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J. I. M. Stewart

John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (30 September 1906 – 12 November 1994) was a Scottish novelist and academic. He is equally well known for the works of literary criticism and contemporary novels published under his real name and for the crime fiction published under the pseudonym of Michael Innes.

Life
Stewart was born in Edinburgh, the son of Elizabeth (Eliza) Jane (née Clark) and John Stewart of Nairn. His father was a lawyer and later the Director of Education for the City of Edinburgh.

Stewart was educated at Edinburgh Academy from 1913 to 1924 and then studied English literature at Oriel College, Oxford, graduating BA in 1928. At Oxford he was presented with the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize and was named a Bishop Frazer's scholar. Using this, in 1929 he went to Vienna to study psychoanalysis. He was lecturer in English at the University of Leeds from 1930 to 1935 and then became Jury Professor of English in the University of Adelaide, South Australia.

In 1932 he married Margaret Hardwick (1905—1979).

He returned to the United Kingdom to become Lecturer in English at the Queen's University of Belfast from 1946 to 1948. In 1949 he became a Student (equivalent of Fellow in other Oxford colleges) of Christ Church, Oxford. By the time of his retirement in 1973, he was a professor of the university.

In 1990 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He died at Coulsdon in south London on 12 November 1994, aged 88. His estate was valued at £139,330.

Michael Innes
Between 1936 and 1986, Stewart, writing under the pseudonym of Michael Innes, published nearly fifty crime novels and short story collections, which he later described as "entertainments". These abound in literary allusions and in what critics have variously described as "mischievous wit", "exuberant fancy" and a "tongue-in-cheek propensity" for intriguing turns of phrase. Julian Symons identified Innes as one of the "farceurs"—crime writers for whom the detective story was "an over-civilized joke with a frivolity which makes it a literary conversation piece with detection taking place on the side"—and described Innes's writing as being "rather in the manner of Peacock strained through or distorted by Aldous Huxley". His mysteries have also been described as combining "the elliptical introspection ... [of] a Jamesian character's speech, the intellectual precision of a Conradian description, and the amazing coincidences that mark any one of Hardy's plots".

The best-known of Innes's detective creations is Sir John Appleby, who is introduced in Death at the President's Lodging, in which he is a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard. Appleby features in many of the later novels and short stories, in the course of which he rises to become Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Other novels feature portrait painter and Royal Academician, Charles Honeybath, an amateur but nonetheless effective sleuth. The two detectives meet in Appleby and Honeybath. Some of the later stories feature Appleby's son Bobby as sleuth.

In 2007, his family transferred all the Innes copyrights and other legal rights to Owatonna Media. Owatonna Media on-sold these copyrights to Coolabi Plc in 2009, but retained a master licence in radio and audio rights. Literary rights are currently held by John Stewart Literary Management, and published by House of Stratus.

Publications
Stewart wrote several critical studies, including full-length studies of James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Hardy, as well as many novels and short stories. His last publication was his autobiography Myself and Michael Innes (1987).

As J. I. M. Stewart

 * Non-fiction

 * Educating the Emotions (1944)
 * Character and Motive in Shakespeare (1949)
 * James Joyce (1957)
 * Eight Modern Writers (1963)
 * Thomas Love Peacock (1963)
 * Rudyard Kipling (1966)
 * Joseph Conrad (1968)
 * Shakespeare's Lofty Scene (1971)
 * Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography (1971)

 * Fiction

 * Mark Lambert's Supper (1954)
 * The Guardians (1955)
 * A Use of Riches (1957)
 * The Man Who Won the Pools (1961)
 * The Last Tresilians (1963)
 * An Acre of Grass (1965)
 * The Aylwins (1966)
 * Vanderlyn's Kingdom (1967)
 * Avery's Mission (1971)
 * A Palace of Art (1972)
 * Mungo's Dream (1973)
 * A Staircase in Surrey quintet:
 * The Gaudy (1974)
 * Young Pattullo (1975)
 * Memorial Service (1976)
 * The Madonna of the Astrolabe (1977)
 * Full Term (1978)
 * Andrew and Tobias (1980)
 * A Villa in France (1982)
 * An Open Prison (1984)
 * The Naylors (1985)

