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Marfan syndrome

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is a multi-systemic genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue. Those with the condition tend to be tall and thin, with long arms, legs, fingers, and toes. They also typically have exceptionally flexible joints and abnormally curved spines. The most serious complications involve the heart and aorta, with an increased risk of mitral valve prolapse and aortic aneurysm. The lungs, eyes, bones, and the covering of the spinal cord are also commonly affected. The severity of the symptoms is variable.

MFS is caused by a mutation in FBN1, one of the genes that make fibrillin, which results in abnormal connective tissue. It is an autosomal dominant disorder. In about 75% of cases, it is inherited from a parent with the condition, while in about 25% it is a new mutation. Diagnosis is often based on the Ghent criteria, family history and genetic testing (DNA analysis).

There is no known cure for MFS. Many of those with the disorder have a normal life expectancy with proper treatment. Management often includes the use of beta blockers such as propranolol or atenolol or, if they are not tolerated, calcium channel blockers or ACE inhibitors. Surgery may be required to repair the aorta or replace a heart valve. Avoiding strenuous exercise is recommended for those with the condition.

About 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 10,000 people have MFS. Rates of the condition are similar in different regions of the world. It is named after French pediatrician Antoine Marfan, who first described it in 1896.

Signs and symptoms

More than 30 signs and symptoms are variably associated with Marfan syndrome. The most prominent of these affect the skeletal, cardiovascular, and ocular systems, but all fibrous connective tissue throughout the body can be affected.

Skeletal system
Most of the readily visible signs are associated with the skeletal system. Many people with Marfan syndrome grow to above-average height, and some have disproportionately long, slender limbs with thin, weak wrists and long fingers and toes.

The Steinberg sign, also known as the thumb sign, is one of the clinical examination tests for Marfan disease in the hands. It is a clinical test in which the tip of the thumb extends beyond the palm when the thumb is clasped in the clenched hand.

Besides affecting height and limb proportions, people with Marfan syndrome may have abnormal lateral curvature of the spine scoliosis, thoracic lordosis, abnormal indentation (pectus excavatum) or protrusion (pectus carinatum) of the sternum, abnormal joint flexibility, a high-arched palate with crowded teeth and an overbite, flat feet, hammer toes, stooped shoulders, and unexplained stretch marks on the skin. It can also cause pain in the joints, bones, and muscles. Some people with Marfan have speech disorders resulting from symptomatic high palates and small jaws. Early osteoarthritis may occur. Other signs include limited range of motion in the hips due to the femoral head protruding into abnormally deep hip sockets.

Eyes
In Marfan syndrome, the health of the eye can be affected in many ways, but the principal change is partial lens dislocation, where the lens is shifted out of its normal position. This occurs because of weakness in the ciliary zonules, the connective tissue strands which suspend the lens within the eye. The mutations responsible for Marfan syndrome weaken the zonules and cause them to stretch. The inferior zonules are most frequently stretched resulting in the lens shifting upwards and outwards, but it can shift in other directions as well. Nearsightedness (myopia), and blurred vision are common due to connective tissue defects in the eye. Farsightedness can also result particularly if the lens is highly subluxated. Subluxation (partial dislocation) of the lens can be detected clinically in about 60% of people with Marfan syndrome by the use of a slit-lamp biomicroscope. If the lens subluxation is subtle, then imaging with high-resolution ultrasound biomicroscopy might be used.

Other signs and symptoms affecting the eye include increased length along an axis of the globe, myopia, corneal flatness, strabismus, exotropia, and esotropia. Those with MFS are also at a high risk for early glaucoma and early cataracts.

Cardiovascular system
The most serious signs and symptoms associated with Marfan syndrome involve the cardiovascular system: undue fatigue, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, racing heartbeats, or chest pain radiating to the back, shoulder, or arm. Cold arms, hands, and feet can also be linked to MFS because of inadequate circulation. A heart murmur, abnormal reading on an ECG, or symptoms of angina can indicate further investigation. The signs of regurgitation from prolapse of the mitral or aortic valves (which control the flow of blood through the heart) result from cystic medial degeneration of the valves, which is commonly associated with MFS (see mitral valve prolapse, aortic regurgitation). However, the major sign that would lead a doctor to consider an underlying condition is a dilated aorta or an aortic aneurysm. Sometimes, no heart problems are apparent until the weakening of the connective tissue (cystic medial degeneration) in the ascending aorta causes an aortic aneurysm or aortic dissection, a surgical emergency. An aortic dissection is most often fatal and presents with pain radiating down the back, giving a tearing sensation.

Because underlying connective tissue abnormalities cause MFS, the incidence of dehiscence of prosthetic mitral valve is increased. Care should be taken to attempt repair of damaged heart valves rather than replacement.

Lungs
Individuals with Marfan syndrome may be affected by various lung-related problems. One study found that only 37% of the patient sample studied (mean age 32±14 years; M 45%) had normal lung function. Spontaneous pneumothorax is common. In spontaneous unilateral pneumothorax, air escapes from a lung and occupies the pleural space between the chest wall and a lung. The lung becomes partially compressed or collapsed. This can cause pain, shortness of breath, cyanosis, and, if not treated, death. Other possible pulmonary manifestations of MFS include sleep apnea and idiopathic obstructive lung disease. Pathologic changes in the lungs have been described such as cystic changes, emphysema, pneumonia, bronchiectasis, bullae, apical fibrosis and congenital malformations such as middle lobe hypoplasia.

Nervous system
Dural ectasia, the weakening of the connective tissue of the dural sac encasing the spinal cord, can result in a loss of quality of life. It can be present for a long time without producing any noticeable symptoms. Symptoms that can occur are lower back pain, leg pain, abdominal pain, other neurological symptoms in the lower extremities, or headaches –symptoms which usually diminish when lying flat. On X-ray, however, dural ectasia is not often visible in the early stages. A worsening of symptoms might warrant an MRI of the lower spine. Dural ectasia that has progressed to this stage would appear in an MRI as a dilated pouch wearing away at the lumbar vertebrae. Other spinal issues associated with MFS include degenerative disc disease, spinal cysts, and dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system.

Genetics
Each parent with the condition has a 50% risk of passing the genetic defect on to any child due to its autosomal dominant nature. Most individuals with MFS have another affected family member. About 75% of cases are inherited. On the other hand, about 15–30% of all cases are due to de novo genetic mutations; such spontaneous mutations occur in about one in 20,000 births. Marfan syndrome is also an example of dominant negative mutation and haploinsufficiency. It is associated with variable expressivity; complete penetrance has been definitively documented.

Pathogenesis
Marfan syndrome is caused by mutations in the FBN1 gene on chromosome 15, which encodes fibrillin 1, a glycoprotein component of the extracellular matrix. Fibrillin-1 is essential for the proper formation of the extracellular matrix, including the biogenesis and maintenance of elastic fibers. The extracellular matrix is critical for both the structural integrity of connective tissue, but also serves as a reservoir for growth factors. Elastic fibers are found throughout the body, but are particularly abundant in the aorta, ligaments and the ciliary zonules of the eye; consequently, these areas are among the worst affected.

A transgenic mouse has been created carrying a single copy of a mutant fibrillin-1, a mutation similar to that found in the human gene known to cause MFS. This mouse strain recapitulates many of the features of the human disease and promises to provide insights into the pathogenesis of the disease. Reducing the level of normal fibrillin 1 causes a Marfan-related disease in mice.

Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) plays an important role in MFS. Fibrillin-1 directly binds a latent form of TGF-β, keeping it sequestered and unable to exert its biological activity. The simplest model suggests reduced levels of fibrillin-1 allow TGF-β levels to rise due to inadequate sequestration. Although how elevated TGF-β levels are responsible for the specific pathology seen with the disease is not proven, an inflammatory reaction releasing proteases that slowly degrade the elastic fibers and other components of the extracellular matrix is known to occur. The importance of the TGF-β pathway was confirmed with the discovery of the similar Loeys–Dietz syndrome involving the TGFβR2 gene on chromosome 3, a receptor protein of TGF-β. Marfan syndrome has often been confused with Loeys–Dietz syndrome, because of the considerable clinical overlap between the two pathologies.

Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome
Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome (MPL), also referred to as Marfan lipodystrophy syndrome (MFLS), is a variant of MFS in which Marfan symptoms are accompanied by features usually associated with neonatal progeroid syndrome (also referred to as Wiedemann–Rautenstrauch syndrome) in which the levels of white adipose tissue are reduced. Since 2010, evidence has been accumulating that MPL is caused by mutations near the 3'-terminus of the FBN1 gene. It has been shown that these people are also deficient in asprosin, a gluco-regulatory protein hormone which is the C-terminal cleavage product of profibrillin. The levels of asprosin seen in these people were lower than expected for a heterozygous genotype, consistent with a dominant negative effect.

Diagnosis

Diagnostic criteria of MFS were agreed upon internationally in 1996. However, Marfan syndrome is often difficult to diagnose in children, as they typically do not show symptoms until reaching pubescence. A diagnosis is based on family history and a combination of major and minor indicators of the disorder, rare in the general population, that occur in one individual –for example: four skeletal signs with one or more signs in another body system such as ocular and cardiovascular in one individual. The following conditions may result from MFS, but may also occur in people without any known underlying disorder.

