title: History of Rwanda

text: Economically, the major markets for Rwandan exports are Belgium, Germany, and People's Republic of China. In April 2007, an investment and trade agreement, four years in the making, was worked out between Belgium and Rwanda. Belgium contributes €25–35 million per year to Rwanda. Belgian co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry continues to develop and rebuild agricultural practices in the country. It has distributed agricultural tools and seed to help rebuild the country. Belgium also helped in re-launching fisheries in Lake Kivu, at a value of US$470,000, in 2001.


title: History of Rwanda

text: In Eastern Rwanda, The Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, along with Partners in Health, are helping to improve agricultural productivity, improve water and sanitation and health services, and help cultivate international markets for agricultural products. Since 2000, the Rwandan government has expressed interest in transforming the country from agricultural subsistence to a knowledge-based economy, and plans to provide high-speed broadband across the entire country.


title: History of Rwanda

text: Rwanda applied to join the Commonwealth of Nations in 2007 and 2009, a sign that is trying to distance itself from French foreign policy. In 2007, it applied unsuccessfully to join at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Kampala in Uganda, but was accepted into membership in 2009 at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith publicly stated this would help "entrench the rule of law and support the Rwandan Government's efforts towards democracy and economic growth." Rwanda also joined the East African Community in 2009 at the same time as its neighbor Burundi.


title: History of Rwanda

text: However, since then Freedom House rates Rwanda as "not free", with political rights and civil liberties trending downwards. In 2010 Amnesty International "strongly condemned a worrying attack on a Rwandan opposition group" in the lead-up to presidential elections, citing the case of Victoire Ingabire, president of the FDU-Inkingi (United Democratic Forces) and her aide Joseph Ntawangundi, attacked in February 2010 while collecting party registration documents from a government building in Kigali. In April, Rwandan Immigration proceeded to reject a work visa re-application by the Rwanda-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. The sole new opposition party to secure registration, PS-Imberakuri, had its presidential candidate Bernard Ntaganda arrested on June 24, charged with "genocide ideology" and "divisionism".


title: History of Rwanda

text: Rwandan Green Party President, Frank Habineza also reported threats. In October 2009 a Rwandan Green Party meeting was violently broken up by police, with authorities placing preventing the registration of the party or allowing it to run a candidate in the presidential election. Only weeks before the election, on 14 July 2009, André Kagwa Rwisereka, the vice president of the opposition Democratic Green Party was found dead, with his head severed almost entirely, in Butare, southern Rwanda.


title: History of Rwanda

text: Public scrutiny of the government's policies and practices has been limited by press freedom. In June 2009 journalist for Umuvugizi newspaper Jean-Leonard Rugambage was shot dead outside his home in Kigali. Umuvugizi at the time was supporting a critical investigation into the attempted murder of former Rwandan general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, in exile in South Africa. In July 2009 Agnes Nkusi Uwimana, editor of the "Umurabyo" newspaper, charged with "genocide ideology." As the presidential election got closer, two other newspaper editors left Rwanda.


title: The Country Club

text: The Country Club, located in Brookline, Massachusetts, is the oldest golf-oriented country club in the United States. (The Philadelphia Cricket Club, founded in 1854, was the first country club for any sport.) It holds an important place in golf history, as it is one of the five charter clubs that founded the United States Golf Association, and has hosted numerous USGA tournaments including the 1913 U.S. Open won by then-unknown Francis Ouimet. Although the club has 1300 members, it is known for its exclusivity.


title: The Country Club

text: On January 14, 1882, a group of men from Boston met to form the club. The club is listed on the USGA's list of the first 100 clubs in America. The original club was focused on horseback-riding and other outdoor activities; the golf course was not built until 1893. For several years there were conflicts between golfers and other club members over land use; in fact the original golf course overlapped with the pre-existing race track.


title: The Country Club

text: The golf course itself grew in several stages, and so is not the result of any one architect. The first six holes were laid out by three club members in March 1893, and the following year the Scot, Willie Campbell, was brought in as club professional. He oversaw the expansion to nine holes that summer, and to a full 18 holes by 1899 following some land acquisition. Around 1902 the Haskell golf ball became widely used, necessitating a further lengthening of the course. After an additional land purchase, two club members designed three new holes which opened in 1908. Rees Jones renovated the course further in preparation for the 1988 U.S. Open.


title: The Country Club

text: In 1894 The Country Club was one of the five charter clubs which founded the United States Golf Association. The original purpose was to sponsor an undisputed national amateur championship, which was first held in 1895. The first U.S. Open (almost an afterthought) was held the following day. The first USGA championship held at the club was the 1902 U.S. Women's Amateur.


title: The Country Club

text: In 1896 the Club hired Scottish professional Alex Campbell, who would go on to serve as the head professional from 1896 to 1916. Campbell was in large part responsible for the development of caddie Francis Ouimet into a championship caliber player.


title: The Country Club

text: The 1913 U.S. Open was held at The Country Club. The heavy favorites were English legends Harry Vardon (1900 U.S. Open winner; four-time British Open winner) and Ted Ray (reigning British Open champion). After 72 holes the pair found themselves tied with 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet — who had grown up across the street from the course and was a former caddy at the club — forcing an 18-hole playoff the next day. In a shocking upset, Ouimet soundly defeated the two professional golfers in front of a large gallery, and the resulting newspaper stories captured the imagination of the American public. The number of golfers in the country at least tripled in the subsequent ten years, with a corresponding increase in golf courses (including many public courses, opening up the game to a larger segment of the population). The 1963 and 1988 U.S. Opens were also held at The Country Club, the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the Ouimet victory. However, the 2013 U.S. Open, marking the 100th anniversary of Ouimet's improbable win, was contested at Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia. The Country Club instead hosted the 2013 U.S. Amateur.


title: The Country Club

text: The story of Francis Ouimet's triumph at the 1913 US Open was commercialized by Mark Frost’s 2002 book, "The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf", which Frost then adapted for a 2005 film.


title: The Country Club

text: No Jews were admitted as members until the 1970s. The Country Club opened full membership to women for the first time in 1989. No African-Americans were admitted as members until 1994; Governor Deval Patrick complained he and his wife were "blackballed" from the club.


title: The Country Club

text: The club hosted the Ryder Cup in 1999. This intense match exploded into controversy following a competition-turning 45-foot putt on the 17th green by Justin Leonard (the same green where Ouimet effectively clinched his victory), as the other American players stormed the green in celebration before José María Olazábal had a chance to attempt his own difficult putt. Olazábal was forced to regain his focus after order was restored, and missed the putt.


title: The Country Club

text: The Country Club has long been considered the best course in Massachusetts and has hosted a record 10 Massachusetts State Amateur Championships.


title: The Country Club

text: The Main Course is composed of the Clyde and Squirrel nines, essentially the original 18 holes. This was the course used for the 1913 U.S. Open, and is the course played by members today.


title: The Country Club

text: The other nine holes are the Primrose Course, an executive course built in 1927. This was designed by William S. Flynn, who also (re)designed Shinnecock Hills, Cherry Hills Country Club near Denver, and the Cascades Course at The Homestead, and the Kittansett Club also in Massachusetts.


title: The Country Club

text: The Championship, Composite, Anniversary, or Open Course is used for major competitions today, when a longer layout is required. In this configuration, three and a half holes from the Primrose Course are used to replace three holes of the Clyde. Specifically, one hole from the Main Course is replaced by a composite hole that uses the teeing ground of the 1st Primrose hole and the putting surface of the 2nd Primrose hole, while two other Main holes are replaced in their entirety by the 8th and 9th Primrose holes. Today, this results in a length of over 7,300 yards. This layout was first used in the 1957 U.S. Amateur, but its routing significantly changed for the 1963 U.S. Open. The 1963 routing was used for all major events at the club through the 2013 U.S. Amateur. The Championship Course was altered again for the 2022 U.S. Open, with the par-4 4th hole of the Main Course removed and the par-3 12th hole of the Main Course added, resulting in a 7,312-yard par-70 layout.


title: The Country Club

text: In addition, the club has five indoor tennis courts, four outdoor tennis courts including grass courts, paddle & squash courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool with a cafe, curling, skeet shooting, skating & hockey rink.


title: National Health Mission

text: The National Health Mission (NHM) was launched by the government of India in 2005 subsuming the National Rural Health Mission and National Urban Health Mission. It was further extended in March 2018, to continue until March 2020. It is headed by Mission Director and monitored by National Level Monitors appointed by the Government of India.Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the recently launched National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). Main program components include Health System Strengthening (RMNCH+A) in rural and urban areas- Reproductive-Maternal- Neonatal-Child and Adolescent Health, and Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases. NHM envisages achievement of universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care services that are accountable and responsive to the needs of the people.


title: National Health Mission

text: The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), now under National Health Mission is an initiative undertaken by the government of India to address the health needs of under-served rural areas. Launched on 12 April 2005 by then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the NRHM was initially tasked with addressing the health needs of 18 states that had been identified as having weak public health indicators. The Union Cabinet headed by Manmohan Singh vide its decision dated 1 May 2013, has approved the launch of "National Urban Health Mission (NUHM)" as a Sub-mission of an overarching "National Health Mission (NHM)", with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) being the other Sub-mission of National Health Mission.


title: National Health Mission

text: Under the NRHM, the Empowered Action Group (EAG) States as well as North Eastern States, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh have been given special focus. The thrust of the mission is on establishing a fully functional, community owned, decentralized health delivery system with inter-sectoral convergence at all levels, to ensure simultaneous action on a wide range of determinants of health such as water, sanitation, education, nutrition, social and gender equality. Institutional integration within the fragmented health sector was expected to provide a focus on outcomes, measured against Indian Public Health Standards for all health facilities.


