mayor of Colombo in February 1956.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: From the United National Party, Premadasa contested the 1956 general election from the Ruwanwella electorate and lost to Dr N. M. Perera. Following his defeat, he joined J. R. Jayewardene working for the party reorganization under Dudley Senanayake and served as the secretary of the Religious Affairs Committee of the Buddhist Council appointed by the government to organize the 2500th Buddha Jayanthi celebrations. The following year he joined the protest march to Kandy on 3 October, which had been organized by J. R. Jayewardene. This march was disrupted at Imbulgoda by thugs led by S. D. Bandaranayake. He was elected the third Member of Parliament from Colombo Central in the March 1960 general election. The short lived Dudley Senanayake government fell in three months and in the July 1960 general election that followed he polled fourth in the three member constituency of Colombo Central. In 1961, he re-entered the Colombo Municipal Council having been elected from the Cinnamon Gardens Ward and served till 1965. During this time he worked to open pre-schools for poor families and initiated vocational training centers in sewing and tailoring for the youth.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: He successfully contested the Colombo Central electorate in the 1965 general election and was elected to parliament, he was appointed Chief Government Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Local Government, M. Tiruchelvam. When Tiruchelvam resigned in 1968, after the Federal Party left Dudley Senanayake's government, Premadasa was promoted as Minister of Local Government and became a member of Senanayake's cabinet. During his tenure he instituted a bridges programme using pre-stressed concrete components, created the Maligawatta Housing Scheme and became known in the local governments in the island. Premadasa turned Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia, into a public corporation – the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation on 5 January 1967.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: In the following 1970 general election, he was elected first Member of Parliament for Colombo Central and sat in the opposition with J.R. Jayewardene, the Leader of the Opposition. Premadasa was appointed Chief Opposition Whip. Further, he was elected chairman of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Inter- Parliamentary Association held in Australia. In the meantime, he was member of the Constituent Assembly which drafted the constitution of 1972. Premadasa called for reforms of the party, which Senanayake refused resulting in Premadasa resigning from the party working committee. He went on to form the "Samastha Lanka Puravesi Peramuna", known generally as the "Puravesi Peramuna" or "Citizens Front". Building up the Citizens Front, he was in open conflict with Senanayake who had recently healed a rift with Jayawardane. Amidst this conflict Dudley Senanayake died on 13 April 1973 following a heart attack and Senanayake loyalist found fault with Premadasa. Jayawardane who became party leader came to terms with Premadasa, who stopped the Citizens Front and return to fully support the United National Party driving up its membership at grassroot levels and becoming its deputy leader.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Premadasa was re-elected as the first member of parliament for Colombo Central in the general election in 1977 and was appointed the Leader of the House and the Minister of Local Government, Housing and Construction.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: In the following year, when J. R. Jayewardene became the first Executive President of the country, he appointed Premadasa as the Prime Minister on 23 February 1978. Premadasa began to define the new role of the Prime Minister under an executive president. He took residence at Temple Trees, retained the use of the Prime Minister's Lodge and established a new prime minister's office at Sirimathipaya. He began representing Sri Lanka internationally, having led the Sri Lankan delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1979, where he secured British funding for the construction of the Victoria Dam. He headed the Sri Lankan delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1980 where he addressed the general assembly.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Continuing to hold the portfolios of Local Government, Housing and Construction; he initiated his political program, shelter for the poor, after the United Nations declared a Year of Shelter. His proposal to declare 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless was unanimously accepted at the 37th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Other policies included "Jana Saviya", the instrument he used to help the poor, a foster parents scheme, the "Gam Udawa" project with which he tried to stir up the stupor in the villages, the mobile secretariat whereby he took the central government bureaucracy to the peasants, the Tower Hall Foundation for drama and music, and the pension schemes he initiated for the elder artistes. On the economic front, the garment industry project that he initiated became a forerunner in earning foreign exchange and provision of employment in the villages. Premadasa served as prime minister from 1978 to 1988, with little rifts with President Jayewardene with the exception of the latter's signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. Jayewardene decided to step down after his second term and Premadasa was nominated as the party candidate for the presidential election set for December 1988.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: He was elected the second executive president of the country at the 1988 presidential election, gaining 2,569,199 (50.43%) votes against Sirima Bandaranaike who came second with 2,289,860 (44.95%) votes. Premadasa became the first non-Govigama politician to be appointed Prime Minister and elected president in Sri Lanka.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Soon after being elected president, he dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections. In the 1989 parliamentary election in February the UNP gained 125 seats in parliament, forming a government with a majority in parliament. At the time he became president, the country faced both a civil war in the north and a communist insurgency in the south, both key issues Premadasa concentrated on, with particularly ruthless actions against the insurgents. The security forces brutally put down the revolt and killed many of its leaders.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Premadasa also concentrated on a grassroots-level economic development drive, focusing on the provision of housing, poverty alleviation and the upliftment of the poor. He encouraged the building of model villages with clean water, transport infrastructure, schools and health centers. He encouraged the establishment of small-scale industries (mostly garment-related) in poor areas by giving factory owners low-interest loans and a share in textile quotas for the United States and Europe. The "Gam Udāwa" programme is one of his best-known achievements in this area, along with the "Janasaviya" programme that is today part of the "Samurdhi" scheme.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Appointing Ranjan Wijeratne as Minister of Foreign Affairs and State Minister for Defence, he had Wijeratne clamp down on the JVP insurgent activity in the south of the island which had been paralyzing the state machinery and economic activity of the island since 1987 with its target killings, its unofficial curfews and work stoppages. Operation Combine launched by Wijeratne successfully suppressed the insurgency by brutally suppressing it and killing its leaders including Rohana Wijeweera by late 1989 and effectively ending the insurrection by early 1990.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: His handling of the country's civil war was less successful. In the north, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were facing off against the Indian Peace-Keeping Force the Indian presence on the island was unpopular, and Premadasa requested India to pull out its troops. In order to force the IPKF to leave the island, he authorized a clandestine operation to supply arms to LTTE to fight the Tamil National Army formed by the IPKF, a collusion that came to light in the report published by the Sri Lankan Presidential Commission to inquire into the 1992 assassination of Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekaduwa. While the IPKF was recalled by New Delhi in 1990, the government's war with the LTTE resumed, beginning Eelam War II, which ended in a stalemate five years later. The 1990 massacre of Sri Lankan Police officers, which occurred after the policemen were asked to surrender to the LTTE in Batticaloa at Premadasa's request, was later established to have been performed with the same weapons he had supplied them.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: In September 1991, Premadasa faced an impeachment in parliament led by his two formidable rivals in the UNP, Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake. He defeated it by adjourning Parliament and the Speaker Mohamed dismissed the impeachment stating a lack of signatures after several of the parliamentarians who supported it withdrew their support after facing threats. He then expelled Athulathmudali and Dissanayake from the party, who then joined to form the Democratic United National Front (DUNF).