 * Aortic aneurysm or dilation
 * Arachnodactyly
 * GERD
 * Bicuspid aortic valve
 * Cysts
 * Cystic medial necrosis
 * Degenerative disc disease
 * Deviated septum
 * Dural ectasia
 * Early cataracts
 * Early glaucoma
 * Early osteoarthritis
 * Ectopia lentis
 * Emphysema
 * Iris coloboma
 * Above-average height
 * Heart palpitations
 * Hernias
 * High-arched palate
 * Hypermobility of the joints
 * Kyphosis (hunched back)
 * Leaky heart valve
 * Malocclusion
 * Micrognathia (small lower jaw)
 * Mitral valve prolapse
 * Myopia (nearsightedness)
 * Obstructive lung disease
 * Osteopenia (low bone density)
 * Pectus carinatum or excavatum
 * Pes planus (flat feet)
 * Pneumothorax (collapsed lung)
 * Retinal detachment
 * Scoliosis
 * Sleep apnea
 * Stretch marks not from pregnancy or obesity
 * Teeth crowded
 * "Narrow, thin face"
 * Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMD)

Revised Ghent nosology
In 2010, the Ghent nosology was revised, and new diagnostic criteria superseded the previous agreement made in 1996. The seven new criteria can lead to a diagnosis:

In the absence of a family history of MFS:

 * 1) Aortic root Z-score ≥ 2 AND ectopia lentis
 * 2) Aortic root Z-score ≥ 2 AND an FBN1 mutation
 * 3) Aortic root Z-score ≥ 2 AND a systemic score* > 7 points
 * 4) Ectopia lentis AND an FBN1 mutation with known aortic pathology

In the presence of a family history of MFS (as defined above):
 * 1) Ectopia lentis
 * 2) Systemic score* ≥ 7
 * 3) Aortic root Z-score ≥ 2
 * Points for systemic score:
 * Wrist AND thumb sign = 3 (wrist OR thumb sign = 1)
 * Pectus carinatum deformity = 2 (pectus excavatum or chest asymmetry = 1)
 * Hindfoot deformity = 2 (plain pes planus = 1)
 * Dural ectasia = 2
 * Protrusio acetabuli = 2
 * pneumothorax = 2
 * Reduced upper segment/lower segment ratio AND increased arm/height AND no severe scoliosis = 1
 * Scoliosis or thoracolumbar kyphosis = 1
 * Reduced elbow extension = 1
 * Facial features (3/5) = 1 (dolichocephaly, enophthalmos, downslanting palpebral fissures, malar hypoplasia, retrognathia)
 * Skin striae (stretch marks) = 1
 * Myopia > 3 diopters = 1
 * Mitral valve prolapse = 1

The thumb sign (Steinberg's sign) is elicited by asking the person to flex the thumb as far as possible and then close the fingers over it. A positive thumb sign is where the entire distal phalanx is visible beyond the ulnar border of the hand, caused by a combination of hypermobility of the thumb as well as a thumb which is longer than usual.

The wrist sign (Walker-Murdoch sign) is elicited by asking the person to curl the thumb and fingers of one hand around the other wrist. A positive wrist sign is where the little finger and the thumb overlap, caused by a combination of thin wrists and long fingers.

Differential diagnosis
Many other disorders can produce the same type of body characteristics as Marfan syndrome. Genetic testing and evaluating other signs and symptoms can help to differentiate these. The following are some of the disorders that can manifest as "marfanoid":
 * Congenital contractural arachnodactyly, also known as Beals-Hecht syndrome
 * Ehlers–Danlos syndrome
 * Homocystinuria
 * Loeys–Dietz syndrome
 * MASS phenotype
 * Multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 2B
 * Shprintzen–Goldberg syndrome
 * Stickler syndrome

Management
There is no cure for Marfan syndrome, but life expectancy has increased significantly over the last few decades and is now similar to that of the average person.

Regular checkups are recommended to monitor the health of the heart valves and the aorta. Marfan syndrome is treated by addressing each issue as it arises and, in particular, preventive medication even for young children to slow progression of aortic dilation. The goal of this treatment strategy is to slow the progression of aortic dilation and prevent any damage to heart valves by eliminating heart arrythmias, minimizing the heart rate, and lowering the person's blood pressure.

Physical activity
The American Heart Association made the following recommendations for people with Marfan syndrome with no or mild aortic dilation:
 * Probably permissible activities: bowling, golf, skating (but not ice hockey), snorkeling, brisk walking, treadmill, stationary biking, modest hiking, and tennis (doubles and singles).
 * Intermediate risk: basketball (both full- and half-court), racquetball, squash, running (sprinting and jogging), skiing (downhill and cross-country), soccer, touch (flag) football, baseball, softball, biking, lap swimming, motorcycling, and horseback riding.
 * High risk: bodybuilding, weightlifting (non-free and free weights), ice hockey, rock climbing, windsurfing, surfing, and scuba diving.

Medication
Management often includes the use of beta blockers such as propranolol or if not tolerated calcium channel blockers or ACE inhibitors. Beta blockers are used to reduce the stress exerted on the aorta and to decrease aortic dilation.

Surgery
If the dilation of the aorta progresses to a significant-diameter aneurysm, causes a dissection or a rupture, or leads to failure of the aortic or other valve, then surgery (possibly a composite aortic valve graft or valve-sparing aortic root replacement) becomes necessary. Although aortic graft surgery (or any vascular surgery) is a serious undertaking it is generally successful if undertaken on an elective basis. Surgery in the setting of acute aortic dissection or rupture is considerably more problematic. Elective aortic valve/graft surgery is usually considered when aortic root diameter reaches 50 mm, but each case needs to be specifically evaluated by a qualified cardiologist. New valve-sparing surgical techniques are becoming more common. As people with Marfan syndrome live longer, other vascular repairs are becoming more common, e.g., repairs of descending thoracic aortic aneurysms and aneurysms of vessels other than the aorta.

The skeletal and ocular manifestations of Marfan syndrome can also be serious, although not life-threatening. These symptoms are usually treated in an appropriate manner for the condition, such as with pain medications or muscle relaxants. Because Marfan syndrome may cause asymptomatic spinal abnormalities, any spinal surgery contemplated on a person Marfan should only follow detailed imaging and careful surgical planning, regardless of the indication for surgery. The ocular complications of MFS can often be treated with surgery. Ectopia lentis can be treated, as artificial lenses can be surgically implanted. In addition, surgery can address glaucoma and cataracts.

Treatment of a spontaneous pneumothorax is dependent on the volume of air in the pleural space and the natural progression of the individual's condition. A small pneumothorax might resolve without active treatment in one to two weeks. Recurrent pneumothoraces might require chest surgery. Moderately sized pneumothoraces might need chest drain management for several days in a hospital. Large pneumothoraces are likely to be medical emergencies requiring emergency decompression.

As an alternative approach, custom-built supports for the aortic root are also being used. As of 2020 this procedure has been used in over 300 people with the first case occurring in 2004.

Pregnancy
During pregnancy, even in the absence of preconception cardiovascular abnormality, women with Marfan syndrome are at significant risk of aortic dissection, which is often fatal even when rapidly treated. Women with Marfan syndrome, then, should receive a thorough assessment prior to conception, and echocardiography should be performed every six to 10 weeks during pregnancy, to assess the aortic root diameter. For most women, safe vaginal delivery is possible.

Prenatal testing can be performed in females with Marfan syndrome to determine if the condition has been inherited in their child. At 10 to 12 weeks of pregnancy, examining a piece of placental tissue through a test called chorionic villus sampling can be performed to make a diagnosis. Another prenatal test can be performed called amniocentesis at 16 to 18 weeks of pregnancy.

Marfan syndrome is expressed dominantly. This means a child with one parent a bearer of the gene has a 50% probability of getting the syndrome. In 1996, the first preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) therapy for Marfan was conducted; in essence PGT means conducting a genetic test on early-stage IVF embryo cells and discarding those embryos affected by the Marfan mutation.

Prognosis
Prior to modern cardiovascular surgical techniques and medications such as losartan, and metoprolol, the prognosis of those with Marfan syndrome was not good: a range of untreatable cardiovascular issues was common. Lifespan was reduced by at least a third, and many died in their teens and twenties due to cardiovascular problems. Today, cardiovascular symptoms of Marfan syndrome are still the most significant issues in diagnosis and management of the disease, but adequate prophylactic monitoring and prophylactic therapy offers something approaching a normal lifespan, and more manifestations of the disease are being discovered as more patients live longer. Women with Marfan syndrome live longer than men.

Epidemiology
Marfan syndrome affects males and females equally, and the mutation shows no ethnic or geographical bias. Estimates indicate about 1 in 5,000 to 10,000 individuals have Marfan syndrome.

History
Marfan syndrome is named after Antoine Marfan, the French pediatrician who first described the condition in 1896 after noticing striking features in a five-year-old girl. The gene linked to the disease was first identified by Francesco Ramirez at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City in 1991.

Famous patients
Notable people who have or had Marfan syndrome include:
 * Isaiah Austin
 * Javier Botet
 * Austin Carlile
 * Bradford Cox
 * Euell Gibbons
 * Emmanuel Giroux
 * Flo Hyman
 * Jonathan Jeanne
 * Vincent Schiavelli
 * Troye Sivan
 * John Tavener
 * Peter Mayhew

Other historical figures and celebrities have appeared on lists of people with Marfan syndrome, but from case to case the evidence is speculative, questionable, or even refuted.

 * Akhenaten (Artistic depictions show many physical characteristics of people with Marfan, such as elongated skull and larger pelvis with enlarged thighs and spindly calves. Most Egyptologists as of 2021 argue that Akhenaten's portrayals are not the results of a genetic or medical condition, but rather should be interpreted as stylized portrayals influenced by Atenism.)
 * Osama bin Laden (Marfan rumors deemed "likely false" by journalists )
 * Julius Caesar (speculative)
 * Robert Johnson (speculative )
 * Jonathan Larson (speculative)
 * Abraham Lincoln (disputed speculative diagnosis based on his physical characteristics and family history )
 * Niccolò Paganini (speculative )
 * Michael Phelps (disputed by Phelps )
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff  (disputed: "Rachmaninov did not clearly exhibit any of the other clinical characteristics typical of Marfan's. . . . Nor did he express any of the clinical effects of a Marfan-related syndrome" )
 * Joey Ramone (speculative )
 * Tutankhamen (did not have Marfan Syndrome  )

title: Marfan syndrome


text:
Talk:Ecoregion

Attribution
Rather than attributing the 867 smaller regions generally to the science of ecology, tell us the name of a scientist or organization which specified that number.

The 8 major regions, however, might be a generally accepted division. User:Ed Poor, 22 March 2002

 * Thus the main organization is under ecozone now. But the 867 are not challenged, so it's time to consider a standard way of indicating which ecoregion a plant or animal species is found in, since exact borders shift but ecoregion in which each is found is stable.  See Ecoregion_DTD. -- 7 February 2003, —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 142.177.75.53 (talk • contribs).