title: National Health Mission

text: As per the 12th Plan document of the Planning Commission, the flagship programme of NRHM will be strengthened under the umbrella of National Health Mission. The focus on covering rural areas and rural population will continue along with up scaling of NRHM to include non-communicable diseases and expanding health coverage to urban areas. Accordingly, the Union Cabinet, in May 2013, has approved the launch of National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) as a sub-mission of an overarching National Health Mission (NHM), with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) being the other sub-mission of the National Health Mission.


title: National Health Mission

text: Community Health volunteers called Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have been engaged under the mission for establishing a link between the community and the health system. ASHA is the first port of call for any health related demands of deprived sections of the population, especially women and children, who find it difficult to access health services in rural areas. ASHA Programme is expanding across States and has particularly been successful in bringing people back to Public Health System and has increased the utilization of outpatient services, diagnostic facilities, institutional deliveries and inpatient . There is one ASHA for 1000 population.


title: National Health Mission

text: The Rogi Kalyan Samiti (Patient Welfare Committee) / Hospital Management Society is a management structure that acts as a group of trustees for the hospitals to manage the affairs of the hospital. Financial assistance is provided to these Committees through untied fund to undertake activities for patient welfare.


title: National Health Mission

text: Untied Grants to Sub-Centers have been used to fund grass-root improvements in health care. Some examples include:


title: National Health Mission

text: NRHM has provided health care contractors to underserved areas, and has been involved in training to expand the skill set of doctors at strategically located facilities identified by the states. Similarly, due importance is given to capacity building of nursing staff and auxiliary workers such as ANMs. NHM also supports co-location of AYUSH services in Health facilities such as PHCs, CHCs and District Hospitals.


title: National Health Mission

text: "Janani Suraksha Yojana" (JSY) is a safe motherhood intervention scheme implemented by the Government of India. It was launched on 12 April 2005 by the Prime Minister of India. It aims to promote institutional delivery among poor pregnant women and to reduce neo-natal mortality and maternal mortality. It is operated under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as part of the National Rural Health Mission. The Scheme integrates cash assistance with delivery and post-delivery care, particularly in states with low institutional delivery rates.


title: National Health Mission

text: In 2014 -15, 10,438,000 women obtained benefits under the scheme. As per the World Health Organization, the proportion of institutional deliveries in India almost tripled between 2005 and 2016, from 18% to 52%.


title: National Health Mission

text: The Janani Suraksha Yojana was implemented to ensure that pregnant women who are Below the Poverty Line (BPL) access health facilities for childbirth. It provides cash benefit to eligible pregnant women if they choose to deliver in a health facility, irrespective of their age and the number of children they have.


title: National Health Mission

text: Special dispensation is provided to states that have low institutional delivery rates. These states are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir, and are referred to as Low Performing States (LPS) under the Scheme. Other states and Union Territories are called High Performing States (HPS) owing to their higher institutional delivery rates.


title: National Health Mission

text: Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) are also incentivised under the Scheme for promoting institutional deliveries among pregnant women.


title: National Health Mission

text: The Scheme has different eligibility criteria in Low Performing States (LPS) and High Performing States (HPS).


title: National Health Mission

text: In LPS, all pregnant women delivering in government health facilities are eligible for a cash benefit. Women who choose to deliver in accredited private institutions are eligible only if they are Below the Poverty Line or belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.


title: National Health Mission

text: In HPS, only pregnant women who are Below the Poverty Line or belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe are eligible for cash benefits, irrespective of whether they choose to deliver in a government health facility or an accredited private institution.


title: National Health Mission

text: Women who are Below the Poverty Line and choose to deliver at home are entitled to a cash assistance of ₹500 per delivery.


title: National Health Mission

text: ASHA package of ₹600 in rural areas includes ₹300 for antenatal care and ₹300 for facilitating institutional delivery. In urban areas, ₹400 include ₹200 for antenatal component and ₹200 for facilitating institutional delivery.


title: National Health Mission

text: In 2013, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare introduced direct payment of the entitlement to the beneficiary's bank accounts in 121 districts across the country.


title: National Health Mission

text: Of the beneficiaries reported in 2014–15, 87% belonged to rural areas. In the same year, about 9 lakh ASHA workers also received incentives for promoting institutional deliveries among pregnant women.


title: National Health Mission

text: During 2006 - 2008, the Scheme may also have resulted in a 7% - 12% rise in the probability of childbirth or pregnancy in 10 states.


title: National Health Mission

text: Free ambulance services are provided in every nook and corner of the country connected with a toll free number and reaches within 30 minutes of the call.


title: National Health Mission

text: As part of recent initiatives and further moving in the direction of universal healthcare, Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakarm (JSSK) was introduced to provide free to and fro transport, free drugs, free diagnostic, free blood, free diet to pregnant women who come for delivery in public health institutions and sick infants up to one year.


title: National Health Mission

text: A Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services has been launched in February 2013 to screen diseases specific to childhood, developmental delays, disabilities, birth defects and deficiencies. The initiative will cover about 27 crore children between 0–18 years of age and also provide free treatment including surgery for health problems diagnosed under this initiative.yes


title: National Health Mission

text: With a focus to reduce maternal and child mortality, dedicated Mother and Child Health Wings with 100/50/30 bed capacity have been sanctioned in high case load district hospitals and CHCs which would create additional beds for mothers and children.


title: National Health Mission

text: A new initiative is launched under the National Health Mission to provide Free Drugs Service and Free Diagnostic Service with a motive to lower the out of pocket expenditure on health.


title: National Health Mission

text: As a new initiative District Hospitals are being strengthened to provide Multi-specialty health care including dialysis care, intensive cardiac care, cancer treatment, mental illness, emergency medical and trauma care etc. These hospitals would act as the knowledge support for clinical care in facilities below it through a tele-medicine center located in the district headquarters and also developed as centers for training of paramedics and nurses.


title: National Health Mission

text: The National Iron+ Initiative is an attempt to look at Iron Deficiency Anaemia in which beneficiaries will receive iron and folic acid supplementation irrespective of their Iron/Hb status. This initiative will bring together existing programmes (IFA supplementation for: pregnant and lactating women and; children in the age group of 6–60 months) and introduce new age groups.


title: Mimetic theory

text: The mimetic theory of desire, an explanation of human behavior and culture, originated with the French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science René Girard (1923-2015). The name of the theory derives from the philosophical concept mimesis, which carries a wide range of meanings. In mimetic theory, mimesis refers to human desire, which Girard thought was not linear but the product of a mimetic process in which people imitate models who endow objects with value. Girard called this phenomenon "mimetic desire", and described mimetic desire as the foundation of his theory:


title: Mimetic theory

text: "Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires."


title: Mimetic theory

text: Mimetic theory posits that mimetic desire leads to natural rivalry and eventually to scapegoating - Girard called this the scapegoat mechanism. In his study of history, Girard formed the hypothesis that societies unify their imitative desires around the destruction of a collectively agreed-upon scapegoat.


title: Mimetic theory

text: Colloquium on Violence & Religion: international organization of scholars and practitioners interested in mimetic theory


title: Steve Kornacki

text: Stephan Joseph Kornacki (born August 22, 1979) is an American political journalist, writer, and television presenter. Kornacki is a national political correspondent for NBC News. He has written articles for "Salon", "The New York Observer", "The Wall Street Journal", "The New York Times", New York "Daily News", the "New York Post", "The Boston Globe", and "The Daily Beast". Kornacki is the multimedia anchor and data analyst for much of MSNBC's "The Place for Politics" campaign coverage, which airs during Election Day in the United States since 2016.


title: Steve Kornacki

text: Kornacki was born in Groton, Massachusetts, to Stephan Joseph Kornacki Sr. and Anne Bernadette (Ramonas). He has an older sister, Kathryn Kornacki, born in January 1978, who is a professor at Caldwell University. He went to Groton-Dunstable Regional High School. Kornacki attended Boston University and graduated with a degree in film and television.


title: Steve Kornacki

text: He started his journalism career as a reporter for PoliticsNJ.com, a New Jersey political news site owned by David Wildstein, where he worked from 2002 to 2006. He formerly co-hosted a political news series on News 12 New Jersey and reported on the U.S. Congress for "Roll Call." His articles have been published in the "New York Observer", "The Wall Street Journal", "The New York Times", the New York "Daily News", the "New York Post", "The Boston Globe", and "The Daily Beast". He is a former politics editor at "Salon".


title: Steve Kornacki

text: From 2012 to 2013, Kornacki co-hosted "The Cycle" on MSNBC with political strategist Krystal Ball, pop-culture commentator Touré Neblett, and conservative columnist S.E. Cupp. He subsequently took over another MSNBC program, "Up", airing Saturdays and Sundays from 8 to 10 a.m., starting in April 2013. Since 2014, he has been MSNBC's election coverage map correspondent. Beginning in 2016, Kornacki hosted a daily program from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., and frequently guest hosts on "Hardball with Chris Matthews", "All In with Chris Hayes" and "The Rachel Maddow Show".


title: Steve Kornacki

text: On May 8, 2017, Kornacki was named National Political Correspondent for NBC News Group, with plans to continue co-hosting the 4 p.m. edition of "MSNBC Live" with Nicolle Wallace. He published a book titled "The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism" in 2018, which chronicles "the polarization of politics". In October 2019, Kornacki began hosting a podcast for NBC News covering the inquiry and first impeachment of Donald Trump called "Article II: Inside Impeachment".


title: Steve Kornacki

text: Following his work on the 2020 United States presidential election, Kornacki was named by "People" as one of the sexiest men alive, with his use of Gap khakis eventually becoming a fashion trend on its own, colloquially referred to as "Kornacki Khakis". He was also approached to bring his unique analytic style to the sports division of NBCUniversal, first appearing on "Football Night in America" in December 2020 to break down playoff scenarios for the remainder of the 2020 NFL season. He would later make appearances on NBC's coverage of the 2021 Kentucky Derby, where he was the only personality to correctly predict Medina Spirit as the apparent winner of the race (although the race win was later given to Mandaloun after a positive drug test by Medina Spirit), and the 2020 Summer Olympics.


