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A. A A (named , plural "As", "A's", "a"s, "a's" or "aes") is the first letter and the first vowel of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is | 290 | 0 |
A. also found in italic type. In the English grammar, "a", and its variant "an", is an indefinite article. Section:History. The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it from a true alphabet). In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two horns extended. By 1600 BC, the Phoenician alphabet letter had a linear form | 290 | 1 |
A. that served as the base for some later forms. Its name is thought to have corresponded closely to the Paleo-Hebrew or Arabic aleph. When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for a letter to represent the glottal stop—the consonant sound that the letter denoted in Phoenician and other Semitic languages, and that was the first phoneme of the Phoenician pronunciation of the letter—so they used their version of the sign to represent the vowel , and called it by the similar name of alpha. In the earliest Greek inscriptions after the Greek Dark Ages, dating to | 290 | 2 |
A. the 8th century BC, the letter rests upon its side, but in the Greek alphabet of later times it generally resembles the modern capital letter, although many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one leg, or by the angle at which the cross line is set. The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to their civilization in the Italian Peninsula and left the letter unchanged. The Romans later adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write the Latin language, and the resulting letter was preserved in the Latin alphabet that would come to be used to write many languages, including | 290 | 3 |
A. English. Section:History.:Typographic variants. During Roman times, there were many variant forms of the letter "A". First was the monumental or lapidary style, which was used when inscribing on stone or other "permanent" media. There was also a cursive style used for everyday or utilitarian writing, which was done on more perishable surfaces. Due to the "perishable" nature of these surfaces, there are not as many examples of this style as there are of the monumental, but there are still many surviving examples of different types of cursive, such as majuscule cursive, minuscule cursive, and semicursive minuscule. Variants also existed that | 290 | 4 |
A. were intermediate between the monumental and cursive styles. The known variants include the early semi-uncial, the uncial, and the later semi-uncial. At the end of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), several variants of the cursive minuscule developed through Western Europe. Among these were the semicursive minuscule of Italy, the Merovingian script in France, the Visigothic script in Spain, and the Insular or Anglo-Irish semi-uncial or Anglo-Saxon majuscule of Great Britain. By the 9th century, the Caroline script, which was very similar to the present-day form, was the principal form used in book-making, before the advent of the printing press. | 290 | 5 |
A. This form was derived through a combining of prior forms. 15th-century Italy saw the formation of the two main variants that are known today. These variants, the "Italic" and "Roman" forms, were derived from the Caroline Script version. The Italic form, also called "script a," is used in most current handwriting and consists of a circle and vertical stroke. This slowly developed from the fifth-century form resembling the Greek letter tau in the hands of medieval Irish and English writers. The Roman form is used in most printed material; it consists of a small loop with an arc over it | 290 | 6 |
A. ("a"). Both derive from the majuscule (capital) form. In Greek handwriting, it was common to join the left leg and horizontal stroke into a single loop, as demonstrated by the uncial version shown. Many fonts then made the right leg vertical. In some of these, the serif that began the right leg stroke developed into an arc, resulting in the printed form, while in others it was dropped, resulting in the modern handwritten form. Italic type is commonly used to mark emphasis or more generally to distinguish one part of a text from the rest (set in Roman type). There | 290 | 7 |
A. are some other cases aside from italic type where "script a" ("ɑ"), also called Latin alpha, is used in contrast with Latin "a" (such as in the International Phonetic Alphabet). Section:Use in writing systems. Section:Use in writing systems.:English. In modern English orthography, the letter represents at least seven different vowel sounds: The double sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived from foreign languages such as "Aaron" and "aardvark". However, occurs in many common digraphs, all with their own sound or sounds, particularly , , , , and . Section:Use in writing systems.:Other | 290 | 8 |
A. languages. In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as , , or . An exception is Saanich, in which (and the glyph Á) stands for a close-mid front unrounded vowel . Section:Use in writing systems.:Other systems. In phonetic and phonemic notation: Section:Other uses. In algebra, the letter "a" along with other letters at the beginning of the alphabet is used to represent known quantities, whereas the letters at the end of the alphabet ("x", "y", "z") are used to denote unknown quantities. In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to denote | 290 | 9 |
A. segments, lines, rays, etc. A capital A is also typically used as one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a representing the side opposite angle A. "A" is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status: A-, A or A+, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; "A grade" for clean restaurants; A-list celebrities, etc. Such associations can have a motivating effect, as exposure to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other letters. "A" is | 290 | 10 |
A. used as a prefix on some words, such as asymmetry, to mean "not" or "without" (from Greek). In English grammar, "a", and its variant "an", is an indefinite article. Finally, the letter A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe, or a small cup size in a brassiere. Section:Related characters. Section:Related characters.:Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet. Section:Related characters.:Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations. Section:Related characters.:Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets. Section:External links. | 290 | 11 |
Albedo. Albedo Albedo () (, meaning 'whiteness') is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation received by an astronomical body (e.g. a planet like Earth). It is dimensionless and measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation). Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of radiosity to the irradiance (flux per unit area) received by a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself, but also by the | 39 | 12 |
Albedo. spectral and angular distribution of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location and time (see position of the Sun). While bi-hemispherical reflectance is calculated for a single angle of incidence (i.e., for a given position of the Sun), albedo is the directional integration of reflectance over all solar angles in a given period. The temporal resolution may range from seconds (as obtained from flux measurements) to daily, monthly, or annual averages. Unless given for a specific wavelength (spectral albedo), albedo refers to the entire spectrum of solar radiation. Due to measurement constraints, it | 39 | 13 |
