title: Chris Sharma

text: Sharma was in a long-term public relationship with the Spanish professional climber , and they lived together in Oliana. In August 2015, he married Venezuelan model and television personality Jimena Alarcón, and the couple moved from Oliana to Barcelona. Their first child, a daughter named Alana, was born in June 2016, and their second child, a son, in 2019.


title: Chris Sharma

text: Sharma's parents were practising Zen Buddhists (although they did not live in at the Mount Madonna ashram) and for long periods Sharma has followed Zen routines (including daily 5.45am temple meditation). Sharma has been on various Asian pilgrimages lasting several months, including the Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan that he undertook after climbing "Realization" in 2001.


title: Chris Sharma

text: The 2010 book "Climbing: Because It's There (Philosophy for Everyone)" discussed the impact of Zen Buddhism on Sharma saying: "Sharma's affinity for Buddhism, and Zen in particular, is well documented in film and print. He exemplifies the spirit of Zen, being humble (but potent), ordinary (but extraordinary), self-aware, and most of all, authentic".


title: Chris Sharma

text: Sharma has however rejected the label of "spiritual climber", saying in 2011: "To be stereotyped like that definitely detracts from me personally. Like I said, I'm totally happy talking about this stuff. I just don’t want to make some image for myself like I’m some sort of saint or something. I get frustrated, and I get bummed out". Sharma is no longer a practicing Zen Buddhist, and said in 2022: "Climbing is fully engaging… it’s an easy way to access that [meditative] state of mind… easier than sitting down and meditating".


title: United States border preclearance

text: The United States Department of Homeland Security operates prescreening border control facilities at airports and other ports of departure located outside of the United States under agreement between it and the host country. Travelers are subject to immigration and customs inspections by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers before boarding their transportation onward to the United States. Preclearance applies to all passengers regardless of their nationality or purpose of travel. Upon arrival, precleared passengers arrive in the United States as domestic travelers, but may still be subject to re-inspection at the discretion of CBP. This process is intended to streamline border procedures, reduce congestion at American ports of entry, and facilitate travel into airports that otherwise lack immigration and customs processing facilities for commercial flights.


title: United States border preclearance

text: The history of inspecting U.S.-bound passengers in foreign countries began in 1894, when American immigration inspectors were deployed to sea ports in Canada. Modern preclearance facilities were first introduced at Malton Airport (now Toronto Pearson International Airport) under an informal arrangement with the government of Canada and are now available at eight major Canadian airports and one seaport, while several other seaports and one rail station in British Columbia have "pre-inspection" facilities for screening immigration admissibility only. Preclearance facilities also exist in airports in Aruba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates.


title: United States border preclearance

text: The preclearance program aims to streamline border procedures for flights entering the United States, reduce congestion at ports of entry, and to facilitate travel into U.S. airports that may not be equipped to otherwise handle international travelers. Although more U.S. airports have expanded or introduced customs facilities since the preclearance program began, LaGuardia Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport remain the two largest U.S. airports without customs facilities for processing commercial flights.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Preclearance programs have been accused of being motivated by a desire to prevent the arrival of asylum seekers, who are otherwise protected under the 1951 Refugee Convention's provisions on non-refoulement once they arrive at their destination.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Preclearance is particularly beneficial to those who have an ongoing connection (such as a connecting flight) upon arrival in the United States, as there is no risk of border delays causing them to miss such a connection. A corresponding drawback, however, is that a delay in preclearance could cause the passenger to miss the outbound flight.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Precleared air travelers with further connections enjoy the convenience of having their baggage checked through to their next destination. Like connecting domestic passengers, they disembark into the sterile area or airside of the airport and may walk directly to their next gate.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Connecting international passengers who have not been precleared must instead collect their checked baggage prior to customs inspection, walk their baggage through customs inspection, exit to the landside of the airport, recheck their baggage for connecting flights, pass through security screening to reenter the sterile area of the airport (because certain items allowed in checked baggage cannot be brought into the sterile area), and then proceed to their onward gates.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Another advantage is that CBP officers are able to exclude inadmissible passengers and prohibited goods before a flight, train journey, or voyage commences. This saves CBP the difficulty of dealing with them on U.S. soil and helps to minimize the risk of untoward incidents happening there. An alien who is denied entry into the United States at a preclearance facility may not board the U.S.-bound flight, so CBP does not need to deal with making deportation arrangements. The passenger may exit the airport and return home (unless the passenger arrived at the preclearance airport from an earlier flight).


title: United States border preclearance

text: Preclearance also provides considerable flexibility to the airlines operating in those routes where such a program is available. For example, major U.S. airlines and their subsidiaries routinely operate many daily flights from locations like Toronto or Nassau to New York City. The presence of preclearance facilities in Toronto and Nassau enables airlines to conveniently direct their flights from those airports to land at LaGuardia Airport (which has no border protection facilities) instead of John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) or Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), thereby allowing them to save valuable landing slots at JFK and EWR for other international arrivals from overseas airports which lack CBP preclearance facilities.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Preclearance exists at most major Canadian airports, theoretically enabling more convenient travel from those cities to the United States. However, the waits at some busy preclearance facilities, notably Toronto Pearson (the busiest U.S. preclearance facility), can often exceed the waiting times for processing passengers from non-precleared flights at destination airports and cause significant delays to departure schedules. With the notable exceptions of LaGuardia Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, many U.S. airports now have more customs facilities compared to when the preclearance program first started in 1952. Airport authorities have blamed these delays on reduced staffing levels by CBP, but pleas for increased staffing have been answered with deferrals due to domestic priorities. NEXUS and similar programs are now being explored and expanded as a means to try to restore some of the original convenience to the preclearance process.


title: United States border preclearance

text: CBP also sets the hours of operation of its preclearance facilities, which often tend to be shorter than the operating hours of the airports, seaports, or railway stations they operate in. Transportation operators who would like their passengers to be able to take advantage of such a facility will need to schedule their departure times to coincide with the preclearance facilities' operating hours. Carriers may launch flights from preclearance airports to the U.S. outside CBP preclearance operating hours, but passengers who choose to take such flights will be processed in the same way as most other international passengers upon arrival on American soil.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Preclearance facilities exist because of agreements made between the U.S. federal government and the governments of the host countries. Travelers who have passed through preclearance facilities, but whose flight or ship has not departed, remain in the legal jurisdiction of the host country. U.S. officials may question and search travelers with such passengers' permission. Their power to arrest or detain travelers (such as for customs or immigration violations or outstanding warrants) is limited; for example, in Ireland, a preclearance officer may detain a person whom they reasonably suspect to be carrying a weapon and search the person, or may detain someone whom they reasonably suspect to have committed an indictable offence under Irish law or have obstructed the preclearance officer in the performance of their duties. Anyone so detained must be delivered forthwith to the Garda Síochána to be dealt with in accordance with Irish law.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Some countries have laws in place that specifically cover preclearance issues. If a CBP officer has any security but non-immigration/customs-related concerns about a traveler, the attending CBP officer may need to refer the matter to local officials. Passengers can choose to abandon their flight and refuse search, and unlike in the United States, officers cannot search them without permission absent an immediate threat. Most preclearance facilities have a sign explaining so. CBP Officers in the Preclearance Division are not armed on foreign soil. However, since the Parliament of Canada approved Bill C-23, CBP officers would be allowed to carry sidearms on duty in Canada if they are working in an environment in which Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers are normally armed.


title: United States border preclearance

text: The precursor of U.S. preclearance operation began in 1894, when the U.S. government entered into agreements with Canadian steamship and railroad operators to place U.S. immigration inspectors at four largest Canadian seaports of Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, Nova Scotia and Saint John, New Brunswick, to inspect prospective immigrants seeking to enter the U.S. via the northern land border. Prior to this arrangement, immigrants entering via the northern border were usually uninspected as the U.S. had no immigration inspection facilities on its side of the border, thus their arrivals were not entered into records. After the arrangement came into force, prospective immigrants would first pass Canadian quarantine and then be inspected by U.S. immigration inspectors as if they were entering via a U.S. port of entry. Once admitted, they would be given documentation to physically cross the land border by train within 30 days without additional inspection. This agreement lasted until the mid-20th century, with the last passenger manifest concluded in 1954.


title: United States border preclearance

text: The modern form of preclearance arrangements between the two countries began informally at Malton Airport (now Toronto Pearson International Airport) in 1952, following a request from American Airlines. The operation was extended and became formalized with Canada's passage of the Air Transport Preclearance Act in 1974, the 1999 Preclearance Act, and with the 2001 Canada–U.S. Agreement on Air Transport Preclearance. In 2019, previous agreements and legislations were replaced by the "Agreement on Land, Rail, Marine, and Air Transport Preclearance Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Canada" (LRMA), which allows for significant expansion of the scope of preclearance facilities.


title: United States border preclearance

text: On March 16, 2015, U.S. and Canadian officials signed the ministerial-level LRMA. The agreement paved paths for the expansion of CBP’s preclearance facilities as well as its detention powers on Canadian soil to the levels similar on U.S. soil. For instance, under the LRMA, CBP officers working at preclearance facilities in Canada will be able to carry firearms and detain travelers who try to voluntarily withdraw their outbound travel or willingly leave the preclearance area. Although CBP does not have arrest powers in Canada, the bill also includes increased cooperation with the CBSA to arrest travelers found to be breaking the law. On March 10, 2016, U.S. and Canadian officials announced that the three priority transportation hubs that would receive preclearance were Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport, and Montreal Central Station.