title: Steve Kornacki

text: Kornacki is gay and publicly came out in 2011 through a column in "Salon". , he resides in the East Village of Manhattan.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Philosophy of history is the philosophical study of history and its discipline. The term was coined by French philosopher Voltaire.


title: Philosophy of history

text: In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between "speculative" philosophy of history and "critical" philosophy of history, now referred to as "analytic". The former questions the meaning and purpose of the historical process whereas the latter studies the foundations and implications of history and the historical method. The names of these are derived from C. D. Broad's distinction between critical philosophy and speculative philosophy.


title: Philosophy of history

text: In his "Poetics", Aristotle (384–322 BCE) maintained the superiority of poetry over history because poetry speaks of what "ought" or "must" be true rather than merely what "is" true.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Herodotus, a fifth-century BCE contemporary of Socrates, broke from the Homeric tradition of passing narrative from generation to generation in his work "Investigations" (Ancient Greek: Ἱστορίαι; Istoríai), also known as "Histories". Herodotus, regarded by some as the first systematic historian, and, later, Plutarch (46–120 CE) freely invented speeches for their historical figures and chose their historical subjects with an eye toward morally improving the reader. History was supposed to teach good examples for one to follow. The assumption that history "should teach good examples" influenced how writers produced history.


title: Philosophy of history

text: From the Classical period to the Renaissance, historians alternated between focusing on subjects designed to improve mankind and on a devotion to fact. History was composed mainly of hagiographies of monarchs or of epic poetry describing heroic gestures (such as "The Song of Roland"—about the Battle of Roncevaux Pass (778) during Charlemagne's first campaign to conquer the Iberian peninsula).


title: Philosophy of history

text: In the fourteenth century, Ibn Khaldun, who is considered one of the fathers of the philosophy of history, discussed his philosophy of history and society in detail in his "Muqaddimah" (1377). His work represents a culmination of earlier works by medieval Islamic sociologists in the spheres of Islamic ethics, political science, and historiography, such as those of al-Farabi (c. 872 – c. 950), Ibn Miskawayh, al-Dawani, and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274). Ibn Khaldun often criticized "idle superstition and uncritical acceptance of historical data". He introduced a scientific method to the philosophy of history (which Dawood considers something "totally new to his age") and he often referred to it as his "new science",


title: Philosophy of history

text: which is now associated with historiography. His historical method also laid the groundwork for the observation of the role of the state, communication, propaganda, and systematic bias in history.


title: Philosophy of history

text: By the eighteenth century historians had turned toward a more positivist approach—focusing on fact as much as possible, but still with an eye on telling histories that could instruct and improve. Starting with Fustel de Coulanges (1830–1889) and Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903), historical studies began to move towards a more modern scientific form. In the Victorian era, historiographers debated less whether history was intended to improve the reader, and more on what causes turned history and how one could understand historical change.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Many ancient cultures held mythical and theological concepts of history and of time that were not linear. Such societies saw history as cyclical, with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. Plato taught the concept of the Great Year, and other Greeks spoke of aeons. Similar examples include the ancient doctrine of eternal return, which existed in Ancient Egypt, in the Indian religions, among the Greek Pythagoreans' and in the Stoics' conceptions. In his "Works and Days", Hesiod described five Ages of Man: the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, the Heroic Age, and the Iron Age, which began with the Dorian invasion. Some scholars identify just four ages, corresponding to the four metals, with the Heroic age as a description of the Bronze Age. A four-age count would match the Vedic or Hindu ages known as Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga, which together make one Yuga Cycle that repeats. According to Jainism, this world has no beginning or end but goes through cycles of upturns (utsarpini) and downturns (avasarpini) constantly. Many Greeks believed that just as mankind went through four stages of character during each rise and fall of history so did government. They considered democracy and monarchy as the healthy régimes of the higher ages; and oligarchy and tyranny as corrupted régimes common to the lower ages.


title: Philosophy of history

text: In the East, cyclical theories of history developed in China (as a theory of dynastic cycle) and in the Islamic world in the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406).


title: Philosophy of history

text: During the Renaissance, cyclical conceptions of history would become common, with proponents illustrating decay and rebirth by pointing to the decline of the Roman Empire. Machiavelli's "Discourses on Livy" (1513–1517) provide an example. The notion of Empire contained in itself ascendance and decadence, as in Edward Gibbon's "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (1776) (which the Roman Catholic Church placed on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum").


title: Philosophy of history

text: During the Age of Enlightenment, history began to be seen as both linear and irreversible. Condorcet's interpretations of the various "stages of humanity" and Auguste Comte's positivism were among the most important formulations of such conceptions of history, which trusted social progress. As in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "" (1762) treatise on education (or the "art of training men"), the Enlightenment conceived the human species as perfectible: human nature could be infinitely developed through a well-thought pedagogy.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Cyclical conceptions continued in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the works of authors such as Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), Nikolay Danilevsky (1822–1885), and Paul Kennedy (1945– ), who conceived the human past as a series of repetitive rises and falls. Spengler, like Butterfield, when writing in reaction to the carnage of the First World War of 1914–1918, believed that a civilization enters upon an era of Caesarism


title: Philosophy of history

text: after its soul dies. Spengler thought that the soul of the West was dead and that Caesarism was about to begin.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Narrative and causal approaches to history have often been contrasted or even opposed to one another, yet they can also be viewed as complementary. Some philosophers of history such as Arthur Danto have claimed that "explanations in history and elsewhere" describe "not simply an event—something that happens—but a change". Like many practicing historians, they treat causes as intersecting actions and sets of actions which bring about "larger changes", in Danto's words: to decide "what are the elements which persist through a change" is "rather simple" when treating an individual's "shift in attitude", but "it is considerably more complex and metaphysically challenging when we are interested in such a change as, say, the break-up of feudalism or the emergence of nationalism".


title: Philosophy of history

text: Much of the historical debate about causes has focused on the relationship between communicative and other actions, between singular and repeated ones, and between actions, structures of action or group and institutional contexts and wider sets of conditions. John Gaddis has distinguished between exceptional and general causes (following Marc Bloch) and between "routine" and "distinctive links" in causal relationships: "in accounting for what happened at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, we attach greater importance to the fact that President Truman ordered the dropping of an atomic bomb than to the decision of the Army Air Force to carry out his orders." He has also pointed to the difference between immediate, intermediate and distant causes. For his part, Christopher Lloyd puts forward four "general concepts of causation" used in history: the "metaphysical idealist concept, which asserts that the phenomena of the universe are products of or emanations from an omnipotent being or such final cause"; "the empiricist (or Humean) regularity concept, which is based on the idea of causation being a matter of constant conjunctions of events"; "the functional/teleological/consequential concept", which is "goal-directed, so that goals are causes"; and the "realist, structurist and dispositional approach, which sees relational structures and internal dispositions as the causes of phenomena".


title: Philosophy of history

text: There is disagreement about the extent to which history is ultimately deterministic. Some argue that geography, economic systems, or culture prescribe laws that determine the events of history. Others see history as a sequence of consequential processes that act upon each other. Even determinists do not rule out that, from time to time, certain cataclysmic events occur to change course of history. Their main point is, however, that such events are rare and that even apparently large shocks like wars and revolutions often have no more than temporary effects on the evolution of the society.


title: Philosophy of history

text: The question of neutrality concerns itself foremost with analysis of historiography and the biases of historical sources. One prominent manifestation of this analysis is the idea that "history is written by the victors". This phrase appears to have been coined by George Graham Vest to explain the Lost Cause of the losing side of the American Civil War.


title: Philosophy of history

text: In his "Society Must Be Defended", Michel Foucault posits that the victors of a social struggle use their political dominance to suppress a defeated adversary's version of historical events in favor of their own propaganda, which may go so far as historical negationism. Wolfgang Schivelbusch's "Culture of Defeat" takes an opposing approach that defeat is a major driver for the defeated to reinvent himself, while the victor, confirmed in his attitudes and methods, dissatisfied by the high losses and paltry gains made, may be less creative and fall back.


title: Philosophy of history

text: For G. W. F. Hegel, the history of the world is also the Last Judgement. Hegel adopts the expression "Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht" ("World history is a tribunal that judges the World"; a quote from Friedrich Schiller's poem "Resignation" published in 1786) and asserts that history is what judges men, their actions and their opinions. Since the twentieth century, Western historians have disavowed the aspiration to provide a judgement of history. The goals of historical judgements or interpretations are separate to those of legal judgements, that need to be formulated quickly after the events and be final.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Related to the issues of historical judgement are those of the pretension to neutrality and objectivity. Analytic and critical philosophers of history have debated whether historians should express judgements on historical figures, or if this would infringe on their supposed role. In general, positivists and neopositivists oppose any value-judgement as unscientific.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Early teleological approaches to history can be found in theodicies, which attempted to reconcile the problem of evil with the existence of God—providing a global explanation of history with belief in a progressive directionality organized by a superior power, leading to an eschatological end, such as a Messianic Age or Apocalypse. However, this transcendent teleological approach can be thought as immanent to human history itself. Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, in his 1679 "Discourse On Universal History", and Gottfried Leibniz, who coined the term, formulated such philosophical theodicies. Leibniz based his explanation on the principle of sufficient reason, which states that anything that happens, does happen for a specific reason. Thus, if one adopts God's perspective, seemingly evil events in fact only take place in the larger divine plan. In this way theodicies explained the necessity of evil as a relative element that forms part of a larger plan of history. However, Leibniz's principles were not a gesture of fatalism. Confronted with the antique problem of future contingents, Leibniz developed the theory of compossible worlds, distinguishing two types of necessity, in response to the problem of determinism.