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: In 1992, he changed the country's name in English from Sri to Shri Lanka on the advice of soothsayers, who predicted it would improve the country's fortunes. The spelling was restored after his assassination in 1993.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed along with 17 others on 1 May, Saturday, 1993, around 12.45 p.m. during UNP's May day rally in Colombo, by an LTTE suicide bomber. The explosion took place at Armour Street-Grandpass Junction in Hulftsdorp, Colombo while President Premadasa was unofficially supervising the procession as it was heading towards the Galle Face Green from Sugathadasa Stadium. The suicide bomber was later identified as Kulaveerasingam Veerakumar alias 'Babu', a close friend of the President's valet E. M. P. Mohideen. He rode a bicycle towards the President, left it near the President's Range Rover and walked towards the President when security personnel attempted to stop him. Despite this, Mohideen allowed him to get close to the President, when Veerakumar detonated the explosive device. Killed in the explosion were Mohideen, SSP Ronnie Gunasinghe and most of Premadasa's personal staff. Another 38 people were injured in the bombing including seven who were seriously wounded. Confusion prevailed as it was unclear what had happened, with Premadasa and his security detail missing. His death was only confirmed two hours later by his personal physician when the remains of the president were identified by his ring and watch.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: The site of the explosion was cleaned within hours before a proper investigation was conducted. The May Day parade continued even after the explosion for some time. An island-wide curfew was imposed hours after the assassination. Prime minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was sworn in as the new acting-president at afternoon. The government did not announce the death of President Premadasa until 6 p.m. local time when state television Rupavahini broadcast a tape of BBC's report of the incident. A period of national mourning was announced until the funeral. Police claimed that they recovered the severed head of a young man suspected to be the bomber, which found to have a cyanide suicide capsule, bearing LTTE tradecraft in his mouth. His state funeral took place at Independence Square, Colombo on 9 May 1993.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: The climax of the 1993 Indian film "Gentleman" was rewritten by director S. Shankar based on the assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa after a request by film producer Kunjumon. The film was in post production stage when Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated and the film was released on 30 July 1993.