Albedo. is often given for the spectrum in which most solar energy reaches the surface (between 0.3 and 3 μm). This spectrum includes visible light (0.39–0.7 μm), which explains why surfaces with a low albedo appear dark (e.g., trees absorb most radiation), whereas surfaces with a high albedo appear bright (e.g., snow reflects most radiation). Albedo is an important concept in climatology, astronomy, and environmental management (e.g., as part of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for sustainable rating of buildings). The average albedo of the Earth from the upper atmosphere, its "planetary albedo", is 30–35% because of | 39 | 14 |
Albedo. cloud cover, but widely varies locally across the surface because of different geological and environmental features. The term albedo was introduced into optics by Johann Heinrich Lambert in his 1760 work "Photometria". Section:Terrestrial albedo. Any albedo in visible light falls within a range of about 0.9 for fresh snow to about 0.04 for charcoal, one of the darkest substances. Deeply shadowed cavities can achieve an effective albedo approaching the zero of a black body. When seen from a distance, the ocean surface has a low albedo, as do most forests, whereas desert areas have some of the highest albedos among | 39 | 15 |
Albedo. landforms. Most land areas are in an albedo range of 0.1 to 0.4. The average albedo of Earth is about 0.3. This is far higher than for the ocean primarily because of the contribution of clouds. Earth's surface albedo is regularly estimated via Earth observation satellite sensors such as NASA's MODIS instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites, and the CERES instrument on the Suomi NPP and JPSS. As the amount of reflected radiation is only measured for a single direction by satellite, not all directions, a mathematical model is used to translate a sample set of satellite reflectance | 39 | 16 |
Albedo. measurements into estimates of directional-hemispherical reflectance and bi-hemispherical reflectance (e.g.,). These calculations are based on the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), which describes how the reflectance of a given surface depends on the view angle of the observer and the solar angle. BDRF can facilitate translations of observations of reflectance into albedo. Earth's average surface temperature due to its albedo and the greenhouse effect is currently about 15 °C. If Earth were frozen entirely (and hence be more reflective), the average temperature of the planet would drop below −40 °C. If only the continental land masses became covered by glaciers, | 39 | 17 |
Albedo. the mean temperature of the planet would drop to about 0 °C. In contrast, if the entire Earth was covered by water — a so-called ocean planet — the average temperature on the planet would rise to almost 27 °C. Section:Terrestrial albedo.:White-sky, black-sky, and blue-sky albedo. For land surfaces, it has been shown that the albedo at a particular solar zenith angle "θ" can be approximated by the proportionate sum of two terms: with formula_3 being the proportion of direct radiation from a given solar angle, and formula_4 being the proportion of diffuse illumination, the actual albedo formula_5 (also called | 39 | 18 |
Albedo. blue-sky albedo) can then be given as: This formula is important because it allows the albedo to be calculated for any given illumination conditions from a knowledge of the intrinsic properties of the surface. Section:Astronomical albedo. The albedos of planets, satellites and minor planets such as asteroids can be used to infer much about their properties. The study of albedos, their dependence on wavelength, lighting angle ("phase angle"), and variation in time comprises a major part of the astronomical field of photometry. For small and far objects that cannot be resolved by telescopes, much of what we know comes from | 39 | 19 |
Albedo. the study of their albedos. For example, the absolute albedo can indicate the surface ice content of outer Solar System objects, the variation of albedo with phase angle gives information about regolith properties, whereas unusually high radar albedo is indicative of high metal content in asteroids. Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has one of the highest known albedos of any body in the Solar System, with 99% of EM radiation reflected. Another notable high-albedo body is Eris, with an albedo of 0.96. Many small objects in the outer Solar System and asteroid belt have low albedos down to about 0.05. | 39 | 20 |
Albedo. A typical comet nucleus has an albedo of 0.04. Such a dark surface is thought to be indicative of a primitive and heavily space weathered surface containing some organic compounds. The overall albedo of the Moon is measured to be around 0.136, but it is strongly directional and non-Lambertian, displaying also a strong opposition effect. Although such reflectance properties are different from those of any terrestrial terrains, they are typical of the regolith surfaces of airless Solar System bodies. Two common albedos that are used in astronomy are the (V-band) geometric albedo (measuring brightness when illumination comes from directly behind | 39 | 21 |
Albedo. the observer) and the Bond albedo (measuring total proportion of electromagnetic energy reflected). Their values can differ significantly, which is a common source of confusion. In detailed studies, the directional reflectance properties of astronomical bodies are often expressed in terms of the five Hapke parameters which semi-empirically describe the variation of albedo with phase angle, including a characterization of the opposition effect of regolith surfaces. The correlation between astronomical (geometric) albedo, absolute magnitude and diameter is: formula_7, where formula_8 is the astronomical albedo, formula_9 is the diameter in kilometers, and formula_10 is the absolute magnitude. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects. | 39 | 22 |
Albedo. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Illumination. Albedo is not directly dependent on illumination because changing the amount of incoming light proportionally changes the amount of reflected light, except in circumstances where a change in illumination induces a change in the Earth's surface at that location (e.g. through albedo-temperature feedback). That said, albedo and illumination both vary by latitude. Albedo is highest near the poles and lowest in the subtropics, with a local maximum in the tropics. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Insolation effects. The intensity of albedo temperature effects depends on the amount of albedo and the level of local insolation (solar | 39 | 23 |
Albedo. irradiance); high albedo areas in the arctic and antarctic regions are cold due to low insolation, where areas such as the Sahara Desert, which also have a relatively high albedo, will be hotter due to high insolation. Tropical and sub-tropical rainforest areas have low albedo, and are much hotter than their temperate forest counterparts, which have lower insolation. Because insolation plays such a big role in the heating and cooling effects of albedo, high insolation areas like the tropics will tend to show a more pronounced fluctuation in local temperature when local albedo changes. Arctic regions notably release more heat | 39 | 24 |
Albedo. back into space than what they absorb, effectively cooling the Earth. This has been a concern since arctic ice and snow has been melting at higher rates due to higher temperatures, creating regions in the arctic that are notably darker (being water or ground which is darker color) and reflects less heat back into space. This feedback loop results in a reduced albedo effect. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Climate and weather. Albedo affects climate by determining how much radiation a planet absorbs. The uneven heating of Earth from albedo variations between land, ice, or ocean surfaces can drive weather. Section:Examples | 39 | 25 |