title: United States border preclearance

text: On December 8, 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the bipartisan "Promoting Travel, Commerce and National Security Act of 2016" into law, completing the U.S. requirement for the ratification of the LRMA. On December 12, 2017, Canadian Governor General Julie Payette gave royal assent to the Canadian "Preclearance Act". The LRMA was formally ratified by both countries on August 15, 2019 and replaced previous treaties and Canadian legislations.


title: United States border preclearance

text: The preclearance agreement is fully reciprocal, meaning Canada is allowed to operate preclearance facilities in the United States on the same basis as U.S. facilities in Canada, including CBSA agents’ expanded powers under the LRMA. On average, however, U.S. airports offer far fewer daily flights to Canada compared to the reverse, making this an expensive and inefficient proposition that, , has not been exercised by the Canadian government.


title: United States border preclearance

text: In Canada, the preclearance measures interface with the Quarantine Act in the case of a public health emergency.


title: United States border preclearance

text: At the request of Porter Airlines, a new terminal building at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (Toronto Island) officially opened in Fall 2010 and includes both CBSA inspection facilities and provisions for CBP's preclearance facilities. The request to include preclearance, however, was formally denied by the Department of Homeland Security in August 2010 due to the lack of U.S.-bound passenger flow at the time.


title: United States border preclearance

text: After the conclusion of legislative procedures by both countries in 2017, both Toronto Island Airport and Quebec City Jean Lesage International Airport were included in preclearance's expansion plans. The necessary upgrades in Quebec City were anticipated to take 18 months and C$35 million to complete, although as of 2021 there was yet a targeted completion date. In December 2021, it was announced that Toronto Island Airport's preclearance facility will become operational in 18-24 months, and the expansion will cost approximately C$20 million which has yet to be secured.


title: United States border preclearance

text: In airports with preclearance, passengers must first pass airport security inspection before they can proceed to the preclearance area. Security checks are conducted by Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) in the standards of both CATSA and U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations.


title: United States border preclearance

text: There are currently no full preclearance facilities for rail passengers in Canada. Nevertheless, special operations termed "pre-inspections" have been conducted by CBP and CBSA officers at Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, British Columbia for passengers departing on the Amtrak Cascades trains to Seattle and Portland, Oregon since 1995. The "pre-inspection" procedures were enacted prior to the implementation of modern preclearance legislations, therefore only deal with immigration admissibility to the U.S., and the trains are still re-inspected by CBP for customs purposes at the border line in Blaine, Washington despite not making any further stops within Canada. In October 2019, Amtrak has requested the partial preclearance operation arrangement to be updated to full immigration and customs preclearance under the LRMA so the stop at the border can be eliminated. Amtrak estimated that the trip time will be shortened by at least 10 minutes. Amtrak suspended services on the route from March 2020 until September 2022, and no public timeline for implementation has been announced.


title: United States border preclearance

text: In May 2012, U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to fast track the approval of a preclearance facility at Montreal Central Station, which would allow U.S.-bound travelers on Amtrak's "Adirondack" to bypass an existing immigration stop at Rouses Point, New York for entering the United States. This has become possible after the ratification of the LRMA in 2019. Nevertheless, there remains no timeline for the establishment of such a facility, as train services remain suspended between the two countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: United States border preclearance

text: In addition to passenger pre-inspection, the LRMA allows for U.S.-bound cargo to be precleared in Canada and vice versa. While there are no CBP cargo preclearance posts that operate in Canada , CBSA has been running a joint inspection project with CBP at Rouses Point, New York, for Canada-bound rail cargo since 2017. The project became permanent after the ratification of the LRMA in 2019.


title: United States border preclearance

text: The Alaska Marine Highway terminal in Prince Rupert, British Columbia is the only marine preclearance location in the world. It became operational on June 20, 2022 and is used by the Alaska Marine Highway ferry service to Ketchikan.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Prior to the opening of the preclearance facilitates, "pre-inspection" facilities were available for users of the Ketchikan-Prince Rupert service until the route's suspension on October 1, 2019, after the state announced that it could not unilaterally cover the cost of security service provided by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to unarmed CBP officers which has become mandatory under the LRMA. However, both Canadian and Alaskan governments announced in September 2021 that they would work to upgrade Prince Rupert's facility for the port to become the first seaport preclearance location by the time of the route's resumption in mid-2022, which would alleviate the need for RCMP presence as CBP officers would be able to legally carry firearms.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Aside from the sole preclearance operation, the United States also operates several "pre-inspection" posts at the port of Victoria, British Columbia for both the Black Ball Line's MV Coho car ferry service to Port Angeles, Washington and the "Victoria Clipper" passenger-only ferry to Seattle; and the same program operates at the terminal in Sidney, British Columbia for Washington State Ferries' Anacortes–San Juan Islands ferry service to Anacortes, Washington. Another U.S. "pre-inspection" post is also located at the Port of Vancouver. This post is particularly valuable to travelers on cruise liners that visit Alaska or that depart from Vancouver and have a first stop at U.S. cities situated along the west coast of North America.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Similar to the operations for trains, all "pre-inspected" passengers are subject to customs inspections at U.S. ports. In 1999, U.S. Customs agents at the Port Angeles, Washington checkpoint successfully intercepted Algerian terrorist Ahmed Ressam and foiled his plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport after Ressam has passed immigration inspection in Victoria, British Columbia.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Informal preclearance with Bermuda began in 1960. The Bahamas and the United States signed a treaty in June 1974 formalizing the process.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Plans were underway for a preclearance facility to be opened at Punta Cana International Airport, located in the popular tourist destination of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, to be operating by the end of summer 2009. Further plans were made in April 2016 to open a facility the next year; but as of March 2018, the facility had not yet opened. In April 2011, a team from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security traveled to Jamaica for talks with Jamaican government and tourism officials on opening future preclearance facilities on the island.


title: United States border preclearance

text: The United States and Ireland entered into a preinspection arrangement in 1986. Both Shannon Airport and Dublin Airport initially offered only "pre-inspection" style immigration checks, while customs and agriculture inspections were still done upon arrival in the United States. In August 2009, Shannon opened an addition to its preclearance facility that provided these previously-lacking customs and agriculture inspections. In January 2011, a section of the then-recently opened Terminal 2 of Dublin Airport was opened with dedicated preclearance with full CBP facilities. Both airports now allow U.S.-bound commercial flights that use the preclearance facilities to arrive at domestic terminals instead of international terminals, which in turn allows arriving passengers to leave U.S. airports upon landing without further inspection. Since March 2010, the Shannon preclearance facility is also available for use by private aircraft. However, the Dublin facility is only available for commercial flights.


title: United States border preclearance

text: In 2017, U.S. Executive Order 13769 implemented a ban on passport-holders of seven countries, preventing traveling to the United States. In response, the Irish government announced that there would be a "complete review" of preclearance arrangements.


title: United States border preclearance

text: In December 2011, the government of Abu Dhabi signed a letter of intent to construct a terminal that, when opened, would house a U.S. border preclearance facility.


title: United States border preclearance

text: On June 6, 2013, the U.S. House passed an amendment offered by Representatives Pat Meehan (R-PA), Candice Miller (R-MI) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR), which prohibits the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using any taxpayer dollars to conduct Customs and Border Protection (CBP) preclearance operations at Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH). The amendment was unanimously adopted during floor consideration of the FY14 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. On November 14, 2013, Rep. Patrick Meehan (R, PA-7) introduced the Preclearance Authorization Act of 2014 (H.R. 3488; 113th Congress), which would authorize the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish preclearance facilities, conduct preclearance operations, or provide customs services outside of the United States to prevent terrorists, terrorist instruments, and other national security threats from gaining access to the United States. Meehan indicated that the goal of the bill would be to prevent CBP from opening a preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. Currently, just one airline flies from Abu Dhabi to the United States: Etihad, a state-run airline. Supporters of the bill wished to avoid giving Etihad an unfair competitive advantage created by the fact that travelers flying through Abu Dhabi (on Etihad) would be able to use preclearance, while passengers on other airlines would not. This bill did not pass into law.


title: United States border preclearance

text: The U.S. customs preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport officially opened on January 26, 2014. Another U.S. customs preclearance facility is currently being planned for Dubai International Airport.


title: United States border preclearance

text: Each preclearance port has a distinct, three-letter port of entry code. The list of codes is maintained by CBP and may be different from the IATA and ICAO airport codes of each airport. These codes can be commonly found on passport entry stamps or parole stamps.


title: United States border preclearance

text: On March 16, 2015, the United States and Canada signed an agreement to construct a preclearance facility at Montreal Central Station. The facility would eliminate a border stop for Amtrak's "Adirondack" service and would support a future extension of the "Vermonter" to Montreal.


title: United States border preclearance

text: In May 2015, the United States Department of Homeland Security announced that the following airports will be considered for the expansion of the border preclearance scheme:


title: United States border preclearance

text: On November 4, 2016, Sweden and the United States signed an agreement that would make Sweden the second European country, after Ireland, to offer preclearance, although no announcement has been made as to when the service will start. On that same date, DHS also announced that eleven more airports in nine countries had been added to the list of possible preclearance airports:


title: United States border preclearance

text: On 23 March 2018, the Taiwanese newspaper Liberty Times reported that the U.S. had conditionally agreed to the establishment of a border preclearance system in Taiwan. The Taiwanese government is assessing the possibility of establishing a United States border preclearance system at its main airport, and according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Andrew Lee, the relevant government ministries are examining the issue and discussing how such a system could be put in place at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.