title: Philosophy of history

text: G. W. F. Hegel may represent the epitome of teleological philosophy of history. Hegel's teleology was taken up by Francis Fukuyama in his "The End of History and the Last Man". Thinkers such as Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Althusser, or Deleuze deny any teleological sense to history, claiming that it is best characterized by discontinuities, ruptures, and various time-scales, which the Annales School had demonstrated.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Schools of thought influenced by Hegel also see history as progressive, but they see progress as the outcome of a dialectic in which factors working in opposite directions are over time reconciled. History was best seen as directed by a , and traces of the could be seen by looking backward. Hegel believed that history was moving man toward civilization, and some also claim he thought that the Prussian state incarnated the "end of history". In his "Lessons on the History of Philosophy", he explains that each epochal philosophy is in a way the whole of philosophy; it is not a subdivision of the Whole but this Whole itself apprehended in a specific modality.


title: Philosophy of history

text: G. W. F. Hegel developed a complex theodicy in his 1807 "Phenomenology of Spirit", which based its conception of history on dialectics. The negative was conceived by Hegel as the motor of history. Hegel argued that history is a constant process of dialectic clash, with each thesis encountering an opposing idea or event antithesis. The clash of both was "superated" in the synthesis, a conjunction that conserved the contradiction between thesis and its antithesis while sublating it. As Marx famously explained afterwards, concretely that meant that if Louis XVI's monarchic rule in France was seen as the thesis, the French Revolution could be seen as its antithesis. However, both were sublated in Napoleon, who reconciled the revolution with the "Ancien Régime"; he conserved the change. Hegel thought that reason accomplished itself, through this dialectical scheme, in History. Through labour, man transformed nature so he could recognize himself in it; he made it his "home." Thus, reason spiritualized nature. Roads, fields, fences, and all the modern infrastructure in which we live is the result of this spiritualization of nature. Hegel thus explained social progress as the result of the labour of reason in history. However, this dialectical reading of history involved, of course, contradiction, so history was also conceived of as constantly conflicting: Hegel theorized this in his famous dialectic of the lord and the bondsman.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Thus, philosophy was to explain "Geschichte" (history) afterward. Philosophy is always late, it is only an interpretation of what is rational in the real—and, according to Hegel, only what is recognized as rational is real. This idealist understanding of philosophy as interpretation was famously challenged by Karl Marx's "11th thesis on Feuerbach" (1845): ""Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.""


title: Philosophy of history

text: After Hegel, who insisted on the role of "great men" in history, with his famous statement about Napoleon, "I saw the Spirit on his horse", Thomas Carlyle argued that history was the biography of a few central individuals, heroes, such as Oliver Cromwell or Frederick the Great, writing that "The History of the world is but the Biography of great men." His view of heroes included not only political and military figures, the founders or topplers of states, but artists, poets, theologians and other cultural leaders. His history of great men, of geniuses, sought to organize change in the advent of greatness.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Explicit defenses of Carlyle's position have been rare since the late twentieth century. Most philosophers of history contend that the motive forces in history can best be described only with a wider lens than the one he used for his portraits. A.C. Danto, for example, wrote of the importance of the individual in history, but extended his definition to include "social individuals", defined as "individuals we may provisionally characterize as containing individual human beings amongst their parts. Examples of social individuals might be social classes [. . .], national groups [. . .], religious organizations [. . .], large-scale events [. . .], large-scale social movements [. . .], etc." The great man theory of history was most popular with professional historians in the nineteenth century; a popular work of this school is the "Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition" (1911), which contains lengthy and detailed biographies about the great men of history.


title: Philosophy of history

text: After Marx's conception of a materialist history based on the class struggle, which raised attention for the first time to the importance of social factors such as economics in the unfolding of history, Herbert Spencer wrote "You must admit that the genesis of the great man depends on the long series of complex influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown. . . . Before he can remake his society, his society must make him."


title: Philosophy of history

text: Inspired by the Enlightenment's ideal of progress, social evolutionism became a popular conception in the nineteenth century. Auguste Comte's (1798–1857) positivist conception of history, which he divided into the theological stage, the metaphysical stage and the positivist stage, brought upon by modern science, was one of the most influential doctrines of progress. The Whig interpretation of history, as it was later called, associated with scholars of the Victorian and Edwardian eras in Britain, such as Henry Maine or Thomas Macaulay, gives an example of such influence, by looking at human history as progress from savagery and ignorance toward peace, prosperity, and science. Maine described the direction of progress as "from status to contract," from a world in which a child's whole life is pre-determined by the circumstances of his birth, toward one of mobility and choice.


title: Philosophy of history

text: The publication of Darwin's "The Origin of Species" in 1859 introduced human evolution. However, it was quickly transposed from its original biological field to the social field, in social Darwinist theories. Herbert Spencer, who coined the term "survival of the fittest", or Lewis Henry Morgan in "Ancient Society" (1877) developed evolutionist theories independent from Darwin's works, which would be later interpreted as social Darwinism. These nineteenth-century unilineal evolution theories claimed that societies start out in a primitive state and gradually become more civilised over time, and equated the culture and technology of Western civilisation with progress.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Arthur Gobineau's "An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races" (1853–55) argued that race is "the" primary force determining world events, that there are intellectual differences between human races, and that civilizations decline and fall when the races are mixed. Gobineau's works had a large popularity in the so-called scientific racism theories that developed during the New Imperialism period.


title: Philosophy of history

text: After the first world war, and even before Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) harshly criticized it, the Whig interpretation had gone out of style. The bloodletting of that conflict had indicted the whole notion of linear progress. Paul Valéry famously said: "We civilizations now know ourselves mortal."


title: Philosophy of history

text: However, the notion itself didn't completely disappear. "The End of History and the Last Man" (1992) by Francis Fukuyama proposed a similar notion of progress, positing that the worldwide adoption of liberal democracies as the single accredited political system and even modality of human consciousness would represent the "End of History". Fukuyama's work stems from a Kojevian reading of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" (1807).


title: Philosophy of history

text: Unlike Maurice Godelier who interprets history as a process of transformation, Tim Ingold suggests that history is a movement of autopoiesis


title: Philosophy of history

text: A key component to making sense of all of this is to simply recognize that all these issues in social evolution merely serve to support the suggestion that how one considers the nature of history will impact the interpretation and conclusions drawn about history. The critical under-explored question is less about history as content and more about history as process.


title: Philosophy of history

text: In 2011 Steven Pinker wrote a history of violence and humanity from an evolutionary perspective in which he shows that violence has declined statistically over time.


title: Philosophy of history

text: As early as the 18th century, philosophers began focusing on contextual factors contributing to the course of history. Historians of the Annales School, founded in 1929 by Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, were a major landmark in the shift from a history centered on individual subjects to studies concentrating in geography, economics, demography, and other social forces. Fernand Braudel's studies on the Mediterranean Sea as "hero" of history and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's history of climate were inspired by this school.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Karl Marx is often thought to be an exponent of economic determinism. For him social institutions like religion, culture and the political system were merely by-products of the underlying economic system. However, he did not see history as completely deterministic. His essay "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon" contains the most famous formulation of Marx's view of the role of the individual in history:


title: Philosophy of history

text: The historico-political discourse analyzed by Michel Foucault in "Society Must Be Defended" (1975–76) considers truth as the fragile product of a historical struggle, first conceptualized as race struggle—understood not in the modern sense of biological race but closer to that of a people or nation. Boulainvilliers, for example, was an exponent of nobility rights. He claimed that the French nobility were the racial descendants of the Franks who invaded France (while the Third Estate was descended from the conquered Gauls), and had right to power by virtue of right of conquest. He used this approach to formulate a historical thesis of the course of French political history—a critique of both the monarchy and the Third Estate. Foucault regards him as the founder of the historico-political discourse as political weapon.


title: Philosophy of history

text: In Great Britain, this historico-political discourse was used by the bourgeoisie, the people and the aristocracy as a means of struggle against the monarchy—cf. Edward Coke or John Lilburne. In France, Boulainvilliers, Nicolas Fréret, and then Sieyès, Augustin Thierry, and Cournot reappropriated this form of discourse. Finally, at the end of the nineteenth century, this discourse was incorporated by racialist biologists and eugenicists, who gave it the modern sense of race and, even more, transformed this popular discourse into a state racism in Nazism. Foucault also presents that Marxists too seized this discourse and took it in a different direction, transforming the essentialist notion of race into the historical notion of class struggle, defined by socially structured position. This displacement of discourse constitutes one of the bases of Foucault's thought—that discourse is not tied to the subject, rather the subject is a construction of discourse. Moreover, discourse is not the simple ideological and mirror reflexion of an economic infrastructure, but is a product and the battlefield of multiples forces—which may not be reduced to the simple dualist contradiction of two energies.


title: Philosophy of history

text: Foucault shows that what specifies this discourse from the juridical and philosophical discourse is its conception of truth—that truth is no longer absolute, it is the product of race struggle. History itself, which was traditionally the sovereign's science, the legend of his glorious feats and monument building, ultimately became the discourse of the people, thus a political stake. The subject is not any more a neutral arbitrator, judge, or legislator, as in Solon's or Kant's conceptions. Therefore, what became the historical subject must search in history's furor, under the "juridical code's dried blood", the multiple contingencies from which a fragile rationality temporarily finally emerged. This may be, perhaps, compared to the sophist discourse in Ancient Greece. Foucault warns that it has nothing to do with Machiavelli's or Hobbes's discourse on war, for to this popular discourse, the sovereign is nothing more than "an illusion, an instrument, or, at the best, an enemy. It is a discourse that beheads the king, anyway that dispenses itself from the sovereign and that denounces it".