 * I think they're both the product of very wide consultation on the issue. National Geographic Society, World Wildlife Fund, published the map... and I think they are the recognized top dog authority on this.

 * Really? I'd question they were even players. I think Ecoregion is a buzzword. I find the definitions given here real weak. Is there any literature on this topic? - Marshman 05:57, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * I thought I had a link there to the map... -- 22 March 2002, —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.150.61.63 (talk • contribs).

 * Glad to see attribution of views, 24. User:Ed Poor, 22 March 2002

 * Yes. He or she is definitely working their way towards NPOV. Progress! The Anome, 22 March 2002

Greens
Greens hate progress. ;-)

And maybe everyone hates Greens because we shove all this complexity in their face...?

You know, some of this stuff is fiendishly interconnected, like ecology itself.

For instance it's not obvious that a watershed commons like the Great Lakes Commission is ecoregional unless you read the WWF definition quite carefully. And it's not obvious it's a democracy but not a state unless you think about it... since the term "democracy" refers to principle and process not any political structure in particular.

So, I am starting to understand why these things ran into resistance at first, although they seem obvious to me, guess I've been doing it too long... -- 22 March 2002, —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.150.61.63 (talk • contribs).

Problem
New problem:

Someone is editing "Nearctic" back to the old definition obsoleted by the new map. Some zones drastically expanded, some drastically shrunk, so pepole who don't know the new map are going to be stomping all over the accurate new definitions... grrr... how do I request that someone look at a given entry? -- 22 March 2002, —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.150.61.63 (talk • contribs).

 * Write on their talk page. Welcome to the minarchist information ecology. The Anome

 * Done. Minarchy is fine.  Social means are best for governance while they are not too high overhead.

 * I despise the term "ecology" abused to refer to non-body stuff, though - that is one meme I would like to kill. It's a science that happens to also be the universal metaphor (if you're a Green) or sacred (if you're a Gaian) so it's quite easy to describe anything as an "ecology" - implying it's all just as valuable as real living natural ecology.

 * Which it ain't. -- 22 March 2002, —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.150.61.63 (talk • contribs).

WWF
The partner of the WWF on that matter seem to have changed (it was before the National Geographic). According to it is now funded by German's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Anthere 07:15, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

I suspect the map currently indicating WWF ecoregions is out of date. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.227.31.76 (talk) 19:13, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Merge discussion
It is suggested that all relevant material from Freshwater ecoregion be merged to this article, and then Freshwater ecoregion be redirected to this article. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihon joe 00:09, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Makes sense to me. The WWF defines terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecoregions. No need for each to have its own page; they are all ecoregions. (By the way, should Marine ecoregion also be merged then?) Pfly 03:47, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Unless it's large enough for its own article. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihon joe 04:31, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

 * agree merge, also Marine ecoregion all of which is in Global 200 and subsidiary pages. Abtract 10:36, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

This article needs to have the Omernik and Bailey maps incorporated and displayed.
These are basic maps. Someone should find them and include them   Avram Primack (talk) 17:45, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Other classification systems
Not that I don't like the WWF's delineation of the ecoregions, but are there any other ecoregion classification systems in use out there? If there are any significant others, maybe we should mention them as well. Bengrin85 (talk) 01:56, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

 * Yes. I've recently created these articles.

 * List of ecoregions in North America (CEC)
 * List of ecoregions in the United States (EPA)
 * List of ecoregions in Oregon
 * Coast Range (ecoregion)
 * Willamette Valley (ecoregion)
 * Cascades (ecoregion)
 * Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills (ecoregion)
 * Columbia Plateau (ecoregion)
 * Blue Mountains (ecoregion)
 * Snake River Plain (ecoregion)
 * Klamath Mountains (ecoregion)
 * Northern Basin and Range (ecoregion)

 * There are another 120 or so North American ecoregion articles that could be created following this structure. I've just started with the Oregon ones because that's my particular interest. The EPA classification is now the standard in the United States. Notes on the series are at User:Northwesterner1/notes. I've tried to structure these new articles cleanly, but I haven't gone through to clean up the WWF articles yet or to clean up general ecoregion articles like this one. Anyone who wants to help out, I'd love to see what you do with it. Northwesterner1 (talk) 03:03, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

New Section Suggestion: Threats and Protection of Bioregions
I noticed that there is no mention of the threatened status of many bioregions around the world, nor the efforts to protect these regions from further damage. Although this topic is huge, I think its important briefly talk about the basic issues and the efforts to monitor, remediate, and protect bioregions by adding a section called "threats and protection" (or some title of similar nature) that can briefly describe some of the current threats (giving a few examples) and the political efforts around the world to protect entire bioregions (giving a few examples) and mentioning the role that biologists and groups such as the WWF to categorise different bioregions for the purpose of conservation and monitoring. Any comments, objections, criticisms? Nnoell (talk) 21:13, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Ecozone Definition?
This article uses ecoregion and ecozone interchangeably, defined as an area smaller than a bioregion and biogeographic realm. However, in the biogeographic realm article it also interchangeably uses ecozone with biogeographic realm, defined as the broadest biogeographic division. In other sources it seems that the term is interchangeable with biogeographic realm. Does this article require a correction or am I missing something? RVK87 (talk) 06:35, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Ecoregion


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Utility

In economics, utility is a measure of the satisfaction that a certain person has from a certain state of the world. Over time, the term has been used in at least two different meanings.

The relationship between these two kinds of utility functions is highly controversial among both economists and ethicists.
 * In a normative context, utility refers to a goal or objective that we wish to maximize, i.e. an objective function. This kind of utility bears a closer resemblance to the original utilitarian concept, developed by moral philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
 * In a descriptive context, the term refers to an apparent objective function; such a function is revealed by a person's behavior, and especially by their preferences over lotteries.

Utility function
Consider a set of alternatives among which a person has a preference ordering. A utility function represents that ordering if it is possible to assign a real number to each alternative in such a manner that alternative a is assigned a number greater than alternative b if and only if the individual prefers alternative a to alternative b. In this situation someone who selects the most preferred alternative is necessarily also selecting the alternative that maximizes the associated utility function.

Suppose James has utility function $$U = \sqrt{xy}$$ such that $$x$$ is the number of apples and $$y$$ is the number of chocolates. Alternative A has $$x = 9$$ apples and $$y = 16$$ chocolates; alternative B has $$x = 13$$ apples and $$y = 13$$ chocolates. Putting the values $$x, y$$ into the utility function yields $$\sqrt{9 \times 16} = 12$$ for alternative A and $$\sqrt{13 \times 13} = 13$$ for B, so James prefers alternative B. In general economic terms, a utility function ranks preferences concerning a set of goods and services.

Gérard Debreu derived the conditions required for a preference ordering to be representable by a utility function. For a finite set of alternatives, these require only that the preference ordering is complete (so the individual is able to determine which of any two alternatives is preferred or that they are indifferent), and that the preference order is transitive.

If the set of alternatives is not finite (for example because even if the number of goods is finite, the quantity chosen can be any real number on an interval) there exists a continuous utility function representing a consumer's preferences if and only if the consumer's preferences are complete, transitive and continuous.

Applications
Utility can be represented through sets of indifference curve, which are level curves of the function itself, and which plot the combination of commodities that an individual would accept to maintain a given level of satisfaction. Combining indifference curves with budget constraints allows for derivation of individual demand curves.

A diagram of a general indifference curve is shown below (Figure 1). The vertical axes and the horizontal axes represent an individual's consumption of commodity Y and X respectively. All the combinations of commodity X and Y along the same indifference curve are regarded indifferently by individuals, which means all the combinations along an indifference curve result in the same value of utility. Individual utility and social utility can be construed as the value of a utility function and a social welfare function respectively. When coupled with production or commodity constraints, by some assumptions these functions can be used to analyze Pareto efficiency, such as illustrated by Edgeworth boxes in contract curves. Such efficiency is a major concept in welfare economics.

Preference
While preferences are the conventional foundation of choice theory in microeconomics, it is often convenient to represent preferences with a utility function. Let X be the consumption set, the set of all mutually-exclusive baskets the consumer could conceivably consume. The consumer's utility function $$ u\colon X\to \R$$ ranks each possible outcome in the consumption set. If the consumer strictly prefers x to y or is indifferent between them, then $$u(x)\geq u(y)$$.

For example, suppose a consumer's consumption set is X = {nothing, 1 apple,1 orange, 1 apple and 1 orange, 2 apples, 2 oranges}, and his utility function is u(nothing) = 0, u(1 apple) = 1, u(1 orange) = 2, u(1 apple and 1 orange) = 5, u(2 apples) = 2 and u(2 oranges) = 4. Then this consumer prefers 1 orange to 1 apple, but prefers one of each to 2 oranges.

In micro-economic models, there are usually a finite set of L commodities, and a consumer may consume an arbitrary amount of each commodity. This gives a consumption set of $$\R^L_+$$, and each package $$x \in \R^L_+$$ is a vector containing the amounts of each commodity. For the example, there are two commodities: apples and oranges. If we say apples is the first commodity, and oranges the second, then the consumption set is $$X =\R^2_+$$ and u(0, 0) = 0, u(1, 0) = 1, u(0, 1) = 2, u(1, 1) = 5, u(2, 0) = 2, u(0, 2) = 4 as before. For u to be a utility function on X, however, it must be defined for every package in X, so now the function needs to be defined for fractional apples and oranges too. One function that would fit these numbers is $$ u(x_{apples}, x_{oranges}) = x_{apples} + 2 x_{oranges} + 2x_{apples} x_{oranges}. $$

Preferences have three main properties:

 * Completeness

Assume an individual has two choices, A and B. By ranking the two choices, one and only one of the following relationships is true: an individual strictly prefers A (A>B); an individual strictly prefers B (B>A); an individual is indifferent between A and B (A=B). Either a ≥ b OR b ≥ a (OR both) for all (a,b)

 * Transitivity

Individuals' preferences are consistent over bundles. If an individual prefers bundle A to bundle B, and prefers bundle B to bundle C, then it can be assumed that the individual prefers bundle A to bundle C. (If a ≥ b and b ≥ c, then a ≥ c for all (a,b,c)).