title: United States border preclearance

text: On 18 August 2019, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Kevin Whitaker stated that U.S. preclearance at El Dorado International Airport would be available within the next year, according to an interview with "El Tiempo".


title: United States border preclearance

text: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea stated that the government of South Korea plans to establish the U.S. preclearance system at Incheon International Airport. On January 15, 2015, however, Incheon International Airport announced that it would not introduce the U.S. preclearance. Instead, an in-depth analysis concluded that U.S. preclearance could lead to decreased sales at duty-free shops, despite the potential income from usage fees remitted for the use of preclearance space.


title: United States border preclearance

text: On May 23, 2015, an unofficial member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, Regina Ip, revealed in an interview that the United States and Hong Kong had explored the possibilities "some 20 or 30 years ago" to set up the preclearance arrangements at Kai Tak Airport. According to Ip, she was dispatched by the Secretary for Security, in her capacity as a career civil servant in the Security Branch, to study the arrangements in Canada, but the plan was subsequently shelved because of room constraints at Kai Tak.


title: United States border preclearance

text: On February 1, 2017, the Netherlands pulled out of talks with the United States to set up a preclearance program at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol because of U.S. President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769, which banned travel to the United States by citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries. On 22 June 2018, the Dutch Government made it known that they were resuming plans for a pre-clearance facility at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: The UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP) are a set of regulations established to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success, and in doing so not getting into financial problems which might threaten their long-term survival. Some have argued that they were instituted to prevent financial "doping" from outside sources injecting money into smaller clubs. They were agreed to in September 2009 by the Financial Control Panel of football's governing body in Europe (Union of European Football Associations – UEFA).


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: The regulations provide for sanctions to be taken against clubs who exceed spending, over several seasons, within a set budgetary framework. Implementation of the regulations took place at the outset of the 2011–12 football season. The severest penalty is disqualification from the European competitions. Other penalties included fines, the withholding of prize money, and player transfer bans.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Platini went on to say that the measures were supported by the majority of football club owners, and that an independent panel would be set up to judge whether clubs had broken the rules. Although the intentions of encouraging greater financial caution in football have been well-received, FFP has been criticised as illegal by limiting the internal market, failing to reduce football club debt and protecting the status quo. In 2015, UEFA announced FFP would be "eased". A newspaper article alleged that this was in response to a number of lawsuits.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: A 2009 UEFA review showed that more than half of 655 European clubs incurred a loss over the previous year, and although a small proportion were able to sustain heavy losses year-on-year as a result of the wealth of their owners, at least 20% of clubs surveyed were believed to be in actual financial peril. The reasons for this are well summarised in the 2010–12 House of Commons report on Football Governance:


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Even among Europe's elite sides, continued excessive spending has often been justified by club executives as being "necessary to keep the club competitive". As Christian Müller, CFO of the German Bundesliga told the European Commission: "... we learn by experience all over the world [that] most club executives tend to operate riskily, tend to overestimate their chances in the Championship. This may result in disproportionate spending relative to the income some clubs generate... club executives have somehow to be protected from themselves."


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: The vast majority of the overall European football debt is owed by only three of the biggest leagues: the English Premier League, the Italian Serie A and the Spanish Primera División, commonly known as La Liga.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: A report by Deloitte indicated that total debt among the 20 Premier League clubs for the year 2008–09 was around £3.1 billion.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: At the time of the introduction of FFP, several Premier League clubs were known to be spending considerably above their income. For example, between 2005 and 2010, West Ham United recorded an aggregate net loss of £90.2 million, with equity of £13.063 million on 31 May 2010 following a re-capitalization. Meanwhile, Everton, whose former manager David Moyes had long received praise for his continued ability to keep the club among the top Premier League sides despite an extremely tight transfer budget, had a negative equity (in group accounts) of £29.774 million on 31 May 2010, making a net loss of £3.093 million in consolidated accounts.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Worst of all, though, were the finances of Portsmouth, which had a shortfall of £59,458,603 to the creditor in February 2010 (after deducting the book value of the asset). Having invested heavily on players over previous seasons, (the previous year's net loss was covered by French-Israeli businessman Alexandre Gaydamak), Portsmouth were runners-up of the 2009–10 FA Cup in 2010, but as the season wore on the financial situation deteriorated, leaving players unpaid and the club with an outstanding bill for income tax which in turn led to a winding-up petition from HM Revenue & Customs. There then followed administration to avoid the club being liquidated, a nine-point deduction from the Premier League, and finally relegation into the lower division. A similar train of events had affected another English club, Leeds United, some years previously.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: The problem of debt was not confined to the top division, with a number of clubs in the second tier of English football, the Championship seemingly gambling their futures in an effort to gain promotion into the Premier League. The 2010–2012 parliamentary report into English football noted that, "Much of the overspending [by non Premier league clubs] is as a result of the desire to get into the 'promised land' of the Premier League or indeed to simply stay there... the prevailing reasoning amongst Football League sides seems to be that excessive levels of spending can be sustained for a few years within which time promotion must be achieved. After that, Premier League revenues can be used to pay off all the debts accrued."


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: In the Italian Serie A, most clubs also reported a net loss over the previous season: Milan (group) €69.751 million on 31 December 2010; Genoa €16,964,706 on 31 December 2010; Fiorentina €9,604,353 on 31 December 2010; Bologna €4,166,419 on 30 June 2011; and Chievo €527,661 on 30 June 2011, among others. Only a few Italian clubs made a net profit, which included Udinese, Catania, Napoli (€4,197,829 on 30 June 2011) and Lazio (€9,982,408 on the group account on 30 June 2011).