Albedo. of terrestrial albedo effects.:Albedo–temperature feedback. When an area's albedo changes due to snowfall, a snow–temperature feedback results. A layer of snowfall increases local albedo, reflecting away sunlight, leading to local cooling. In principle, if no outside temperature change affects this area (e.g., a warm air mass), the raised albedo and lower temperature would maintain the current snow and invite further snowfall, deepening the snow–temperature feedback. However, because local weather is dynamic due to the change of seasons, eventually warm air masses and a more direct angle of sunlight (higher insolation) cause melting. When the melted area reveals surfaces with lower | 39 | 26 |
Albedo. albedo, such as grass or soil, the effect is reversed: the darkening surface lowers albedo, increasing local temperatures, which induces more melting and thus reducing the albedo further, resulting in still more heating. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Snow. Snow albedo is highly variable, ranging from as high as 0.9 for freshly fallen snow, to about 0.4 for melting snow, and as low as 0.2 for dirty snow. Over Antarctica snow albedo averages a little more than 0.8. If a marginally snow-covered area warms, snow tends to melt, lowering the albedo, and hence leading to more snowmelt because more radiation is | 39 | 27 |
Albedo. being absorbed by the snowpack (the ice–albedo positive feedback). Just as fresh snow has a higher albedo than does dirty snow, the albedo of snow-covered sea ice is far higher than that of sea water. Sea water absorbs more solar radiation than would the same surface covered with reflective snow. When sea ice melts, either due to a rise in sea temperature or in response to increased solar radiation from above, the snow-covered surface is reduced, and more surface of sea water is exposed, so the rate of energy absorption increases. The extra absorbed energy heats the sea water, which | 39 | 28 |
Albedo. in turn increases the rate at which sea ice melts. As with the preceding example of snowmelt, the process of melting of sea ice is thus another example of a positive feedback. Both positive feedback loops have long been recognized as important to the modern theory of Global warming. Cryoconite, powdery windblown dust containing soot, sometimes reduces albedo on glaciers and ice sheets. The dynamical nature of albedo in response to positive feedback, together with the effects of small errors in the measurement of albedo, can lead to large errors in energy estimates. Because of this, in order to reduce | 39 | 29 |
Albedo. the error of energy estimates, it is important to measure the albedo of snow-covered areas through remote sensing techniques rather than applying a single value for albedo over broad regions. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Small-scale effects. Albedo works on a smaller scale, too. In sunlight, dark clothes absorb more heat and light-coloured clothes reflect it better, thus allowing some control over body temperature by exploiting the albedo effect of the colour of external clothing. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Solar photovoltaic effects. Albedo can affect the electrical energy output of solar photovoltaic devices. For example, the effects of a spectrally responsive | 39 | 30 |
Albedo. albedo are illustrated by the differences between the spectrally weighted albedo of solar photovoltaic technology based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and crystalline silicon (c-Si)-based compared to traditional spectral-integrated albedo predictions. Research showed impacts of over 10%. More recently, the analysis was extended to the effects of spectral bias due to the specular reflectivity of 22 commonly occurring surface materials (both human-made and natural) and analyzes the albedo effects on the performance of seven photovoltaic materials covering three common photovoltaic system topologies: industrial (solar farms), commercial flat rooftops and residential pitched-roof applications. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Trees. Because forests generally | 39 | 31 |
Albedo. have a low albedo, (the majority of the ultraviolet and visible spectrum is absorbed through photosynthesis), some scientists have suggested that greater heat absorption by trees could offset some of the carbon benefits of afforestation (or offset the negative climate impacts of deforestation). In the case of evergreen forests with seasonal snow cover albedo reduction may be great enough for deforestation to cause a net cooling effect. Trees also impact climate in extremely complicated ways through evapotranspiration. The water vapor causes cooling on the land surface, causes heating where it condenses, acts a strong greenhouse gas, and can increase albedo | 39 | 32 |
Albedo. when it condenses into clouds. Scientists generally treat evapotranspiration as a net cooling impact, and the net climate impact of albedo and evapotranspiration changes from deforestation depends greatly on local climate. In seasonally snow-covered zones, winter albedos of treeless areas are 10% to 50% higher than nearby forested areas because snow does not cover the trees as readily. Deciduous trees have an albedo value of about 0.15 to 0.18 whereas coniferous trees have a value of about 0.09 to 0.15. Variation in summer albedo across both forest types is correlated with maximum rates of photosynthesis because plants with high growth | 39 | 33 |
Albedo. capacity display a greater fraction of their foliage for direct interception of incoming radiation in the upper canopy. The result is that wavelengths of light not used in photosynthesis are more likely to be reflected back to space rather than being absorbed by other surfaces lower in the canopy. Studies by the Hadley Centre have investigated the relative (generally warming) effect of albedo change and (cooling) effect of carbon sequestration on planting forests. They found that new forests in tropical and midlatitude areas tended to cool; new forests in high latitudes (e.g., Siberia) were neutral or perhaps warming. Section:Examples of | 39 | 34 |
Albedo. terrestrial albedo effects.:Water. Water reflects light very differently from typical terrestrial materials. The reflectivity of a water surface is calculated using the Fresnel equations (see graph). At the scale of the wavelength of light even wavy water is always smooth so the light is reflected in a locally specular manner (not diffusely). The glint of light off water is a commonplace effect of this. At small angles of incident light, waviness results in reduced reflectivity because of the steepness of the reflectivity-vs.-incident-angle curve and a locally increased average incident angle. Although the reflectivity of water is very low at low | 39 | 35 |
Albedo. and medium angles of incident light, it becomes very high at high angles of incident light such as those that occur on the illuminated side of Earth near the terminator (early morning, late afternoon, and near the poles). However, as mentioned above, waviness causes an appreciable reduction. Because light specularly reflected from water does not usually reach the viewer, water is usually considered to have a very low albedo in spite of its high reflectivity at high angles of incident light. Note that white caps on waves look white (and have high albedo) because the water is foamed up, so | 39 | 36 |