If a bundle A contains all the goods that a bundle B contains, but A also contains more of at least one good than B, then the individual prefers A over B. If, for example, bundle A={1 apple,2 oranges}, and bundle B={1 apple,1 orange}, then A is preferred over B.
 * Non-Satiation or Monotonicity

Revealed preference
It was recognized that utility could not be measured or observed directly, so instead economists devised a way to infer relative utilities from observed choice. These 'revealed preferences', as termed by Paul Samuelson, were revealed e.g. in people's willingness to pay: Utility is assumed to be correlative to Desire or Want. It has been argued already that desires cannot be measured directly, but only indirectly, by the outward phenomena which they cause: and that in those cases with which economics is mainly concerned the measure is found by the price which a person is willing to pay for the fulfillment or satisfaction of his desire.

Utility functions, expressing utility as a function of the amounts of the various goods consumed, are treated as either cardinal or ordinal, depending on whether they are or are not interpreted as providing more information than simply the rank ordering of preferences among bundles of goods, such as information concerning the strength of preferences.

Cardinal
Cardinal utility states that the utilities obtained from consumption can be measured and ranked objectively and are representable by numbers. There are fundamental assumptions of cardinal utility. Economic agents should be able to rank different bundles of goods based on their own preferences or utilities, and also sort different transitions of two bundles of goods.

A cardinal utility function can be transformed to another utility function by a positive linear transformation (multiplying by a positive number, and adding some other number); however, both utility functions represent the same preferences.

When cardinal utility is assumed, the magnitude of utility differences is treated as an ethically or behaviorally significant quantity. For example, suppose a cup of orange juice has utility of 120 "utils", a cup of tea has a utility of 80 utils, and a cup of water has a utility of 40 utils. With cardinal utility, it can be concluded that the cup of orange juice is better than the cup of tea by exactly the same amount by which the cup of tea is better than the cup of water. Formally, this means that if a person has a cup of tea, he or she would be willing to take any bet with a probability, p, greater than .5 of getting a cup of juice, with a risk of getting a cup of water equal to 1-p. One cannot conclude, however, that the cup of tea is two thirds of the goodness of the cup of juice, because this conclusion would depend not only on magnitudes of utility differences, but also on the "zero" of utility. For example, if the "zero" of utility was located at -40, then a cup of orange juice would be 160 utils more than zero, a cup of tea 120 utils more than zero. Cardinal utility can be considered as the assumption that utility can be measured by quantifiable characteristics, such as height, weight, temperature, etc.

Neoclassical economics has largely retreated from using cardinal utility functions as the basis of economic behavior. A notable exception is in the context of analyzing choice with conditions of risk (see below).

Sometimes cardinal utility is used to aggregate utilities across persons, to create a social welfare function.

Ordinal
Instead of giving actual numbers over different bundles, ordinal utilities are only the rankings of utilities received from different bundles of goods or services. For example, ordinal utility could tell that having two ice creams provide a greater utility to individuals in comparison to one ice cream but could not tell exactly how much extra utility received by the individual. Ordinal utility, it does not require individuals to specify how much extra utility he or she received from the preferred bundle of goods or services in comparison to other bundles. They are only required to tell which bundles they prefer.

When ordinal utilities are used, differences in utils (values assumed by the utility function) are treated as ethically or behaviorally meaningless: the utility index encodes a full behavioral ordering between members of a choice set, but tells nothing about the related strength of preferences. For the above example, it would only be possible to say that juice is preferred to tea to water. Thus, ordinal utility utilizes comparisons, such as "preferred to", "no more", "less than", etc.

If a function $$u(x)$$ is ordinal and non-negative, it is equivalent to the function $$u(x)^2$$, because taking the square is an increasing monotone (or monotonic) transformation. This means that the ordinal preference induced by these functions is the same (although they are two different functions). In contrast, if $$u(x)$$ is cardinal, it is not equivalent to $$u(x)^2$$.

Examples
In order to simplify calculations, various alternative assumptions have been made concerning details of human preferences, and these imply various alternative utility functions such as:

 * CES (constant elasticity of substitution).
 * Isoelastic utility
 * Exponential utility
 * Quasilinear utility
 * Homothetic preferences
 * Stone–Geary utility function
 * Gorman polar form
 * Greenwood–Hercowitz–Huffman preferences
 * King–Plosser–Rebelo preferences
 * Hyperbolic absolute risk aversion

Most utility functions used for modeling or theory are well-behaved. They are usually monotonic and quasi-concave. However, it is possible for rational preferences not to be representable by a utility function. An example is lexicographic preferences which are not continuous and cannot be represented by a continuous utility function.

Marginal utility
Economists distinguish between total utility and marginal utility. Total utility is the utility of an alternative, an entire consumption bundle or situation in life. The rate of change of utility from changing the quantity of one good consumed is termed the marginal utility of that good. Marginal utility therefore measures the slope of the utility function with respect to the changes of one good. Marginal utility usually decreases with consumption of the good, the idea of "diminishing marginal utility". In calculus notation, the marginal utility of good X is $$MU_x=\frac{\partial U}{\partial X}$$. When a good's marginal utility is positive, additional consumption of it increases utility; if zero, the consumer is satiated and indifferent about consuming more; if negative, the consumer would pay to reduce his consumption.

Law of diminishing marginal utility
Rational individuals only consume additional units of goods if it increases the marginal utility. However, the law of diminishing marginal utility means an additional unit consumed brings a lower marginal utility than that brought by the previous unit consumed. For example, drinking one bottle of water makes a thirsty person satisfied; as the consumption of water increases, he may feel begin to feel bad which causes the marginal utility to decrease to zero or even become negative. Furthermore, this is also used to analyze progressive taxes as the greater taxes can result in the loss of utility.

Marginal rate of substitution (MRS)
Marginal rate of substitution is the slope of the indifference curve, which measures how much an individual is willing to switch from one good to another. Using a mathematic equation, $$MRS=-\operatorname{d}\!x_2/\operatorname{d}\!x_1$$keeping U (x1,x2) constant. Thus, MRS is how much an individual is willing to pay for consuming a greater amount of x1.

MRS is related to marginal utility. The relationship between marginal utility and MRS is:

$$MRS=\frac{MU_1}{MU_2}$$

Expected utility
Expected utility theory deals with the analysis of choices among risky projects with multiple (possibly multidimensional) outcomes.

The St. Petersburg paradox was first proposed by Nicholas Bernoulli in 1713 and solved by Daniel Bernoulli in 1738. D. Bernoulli argued that the paradox could be resolved if decision-makers displayed risk aversion and argued for a logarithmic cardinal utility function. (Analysis of international survey data during the 21st century has shown that insofar as utility represents happiness, as for utilitarianism, it is indeed proportional to log of income.)

The first important use of the expected utility theory was that of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, who used the assumption of expected utility maximization in their formulation of game theory.

In finding the probability-weighted average of the utility from each possible outcome:

 * $$\text{EU} = \Pr(z) \cdot u(\text{Value}(z)) + \Pr(y) \cdot u(\text{Value}(y))$$

Von Neumann–Morgenstern
Von Neumann and Morgenstern addressed situations in which the outcomes of choices are not known with certainty, but have probabilities associated with them.

A notation for a lottery is as follows: if options A and B have probability p and 1 − p in the lottery, we write it as a linear combination:

L = p A + (1-p) B $$

More generally, for a lottery with many possible options:

L = \sum_i p_i A_i, $$

where $$\sum_i p_i =1$$.

By making some reasonable assumptions about the way choices behave, von Neumann and Morgenstern showed that if an agent can choose between the lotteries, then this agent has a utility function such that the desirability of an arbitrary lottery can be computed as a linear combination of the utilities of its parts, with the weights being their probabilities of occurring.

This is termed the expected utility theorem. The required assumptions are four axioms about the properties of the agent's preference relation over 'simple lotteries', which are lotteries with just two options. Writing $$B\preceq A$$ to mean 'A is weakly preferred to B' ('A is preferred at least as much as B'), the axioms are:

 * 1) completeness: For any two simple lotteries $$L$$ and $$M$$, either $$L\preceq M$$ or $$M\preceq L$$ (or both, in which case they are viewed as equally desirable).
 * 2) transitivity: for any three lotteries $$L,M,N$$, if $$L\preceq M$$ and $$M\preceq N$$, then $$L\preceq N$$.
 * 3) convexity/continuity (Archimedean property): If $$L \preceq M\preceq N$$, then there is a $$p$$ between 0 and 1 such that the lottery $$pL + (1-p)N$$ is equally desirable as $$M$$.
 * 4) independence: for any three lotteries $$L,M,N$$ and any probability p, $$L \preceq M$$ if and only if $$pL+(1-p)N \preceq pM+(1-p)N$$. Intuitively, if the lottery formed by the probabilistic combination of $$L$$ and $$N$$ is no more preferable than the lottery formed by the same probabilistic combination of $$M$$ and $$N,$$ then and only then $$L \preceq M$$.

Axioms 3 and 4 enable us to decide about the relative utilities of two assets or lotteries.

In more formal language: A von Neumann–Morgenstern utility function is a function from choices to the real numbers:
 * $$ u\colon X\to \R$$

which assigns a real number to every outcome in a way that represents the agent's preferences over simple lotteries. Using the four assumptions mentioned above, the agent will prefer a lottery $$L_2$$ to a lottery $$L_1$$ if and only if, for the utility function characterizing that agent, the expected utility of $$L_2$$ is greater than the expected utility of $$L_1$$:
 * $$L_1\preceq L_2 \text{ iff } u(L_1)\leq u(L_2)$$.

Of all the axioms, independence is the most often discarded. A variety of generalized expected utility theories have arisen, most of which omit or relax the independence axiom.

Indirect utility
An indirect utility function gives the optimal attainable value of a given utility function, which depends on the prices of the goods and the income or wealth level that the individual possesses.