title: Ranasinghe Premadasa

text: Premadasa married Hema Wickramatunge, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wickramatunge Arachchige Charles Appuhamy of Bandarawela on 23 June 1964. They had a son, Sajith, and a daughter, Dulanjali. A hard worker, Premadasa was known for raising early and following a strict routine. He lived and work from his private residence and office, Sucharitha even during his tenure as prime minister and president.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: In economics, Kondratiev waves (also called supercycles, great surges, long waves, K-waves or the long economic cycle) are hypothesized cycle-like phenomena in the modern world economy. The phenomenon is closely connected with the technology life cycle.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: It is stated that the period of a wave ranges from forty to sixty years, the cycles consist of alternating intervals of high sectoral growth and intervals of relatively slow growth.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Long wave theory is not accepted by most academic economists. Among economists who accept it, there is a lack of agreement about both the cause of the waves and the start and end years of particular waves. Among critics of the theory, the consensus is that it involves recognizing patterns that may not exist (apophenia).


title: Kondratiev wave

text: The Soviet economist Nikolai Kondratiev (also written Kondratieff or Kondratyev) was the first to bring these observations to international attention in his book "The Major Economic Cycles" (1925) alongside other works written in the same decade. In 1939, Joseph Schumpeter suggested naming the cycles "Kondratieff waves" in his honor. The underlying idea is closely linked to organic composition of capital.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Two Dutch economists, Jacob van Gelderen and Salomon de Wolff, had previously argued for the existence of 50- to 60-year cycles in 1913 and 1924, respectively.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Since the inception of the theory, various studies have expanded the range of possible cycles, finding longer or shorter cycles in the data. The Marxist scholar Ernest Mandel revived interest in long-wave theory with his 1964 essay predicting the end of the long boom after five years and in his Alfred Marshall lectures in 1979. However, in Mandel's theory long waves are the result of the normal business cycle and noneconomic factors, such as wars.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: In 1996, George Modelski and William R. Thompson published a book documenting K-Waves dating back to 930 AD in China. Separately, Michael Snyder wrote: "economic cycle theories have enabled some analysts to correctly predict the timing of recessions, stock market peaks and stock market crashes over the past couple of decades".


title: Kondratiev wave

text: The historian Eric Hobsbawm also wrote of the theory: "That good predictions have proved possible on the basis of Kondratiev Long Waves—this is not very common in economics—has convinced many historians and even some economists that there is something in them, even if we don't know what".