Albedo. there are many superimposed bubble surfaces which reflect, adding up their reflectivities. Fresh 'black' ice exhibits Fresnel reflection. Snow on top of this sea ice increases the albedo to 0.9. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Clouds. Cloud albedo has substantial influence over atmospheric temperatures. Different types of clouds exhibit different reflectivity, theoretically ranging in albedo from a minimum of near 0 to a maximum approaching 0.8. "On any given day, about half of Earth is covered by clouds, which reflect more sunlight than land and water. Clouds keep Earth cool by reflecting sunlight, but they can also serve as blankets to | 39 | 37 |
Albedo. trap warmth." Albedo and climate in some areas are affected by artificial clouds, such as those created by the contrails of heavy commercial airliner traffic. A study following the burning of the Kuwaiti oil fields during Iraqi occupation showed that temperatures under the burning oil fires were as much as 10 °C colder than temperatures several miles away under clear skies. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Aerosol effects. Aerosols (very fine particles/droplets in the atmosphere) have both direct and indirect effects on Earth's radiative balance. The direct (albedo) effect is generally to cool the planet; the indirect effect (the particles act | 39 | 38 |
Albedo. as cloud condensation nuclei and thereby change cloud properties) is less certain. As per Spracklen et al. the effects are: Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Black carbon. Another albedo-related effect on the climate is from black carbon particles. The size of this effect is difficult to quantify: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the global mean radiative forcing for black carbon aerosols from fossil fuels is +0.2 W m, with a range +0.1 to +0.4 W m. Black carbon is a bigger cause of the melting of the polar ice cap in the Arctic than carbon dioxide due to | 39 | 39 |
Albedo. its effect on the albedo. Section:Examples of terrestrial albedo effects.:Human activities. Human activities (e.g., deforestation, farming, and urbanization) change the albedo of various areas around the globe. However, quantification of this effect on the global scale is difficult. Section:Other types of albedo. Single-scattering albedo is used to define scattering of electromagnetic waves on small particles. It depends on properties of the material (refractive index); the size of the particle or particles; and the wavelength of the incoming radiation. Section:Acquisition. Albedo can be measured by an Albedometer. Section:See also. Section:External links. | 39 | 40 |
Academy Award for Best Production Design. Academy Award for Best Production Design The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted from the Art Director's branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) being renamed the Designer's branch. Since 1947, the award is shared with the set decorator(s). It is awarded to the best interior design in a film. The films below are listed with their production year (for example, the 2000 Academy | 316 | 41 |
Academy Award for Best Production Design. Award for Best Art Direction is given to a film from 1999). In the lists below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees in alphabetical order. Section:See also. | 316 | 42 |
Actrius. Actrius Actresses (Catalan: Actrius) is a 1997 Catalan language Spanish drama film produced and directed by Ventura Pons and based on the award-winning stage play "E.R." by Josep Maria Benet i Jornet. The film has no male actors, with all roles played by females. The film was produced in 1996. Section:Synopsis. In order to prepare herself to play a role commemorating the life of legendary actress Empar Ribera, young actress (Mercè Pons) interviews three established actresses who had been the Ribera's pupils: the international diva Glòria Marc (Núria Espert), the television star Assumpta Roca (Rosa Maria Sardà), and dubbing director | 330 | 43 |
Actrius. Maria Caminal (Anna Lizaran). Section:Cast. Section:Recognition. Section:Recognition.:Screenings. "Actrius" screened in 2001 at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in an American Cinematheque retrospective of the works of its director. The film had first screened at the same location in 1998. It was also shown at the 1997 Stockholm International Film Festival. Section:Recognition.:Reception. In "Movie - Film - Review", "Daily Mail" staffer Christopher Tookey wrote that though the actresses were "competent in roles that may have some reference to their own careers", the film "is visually unimaginative, never escapes its stage origins, and is almost totally lacking in revelation or surprising incident". Noting | 330 | 44 |
Actrius. that there were "occasional, refreshing moments of intergenerational bitchiness", they did not "justify comparisons to "All About Eve"", and were "insufficiently different to deserve critical parallels with "Rashomon"". He also wrote that "The Guardian" called the film a "slow, stuffy chamber-piece", and that "The Evening Standard" stated the film's "best moments exhibit the bitchy tantrums seething beneath the threesome's composed veneers". MRQE wrote "This cinematic adaptation of a theatrical work is true to the original, but does not stray far from a theatrical rendering of the story." Section:Recognition.:Awards and nominations. Section:External links. | 330 | 45 |
Animalia (book). Animalia (book) Animalia is an illustrated children's book by Graeme Base. It was originally published in 1986, followed by a tenth anniversary edition in 1996, and a 25th anniversary edition in 2012. Over four million copies have been sold worldwide. A special numbered and signed anniversary edition was also published in 1996, with an embossed gold jacket. Section:Synopsis. "Animalia" is an alliterative alphabet book and contains twenty-six illustrations, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each illustration features an animal from the animal kingdom (A is for alligator, B is for butterfly, etc.) along with a short poem utilizing the | 332 | 46 |
Animalia (book). letter of the page for many of the words. The illustrations contain many other objects beginning with that letter that the reader can try to identify. As an additional challenge, the author has hidden a picture of himself as a child in every picture. Section:Related products. Julia MacRae Books published an "Animalia" colouring book in 2008. H. N. Abrams also published a wall calendar colouring book version for children the same year. H. N. Abrams published "The Animalia Wall Frieze", a fold-out over 26 feet in length, in which the author created new riddles for each letter. The Great American | 332 | 47 |
Animalia (book). Puzzle Factory created a 300-piece jigsaw puzzle based on the book's cover. Section:Adaptations. A television series was also created, based on the book, which airs in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway and Venezuela. It also airs on Minimax for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And recently in Greece on the channel ET1. The Australian Children's Television Foundation released a teaching resource DVD-ROM in 2011 to accompany the TV series with teaching aids for classroom use. In 2010, The Base Factory and AppBooks released Animalia as an application for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch. Section:Awards. "Animalia" won the | 332 | 48 |
Animalia (book). Young Australian's Best Book Award in 1987 for Best Picture Story Book. The Children's Book Council of Australia designated "Animalia" a 1987 : Honour Book. Kid's Own Australian Literature Awards named "Animalia" the 1988 Picture Book Winner. Section:External links. | 332 | 49 |
