title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The team has also made 65 bowl appearances throughout their history (an NCAA record), beginning with the 1926 Rose Bowl. Alabama's most recent bowl appearance was at the 2020 Citrus Bowl. Alabama has a 39–26–3 bowl game record. Since 1913, Alabama has had 98 players selected as first team All-Americans, with 29 of them being consensus selections. In 2009, Alabama also recorded their first Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram II, in the closest Heisman Trophy race. In 2015, Alabama had its second Heisman Trophy winner in Derrick Henry. In 2020, wide receiver DeVonta Smith became the program's third Heisman Trophy winner.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Alabama's men's basketball program has a respectable tradition with numerous SEC Championships and players becoming NBA stars and international professional players. In the conference, it trails only Kentucky in basketball wins, SEC tournament titles, and SEC regular season conference titles. The men's basketball program has risen in stature nationally, achieving a No.1 national ranking briefly in 2002. The Crimson Tide has become a regular conference basketball contender much as it was in the 1980s under the direction of Coach Wimp Sanderson. Under head coach and former point guard Mark Gottfried, the Tide advanced to postseason play for six consecutive years, culminating with the team's advancement into the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history in 2004, where the team lost to eventual champion Connecticut in the Phoenix Regional Final.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: In January 2009, Head Coach Mark Gottfried resigned after eleven years at Alabama. Soon afterwards Anthony Grant was hired as the new head coach. Under his watch the Crimson Tide battled through a tough first year, finishing 17–15 and achieving a top-10 ranking in points allowed on defense. Grant's second season with the Tide resulted in the SEC Western Division Championship, finishing 12–4 in the SEC and an overall record of 25–12. They entered the 2011 NIT Tournament with a No.1 seed and made it to the NIT Championship Game and finished as the runner-up. The Crimson Tide was unbeaten at home with a perfect 19–0 season, a school record. In 2012 the Crimson Tide was a participant in the NCAA tournament and finished its season with a 21–12 record. Former Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets coach Avery Johnson became the Alabama Head Coach on April 5, 2015. Nate Oats became head coach on March 27, 2019.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Alabama's women's basketball team competes in Coleman Coliseum and had previously played in Foster Auditorium. The team played its first game in 1974 and has since been a varsity sport. The team has had nine head coaches, including Rick Moody, who guided the club to the 1994 NCAA Women's Final Four. Kristy Curry was named head coach on May 11, 2013, replacing Wendell Hudson.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The Crimson Tide has appeared in ten post-season Tournaments for the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, including an eight-year streak of consecutive appearances in the tournament stretching from 1992 to 1999. In ten NCAA tournament appearances, Alabama has advanced to the "Sweet Sixteen" six times and the "Elite Eight" and the "Final Four" in 1994. The most successful season was 1996–1997 when the Tide finished second in the Southeastern Conference (10–2 record) and had a mid-season national ranking of No.2 in polls by the AP and USA Today (November 12, 1996); they finished with a 25–7 overall record. The University of Alabama Women's Basketball program shares the national record with Duke University for the most total points for both teams when Alabama defeated Duke 121–120 (in four overtimes) in 1995 in the NCAA tournament, a game that ESPN has declared as one of the "best all-time women's basketball tournament games". Seven former players for the University of Alabama have made rosters of teams of the WNBA. Alabama has had an active player in the WNBA through every year of its existence. The current head coach for the Crimson Tide is Kristy Curry. The team played its first season of 1974–75 in Foster Auditorium, but moved to what is now Coleman Coliseum the following season. After Foster Auditorium was extensively renovated in a project that began in 2009, the Tide returned to their original home on February 13, 2011.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Alabama has baseball. The Crimson Tide is second to LSU for the most SEC titles with 14 (including 13 regular season titles and one tournament title that was won in 1983, during an era in which the tournament decided the overall SEC title). Alabama is also second to the Tigers with seven SEC Tournament championships, including the 1983 one that decided the overall SEC title. Tide baseball teams have participated in the NCAA College World Series five times (1950, 1983, 1996, 1997, 1999), finishing second in 1983 (to Texas) and 1997 (to LSU). Home games are played at Sewell–Thomas Stadium, known as "The Joe" to Crimson Tide fans. The baseball team is currently coached by head coach Brad Bohannon.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The Alabama softball team was started in 1997. They are currently coached by head coach Patrick Murphy and assistant coaches Alyson Habetz and Stephanie VanBrakle. They have won six Southeastern Conference championships (two regular seasons and four tournaments), made 18 consecutive NCAA tournaments (every year since 1999) and have advanced to the Women's College World Series eight times, including back-to-back third-place finishes in the 2008 and 2009 series. On June 7, 2012, Alabama became the first team in SEC history to win the WCWS Championship defeating Oklahoma in three games. The team's current overall record stands at 708–224 (.759). Alabama has won the SEC softball tournament five times (1998, 2003, 2005, 2010 and 2012).


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Alabama's men's and women's golf teams have become two of the top programs in the nation since head coaches Jay Seawell (men) and Mic Potter (women) took over in the 2002 and 2006 respectively. They have combined to make the NCAA tournament 13 out of 14 chances since they arrived, and have each led their teams to a Southeastern Conference Championship. Overall the Crimson Tide golf teams have combined to make the NCAA tournament 31 times, won the SEC Championship four times, and have had over 30 players honored as All-Americans. The men's golf program finished sixth in the nation in 2007, while being consistently ranked in the top three in the 2007–08 season. The home course for the Tide has been the Ol' Colony Golf Complex since 2005.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: In 2012, the Crimson Tide has two of the best teams in the country with the women ranked No.1 and men ranked No.4 by Golf Week. The women's golf team won their first national title in 2012 while the men finished as the national runner-up. In 1941, Eleanor Dudley won the inaugural women's individual intercollegiate golf championship (an event conducted by the Division of Girls' and Women's Sports (DGWS) — which later evolved into the AIAW championship in the 1970s).


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: On June 2, 2013, the Alabama men's golf team won their first NCAA national title after defeating Illinois in the title match.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The women's gymnastics squad at The University of Alabama first competed in 1975. The squad did not have a winning season until the arrival of former coach Sarah Patterson in 1979. In the following 35 years under Patterson and her husband David, the squad won six NCAA national championships, seven SEC championships, 26 regional titles, and 248 All-American honors. It has placed in the top five at the NCAA Championships 25 of the past 29 years and won national championships six times: in 1988, 1991, 1996, 2002, and most recently won back to back titles in 2011 and 2012. Alabama has also won nine SEC Championships including 1988, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2009, 2011, 2014, and 2015. The gymnastics squad also hosts an annual fundraiser for breast cancer, where the crowd is encouraged to "Think Pink" and support the cause by turning out in pink clothing. As of the 2009 fundraiser, the effort had raised in excess of $750,000.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Gymnastics meets have an average attendance of over 13,000 at Coleman Coliseum. Meets against the team's arch-rival, the University of Georgia Gymdogs, often sell out. Alabama holds seven of the eleven NCAA records for the largest gymnastics crowds of all time, including an attendance of 15,162 fans on January 20, 2006. Alabama's gymnastics team is led by head coach Dana Duckworth, a former Crimson Tide gymnast and two-time NCAA champion, and competes in Coleman Coliseum.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The Crimson Tide's men's track and field program has produced numerous individual national champions, including Calvin Smith, the former world record holder in the 100-meter dash, Jan Johnson (pole vault), Gary England (shot put), Jeff Woodard (high jump), William Wuycke (1000 yards and 1000 meters), Emmit King (100 m), Keith Talley (55 m and 100 m hurdles), Andrew Owusu (long jump), Miguel Pate (long jump and NCAA national record), Mats Nilsson (javelin), Tim Broe (3000 m steeplechase), David Kimani (3000 m indoor and 5000 m), Kirani James (400 m), Diondre Batson (Indoor 200 meters), Hayden Reed (Discus) and the 4 × 100 meter relay team of Richard Beattie, Brad McQuaig, Eduardo Nava, and Clive Wright, and the mile relay team of Joe Coombs, Darroll Gatson, Tony Husbands, and Ike Levin.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Individual national champions from the Crimson Tide women's track and field team have included Disa Gisladottir (high jump), Iris Gronfeldt (javelin), Lillie Leatherwood (400 m), Liz McColgan (née Lynch; mile), Pauline Davis-Thompson (200 m), Flora Hyacinth (triple jump), Beth Mallory (discus), Remona Burchell (indoor 60 m), and Quanesha Burks (long jump).