title: Kondratiev wave

text: US economist Anwar Shaikh analyses the movement of the general price level - prices expressed in gold - in the US and the UK since 1890 and identifies three long cycles with troughs ca. in 1895, 1939 and 1982. With this model 2018 was another trough between the third and a possible future fourth cycle.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Kondratiev identified three phases in the cycle, namely expansion, stagnation and recession. More common today is the division into four periods with a turning point (collapse) between expansion and stagnation.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: The long cycle supposedly affects all sectors of an economy. Kondratiev focused on prices and interest rates, seeing the ascendant phase as characterized by an increase in prices and low interest rates while the other phase consists of a decrease in prices and high interest rates. Subsequent analysis concentrated on output.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Kondratiev waves present both causes and effects of common events that have recurred in capitalistic economies throughout history. Although Kondratiev himself made little differentiation between cause and effect, understanding the cause and effect of Kondratiev waves is a useful discussion and academic tool.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: The causes documented by Kondratiev waves primarily include inequity, opportunity and social freedoms. Often, much more discussion is made of the notable effects of these causes as well. Effects are both good and bad and include, to name just a few, technological advance, birthrates, populism and revolution—and revolution's contributing causes which can include racism, religious and political intolerance, failed freedoms and opportunity, incarceration rates, terrorism, etc.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: When inequity is low and opportunity is easily available, peaceful, moral decisions are preferred and Aristotle's "Good Life" is possible (Americans call the good life "the American Dream"). Opportunity created the simple inspiration and genius of the Mayflower Compact, for example. Post-World War II and the post-California gold rush 1850s exemplify times of great opportunity and low inequity, and both resulted in unprecedented technological and industrial advances. On the other hand, 1893's global economic panics were not met with sufficient wealth-distributing government policies internationally, and a dozen major revolutions resulted, which some argue were significant causes of World War I. Few would argue against the assertion that World War II began in response to the economic strictures of World War I's Treaty of Versailles and the failure to create government policy that supported economic opportunity during the Great Depression.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: According to the innovation theory, these waves arise from the bunching of basic innovations that launch technological revolutions that in turn create leading industrial or commercial sectors. Kondratiev's ideas were taken up by Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s. The theory hypothesized the existence of very long-run macroeconomic and price cycles, originally estimated to last 50–54 years.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: In recent decades there has been considerable progress in historical economics and the history of technology, and numerous investigations of the relationship between technological innovation and economic cycles. Some of the works involving long cycle research and technology include Mensch (1979), Tylecote (1991), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) (Marchetti, Ayres), Freeman and Louçã (2001), Andrey Korotayev and Carlota Perez.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Perez (2002) places the phases on a logistic or "S" curve, with the following labels: the beginning of a technological era as irruption, the ascent as frenzy, the rapid build out as synergy and the completion as maturity.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Because people have fairly typical spending patterns through their life cycle, such as spending on schooling, marriage, first car purchase, first home purchase, upgrade home purchase, maximum earnings period, maximum retirement savings and retirement, demographic anomalies such as baby booms and busts exert a rather predictable influence on the economy over a long time period. The Easterlin hypothesis deals with the post-war baby-boom. Harry Dent has written extensively on demographics and economic cycles. Tylecote (1991) devoted a chapter to demographics and the long cycle.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Georgists such as Mason Gaffney, Fred Foldvary and Fred Harrison argue that land speculation is the driving force behind the boom and bust cycle. Land is a finite resource which is necessary for all production and they claim that because exclusive usage rights are traded around, this creates speculative bubbles which can be exacerbated by overzealous borrowing and lending. As early as 1997, a number of Georgists predicted that the next crash would come in 2008.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Debt deflation is a theory of economic cycles which holds that recessions and depressions are due to the overall level of debt shrinking (deflating). Hence, the credit cycle is the cause of the economic cycle.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: The theory was developed by Irving Fisher following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. Debt deflation was largely ignored in favor of the ideas of John Maynard Keynes in Keynesian economics, but it has enjoyed a resurgence of interest since the 1980s, both in mainstream economics and in the heterodox school of post-Keynesian economics and has subsequently been developed by such post-Keynesian economists as Hyman Minsky and Steve Keen.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Inequity appears to be the most obvious driver of Kondratiev waves, and yet some researches have presented a technological and credit cycle explanation as well.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: There are several modern timing versions of the cycle although most are based on either of two causes: one on technology and the other on the credit cycle.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Additionally, there are several versions of the technological cycles and they are best interpreted using diffusion curves of leading industries. For example, railways only started in the 1830s, with steady growth for the next 45 years. It was after Bessemer steel was introduced that railroads had their highest growth rates. However, this period is usually labeled the age of steel. Measured by value added, the leading industry in the U.S. from 1880 to 1920 was machinery, followed by iron and steel.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Any influence of technology during the cycle that began in the Industrial Revolution pertains mainly to England. The U.S. was a commodity producer and was more influenced by agricultural commodity prices. There was a commodity price cycle based on increasing consumption causing tight supplies and rising prices. That allowed new land to the west to be purchased and after four or five years to be cleared and be in production, driving down prices and causing a depression as in 1819 and 1839. By the 1850s, the U.S. was becoming industrialized.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Some argue that this logic can be extended. The custom of classifying periods of human development by its dominating general purpose technology has surely been borrowed from historians, starting with the Stone Age. Including those, authors distinguish three different long-term metaparadigms, each with different long waves. The first focused on the transformation of material, including stone, bronze, and iron. The second, often referred to as industrial revolutions, was dedicated to the transformation of energy, including water, steam, electric, and combustion power. Finally, the most recent metaparadigm aims at transforming information. It started out with the proliferation of communication and stored data and has now entered the age of algorithms, which aims at creating automated processes to convert the existing information into actionable knowledge.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Several papers on the relationship between technology and the economy were written by researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). A concise version of Kondratiev cycles can be found in the work of Robert Ayres (1989) in which he gives a historical overview of the relationships of the most significant technologies. Cesare Marchetti published on Kondretiev waves and on the diffusion of innovations. Arnulf Grübler's book (1990) gives a detailed account of the diffusion of infrastructures including canals, railroads, highways and airlines, with findings that the principal infrastructures have midpoints spaced in time corresponding to 55-year K wavelengths, with railroads and highways taking almost a century to complete. Grübler devotes a chapter to the long economic wave. In 1996, Giancarlo Pallavicini published the ratio between the long Kondratiev wave and information technology and communication.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Korotayev et al. recently employed spectral analysis and claimed that it confirmed the presence of Kondratiev waves in the world GDP dynamics at an acceptable level of statistical significance. Korotayev et al. also detected shorter business cycles, dating the Kuznets to about 17 years and calling it the third harmonic of the Kondratiev, meaning that there are three Kuznets cycles per Kondratiev.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Leo A. Nefiodow shows that the fifth Kondratieff ended with the global economic crisis of 2000–2003 while the new, sixth Kondratieff started simultaneously. According to Leo A. Nefiodow, the carrier of this new long cycle will be health in a holistic sense—including its physical, psychological, mental, social, ecological and spiritual aspects; the basic innovations of the sixth Kondratieff are "psychosocial health" and "biotechnology".