title: Philosophy of history

text: A current popular conception considers the value of narrative in the writing and experience of history. Important thinkers in this area include Paul Ricœur, Louis Mink, W.B. Gallie, and Hayden White. Some have doubted this approach because it draws fictional and historical narrative closer together, and there remains a perceived "fundamental bifurcation between historical and fictional narrative" (Ricœur, vol. 1, 52). In spite of this, most modern historians, such as Barbara Tuchman or David McCullough, consider narrative writing important to their approaches. The theory of narrated history (or historicized narrative) holds that the structure of lived experience, and such experience narrated in both fictional and non-fictional works (literature and historiography) have in common the figuration of "temporal experience." In this way, narrative has a generously encompassing ability to "'grasp together' and integrate . . . into one whole and complete story" the "composite representations" of historical experience (Ricœur x, 173). Louis Mink writes that, "the significance of past occurrences is understandable only as they are locatable in the ensemble of interrelationships that can be grasped only in the construction of narrative form" (148). Marxist theorist Fredric Jameson also analyzes historical understanding this way, and writes that "history is inaccessible to us except in textual form . . . it can be approached only by way of prior (re)textualization" (82).


title: Philosophy of history

text: Since Plato's "Republic", civic education and instruction has had a central role in politics and the constitution of a common identity. History has thus sometimes become the target of propaganda, for example in historical revisionist attempts. Plato's insistence on the importance of education was relayed by Rousseau's "" (1762), a counterpart to "The Social Contract" (1762). Public education has been seen by republican regimes and the Enlightenment as a prerequisite of the masses' progressive emancipation, as conceived by Kant in "Was Ist Aufklärung?" ("What Is Enlightenment?", 1784).


title: Philosophy of history

text: The creation of modern education systems, instrumental in the construction of nation states, also passed by the elaboration of a common, national history. History textbooks are one of the many ways through which this common history was transmitted. "Le Tour de France par deux enfants", for example, was the French Third Republic's classic textbook for elementary school: it described the story of two French children who, following the German annexation of the Alsace-Lorraine region in 1870, go on a "tour de France" during which they become aware of France's diversity and the existence of the various "patois".


title: Brina Palencia

text: Brina Michelle Palencia (born February 13, 1984) is an American voice and television actress. She has voiced a number of English-language versions of characters featured in anime.


title: Brina Palencia

text: Palencia provided the dubbed voices of Tony Tony Chopper in "One Piece", Touka Kirishima in "Tokyo Ghoul", Vi Graythorn in "Case Closed", Eve in "Black Cat", Honoka Sakurai in "Suzuka", Ai Enma in "Hell Girl", Kazumi Yoshida in "Shakugan no Shana", Kurumu Kurono in "Rosario + Vampire", Ciel Phantomhive in "Black Butler", Juvia Lockser in "Fairy Tail", Holo in "Spice and Wolf", Kazuhiro Mitogawa in "Ga-Rei: Zero", Sakura Minamoto in "Zombie Land Saga", Yuno Gasai in "Future Diary", Miharu Rokujo in "Nabari no Ou", Ruiko Saten in "A Certain Scientific Railgun", Maho Minami in "", Ryoko Okami in "Okami-san and Her Seven Companions", Minoru Mineta in "My Hero Academia", and Isuzu Soma in "Fruits Basket". On camera, she starred as Sophia in The CW series "Star-Crossed" and has appeared in "The Walking Dead" and "Castle". In video games, she voices Mad Moxxi in the "Borderlands" series, and Ayra from "" and Lute from "" in the 2017 mobile game "Fire Emblem Heroes".


title: Brina Palencia

text: Palencia was born and raised in Oklahoma. As a child, she lived in Honduras until she was four. Throughout her childhood, she went back and forth between La Ceiba, Honduras and Owasso, Oklahoma.


title: Brina Palencia

text: She settled in Dallas, Texas and graduated from Weatherford High School in 2002. While studying at the University of North Texas, she was influenced by the anime series "Dragon Ball Z". After graduating from UNT with a Bachelor of Arts in music in 2006, she began her career as a voice actress for Funimation. She was also a director, but eventually focused more on the acting side of the productions.


title: Brina Palencia

text: In her live-action work, she was the host of GameStop TV and has appeared in independent films, such as "The Ladies of the House" and "Lumberjack Man". In 2014, she had a starring role as Roman's younger sister Sophia in The CW's science fiction romantic drama "Star-Crossed". In 2017, she was credited with performing a parody version of Sarah McLachlan's "In the Arms of An Angel", titled "On the Wings of a Battmann," in a "Cyanide & Happiness" short of the same name.


title: Brina Palencia

text: Her brother, Gino Palencia, works at Funimation as an ADR engineer and production assistant. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband Paul Wingo, who she was married to on January 5, 2013. On September 12, 2018, Palencia announced her pregnancy on Twitter that she was expecting her first child. She gave birth to a boy, Arthur Wingo, on February 1, 2019.


title: GAC Group

text: Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (GAC Group) is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong. Founded in 1954, it is currently the fifth largest automobile manufacturer in China, with 2.144 million sales in 2021.


title: GAC Group

text: The company produces and sells vehicles under its own branding, such as Trumpchi, Aion, Hycan as well as under foreign-branded joint ventures such as GAC-Toyota, GAC-Honda, and GAC-Mitsubishi. It also produces electric vehicles under some of the previously listed brandings, including dedicated EV brands such as Aion and Hycan.


title: GAC Group

text: In 2021, it was the fourth largest Chinese plug-in electric vehicle manufacturer in the Chinese market, with 4% of market share. It sold 123,660 units of EVs in 2021, and over 20,000 units in March 2022, with plans to double EV production capacity to 400,000 a year by December 2022.


title: GAC Group

text: It produces buses under the GAC Bus brand. GAC is currently known for its Honda-branded auto producing joint venture with this Japanese automaker, but the company has a total of five foreign partners—more than most Chinese automakers. These partnerships allow it to produce foreign-branded products for sale in China. These brands include: Fiat, Jeep, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Toyota. Other brand names associated with GAC are Everus, for consumer vehicles, and Hino.


title: GAC Group

text: Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. was founded in 1955, and in 2005 become a holding of Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group and a joint-stock company. As of 2009 it was the 6th-largest automaker in China.


title: GAC Group

text: In 2009, the company acquired 29% of the Chinese sport-utility vehicle maker Changfeng Automobile, becoming its biggest shareholder. GAC purchased the remaining portion of Changfeng in 2011 completing its acquisition of the company.


title: GAC Group

text: Previously a backdoor listing via Denway Motors, GAC became listed under its own name on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in 2010. In that year shareholders of Denway Motors approved its privatization by GAC. Denway Motors was subsequently delisted on 25 August 2010 and replaced by Guangzhou Automobile Group () on 30 August 2010 via stock swap.


title: GAC Group

text: In late 2010 GAC purchased 51% ownership of Gonow, a midsize Chinese automaker of sport-utility vehicles, subcompacts, and pickup trucks.


title: GAC Group

text: In December 2010 GAC launched the new Trumpchi marque. Its initial product was based on the Alfa Romeo 166.


title: GAC Group

text: In 2010 GAC was among the ten largest Chinese carmakers reaching number six and selling 724,200 vehicles.


title: GAC Group

text: 2011 saw the company retain its position as the sixth-largest Chinese automaker by production volume, with GAC making 740,400 vehicles in that year.


title: GAC Group

text: GAC New Energy Automobile Co is the NEV arm of GAC. GAC New Energy produces their own EV brand, Aion.


title: GAC Group

text: Hycan is a brand by GAC-NIO New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Chinese automobile manufacturers GAC Group and Nio Inc., founded in April 2019 to produce electric vehicles. In early 2021, GAC took a controlling stake in the company, diluting Nio's share to 4.5%.


title: GAC Group

text: In 2009, GAC owned 29% ownership of this SUV-maker a purchase supposedly imposed by the Chinese state as a condition of a then-upcoming joint venture with Fiat. GAC completed its acquisition of Changfeng in 2011. In 2012 Changfeng Group began moves to re-enter the vehicle business culminating in the move to a new headquarters in Changsha in January 2013 and the establishment of a new subsidiary, Hunan Liebao Automobile Co. Ltd., alongside the continuing Anhui Changfeng Yangzi Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., to oversea manufacturing and marketing of vehicles under the Liebao or "Leopaard" brand.


title: GAC Group

text: Gonow (officially Zhejiang Gonow Auto Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, commercial vehicles and SUV's headquartered in Taizhou, Zhejiang and a subsidiary of GAC Group. It markets its products under the brand name GAC Gonow in China and as Gonow in other markets.


title: GAC Group

text: Fiat signed on to a joint venture with GAC on 6 July 2009, and GAC FIAT Automobiles Co Ltd was incorporated on 9 March 2010. The new company has a production base in Changsha, Hunan Province, that opened on 28 June 2012 to manufacture the Dodge Dart-based Fiat Viaggio.


title: GAC Group

text: Guangqi Honda is a 50:50 joint venture between GAC and Honda, which has been making a number of Honda and Acura-branded vehicles for the Chinese market since 1999. It started sales of its own brand, Everus in 2011.


title: GAC Group

text: GAC Mitsubishi Motors is a joint venture between GAC and the Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors. It became operational in September 2012 following a late 2010 memorandum of understanding.


title: GAC Group

text: GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. is a 50:50 joint venture between GAC and Toyota Motor Company which manufactures Toyota vehicles for the Chinese market. It was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Guangzhou.


title: GAC Group

text: GAC BYD is a joint venture between GAC (49%) and BYD (51%) to produce BYD-designed busses under GAC's brand name.