An American in Paris. An American in Paris An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s. Walter Damrosch had asked Gershwin to write a full concerto following the success of "Rhapsody in Blue" (1924). Gershwin scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns. He brought back four Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took | 309 | 50 |
An American in Paris. place on December 13, 1928, in Carnegie Hall, with Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic. He completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the work's premiere. He collaborated on the original program notes with critic and composer Deems Taylor. Section:Background. Although the story is likely apocryphal, Gershwin is said to have been attracted by Maurice Ravel's unusual chords, and Gershwin went on his first trip to Paris in 1926 ready to study with Ravel. After his initial student audition with Ravel turned into a sharing of musical theories, Ravel said he could not teach him, saying, | 309 | 51 |
An American in Paris. "Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?" That 1926 trip, however, resulted in a snippet of melody entitled "Very Parisienne", that the initial musical motive of "An American in Paris", written as a 'thank you note' to Gershwin's hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. Gershwin called it "a rhapsodic ballet"; it is written freely and in a much more modern idiom than his prior works. Gershwin strongly encouraged Ravel to come to the United States for a tour. To this end, upon his return to New York, Gershwin joined the efforts of Ravel's friend Robert Schmitz, | 309 | 52 |
An American in Paris. a pianist Ravel had met during the war, to urge Ravel to tour the U.S. Schmitz was the head of Pro Musica, promoting Franco-American musical relations, and was able to offer Ravel a $10,000 fee for the tour, an enticement Gershwin knew would be important to Ravel. Gershwin greeted Ravel in New York in March 1928 during a party held for Ravel's birthday by Éva Gauthier. Ravel's tour reignited Gershwin's desire to return to Paris which he and his brother Ira did after meeting Ravel. Ravel's high praise of Gershwin in an introductory letter to Nadia Boulanger caused Gershwin to | 309 | 53 |
An American in Paris. seriously consider taking much more time to study abroad in Paris. Yet after playing for her, she told him she could not teach him. Nadia Boulanger gave Gershwin basically the same advice she gave all of her accomplished master students: "What could I give you that you haven't already got?" This did not set Gershwin back, as his real intent abroad was to complete a new work based on Paris and perhaps a second rhapsody for piano and orchestra to follow his "Rhapsody in Blue". Paris at this time hosted many expatriate writers, among them Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, | 309 | 54 |
An American in Paris. Ernest Hemingway; and artist Pablo Picasso. Section:Composition. Gershwin based "An American in Paris" on a melodic fragment called "Very Parisienne", written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. He described the piece as a "rhapsodic ballet" because it was written freely and is more modern than his previous works. Gershwin explained in "Musical America", "My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere." The piece is structured | 309 | 55 |
An American in Paris. into five sections, which culminate in a loose ABA format. Gershwin's first A episode introduces the two main "walking" themes in the "Allegretto grazioso" and develops a third theme in the "Subito con brio". The style of this A section is written in the typical French style of composers Claude Debussy and Les Six. This A section featured duple meter, singsong rhythms, and diatonic melodies with the sounds of oboe, English horn, and taxi horns. The B section's "Andante ma con ritmo deciso" introduces the American Blues and spasms of homesickness. The "Allegro" that follows continues to express homesickness in | 309 | 56 |
An American in Paris. a faster twelve-bar blues. In the B section, Gershwin uses common time, syncopated rhythms, and bluesy melodies with the sounds of trumpet, saxophone, and snare drum. "Moderato con grazia" is the last A section that returns to the themes set in A. After recapitulating the "walking" themes, Gershwin overlays the slow blues theme from section B in the final "Grandioso". Section:Instrumentation. "An American in Paris" is scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, | 309 | 57 |
An American in Paris. snare drum, bass drum, triangle, wood block, ratchet, cymbals, low and high tom-toms, xylophone, glockenspiel, celesta, 4 taxi horns labeled as A, B, C and D with circles around them, alto saxophone/soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone/soprano saxophone/alto saxophone, baritone saxophone/soprano saxophone/alto saxophone, and strings. Although most modern audiences have heard the taxi horns using the notes A, B, C and D, it has recently come to light that Gershwin's intention was to have used the notes A, B, D, and A. It is likely that in labeling the taxi horns as A, B, C and D with circles, he may have | 309 | 58 |
An American in Paris. been referring to the use of the four different horns and not the notes that they played. The revised edition by F. Campbell-Watson calls for three saxophones, alto, tenor and baritone. In this arrangement the soprano and alto doublings have been rewritten to avoid changing instruments. In 2000, Gershwin specialist Jack Gibbons made his own restoration of the original orchestration of An American in Paris, working directly from Gershwin's original manuscript, including the restoration of Gershwin's soprano saxophone parts removed in F. Campbell-Watson's revision; Gibbons' restored orchestration of An American in Paris was performed at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on | 309 | 59 |
An American in Paris. July 9, 2000 by the City of Oxford Orchestra conducted by Levon Parikian William Daly arranged the score for piano solo which was published by New World Music in 1929. Section:Response. Gershwin did not particularly like Walter Damrosch's interpretation at the world premiere of "An American in Paris". He stated that Damrosch's sluggish, dragging tempo caused him to walk out of the hall during a matinee performance of this work. The audience, according to Edward Cushing, responded with "a demonstration of enthusiasm impressively genuine in contrast to the conventional applause which new music, good and bad, ordinarily arouses." Critics believed | 309 | 60 |
An American in Paris. that "An American in Paris" was better crafted than his lukewarm Concerto in F. Some did not think it belonged in a program with classical composers César Franck, Richard Wagner, or Guillaume Lekeu on its premiere. Gershwin responded to the critics, "It's not a Beethoven Symphony, you know... It's a humorous piece, nothing solemn about it. It's not intended to draw tears. If it pleases symphony audiences as a light, jolly piece, a series of impressions musically expressed, it succeeds." Section:Preservation status. On September 22, 2013, it was announced that a musicological critical edition of the full orchestral score will | 309 | 61 |
An American in Paris. be eventually released. The Gershwin family, working in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan, are working to make scores available to the public that represent Gershwin's true intent. It is unknown if the critical score will include the four minutes of material Gershwin later deleted from the work (such as the restatement of the blues theme after the faster 12 bar blues section), or if the score will document changes in the orchestration during Gershwin's composition process. The score to "An American in Paris" is currently scheduled to be issued first in a series of | 309 | 62 |