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Coach Dan Waters is the head coach for both the men's and women's track and field program, assuming the position in 2012. The university hosts the Alabama Relays and the Crimson Classic annually, which brings many of the top programs in the country to compete at the Sam Bailey Track Stadium, built in 1975 with seating for 4,500 fans. A renovation project in 2012 created a facility that is among America's best.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Women's soccer was a varsity sport from 1986 to 1988, and was revived in 1994. Former head coach Don Staley had been with the program since 1994, but stepped down at the end of the 2007 season. He was replaced with former Clemson University head coach Todd Bramble. The team has won the SEC West three times (1995, 97, 98) and participated in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship in 1999 and 2011. In 2005, senior Libby Probst earned third team All-American honors and the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award after breaking almost every major offensive record in her career at the Capstone. The team currently plays its home games at the Alabama Soccer Stadium. Wes Hart became the head coach in 2015.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The Alabama women's volleyball is coached by Ed Allen, who was hired on January 10, 2011. The team has competed in the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship in 2005, 2006, and 2007. The team won the SEC Western Division Championship in 2000 and 2004, and was the SEC Volleyball Tournament Runner-up in 2005. In 2000, the Alabama Volleyball team achieved the nation's best team-GPA among Division I Volleyball teams. Past coaches for Alabama Volleyball have included Stephanie Schleuder, Dorothy Franco-Reed, and Judy Green. The venue for the Crimson Tide's home volleyball games is Foster Auditorium.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Men's and women's tennis at the University of Alabama have built a tradition of excellence and enjoy competing in the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility, and the University of Alabama Tennis Stadium, which has won an award from USTA for being among the most excellent tennis facilities in the nation, and has been selected as the host site for regional tournaments by the NCAA in 2012 and 2013. In the 1960s, Roberta Alison became Alabama's first female athlete when she joined the men's team and occasionally played the No.1 and No.2 positions. She went on to win American Women's collegiate Championships in 1962 and 1963 for singles, and 1963 in doubles. Today the Alabama Tennis program hosts the Roberta Alison Fall Tennis Classic each year to honor her.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Alabama men's tennis began in 1949 with the coach, Lee Shapiro. Through the years, additional coaches have developed Alabama's program, including C. de la Manardiere (1951–1953, 1956); Rafael de Valle (1954–1955 and 1958–1960); Dr. Eugene Lambert (coach) in 1957; Jason Morton (1961–1964); Earl Baumgardner (1965–1966); Bill Mallory in 1967; Dale Anderson (1968–1969); Bill McClain (1970–1977); Armistead Neely (1978–1982); Tommy Wade (1983–1988); John Kreis (1989–1994); Joey Rive (1995–1997); Adam Steinberg (1998–2002); Billy Pate (2003–2012), and the current head coach, George Husack, 2013.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The Men's Tennis Team has been a participant in the NCAA tournament 17 times: 1989, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2013, as well as having 33 singles qualifying and 17 doubles qualifying for the NCAA tournament. Alabama's All-Americans include Jeff Robinson (1976, 1977), Andy Solis (1984, 1985), Gregg Hahn (1985, 1986), John Stimpson (1990), Francisco Rodriquez (1998, 1999), Maxim Belski (2001), Clinton Ferriera (1986, 1989), Ellis Ferriera (1989, 1990, 1991), Rick Witsken (1991, 1993), and Juan Carlos Bianchi (1993). Additionally, Stephen Mitchell, among others, played professionally, and Konstantinos Efraimoglou was an Olympian in tennis in 1992. Ellis Ferreira became the champion at the 2000 Australian Open in men's doubles and 2001 Australian Open in mixed doubles. Davis Cup participants have included Juan Carlos Bianchi, Francisco Rodriguez, and Michael-Ray Pallares-González.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Alabama's women's tennis team began in 1975, although Roberta Alison competed individually through the men's team years earlier. Coaches for the Crimson Tide Women's tennis team include Jean Mills (1975–1978), Mark Heinrick (1979–1980), Lewis Lay in 1981, Peter Heffeman (1982–1984), Karin Gaiser (1985–1993), Jim Tressler (1994–1997), Michelle Morton in 1997, and the current coach, Jenny Mainz (1998–2013). Coach Jenny Mainz was named in 2013 as the National Coach of the Year after her team reached the Round of 16 and had a singles player and a doubles team to both reach the national semifinals.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: All-Americans for the Crimson Tide women's tennis team include Titia Wilmink (1993), Marouschka van Dijk (1993), Baili Camino (1997), Robin Stephenson (2005), Alexa Guarachi (2013), Mary Anne Macfarlane (2012, 2013). The Crimson Tide women's team has sent 17 qualifiers for NCAA Singles Tournaments and twelve for the Doubles Tournaments . The Tide competed as a team in the NCAA tournaments of 1993, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. The 2013 team produced the best results in program history, ending the season with a Sweet Sixteen appearance. Alabama was the winner of the NCAA Women's Doubles National Championship in 2014 and 2015 with the team of Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Women's rowing is the most recent addition to Alabama's list of varsity athletics. Mal Moore announced the addition of Alabama's 21st varsity sport in October 2005. The women's rowing team became the newest varsity sport at The University of Alabama in Fall 2006. The team was added due to the NCAA's Title IX and allows for 20 full scholarships. Taking only girls who had previously rowed for the Alabama Crew Club (est. 1987) and other walk-ons, Head Coach Larry Davis built the program from the ground up. In the first year of competition (2006–2007), the Tide defeated the University of Cincinnati, Creighton University, and Murray State University and also won medals at the Head of the Chattahoochee and the Head of the South.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The second year (2007–2008) of competition surprised many as the Varsity eight went on to win silver medals at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, and also the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Tide again medaled at the Chattanooga Head Race and the Head of the South and recorded several match race victories against Southern Methodist, Creighton, Murray State, Drake, and the North Carolina. The team also landed three boats in the top ten of their categories at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Within two years, the team has had 25 athletes earn SEC Academic Honor Roll honors and 16 earn Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete awards. For the 2007–2008 school year, Women's Rowing won the team service award by posting the most number of community service hours (over 1500) out of all women's sports at Alabama. Nationally, the Alabama women's rowing team has won both silver (in 2007) and bronze (in 2009) medals in the women's championship 8+ category at the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Other varsity sports include swimming and diving, and cross-country. The university supports both men's and women's programs in all these sports. The school has had individual success in all these sports, including Vladislav Polyakov winning national titles in the 200-meter men's breaststroke in 2005 and 2007.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The Spirit Squads are made up of two cheerleading squads (Coed Squad and All-Girl Squad), the Alabama Dance Team, and Big Al. They appear at many University sporting events.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The cheer squads and dance team compete annually at the UCA/UDA College National Championships in Division 1A. The Coed Cheerleading squad won for the first time in 2011 and then again in 2015. They came in second in 2017, fourth in 2018, and third in 2019 in the D1A Coed Championship. The All-Girl Squad debuted in 2014 placing second in their debut UCA appearance. The All-Girl team came back to win in 2015 and had repeated wins in 2020 and 2022 in the D1A All-Girl Championship. In 2015 Alabama became the first school to clean sweep both Division 1A cheer titles. The Alabama Dance Team placed seventh in Hip Hop in 2018 and 2019, and 11th in 2019 in Jazz at the UDA College National Championship. 2019 was the first year in school history that the dance team finaled in both of their two divisions.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The University of Alabama through University Recreation also fields a number of club sports of varying degrees of competitiveness, though most compete only with other teams from the southeastern US. The club sports include bowling, men's soccer, rugby, wrestling, lacrosse, men's volleyball, ice hockey, team handball, water polo, men's rowing (crew), cricket, cycling, disc golf, racquetball, table tennis, triathlon, ultimate frisbee, wheelchair basketball, water skiing, equestrian eventing, and bass fishing. The Crimson Tide's Water Skiing Team, Racquetball Team, and Wheelchair Basketball teams have the distinction of being among the nation's best, with national championships achieved by each of these teams.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The men's ice hockey team, known as the Alabama Frozen Tide, competes inter-collegiately as a member of the South Eastern Collegiate Hockey Conference, an organization comprising mostly SEC schools that do not sponsor hockey, in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) at the ACHA Division I level. Many clubs have played at this level before moving on to varsity status at their respective university. The team plays its home games at Pelham Civic Complex in nearby Birmingham. The program has taken a more advanced approach to recruiting including finding players in Canada. The practice is common among NCAA Division I programs. Taylor Joseph, the son of NHL goalkeeper Curtis Joseph, currently plays on the team.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Since 2006, Bama Hockey and the Frozen Tide has hosted sporting events for the Greater-Birmingham area at the Pelham Civic Center.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The current head coach is John Bierchen, the first UA alumnus to return to his alma mater and coach the program.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The men's lacrosse team competes in the SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference of the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association at the Division I level. The team is a club level team. The team plays at the University Recreation Fields and is currently coached by Craig Landru. The team was founded by Steven Shipowitz in the early 1980s. The Crimson Tide made their first appearance in the SELC Tournament in 2012, losing to the Florida State Seminoles 22–9 in the quarterfinals. The team briefly played in the Atlantic Coast Lacrosse Association in 2001, hosting the league tournament that season.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The University of Alabama Women's Lacrosse team competes in the Southeastern Women's Lacrosse League (SWLL). The team is a club level team founded in 2004. The Crimson Tide made their first appearance in the SWLL Tournament in 2013, losing to the University of Georgia Lady Bulldogs in the semifinals and have appeared in the SWLL Tournament every year since. The team plays at the University Recreation Fields and is currently coached by Jason Sanderson who became head coach in 2013.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Founded in 1973, Alabama Rugby is the oldest ongoing club sport at the university. Alabama rugby today competes in the Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference (SCRC) against its traditional SEC rivals. Alabama finished second in the west division of the conference in 2012 and in 2014 finished second in the SCRC, nationally ranked at No.37. Alabama won the 2015 SCRC rugby sevens competition by beating Mississippi State 24–14 in the final, to earn a berth in the nationally televised 2015 Collegiate Rugby Championship. They additionally won the 2016 SCRC rugby 15s conference championship against Tennessee 12-8 and placed second in the 2018 tournament. Alabama rugby is led by head coach Eddie Buckner. The rugby team won the Los Angeles Sevens Collegiate Championship in 2020.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: In addition, Alabama has claimed or been awarded 18 national championships at the FBS level of Division I football, a sport in which the NCAA did not award a championship.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The two main rivalries for the program are those with Auburn University and the University of Tennessee. The rivalry with the Auburn Tigers is especially heated, as the two compete annually in nearly all sports. The annual football meeting, nicknamed the Iron Bowl, is considered among the most intense college football rivalries, as well as one of the top rivalries in all sports according to "Sports Illustrated" and ESPN. Other rivalries include those against Mississippi State University in baseball and basketball (Alabama–Mississippi State rivalry), Louisiana State University in football (Alabama–LSU rivalry), the University of Mississippi in football (Alabama–Ole Miss rivalry), the University of Florida in softball, and the University of Georgia in gymnastics.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Alabama has student-athletes who have excelled in the classroom as well as on the field. The University of Alabama is eighth in the nation for the number of "Academic-All Americans" since 2000 from all universities in the United States. Among Division I BCS schools in the southeastern U.S., the University of Alabama is at the top of the list with the greatest number of Academic All-Americans since 2000.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: Each of the University of Alabama's 21 varsity athletic teams scored significantly above the national standard of 925 in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR) of 2012. 14 Crimson Tide teams achieved scores equal to or above the national Division I average for the particular sport, and two teams achieved "perfect" APR scores, which placed them in the highest percentile in the nation.