title: Kondratiev wave

text: More recently, the physicist and systems scientist Tessaleno Devezas advanced a causal model for the long wave phenomenon based on a generation-learning model and a nonlinear dynamic behaviour of information systems. In both works, a complete theory is presented containing not only the explanation for the existence of K-Waves, but also and for the first time an explanation for the timing of a K-Wave (≈60 years = two generations).


title: Kondratiev wave

text: A specific modification of the theory of Kondratieff cycles was developed by Daniel Šmihula. Šmihula identified six long-waves within modern society and the capitalist economy, each of which was initiated by a specific technological revolution:


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Unlike Kondratieff and Schumpeter, Šmihula believed that each new cycle is shorter than its predecessor. His main stress is put on technological progress and new technologies as decisive factors of any long-time economic development. Each of these waves has its innovation phase which is described as a technological revolution and an application phase in which the number of revolutionary innovations falls and attention focuses on exploiting and extending existing innovations. As soon as an innovation or a series of innovations becomes available, it becomes more efficient to invest in its adoption, extension and use than in creating new innovations. Each wave of technological innovations can be characterized by the area in which the most revolutionary changes took place ("leading sectors").


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Every wave of innovations lasts approximately until the profits from the new innovation or sector fall to the level of other, older, more traditional sectors. It is a situation when the new technology, which originally increased a capacity to utilize new sources from nature, reached its limits and it is not possible to overcome this limit without an application of another new technology.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: For the end of an application phase of any wave there are typical an economic crisis and economic stagnation. The financial crisis of 2007–2008 is a result of the coming end of the "wave of the Information and telecommunications technological revolution". Some authors have started to predict what the sixth wave might be, such as James Bradfield Moody and Bianca Nogrady who forecast that it will be driven by resource efficiency and clean technology. On the other hand, Šmihula himself considers the waves of technological innovations during the modern age (after 1600 AD) only as a part of a much longer "chain" of technological revolutions going back to the pre-modern era. It means he believes that we can find long economic cycles (analogical to Kondratiev cycles in modern economy) dependent on technological revolutions even in the Middle Ages and the Ancient era.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Long wave theory is not accepted by many academic economists. However, it is important for innovation-based, development and evolutionary economics. Yet, among economists who accept it, there has been no formal universal agreement about the standards that should be used universally to place start and the end years for each wave. Agreement of start and end years can be +1 to 3 years for each 40- to 65-year cycle.