title: GAC Group

text: Guangzhou Isuzu Bus Co., Ltd. was a coach manufacturing joint venture between GAC (51%), Isuzu Motors (33.67%) and Isuzu (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (15.33%) that was established on 6 March 2000. Isuzu light trucks and buses were also built by Guangzhou Yangcheng Automobile (), a joint venture with Hong Kong China Lounge Logistics. Their light trucks are based on the Isuzu Elf and are marketed under the "YCACO" brand. Yangcheng's various bus building operations were merged with Guangzhou Isuzu Bus and Denway into the Guangzhou Bus Co., Ltd. in September 2008. At the same time, Guangzhou Yangcheng's truck making arm was merged into Guangzhou Hino.


title: GAC Group

text: One of the first Sino-western joint venture auto-making companies, Guangzhou Peugeot Automobile Co. Ltd. was a joint venture set up by PSA Peugeot Citroën and the Guangzhou Municipal government between 1985 and 1997. Over its eleven-year lifespan, the company produced about 100,000 cars.


title: GAC Group

text: Sales began in 1989 mainly as automobiles for government officials and taxis. Its model line comprised the Peugeot 505 and 504.


title: GAC Group

text: Trumpchi made its first appearance at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2013, where the Trumpchi E-Jet concept made its world debut. In 2017, the company returned and showed three SUVs and two sedans. In January 2018, Trumpchi brought five new models and a concept SUV, the Enverge. GAC established research and development teams in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles in 2017 and 2018, respectively.


title: GAC Group

text: Bazerji Motors SAL. On 29 May 2015, GAC Group partnered with Doha Marketing and Services Company (DOMASCO), to market and sell their vehicles to the local customers in the Middle East.


title: GAC Group

text: During the 2019 Detroit Auto Show they announced delays to their sales plans to the first half of 2020.


title: GAC Group

text: On 22 May 2019, an indefinite postponement of their US market plans was announced due to the China–U.S. trade war.


title: GAC Group

text: GAC was the sponsor of the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships held in Rotterdam and the title sponsor of the 2012 ITTF World Tour.


title: GAC Group

text: GAC was the title sponsor of the 2013 World Team Cup Table Tennis tournament held in its home city of Guangzhou.


title: P. League+

text: The P. League+ (stylized as P. LEAGUE+, abbreviated as PLG), pronounced as Plus League, is a Taiwanese men's professional basketball league founded in 2020.


title: P. League+

text: The P. League+ was founded by Blackie Chen in 2020. It is the first fully professional basketball league in Taiwan after the Chinese Basketball Alliance (CBA) ceased operations in 2000. The first four teams participating in the inaugural season are the Formosa Taishin Dreamers, the Hsinchu JKO Lioneers, the Taipei Fubon Braves, and the Taoyuan Pilots. In its second season 2021–22, the P. League+ added two more teams, the New Taipei Kings and the Kaohsiung Steelers.


title: P. League+

text: Each team is allowed to have on their roster 16 local players (from which two can either be both overseas Chinese players or a foreign student and an overseas Chinese player) and 3 foreign players.Until to second season only two foreign players can play per game, and only one foreign player can play in the fourth quarter.


title: P. League+

text: Each team plays 40 games, 20 each for home and away. Games are scheduled mainly on weekends and national holidays.


title: P. League+

text: The second seed plays the third seed in a best-of-five playoff series, which is played in the 2-2-1 format. The winner of the playoffs plays the first seed in a best-of-seven finals series, which is played in the 2-2-1-1-1 format.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: Lebor Gabála Érenn (literally "The Book of the Taking of Ireland"), known in English as The Book of Invasions, is a collection of poems and prose narratives in the Irish language intended to be a history of Ireland and the Irish from the creation of the world to the Middle Ages. There are a number of versions, the earliest of which was compiled by an anonymous writer in the 11th century. It synthesised narratives that had been developing over the foregoing centuries. The "Lebor Gabála" tells of Ireland being settled (or "taken") six times by six groups of people: the people of Cessair, the people of Partholón, the people of Nemed, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Milesians. The first four groups are wiped out or forced to abandon the island; the fifth group represent Ireland's pagan gods, while the final group represent the Irish people (the Gaels).


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The "Lebor Gabála" was highly influential and was largely "accepted as conventional history by poets and scholars down until the 19th century". Today, scholars regard the "Lebor Gabála" as primarily myth rather than history. It appears to be mostly based on medieval Christian pseudo-histories, but it also incorporates some of Ireland’s native pagan mythology. Scholars believe that the goal of its writers was to provide a history for Ireland that could compare to that of Rome or Israel, and which was compatible with Christian teaching. The "Lebor Gabála" became one of the most popular and influential works of early Irish literature. Mark Williams says it was "written in order to bridge the chasm between Christian world-chronology and the prehistory of Ireland". It is suggested, for example, that there are six 'takings' to match the "Six Ages of the World".


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The "Lebor Gabála" is usually known in English as "The Book of Invasions" or "The Book of Conquests". In Modern Irish it is "Leabhar Gabhála Éireann" or "Leabhar Gabhála na hÉireann".


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: It was purported to be a history of Ireland and the Irish. Thomas F. O'Rahilly in a critical analysis said that the purpose of "Lebor Gabála Érenn" (hereinafter abbreviated as "LGE") was three-fold:


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: firstly to unite the population by obliterating the memory of previous and different ethnic groups, secondly to weaken the influence of pre-Christian pagan religions by converting their gods into mere mortals, and thirdly to manufacture pedigrees into which the various dynastic groups could conveniently be fitted


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: Scholars believe that the writers sought to create an epic written history comparable to that of the Israelites in the Old Testament of the Bible. This history was also intended to fit the Irish into Christian world-chronology and connect them to Adam. In doing so, it links them to events from the Old Testament and likens them to the Israelites. Ancestors of the Irish were described as enslaved in a foreign land, fleeing into exile, and wandering in the wilderness, or sighting the "Promised Land" from afar. The account also drew from the pagan myths of Gaelic Ireland but reinterpreted them in the light of Christian theology and historiography.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The pre-Christian elements, however, were never entirely effaced. One of the poems in LGE, for instance, recounts how goddesses from among the Tuatha Dé Danann took husbands from the Gaeil when they 'invaded' and 'colonised' Ireland. The pattern of successive invasions recounted in the LGE is reminiscent of Timagenes of Alexandria's account of the origins of the Gauls of continental Europe. Cited by the 4th-century historian Ammianus Marcellinus, Timagenes (1st century BC) describes how the ancestors of the Gauls were driven from their native lands in eastern Europe by a succession of wars and floods.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: Numerous fragments of Ireland's mythological history are scattered throughout the 7th and 8th centuries. In his "Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History" (1861), Eugene O'Curry, Professor of Irish History and Archaeology at the Catholic University of Ireland, discussed various genres of historical tales mentioned in the manuscripts:


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The "Tochomladh" was an Immigration or arrival of a Colony; and under this name the coming of the several colonies of "Parthalon" of "Nemedh", of the Firbolgs, the "Tuatha Dé Danann", the Milesians, etc., into Erinn, are all described in separate tales. It is probably from the original records of these ancient stories that the early part of the various Books of Invasions has been compiled.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The earliest extant account of the purported history of Ireland is to be found in the "Historia Brittonum" or "History of the Britons", written in Wales in the 9th century. This text gives two separate accounts of early Irish history. The first consists of a series of successive colonisations from Iberia by the pre-Gaelic peoples of Ireland, all of which were included in LGE. The second recounts the origins of the Gaeil themselves, and tells how they became masters of the country and 'ancestors' of all the Irish.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: R. A. Stewart Macalister believes that the LGE was a conflation of two independent works: a "History of the Gaedil" (modelled after the history of the Israelites in the Old Testament), and an account of several pre-Gaelic settlements of Ireland (to the historicity of which Macalister gave very little credence). The latter was then inserted into the middle of the other work. Macalister theorised that the quasi-Biblical text had been a scholarly Latin work named "Liber Occupationis Hiberniae" ("The Book of the Taking of Ireland").


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: These two stories continued to be enriched and elaborated upon by Irish historian-poets throughout the 9th century. In the 10th and 11th centuries, several long historical poems were written that were later incorporated into the scheme of LGE. Most of the poems on which the 11th-12th century version of LGE was based were written by the following four poets:


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: It was late in the 11th century that a single anonymous scholar appears to have brought together these and numerous other poems and fitted them into an elaborate prose framework – partly of his own composition and partly drawn from older, no longer extant sources (i.e. the "tochomlaidh" referred to above by O'Curry), paraphrasing and enlarging the verse. The result was the earliest version of LGE. It was written in Middle Irish, a form of Irish Gaelic used between 900 and 1200.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: From the beginning, LGE proved to be an enormously popular and influential document, quickly acquiring canonical status. Older texts were altered to bring their narratives into closer accord with its version of history, and numerous new poems were written and inserted into it. Within a century of its compilation there existed a plethora of copies and revisions, with as many as 136 poems between them. Five recensions of LGE are now extant, surviving in more than a dozen medieval manuscripts:


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The following table summarises the extant manuscripts that contain versions of LGE. Most of the abbreviations used are taken from R. A. S. Macalister's critical edition of the work (see references for details):


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The LGE was translated into French in 1884. The first complete English translation was made by R. A. Stewart Macalister between 1937 and 1942. It was accompanied by an apparatus criticus, Macalister's own notes and an introduction.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: There now follows a brief outline of the text of the "Lebor Gabála", which can be divided into ten chapters.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: A retelling of the familiar Christian story of the creation, the fall of Man and the early history of the world. In addition to Genesis, the author draws upon several recondite works for many of his details (e.g. the Syriac "Cave of Treasures"), as well as the four Christian works mentioned earlier (i.e. "The City of God", etc.).