title: Alabama Crimson Tide

text: The hit song Deacon Blues, by Steely Dan, says "They call Alabama the Crimson Tide... call me Deacon Blues". "Deacon Blues" itself is a football reference, having originally been Deacon Jones but was renamed to avoid legal troubles.


title: Mikaela Mayer

text: Mikaela Joslin Mayer (born July 4, 1990) is an American professional boxer. She was a unified super featherweight world champion, holding the WBO female title since 2020 and the IBF female title since November 2021, before losing both in October 2022. As an amateur she won a bronze medal at the 2012 World Championships and competed for the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics. As of February 2021, she is ranked as the world's second best active female super featherweight by BoxRec and third by "The Ring", as well as the tenth best active female, pound for pound, by "The Ring".


title: Mikaela Mayer

text: Mayer competed internationally as part of Team USA in the women's 60 kg category at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. She defeated Jennifer Chieng in Round 16 before being eliminated in the quarterfinal by Russian Anastasia Belyakova, who took a majority decision.


title: Mikaela Mayer

text: After signing with Top Rank, Mayer made her debut in August 2017. She defeated Widnelly Figueroa by knockout in one round.


title: Mikaela Mayer

text: Between 2003 and 2005, Mayer played bass in a heavy metal band Lia-Fail; the band included Nita Strauss.


title: Lucio Tan

text: Lucio Chua Tan Sr. (; born July 17, 1934) is a Filipino business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He presides over the Filipino conglomerate company LT Group, Inc., a company with extensive business interests in sports, banking, airline, liquor, tobacco, real estate, beverages, and education. As of September 2021, his net worth is estimated at US$1.9 billion.


title: Lucio Tan

text: Tan was born in Amoy (now Xiamen), Fujian, China. His parents moved to Cebu in the Philippines when he was a child. He was said to have gone to school on barefoot and first worked as a stevedore who tied cargo with ropes made from abaca He earned a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Far Eastern University in Manila. "Forbes" states that while in college, Tan "worked as a janitor at a tobacco factory" where he "mopped floors to pay for school."


title: Lucio Tan

text: Though the companies of Lucio Tan Group has been involved in various social responsible programs, Tan has benevolent personal philanthropy works, particularly in the academic sector. Notable of which is his ownership stake with the University of the East, resulting for the erection of the nine-storey Dr. Lucio C. Tan Building on the university's Caloocan City campus. Tan also gave a grant as an endowment for the development of Central Philippine University Institute of HRM and Tourism in Jaro, Iloilo City, which in return, was renamed in his honor as the Dr. Lucio C. Tan College of Hospitality Management, the first college/school in his namesake outside Manila. A building which houses the said college is also named after him on the CPU's main campus, the Lucio C. Tan Building.


title: Lucio Tan

text: In 1997, "Forbes", in an article entitled "A report card on Asia", complained about the "considerable corruption still prevalent" in the Philippines, bolstering that claim by citing how Tan "single-handedly held up a tax reform intended to remove special privileges for local tobacco and beer producers."


title: Lucio Tan

text: In 1998, "Forbes" reported that Tan was spending his free time "[j]ousting with the government over charges of tax evasion" and with Philippine Airlines "shareholders who tried to block his bid for the airline."


title: Lucio Tan

text: According to the January–March 1999 edition of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Solita "Mareng Winnie" Monsod, an economics professor at the University of the Philippines and former Economic Planning Secretary, was quoted as saying that "Lucio Tan is a role model for the worst kind of conduct as far as our national objectives are concerned. He signals that you can evade taxes and get away with it, pay the courts and get the judges to decide in your favour, get good lawyers and delay your cases. The messages that are given by the kind of treatment that he gets from the Government are the antithesis of what we need for sustainable development: an even playing field and Government intervention of the right kind." [3]


title: Lucio Tan

text: The Presidential Commission on Good Government ("PCGG") originally filed a case against Tan in July 1987, and has since amended it twice, the last time being on September 5, 1991. According to the PCGG, the state is entitled to PHP 50 billion in damages and PHP 1 billion in legal expenses.[4] In addition, the state was seeking to recover 60% of Tan's holdings in companies that Tan held in trust for the former president Marcos – such as Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery, Allied Banking Corporation, Foremost Farms, Himmel Industries, Grandspan Development Corp., Silangan Holdings, Dominium Realty and Construction Corp., and Shareholdings Inc. – as the PCGG alleges that they were illegally acquired by Marcos using government funds.


title: Lucio Tan

text: After filing the case in July 1987, the PCGG seized control of Tan's companies, continuing to do so until 2006 when the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan nullified the writs of sequestration on Allied Banking Corp., Fortune Tobacco, Foremost Farms and Shareholdings Inc. The court ruled the writs had no basis as there was no prima facie proof that any of Tan's assets were obtained illegally.


title: Lucio Tan

text: The PCGG soon afterwards filed a petition to the Supreme Court. On December 7, 2007, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the anti-graft court. The Supreme Court found no proof that Tan, his family, or his various businesses took undue advantage of their relationship with former President Marcos. Finding no factual basis for the sequestration of the stocks, the Supreme Court denied the PCGG's petition, according to a court statement.


title: Lucio Tan

text: In an April 29, 2009, letter filed at the anti-graft court, the PCGG announced that it is "resting its case" and terminating its presentation of evidence in the PHP 51 billion lawsuit. This, the report said, came as a surprise as government lawyers had earlier insisted in court that they still have several key witnesses, including former First Lady Imelda Marcos.


title: Lucio Tan

text: In 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte accused him of owing the Philippine government around US$600 million in unpaid taxes. After the tycoon was cleared of tax evasion, the national leader vowed to “shut up” about the issue.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: The Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal started in 2009 when representatives of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores received a large number of clay bullae and tablets originating in the ancient Near East. The artifacts were intended for the Museum of the Bible, funded by the Evangelical Christian Green family, which owns the Oklahoma-based chain. Internal staff had warned superiors that the items had dubious provenance and were potentially looted from Iraq.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: Several shipments of the artifacts were seized by US customs agents in 2011, triggering a struggle between Hobby Lobby and the federal government that culminated in a 2017 civil forfeiture case "United States of America v. Approximately Four Hundred Fifty Ancient Cuneiform Tablets and Approximately Three Thousand Ancient Clay Bullae". As a result of the case, Hobby Lobby agreed to return the artifacts and pay a fine of . U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned 3,800 items seized from Hobby Lobby to Iraq in May 2018. In March 2020 the Hobby Lobby president agreed to return 11,500 items to Egypt and Iraq.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: In December 2010, Hobby Lobby purchased $1.6 million worth of Iraqi artifacts from dealers in the United Arab Emirates. The artifacts were largely cuneiform tablets, clay bullae, and cylinder seals, with some likely originating from the ancient city of Irisaĝrig on the Tigris. Many of the artifacts lacked any supporting evidence of their history or ownership, raising the possibility that the artifacts had been possibly looted or sold on the black market. The company became subject to investigation by the U.S. government for these actions.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: Archaeologists say some items may have come from the National Museum of Iraq, which had been looted after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Hobby Lobby made mass purchases with few pieces of vague paperwork and scant descriptions, and "having commissioned inexperienced scholars to analyze ancient texts" according to Bible scholars in the book "Bible Nation". The Museum's chief curator in 2017 summarized "We can't even tell sometimes which particular item belonged to which acquisition, because it just wasn't documented either at the acquisition point or at the delivery point. ... So we have no way of knowing where these came from."


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: Through the 2000s, the entire antiquities marketespecially Hobby Lobby staffhad been widely and publicly warned of the proliferation of fakes, all manufactured with the same cheap flaws that are obvious to expert analysts. Further, the scholar community disparaged the Museum's entire mission, including this statement from Jodi Magness, president of the Archaeological Institute of America: "[If] archaeology is being used as a means of proving the historicity and accuracy of the biblical text, that is extremely problematic". She generally warned, "Many [unprovenanced] antiquities surely come from illegal excavations or looting of archaeological sites".


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: When the cuneiform tablets were shipped to the United States, they were misrepresented on declarations as being ceramic and clay tile samples, and contained false designations of origin stating that the objects were from Turkey and Israel. US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement seized the shipments.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: In early July 2017, US federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint in the Eastern District of New York under the case name "United States of America v. Approximately Four Hundred Fifty Ancient Cuneiform Tablets and Approximately Three Thousand Ancient Clay Bullae".


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: On July 5, 2017, Hobby Lobby consented to a settlement requiring forfeiture of the artifacts and payment of a fine of $3 million and the return of more than 5500 artifacts.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: In the early hours of July 30, 2017, Israeli authorities raided several private residences and storefronts in Jerusalem belonging to five antiquities dealers of Palestinian origin and confiscated several historical artifacts, including a papyrus fragment from the Egyptian Book of the Dead and a Pompeiian fresco, and more than in cash. The Israeli Antiquities Authority had been contacted in 2016 by the United States Department of Homeland Security, and provided Israeli authorities with evidence of money transfers between Green and Israeli-licensed antiquities dealers. In all, five individuals were arrested for tax evasion. Biblical scholars in the book "Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby" report that the Green family's philanthropic activitiesincluding antiquities donations to its own museumhave always followed a set ratio of 3:1, of the appraised value to the purchase price. This is reportedly with the goal of a large profit margin by way of tax write-off, wherein "the government is effectively paying the Greens to amass a collection of dubious antiquities".