An American in Paris. scores to be released. The entire project may take 30 to 40 years to complete, but "An American in Paris" will be an early volume in the series. Two urtext editions of the work were published by the German publisher B-Note Music in 2015. The changes made by Campbell-Watson have been withdrawn in both editions. In the extended urtext, 120 bars of music have been re-integrated. Conductor Walter Damrosch had cut them shortly before the first performance. Section:Recordings. "An American in Paris" has been frequently recorded. The first recording was made for RCA Victor in 1929 with Nathaniel Shilkret conducting | 309 | 63 |
An American in Paris. the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, drawn from members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Gershwin was on hand to "supervise" the recording; however, Shilkret was reported to be in charge and eventually asked the composer to leave the recording studio. Then, a little later, Shilkret discovered there was no one to play the brief celesta solo during the slow section, so he hastily asked Gershwin if he might play the solo; Gershwin said he could and so he briefly participated in the actual recording. This recording is believed to use the taxi horns in the way that Gershwin had intended using the | 309 | 64 |
An American in Paris. notes A-flat, B-flat, a higher D and a lower A. The radio broadcast of the September 8, 1937 Hollywood Bowl George Gershwin Memorial Concert, in which "An American in Paris," also conducted by Shilkret, was second on the program, was recorded and was released in 1998 in a two-CD set. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra recorded the work for RCA Victor, including one of the first stereo recordings of the music. In 1945, Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra recorded the piece for RCA Victor, one of the few commercial recordings Toscanini made of music by an | 309 | 65 |
An American in Paris. American composer. The Seattle Symphony also recorded a version in 1990 of Gershwin's original score, before he made numerous edits resulting in the score as we hear it today. Harry James released a version of the blues section on his 1953 album "One Night Stand," recorded live at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (Columbia GL 522 and CL 522). Section:Use in film. In 1951, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the musical film "An American in Paris", featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Winning the 1951 Best Picture Oscar and numerous other awards, the film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, featured many tunes of | 309 | 66 |
An American in Paris. Gershwin, and concluded with an extensive, elaborate dance sequence built around the "An American in Paris" symphonic poem (arranged for the film by Johnny Green), costing $500,000. Section:Further reading. Section:External links. | 309 | 67 |
International Atomic Time. International Atomic Time International Atomic Time (TAI, from the French name ) is a high-precision atomic coordinate time standard based on the notional passage of proper time on Earth's geoid. It is the principal realisation of Terrestrial Time (with a fixed offset of epoch). It is also the basis for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is used for civil timekeeping all over the Earth's surface. , when another leap second was added, TAI is exactly 37 seconds ahead of UTC. The 37 seconds results from the initial difference of 10 seconds at the start of 1972, plus 27 leap seconds | 334 | 68 |
International Atomic Time. in UTC since 1972. TAI may be reported using traditional means of specifying days, carried over from non-uniform time standards based on the rotation of the Earth. Specifically, both Julian Dates and the Gregorian calendar are used. TAI in this form was synchronised with Universal Time at the beginning of 1958, and the two have drifted apart ever since, due to the changing motion of the Earth. Section:Operation. TAI is a weighted average of the time kept by over 400 atomic clocks in over 50 national laboratories worldwide. The majority of the clocks involved are caesium clocks; the International System | 334 | 69 |
International Atomic Time. of Units (SI) definition of the second is based on caesium. The clocks are compared using GPS signals and two-way satellite time and frequency transfer. Due to the signal averaging TAI is an order of magnitude more stable than its best constituent clock. The participating institutions each broadcast, in real time, a frequency signal with timecodes, which is their estimate of TAI. Time codes are usually published in the form of UTC, which differs from TAI by a well-known integer number of seconds. These time scales are denoted in the form "UTC(NPL)" in the UTC form, where "NPL" in this | 334 | 70 |
International Atomic Time. case identifies the National Physical Laboratory, UK. The TAI form may be denoted "TAI(NPL)". The latter is not to be confused with "TA(NPL)", which denotes an independent atomic time scale, not synchronised to TAI or to anything else. The clocks at different institutions are regularly compared against each other. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM, France), combines these measurements to retrospectively calculate the weighted average that forms the most stable time scale possible. This combined time scale is published monthly in "Circular T", and is the canonical TAI. This time scale is expressed in the form of tables | 334 | 71 |
International Atomic Time. of differences UTC − UTC("k") (equivalent to TAI − TAI("k")) for each participating institution "k". The same circular also gives tables of TAI − TA("k"), for the various unsynchronised atomic time scales. Errors in publication may be corrected by issuing a revision of the faulty Circular T or by errata in a subsequent Circular T. Aside from this, once published in Circular T, the TAI scale is not revised. In hindsight it is possible to discover errors in TAI, and to make better estimates of the true proper time scale. Since the published circulars are definitive, better estimates do not | 334 | 72 |
International Atomic Time. create another version of TAI; it is instead considered to be creating a better realisation of Terrestrial Time (TT). Section:History. Early atomic time scales consisted of quartz clocks with frequencies calibrated by a single atomic clock; the atomic clocks were not operated continuously. Atomic timekeeping services started experimentally in 1955, using the first caesium atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory, UK (NPL). It was used as a basis for calibrating the quartz clocks at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and to establish a time scale, called Greenwich Atomic (GA). The United States Naval Observatory began the A.1 scale on 13 | 334 | 73 |
International Atomic Time. September 1956, using an Atomichron commercial atomic clock, followed by the NBS-A scale at the National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado on 9 October 1957. The International Time Bureau (BIH) began a time scale, T or AM, in July 1955, using both local caesium clocks and comparisons to distant clocks using the phase of VLF radio signals. The BIH scale, A.1, and NBS-A were defined by an epoch at the beginning of 1958 The procedures used by the BIH evolved, and the name for the time scale changed: "A3" in 1964 and "TA(BIH)" in 1969. The SI second was defined | 334 | 74 |