Money
One use of the indirect utility concept is the notion of the utility of money. The (indirect) utility function for money is a nonlinear function that is bounded and asymmetric about the origin. The utility function is concave in the positive region, representing the phenomenon of diminishing marginal utility. The boundedness represents the fact that beyond a certain amount money ceases being useful at all, as the size of any economy at that time is itself bounded. The asymmetry about the origin represents the fact that gaining and losing money can have radically different implications both for individuals and businesses. The non-linearity of the utility function for money has profound implications in decision-making processes: in situations where outcomes of choices influence utility by gains or losses of money, which are the norm for most business settings, the optimal choice for a given decision depends on the possible outcomes of all other decisions in the same time-period.

Budget constraints
Individuals' consumptions are constrained by their budget allowance. The graph of budget line is a linear, downward-sloping line between X and Y axes. All the bundles of consumption under the budget line allow individuals to consume without using the whole budget as the total budget is greater than the total cost of bundles (Figure 2). If only considers prices and quantities of two goods in one bundle, a budget constraint could be formulated as $$p_1X_1+p_2X_2 =Y$$, where $$p_1$$ and $$p_2$$ are prices of the two goods, $$X_1$$ and $$X_2$$ are quantities of the two goods.

$$ \text{Slope} = \frac{-P(x)}{P(y)} $$

Constrained utility optimisation
Rational consumers wish to maximise their utility. However, as they have budget constraints, a change of price would affect the quantity of demand. There are two factors could explain this situation:

 * Purchasing Power. Individuals obtain greater purchasing power when the price of a good decreases. The reduction of the price allows individuals to increase their savings so they could afford to buy other products.
 * Substitution Effect. If the price of good A decreases, then the good becomes relatively cheaper with respect to its substitutes. Thus, individuals would consume more of good A as the utility would increase by doing so.

Discussion and criticism
Cambridge economist Joan Robinson famously criticized utility for being a circular concept: "Utility is the quality in commodities that makes individuals want to buy them, and the fact that individuals want to buy commodities shows that they have utility". Robinson also stated that because the theory assumes that preferences are fixed this means that utility is not a testable assumption. This is so because if we observe changes of peoples' behavior in relation to a change in prices or a change in budget constraint we can never be sure to what extent the change in behavior was due to the change of price or budget constraint and how much was due to a change of preference. This criticism is similar to that of the philosopher Hans Albert who argued that the ceteris paribus (all else equal) conditions on which the marginalist theory of demand rested rendered the theory itself a meaningless tautology, incapable of being tested experimentally. In essence, a curve of demand and supply (a theoretical line of quantity of a product which would have been offered or requested for given price) is purely ontological and could never have been demonstrated empirically.

Other questions of what arguments ought to be included in a utility function are difficult to answer, yet seem necessary to understanding utility. Whether people gain utility from coherence of wants, beliefs or a sense of duty is important to understanding their behavior in the utility organon. Likewise, choosing between alternatives is itself a process of determining what to consider as alternatives, a question of choice within uncertainty.

An evolutionary psychology theory is that utility may be better considered as due to preferences that maximized evolutionary fitness in the ancestral environment but not necessarily in the current one.

Measuring utility functions
There are many empirical works trying to estimate the form of utility functions of agents with respect to money.

title: Utility


text:
Soylent Green

Soylent Green is a 1973 American dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson in his final film role. It is loosely based on the 1966 science-fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, with a plot that combines elements of science fiction and a police procedural. The story follows a murder investigation in a dystopian future of dying oceans and year-round humidity caused by the greenhouse effect, with the resulting pollution, depleted resources, poverty, and overpopulation. In 1973, it won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.

Plot
By 2022, the cumulative effects of overpopulation, global warming, and pollution have caused ecocide, leading to severe worldwide shortages of food, water, and housing, bringing human civilization to the brink of collapse. New York City has a population of 40 million, and only the elite can afford spacious apartments, clean water, and natural food in walled-off communities patrolled by armed guards. Their homes are fortified, with moats, security systems, and bodyguards for their tenants. Usually, they include concubines (who are referred to as "furniture" and have no human rights and are passed from one apartment owner to the next). The majority poor live in squalor, haul water from communal spigots, and eat highly processed food wafers made by the Soylent Corporation — a large food processing firm. Their mainstay products, Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow are a staple food, and the latest product, a new, more nutritious, and flavorful wafer derived from plankton, Soylent Green, is introduced to the populace.

NYPD Detective Robert Thorn lives in a cramped apartment with his aged co-worker and friend Sol Roth, a brilliant former college professor and police researcher (referred to as a "Book"), who helps him with his cases. Thorn is called to investigate the murder of the wealthy and influential William R. Simonson, a member of the Soylent Corporation's board, which he suspects was an assassination. With the help of Simonson's concubine Shirl, his investigation leads to a priest whom Simonson had visited shortly before his death. Because of the sanctity of the confessional, the visibly exhausted priest can only hint to Thorn at the contents of the confession. Soon after, the priest is murdered in the confessional by Fielding, Simonson's former bodyguard. Under the direction of Governor Henry C. Santini, Thorn's superiors order him to end the investigation. Still, he continues, fearing losing his job if he files a false report. He soon becomes aware that an unknown stalker is following him. As Thorn tries to control a violent throng during a Soylent Green shortage riot, he is attacked by the assassin who killed Simonson. The killer shoots three times at Thorn but misses, accidentally striking several innocent bystanders in the crowd. Thorn manages to locate the killer and throw him to the ground. Then, the killer shoots Thorn in the leg before being crushed by the hydraulic shovel of a police riot-control vehicle which continually scoops up shovelfuls of people in the crowd and swivels to dump them for disposal.

In researching the case for Thorn, Roth brings two volumes of the Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015–2019, taken by Thorn from Simonson's apartment, to the team of other "Books" (former professors and judges turned researchers) at the "Supreme Exchange." The "Books" quickly conclude from the oceanographic reports that the oceans are dying and can not actually produce the plankton from which Soylent Green is allegedly made, thus revealing that the ingredients in Soylent Green are, in fact, human bodies. This information confirms to Roth that Simonson's murder was ordered by his fellow Soylent Corporation board members, who knew Simonson was increasingly troubled by this truth and feared he might disclose it to the public.

Roth is so shaken by the truth that he decides to "return to the home of God" and seeks assisted suicide at a government clinic. Thorn discovers this and rushes to stop him, but he arrives too late. Before dying, Roth whispers his discovery to Thorn, who is horrified. Thorn moves to uncover proof of crimes against humanity and to bring it to the attention of the Supreme Exchange so the case can be brought to the Council of Nations to take action.

Thorn secretly boards a waste truck transporting human bodies from the euthanasia center to a waste-disposal plant, where he witnesses human corpses instead being processed and turned into Soylent Green. Thorn is discovered, but he escapes. As he returns to the Supreme Exchange, he is ambushed by Fielding and his men. Finding refuge in the church where Simonson confessed, Thorn kills his attackers but is seriously wounded in a gunfight. As paramedics tend to Thorn, he urges his commanding officer, Chief Hatcher, to spread the truth. Thorn shouts to the surrounding crowd, "Soylent Green is people!"

Cast

 * Charlton Heston as Robert Thorn
 * Leigh Taylor-Young as Shirl
 * Chuck Connors as Tab Fielding
 * Brock Peters as Chief Hatcher
 * Paula Kelly as Martha Fielding
 * Edward G. Robinson as Solomon Roth
 * Stephen Young as Gilbert
 * Joseph Cotten as William R. Simonson
 * Mike Henry as Kulozik
 * Lincoln Kilpatrick as The Priest
 * Roy Jenson as Donovan
 * Leonard Stone as Charles
 * Whit Bissell as Governor Henry C. Santini
 * Celia Lovsky as the Exchange Leader
 * Dick Van Patten as Usher #1

Production
The screenplay was based on Harry Harrison's novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), which was set in the year 1999 with the theme of overpopulation and overuse of resources leading to increasing poverty, food shortages, and social disorder. Harrison was contractually denied control over the screenplay and was not told during negotiations that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was buying the film rights. He discussed the adaptation in Omni's Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies (1984), noting the "murder and chase sequences [and] the 'furniture' girls are not what the film is about – and are completely irrelevant" and answered his own question, "Am I pleased with the film? I would say 50 percent".

While the book refers to "soylent steaks" (made from soy and lentil), it makes no reference to "Soylent Green", the processed food rations depicted in the film. The book's title was not used for the movie on grounds that it might have confused audiences into thinking it was a big-screen version of Make Room for Daddy.

This was the 101st and final film in which Edward G. Robinson appeared; he died of bladder cancer on January 26, 1973, two months after the completion of filming. In his book The Actor's Life: Journal 1956–1976, Heston wrote, "He knew while we were shooting, though we did not, that he was terminally ill. He never missed an hour of work, nor was late to a call. He never was less than the consummate professional he had been all his life. I'm still haunted, though, by the knowledge that the very last scene he played in the picture, which he knew was the last day's acting he would ever do, was his death scene. I know why I was so overwhelmingly moved playing it with him". Robinson had previously worked with Heston in The Ten Commandments (1956) and the make-up tests for Planet of the Apes (1968).

The film's opening sequence, depicting America becoming more crowded with a series of archive photographs set to music, was created by filmmaker Charles Braverman. The "going home" score in Roth's death scene was conducted by Gerald Fried and consists of the main themes from Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique") by Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 ("Pastoral") by Beethoven and Peer Gynt ("Morning Mood" and "Åse's Death") by Edvard Grieg. A custom cabinet unit of the early arcade game Computer Space was used in Soylent Green and is considered the first appearance of a video game in a film.

Critical response
The film was released on April 19, 1973, and met with mixed reactions from critics. Time called it "intermittently interesting", noting that "Heston forsak[es] his granite stoicism for once" and asserting the film "will be most remembered for the last appearance of Edward G. Robinson.... In a rueful irony, his death scene, in which he is hygienically dispatched with the help of piped-in light classical music and movies of rich fields flashed before him on a towering screen, is the best in the film". New York Times critic A. H. Weiler wrote, "Soylent Green projects essentially simple, muscular melodrama a good deal more effectively than it does the potential of man's seemingly witless destruction of the Earth's resources"; Weiler concludes "Richard Fleischer's direction stresses action, not nuances of meaning or characterization. Mr. Robinson is pitiably natural as the realistic, sensitive oldster facing the futility of living in dying surroundings. But Mr. Heston is simply a rough cop chasing standard bad guys. Their 21st-century New York occasionally is frightening but it is rarely convincingly real".