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: The 2019 book "Tablets From the Irisaĝrig Archive" mentions the scandal in its analysis of more than one thousand cuneiform tablets, possibly stolen from Irisaĝrig, a 4,000-year-old lost city in Iraq. The tablets, purchased by Hobby Lobby, were studied over a four-year period while in the company's Oklahoma storerooms. "The new find shows that the company Hobby Lobby — whose co-owner, Steve Green, helped found the Museum of the Bible in November 2017 in Washington, D.C. — had far more cuneiform tablets obtained (possibly illegally) from this city, and other sites in Iraq, than previously believed." Up to 1,400 artifacts to be returned to Iraq appear to be missing from the Hobby Lobby collection.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: In October 2018, the Museum of the Bible revealed that five of its sixteen Dead Sea Scrolls fragments are counterfeit; and in March 2020, independent art fraud investigators hired by the museum revealed that all sixteen fragments are counterfeit, made from ancient leather and modern inks.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: The museum removed the display of another disputed artifact, a miniature bible which a NASA astronaut had purportedly carried to the moon.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: In October 2019, officials from the British Egypt Exploration Society, a nonprofit organization that manages the Papyri Project, alleged that Oxford academic Dirk Obbink engaged in the theft and sale of "at least 11 ancient Bible fragments to the Green family, the Hobby Lobby owners who operate a Bible museum and charitable organization in Washington". The museum said it will return the fragments to the Egypt Exploration Society and Oxford University.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: In March 2020, "National Geographic" reported that the museum was "reevaluating the provenance of all the material in its collection" with the intent of returning stolen objects. Steve Green, the museum's board chairman and the president of Hobby Lobby, announced the museum will be returning 11,500 artifacts to Egypt and Iraq, including thousands of papyrus scraps and ancient clay pieces. Green admitted, "I knew little about the world of collecting ... The criticism of the museum resulting from my mistakes was justified." Manchester University papyrologist Roberta Mazza stated that the Green family "poured millions on the legal and illegal antiquities market without having a clue about the history, the material features, cultural value, fragilities, and problems of the objects".


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: This return includes the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, containing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, discovered in Iraq in 1853, sold by the Jordanian Antiquities Association to an antiquities dealer in 2003, and sold again by Christie's auction house to Hobby Lobby in 2014 for $1.6 million. The auction house lied about how the artifact had entered the market, claiming it had been on the market in the United States for decades. In September 2019, federal authorities seized the tablet, and in May 2020, a civil complaint was filed to forfeit it.


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: In January 2021, 8,000 clay objects were transferred to the Iraq Museum, and Steve Green announced, "we transferred control of the fine art storage facility that housed the 5,000 Egyptian items to the U.S. government as part of a voluntary administrative process. We understand the U.S. government has now delivered the papyri to Egyptian officials."


title: Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

text: In July 2021, the United States Department of Justice announced it had seized the Gilgamesh tablet from Hobby Lobby for repatriation to Iraq. Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis for the Eastern District of New York stated, “This office is committed to combating the black-market sale of cultural property and the smuggling of looted artifacts.” Hobby Lobby failed to follow expert advice on antiquities collecting which has resulted in multiple seizures and fines.


title: Fort-de-France

text: Fort-de-France (, , ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Martinique, an overseas department and region of France located in the Caribbean. It is also one of the major cities in the Caribbean.


title: Fort-de-France

text: In 1638, Jacques Dyel du Parquet (1606–1658), nephew of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc and first governor of Martinique, decided to have Fort Saint Louis built to protect the city against enemy attacks. The fort was soon destroyed, and rebuilt in 1669, when Louis XIV appointed the Marquis of Baas as governor general. Under his orders and those of his successors, particularly the Count of Blénac, the fort was built with a Vauban design.


title: Fort-de-France

text: Originally named Fort-Royal, the administrative capital of Martinique was over-shadowed by Saint-Pierre, the oldest city in the island, which was renowned for its commercial and cultural vibrancy as "The Paris of the Caribbean".


title: Fort-de-France

text: The name of Fort-Royal was changed to a short-lived "Fort-La-Republique" during the French Revolution, and finally settled as Fort-de-France sometime in the 19th century. The old name of Fort-Royal is still used today familiarly in its Creole language form of "Foyal", with the inhabitants of the city being "Foyalais".


title: Fort-de-France

text: The city was captured by a British expedition which captured Martinique in 1762, but the island was returned to French control in the Treaty of Paris. In 1839, the city was struck by a minor earthquake, and in 1890 saw an outbreak of fire which razed part of the city. By the turn of the 20th century, however, Fort-de-France became economically important after the volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre in 1902.


title: Fort-de-France

text: Until 1918, when its commercial growth began, Fort-de-France had an inadequate water supply, was partly surrounded by swamps, and was notorious for yellow fever. Now the swamps are drained to make room for extensive suburbs.


title: Fort-de-France

text: Fort-de-France, also known as the Fort of France, lies on Martinique's west coast at the northern entrance to the large Fort-de-France Bay, at the mouth of the Madame River. The city occupies a narrow plain between the hills and the sea but is accessible by road from all parts of the island.


title: Fort-de-France

text: Fort-de-France has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen "Af"), characterised by very warm to hot and humid weather year-round. The wettest months are from July to November when hurricanes are a frequent threat, although substantial rainfall occurs in all months. The hottest month on average is September, and the coldest month on average is February.


title: Fort-de-France

text: As of 27th June 2021, the Mayor of Fort de France is Serge Letchimy replacing Alfred Marie-Jeanne as the new mayor of the capitol. With a participation rate of little over 44% the Letchimy Party Alians Matinik received 37,72% of the votes, whereas Marie Jeanna who came in a close second with Gran Sanblé Pou Matinik acquired 35,27% of the votes. The commune of Fort-de-France makes up Martinique's 3rd constituency for the National Assembly.


title: Fort-de-France

text: A statue commemorating Martinique-born Empress Josephine, the wife of Napoleon, is in the gardens of La Savane. It was vandalized in the 1990s, presumably by individuals who blamed her for supporting the reestablishment of slavery on the island. They removed the head and splashed the body with red paint. It has been further vandalized and destroyed in 2020.


title: Fort-de-France

text: Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport is located in a suburb outside Fort-de-France and is accessible via the A1 autoroute.


title: Eysteinn Sigurðarson

text: Eysteinn Sigurðarson (Sigurdarson) was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, and was raised in Madison, Wisconsin, US. He attended the University of Wisconsin where he studied English and Creative Writing, before deciding to go into the performing arts. He headed back to Reykjavik, Iceland, to enroll at the Iceland University of the Arts, graduating in 2015 with a BA degree in Acting. As a student he performed at the Reykjavík City Theatre on many reproductions of plays including " Pippi Longstocking ", " Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? " and " Mamma Mia! ". Sigurðarson also completed a 5-week Improv Intensive at iO Theatre, Chicago


title: Eysteinn Sigurðarson

text: Sigurðarson's debut screen appearance was in 2015 as Hjálmar in the Icelandic mystery drama series "Trapped (Ófærð )"


title: Eysteinn Sigurðarson

text: In 2017, Sigurðarson landed a main role as Halldór in the Arnaud Siad directed short film "Örmagna", which was an official selection of the Reykjavík International Film Festival 2017.


title: Eysteinn Sigurðarson

text: Sigurdarson's breakthrough role came in the Mary Reyndal directed Icelandic television series "Mannasiðir" (Manners) where he played an Icelandic schoolboy; his performance in the series earned him a nomination for Male leading role at the Icelandic Film and Television Academy Edda Awards.


title: Eysteinn Sigurðarson

text: In 2020, Sigurðarson landed the role of Sigtryggr a Danish warlord, in season 4 of "The Last Kingdom (TV series)."


title: Eysteinn Sigurðarson

text: Eysteinn Sigurðarson is currently living in London, UK, and is in a relationship with fellow actress Salome Gunnarsdóttir, whom he met at the Iceland University of the Arts, in Reykjavík.


title: PD-L1

text: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) also known as cluster of differentiation 274 (CD274) or B7 homolog 1 (B7-H1) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the "CD274" gene.


title: PD-L1

text: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is a 40kDa type 1 transmembrane protein that has been speculated to play a major role in suppressing the adaptive arm of immune systems during particular events such as pregnancy, tissue allografts, autoimmune disease and other disease states such as hepatitis. Normally the adaptive immune system reacts to antigens that are associated with immune system activation by exogenous or endogenous danger signals. In turn, clonal expansion of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells and/or CD4+ helper cells is propagated. The binding of PD-L1 to the inhibitory checkpoint molecule PD-1 transmits an inhibitory signal based on interaction with phosphatases (SHP-1 or SHP-2) via Immunoreceptor Tyrosine-Based Switch Motif (ITSM). This reduces the proliferation of antigen-specific T-cells in lymph nodes, while simultaneously reducing apoptosis in regulatory T cells (anti-inflammatory, suppressive T cells) - further mediated by a lower regulation of the gene Bcl-2.


title: PD-L1

text: PD-L1 was characterized at the Mayo Clinic as an immune regulatory molecule, B7-H1 . Later, this molecule was renamed as PD-L1 because it was identified as a ligand of PD-1 Several human cancer cells expressed high levels of B7-H1, and blockade of B7-H1 reduced the growth of tumors in the presence of immune cells. At that time, it was concluded that B7-H1 helps tumor cells evade anti-tumor immunity. In 2003, B7-H1 was shown to be expressed on Myeloid cells as checkpoint protein and was proposed as potential target in cancer immunotherapy in human clinic.


title: PD-L1

text: PD-L1 binds to its receptor, PD-1, found on activated T cells, B cells, and myeloid cells, to modulate activation or inhibition. The affinity between PD-L1 and PD-1, as defined by the dissociation constant K, is 770 nM. PD-L1 also has an appreciable affinity for the costimulatory molecule CD80 (B7-1), but not CD86 (B7-2). CD80's affinity for PD-L1, 1.4 µM, is intermediate between its affinity for CD28 and CTLA-4 (4.0 µM and 400 nM, respectively). The related molecule PD-L2 has no such affinity for CD80 or CD86, but shares PD-1 as a receptor (with a stronger K of 140 nM).


title: PD-L1

text: Said et al. showed that PD-1, up-regulated on activated CD4 T-cells, can bind to PD-L1 expressed on monocytes and induces IL-10 production by the latter.


title: PD-L1

text: Engagement of PD-L1 with its receptor PD-1 on T cells delivers a signal that inhibits TCR-mediated activation of IL-2 production and T cell proliferation. The mechanism involves inhibition of ZAP70 phosphorylation and its association with CD3ζ. PD-1 signaling attenuates PKC-θ activation loop phosphorylation (resulting from TCR signaling), necessary for the activation of transcription factors NF-κB and AP-1, and for production of IL-2. PD-L1 binding to PD-1 also contributes to ligand-induced TCR down-modulation during antigen presentation to naive T cells, by inducing the up-regulation of the E3 ubiquitin ligase CBL-b.