International Atomic Time. in terms of the caesium atom in 1967. From 1971 to 1975 the General Conference on Weights and Measures and the International Committee for Weights and Measures made a series of decisions which designated the BIPM time scale International Atomic Time (TAI). In the 1970s, it became clear that the clocks participating in TAI were ticking at different rates due to gravitational time dilation, and the combined TAI scale therefore corresponded to an average of the altitudes of the various clocks. Starting from Julian Date 2443144.5 (1 January 1977 00:00:00), corrections were applied to the output of all participating clocks, | 334 | 75 |
International Atomic Time. so that TAI would correspond to proper time at mean sea level (the geoid). Because the clocks were, on average, well above sea level, this meant that TAI slowed down, by about one part in a trillion. The former uncorrected time scale continues to be published, under the name "EAL" ("Echelle Atomique Libre", meaning "Free Atomic Scale"). The instant that the gravitational correction started to be applied serves as the epoch for Barycentric Coordinate Time (TCB), Geocentric Coordinate Time (TCG), and Terrestrial Time (TT), which represent three fundamental time scales in the solar system. All three of these time scales | 334 | 76 |
International Atomic Time. were defined to read JD 2443144.5003725 (1 January 1977 00:00:32.184) exactly at that instant. TAI was henceforth a realisation of TT, with the equation TT(TAI) = TAI + 32.184 s. The continued existence of TAI was questioned in a 2007 letter from the BIPM to the ITU-R which stated, "In the case of a redefinition of UTC without leap seconds, the CCTF would consider discussing the possibility of suppressing TAI, as it would remain parallel to the continuous UTC." Section:Relation to UTC. UTC is a discontinuous time scale. It is regularly adjusted by leap seconds. Between these adjustments it is | 334 | 77 |
International Atomic Time. composed from segments that are linear transformations of atomic time. From its beginning in 1961 through December 1971 the adjustments were made regularly in fractional leap seconds so that UTC approximated UT2. Afterwards these adjustments were made only in whole seconds to approximate UT1. This was a compromise arrangement in order to enable a publicly broadcast time scale; the post-1971 more linear transformation of the BIH's atomic time meant that the time scale would be more stable and easier to synchronize internationally. The fact that it continues to approximate UT1 means that tasks such as navigation which require a source | 334 | 78 |
International Atomic Time. of Universal Time continue to be well served by the public broadcast of UTC. Section:See also. Section:External links. | 334 | 79 |
Alain Connes. Alain Connes Alain Connes (; born 1 April 1947) is a French mathematician, currently Professor at the Collège de France, IHÉS, Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University. He was an Invited Professor at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (2000). Section:Work. Alain Connes studies operator algebras. In his early work on von Neumann algebras in the 1970s, he succeeded in obtaining the almost complete classification of injective factors. He also formulated the Connes embedding problem. Following this, he made contributions in operator K-theory and index theory, which culminated in the Baum–Connes conjecture. He also introduced cyclic cohomology in the | 340 | 80 |
Alain Connes. early 1980s as a first step in the study of noncommutative differential geometry. He was a member of Bourbaki. Connes has applied his work in areas of mathematics and theoretical physics, including number theory, differential geometry and particle physics. Section:Awards and honours. Connes was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982, the Crafoord Prize in 2001 Section:Books. Section:See also. Section:External links. | 340 | 81 |
Allan Dwan. Allan Dwan Allan Dwan (3 April 1885 – 28 December 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter. Section:Early life. Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan, was the younger son of commercial traveler of woolen clothing Joseph Michael Dwan (1857–1917) and his wife Mary Jane Dwan, née Hunt. The family moved to the United States when he was seven years old on 4 December 1892 by ferry from Windsor to Detroit, according to his naturalization petition of August 1939. His elder brother, Leo Garnet Dwan (1883–1964), became a physician. Allan Dwan studied engineering | 344 | 82 |
Allan Dwan. at the University of Notre Dame and then worked for a lighting company in Chicago. He had a strong interest in the fledgling motion picture industry, and when Essanay Studios offered him the opportunity to become a scriptwriter, he took the job. At that time, some of the East Coast movie makers began to spend winters in California where the climate allowed them to continue productions requiring warm weather. Soon, a number of movie companies worked there year-round, and in 1911, Dwan began working part-time in Hollywood. While still in New York, in 1917 he was the founding president of | 344 | 83 |
Allan Dwan. the East Coast chapter of the Motion Picture Directors Association. Section:Career. Dwan operated Flying A Studios in La Mesa, California from August 1911 to July 1912. Flying A was one of the first motion pictures studios in California history. On 12 August 2011, a plaque was unveiled on the Wolff building at Third Avenue and La Mesa Boulevard commemorating Dwan and the Flying A Studios origins in La Mesa, California. After making a series of westerns and comedies, Dwan directed fellow Canadian-American Mary Pickford in several very successful movies as well as her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, notably in the acclaimed | 344 | 84 |
Allan Dwan. 1922 "Robin Hood". Dwan directed Gloria Swanson in eight feature films, and one short film made in the short-lived sound-on-film process Phonofilm. This short, also featuring Thomas Meighan and Henri de la Falaise, was produced as a joke, for the 26 April 1925 "Lambs' Gambol" for The Lambs, with the film showing Swanson crashing the all-male club. Following the introduction of the talkies, Dwan directed child-star Shirley Temple in "Heidi" (1937) and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1938). Dwan helped launch the career of two other successful Hollywood directors, Victor Fleming, who went on to direct "The Wizard of Oz" and | 344 | 85 |
Allan Dwan. "Gone With the Wind", and Marshall Neilan, who became an actor, director, writer and producer. Over a long career spanning almost 50 years, Dwan directed 125 motion pictures, some of which were highly acclaimed, such as the 1949 box office hit, "Sands of Iwo Jima". He directed his last movie in 1961. He died in Los Angeles at the age of ninety-six, and is interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California. Dwan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Boulevard. Daniel Eagan of "Film Journal International" described Dwan as one of the | 344 | 86 |
Allan Dwan. early pioneers of cinema, stating that his style "is so basic as to seem invisible, but he treats his characters with uncommon sympathy and compassion." Section:Partial filmography as director. Section:See also. Section:Further reading. Print E-book Section:External links. | 344 | 87 |
Autism. Autism Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Parents usually notice signs during the first three years of their child's life. These signs often develop gradually, though some children with autism reach their developmental milestones at a normal pace before worsening. Autism is associated with a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Risk factors during pregnancy include certain infections, such as rubella, toxins including valproic acid, alcohol, cocaine, pesticides and air pollution, fetal growth restriction, and autoimmune diseases. Controversies surround other proposed environmental causes; for example, the vaccine | 25 | 88 |