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Some of the Italian clubs had been losing money for a number of years; for example Inter Milan have accumulated losses of around €1.3 billion over the last 16 years, while on 20 May 2005, Lazio agreed a 23-year repayment plan to pay back a €140 million overdue tax bill. The club recovered, however, showing a net asset/equity of €10,500,666 in its consolidated accounts on 30 June 2011, while net financial debt of the group () was €9.01 million. Its city rival A.S. Roma SpA, from its ultimate holding company Italpetroli, intermediate holding company "Roma 2000" (the holding company or the head of Roma larger group of companies, holding company of "ASR Real Estate S.r.l." and "Brand Management S.r.l.") to AS Roma SpA (or AS Roma [smaller] group), owed considerable money to banks, including UniCredit. On 30 June 2010, AS Roma SpA had a negative equity (total liability greater than total asset) of €13.2 million on the consolidated balance sheet, which ultimately led to the group ("Roma 2000") being sold to group of investor led by American billionaire Thomas R. DiBenedetto (25%). Before the formal handover on 30 June 2011, the club had a net financial debt of €53.831 million, with a negative equity of €43.984 million.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Despite the most recent report showing 8% growth in La Liga revenues, the highest of any European league, the overwhelming majority of the extra money went to the two dominant clubs, Real Madrid and Barcelona, primarily due to their ability to negotiate separate TV deals. During the summer of 2009, Real Madrid paid a world record transfer fee of £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo. Being the world's richest club according to the "Forbes" List, heavy spending on two other players, Kaká and Karim Benzema, with their associated high wages, trebled Real's net financial debt from €130 million on 30 June 2008 to €326.7 million on 30 June 2009, as the signing of Raúl Albiol, Benzema, Kaká, Ronaldo, Álvaro Negredo and some minor players to the 2009–10 squad were included in the 2008–09 financial year. Madrid signing one additional big name, Xabi Alonso from Liverpool in August 2009, made the net financial debt only drop from €326.7 million to €244.6 million on 30 June 2010, still higher than the previous eight seasons. The net asset/equity, however, increased from €195.9 million to €219.7 million.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Barcelona also continued to spend heavily initially, although the level had been slightly reduced in the years immediately following the regulations. On 30 June 2009, Barcelona's net asset/equity was €20.844 million.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Total debt in La Liga was estimated at £2.5 billion, leaving many of the owners, as so often in the past, having to put more of their own money into clubs. In the summer of 2010, Villarreal failed to pay its players because the ceramics industry from which their owner Fernando Roig made his money was hit hard by the European credit crisis. At the end of the year, Deportivo de La Coruña were more than €120 million in debt, Atlético Madrid owed more than €300 million, while the total for Valencia at one point in 2009 was reported to be as high as €547 million. In 2007, during a property boom, Valencia's management decided to build a new 70,000 capacity stadium, despite doubts that it could attract enough fans to regularly fill it. Construction of the "Nou Mestalla" was to be funded by the sale of the existing ground; however, two years into the project, work ground to a halt when the club could not find a buyer following the Spanish property crash. Despite an impressive display on the field, Valencia was forced to temporarily halt work on a new stadium and delay wages when its bank denied it more credit, forcing management to sell some of their top players, including David Silva, David Villa, and Juan Mata.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: In the lower Spanish leagues, at least six clubs, including former second-tier sides Real Sociedad, Celta de Vigo, and Levante, were in administration with more threatened as the recession worsened. In July 2008, the Spanish government revealed that the clubs had a combined debt of £507 million to the tax authorities alone, with substantial amounts owed to a number of other state bodies.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: For a number of years, the clubs in the two other big European leagues, the French Ligue 1 and the German Bundesliga, had been subject to regulations not unlike the FFP rules.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: In France, The Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG) is responsible for administering, monitoring and overseeing the accounts of all professional clubs to ensure that owners are being financially prudent. Sanctions for non-compliance include transfer embargoes, reduced playing squads, demotion or even expulsion from the league. Despite lower incomes, French clubs do not carry the enormous debt of the English, Italian and Spanish leagues. A number of French clubs have produced small profits over a number of years, concentrating on developing young players in modern academies, who then generate profits when sold. For example, in the four years up to 2009, player trading by Lille, one of the leading clubs, exceeded €164 million in profit.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: OL Group, the holding company of the same name (Olympique Lyonnais), had a net profit of €5.1 million in the 2008–09 season.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: At the end of each season, Bundesliga rules indicated that clubs must apply to the German Football Federation (DFB) for a licence to participate again the following year; only when the DFB, which has access to all transfer documents and accounts, are satisfied that there is no threat of insolvency does it provide approval. The DFB have a system of fines and points deductions for clubs who flout rules and those who go into the red can only buy a player after selling one for at least the same amount. In addition, no individual is allowed to own more than 49% of any Bundesliga club.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Despite the strong economic governance in the German league, there were still some instances of clubs running into difficulties. In 2004, Borussia Dortmund reported a debt of €118.8 million (£83 million). Having won the UEFA Champions League in 1997 and a number of Bundesliga titles, Dortmund had gambled to maintain their success with an expensive group of largely foreign players but failed, narrowly escaping liquidation in 2006. In subsequent years, the club went through extensive restructuring to return to financial health, largely with young home-grown players. In 2004, Hertha BSC reported debts of £24.7 million and were able to continue in the Bundesliga only after proving they had long-term credit with their bank. Bayern Munich made a net profit of just €2.5 million in the 2008–09 season (group accounts), while Schalke 04 incurred a net loss of €30.4 million in the 2009 financial year. Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA made a net loss of just €2.9 million in 2008–09.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Other European leagues include the Portuguese Primeira Liga, the Dutch Eredivisie and the Scottish Premier League. Mainly as a result of their lower populations and smaller economies, these and other leagues such as the Belgian and Scandinavian leagues generate less revenue than those of the bigger nations, and there are currently no clubs in the Deloitte Top 20 from outside the big five leagues, although these are home to a number of extremely well run and successful clubs.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Despite earning only a sixth of Real Madrid's revenue for example, Portuguese club Porto regularly reach the last 16 of the Champions League and have been European champions twice – in 1986–87 and 2003–04. Porto make use of third-party deals and an extremely effective scouting network, particularly in South America, to purchase promising young players to develop and play in the first team in the near future before eventually selling them for a large profit. Since 2004, Porto has covered its large operating losses with a €190 million net profit in player sales.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: The three main Dutch clubs, Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, have each been crowned European champions at least once. In recent years, however, their dominance has been challenged by the emergence of other clubs such as FC Twente, meaning they can no longer rely on annual infusions of Champions League cash. As in other countries, the Global Recession greatly diminished sponsorship and TV income, turning an Eredivisie profit of €64 million in 2007–08 into a €90 million loss for 2009–10. PSV recorded a €17.5 million loss as their annual revenue dropped back 40% from €85 million to €50 million, while major rival Ajax – the only Dutch club listed on the stock exchange – lost €22.8 million. After enjoying 11 consecutive years of Champions League qualification and reaching the semi-final in 2005, PSV found its regular profits turning into losses and began selling top players, including Heurelho Gomes (Tottenham Hotspur), Mark van Bommel (Barcelona), Park Ji-sung (Manchester United), Johann Vogel (Milan), Alex (Chelsea) and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Celtic). Able to count only on the much lower revenues of the UEFA Europa League (less than €4 million in 2010), the club took on a €10 million loan from its long-standing benefactor, the electronic giant Phillips, and in April 2012 was forced to sell its ground and training complex to the local council for €49 million, leasing it back for €2.3 million per year. A leading councillor said that the move was necessary because of "the idiocy of big money and the game played between millionaires and football agents".


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Recognising the social and cultural importance of its clubs, Dutch authorities invested over €300 million in football between 2006 and 2011, mainly through indirect subsidies and loans to clubs such as FC Utrecht, FC Groningen, FC Twente, Vitesse and ADO Den Haag, though such aid has fallen foul of EU rules.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: A 2011 report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers expressed deep concern at the fragile financial state of Scottish football. Despite a modest profit in five of the previous six seasons, net indebtedness of SPL clubs had grown over the previous year to £109m, with half of clubs reporting a worsening position and only two clubs debt free. Despite providing the first British team (Celtic in 1967) to become European champions, since the advent of pay-per-view TV Scottish football had failed to keep up with its English counterpart; in stark contrast to the Premier League's vast TV earnings, following the collapse of the Irish satellite broadcaster Setanta in June 2009 the joint Sky-ESPN TV rights to be shared among all SPL clubs now amounted to only £13 million per year, a figure little changed from the £12 million it had received under the Sky deal as long ago as 1998.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Following the global downturn, job insecurity and rising unemployment meant that a number of Scottish fans did not renew season tickets, leading to a 10% fall in attendance over one year. The entire turnover of SPL champions Rangers for the 2008–09 season dropped 38% to £39.7 million. As with other leagues, participation in the Champions League continued to make the crucial difference between profit and loss for the two "Old Firm" clubs. However, because of mediocre performances in recent years, the SPL champions no longer qualify automatically for the Champions League group stages and are now largely confined to the much less lucrative Europa League.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: There was also concern at the heavy debt being loaded onto some clubs as a result of new owners borrowing heavily to acquire the club and then using future earnings to pay the interest, a practice known as a leveraged buyout (LBO). One of the world's richest clubs, Manchester United, was bought in this way by the Glazer family in 2005 after which the club, previously very profitable, remains several hundred millions of pounds in debt. Since 2005, more than £300 million which might otherwise have been spent on players, improving facilities or simply kept as a contingency has been taken out of Manchester United and spent on interest, bank fees and derivative losses. (While Manchester United FC Limited was almost debt free, its ultimate holding company "Red Football Shareholder Limited" had a negative equity of £64.866 million in its consolidated balance sheet on 30 June 2010.)


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Liverpool found itself in a similar position after being purchased by Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett in February 2007. Although subjected to less leveraged debt than Manchester United, by 31 July 2010, the club was suffering a negative equity of £5.896 million while its holding company, KOP Football Limited – the entity which carried the debt – had a negative equity of £111.88 million, leaving the club tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, and had to be put up for sale. Hicks and Gillett placed what was widely believed to be an unrealistic value on the club in the hope of making a vast profit however, for which they were severely criticised in the House of Commons as "asset strippers draining the club with their greed". Eventually Liverpool was bought by a new American consortium, but because leveraged buyouts are permitted under normal stock market rules they will not be addressed by the FFP rules.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: The leveraged buyout model is common for normal business ventures where – apart from the actual employees – the overall national impact of a firm collapsing is not particularly significant since other companies will fill the gap in the market. LBOs have sometimes been defended by those using them as mechanisms to bring greater efficiency and financial discipline to target companies, although there are also examples where they have actually added to an existing problem of debt. To football fans who find themselves paying significantly higher ticket prices (around 50% at Manchester United in the first five years of the Glazer takeover), LBOs are anathema, perhaps representing the complete opposite of the wealthy benefactor model, taking money out of the club and providing few or no positive changes since no new players are purchased and no facilities are built or improved. As with debt taken on in an attempt to improve the team, unexpected failure (such as not qualifying for the Champions League) can cause significant financial problems for clubs loaded with LBO debt.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: For these "emotional stakeholders", their club is not a "normal business" but rather an intrinsic part of their lives and often of great social and cultural importance to the local community. LBOs are also believed to have played at least a part role in takeovers at Portsmouth, Hull City, Chesterfield, Notts County and Derby County, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the main supporters groups of Manchester United and Liverpool, MUST and Spirit of Shankly called on the British government to legislate against future LBOs of football clubs, calling for an outright ban or a limit on the amount which can be borrowed against acquisition – perhaps along the German model where no individual can own more than 49% of the club. There have also been calls to restrict levels of dividend withdrawal and improvements in "proper person tests"’ introduced after the earlier takeover of Manchester City by Thaksin Shinawatra. After being ousted as prime minister of Thailand in a military coup, Shinawatra was accused of human rights abuses, charged with three counts of corruption and had his financial assets in Thailand frozen, but eventually made a significant profit when selling the club to Sheik Mansour in 2008.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: A number of clubs across Europe were historically in a position to spend substantially more than they earned as a result of the benevolence of their owners who made substantial financial gifts to the club, either by paying off existing debt, providing direct injections of cash, issuing extra shares or giving loans which are later written off. Such a practice adversely affects the market by creating wage and transfer inflation as well as encouraging other clubs to spend more than they can afford in an effort to remain competitive.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: For example, Internazionale's enormous losses since the mid-1990s have been largely underwritten by their president, energy company owner Massimo Moratti. Its archrival, Milan, was also financially supported by Silvio Berlusconi (over €120 million between 2007 and 2010). The Della Valle brothers, meanwhile, also contributed €84.7 million to Fiorentina from 2006 to 2009. Juventus had re-capitalized twice in recent years, by about €104.8 million after the 2006 Italian football scandal and in 2011 by €120 million.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: In Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain became the richest club in France and one of the richest clubs in the world after Qatar Investment Authority became the majority shareholder of PSG by purchasing 70% of the shares in 2011 and effectively purchasing the club altogether in a deal worth €50 million, which covered an estimated €15–20 million in debt and losses of €19 million from the 2010–11 season. PSG splashed a French record €108 million and were the biggest spenders in the world for the 2011–12 season. In the English Premier League, Chelsea's massive transfer spending since 2003 has been paid for by their owner, the Russian oil and gas billionaire Roman Abramovich, while Manchester City is owned by one of the world's richest men, UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour. Since 2008, the owner has spent in excess of £1 billion on players and infrastructure at the club, though this has drawn considerable criticism from other clubs and football figures. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, a major proponent of the FFP legislation, has referred to transparent owner equity investment as "financial doping" and has accused Chelsea, Manchester City, and Real Madrid for being "financially doped".