 * Short story collections

 * The Man Who Wrote Detective Stories (1959)
 * Cucumber Sandwiches (1969)
 * Our England Is a Garden (1979)
 * The Bridge at Arta (1981)
 * My Aunt Christina (1983)
 * Parlour Four (1984)

 * Memoir

 * Myself and Michael Innes: A Memoir (1987)

 * Edited texts
 * William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair (Penguin English Library, 1968)

Novels

 * Death at the President's Lodging (1936) (also known as Seven Suspects)
 * Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
 * Lament for a Maker (1938)
 * Stop Press (1939) (also known as The Spider Strikes)
 * The Secret Vanguard (1940)
 * There Came Both Mist and Snow (1940) (also known as A Comedy of Terrors)
 * Appleby on Ararat (1941)
 * The Daffodil Affair (1942)
 * The Weight of the Evidence (1943)
 * Appleby's End (1945)
 * A Night of Errors (1947)
 * Operation Pax (1951) (also known as The Paper Thunderbolt)
 * A Private View (1952) (also known as One-Man Show and Murder Is an Art)
 * Appleby Plays Chicken (1957) (also known as Death on a Quiet Day)
 * The Long Farewell (1958)
 * Hare Sitting Up (1959)
 * Silence Observed (1961)
 * A Connoisseur's Case (1962) (also known as The Crabtree Affair)
 * Appleby Intervenes (omnibus volume, 1965, containing One-Man Show, A Comedy of Terrors, The Secret Vanguard)
 * The Bloody Wood (1966)
 * Appleby at Allington (1968) (also known as Death by Water)
 * A Family Affair (1969) (also known as Picture of Guilt)
 * Death at the Chase (1970)
 * An Awkward Lie (1971), ISBN 0-396-06345-4
 * The Open House (1972), ISBN 0-396-06524-4
 * Appleby's Answer (1973), ISBN 0-396-06744-1
 * Appleby's Other Story (1974), ISBN 0-396-06715-8
 * The Gay Phoenix (1976), ISBN 0-396-07442-1
 * The Ampersand Papers (1978), ISBN 0-396-07663-7
 * Sheiks and Adders (1982), ISBN 0-396-08063-4
 * Appleby and Honeybath (1983), ISBN 0-396-08247-5
 * Carson's Conspiracy (1984), ISBN 0-396-08395-1
 * Appleby and the Ospreys (1986), ISBN 0-396-08950-X

Short story collections

 * Appleby Talking (1954) (also known as Dead Man's Shoes): 'Appleby's First Case; Pokerwork'; 'The Spendlove Papers'; 'The Furies'; 'Eye Witness'; 'The Bandertree Case'; 'The Key'; 'The Flight of Patroclus'; 'The Clock-Face Case'; 'Miss Geach'; 'Tragedy of a Handkerchief; 'The Cave of Belarius'; 'A Nice Cup of Tea'; 'The Sands of Thyme'; 'The X-Plan'; 'Lesson in Anatomy'; 'Imperious Caesar'; 'The Clancarron Ball'; 'A Dog's Life'; 'A Derby Horse'; 'William the Conqueror'; 'Dead Man's Shoes'; 'The Lion and the Unicorn'.
 * Appleby Talks Again (1956): 'A Matter of Goblins'; 'Was He Morton?'; 'Dangerfield's Diary'; 'Grey's Ghost'; 'False Colours'; 'The Ribbon'; 'The Exile'; 'Enigma Jones'; 'The Heritage Portrait'; 'Murder on the 7.16'; 'A Very Odd Case'; 'The Four Seasons'; 'Here is the News'; 'The Reprisal'; 'Bear's Box'; 'Tom, Dick and Harry'; 'The Lombard Books'; 'The Mouse-Trap'.
 * The Appleby File (1975), ISBN 0-396-07279-8: 'The Appleby File': 'The Ascham. Poltergeist'; 'The Fishermen'; 'The Conversation Piece'; 'Death by Water'; 'A Question of Confidence'; 'The Memorial Service'. 'Appleby's Holidays': 'Two on a Tower'; 'Beggar with Skull'; 'The Exploding Battleship'; 'The Body in the Glen'; 'Death in the Sun'; 'Cold Blood'; 'The Coy Mistress'; 'The Thirteenth Priest Hole'.
 * Appleby Talks About Crime (Crippen & Landru, 2010), ISBN 978-1-932009-91-0: 'A Small Peter Pry'; 'The Author Changes His Style'; 'The Perfect Murder'; 'The Scattergood Emeralds'; 'The Impressionist'; 'The Secret in the Woodpile'; 'The General's Wife is Blackmailed'; 'Who Suspects the Postman?'; 'A Change of Face'; 'The Theft of the Downing Street Letter'; 'The Tinted Diamonds'; 'Jerry Does a Good Turn for the Djam'; 'The Left-Handed Barber'; 'The Party that Never Got Going'; 'The Mystery of Paul's "Posthumous" Portrait'; 'The Inspector Feels the Draught' 'Pelly and Cullis'; 'The Man Who Collected Satchels'.