Autism. hypothesis, which has been disproven. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering connections and organization of nerve cells and their synapses. How this occurs is not well understood. In the DSM-5, autism and less severe forms of the condition, including Asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), have been combined into the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Early behavioral interventions or speech therapy can help children with autism gain self-care, social, and communication skills. Although there is no known cure, there have been cases of children who recovered. Not many children with autism live | 25 | 89 |
Autism. independently after reaching adulthood, though some are successful. An autistic culture has developed, with some individuals seeking a cure and others believing autism should be accepted as a difference and not treated as a disorder. Globally, autism is estimated to affect 24.8 million people . In the 2000s, the number of people affected was estimated at 1–2 per 1,000 people worldwide. In the developed countries, about 1.5% of children are diagnosed with ASD , from 0.7% in 2000 in the United States. It occurs four-to-five times more often in males than females. The number of people diagnosed has increased dramatically | 25 | 90 |
Autism. since the 1960s, which may be partly due to changes in diagnostic practice. The question of whether actual rates have increased is unresolved. Section:Characteristics. Autism is a highly variable, neurodevelopmental disorder whose symptoms first appears during infancy or childhood, and generally follows a steady course without remission. People with autism may be severely impaired in some respects but normal, or even superior, in others. Overt symptoms gradually begin after the age of six months, become established by age two or three years and tend to continue through adulthood, although often in more muted form. It is distinguished not by a | 25 | 91 |
Autism. single symptom but by a characteristic triad of symptoms: impairments in social interaction; impairments in communication; and restricted interests and repetitive behavior. Other aspects, such as atypical eating, are also common but are not essential for diagnosis. Individual symptoms of autism occur in the general population and appear not to associate highly, without a sharp line separating pathologically severe from common traits. Section:Characteristics.:Social development. Social deficits distinguish autism and the related autism spectrum disorders (ASD; see Classification) from other developmental disorders. People with autism have social impairments and often lack the intuition about others that many people take for granted. | 25 | 92 |
Autism. Noted autistic Temple Grandin described her inability to understand the social communication of neurotypicals, or people with normal neural development, as leaving her feeling "like an anthropologist on Mars". Unusual social development becomes apparent early in childhood. Autistic infants show less attention to social stimuli, smile and look at others less often, and respond less to their own name. Autistic toddlers differ more strikingly from social norms; for example, they have less eye contact and turn-taking, and do not have the ability to use simple movements to express themselves, such as pointing at things. Three- to five-year-old children with autism | 25 | 93 |
Autism. are less likely to exhibit social understanding, approach others spontaneously, imitate and respond to emotions, communicate nonverbally, and take turns with others. However, they do form attachments to their primary caregivers. Most children with autism display moderately less attachment security than neurotypical children, although this difference disappears in children with higher mental development or less severe ASD. Older children and adults with ASD perform worse on tests of face and emotion recognition although this may be partly due to a lower ability to define a person's own emotions. Children with high-functioning autism suffer from more intense and frequent loneliness compared | 25 | 94 |
Autism. to non-autistic peers, despite the common belief that children with autism prefer to be alone. Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult for those with autism. For them, the quality of friendships, not the number of friends, predicts how lonely they feel. Functional friendships, such as those resulting in invitations to parties, may affect the quality of life more deeply. There are many anecdotal reports, but few systematic studies, of aggression and violence in individuals with ASD. The limited data suggest that, in children with intellectual disability, autism is associated with aggression, destruction of property, and meltdowns. Section:Characteristics.:Communication. | 25 | 95 |
Autism. About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs. Differences in communication may be present from the first year of life, and may include delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and vocal patterns that are not synchronized with the caregiver. In the second and third years, children with autism have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants, words, and word combinations; their gestures are less often integrated with words. Children with autism are less likely to make requests or share experiences, and are more likely | 25 | 96 |
Autism. to simply repeat others' words (echolalia) or reverse pronouns. Joint attention seems to be necessary for functional speech, and deficits in joint attention seem to distinguish infants with ASD. For example, they may look at a pointing hand instead of the pointed-at object, and they consistently fail to point at objects in order to comment on or share an experience. Children with autism may have difficulty with imaginative play and with developing symbols into language. In a pair of studies, high-functioning children with autism aged 8–15 performed equally well as, and as adults better than, individually matched controls at basic | 25 | 97 |
Autism. language tasks involving vocabulary and spelling. Both autistic groups performed worse than controls at complex language tasks such as figurative language, comprehension and inference. As people are often sized up initially from their basic language skills, these studies suggest that people speaking to autistic individuals are more likely to overestimate what their audience comprehends. Section:Characteristics.:Repetitive behavior. Autistic individuals can display many forms of repetitive or restricted behavior, which the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R) categorizes as follows. No single repetitive or self-injurious behavior seems to be specific to autism, but autism appears to have an elevated pattern of occurrence and severity | 25 | 98 |
Autism. of these behaviors. Section:Characteristics.:Other symptoms. Autistic individuals may have symptoms that are independent of the diagnosis, but that can affect the individual or the family. An estimated 0.5% to 10% of individuals with ASD show unusual abilities, ranging from splinter skills such as the memorization of trivia to the extraordinarily rare talents of prodigious autistic savants. Many individuals with ASD show superior skills in perception and attention, relative to the general population. Sensory abnormalities are found in over 90% of those with autism, and are considered core features by some, although there is no good evidence that sensory symptoms differentiate | 25 | 99 |