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "a good, solid science-fiction movie, and a little more". Gene Siskel gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a silly detective yarn, full of juvenile Hollywood images. Wait 'til you see the giant snow shovel scoop the police use to round up rowdies. You may never stop laughing". Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote, "The somewhat plausible and proximate horrors in the story of 'Soylent Green' carry the Russell Thacher-Walter Seltzer production over its awkward spots to the status of a good futuristic exploitation film". Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "a clever, rough, modestly budgeted but imaginative work". Penelope Gilliatt of The New Yorker was negative, writing, "This pompously prophetic thing of a film hasn't a brain in its beanbag. Where is democracy? Where is the popular vote? Where is women's lib? Where are the uprising poor, who would have suspected what was happening in a moment?"

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 71%, based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The site's consensus states: "While admittedly melodramatic and uneven in spots, Soylent Green ultimately succeeds with its dark, plausible vision of a dystopian future."

Awards and honors

 * Winner Best Science Fiction Film of Year – Saturn Award, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films (Richard Fleischer, Walter Seltzer, Russell Thacher)
 * Winner Grand Prize – Avoriaz International Fantastic Film Festival (Richard Fleischer)
 * Nominee Best Film of Year (Best Dramatic Presentation) – Hugo Award (Richard Fleischer, Stanley Greenberg, Harry Harrison)
 * Winner Best Film Script of Year (Best Dramatic Presentation) – Nebula Award, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (Stanley Greenberg, Harry Harrison)
 * "Soylent Green is people!" is ranked 77th on the American Film Institute's list AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.

Home media
Soylent Green was released on Capacitance Electronic Disc by MGM/CBS Home Video and later on LaserDisc by MGM/UA in 1992 (ISBN 0-7928-1399-5, ). In November 2007, Warner Home Video released the film on DVD concurrent with the DVD releases of two other science fiction films: Logan's Run (1976), a film that covers similar themes of dystopia and overpopulation, and Outland (1981). A Blu-ray Disc release followed on March 29, 2011.

title: Soylent Green


text:
Talk:Nearctic realm

Old talk
This has been "corrected" to be wrong. The term has been standardized in ecology to refer to the gigantic biome stretching from the North Pole down into Central America.

What does one do when the right thing to do is simply reverse the bad edit?

Absolutely. As long as you leave a note here in the talk page about why you've reverted it, and even better if you can point to a source. --LDC

Central America is definitely included; just do a search for "nearctic site:.edu" on Google. I will revert. AxelBoldt

-

It is giving me joy to see all these grow, who ever you are (sad but happy smile) FirmLittleFluffyThing

Pronunciation
How do you pronounce Nearctic? RJFJR 20:10, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Needs more maps
...especially the four or five areas of the WWF's "Major ecological regions" that take up so much space. ...Presuming they are (not mere Wiki-Clubby creations) widely accepted and cited....are they??) --69.110.91.98 (talk) 17:14, 11 August 2011 (UTC)Doug Bashford

How many?
Maybe i'm just not understanding, but Nearctic ecozone says there are nine ecozones, and Palearctic ecozone says there are eight; one of these is incorrect? Cheers, LindsayHello 08:04, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

 * I was wondering the same thing, as most of the other articles count eight. Erobinson55 (talk) 23:22, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Internal map needed
We now have a map that locates the Nearctic in the world, but need one that shows its internal divisions. -- Beland (talk) 17:23, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Nearctic realm. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150107214750/http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/maps/ to http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/maps/

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Endemic families
Two families are endemic to the Nearctic, the pronghorns (Antilocapridae) and the mountain beaver (Aplodontiidae). 24.150.136.254 (talk) 18:16, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Adding Etymology
Is there anyway we could add an etymology? -- Catchpoke (talk) 22:50, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Nearctic realm


text:
User:Atlas~enwiki

An interested user from the UK. I have degrees in Biochemistry and Computing. At the moment I am correcting the many spelling and grammatical mistakes that I come across as I browse the new entries. However, I am developing several new pages which will be submitted in the fullness of time.

title: User:Atlas~enwiki


text:
The Last Laugh (1924 film)

The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann, ) is a 1924 German silent film directed by German director F. W. Murnau from a screenplay written by Carl Mayer. The film stars Emil Jannings and Maly Delschaft. Stephen Brockmann summarized the film's plot as, "a nameless hotel doorman loses his job". It is a cinematic example of the Kammerspielfilm or "chamber-drama" genre, which follows the style of short, sparse plays of lower middle-class life that emphasized the psychology of the characters rather than the sets and action. The genre tried to avoid the intertitles (title cards) of spoken dialogue or description that characterize most silent films, in the belief that the visuals themselves should carry most of the meaning.

The film was voted number 11 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. In 1955, the film was remade starring Hans Albers.

Plot
Jannings' character is a doorman for a famous hotel, who takes great pride in his work and position. His uncaring manager decides that the doorman is getting too old and feeble to present the image of the hotel, and so demotes him to a less demanding job, of washroom attendant. He tries to conceal his demotion from his friends and family but, to his shame, he is discovered. His friends and neighbors, thinking he has lied to them all along about his prestigious job, taunt him mercilessly while his family rejects him out of shame. The doorman, shocked and in incredible grief, returns to the hotel to sleep in the washroom where he works. The only person to be kind towards him is the night watchman, who covers him with his coat as he falls asleep.

Following this comes the film's only title card, which says: "Here our story should really end, for in actual life, the forlorn old man would have little to look forward to but death. The author took pity on him, however, and provided quite an improbable epilogue."

At the end, the audience reads in the newspaper that the doorman inherited a fortune from an eccentric millionaire named A. G. Monney, a patron who died in his arms in the hotel washroom. The doorman returns to the hotel, where he happily dines lavishly with the night watchman who showed him kindness. On their way to his magnificent horse-drawn carriage, the doorman gives tips to all the service personnel from the hotel, who quickly line up along his way. In the final scene of the film, when both the doorman and the night watchman are in the carriage, a beggar asks the doorman for some money. The doorman invites the beggar to the carriage and even gives a tip to the new doorman, who is now in charge of bringing the guests inside.

Cast

 * Emil Jannings as hotel doorman
 * Maly Delschaft as his niece
 * Max Hiller as her bridegroom
 * Emilie Kurz as bridegroom's aunt
 * Hans Unterkircher as hotel manager
 * Olaf Storm as young guest
 * Hermann Vallentin as guest with pot belly
 * Georg John as night watchman
 * Emmy Wyda as thin neighbor

Production
Director F. W. Murnau was at the height of his film career in Germany and had high ambitions for his first film with UFA. He stated that "All our efforts must be directed towards abstracting everything that isn't the true domain of the cinema. Everything that is trivial and acquired from other sources, all the tricks, devices and cliches inherited from the stage and from books." Murnau called screenwriter Carl Mayer someone who worked in "the true domain of the cinema" and agreed to make Der letzte Mann after Mayer and film director Lupu Pick fought and Pick left the film. The film famously uses no intertitles, which had previously been done by Mayer and Pick on Scherben and Sylvester several years earlier, as well as by director Arthur Robison in the film Schatten in 1923.

The film was shot entirely at the UFA Studios. Murnau and cinematographer Karl Freund used elaborate camera movements for the film, a technique later called "entfesselte Kamera" (unchained camera). In one scene a camera was strapped to Freund's chest as he rode a bicycle into an elevator and onto the street below. In another scene a camera is sent down a wire from a window to the street below, and later reversed in editing. French filmmaker Marcel Carné later said that "The camera...glides, rises, zooms or weaves where the story takes it. It is no longer fixed, but takes part in the action and becomes a character in the drama." Years later Karl Freund dismissed Murnau's contributions to the films that they made together, claiming that Murnau had no interest in lighting and never looked through the camera, and that "Carl Mayer used to take much more interest than he did in framing." The film's set designers Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig denied this statement and defended Murnau. Murnau described the film's cinematography as being "on account of the way... [objects] were placed or photographed, their image is a visual drama. In their relationship with other objects or with the characters, they are units in the symphony of the film."

Murnau noted that the story was absurd on the grounds that "everyone knows that a washroom attendant makes more than a doorman." The signs in the film are written in an imaginary language that Alfred Hitchcock took as Esperanto.

There were three different versions of the film, for German, American and international audiences. While European markets retained the meaning of the original German title (The Last Man) on its initial release, the English-speaking countries opted for the more optimistic Laugh title.

Camera Movement
The use of camera movement, dramatic camera angles, distorted shots, and changing focus contributed to creating new perspectives and impressions for viewers. The film's use of montage was also pioneering: Murnau's technique was to use a smooth and rapid cutting in the initial scenes followed by jarred cutting in the scenes where the doorman becomes humiliated. A combination of distortion and overlapping of images is used in the scene where the doorman is drunk to portray his subjective experience. The camera work provides enhancements to Jannings's creative use of body language by using close ups and camera angles that encourage the viewer to see the events from the doorman's perspective. This type of camera movement is called affective movement. This term is used for camera movement that is based on the character's emotions, whereas camera movement that is based on the character's actions is referred to as action movement. In order for the viewer to be drawn further into the film, the camera must successfully correspond its movement to how the viewer would act in that specific scenario. In the scene where he is drunk, the unchained camera freely maneuvers and circles throughout the room, as if the viewer were drunk.

Another example of how the unchained camera technique brings the viewer into the film is the moment when the doorman learns that he has been replaced by a new, younger doorman. In this scene, with the help of a close-up and zoom-in of his face, the viewer now pays even closer attention to his facial expressions. This affective camera movement is effective for the viewer to identify and relate more with the character's inner emotional condition. By creating a connection between the viewer and the character with the unchained camera technique, the viewer becomes integrated into the film. This demonstrated the potential that camera movement brought to filmmaking. These aspects of the film come together to the term subjective movement, in which the viewer interprets camera movement subjectively, whereas they interpret the character's actions more objectively in action movement. The unchained camera captures the true essence of subjective movement and thus creates more possibilities in filmmaking.