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Referring to the intention to reduce the plutocratic influence of the "sugar daddies", UEFA President Michel Platini said, "If you buy a house, you have a debt but that doesn't mean someone is going to stop you from working. If you depend only on a rich benefactor however, then the financial model is too volatile."


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Despite broad approval across Europe, in early 2010, the European Club Association succeeded in delaying the full introduction of the FFP regulations to give clubs more time to adjust. The original timescale was lengthened, with a phased implementation over five years meaning that the full rules would apply in 2015 instead of 2012. The clubs also rejected a proposal by UEFA that the new rule should only apply to clubs with a turnover of more than €50 million, agreeing that all clubs should be treated the same. Also on the agenda was a proposal to limit squads to 25 players with unlimited under-21 players per team at national and European level, as well as plans to reduce fees paid to agents. Clubs also agreed that they will not be able to owe each other money, nor will they be allowed to compete in Europe if salaries have not been paid to players or non-playing staff.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Despite the delay, ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, representing Bayern Munich, called the new rules "a magnificent achievement" and pointed out that 93 clubs from 53 countries who attended the ECA's General Assembly in Manchester agreed with the proposals. He stated, "After only two years of existence, the European Club Association has managed, together with UEFA, to set measures that will shape the future of European club football into a more responsible business and ultimately a more sustainable one."


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Manchester United Chief Executive David Gill, also a member of the ECA board, said that his club would meet the new rules, despite their reported debts of £716.5 million. He said, "We have seen what the proposals are and we would meet the financial break even rules. We as Manchester United have always been run professionally and will continue to be run professionally."


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Only a club's outgoings in transfers, employee benefits (including wages), amortisation of transfers, finance costs and dividends will be counted over income from gate receipts, TV revenue, advertising, merchandising, disposal of tangible fixed assets, finance, sales of players and prize money. Any money spent on infrastructure, training facilities or youth development will not be included. The legislation currently allows for eight separate punishments to be taken against clubs transgressing the rules, based in order of severity: reprimand / warning, fines, points deduction, withholding of revenue from a UEFA competition, prohibition to register new players for UEFA competitions, restrictions on how many players a club can register for UEFA competitions, disqualification from a competition in progress and exclusion from future competitions.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Clubs are permitted to spend up to €5 million more than they earn per assessment period (three years). However it can exceed that level to a limit if it is covered by a direct contribution from the club's owner.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: One of the major criticisms of FFP is the possibility of solidifying the so-called big clubs which generate largest revenue and profits, and can consequently spend more money on transfers.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Qualification and participation in the Champions League is regarded as a lucrative affair and can earn clubs up to £60 million in prize money and television rights a season if a club makes it to the final. A club only has to play 13 matches from the group stages to reach the final. In comparison, finishing bottom of the Premier League is now worth £175 million, but is won over 38 matches.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: The financial gulf between successful clubs in the top-tier of European league has had an impact domestically, most notably in the Premier League, where for approximately a dozen years (from 1996 to 2008) there had been an almost complete dominance of the three major domestic English competitions by just four clubs (Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester United). During this period, the lack of competition for lucrative Champions League football in England from outside of those four clubs was frequently criticised. More recently, however, the grip on the four top places in the Premier League (that enable automatic entry into the Champions League competition) by the incumbent "Big 4" clubs has been heavily eroded in more recent seasons due to the rise in competitive performance of both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City and the relative decline of Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool. Since the 2015–2016 season the original "Big 4" clubs have gained no more than two of the top four positions each year.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Some forums have expressed concern at the potential risk that as clubs become ever desperate to raise "allowable" revenue which will positively affect their balance sheet, they will indulge in questionable U.S.-style advertising and sponsorship practices from multiple backers which may eventually compromise the ethical composition of football. Some clubs are easily able to attract reputable sponsorship due to the willingness of companies to be associated with a successful brand. For example, many top clubs raise money from selling sponsorship for their playing as well as their away and training kit, and other titles like the "official logistics partner" (such as Serveto for Barcelona) or "official marine engine partner" (such as Yanmar for Manchester United). Several top clubs have similar deals.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: In addition, there remains the issue of widely differing tax rates and social security costs to which the European leagues are subject, meaning that some clubs have to pay a player much higher gross wages in order for him to be left with the same net salary as if he belonged to a club in another country. In addition, the UEFA guidance states that each club's accounts must be audited under the national accountancy conditions applicable in their particular country, which may vary.


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: One area of concern for English clubs is the practice of third-party ownership. Under this model, companies or wealthy individuals buy a percentage of a young player in the hope that if his value increases in the future they will make a profit based on their percentage. The advantage for clubs is that they can make big savings from not having to pay the full transfer value of a player and can also make other financial gains, that is, from selling on a player's image rights. Following the problems caused by the sale of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to West Ham United in 2006, third party ownership was banned in the Premiership, although it is widely used in South America and Europe and is permissible under FFP. Following the introduction of FFP, the Premiership unsuccessfully lobbied UEFA to review the situation to avoid English clubs being disadvantaged, and in October 2011, sports lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont told the BBC that the Premier League's third-party ownership rules were not legitimate and that a legal challenge to overturn them would have a "very, very good chance of succeeding".


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: On 4 February 2013, UEFA confirmed that it intended to ban third-party ownership of players, stating, "We think this should be the case all over the world, certainly all over Europe. If FIFA will not do it, we will certainly do it as far as Europe is concerned."


title: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

text: Another big issue for English clubs is the substantial payments made to the lower leagues in the football "pyramid" and to other charities out of their joint Sky TV deal. In 2009–10, Premier League clubs paid a total of £167.2 million to various causes, including £62.2 million to recently relegated clubs in "parachute payments"; £56.4 million across The Football League in "solidarity payments"; £17.3 million to the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA); £7.8 million domestically and £3 million internationally to the Creating Chances Trust ( a charity for children leaving care); £12 million to other charities such as the Football Foundation, which provides funding for grass roots sport; £2.9 million to Professional Games Match Officials (referees and assistant referees); £2 million to the Conference National; and £500,000 to the League Managers Association.


title: Phase modulation

text: Phase modulation (PM) is a modulation pattern for conditioning communication signals for transmission. It encodes a message signal as variations in the instantaneous phase of a carrier wave. Phase modulation is one of the two principal forms of angle modulation, together with frequency modulation.


title: Phase modulation

text: In phase modulation, the instantaneous amplitude of the baseband signal modifies the phase of the carrier signal keeping its amplitude and frequency constant. The phase of a carrier signal is modulated to follow the changing signal level (amplitude) of the message signal. The peak amplitude and the frequency of the carrier signal are maintained constant, but as the amplitude of the message signal changes, the phase of the carrier changes correspondingly.


title: Phase modulation

text: Phase modulation is widely used for transmitting radio waves and is an integral part of many digital transmission coding schemes that underlie a wide range of technologies like Wi-Fi, GSM and satellite television. It is also used for signal and waveform generation in digital synthesizers, such as the Yamaha DX7, to implement FM synthesis. A related type of sound synthesis called phase distortion is used in the Casio CZ synthesizers.


title: Phase modulation

text: Phase modulation changes the phase angle of the complex envelope in proportion to the message signal.


title: Phase modulation

text: If "m"("t") is the message signal to be transmitted and the carrier onto which the signal is modulated is


title: Phase modulation

text: This shows how formula_3 modulates the phase - the greater "m"("t") is at a point in time, the greater the phase shift of the modulated signal at that point. It can also be viewed as a change of the frequency of the carrier signal, and phase modulation can thus be considered a special case of FM in which the carrier frequency modulation is given by the time derivative of the phase modulation.