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: This part also contains a genealogy derived via the "Historia Brittonum" from the 6th-century Frankish Table of Nations, itself relying partly on the 1st-century "Germania" of Tacitus. It gives the descent of the major peoples of Europe from three brothers.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: This chapter begins by explaining that all mankind is descended from Adam through the sons of Noah. It tells us how Noah's son Japheth is the forebear of all Europeans (see Japhetites), how Japheth's son Magog is the forebear of the Gaels and Scythians, and how Fénius Farsaid is the forebear of the Gaels. Fénius, a prince of Scythia, is described as one of 72 chieftains who built the Tower of Babel. His son Nel weds Scota, daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh, and they have a son named Goídel Glas. Goídel crafts the Goidelic (Gaelic) language from the original 72 languages that arose after the confusion of tongues. Goídel's offspring, the Goidels (Gaels), leave Egypt at the same time as the Israelites (the Exodus) and settle in Scythia. After some time they leave Scythia and spend 440 years traveling the Earth, undergoing trials and tribulations akin to those of the Israelites. The druid Caicher foretells that their descendants will reach Ireland. After seven years at sea, they settle in the Maeotian marshes. They then sail via Crete and Sicily and eventually conquer Iberia. There, Goídel's descendant Breogán founds a city called Brigantia, and builds a tower from the top of which his son Íth glimpses Ireland. Brigantia was the Roman name of Corunna in Galicia and Breogán's tower is possibly based on the Tower of Hercules, which was rebuilt at Corunna by the Romans.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: According to the "Lebor Gabála", the first people to arrive in Ireland are led by Cessair, daughter of Bith, son of Noah. They are told to go to the western edge of the world to escape the oncoming Flood. They set out in three ships, but two are lost at sea. They land in Ireland, at Dún na mBárc on Bantry Bay, forty days before the Flood. The only survivors are Cessair, forty-nine other women, and three men: Fintan mac Bóchra, Bith and Ladra. The women are split evenly among the men. Each also takes one as his wife: Fintán takes Cessair, Bith takes Barrfhind and Ladra takes Alba. However, Bith and Ladra soon die and Ladra is the first man buried in Ireland. When the Flood comes, Fintán is the only one to survive. He becomes a salmon and later an eagle and a hawk, living for 5,500 years after the Flood, whence he becomes a man again and recounts Ireland's history.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: In an earlier version of the tale, the first woman in Ireland is Banba. Banba, Fódla and Ériu were a trio of land goddesses and their husbands were Mac Cuill (son of hazel), Mac Cecht (son of the plough) and Mac Gréine (son of the Sun). It is likely that Cessair, the three men and their three wives are a Christianised replacement for them. Fintán/Mac Cuill may also be linked to the Salmon of Knowledge, which gains all the world's knowledge after eating nine hazelnuts that fall into a well. The women who accompany Cessair appear by their names to represent the world's ancestral mothers; they included Alba (ancestor of the Britons), Espa (Spanish), German (Germans), Gothiam (Goths), Traige (Thracians), and so forth. Thus "their arrival can be read as creating a microcosm of the whole world's population in Ireland". Several other companions echo the names of ancient Irish goddesses.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: Ireland is then uninhabited for 300 years, until a second group of people arrive. They are led by Partholón, who is descended from Noah through Magog. They sail to Ireland via Gothia, Anatolia, Greece, Sicily and Iberia. They include Partholón's wife Delgnat, their four chieftain sons, and others. When they arrive, there is only one open plain, three lakes and nine rivers. They clear four more plains and a further seven lakes burst from the ground. Named figures are credited with introducing cattle husbandry, ploughing, cooking, brewing, and dividing the island in four. They battle and defeat the mysterious Fomorians, who are led by Cichol Gricenchos. Eventually, Partholón and his people (now 5,000 men and 4,000 women) die of plague in a single week. Only one man, Tuan mac Cairill, survives. Like Fintán, he lives for centuries in a number of forms, so that he can recount Irish history. This chapter also includes the tale of Delgnat committing adultery with a servant.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: "Partholón" comes from "Bartholomaeus" (Bartholomew) and he is likely an invention of the Christian writers, possibly being borrowed from a character of that name in the Christian histories of Saint Jerome and Isidore. The Fomorians have been interpreted as a group of deities who represent the harmful or destructive powers of nature; personifications of chaos, darkness, death, blight and drought.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: Ireland is then uninhabited for 30 years, until a third group of people arrive. They are led by Nemed, who is also descended from Noah through Magog.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: They set out from the Caspian Sea in 44 ships but, after a year and a half of sailing, the only ship to reach Ireland is Nemed's. On board are his wife, his four chieftain sons, and others. During their time in Ireland, the Nemedians clear twelve plains and build two royal forts, and four lakes burst from the ground. They win four battles against the Fomorians.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: After Nemed and many others die of plague, the Nemedians are oppressed by the Fomorians Conand and Morc. Each Samhain, they must give two thirds of their children, their wheat and their milk to the Fomorians. This tribute that the Nemedians are forced to pay may be "a dim memory of sacrifice offered at the beginning of winter, when the powers of darkness and blight are in the ascendant". Eventually, they rise up against the Fomorians and attack the Tower of Conand with 60,000 warriors (30,000 on sea and 30,000 on land), defeating Conand. Morc then attacks, and almost all of the Nemedians are either killed in the fighting or swept away by the sea. Only one ship of thirty men escapes. Some of them go "into the north of the world", some go to Britain and become the ancestors of all Britons, and some go south to Greece.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: Those who went to Greece were enslaved by the Greeks and made to carry bags of soil and clay. After 230 years, they sail back to Ireland. They are known as the Fir Bolg (men of bags), and contain two sub-groups known as the Fir Domnann and Fir Gálioin. Led by their five chieftains, they divide Ireland into five provinces: Gann takes North Munster, Sengann takes South Munster, Genann takes Connacht, Rudraige takes Ulster and Slanga takes Leinster. A succession of nine High Kings rule over Ireland for the next 37 years.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: Those who went into the north of the world are the supernaturally-gifted Tuatha Dé Danann (or Tuath Dé), who represent the main pagan gods of Ireland. They come to Ireland in dark clouds and land on Sliabh an Iarainn in the west, bringing with them Four Treasures. They fight the Fir Bolg for the ownership of Ireland in the First Battle of Mag Tuired (Moytura). The Tuath Dé are victorious. In some versions, the Fir Bolg flee Ireland and settle on remote offshore islands, while in others they are granted the province of Connacht. Nuada, king of the Tuath Dé, loses his hand or arm in the battle and is thus no longer fit to be their king. He is replaced by Bres (a half-Fomorian), who becomes High King of Ireland. However, Bres mistreats the Tuath Dé and neglects his kingly duties. This may reflect the occasional supremacy of the powers of blight (the Fomorians) over the powers of growth (the Tuath Dé). After seven years, Dian Cecht the physician and Credne the metalsmith replace Nuada's hand/arm with a working silver one, and he re-takes the kingship. Though in some versions Nuada's arm is replaced with a silver one by Dian Cecht immediately, but he is still considered fit to be king and Dian Cecht's son Cian replaces it with an arm made of flesh. The Tuath Dé then fight the Fomorians in the Second Battle of Moytura. Balor the Fomorian kills Nuada, but Balor's grandson Lugh kills him and becomes king. The Tuath Dé enjoy 150 years of unbroken rule.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The tale of the Gaels is now resumed. Íth, who has spied Ireland from the top of Breogán's Tower, sails to the island with a group of men. He travels to Aileach Néit where he meets Ireland's three kings: Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine of the Tuath Dé. However, he is killed by unnamed attackers and his men return to Iberia. The Gaels set sail with a great force to avenge his death and take Ireland. They are referred to here as the Sons of Míl Espáine (or Milesians). The name "Míl Espáine" comes from the Latin "Miles Hispaniae" ("soldier of Hispania"). After they land, they fight against the combined forces of the Tuath Dé and Fomorians. On their way to Tara, they are met on three mountains by the aforementioned Banba, Fódla and Ériu – the wives of Ireland's three kings. Each goddess asks that the Gaels name the land after her. One of the Gaels, Amergin, promises that it shall be so. At Tara, they meet the three kings, who defend their claim to the joint kingship of the land. They ask that there be a three-day truce, during which the Gaels must stay a distance of nine waves from land. The Gaels agree, but once their ships are nine waves from Ireland, the Tuath Dé conjure up a great wind that prevents them sailing back to land. However, Amergin calms the wind by reciting a verse. The surviving ships return to land and the two groups agree to divide Ireland between them. The Gaels take the world above, while the Tuath Dé take the world below (i.e. the Otherworld) and enter the sídhe mounds.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: Modelled on the Biblical "Books of Kings", this chapter recounts the deeds of various kings of Ireland, most of them legendary or semi-legendary, from the time of Éber and Érimón to the early 5th century of the Christian era.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: A continuation of the previous chapter, it is the most accurate part of "Lebor Gabála", being concerned with historical kings of Ireland whose deeds and dates are preserved in contemporary written records.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: For many centuries, the "Lebor Gabála" was accepted as an accurate and reliable account of the history of Ireland. As late as the 17th century, Geoffrey Keating drew on it while writing his history of Ireland, "Foras Feasa ar Éirinn", and it was also used extensively by the authors of the "Annals of the Four Masters". Recently, however, the work has been subjected to greater critical scrutiny. One contemporary scholar has placed it in "the tradition of historical fabrication or "pseudohistory""; another has written of its "generally spurious character" and has drawn attention to its many "fictions", while acknowledging that it "embodies some popular traditions. The Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister, who translated the work into English, wrote: "There is not a single element of genuine historical detail, in the strict sense of the word, anywhere in the whole compilation".