title: PD-L1

text: Upon IFN-γ stimulation, PD-L1 is expressed on T cells, NK cells, macrophages, myeloid DCs, B cells, epithelial cells, and vascular endothelial cells. The PD-L1 gene promoter region has a response element to IRF-1, the interferon regulatory factor. Type I interferons can also upregulate PD-L1 on murine hepatocytes, monocytes, DCs, and tumor cells.


title: PD-L1

text: PD-L1 is notably expressed on macrophages. In the mouse, it has been shown that classically activated macrophages (induced by type I helper T cells or a combination of LPS and interferon-gamma) greatly upregulate PD-L1. Alternatively, macrophages activated by IL-4 (alternative macrophages), "slightly" upregulate PD-L1, while greatly upregulating PD-L2. It has been shown by STAT1-deficient knock-out mice that STAT1 is mostly responsible for upregulation of PD-L1 on macrophages by LPS or interferon-gamma, but is not at all responsible for its constitutive expression before activation in these mice.


title: PD-L1

text: It was also shown that PD-L1 is constituvely expressed on mouse Ly6C nonclassical monocytes in steady state.


title: PD-L1

text: Resting human cholangiocytes express PD-L1 mRNA, but not the protein, due to translational suppression by microRNA miR-513. Upon treatment with interferon-gamma, miR-513 was down-regulated, thereby lifting suppression of PD-L1 protein. In this way, interferon-gamma can induce PD-L1 protein expression by inhibiting gene-mediated suppression of mRNA translation. Whereas the Epstein-Barr viral (EBV) latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1) is a known potent inducer of PD-L1, the EBV miRNA miR-BamH1 fragment H rightward open reading frame 1 (BHRF1) 2-5p has been shown to regulate LMP1 induced PD-L1 expression.


title: PD-L1

text: PD-L1 is shown to be highly expressed in a variety of malignancies, particularly lung cancer. In order to anticipate the effectiveness of gene therapy or systemic immunotherapy in blocking the PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoints, PD-L1 might be employed as a prognostic marker and a target for anti-cancer immunity. i.e. upregulation of PD-L1 may allow cancers to evade the host immune system. For example, an analysis of 196 tumor specimens from patients with renal cell carcinoma found that high tumor expression of PD-L1 was associated with increased tumor aggressiveness and a 4.5-fold increased risk of death.


title: PD-L1

text: Many PD-L1 inhibitors are in development as immuno-oncology therapies and are showing good results in clinical trials. Clinically available examples include durvalumab, atezolizumab and avelumab.


title: PD-L1

text: In normal tissue, feedback between transcription factors like STAT3 and NF-κB restricts the immune response to protect host tissue and limit inflammation. In cancer, loss of feedback restriction between transcription factors can lead to increased local PD-L1 expression, which could limit the effectiveness of systemic treatment with agents targeting PD-L1.


title: PD-L1

text: Upregulation of PD-L1 on immune cells (especially myeloid cells) can also lead to formation of an immunosuppressive environment in a highly localized manner that also allow the cancer cells to proliferate.


title: PD-L1

text: In a mouse model of intracellular infection, "L. monocytogenes" induced PD-L1 protein expression in T cells, NK cells, and macrophages. PD-L1 blockade (using blocking antibodies) resulted in increased mortality for infected mice. Blockade reduced TNFα and nitric oxide production by macrophages, reduced granzyme B production by NK cells, and decreased proliferation of "L. monocytogenes" antigen-specific CD8 T cells (but not CD4 T cells). This evidence suggests that PD-L1 acts as a positive costimulatory molecule in intracellular infection.


title: PD-L1

text: PD-1/PD-L1 interaction is thought to play a role in preventing desctructive autoimmunity, especially during inflammatory conditions. The best example is in the stomach, where PD-1 expression protects the gastrin expressing G-cells from the immune system during Helicobacter pylori-provoked inflammation. But also a variety of pre-clinical studies support the notion that the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction is implicated in autoimmunity. NOD mice, an animal model for autoimmunity that exhibit a susceptibility to spontaneous development of type I diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, have been shown to develop precipitated onset of diabetes from blockade of PD-1 or PD-L1 (but not PD-L2).


title: PD-L1

text: In humans, PD-L1 was found to have altered expression in pediatric patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Studying isolated PBMC from healthy children, immature myeloid dendritic cells and monocytes expressed little PD-L1 at initial isolation, but spontaneously up-regulated PD-L1 by 24 hours. In contrast, both mDC and monocytes from patients with active SLE failed to upregulate PD-L1 over a 5-day time course, expressing this protein only during disease remissions. This may be one mechanism whereby peripheral tolerance is lost in SLE.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The proton–proton chain, also commonly referred to as the chain, is one of two known sets of nuclear fusion reactions by which stars convert hydrogen to helium. It dominates in stars with masses less than or equal to that of the Sun, whereas the CNO cycle, the other known reaction, is suggested by theoretical models to dominate in stars with masses greater than about 1.3 times that of the Sun.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: In general, proton–proton fusion can occur only if the kinetic energy (i.e. temperature) of the protons is high enough to overcome their mutual electrostatic repulsion.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: In the Sun, deuteron-producing events are rare. Diprotons are the much more common result of proton–proton reactions within the star, and diprotons almost immediately decay back into two protons. Since the conversion of hydrogen to helium is slow, the complete conversion of the hydrogen initially in the core of the Sun is calculated to take more than ten billion years.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: Although sometimes called the "proton–proton chain reaction", it is not a chain reaction in the normal sense. In most nuclear reactions, a chain reaction designates a reaction that produces a product, such as neutrons given off during fission, that quickly induces another such reaction.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The proton–proton chain is, like a decay chain, a series of reactions. The product of one reaction is the starting material of the next reaction. There are two main chains leading from hydrogen to helium in the Sun. One chain has five reactions, the other chain has six.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The theory that proton–proton reactions are the basic principle by which the Sun and other stars burn was advocated by Arthur Eddington in the 1920s. At the time, the temperature of the Sun was considered to be too low to overcome the Coulomb barrier. After the development of quantum mechanics, it was discovered that tunneling of the wavefunctions of the protons through the repulsive barrier allows for fusion at a lower temperature than the classical prediction.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: In 1939, Hans Bethe attempted to calculate the rates of various reactions in stars. Starting with two protons combining to give a deuterium nucleus and a positron he found what we now call Branch II of the proton–proton chain. But he did not consider the reaction of two nuclei (Branch I) which we now know to be important. This was part of the body of work in stellar nucleosynthesis for which Bethe won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The first step in all the branches is the fusion of two protons into a deuteron. As the protons fuse, one of them undergoes beta plus decay, converting into a neutron by emitting a positron and an electron neutrino (though a small amount of deuterium nuclei is produced by the "pep" reaction, see below):


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The positron will annihilate with an electron from the environment into two gamma rays. Including this annihilation and the energy of the neutrino, the net reaction


title: Proton–proton chain

text: This is the rate-limiting reaction and is extremely slow due to it being initiated by the weak nuclear force. The average proton in the core of the Sun waits 9 billion years before it successfully fuses with another proton. It has not been possible to measure the cross-section of this reaction experimentally because it is so low but it can be calculated from theory.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: After it is formed, the deuteron produced in the first stage can fuse with another proton to produce the light isotope of helium, :


title: Proton–proton chain

text: This process, mediated by the strong nuclear force rather than the weak force, is extremely fast by comparison to the first step. It is estimated that, under the conditions in the Sun's core, each newly created deuterium nucleus exists for only about one second before it is converted into helium-3.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: In the Sun, each helium-3 nucleus produced in these reactions exists for only about 400 years before it is converted into helium-4. Once the helium-3 has been produced, there are four possible paths to generate . In , helium-4 is produced by fusing two helium-3 nuclei; the and branches fuse with pre-existing to form beryllium-7, which undergoes further reactions to produce two helium-4 nuclei.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: About 99% of the energy output of the sun comes from the various chains, with the other 1% coming from the CNO cycle. According to one model of the sun, 83.3 percent of the produced by the various branches is produced via branch I while produces 16.68 percent and 0.02 percent. Since half the neutrinos produced in branches II and III are produced in the first step (synthesis of a deuteron), only about 8.35 percent of neutrinos come from the later steps (see below), and about 91.65 percent are from deuteron synthesis. However, another solar model from around the same time gives only 7.14 percent of neutrinos from the later steps and 92.86 percent from the synthesis of deuterium nuclei. The difference is apparently due to slightly different assumptions about the composition and metallicity of the sun.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: There is also the extremely rare branch. Other even rarer reactions may occur. The rate of these reactions is very low due to very small cross-sections, or because the number of reacting particles is so low that any reactions that might happen are statistically insignificant.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The complete chain releases a net energy of but 2.2 percent of this energy (0.59 MeV) is lost to the neutrinos that are produced.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: Note that the energies in the second reaction above are the energies of the neutrinos that are produced by the reaction. 90 percent of the neutrinos produced in the reaction of to carry an energy of , while the remaining 10 percent carry . The difference is whether the lithium-7 produced is in the ground state or an excited (metastable) state, respectively. The total energy released going from to stable is about 0.862 MeV, almost all of which is lost to the neutrino if the decay goes directly to the stable lithium.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The last three stages of this chain, plus the positron annihilation, contribute a total of 18.209 MeV, though much of this is lost to the neutrino.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The chain is not a major source of energy in the Sun, but it was very important in the solar neutrino problem because it generates very high energy neutrinos (up to ).


title: Proton–proton chain

text: This reaction is predicted theoretically, but it has never been observed due to its rarity (about in the Sun). In this reaction, helium-3 captures a proton directly to give helium-4, with an even higher possible neutrino energy (up to ).