title: Phase modulation

text: As with other modulation indices, this quantity indicates by how much the modulated variable varies around its unmodulated level. It relates to the variations in the phase of the carrier signal:


title: Phase modulation

text: where formula_6 is the peak phase deviation. Compare to the modulation index for frequency modulation.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: Genevieve Nnaji (; born on 3 May 1979) is a Nigerian actress, producer, and director. She won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2005, making her the first actor to win the award. In 2011, she was honoured as a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic by the Nigerian government for her contributions to Nollywood. Her directorial debut movie, "Lionheart", is the first Netflix film from Nigeria and the first Nigerian submission for the Oscars. The movie was disqualified for having most of its dialogue in English. After having spent decades in the movie industry, she was profiled alongside some celebrities and business executives in 2020 in two new books by publisher and Editor in Chief of "Yes International!" magazine, Azuh Arinze.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: Genevieve was born in Mbaise, Imo State, Nigeria, and grew up in Lagos. The fourth of eight children, she was raised in a middle-class family; her father worked as an engineer and her mother was a nursery school teacher.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: She attended Methodist Girls College (Yaba, Lagos), before proceeding to the University of Lagos, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in creative arts. While at the university, she began auditioning for acting jobs in Nollywood.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: Nnaji started her acting career as a child actor in the then-popular television soap opera "Ripples" at the age of 8. In 1998, at the age of 19, she was introduced into the growing Nigerian film industry with the movie "Most Wanted". Her subsequent movies include "Last Party", "Mark of the Beast", and "Ijele". In 2010, she starred in the award-winning film "Ijé: The Journey". She has starred in over 200 Nollywood movies.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: In 2004, Nnaji signed a recording contract with "EKB Records;" a Ghanaian record label, and released her debut album "One Logologo Line". It is a mix of R&B, Hip-Hop, and Urban music. In 2004, Genevieve Nnaji was with the most votes after contending with other celebrities for the search for the face of Lux in 2004.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: In 2005, she won the Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Actress in a Leading Role, becoming the first actor to win the award.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: As of 2009, Nnaji was one of the best-paid female actors in Nollywood. Due to her contributions to the Nigerian movie industry, she became the first actor to be awarded Best Actress at the 2001 City Peoples Awards, the award ceremony that previously had only recognized politicians and business conglomerates. She was also the first actor to be awarded as Best Actress by the Censors Board of Nigeria in 2003. In 2009, she was referred to as the Julia Roberts of Africa by Oprah Winfrey.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: In November 2015, Nnaji produced her first movie called "Road to Yesterday", later winning Best Movie Overall-West Africa at the 2016 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: In January 2018, it was reported that Genevieve would be replacing Funke Akindele as a member of the Dora Milaje in Marvel's "". This was later debunked as an internet prank and the actor did not appear in the movie.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: On 7 September 2018, her directorial debut "Lionheart" was acquired by online streaming service Netflix, making it the first Netflix original film from Nigeria. The movie had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, alongside "Farming", the Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's autobiographical directorial debut where she starred in alongside Kate Beckinsale, Damson Idris, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: On May 6, 2021, Genevieve Nnaji was featured in a skit by Ofego titled "Say It And Quench" on his YouTube channel.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: Genevieve Nnaji is also a women's activist. She advocates for Nigerian girls to be able to have a say in who they choose to marry. She is against early marriages for the girl child. She is strongly against the abuse of women in society. Genevieve says she is a strong advocate for social justice. Further, Genevieve Nnaji is a strong feminist. She states her type of feminism is the woman who has the right to make her own choices and do whatever she feels like.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: Nnaji has featured in several commercials, including for Pronto (beverage) and Omo detergent. In 2004, she became the ""Face of Lux"" in Nigeria in a highly lucrative sponsorship deal. In 2008, Nnaji launched the clothing line "St. Genevieve", which donates its proceeds to charity. In May 2010, she was appointed to be the official ""Face of MUD"" in Nigeria.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: Nnaji has received several awards and nominations for her work, including the "Best Actress of the Year" Award at the 2001 City People Awards and the "Best Actress in a Leading Role" Award at the 2005 Africa Movie Academy Awards.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: In 2019, her movie, "Lionheart", was selected by the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC), as Nigeria's submission to the Best International Feature Film Category of the 2020 Oscars. It was the first film ever submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: Subsequently, the oscar submission was cancelled for not meeting the language criteria. The film's dialogue track is predominantly in the English language. However, the Oscar rules since 2006 dictate that eligible movies must have a "Predominantly non-English dialogue track." This move was an attempt to open up more opportunities for films from diverse cultures.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: In a viral tweet on 4 November 2019, the Award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay, had questioned the Academy's decision on nixing "Lionheart" Oscar race for using its official language — English. Nnaji, in response to Ava DuVernay's Tweet, took to Twitter to explain that the country Nigeria as presently constituted, does boast of over 500 languages, making it so ethnically diverse than English, as the official language, can only be the language utilized to make the movie widely acceptable to the eclectic audience across the country, and even beyond the continent of Africa.


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: In an article published by Culture writer and multiculturalism scholar- Kovie Biakolo titled "Nigeria's Lion Heart Disqualification is Bigger than the Oscars" on the "CNN" opinion website; Kovie opined that "one cannot help but feel that Nigeria is ultimately being penalized for being a former British colony in using the very language that was imposed on its people, to communicate between them, and especially for art. Former French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies certainly don't have this problem. And in truth, the Academy may be demonstrating a short-sighted or surface-level understanding of its purported inclusivity in this category".


title: Genevieve Nnaji

text: She went further to criticize the Oscar board for allowing the nominations of British movies that were not done in English, which invariably is the Country's main language but did so in the case of Nigeria whose cultural diversity could be confounding yet true.


title: Basement membrane

text: The basement membrane is a thin, pliable sheet-like type of extracellular matrix that provides cell and tissue support and acts as a platform for complex signalling. The basement membrane sits between epithelial tissues including mesothelium and endothelium, and the underlying connective tissue.


title: Basement membrane

text: As seen with the electron microscope, the basement membrane is composed of two layers, the basal lamina and the reticular lamina. The underlying connective tissue attaches to the basal lamina with collagen VII anchoring fibrils and fibrillin microfibrils.


title: Basement membrane

text: The basal lamina layer can further be subdivided into two layers based on their visual appearance in electron microscopy. The lighter-colored layer closer to the epithelium is called the lamina lucida, while the denser-colored layer closer to the connective tissue is called the lamina densa. The electron-dense lamina densa layer is about 30–70 nanometers thick and consists of an underlying network of reticular collagen IV fibrils which average 30 nanometers in diameter and 0.1–2 micrometers in thickness and are coated with the heparan sulfate-rich proteoglycan perlecan. In addition to collagen, this supportive matrix contains intrinsic macromolecular components. The lamina lucida layer is made up of laminin, integrins, entactins, and dystroglycans. Integrins are a key component of hemidesmosomes which serve to anchor the epithelium to the underlying basement membrane.


title: Basement membrane

text: To represent the above in a visually organised manner, the basement membrane is organized as follows:


title: Basement membrane

text: The primary function of the basement membrane is to anchor down the epithelium to its loose connective tissue (the dermis or lamina propria) underneath. This is achieved by cell-matrix adhesions through substrate adhesion molecules (SAMs).


title: Basement membrane

text: The basement membrane acts as a mechanical barrier, preventing malignant cells from invading the deeper tissues. Early stages of malignancy that are thus limited to the epithelial layer by the basement membrane are called carcinoma in situ.


title: Basement membrane

text: The basement membrane is also essential for angiogenesis (development of new blood vessels). Basement membrane proteins have been found to accelerate differentiation of endothelial cells.


title: Basement membrane

text: The most notable examples of basement membranes is the glomerular basement membrane of the kidney, by the fusion of the basal lamina from the endothelium of glomerular capillaries and the podocyte basal lamina, and between lung alveoli and pulmonary capillaries, by the fusion of the basal lamina of the lung alveoli and of the basal lamina of the lung capillaries, which is where oxygen and diffusion occurs (gas exchange).


title: Basement membrane

text: As of 2017, other roles for basement membrane include blood filtration and muscle homeostasis. Fractones may be a type of basement membrane, serving as a niche for stem cells.


title: Basement membrane

text: Some diseases result from a poorly functioning basement membrane. The cause can be genetic defects, injuries by the body's own immune system, or other mechanisms. Diseases involving basement membranes at multiple locations include:


title: Basement membrane

text: In histopathology, a thickened basement membrane indicates mainly systemic lupus erythematosus or dermatomyositis, but also possibly lichen sclerosus.


title: Basement membrane

text: These are only found within diploblastic and homoscleromorphic sponge animals. The homoscleromorph were found to be sister to diploblasts in some studies, making the membrane originate once in the history of life. But more recent studies have disregarded diploblast-homoscleromorph group, so other sponges may have lost it (most probable) or the origin in the two groups may be separate.


title: Lance Kerwin

text: Lance Kerwin (born November 6, 1960) is an American actor, known primarily for roles in television and film during his childhood and teen years in the 1970s. He played lead roles in the TV series "James at 15", and the made-for-TV films "The Loneliest Runner" and "Salem's Lot".


title: Lance Kerwin

text: Kerwin was raised in Lake Elsinore, California. His father was an acting coach, who brought home scripts for his son to read. His mother was also a performer and later, a talent agent. He is the youngest of five brothers. His brother Shane was his stand-in.


title: Lance Kerwin

text: In the 1970s, Kerwin appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies and series. He was, said former theater critic and British Film Institute governor John Holmstrom, "probably America's leading boy actor of the late Seventies ... a handsome lad ... [with] considerable sensitivity as an actor". His serious acting roles often portrayed anguished characters facing difficult challenges, such as in "The Loneliest Runner", "The Boy Who Drank Too Much", and "Children of Divorce".


title: Lance Kerwin

text: Kerwin has a daughter, Savanah Paige, with Kristen Lansdale and four children with his wife Yvonne Kerwin - daughters Trinity, Terah, and Kailani, and son Justus Joe. He gave up acting in the mid-1990s.


title: Lance Kerwin

text: In a July 2010 article, it was stated that Kerwin was then working as a "pastor at Calvary Chapel in Kapaa, Hawaii and a U-Turn for Christ program leader". In that same article, Kerwin and his wife Yvonne pled guilty to falsifying documents to obtain state medical assistance in Hawaii. Kerwin was sentenced to five years probation and 300 hours of community service. He publicly apologized.