title: Kondratiev wave

text: Health economist and biostatistician Andreas J. W. Goldschmidt searched for patterns and proposed that there is a phase shift and overlap of the so-called Kondratiev cycles of IT and health (shown in the figure). He argued that historical growth phases in combination with key technologies does not necessarily imply the existence of regular cycles in general. Goldschmidt is of the opinion that different fundamental innovations and their economic stimuli do not exclude each other as they mostly vary in length and their benefit is not applicable to all participants in a market.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: An arterial blood gas (ABG) test, or arterial blood gas analysis (ABGA) measures the amounts of arterial gases, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. An ABG test requires that a small volume of blood be drawn from the radial artery with a syringe and a thin needle, but sometimes the femoral artery in the groin or another site is used. The blood can also be drawn from an arterial catheter.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: An ABG test measures the blood gas tension values of the arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2), and the arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2), and the blood's pH. In addition, the arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) can be determined. Such information is vital when caring for patients with critical illnesses or respiratory disease. Therefore, the ABG test is one of the most common tests performed on patients in intensive-care units. In other levels of care, pulse oximetry plus transcutaneous carbon-dioxide measurement is a less invasive, alternative method of obtaining similar information.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: An ABG test can also measure the level of bicarbonate in the blood. Many blood-gas analyzers will also report concentrations of lactate, hemoglobin, several electrolytes, oxyhemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin, and methemoglobin. ABG testing is mainly used in pulmonology and critical-care medicine to determine gas exchange across the alveolar-capillary membrane. ABG testing also has a variety of applications in other areas of medicine. Combinations of disorders can be complex and difficult to interpret, so calculators, nomograms, and rules of thumb are commonly used.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: ABG samples originally were sent from the clinic to the medical laboratory for analysis. Newer equipment lets the analysis be done also as point-of-care testing, depending on the equipment available in each clinic.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: Arterial blood for blood-gas analysis is usually drawn by a respiratory therapist and sometimes a phlebotomist, a nurse, a paramedic or a doctor. Blood is most commonly drawn from the radial artery because it is easily accessible, can be compressed to control bleeding, and has less risk for vascular occlusion. The selection of which radial artery to draw from is based on the outcome of an Allen's test. The brachial artery (or less often, the femoral artery) is also used, especially during emergency situations or with children. Blood can also be taken from an arterial catheter already placed in one of these arteries.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: There are plastic and glass syringes used for blood gas samples. Most syringes come pre-packaged and contain a small amount of heparin, to prevent coagulation. Other syringes may need to be heparinised, by drawing up a small amount of liquid heparin and squirting it out again to remove air bubbles. Once the sample is obtained, care is taken to eliminate visible gas bubbles, as these bubbles can dissolve into the sample and cause inaccurate results. The sealed syringe is taken to a blood gas analyzer. If a plastic blood gas syringe is used, the sample should be transported and kept at room temperature and analyzed within 30 min. If prolonged time delays are expected (i.e., greater than 30 min) prior to analysis, the sample should be drawn in a glass syringe and immediately placed on ice. Standard blood tests can also be performed on arterial blood, such as measuring glucose, lactate, hemoglobins, dyshemoglobins, bilirubin and electrolytes.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: Derived parameters include bicarbonate concentration, SaO2, and base excess. Bicarbonate concentration is calculated from the measured pH and PCO2 using the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. SaO2 is derived from the measured PO2 and calculated based on the assumption that all measured hemoglobin is normal (oxy- or deoxy-) hemoglobin.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: The machine used for analysis aspirates this blood from the syringe and measures the pH and the partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The bicarbonate concentration is also calculated. These results are usually available for interpretation within five minutes.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: Two methods have been used in medicine in the management of blood gases of patients in hypothermia: pH-stat method and alpha-stat method. Recent studies suggest that the α-stat method is superior.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: Both the pH-stat and alpha-stat strategies have theoretical disadvantages. α-stat method is the method of choice for optimal myocardial function. The pH-stat method may result in loss of autoregulation in the brain (coupling of the cerebral blood flow with the metabolic rate in the brain). By increasing the cerebral blood flow beyond the metabolic requirements, the pH-stat method may lead to cerebral microembolisation and intracranial hypertension.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: These are typical reference ranges, although various analysers and laboratories may employ different ranges.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: Contamination of the sample with room air will result in abnormally low carbon dioxide and possibly elevated oxygen levels, and a concurrent elevation in pH. Delaying analysis (without chilling the sample) may result in inaccurately low oxygen and high carbon dioxide levels as a result of ongoing cellular respiration.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: The normal range for pH is 7.35–7.45. As the pH decreases (< 7.35), it implies acidosis, while if the pH increases (> 7.45) it implies alkalosis. In the context of arterial blood gases, the most common occurrence will be that of respiratory acidosis. Carbon dioxide is dissolved in the blood as carbonic acid, a weak acid; however, in large concentrations, it can affect the pH drastically. Whenever there is poor pulmonary ventilation, the carbon dioxide levels in the blood are expected to rise. This leads to a rise of carbonic acid, leading to a decrease in pH. The first buffer of pH will be the plasma proteins, since these can accept some H ions to try to maintain acid-base homeostasis. As carbon dioxide concentrations continue to increase ("Pa"CO > 45 mmHg), a condition known as respiratory acidosis occurs. The body tries to maintain homeostasis by increasing the respiratory rate, a condition known as tachypnea. This allows much more carbon dioxide to escape the body through the lungs, thus increasing the pH by having less carbonic acid. If a person is in a critical setting and intubated, one must increase the number of breaths mechanically.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: Respiratory alkalosis ("Pa" CO < 35 mmHg) occurs when there is too little carbon dioxide in the blood. This may be due to hyperventilation or else excessive breaths given via a mechanical ventilator in a critical care setting. The action to be taken is to calm the person and try to reduce the number of breaths being taken to normalize the pH. The respiratory pathway tries to compensate for the change in pH in a matter of 2–4 hours. If this is not enough, the metabolic pathway takes place.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: The kidney and the liver are two main organs responsible for the metabolic homeostasis of pH. Bicarbonate is a base that helps to accept excess hydrogen ions whenever there is acidaemia. However, this mechanism is slower than the respiratory pathway and may take from a few hours to 3 days to take effect. In acidaemia, the bicarbonate levels rise, so that they can neutralize the excess acid, while the contrary happens when there is alkalaemia. Thus when an arterial blood gas test reveals, for example, an elevated bicarbonate, the problem has been present for a couple of days, and metabolic compensation took place over a blood acidaemia problem.