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The mass–energy relationship gives for the energy released by this reaction plus the ensuing annihilation, some of which is lost to the neutrino.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: Comparing the mass of the final helium-4 atom with the masses of the four protons reveals that 0.7 percent of the mass of the original protons has been lost. This mass has been converted into energy, in the form of kinetic energy of produced particles, gamma rays, and neutrinos released during each of the individual reactions. The total energy yield of one whole chain is .


title: Proton–proton chain

text: Energy released as gamma rays will interact with electrons and protons and heat the interior of the Sun. Also kinetic energy of fusion products (e.g. of the two protons and the from the reaction) adds energy to the plasma in the Sun. This heating keeps the core of the Sun hot and prevents it from collapsing under its own weight as it would if the sun were to cool down.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: Neutrinos do not interact significantly with matter and therefore do not heat the interior and thereby help support the Sun against gravitational collapse. Their energy is lost: the neutrinos in the , , and chains carry away 2.0%, 4.0%, and 28.3% of the energy in those reactions, respectively.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: The following table calculates the amount of energy lost to neutrinos and the amount of "solar luminosity" coming from the three branches. "Luminosity" here means the amount of energy given off by the Sun as electromagnetic radiation rather than as neutrinos. The starting figures used are the ones mentioned higher in this article. The table concerns only the 99% of the power and neutrinos that come from the reactions, not the 1% coming from the CNO cycle.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: A deuteron can also be produced by the rare pep (proton–electron–proton) reaction (electron capture):


title: Proton–proton chain

text: In the Sun, the frequency ratio of the pep reaction versus the reaction is 1:400. However, the neutrinos released by the pep reaction are far more energetic: while neutrinos produced in the first step of the reaction range in energy up to , the pep reaction produces sharp-energy-line neutrinos of . Detection of solar neutrinos from this reaction were reported by the Borexino collaboration in 2012.


title: Proton–proton chain

text: Both the pep and reactions can be seen as two different Feynman representations of the same basic interaction, where the electron passes to the right side of the reaction as a positron. This is represented in the figure of proton–proton and electron-capture reactions in a star, available at the NDM'06 web site.


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: Beam Me Up Scotty is the third mixtape by Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj. It was released on April 18, 2009. The mixtape features guest verses from rappers Brinx, Busta Rhymes, Drake, Gucci Mane, Mack Maine, Gudda Gudda, Jae Millz, Lil Wayne, Red Café, Rocko and Ron Browz, as well as vocals from singers Ricky Blaze, Bobby V, Shanell. Its production was overseen by DJ Holiday and The Trap-a-Holics.


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: The mixtape received favorable reviews from music critics, and is also largely credited with establishing Minaj's fan base. Minaj reissued "Beam Me Up Scotty" on May 14, 2021, released by Republic Records. The reissue debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200, making it the highest charting mixtape and the highest debuting female rap mixtape.


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: "Beam Me Up Scotty" was recorded after Lil Wayne noticed Minaj's appearance on Queens-based underground rap label Dirty Money Records on "The Come Up" DVD series.<ref name="Billboard - Nicki/Wayne Tour"></ref> He is credited with mentoring Minaj as she recorded "Beam Me Up Scotty", two years after her appearance on "Don't Stop, Won't Stop", a track from Wayne's acclaimed 2007 mixtape. "Da Drought 3" that sampled "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" by Young Gunz. Minaj says of her time on tour with Lil Wayne: "It made me hungry. That's what inspired me and the music for the "Beam Me Up Scotty tape" — the "I Am Music Tour"."


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: Minaj credits "Beam Me Up Scotty" with re-focusing her on her music at a time when much of her career efforts were associated with her image:


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: A music video for the song "Itty Bitty Piggy" was released for the song due to popular demand. The video is shots of Nicki performing the song live at a club concert and behind the scenes of the "Beam Me Up Scotty" photo shoot. The video was premiered on Hoodaffairs on Demand who also had a part in shooting the clip. "Go Hard", featuring Lil Wayne, was promoted with a music video shot by director Koach K. Rich.


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: "Beam Me Up Scotty" was well received by critics and fans alike receiving an average score of 78. MTV's "Mixtape Daily" chose "Beam Me Up Scotty" as its weekly pick on May 4, 2009, giving the album positive reviews: "Yeah, you are going to hear a bunch of more-than-just-friendly shout-outs to the ladies – Nicki says she loves the girls and has no problem surrounding herself with "bad bitches." "Mixtape Daily" favored tracks such as "I Get Crazy", "Kill the DJ" & "Envy". "Beam Me Up Scotty" is credited with helping distinguish Minaj as a popular female figure in a male-dominated genre.


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: BET.com's "SoundOff TV" gave Minaj a positive review on her mixtape while commenting on impressions of Minaj herself: "I’m not going to front, when Nicki first hit my 'new rapper radar' I immediately hit the 'I’ll pass' button since the parallels between her and Lil' Kim were extremely similar. Dark skin thick girl rapping about explicit issues we only talk about behind closed doors – yeah, I’d say she was a carbon copy. But after removing the stubborn sticker from my forehead, I sat down and dissected shorty’s material and the parallels didn’t exist like I once thought."


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: Writing for "MSN Music" in 2011, critic Robert Christgau identified "Beam Me Up Scotty" as the release that convinced "hards" that Minaj "was street enough", noting her "highly unsisterly, rabidly materialistic" persona on the mixtape. According to Rob Molster of "The Cavalier Daily", "Beam Me Up Scotty" "garnered [Minaj] a reputation for delivering vicious lyrics with a fresh style...[and] also revealed Minaj to have a knack for invoking alternative personalities, adding another layer to her already complex persona." The recording is credited with helping to create Minaj's fanbase. Shortly after its release, Minaj, along with other Cash Money/Young Money artists, appeared on MTV.com's "Mixtape Daily" to discuss the recording.


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: In a 2021 review of the mixtape's reissue, "The Daily Californian" writer Kelly Nguyen noted that back in 2009 when the tape was first released, "Minaj’s rise as ruler of rap was sensational" and that her "clear talent was matched with her copious charisma — all wrapped up in the bait-and-switch of her personas". She added that the "nostalgia of Minaj's throwback mixtape is the reason why the album’s release reignited Barbz and TikTok youth to stream it". She went on to say that beginning from this album,"[Minaj went] full throttle into a vertiginous verse that's built to make you feel like a Barbie-level boss. But then she’s casual and carefree [...] It’s how she’s stayed relevant since the age of Justin Bieber prepuberty bowl cuts and Kanye's MTV VMA coup d’état. As much as the world tried to pare her down to its level, she chewed it up and spit it out, just to repeat the process on the next verse".


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: "Complex" writer Trace William Cowen also noted that "fans and industry watchers alike have pointed to the unique circumstances surrounding" the album's number two debut, "commending Minaj for bagging such a strong opening week with a project that's effectively (new cuts aside) a little over 12 years old". In an analysis of the reissue, "PopMatters" writer Ana Clara Ribeiro stated that "Minaj might not have been a pioneer of women in rap" but it also does not "make sense anymore to describe her as a 'female rapper' when she is one of the best alive and a serious candidate to best of all time". "Rolling Stone" writer Mankaprr Conteh stated that with the re-release, Minaj revisited a "distant golden age". He went on to say that Minaj's ascent with the mixtape "came as rap made by women seemed to be on the decline. The number of women signed to major labels reportedly went from more than 40 to just three between the late eighties and 2010; after her arrival, Minaj became a singular figure in music for almost a decade". He went on to say that this mixtape "paved the way for that accomplishment". On the mixtape content, he stated Minaj "brought a more down to earth humanity to her persona with revealing spoken interludes". Conteh went on to say that,


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: "Twelve years after "Beam Me Up Scotty", there are many more women making popular rap music and there’s no doubt that Nicki Minaj's success has inspired the variety and competition that exists now [...] Women across rap explore the contours of their voices, building on a framework established by [Minaj]. They complement their raps with delicate singing. They have tapped into her over-the-top wardrobe and wigs. Many came up remaking [Minaj's] songs and at their most fortunate, they’ve been able to collaborate with her".


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: In 2009, "I Get Crazy", featuring Lil Wayne, charted on the US Hot Rap Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts, at numbers 20 and 37 respectively, due to heavy airplay. Upon reissuing, the mixtape debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 selling over 80,000 copies in its first week. The mixtape became the "highest-charting re-released mixtape by a rapper and the highest-debuting female rap mixtape in history". The opening track of the reissue, "Seeing Green" with Drake and Lil Wayne debuted at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ranked as the week's best-selling song in pure sales. The 2021 re-release also made Minaj surpass Janet Jackson as the female artist with the second most top 10 singles on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with "Seeing Green" debuting at number 8 without being officially released as a single.


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: On May 11, 2021 after a three month hiatus from social media, Minaj shared a series of pictures on Instagram teasing the release of music on Friday, May 14th. She confirmed the release of music on Instagram Live confirming that "Beam Me Up Scotty" would be released "on major streaming services, and would include a fresh track" called "Seeing Green" featuring rappers Drake and Lil Wayne. Drake also joined the broadcast saying,


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: "It didn't feel right, you not being on it. Nobody does this shit better than you. We miss your presence, we miss your bars". On May 14, 2021, Minaj re-released the mixtape on all streaming services along with a new cover and three new songs. "Billboard" described the new mixtape artwork as Minaj going "full-retro for the revamped "Star Trek"-themed artwork".


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: In 2021, as she teased the reissue of the mixtape, Minaj posted a picture of herself wearing hot pink Croc shoes. According to "Billboard" and "The Sole Supplier", "the look caused a whopping 4,900% spike in sales of pink Crocs and the retailer's website also crashed."


title: Beam Me Up Scotty (mixtape)

text: In addition to "Seeing Green", the reissue includes two new tracks titled "Fractions" and a remix of "Crocodile Teeth" with Skillibeng. The mixtape also included her 2014 tracks "Chi-Raq" and "Boss Ass Bitch" with G Herbo and PTAF respectively. The 2009 mixtape was also included but several tracks did not make the final cut due to sampling issues including: "I Feel Free," "Mind on My Money," "Handstand," "Five-O" and "Outro."