title: Alfie Bass

text: Alfie Bass (born Abraham Basalinsky, 10 April 1916 – 16 July 1987) was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; his parents had left Russia many years before he was born. He appeared in a variety of stage, film, television and radio productions throughout his career.


title: Alfie Bass

text: Alfie Bass was born Abraham Basalinsky in Bethnal Green in London's East End. He was the youngest of ten children of Jacob Basalinsky, who had fled Jewish persecution in Russia, and his wife, Ada Miller. After leaving school, he worked in his father's trade as a cabinet-maker. During this time he took part in amateur dramatics at a local boys' club. He was active in the labour movement and often attended union meetings. In 1936 he took part in the Battle of Cable Street, in which activists attempted to prevent a march through the East End by the British Union of Fascists.


title: Alfie Bass

text: At the outbreak of World War II, he was rejected by the RAF, and went to work in an engineering factory. He was later called up into the Middlesex Regiment as a despatch rider. He maintained his interest in acting by appearing in concert parties and in Army Film Unit documentaries.


title: Alfie Bass

text: Bass's acting career began at London's Unity Theatre in the late 1930s, appearing in "Plant in the Sun" alongside Paul Robeson, and as the pantomime King in "Babes In the Wood".


title: Alfie Bass

text: His stage career included plays by Shakespeare and Shaw. During the 1950s, he continued to direct shows at Unity, and on one occasion appeared in court (along with Vida Hope), charged with putting on a play without a licence. His stage work also included an adaptation of Gogol's short story "The Bespoke Overcoat", transposed to the East End of London, which was filmed by Jack Clayton in 1956, and won the Oscar for Best Short. In addition, Bass took over from Chaim Topol in the role of Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" on the West End stage.


title: Alfie Bass

text: Bass first appeared on film in wartime documentaries. He also appeared in a number of feature films including "The Lavender Hill Mob" (1951), "Hell Drivers" (1957), "A Tale of Two Cities" (1958) and "Alfie" (1966) starring Michael Caine and Shelley Winters. In the latter he played Harry Clamacraft, a man Alfie meets and befriends in a sanatorium.


title: Alfie Bass

text: He starred in Roman Polanski's vampire film "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (1967) (British title "The Dance of the Vampires") as innkeeper Yoine Shagal with his daughter Sarah played by Sharon Tate. In the course of the film, he and his daughter become vampires. When a maid tries to scare him off with a crucifix, he responds with "Oy, have "you" got the wrong vampire!".


title: Alfie Bass

text: Bass also appeared in the "Pride" segment of "The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins" (1971) and had a leading role in the 1977 sex comedy "Come Play with Me". He has had many cameo roles, such as the Indian restaurant doorman in the Beatles' film "Help!" (1965), as Clouseau's seafaring informant in "Revenge of the Pink Panther" (1978), and in "Moonraker" (1979), in which he was cast as a heavy smoking hard drinker. Bass had a small part in "I Was Monty's Double" as a non-speaking passenger on a train.


title: Alfie Bass

text: In his book "British Film Character Actors" (1982), Terence Pettigrew remembers, "there was a time when no British film seemed complete without Alfie Bass popping up in some guise or other. Basically playing the same character, he has hopped chirpily from drama to comedy and into costume pieces and back like an energised sparrow. To all of these, he has added an engaging warmth and sanguinity".


title: Alfie Bass

text: Bass appeared as a poacher rescued by Robin Hood in the first episode of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" starring Richard Greene, in episode 2 "The Moneylender", as well as in episode 10 of the first series which was titled "The Ordeal". He also appeared in two later episodes during season two titled "The Goldmaker" (episode 5) and "The Goldmaker's Return" (episode 22) as Lepidus, the roguish alchemist, rescued from the Sheriff by Little John (Archie Duncan). He appeared in "The Army Game" (1957–61), a British TV comedy series, as Private Montague 'Excused Boots' Bisley, and its sequel "Bootsie and Snudge" from 1960–63 (there was also a one series revival in colour in 1974), working at a Gentlemen's club with Bill Fraser as 'Claude Snudge' and Clive Dunn as 'Henry Beerbohm Johnson'. Bass additionally played the character in another spin-off, "Foreign Affairs", in 1964. Bass also played Lemuel "Lemmy" Barnet in the third and fourth series of the landmark 1950s science fiction BBC Radio series "Journey into Space".


title: Alfie Bass

text: He continued working throughout the 1970s and 80s, particularly in the TV series' "Till Death Us Do Part" and "Are You Being Served?", the latter as Mr. Goldberg, the second in a series of replacements for Arthur Brough's Mr. Grainger character (the first being James Hayter's Mr. Tebbs). As in the Mr. Goldberg role, he often emphasised his Jewish background in his on-screen characterisations.


title: Alfie Bass

text: Bass played a memorable Silas Wegg in the BBC's 1976 adaptation of Dickens's "Our Mutual Friend". He also played Isaac Rag in a notable recurring character role in the 1979-1980 "Dick Turpin" series, and Morrie Levin, a shrewd accountant, in the "Minder" episode "The Son Also Rises" (1982).


title: Alfie Bass

text: Bass appeared in a 1979 episode of the ITV drama series "Danger UXB: Just Like a Woman", as a family man with an unexploded bomb in his back garden.


title: Alfie Bass

text: He also guest starred in two episodes of the British comedy television "The Goodies", in which he appeared as the "Town Planner" in "Camelot", and as the "Giant" in "The Goodies and the Beanstalk".


title: Alfie Bass

text: He was a subject of the television programme "This Is Your Life" in March 1970, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.


title: Alfie Bass

text: In 1955, Bass recorded the novelty song "Pity the Downtrodden Landlord". It was issued by the folk music label Topic Records on a 78rpm single, backed with "Housing Repairs And Rents Act", written by Fred Dallas; on both sides, Bass was accompanied by "The Four Bailiffs".


title: Alfie Bass

text: With his fellow cast members from "The Army Game", Bernard Bresslaw, Leslie Fyson and Michael Medwin, Bass was part of a vocal quartet who scored a number 5 hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1958 with "The Signature Tune Of The Army Game". It was backed with the same actors singing "What Do We Do In The Army". In 1960, Pye Records issued two solo recordings by Bass on a single, "Villikens And His Dinah" and "Rat Catcher's Daughter".


title: Alfie Bass

text: Alfie Bass died on 16 July 1987 in Barnet General Hospital, north London, following a heart attack. He was survived by his wife and their son and daughter. His last home was in Well End, a suburb of Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.


title: Russian Olympic Committee athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympics

text: Russian athletes competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from all international sport for four years, after it was found that data provided by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency had been manipulated by Russian authorities with a goal of protecting athletes involved in its state-sponsored doping scheme. As at the 2018 Winter Olympics, WADA has allowed individual cleared Russian athletes to compete neutrally under the title of "Russian Olympic Committee".


text: Russia later filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the WADA decision. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, on review of Russia's appeal of its case from WADA, ruled on 17 December 2020 to reduce the penalty that WADA had placed. Instead of banning Russia from sporting events, the ruling allowed Russia to participate at the Olympics and other international events, but for a period of two years, the team cannot use the Russian name, flag, or anthem and must present themselves as "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team". The ruling does allow for team uniforms to display "Russia" on the uniform as well as the use of the Russian flag colors within the uniform's design, although the name should be up to equal predominance as the "Neutral Athlete/Team" designation. Russia can appeal the decision.


text: On 19 February 2021, it was announced that Russia would compete under the acronym "ROC", after the name of the Russian Olympic Committee. On aftermatch, the IOC announced that the Russian national flag would be substituted by the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee. It would also be allowed to use team uniforms bearing the words "Russian Olympic Committee", or the acronym "ROC" would be added.


text: On 15 April 2021, the uniforms for the Russian Olympic Committee athletes were unveiled, featuring the colours of the Russian flag. On 22 April 2021, the replacement for Russia's anthem was approved by the IOC, after an earlier choice of the patriotic Russian song "Katyusha" was rejected. A fragment of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is used.


text: Triple gold medalist and eight-time medalist Alexander Bolshunov was the closing ceremony flagbearer.


text: On 19 February, Russian athletes officially set a new record for the total number of medals won, having earned at least 32 and improving on Russia's previous best result in Sochi (30 medals) and USSR's result in Calgary (29 medals). However, in the gold medal count the team finished only ninth with six gold medals.


text: Russia qualified three male and one female alpine skiers, then claimed three additional female quotas during reallocation.


text: Based on their Nations Cup rankings in the 2020–21 Biathlon World Cup and 2021–22 Biathlon World Cup, Russian Olympic Committee has qualified a team of 5 men and 5 women.


text: Russian Biathlon Union announced the 5 men and 5 women participating on 17 January 2022. On 30 January 2022 Valeriia Vasnetsova, who was already in Beijing, was replaced with Evgeniya Burtasova due to positive COVID-19 tests.


text: Based on their rankings in the 2021–22 Bobsleigh World Cup, Russian Olympic Committee qualified 7 sleds. Bobsleigh Federation of Russia announced the competing athletes on 17 January 2022 and full squads of crews on 22 January 2022. On 4 February 2022 Vasiliy Kondratenko and Aleksei Pushkarev were replaced with Alexey Zaitsev and Vladislav Zharovtsev due to positive COVID-19 tests.