Short stories

 * "William the Conqueror". Liverpool Echo, 19 February 1953. Collected in Appleby Talking.
 * "The X-Plan". Liverpool Echo, 24 July 1954. Collected in Appleby Talking.
 * "Here Is the News". Aberdeen Evening Express, 13 November 1954. Collected in Appleby Talks Again.
 * "[TITLE UNKNOWN]". The Sketch, December 1954.
 * "Tom, Dick and Harry". Dundee Evening Telegraph, 6 October 1955. Collected in Appleby Talks Again.
 * "The Four Seasons". The Sketch, 1 December 1955.
 * "Appleby's Fables, No. 1: Jeremy Does a Good Turn for the Djam". Aberdeen Evening Express, 15 April 1958. Collected in Appleby Talks About Crime.
 * "Appleby's Fables, No. 2: The Mystery of Paul's 'Posthumous Portrait. Aberdeen Evening Express, 16 April 1958. Collected in Appleby Talks About Crime.
 * "Appleby's Fables, No. 3: No. 1 Suspect Is the Postman". Aberdeen Evening Express, 17 April 1958. Collected in Appleby Talks About Crime as "Who Suspects the Postman?".
 * "Appleby's Fables, No. 4: The Inspector Feels a Draught". Aberdeen Evening Express, 18 April 1958. Collected in Appleby Talks About Crime.
 * "Appleby's Fables, No. 5: Dobson the High-Brow Changes His Style". Aberdeen Evening Express, 19 April 1958. Collected in Appleby Talks About Crime as "A Change of Face".

Other

 * What Happened at Hazelwood (1946)
 * From London Far (1946) (also known as The Unsuspected Chasm)
 * The Journeying Boy (1949) (also known as The Case of the Journeying Boy)
 * Christmas at Candleshoe (1953) (also known as Candleshoe)
 * The Man from the Sea (1955) (also known as Death by Moonlight)
 * Old Hall, New Hall (1956) (also known as A Question of Queens)
 * The New Sonia Wayward (1960) (also known as The Case of Sonia Wayward)
 * Money from Holme (1964)
 * A Change of Heir (1966)
 * The Mysterious Commission (1974), ISBN 0-396-07134-1
 * Honeybath's Haven (1977), ISBN 0-396-07555-X
 * Going It Alone (1980), ISBN 0-396-07819-2
 * Lord Mullion's Secret (1981), ISBN 0-396-08005-7

Christmas at Candleshoe was the basis for the 1977 film Candleshoe starring Jodie Foster, Helen Hayes and David Niven.

title: J. I. M. Stewart


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Zuid-Beveland

Zuid-Beveland ("South Beveland") is part of the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands north of the Western Scheldt and south of the Eastern Scheldt.