Mise-en-scène
Decorations and presentation of contrasting environments were also significant in creating the impression. The contrast between the rich environment of the Atlantic hotel and the lower class housing, gives an impression of a realistic presentation of situations. The decorators for Der letzte Mann were Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig. Another use of contrast was the illustration of the respect and essentially the power of the uniform combined with the ridicule and disregard which the doorman experienced after his demotion.

The power of the uniform in the German culture was analyzed in a scholarly article by Jon Hughes. Wearing of a uniform appears to enhance masculinity of the person and provides some institutional power, as the wearer identifies himself/herself with the corresponding institution. Therefore, a uniform provides personal confidence and the respect of others, as illustrated in Der letzte Mann. The quick ascension of the Nazis to power could also be attributed to their widespread use of uniforms. The film Der letzte Mann illustrates clearly this effect of self-confidence and personal/institutional power as connected to wearing of a decorated uniform.

Intertitles
The use of intertitles was common during the silent film era. The first academy awards in 1929 included an award for "Best Writing – Title Cards," as they were usually a key element of a film, and were thought to be necessary in conveying a film's narrative to audiences. Der letzte Mann was unusual in its use of only one title card throughout the film.

The film's lack of intertitles reflects Murnau's view that they were "an obstructive presence in film" that pointed to film's reliance on other art forms. In an interview with journalist Eduard Jawitz, Murnau stated that film was still a "young" art that did "not yet fully appreciate its own forms of expression and its material" which he explained was the reason that most films relied on intertitles to convey meaning. This perspective led Murnau to experiment with different visual strategies to communicate the film's narrative, like subjective camera movement and mise-en-scène.

The singular title card in Der letzte Mann is used to introduce the film's epilogue. The title card explains that while the narrative would realistically end with the doorman remaining in his hopeless situation, the film's writer "took pity on him" and created an "improbable" ending. This intertitle introduces a tonally different scene where the film jumps forward in time, showing the now wealthy doorman dining in the hotel. This ending has received criticism for its convenience, with some critics questioning whether the intertitle was an apologetic interjection from Murnau about this conclusion.

Historical context
The film was made in 1924, at the time of the Weimar Republic. The war reparation payments imposed on Germany caused skyrocketing inflation, economic collapse, food shortages, poverty, malnutrition and hunger. Petit bourgeois Germans were looking for some hope for improvement of their economic situation. Even such an unrealistic possibility as inheriting money from somebody else brought some hope. This need for hope and the director's knowledge of the expectations of the general public were the reasons that Der letzte Mann had a happy, although unrealistic, epilogue.

German cinema began co-operative ventures with Hollywood producers, which led to mutual influence and in 1926 the German producers signed a contract with Hollywood, which started a migration of German actors and directors to Hollywood. The effect was similar to the later-observed brain drain of scientists from all over the world to the United States.

One of the results of this early cooperation was that director Alfred Hitchcock went to Berlin and started working with Friedrich Murnau. Hitchcock was very impressed with Murnau's unchained camera techniques and stated that his cooperation with Murnau was an "enormously productive experience" and that Der letzte Mann was an "almost perfect film". The cooperation with Murnau was for Hitchcock essentially a "key reference point". Hitchcock also expressed his appreciation for Murnau's camera-points-of-view and the subjective shots which provided "audience identification" with the main character. The rating of Der letzte Mann in Hollywood was very high: "Hollywood simply raved about The Last Laugh," noted Jan Horak.

Reception and legacy
The film was a major critical and financial success and allowed Murnau to make two big budget films shortly afterwards. Critics praised the film's style and artistic camera movements. Film critic Paul Rotha said that it "definitely established the film as an independent medium of expression... Everything that had to be said... was said entirely through the camera...The Last Laugh was cine-fiction in its purest form; exemplary of the rhythmic composition proper to the film." Years later C. A. Lejeune called it "probably the least sensational and certainly the most important of Murnau's films. It gave the camera a new dominion, a new freedom... It influenced the future of motion picture photography... all over the world, and without suggesting any revolution in method, without storming critical opinion as Caligari had done, it turned technical attention towards experiment, and stimulated... a new kind of camera-thinking with a definite narrative end. Lotte Eisner praised its "opalescent surfaces streaming with reflections, rain, or light: car windows, the glazed leaves of the revolving door reflecting the silhouette of the doorman dressed in a gleaming black waterproof, the dark mass of houses with lighted windows, wet pavements and shimmering puddles... His camera captures the filtered half-light falling from the street lamps... it seizes railings through basement windows."

The film's story and content were also praised by critics, with Eisner stating that it "is pre-eminently a German tragedy, and can only be understood in a country where uniform is king, not to say god. A non-German mind will have difficulty in comprehending all its tragic implications." Siegfried Kracauer pointed out that "all the tenants, in particular the female ones... [revere the uniform] as a symbol of supreme authority and are happy to be allowed to revere it."

In 2000, Roger Ebert included it among his list of Great Movies.

Home media
Kino International released a reconstruction of the German version and an "unrestored export version" in 2008 (the latter apparently the version used by Kino in previous releases). A bonus 40-minute documentary compares the German, American and international versions.

title: The Last Laugh (1924 film)


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Talk:Sustainable development

Recommendation
This article would have been much better if the article expanded more detailed information about each goal listed in the UN SDG instead of just listing them. The author could have talked about where we are in the process. Also, it would have been better if the author included his/her own perspective on the topic. Also I think the article contains chronological error that it doesn't talk about how sustainable development is currently going on. Sean1084 (talk) 12:09, 2 October 2023 (UTC)
 * You seem to confuse this article with the one about the SDGs. This one is not about those UN goals. EMsmile (talk) 20:48, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

sustainable development
it should have the role of science and technology too ! RISIKA 2402 (talk) 01:50, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sustainable development


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Life After Life (Moody book)

Life After Life is a 1975 book written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. It is a report on a qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone near-death experiences (NDEs). The book presents the author's composite account of what it is like to die, supplemented with individual accounts. On the basis of his collection of cases, Moody identified a common set of elements in NDEs:
 * (a) an overwhelming feeling of peace and well-being, including freedom from pain.
 * (b) the impression of being located outside one's physical body.
 * (c) floating or drifting through darkness, sometimes described as a tunnel.
 * (d) becoming aware of a golden light.
 * (e) encountering and perhaps communicating with a "being of light".
 * (f) having a rapid succession of visual images of one's past.
 * (g) experiencing another world of much beauty.

Life After Life sold more than 13 million copies, was translated into a dozen foreign languages and became an international best seller, which made the subject of NDEs popular and opened the way for many other studies.

Reception
Moody's alleged evidence for an afterlife was heavily criticized as flawed, both logically and empirically. The psychologist James Alcock has noted that "[Moody] appears to ignore a great deal of the scientific literature dealing with hallucinatory experiences in general, just as he quickly glosses over the very real limitations of his research method."

The philosopher Paul Kurtz has written that Moody's evidence for the NDE is based on personal interviews and anecdotal accounts and there has been no statistical analyses of his data. According to Kurtz, "there is no reliable evidence that people who report such experiences have died and returned, or that consciousness exists separate from the brain or body."

title: Life After Life (Moody book)


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I Am Legend (novel)

I Am Legend is a 1954 post-apocalyptic horror novel by American writer Richard Matheson that was influential in the modern development of zombie and vampire literature and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted into the films The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007). It was also an inspiration for George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Plot
Set on Cimarron Street in 1976 Gardena, California after an apocalyptic war that ravages the land with weekly dust storms, the novel details the life of Robert Neville in the months and eventually years after the outbreak of a pandemic that has killed the rest of the human population and turned infected survivors into "vampires". The vampires conform remarkably to their stereotypes in fiction and folklore: they are blood-sucking, pale-skinned, and nocturnal, though otherwise indistinguishable from normal humans. Neville, possibly the sole survivor of the pandemic, barricades himself indoors nightly as swarms of vampires violently surround his house. He is further protected by the traditional vampire repellents of garlic, mirrors, and crucifixes. During the day, the vampires are inactive, allowing Neville to drive around stabbing them with wooden stakes (since they seem impervious to his gun’s bullets), which causes them to instantly liquefy, and scavenging for supplies. Occasional flashbacks reveal the horrors of how the disease claimed the lives of his wife and daughter.

Suffering from extreme isolation, depression, and alcoholism, Neville determines there must be some scientific reasons behind the vampires' origins, behaviors, and oddly specific aversions, so he gradually researches at his local library, discovering that the root of the disease is probably a Bacillus strain of bacteria capable of infecting both living and deceased ("undead") hosts. His experiments with microscopes also reveal that the bacteria are deathly sensitive to garlic and sunlight. After he painstakingly attempts to win the trust of a stray sickly dog that dies after only a week, Neville, heartbroken, commits himself even more vigorously to his studies. Soon he experiments directly on incapacitated vampires, which leads to a new theory that vampires are affected by mirrors and crosses because of "hysterical blindness", in which the infected now delusionally react as they believe they should when confronted with these items. Neville additionally discovers that exposing vampires to direct sunlight or inflicting wide oxygen-exposing wounds causes the bacteria to switch from being anaerobic symbionts to aerobic parasites, rapidly consuming their hosts when exposed to air and thus giving them the appearance of instantly liquefying. However, he discovers the bacteria also produce resilient "body glue" that instantaneously seals blunt or narrow wounds, explaining how the vampires are bulletproof. Lastly, he deduces now that there are in fact two differently-reacting types of vampires: conscious ones who are living with a worsening infection and undead ones who have died but been partly reanimated by the bacteria.