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: The tale of the Gaels coming to Ireland is believed to be an invention of the Christian writers and an attempt to liken the Gaels to the Israelites. The claim of Scythian origins seems to be based on the superficial similarity of the names "Scoti" and "Scythae". Other medieval pseudo-histories did likewise with other nations. For example, in his earlier "History of the Goths", described by James Carey as "a model of barbarian pseudohistory", Isidore concludes that the Goths and Gets are related due to their similar names, and says that they (along with the Scythians) descend from Magog. The claim of Iberian origins may be based on three things: the coincidental similarity of the names "Iberia" and "Hibernia", Isidore describing Iberia as the "mother[land] of the races", and Orosius describing Ireland as lying "between Iberia and Britain". The claim that the Gaels settled in the Maeotian marshes seems to have been taken from the "Book of the History of the Franks", and their travels to Crete and Sicily may have been based on the tale of Aeneas. Other parts of the "Lebor Gabála" derive from pagan Gaelic mythology, most notably the divine Tuath Dé and the demonic Fomorians, who have been likened to the Æsir and Vanir of Norse mythology. It is suggested that the Nemedians' struggle against the Fomorians is "an echo of the primordial clash" between these two groups of supernatural beings, and that the Fir Bolg are the human equivalent of the Fomorians.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: While most scholars view the work as primarily myth rather than history, some have argued that it is loosely based on real events. In the 1940s, T. F. O'Rahilly created a model of Irish prehistory based on his analysis of LGE and the early Irish language. He suggested that there were four waves of Celtic migrations or invasions: that of the Cruthin or Pritani (c. 700–500 BC), the Builg or Érainn (c. 500 BC), the Laigin, Domnainn and Gálioin (c. 300 BC), and the Gaels (c. 100 BC). He argues that some of the 'invasions' depicted in LGE are based on these, but that others were invented by the writers. He also argues that many of Ireland's 'pre-Gaelic' peoples continued to flourish for centuries after 100 BC.


title: Lebor Gabála Érenn

text: In "The White Goddess" (1948), British poet and mythologist Robert Graves argued that myths brought to Ireland centuries before the introduction of writing were preserved and transmitted accurately by word of mouth before being written down in the Christian Era. Taking issue with Macalister, with whom he corresponded on this and other matters, he declared some of the "Lebor Gabála"'s traditions "archaeologically plausible". "The White Goddess" itself has been the subject of much criticism by archeologists and historians.


title: Laminin

text: Laminins are a family of glycoproteins of the extracellular matrix of all animals. They are major components of the basal lamina (one of the layers of the basement membrane), the protein network foundation for most cells and organs. The laminins are an important and biologically active part of the basal lamina, influencing cell differentiation, migration, and adhesion.


title: Laminin

text: Laminins are heterotrimeric proteins with a high molecular mass (~400 to ~900 kDa). They contain three different chains (α, β and γ) encoded by five, four, and three paralogous genes in humans, respectively. The laminin molecules are named according to their chain composition. Thus, laminin-511 contains α5, β1, and γ1 chains. Fourteen other chain combinations have been identified "in vivo". The trimeric proteins intersect to form a cross-like structure that can bind to other cell membrane and extracellular matrix molecules. The three shorter arms are particularly good at binding to other laminin molecules, which allows them to form sheets. The long arm is capable of binding to cells, which helps anchor organized tissue cells to the basement membrane.


title: Laminin

text: The laminin family of glycoproteins is an integral part of the structural scaffolding in almost every tissue of an organism. They are secreted and incorporated into cell-associated extracellular matrices. Laminin is vital for the maintenance and survival of tissues. Defective laminins can cause muscles to form improperly, leading to a form of muscular dystrophy, lethal skin blistering disease (junctional epidermolysis bullosa) and defects of the kidney filter (nephrotic syndrome).


title: Laminin

text: In humans, fifteen laminin trimers have been identified. The laminins are combinations of different alpha-, beta-, and gamma-chains.


title: Laminin

text: Laminins were previously numbered as they were discovered, i.e. laminin-1, laminin-2, laminin-3, etc., but the nomenclature was changed to describe which chains are present in each isoform (laminin-111, laminin-211, etc.). In addition, many laminins had common names before either laminin nomenclature was in place.


title: Laminin

text: Laminins form independent networks and are associated with type IV collagen networks via entactin, fibronectin, and perlecan. They also bind to cell membranes through integrins and other plasma membrane molecules, such as the dystroglycan glycoprotein complex and Lutheran blood group glycoprotein. Through these interactions, laminins critically contribute to cell attachment and differentiation, cell shape and movement, maintenance of tissue phenotype, and promotion of tissue survival. Some of these biological functions of laminin have been associated with specific amino-acid sequences or fragments of laminin. For example, the peptide sequence [GTFALRGDNGDNGQ], which is located on the alpha-chain of laminin, promotes the adhesion of endothelial cells.


title: Laminin

text: Laminin alpha4 is distributed in a variety of tissues including peripheral nerves, dorsal root ganglion, skeletal muscle and capillaries; in the neuromuscular junction, it is required for synaptic specialisation. The structure of the laminin-G domain has been predicted to resemble that of pentraxin.


title: Laminin

text: Laminin-111 is a major substrate along which nerve axons will grow, both in vivo and in vitro. For example, it lays down a path that developing retinal ganglion cells follow on their way from the retina to the tectum. It is also often used as a substrate in cell culture experiments. The presence of laminin-1 can influence how the growth cone responds to other cues. For example, growth cones are repelled by netrin when grown on laminin-111 but are attracted to netrin when grown on fibronectin. This effect of laminin-111 probably occurs through a lowering of intracellular cyclic AMP.


title: Laminin

text: Laminins are enriched at the lesion site after peripheral nerve injury and are secreted by Schwann cells. Neurons of the peripheral nervous system express integrin receptors that attach to laminins and promote neuroregeneration after injury.


title: Laminin

text: Dysfunctional structure of one particular laminin, laminin-211, is the cause of one form of congenital muscular dystrophy. Laminin-211 is composed of an α2, β1 and γ1 chains. This laminin's distribution includes the brain and muscle fibers. In muscle, it binds to alpha-dystroglycan and integrin alpha7—beta1 via the G domain, and via the other end, it binds to the extracellular matrix.


title: Laminin

text: Abnormal laminin-332, which is essential for epithelial cell adhesion to the basement membrane, leads to a condition called junctional epidermolysis bullosa, characterized by generalized blisters, exuberant granulation tissue of skin and mucosa, and pitted teeth.


title: Laminin

text: Malfunctional laminin-521 in the kidney filter causes leakage of protein into the urine and nephrotic syndrome.


title: Laminin

text: Some of the laminin isoforms have been implicated in cancer pathophysiology. The majority of transcripts that harbor an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) are involved in cancer development via corresponding proteins. A crucial event in tumor progression referred to as epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) allows carcinoma cells to acquire invasive properties. The translational activation of the extracellular matrix component laminin B1 (LAMB1) during EMT has been recently reported suggesting an IRES-mediated mechanism. In this study, the IRES activity of LamB1 was determined by independent bicistronic reporter assays. Strong evidences exclude an impact of cryptic promoter or splice sites on IRES-driven translation of LamB1. Furthermore, no other LamB1 mRNA species arising from alternative transcription start sites or polyadenylation signals were detected that account for its translational control. Mapping of the LamB1 5'-untranslated region (UTR) revealed the minimal LamB1 IRES motif between -293 and -1 upstream of the start codon. Notably, RNA affinity purification showed that the La protein interacts with the LamB1 IRES. This interaction and its regulation during EMT were confirmed by ribonucleoprotein immunoprecipitation. In addition, La was able to positively modulate LamB1 IRES translation. In summary, these data indicate that the LamB1 IRES is activated by binding to La which leads to translational upregulation during hepatocellular EMT.


title: Laminin

text: Together with other major components of the ECM, such as collagens and fibronectin, laminins have been used to enhance mammalian cell culture, especially in the case of pluripotent stem cells, as well as some primary cell cultures, which can be difficult to propagate on other substrates. Two types of naturally-sourced laminins are commercially available. Laminin-111 extracted from mouse sarcomas is one popular laminin type, as well as laminin mixtures from human placenta, which may primarily correspond to laminin-211, 411 or 511, depending on the provider. The various laminin isoforms are practically impossible to isolate from tissues in pure form due to extensive cross-linking and the need for harsh extraction conditions, such as proteolytic enzymes or low pH, that cause degradation. Therefore, recombinant laminins have been produced since the year 2000. This made it possible to test if laminins could have a significant role "in vitro" as they have in the human body. In 2008, two groups independently showed that mouse embryonic stem cells can be grown for months on top of recombinant laminin-511. Later, Rodin "et al." showed that recombinant laminin-511 can be used to create a totally xeno-free and defined cell culture environment to culture human pluripotent ES cells and human iPS cells.


title: Laminin

text: Laminins are trimeric molecules; laminin-1 is an alpha1 beta1 gamma1 trimer. It has been suggested that the domains I and II from laminin A, B1 and B2 may come together to form a triple helical coiled-coil structure.


title: Laminin

text: The laminin B domain (also known as domain IV) is an extracellular module of unknown function. It is found in a number of different proteins that include, heparan sulphate proteoglycan from basement membrane, a laminin-like protein from "Caenorhabditis elegans" and laminin. Laminin IV domain is not found in short laminin chains (alpha4 or beta3).


title: Laminin

text: Beside different types of globular domains each laminin subunit contains, in its first half, consecutive repeats of about 60 amino acids in length that include eight conserved cysteines. The tertiary structure of this domain is remotely similar in its N-terminus to that of the EGF-like module. It is also known as a 'LE' or 'laminin-type EGF-like' domain. The number of copies of the laminin EGF-like domain in the different forms of laminins is highly variable; from 3 up to 22 copies have been found. In mouse laminin gamma-1 chain, the seventh LE domain has been shown to be the only one that binds with a high affinity to nidogen. The binding-sites are located on the surface within the loops C1-C3 and C5-C6. Long consecutive arrays of laminin EGF-like domains in laminins form rod-like elements of limited flexibility, which determine the spacing in the formation of laminin networks of basement membranes.