Topography
It is a former island, now peninsula, crossed by the Canal through Zuid-Beveland on the west and the Scheldt–Rhine Canal on the east.

It consists of four municipalities:

 * Borsele
 * Goes
 * Kapelle
 * Reimerswaal

Goes is Zuid-Beveland's principal urban center.

Zuid-Beveland is a former island which was joined (together with Walcheren) to the mainland by a railway embankment in 1903 and to Noord-Beveland by the Delta Works. A shipping canal connecting the Belgian port of Antwerp with the Rhine River traverses Zuid-Beveland.

Third and fourth centuries
This was the period during which most of Zeeland appears to have been submerged. The area was and for several centuries would remain almost unpeopled.

Middle Ages
During the eleventh century the area began to be drained, as little by little polders and channels were developed to protect the fields between them. Once drained, salt levels began to reduce and the soil became very fertile. Agriculture developed and prosperity grew.

In the thirteenth century villages and towns began to appear. People lived chiefly from farming and fishing. The commercial centre of Zuid-Beveland was Goes, but Reimerswaal to the east, which later would be destroyed by floods also played an important role at this time.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
As a result of the St. Felix's flood in November 1530, much of the island disappeared under water. Towns and villages were lost to what became known as the drowned land of Zuid-Beveland (Pays inondé de Zuid-Beveland / Verdronken Land van Zuid-Beveland). The island was again badly impacted forty years later in November 1570 by the All Saints' Day Flood (Allerheiligenvloed / Inondations de la Toussaint).

Between 1568 and 1648, during the course of what by its weary end had become the Eighty Years' War, the surviving lands of Zuid-Beveland were frequently in the military theatre of operations.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
During most of this period the economy of the Netherlands slowed or contracted, with the exception of the agricultural sector. However, the region benefited from advances in transportation, connected in 1868 to Roosendaal by railroad with the inauguration of the Zeeland Line (la Zeeuwse Lijn: la «Ligne zélandaise»), the Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway. In 1850 work began on the Zuid-Beveland Canal which linked the Western Scheldt and the Eastern Scheldt across a narrow neck of land in the east of the province.

The construction in 1871 of the Sloedam, topped off with a roadway and a railway track, across the old Sloe Channel, connected Zuid-Beveland with Walcheren.

World War II
On 16 May 1940, heavy fighting occurred near Kapelle between German and French motorised troops, who came to the rescue of the Dutch. The next day 65 French soldiers were buried by the local people. After World War II every French soldier who was killed in the Netherlands during the war was brought to Kapelle. On 16 May 1950, the military cemetery on the edge of town was officially opened. 217 French soldiers, 20 Moroccan soldiers in French service and 1 Belgian soldier were buried there.

The area was liberated by British and Canadians during the Battle of the Scheldt in November 1944.

The Flood of 1953
The North Sea flood on the night of 31 January and the morning of 1 February 1953 caused 1,836 deaths in the southwest of the Netherlands. Because of the relative high altitude, most parts of Zuid-Beveland (mainly the area of Goes) were relatively safe. In particular the eastern part of the peninsula suffered from floods. To prevent future floods, the Delta Works were started in 1950. As a side-effect, the connection with the rest of the country improved too.

Landscape and land-use
The soil primarily consists of marine clay. The landscape is dominated by dikes surrounding polders, due to recurring periods of floods and land reclamation. The main land-use is agricultural, of which consists primarily of crop cultivation and fruit orchards. Urban land-use is limited to the towns of Goes and Kapelle and several smaller towns and villages. Industrial activities are concentrated in the west of the peninsula (the Sloe area).

Economic activities
Agriculture, in particular crop cultivation, livestock breeding, aquaculture and fruit orchards are the economic mainstays. South Beveland specializes in the growing of wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, and fruits and is also known for its fisheries and oyster culture. Zuid-Beveland is also home to Europe's largest greenhouse, located near Kapelle.