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: Cedric Z. Ceballos (born August 2, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. As a small forward, he played mostly for the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers, later finishing his National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: His career highlights include winning the NBA Slam Dunk Contest with a blindfolded dunk in 1992. He also led the NBA in field goal percentage (57.6) in 1992–93 with the Suns. Ceballos played a major role for the Suns during the playoffs, leading the team to a Western Conference Finals Game 1 win over the Seattle SuperSonics with a team high 21 points. After beating Seattle in a seven game series, the Suns reached the Finals, before losing to the Chicago Bulls. He also led the Lakers in scoring in 1994–95 with a 21.7 average and made the All-Star team, but couldn't participate due to an injury. That season, on December 20, 1994, Ceballos set a career high with 50 points scored, including a 3-point shot to secure the win with 5.7 seconds left, in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The following season, on December 3, 1995, Ceballos recorded a career high 6 steals, along with scoring 19 points, in a 104-96 win over the Indiana Pacers. That year, Ceballos again led the Lakers with a 21.2 scoring average.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: In 2002, Ceballos signed with Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv, but was waived after a couple of games. Shortly after, he moved to Russia and was signed by BC Lokomotiv Mineralnye Vody. He also played for the San Miguel Beermen in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: Ceballos later became employed by the Phoenix Suns as their in-arena emcee and host of a weekly webcast, "Nothin' but Net". He also hosted a morning music program for Phoenix, Arizona rhythm & blues radio station MEGA 104.3 FM.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: In March 2007, the Phoenix Flame of the IBL announced the signing of Ceballos for its inaugural season in the league, but he quickly moved behind the lines as an assistant coach the next month.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: Ceballos has toured with the "USA Legends". On June 19, 2011, the USA Legends defeated the Indonesian NBL All Star team 97–79, with Ceballos being the unofficial MVP of the game. A notable highlight of Ceballos' performance during the game was when he donned one of the Indonesian player's jerseys and player for the Indonesian team over a stretch of a few possessions, scoring a breakaway dunk during one of them.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: Ceballos later became part owner of the American Basketball Association's Arizona Scorpions, and also played for the team.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: Ceballos was invited to play for the Mexico national basketball team in the 1992 Summer Olympics. He is also a second cousin of his former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant. Their grandfathers were brothers.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: In 2011, Ceballos suffered "a series of small heart attacks", as described by his publicist. He successfully recovered by undergoing an angioplasty with two stents placed in his heart.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: In 2021, he contracted COVID-19 and posted photos of himself in the intensive care unit. On September 13, he tweeted that he was free of COVID-19, but was still having difficulty breathing and walking.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: In 1996, Ceballos made a guest appearance on the PBS children's series "The Puzzle Place". The following year, he played himself on an episode of "Living Single" titled "High Anxiety".


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: Ceballos also worked on the album titled "B-Ball's Best Kept Secret", a 1994 record featuring tracks of an array of early 1990s NBA players. He is featured on multiple tracks performing with hip-hop star Warren G on "Flow On" and later on the track "Ya Don't Stop" also featuring fellow NBA All-Star Dana Barros and rappers Grand Puba, Sadat X, AG and Diamond D.


title: Cedric Ceballos

text: Ceballos appeared along with Shawn Marion in the 30th season of "The Amazing Race". They finished in ninth place, having raced a total of four legs.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: Amir Kadri Rrahmani (born 24 February 1994) is a Kosovar Albanian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Napoli and captains the Kosovo national team.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: Rrahmani at the age of 9, he started playing football in Kosova Prishtinë, he also was part of youth teams of Ramiz Sadiku and Drenica with the latter, Rrahmani made his debut as professional footballer during the 2010–11 season where he immediately began to impress despite being only 17 years old.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 14 August 2012, Rrahmani went on trial with Albanian Superliga side Kastrioti, where he impressed the coaching staff at Kastrioti but a deal to sign the player could not be agreed after negotiations stalled over a compensation package which was reported to be about €3,000.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: Rrahmani returned to Football Superleague of Kosovo side Drenica, where he became an important first team player as he helped his side finish just above the relegation play-off zone. His contract expired at the end of the 2012–13 season and he was allowed to leave Drenica, on a free transfer.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: Rrahmani after much interest from different teams as well the reigning champions in that time, Skënderbeu Korçë, he would ultimately decide to joined with Albanian Superliga side Partizani Tirana. His debut with Partizani Tirana came on 21 September in Matchday 4 of 2013–14 Albanian Superliga against Besa Kavajë after coming on as a substitute at 46th minute in place of Gëzim Krasniqi.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: At the end of 2014–15 season, Rrahmani was named Albanian Superliga Talent of the Season by association .


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 5 June 2015, Rrahmani joined Croatian First Football League side RNK Split. His debut with Split came on 14 July in the opening league match against Lokomotiva after being named in the starting line-up. Following that, Rrahmani become a regular starter in line-up with Zoran Vulić and later Goran Sablić, establish himself in the center of defence.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: During the 2015–16 season, Rrahmani for five times was named on the line-up of the week as in matchday 15, matchday 17, matchday 23, matchday 25 and matchday 30, besides this success, he continued with his solid appearances which led to his value up to €1 million.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 30 August 2016, Rrahmani joined with champion of Croatian First Football League side Dinamo Zagreb. Dinamo Zagreb reportedly paid a €1.6 million transfer fee.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: Eight days after the transfer to Dinamo Zagreb, Rrahmani joined with another Croatian First Football League side Lokomotiva, on a season-long loan. On 11 September 2016, he made his debut in a 2–3 away win against Slaven Belupo after being named in the starting line-up.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 21 June 2017, Rrahmani returned to Croatian First Football League side Dinamo Zagreb. A month later, he made his debut in a 4–0 home win against Cibalia after coming on as a substitute at 68th minute in place of Filip Benković.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 26 June 2019, Rrahmani joined Serie A side Hellas Verona, on a four-year contract. Hellas Verona reportedly paid around €2 million transfer fee. One day later, the club confirmed that Rrahmani had joined on a permanent transfer. On 18 August 2019, he made his debut with Hellas Verona in the third round of 2019–20 Coppa Italia against Cremonese after being named in the starting line-up.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 20 January 2020, Rrahmani joined Serie A side Napoli. Napoli reportedly paid a €14 million transfer fee.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 20 January 2020, Rrahmani was sent back on loan to Serie A club Hellas Verona for the remainder of the season, with the club paying wages of £8,000 per week. Six days later, he played the first game after the return against Lecce after being named in the starting line-up.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 24 August 2020, Rrahmani returned to Serie A side Napoli. On 3 January 2021, he made his debut in a 1–4 away win against Cagliari after coming on as a substitute at 87th minute in place of Kostas Manolas.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 23 January 2013, Rrahmani received a call-up from Albania U21 for a friendly match against Macedonia U21 and made his debut after coming on as a substitute at 82nd minute in place of injured Andi Thanoj.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 6 June 2014, Rrahmani after the good performances with Partizani Tirana and Albania U21 received a call-up from Albania for a friendly match against San Marino and made his debut after coming on as a substitute at 83rd minute in place of injured Elseid Hysaj. On 13 November 2015, he scored the first goal for Albania in a friendly against Kosovo, despite having once played for Kosovo the previous year. He would then go on to switch his allegiance back to Kosovo the following year.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: On 19 May 2014, Rrahmani received a call-up from Kosovo for the friendly matches against Turkey and Senegal. On 25 May 2014, he made his debut with Kosovo in match against Senegal after being named in the starting line-up.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: He took part in all Kosovo's games in their Nations League campaign as they went unbeaten and got promoted from League D to League C, securing their place in the Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs. He then featured in Kosovo's Euro 2020 qualifying campaign, scoring one goal in a 2–0 home win over Montenegro, as Kosovo finished third behind England and Czechia.


title: Amir Rrahmani

text: Rrahmani was born in Pristina, FR Yugoslavia to Albanian parents from Skenderaj. On 4 June 2013, he obtained an Albanian passport together with teammates as Agon Mehmeti, Herolind Shala, Haxhi Neziraj and Valentin Gjokaj. His favourite team is Partizani Tirana.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Greek mathematics refers to mathematics texts and ideas stemming from the Archaic through the Hellenistic and Roman periods, mostly extant from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD, around the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean. Greek mathematicians lived in cities spread over the entire Eastern Mediterranean from Italy to North Africa but were united by Greek culture and the Greek language. The word "mathematics" itself derives from the , meaning "subject of instruction". The study of mathematics for its own sake and the use of generalized mathematical theories and proofs is an important difference between Greek mathematics and those of preceding civilizations.


title: Greek mathematics

text: The origin of Greek mathematics is not well documented. The earliest advanced civilizations in Greece and in Europe were the Minoan and later Mycenaean civilizations, both of which flourished during the 2nd millennium BCE. While these civilizations possessed writing and were capable of advanced engineering, including four-story palaces with drainage and beehive tombs, they left behind no mathematical documents.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Though no direct evidence is available, it is generally thought that the neighboring Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations had an influence on the younger Greek tradition. Unlike the flourishing of Greek literature in the span of 800 to 600 BC, not much is known about Greek mathematics in this early period—nearly all of the information was passed down through later authors, beginning in the mid-4th century BC.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Greek mathematics allegedly began with Thales of Miletus (c. 624–548 BC). Very little is known about his life and works, although it is generally agreed that he was one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. According to Proclus, he traveled to Babylon from where he learned mathematics and other subjects, and came up with the proof of what is now called Thales' Theorem.


title: Greek mathematics

text: An equally enigmatic figure is Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580–500 BC), who supposedly visited Egypt and Babylon, and ultimately settled in Croton, Magna Graecia, where he started a kind of cult. Pythagoreans believed that "all is number" and were keen in looking for mathematical relations between numbers and things. Pythagoras himself was given credit for many later discoveries, including the construction of the five regular solids. However, Aristotle refused to attribute anything specifically to Pythagoras and only discussed the work of the Pythagoreans as a group.