text: Russian Cross-Country Ski Federation announced the 8 men and 8 women participating on 11 January 2022.


text: Based on results of the 2021 World Curling Championships and Olympic Qualification Event, Russian Olympic Committee has qualified for men's and women's tournaments. Russian Curling Federation announced the five men and five women participating on 4 January 2022.


text: Russia has qualified their men's team (five athletes), by finishing in the top six teams in the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship.


text: Russia has qualified their women's team (five athletes), by finishing in the top six teams in the 2021 World Women's Curling Championship.


text: In the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, Russia secured three quotas in the women's, pairs, ice dance competitions, and at least two quotas in the men's competition. A third men's quota was secured at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy. Figure Skating Federation of Russia announced the 9 men and 9 women participating on 20 January 2022. On 25 January 2022 single skater Mikhail Kolyada was replaced with Evgeni Semenenko due to positive COVID-19 test.


text: Russian Freestyle Skiing Federation announced the 9 men and 13 women competing on 20 January 2022. 14th woman was announced on 25 January 2022.


text: Russia has qualified 25 male and 23 female competitors to the ice hockey tournaments as part of their two teams.


text: Russia women's national ice hockey team qualified by being ranked 4th in the 2020 IIHF World Rankings.


text: Based on their rankings in the 2021–22 Luge World Cup, Russian Olympic Committee qualified ten athletes and a relay team. The team consists of three athletes each in the individual events and two doubles sleds. Russian Luge Federation announced the 7 men and 3 women participating on 10 January 2022.


text: Russian Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Federation announced the 3 athletes participating on 17 January 2022.


text: Russian athletes have qualified in all three relays, qualifying four men and five women, then claimed one additional male quote during reallocation. Russian Skating Union announced the 4 men and 5 women participating on 12 December 2021 and then announced fifth man on 17 January 2022.


text: On 17 January 2022, Bobsleigh Federation of Russia announced the 6 competing athletes. On 31 January 2022 Vladislav Semenov and Nikita Tregubov, who is the 2018 silver medalist, were replaced with Daniil Romanov and Evgeniy Rukosuev respectively due to positive COVID-19 tests.


text: Russian Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Federation announced 4 men and 4 women participating on 17 January 2022. Fifth man was announced on 25 January 2012.


text: Russian Olympic Committee earned the following quotas at the conclusion of the four World Cup's used for qualification — 8 men and 8 women, including both teams in the men's and women's team pursuit events. Russian Skating Union announced the participants on 17 January 2022.


title: Jacques Agnant

text: Jacques "Haitian Jack" Agnant is a Haitian-born music executive and promoter in the rap music industry. He has worked with several popular artists including Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Justin Rose, and Wyclef Jean. In 2007, he was deported from the United States.


title: Jacques Agnant

text: Agnant's family migrated to East Flatbush, Brooklyn from Haiti. He became immersed in the street life by selling drugs during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. Eventually, he became a club promoter. He was also involved with singer Madonna. Agnant managed various rappers and collaborated with Wyclef Jean, who is a paternal relative. He became friends with rapper Tupac Shakur. Shakur accused Agnant of orchestrating the robbery at Quad Recording Studios in 1994 in his song "Against All Odds," in which Shakur was shot. Agnant denied that he had ordered the attack. Around this time, Agnant was hired Director of A&R by his friend Lance "Un' Rivera, CEO of the rap label Undeas Recordings. In 1999, Agnant was hired as security by music executive Steve Stoute, following an altercation in which Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs assaulted Stoute with a champagne bottle.


title: Jacques Agnant

text: Following a conviction for a shooting in a Los Angeles nightclub in 2004, which led to prison time, Agnant was deported to Haiti in 2007. In 2015, it was reported that Benny Boom was set to direct a miniseries on the life of Haitian Jack. In 2021, Agnant was featured in the FX documentary "Hip Hop" "Uncovered". He currently lives in the Dominican Republic. He is best known for his connection to Tupac in the early 1990s.


title: Axillary lymph nodes

text: The axillary lymph nodes or armpit lymph nodes are lymph nodes in the human armpit. Between 20 and 49 in number, they drain lymph vessels from the lateral quadrants of the breast, the superficial lymph vessels from thin walls of the chest and the abdomen above the level of the navel, and the vessels from the upper limb. They are divided in several groups according to their location in the armpit. These lymph nodes are clinically significant in breast cancer, and metastases from the breast to the axillary lymph nodes are considered in the staging of the disease.


title: Axillary lymph nodes

text: The apical nodes drain into the subclavian lymph trunk. On the left side, this trunk drains into the thoracic duct; on the right side, it drains into the right lymphatic duct. Alternatively, the lymph trunks may drain directly into one of the large veins at the root of the neck.


title: Axillary lymph nodes

text: About 75% of lymph from the breasts drains into the axillary lymph nodes, making them important in the diagnosis and staging of breast cancer. A doctor will usually refer a patient to a surgeon to have an axillary lymph node dissection to see if the cancer cells have been trapped in the nodes. For clinical stages I and II breast cancer, axillary lymph node dissection should only be performed after first attempting sentinel node biopsy.


title: Axillary lymph nodes

text: If cancer cells are found in the nodes it increases the risk of metastatic breast cancer. Another method of determining breast cancer spread is to perform an endoscopic axillary sentinel node biopsy. This involves injecting a dye into the breast lump and seeing which node it first spread to (the sentinel node). This node is then removed and examined. If there is no cancer present, it is assumed the cancer has not spread to the other lymph nodes. This procedure is often less invasive and less damaging than the axillary lymph node dissection. The estimated risk of lymphedema following sentinel lymph node procedure is less than 3%. The approximate risk of lymphedema following axillary lymph node dissection is 10-15% and this can slightly increase with the addition of radiotherapy and chemotherapy to as much as 20-25% depending on the extent of dissection, extent of radiotherapy fields, and history of chemotherapy.


title: Axillary lymph nodes

text: On CT scan or MRI, axillary lymphadenopathy can be defined as solid nodes measuring more than 1.5 cm without fatty hilum. Lymph nodes may be normal up to 3 cm if consisting largely of fat.


title: Axillary lymph nodes

text: Axillary lymph nodes are included within the standard tangential fields in radiotherapy for breast cancer. In the case of comprehensive nodal irradiation, which includes axillary levels I, II, and III, as well as a supraclavicular lymph node field, there is a risk of damage to brachial plexus. The risk is estimated to be less than 5% as the brachial plexus radiation tolerance according to (Emami 1991) is 60 Gy in standard fractionation (2 Gy per fraction). A common prescribed dose for breast cancer with comprehensive nodal fields would be 50 Gy in 25 fractions with a boost planned to the lumpectomy cavity in the breast or scar on the chest wall if it is a mastectomy. If brachial plexopathy does occur, it is generally a late effect and may not manifest itself until 10 or 15 years later, and usually presents with slight painless muscular atrophy.


title: Axillary lymph nodes

text: Malignancies in the gastrointestinal system like gastric cancer can metastasize to the left axillary lymph node which is called "Irish’s node".


title: Bak kut teh

text: Bak kut teh (also spelt bah kut teh and abbreviated BKT; , Teochew Pe̍h-uē-jī: "nêg8-gug4-dê5") is a pork rib dish cooked in broth popularly served in Malaysia and Singapore where there is a predominant Hoklo and Teochew community.


title: Bak kut teh

text: The name literally translates from the Hokkien dialect as "meat bone tea", and at its simplest, consists of pork ribs simmered in a broth of herbs and spices (including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, "dong quai", fennel seeds and garlic) for hours. Despite its name, there is in fact no tea in the dish itself; the name refers to a strong oolong Chinese tea which is usually served alongside the soup in the belief that it dilutes or dissolves the copious amount of fat consumed in this pork-laden dish.


title: Bak kut teh

text: However, additional ingredients may include offal, varieties of mushroom, choy sum, and pieces of dried tofu or fried tofu puffs. Additional Chinese herbs may include "yu zhu" (玉竹, rhizome of Solomon's seal) and "ju zhi" (buckthorn fruit), which give the soup a sweeter, slightly stronger flavor. Light and dark soy sauce are also added to the soup during cooking, with varying amounts depending on the variant – the Teochew's version is lighter than the Hokkiens'. The dish can be garnished with chopped coriander or green onions and a sprinkling of fried shallots.


title: Bak kut teh

text: In Malaysia, it is often served with strips of fried dough called "you char kway" (). Soy sauce (usually dark soy sauce, but light soy sauce is also offered sometimes) is preferred as a condiment, with which chopped chilli padi and minced garlic is taken together. Tea of various kinds, for example the Tieguanyin () variety which is popular in the Klang Valley area of Malaysia, is also usually served in the belief that it dilutes or dissolves the copious amount of fat consumed in this pork-laden dish.


title: Bak kut teh

text: In Singapore, similarly the Teochew variant dish is served with a side of youtiao cut into small pieces, meant to be dipped into the soup of the dish before consumption. Braised pig trotters are also an option that can be ordered as a side together with the dish and dark soy sauce with chilli padi is preferred as a condiment. Tea, prepared in a kung fu tea ceremony is also served in restaurants specialising in the dish.


title: Bak kut teh

text: "Bak kut teh" is usually eaten for breakfast or lunch. The Hokkien and Teochew are traditionally tea-drinking cultures and this aspect runs deep in their cuisines.