The Zak van Zuid-Beveland (a large fruit orchard area) is Zuid-Beveland's main touristic attraction. In spring the blooming trees and the small-scale landscape make for a popular place for outdoor activities. The historic steam train from Goes to Borssele crosses this area. The many waters surrounding Zuid-Beveland are a popular place for water sports, in particular the Veerse Meer.

Transport
The main road in Zuid-Beveland is the motorway A58, connecting Flushing and Eindhoven. The highway A256/N256 connects the peninsula to the north (Noord-Beveland, Zierikzee and Rotterdam). The highway N62 is the connection to the south (Zeelandic Flanders and Belgium), by means of the Western Scheldt Tunnel: a 6.6 km tunnel under the Western Scheldt estuary between Ellewoutsdijk and Terneuzen. It is the longest tunnel for highway traffic in The Netherlands and replaced the former ferry between Kruiningen and Perkpolder 2003.

More or less parallel to the motorway, a railroad connects Zuid-Beveland to Roosendaal, the Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway, with stations in (from west to east) Goes, Kapelle-Biezelinge, Kruiningen-Yerseke, Rilland-Bath and Krabbendijke. A cargo railroad connects the main railway with the industrial area Sloe, near Flushing. A historical steam train connects Goes and Hoedekenskerke, but this railroad nowadays only serves touristic purposes.

The Western Scheldt is an important shipping route to the Port of Antwerp. The Canal through Zuid-Beveland connects the Western and Eastern Scheldt. The more eastern Scheldt–Rhine Canal connects Antwerp and the Volkerak. The Eastern Scheldt and Veerse Meer are popular with pleasure boats.

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

title: Zuid-Beveland


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Gossypol

Gossypol is a natural phenol derived from the cotton plant (genus Gossypium). Gossypol is a phenolic aldehyde that permeates cells and acts as an inhibitor for several dehydrogenase enzymes. It is a yellow pigment. The structure exhibits atropisomerism, with the two enantiomers having different biochemical properties.

Among other applications, it has been tested as a male oral contraceptive in China. In addition to its putative contraceptive properties, gossypol has also long been known to possess antimalarial properties.

Biosynthesis
Gossypol is a terpenoid aldehyde which is formed metabolically through acetate via the isoprenoid pathway. The sesquiterpene dimer undergoes a radical coupling reaction to form gossypol. The biosynthesis begins when geranyl pyrophosphate (GPP) and isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) are combined to make the sesquiterpene precursor farnesyl diphosphate (FPP). The cadinyl cation (1) is oxidized to 2 by (+)-δ-cadinene synthase. The (+)-δ-cadinene (2) is involved in making the basic aromatic sesquiterpene unit, homigossypol, by oxidation, which generates the 3 (8-hydroxy-δ-cadinene) with the help of (+)-δ-cadinene 8-hyroxylase. Compound 3 goes through various oxidative processes to make 4 (deoxyhemigossypol), which is oxidized by one electron into hemigossypol (5, 6, 7) and then undergoes a phenolic oxidative coupling, ortho to the phenol groups, to form gossypol (8). The coupling is catalyzed by a hydrogen peroxide-dependent peroxidase enzyme, which results in the final product.

 * Gossypol biosyn.jpg

Contraception
A 1929 investigation in Jiangxi showed correlation between low fertility in males and use of crude cottonseed oil for cooking. The compound causing the contraceptive effect was determined to be gossypol. In the 1970s, the Chinese government began researching the use of gossypol as a contraceptive. Their studies involved over 10,000 subjects, and continued for over a decade. They concluded that gossypol provided reliable contraception, could be taken orally as a tablet, and did not upset men's balance of hormones.

However, gossypol also had serious flaws. The studies also discovered an abnormally high rate (0.75%) of hypokalemia (low blood potassium levels) among subjects. Hypokalemia causes symptoms of fatigue, muscle weakness, and at its most extreme, paralysis. In addition, about 7% of subjects reported effects on their digestive systems, about 12% had increased fatigue, some subjects experienced impotence or reduced libido, and 9.9% became irreversibly infertile, apparently associated with longer treatment and greater total dose of gossypol. Most subjects recovered after stopping treatment and taking potassium supplements. The same study showed taking potassium supplements during gossypol treatment did not prevent hypokalemia in primates. The potassium deficiency may also be a result of the Chinese diet or genetic predisposition.