title: Greek mathematics

text: It has been customary to credit almost half of the material in Euclid's "Elements" to the Pythagoreans, as well as the discovery of irrationals, attributed to Hippassus (c. 530–450 BC), and the earliest attempt to square the circle, in the work of Hippocrates of Chios (c. 470–410 BC). The greatest mathematician associated with the group, however, may have been Archytas (c. 435-360 BC), who solved the problem of doubling the cube, identified the harmonic mean, and possibly contributed to optics and mechanics. Other mathematicians active in this period, without being associated with any school, include Theodorus (fl. 450 BC), Theaetetus (c. 417-369 BC), and Eudoxus (c. 408–355 BC).


title: Greek mathematics

text: Greek mathematics also drew the attention of philosophers during the Classical period. Plato (c. 428–348 BC), the founder of the Platonic Academy, mentions mathematics in several of his dialogues. While not considered a mathematician, Plato seems to have been influenced by Pythagorean ideas about number and believed that the elements of matter could be broken down into geometric solids. He also believed that geometrical proportions bound the cosmos together rather than physical or mechanical forces. Aristotle (c. 384–322 BC), the founder of the Peripatetic school, often used mathematics to illustrate many of his theories, as when he used geometry in his theory of the rainbow and the theory of proportions in his analysis of motion. Much of the knowledge known about ancient Greek mathematics in this period is thanks to records referenced by Aristotle in his own works.


title: Greek mathematics

text: The Hellenistic era began in the 4th century BC with Alexander the Great's conquest of the eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, and parts of India, leading to the spread of the Greek language and culture across these areas. Greek became the language of scholarship throughout the Hellenistic world, and the mathematics of the Classical period merged with Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics to give rise to a Hellenistic mathematics.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Greek mathematics and astronomy reached its acme during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods, and much of the work represented by scholars such as Euclid (fl. 300 BC), Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC), Apollonius (c. 240–190 BC), Hipparchus (c. 190–120 BC), and Ptolemy (c. 100–170 AD) was of a very advanced level. There is also evidence of combining mathematical knowledge with technical or practical applications, as found for instance in the construction of analogue computers like the Antikythera mechanism, in the accurate measurement for the circumference of the Earth by Eratosthenes (276 – 194 BC), or in the mechanical works of Hero (c. 10–70 AD).


title: Greek mathematics

text: Several Hellenistic centers of learning appeared during this period, of which the most important one was the Musaeum in Alexandria, Egypt, which attracted scholars from across the Hellenistic world (mostly Greek, but also Egyptian, Jewish, Persian, Phoenician, and even Indian scholars). Although few in number, Hellenistic mathematicians actively communicated with each other; publication consisted of passing and copying someone's work among colleagues.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Later mathematicians include Diophantus (c. 214–298 AD), who wrote on polygonal numbers and a work in pre-modern algebra ("Arithmetica"), Pappus of Alexandria (c. 290-350 AD), who compiled many important results in the "Collection", and Theon of Alexandria (c. 335-405 AD) and his daughter Hypatia (c. 370–415 AD), who edited Ptolemy's "Almagest" and other works. Although none of these mathematicians, save Diophantus, had notable original works, they are distinguished for their commentaries and expositions. These commentaries have preserved valuable extracts from works which have perished, or historical allusions which, in the absence of original documents, are precious because of their rarity.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Most of the mathematical texts written in Greek survived through the copying of manuscripts over the centuries, though some fragments dating from antiquity have been found in Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Sicily.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Greek mathematics constitutes an important period in the history of mathematics: fundamental in respect of geometry and for the idea of formal proof. Greek mathematicians also contributed to number theory, mathematical astronomy, combinatorics, mathematical physics, and, at times, approached ideas close to the integral calculus.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Eudoxus of Cnidus developed a theory of proportion that bears resemblance to the modern theory of real numbers using the Dedekind cut, developed by Richard Dedekind, who acknowledged Eudoxus as inspiration.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Euclid collected many previous results and theorems in the "Elements", a canon of geometry and elementary number theory for many centuries.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Archimedes was able to use the concept of the infinitely small in a way that anticipated modern ideas of the integral calculus. Using a technique dependent on a form of proof by contradiction, he could reach answers to problems with an arbitrary degree of accuracy, while specifying the limits within which the answers lay. This technique is known as the method of exhaustion, and he employed in several of his works, such as to approximate the value of π ("Measurement of the Circle"). In "Quadrature of the Parabola", Archimedes proved that the area enclosed by a parabola and a straight line is times the area of a triangle with equal base and height using an infinite geometric series, whose sum was . In "The Sand Reckoner", Archimedes challenged the notion that the number of grains of sand was too large to be counted by trying to name how many grains of sand the universe could contain, devising his own counting scheme based on the myriad, which denoted 10,000.


title: Greek mathematics

text: The most characteristic product of Greek mathematics may be the theory of conic sections, which was largely developed in the Hellenistic period, primarily by Apollonius. The methods employed made no explicit use of algebra, nor trigonometry, the latter appearing around the time of Hipparchus.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Ancient Greek mathematics was not limited to theoretical works but was also used in other activities, such as business transactions and in land mensuration, as evidenced by extant texts where computational procedures and practical considerations took more of a central role.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Although the earliest Greek language texts on mathematics that have been found were written after the Hellenistic period, many of these are considered to be copies of works written during and before the Hellenistic period. The two major sources are


title: Greek mathematics

text: Nevertheless, despite the lack of original manuscripts, the dates of Greek mathematics are more certain than the dates of surviving Babylonian or Egyptian sources because a large number of overlapping chronologies exist. Even so, many dates are uncertain; but the doubt is a matter of decades rather than centuries.


title: Greek mathematics

text: Reviel Netz has counted 144 ancient exact scientific authors, of these only 29 are extant in Greek: Aristarchus, Autolycus, Philo of Byzantium, Biton, Apollonius, Archimedes, Euclid, Theodosius, Hypsicles, Athenaeus, Geminus, Hero, Apollodorus, Theon of Smyrna, Cleomedes, Nicomachus, Ptolemy, Gaudentius, Anatolius, Aristides Quintilian, Porphyry, Diophantus, Alypius, Damianus, Pappus, Serenus, Theon of Alexandria, Anthemius, Eutocius.


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: Simon ben Koseba or Cosiba (; died 135 CE), commonly known as Bar Kokhba (), was a Jewish military leader who led the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. The revolt established a three-year-long independent Jewish state in which Bar Kokhba ruled as "nasi" ("prince"). Some of the rabbinic scholars in his time imagined him to be the long-expected Messiah. Bar Kokhba fell in the fortified town of Betar.


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: Documents discovered in the 20th century in the Cave of Letters give his original name, with variations: Simeon bar Kosevah (), Bar Kosevaʾ () or Ben Kosevaʾ (). It is probable that his original name was Bar Koseba. The name may indicate that his father or his place of origin was named Koseva(h), with Khirbet Kuwayzibah being a likely nominee for identification; Others, namely Emil Schürer, think the surname may have been an indication of his place of birth, in the village known as Chozeba (maybe Chezib) but might as well be a general family name.


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: During the revolt, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva regarded Simon as the Jewish messiah; the Talmud records his statement that the Star Prophecy verse from Numbers : "There shall come a star out of Jacob" referred to him, based on identification of the Hebrew word for star, "kokhav", and his name, "bar Kozeva." The name Bar Kokhba, which references this statement of Akiva, does not appear in the Talmud, but only in ecclesiastical sources, until the 16th century. The Jerusalem Talmud ("Taanit" 4:5) mentions him by the name of Bar Kozeva.


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: Despite the devastation wrought by the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), which left the population and countryside in ruins, a series of laws passed by Roman Emperors provided the incentive for the second rebellion. Based on the delineation of years in Eusebius' "Chronicon" (whose Latin translation is known as the Chronicle of Jerome) the Jewish revolt began under the Roman governor Tineius (Tynius) Rufus in the 16th year of Hadrian's reign, or what was equivalent to the 4th year of the 227th Olympiad. Hadrian sent an army to crush the resistance, but it faced a strong opponent, since Bar Kokhba, as the recognised leader of Israel, punished any Jew who refused to join his ranks. Two and a half years later, after the war had ended, the Roman emperor Hadrian barred Jews from entering Ælia Capitolina, the pagan city he had built on the ruins of Jewish Jerusalem. The name Aelia was derived from one of the emperor's names, Aelius. According to Philostorgius, this was done so that its former Jewish inhabitants "might not find in the name of the city a pretext for claiming it as their country."


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: For many Jews of the time, this turn of events was heralded as the long hoped for Messianic Age. The Romans fared very poorly during the initial revolt facing a unified Jewish force, in contrast to the First Jewish-Roman War, where Flavius Josephus records three separate Jewish armies fighting each other for control of the Temple Mount during the three weeks after the Romans had breached Jerusalem's walls and were fighting their way to the center. Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans adopted a scorched earth policy which reduced and demoralised the Judean populace, slowly grinding away at the will of the Judeans to sustain the war.


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: During the final phase of the war, Bar Kokhba took up refuge in the fortress of Betar. The Romans eventually captured it after laying siege to the city.


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: The Jerusalem Talmud makes several claims considered as non-historical by modern scholarship. One such claim is that the duration of the siege was of three and half years, although the war itself lasted, according to the same author, two and half years. Another part of the Talmudic narrative is that the Romans killed all the defenders except for one Jewish youth, Simeon ben Gamliel, whose life was spared. According to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews were killed in overall war operations across the country, and some 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed to the ground, while the number of those who perished by famine, disease and fire was past finding out.


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: So costly was the Roman victory, that the Emperor Hadrian, when reporting to the Roman Senate, did not see fit to begin with the customary greeting "If you and your children are healthy, it is well; I and the legions are healthy."


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: In the aftermath of the war, Hadrian consolidated the older political units of Judaea, Galilee and Samaria into the new province of Syria Palaestina, which is commonly interpreted as an attempt to complete the disassociation with Judaea.


title: Simon bar Kokhba

text: Over the past few decades, new information about the revolt has come to light, from the discovery of several collections of letters, some possibly by Bar Kokhba himself, in the Cave of Letters overlooking the Dead Sea. These letters can now be seen at the Israel Museum.