title: Arterial blood gas test

text: In general, it is much easier to correct acute pH derangement by adjusting respiration. Metabolic compensations take place at a much later stage. However, in a critical setting, a person with a normal pH, a high CO, and a high bicarbonate means that, although there is a high carbon dioxide level, there is metabolic compensation. As a result, one must be careful as to not artificially adjust breaths to lower the carbon dioxide. In such case, lowering the carbon dioxide abruptly means that the bicarbonate will be in excess and will cause a metabolic alkalosis. In such a case, carbon dioxide levels should be slowly diminished.


title: Oneil Cruz

text: Oneil Cruz (born October 4, 1998) is a Dominican professional baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He made his MLB debut in 2021.


title: Oneil Cruz

text: Cruz signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in July 2015 as an international free agent for a $950,000 signing bonus.


title: Oneil Cruz

text: Cruz made his professional debut in 2016 with DSL Dodgers 1, batting .294 with 23 RBIs in 55 games. He began the 2017 season with the Great Lakes Loons.


title: Oneil Cruz

text: On July 31, 2017, the Dodgers traded Cruz and Angel German to the Pirates in exchange for Tony Watson. He was then assigned to the West Virginia Power.


title: Oneil Cruz

text: In 2018, he played for the West Virginia Black Bears, batting .286 with 14 home runs and 56 RBIs in 103 games, earning South Atlantic League All-Star honors. Cruz began 2019 at Rookie-level with the FCL Pirates, batting .298 with zero home runs in three games. He was then promoted to the Class A-Advanced Bradenton Marauders, and slashed .302/.345/.515, hit seven home runs, and stole seven bases in 35 games. Then he was promoted to the Double-A Altoona Curve on July 30 with a slash line of .269/.346/.412 with one home run in 35 games. He missed two months during the season after suffering a fractured foot.