In the mid-1990s, the Brazilian pharmaceutical company Hebron announced plans to market a low-dose gossypol pill called Nofertil, but the pill never came to market. Its release was indefinitely postponed due to unacceptably high rates of permanent infertility. 5% to 25% of the men remained azoospermic up to a year after stopping treatment.

Researchers have suggested gossypol might make a good noninvasive alternative to surgical vasectomy.

In 1986, in conjunction with the Chinese Ministry of Public Health and the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Health Organization formalized a decision to discontinue research into gossypol as a male contraceptive drug. In addition to the other side effects, the WHO researchers were concerned about gossypol's toxicity: the in primates is less than 10 times the contraceptive dose, creating a small therapeutic window. This report effectively ended further studies of gossypol as a temporary contraceptive, but research into using it as an alternative to vasectomy continues in Austria, Brazil, Chile, China, the Dominican Republic, and Nigeria.

Toxicity
Food and animal agricultural industries must manage cotton-derivative product levels to avoid toxicity. For example, only ruminant microflora can digest gossypol, and then only to a certain level, and cottonseed oil must be refined. Genetically engineered cotton plants that contain little gossypol in the seed may still contain the compound in the stems and leaves.

title: Gossypol


text:
Medical cannabis

Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions, resulting in limited clinical research to define the safety and efficacy of using cannabis to treat diseases.

Preliminary evidence has indicated that cannabis might reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy and reduce chronic pain and muscle spasms. Regarding non-inhaled cannabis or cannabinoids, a 2021 review found that it provided little relief against chronic pain and sleep disturbance, and caused several transient adverse effects, such as cognitive impairment, nausea, and drowsiness.

Short-term use increases the risk of minor and major adverse effects. Common side effects include dizziness, feeling tired, vomiting, and hallucinations. Long-term effects of cannabis are not clear. Concerns include memory and cognition problems, risk of addiction, schizophrenia in young people, and the risk of children taking it by accident.

Many cultures have used cannabis for therapeutic purposes for thousands of years. Some American medical organizations have requested removal of cannabis from the list of Schedule I controlled substances maintained by the United States federal government, followed by regulatory and scientific review. Others oppose its legalization, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Medical cannabis can be administered through various methods, including capsules, lozenges, tinctures, dermal patches, oral or dermal sprays, cannabis edibles, and vaporizing or smoking dried buds. Synthetic cannabinoids are available for prescription use in some countries, such as dronabinol and nabilone. Countries that allow the medical use of whole-plant cannabis include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay. In the United States, 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for medical purposes, beginning with the passage of California's Proposition 215 in 1996. Although cannabis remains prohibited for any use at the federal level, the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment was enacted in December 2014, limiting the ability of federal law to be enforced in states where medical cannabis has been legalized.

Classification
The National Institute on Drug Abuse defines medical cannabis as "using the whole, unprocessed marijuana plant or its basic extracts to treat symptoms of illness and other conditions".

A cannabis plant includes more than 400 different chemicals, of which about 70 are cannabinoids. In comparison, typical government-approved medications contain only one or two chemicals. The number of active chemicals in cannabis is one reason why treatment with cannabis is difficult to classify and study.

A 2014 review stated that the variations in ratio of CBD-to-THC in botanical and pharmaceutical preparations determines the therapeutic vs psychoactive effects (CBD attenuates THC's psychoactive effects ) of cannabis products.

Medical uses

Overall, research into the health effects of medical cannabis has been of low quality and it is not clear whether it is a useful treatment for any condition, or whether harms outweigh any benefit. There is no consistent evidence that it helps with chronic pain and muscle spasms.

Low quality evidence suggests its use for reducing nausea during chemotherapy, improving appetite in HIV/AIDS, improving sleep, and improving tics in Tourette syndrome. When usual treatments are ineffective, cannabinoids have also been recommended for anorexia, arthritis, glaucoma, and migraine.