After three years, Neville suddenly sees a terrified woman named Ruth in broad daylight. The two cautiously gain each other's trust and even share a romantic embrace. Neville explains some of his findings, including his theory that he developed immunity against the infection after being bitten by an infected vampire bat years ago. He prepares to test Ruth to determine if she is infected or immune, vowing to treat her if she is infected, but she knocks him unconscious. Once Neville comes to, he discovers a note from her confessing that she is indeed a vampire herself. Her note suggests that only the undead vampires are pathologically violent but not those, like her, who were alive at the time of infection and who still survive due to chance mutations. These living-infected have slowly overcome their disease and are gradually developing a new society and new medications. Ruth admits she was sent to spy on him by her comrades and that he was responsible for the deaths of many of her fellow vampires, including her husband. Still, Ruth reiterates her romantic feelings for Neville and urges him to flee the city to avoid capture.

Neville ignores Ruth's warning, assuming he will be treated fairly by the new society of living-infected. However, his mind is changed when he watches a group of them annihilate the undead vampires outside his home with fiendish glee. In a panic, Neville opens fire on them but is in turn shot and subdued. Imprisoned and dying, he is visited by Ruth, who informs him that she is a senior member of the new society but, unlike the others who perceive him as a murderer, she does not resent him. She acknowledges the public need for Neville's execution but, out of mercy, gives him a packet of fast-acting suicide pills. Neville accepts his fate and asks Ruth not to let this society become too heartless. Ruth promises to try, kisses him, and leaves. Neville goes to his prison window and sees the infected staring back at him with the same hatred and fear that he once felt for them. He realizes that he, a remnant of old humanity, is now a legend to the new race born of the infection. He acknowledges that their desire to kill him, after he has killed so many of their loved ones, is not something he can condemn. As the pills take effect, he is amused by the thought that he will become their new superstition and legend, just as vampires once were to humans.

Critical reception
As related in In Search of Wonder (1956), Damon Knight wrote: ""The book is full of good ideas, every other one of which is immediately dropped and kicked out of sight. The characters are child's drawings, as blank-eyed and expressionless as the author himself in his back-cover photograph. The plot limps. All the same, the story could have been an admirable minor work in the tradition of Dracula, if only the author, or somebody, had not insisted on encumbering it with the year's most childish set of 'scientific' rationalizations.""

- Damon Knight

Galaxy reviewer Groff Conklin described Legend as: ""...a weird [and] rather slow-moving first novel... a horrid, violent, sometimes exciting but too often overdone tour de force.""

- Groff Conklin

Anthony Boucher praised the novel: ""Matheson has added a new variant on the Last Man theme... and has given striking vigor to his invention by a forceful style of storytelling which derives from the best hard-boiled crime novels.""

- Anthony Boucher

Dan Schneider from International Writers Magazine: Book Review wrote: ""Despite having vampires in it, [the novel] is not a novel on vampires, nor even a horror nor sci-fi novel at all, in the deepest sense. Instead, it is perhaps the greatest novel written on human loneliness. It far surpasses Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in that regard. Its insights into what it is to be human go far beyond genre, and is all the more surprising because, having read his short stories—which range from competent but simplistic, to having classic Twilight Zone twists (he was a major contributor to the original TV series)—there is nothing within those short stories that suggests the supreme majesty of the existential masterpiece I Am Legend was aborning.""

- Dan Schneider (2005)

In 2012, the Horror Writers Association gave I Am Legend the special Vampire Novel of the Century Award.

Influence
One major influence upon Matheson and others of the genre is the Mary Shelley novel, The Last Man, about an immune person surviving in a plague infested world.

Although Matheson calls the assailants in his novel "vampires" and their condition is transmitted through bacteria in the blood and garlic is a repellant to this strain of bacteria, they have little similarity to vampires as developed by John William Polidori and his successors, which came straight out of the gothic fiction tradition.

In I Am Legend, the "zombies" share more similarities with vampires, and the novel influenced the zombie genre and popularized the concept of a worldwide zombie apocalypse.

Although the idea has now become commonplace, a scientific origin for vampirism or zombies was fairly original when written.

According to Clasen: ""I Am Legend is the product of an anxious artistic mind working in an anxious cultural climate. However, it is also a playful take on an old archetype, the vampire (the reader is even treated to Neville’s reading and put-down of Bram Stoker's Dracula). Matheson goes to great lengths to rationalize or naturalize the vampire myth, transplanting the monster from the otherworldly realms of folklore and Victorian supernaturalism to the test tube of medical inquiry and rational causation. With I Am Legend, Matheson instituted the germ theory of vampirism, a take on the old archetype which has since been tackled by other writers (notably, Dan Simmons in Children of the Night from 1992).""

- Mathias Clasen

Although referred to as "the first modern vampire novel", it is as a novel of social theme that I Am Legend made a lasting impression on the cinematic zombie genre, by way of director George A. Romero, who acknowledged its influence and that of its original cinematic adaptation, The Last Man on Earth (1964), upon his seminal film Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Discussing the creation of Night of the Living Dead, Romero remarked: ""I had written a short story, which I basically had ripped off from a Richard Matheson novel called I Am Legend.""

- George Romero

Moreover, film critics have noted similarities between Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Last Man on Earth (1964).

Stephen King said: "Books like I Am Legend were an inspiration to me." Film critics noted that the British film 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later both feature a rabies-type plague ravaging Great Britain, analogous to I Am Legend.

Tim Cain, the producer, lead programmer and one of the main designers of the 1997 computer game Fallout cited I Am Legend and the movie The Omega Man as influences on the game: ""This book was how a[n] individual would handle thinking that he was the last survivor on Earth. This is why in Fallout 1 when you're voted to leave the Vault, we really wanted that sense of isolationism; that sense of: You are the only person out here on the Wasteland who is, quote, 'a normal person', and we wanted you to feel, like, special in that way.""

The Doctor Who episode "Asylum of the Daleks" sees Oswin Oswald introduced in a similar fashion to Neville as an homage to the novel, with both Oswin and Neville checking defences, boarding up the door/window, listening to classical music, and turning it up to drown out the sound of the enemies outside (Daleks for Oswin, vampires for Neville).

Comics
The book has also been adapted into a comic book miniseries titled Richard Matheson's I Am Legend by Steve Niles and Elman Brown. It was published in 1991 by Eclipse Comics and collected into a trade paperback by IDW Publishing.

An unrelated film tie-in was released in 2007 as a one-shot I Am Legend: Awakening published in a San Diego Comic-Con special by Vertigo.

Audiobook
A nine-part abridged reading of the novel performed by Angus MacInnes was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 7 in January 2006 and repeated in January 2018.

Films
I Am Legend has been adapted into a feature-length film three times, as well as into a direct-to-video feature film called I Am Omega. Differing from the book, each of them portrays the Neville character as an accomplished scientist. The three adaptations show him finding a remedy and passing it on. Adaptations differ from the novel by setting the events three years after the disaster, instead of happening “in the span of” three years. Also, adaptations are set in the near future, a few years after the film's release, while the novel is set 20 years after its publication date.

The Last Man on Earth
In 1964, Vincent Price starred as Dr. Robert Morgan (rather than "Neville") in The Last Man on Earth (the original title of this Italian production was L'ultimo uomo della Terra). Matheson wrote the original screenplay for this adaptation, but due to later rewrites did not wish his name to appear in the credits; as a result, Matheson is credited under the pseudonym "Logan Swanson".

The Omega Man
In 1971, a far different version was produced, titled The Omega Man. It starred Charlton Heston (as Robert Neville) and Anthony Zerbe. Matheson had no influence on the screenplay for this film, and although the premise remains, it deviates from the novel in several ways, removing the infected people's vampiric characteristics, except their sensitivity to light. In this version, the infected are portrayed as nocturnal, black-robed, albino mutants, known as the Family. Though intelligent, they eschew modern technology, believing it (and those who use it, such as Neville) to be evil and the cause of humanity's downfall.

I Am Legend
In 2007, a third adaptation of the novel was produced, this time titled I Am Legend. Directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith as Robert Neville, this film uses both Matheson's novel and the 1971 Omega Man film as its sources. This adaptation also deviates significantly from the novel. In this version, the infection is caused by a vaccine originally intended to cure cancer. Some vampiric elements are retained, such as sensitivity to UV light and attraction to blood. The infected are portrayed as nocturnal, feral creatures of limited intelligence who hunt the uninfected with berserker-like rage. Other creatures, such as dogs, are also infected by the virus. The ending of the film was also altered to portray Neville as sacrificing his life to save humanity, rather than being executed for crimes against the surviving vampiric humans, although a deleted ending for the film was closer in spirit to the book. The film takes place in New York City in 2009 and 2012 rather than Los Angeles in 1975–1977.

title: I Am Legend (novel)


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Kenneth Ring

Kenneth Ring (born December 13, 1935) is an American psychologist, born in San Francisco, California. He is the co-founder and past president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and is the founding editor of the Journal of Near-Death Studies. He currently lives in Kentfield, California.

Biography
Among his first publications was the book Methods of Madness: The Mental Hospital as a Last Resort. The book was released in 1969 and was co-authored with Benjamin Braginsky and Dorothea Braginsky. Ring's book Life at Death was published by William Morrow and Company in 1980. In this book Ring presented the Weighted Core Experience Index, a psychometric instrument constructed to measure the depth of a near-death experience. In 1984, the company published Ring's second book, Heading Toward Omega. Both books deal with near-death experiences and how they change people's lives.

In 1992 he published The Omega Project: Human Evolution in an Ecological Age, a book that dealt with near-death experiences and UFO-encounters. 1998 saw the release of ''Lessons From the Light. What We Can Learn From the Near-Death Experience'', co-authored with Evelyn Elaesser. The book discussed a wide range of paranormal phenomena, including out-of-body experiences, children's near-death experiences, near-death experiences in the blind, as well as healing and paranormal abilities in near-death experiencers. Another co-authored release appeared in 1999. This time Ring co-operated with Sharon Cooper for the release of Mindsight: Near-death and out-of-body experiences in the blind. In the book Ring & Cooper discussed the possibility of sight and vision among blind near-death experiencers.

In November 2008, Ring visited Israel as part of a peace delegation and subsequently protested the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip as completely disproportionate. Kenneth Ring also is a co-author of Letters from Palestine (2011).

title: Kenneth Ring