It is unclear whether American states might be able to mitigate the adverse effects of the opioid epidemic by prescribing medical cannabis as an alternative pain management drug.

Cannabis should not be used in pregnancy.

Insomnia
Research analyzing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) did not find significant differences in sleep duration between cannabis users and non-users. This suggests that while some individuals may perceive benefits from cannabis use in terms of sleep, it may not significantly change overall sleep patterns across the general population.

A review of literature up to 2018 indicates that cannabidiol (CBD) may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of insomnia. CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, is of particular interest due to its potential to influence sleep without the psychoactive effects associated with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Nausea and vomiting
Medical cannabis is somewhat effective in chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) and may be a reasonable option in those who do not improve following preferential treatment. Comparative studies have found cannabinoids to be more effective than some conventional antiemetics such as prochlorperazine, promethazine, and metoclopramide in controlling CINV, but these are used less frequently because of side effects including dizziness, dysphoria, and hallucinations. Long-term cannabis use may cause nausea and vomiting, a condition known as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS).

A 2016 Cochrane review said that cannabinoids were "probably effective" in treating chemotherapy-induced nausea in children, but with a high side-effect profile (mainly drowsiness, dizziness, altered moods, and increased appetite). Less common side effects were "ocular problems, orthostatic hypotension, muscle twitching, pruritus, vagueness, hallucinations, lightheadedness and dry mouth".

HIV/AIDS
Evidence is lacking for both efficacy and safety of cannabis and cannabinoids in treating patients with HIV/AIDS or for anorexia associated with AIDS. As of 2013, current studies suffer from the effects of bias, small sample size, and lack of long-term data.

Pain
A 2021 review found little effect of using non-inhaled cannabis to relieve chronic pain. According to a 2019 systematic review, there have been inconsistent results of using cannabis for neuropathic pain, spasms associated with multiple sclerosis and pain from rheumatic disorders, but was not effective treating chronic cancer pain. The authors state that additional randomized controlled trials of different cannabis products are necessary to make conclusive recommendations.

When cannabis is inhaled to relieve pain, blood levels of cannabinoids rise faster than when oral products are used, peaking within three minutes and attaining an analgesic effect in seven minutes.

A 2011 review considered cannabis to be generally safe, and it appears safer than opioids in palliative care.

A 2022 review concluded the pain relief experienced after using medical cannabis is due to the placebo effect, especially given widespread media attention that sets the expectation for pain relief.

Neurological conditions
Cannabis' efficacy is not clear in treating neurological problems, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and movement problems. Evidence also suggests that oral cannabis extract is effective for reducing patient-centered measures of spasticity. A trial of cannabis is deemed to be a reasonable option if other treatments have not been effective. Its use for MS is approved in ten countries. A 2012 review found no problems with tolerance, abuse, or addiction. In the United States, cannabidiol, one of the cannabinoids found in the marijuana plant, has been approved for treating two severe forms of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.

Mental health
A 2019 systematic review found that there is a lack of evidence that cannabinoids are effective in treating depressive or anxiety disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, or psychosis.

Research indicates that cannabis, particularly CBD, may have anxiolytic (anxiety-reducing) effects. A study found that CBD significantly reduced anxiety during a simulated public speaking test for individuals with social anxiety disorder. However, the relationship between cannabis use and anxiety symptoms is complex, and while some users report relief, the overall evidence from observational studies and clinical trials remains inconclusive. Cannabis is often used by people to cope with anxiety, yet it is crucial to note that the efficacy and safety of cannabis for treating anxiety disorders need further investigation.

Cannabis use, especially at high doses, is associated with a higher risk of psychosis, particularly in individuals with a genetic predisposition to psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. Some studies have shown that cannabis can trigger a temporary psychotic episode, which may increase the risk of developing a psychotic disorder later.

The impact of cannabis on depression is less clear. Some studies suggest a potential increase in depression risk among adolescents who use cannabis, though findings are inconsistent across studies.

Medical use
There is insufficient data to draw strong conclusions about the safety of medical cannabis. Typically, adverse effects of medical cannabis use are not serious; they include tiredness, dizziness, increased appetite, and cardiovascular and psychoactive effects. Other effects can include impaired short-term memory; impaired motor coordination; altered judgment; and paranoia or psychosis at high doses. Tolerance to these effects develops over a period of days or weeks. The amount of cannabis normally used for medicinal purposes is not believed to cause any permanent cognitive impairment in adults, though long-term treatment in adolescents should be weighed carefully as they are more susceptible to these impairments. Withdrawal symptoms are rarely a problem with controlled medical administration of cannabinoids. The ability to drive vehicles or to operate machinery may be impaired until a tolerance is developed. Although supporters of medical cannabis say that it is safe, further research is required to assess the long-term safety of its use.

Cognitive effects
Recreational use of cannabis is associated with cognitive deficits, especially for those who begin to use cannabis in adolescence. there is a lack of research into long-term cognitive effects of medical use of cannabis, but one 12-month observational study reported that "MC patients demonstrated significant improvements on measures of executive function and clinical state over the course of 12 months".

Impact on psychosis
Exposure to THC can cause acute transient psychotic symptoms in healthy individuals and people with schizophrenia.

A 2007 meta analysis concluded that cannabis use reduced the average age of onset of psychosis by 2.7 years relative to non-cannabis use. A 2005 meta analysis concluded that adolescent use of cannabis increases the risk of psychosis, and that the risk is dose-related. A 2004 literature review on the subject concluded that cannabis use is associated with a two-fold increase in the risk of psychosis, but that cannabis use is "neither necessary nor sufficient" to cause psychosis. A French review from 2009 came to a conclusion that cannabis use, particularly that before age 15, was a factor in the development of schizophrenic disorders.

Pharmacology
The genus Cannabis contains two species which produce useful amounts of psychoactive cannabinoids: Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa, which are listed as Schedule I medicinal plants in the US; a third species, Cannabis ruderalis, has few psychogenic properties. Cannabis contains more than 460 compounds; at least 80 of these are cannabinoids – chemical compounds that interact with cannabinoid receptors in the brain. As of 2012, more than 20 cannabinoids were being studied by the U.S. FDA.

The most psychoactive cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant is tetrahydrocannabinol (or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC). Other cannabinoids include delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), cannabicyclol (CBL), cannabichromene (CBC) and cannabigerol (CBG); they have less psychotropic effects than THC, but may play a role in the overall effect of cannabis. The most studied are THC, CBD and CBN.

CB1 and CB2 are the primary cannabinoid receptors responsible for several of the effects of cannabinoids, although other receptors may play a role as well. Both belong to a group of receptors called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). CB1 receptors are found in very high levels in the brain and are thought to be responsible for psychoactive effects. CB2 receptors are found peripherally throughout the body and are thought to modulate pain and inflammation.

Absorption
Cannabinoid absorption is dependent on its route of administration.

Inhaled and vaporized THC have similar absorption profiles to smoked THC, with a bioavailability ranging from 10 to 35%. Oral administration has the lowest bioavailability of approximately 6%, variable absorption depending on the vehicle used, and the longest time to peak plasma levels (2 to 6 hours) compared to smoked or vaporized THC.

Similar to THC, CBD has poor oral bioavailability, approximately 6%. The low bioavailability is largely attributed to significant first-pass metabolism in the liver and erratic absorption from the gastrointestinal tract. However, oral administration of CBD has a faster time to peak concentrations (2 hours) than THC.

Due to the poor bioavailability of oral preparations, alternative routes of administration have been studied, including sublingual and rectal. These alternative formulations maximize bioavailability and reduce first-pass metabolism. Sublingual administration in rabbits yielded bioavailability of 16% and time to peak concentration of 4 hours. Rectal administration in monkeys doubled bioavailability to 13.5% and achieved peak blood concentrations within 1 to 8 hours after administration.

Distribution
Like cannabinoid absorption, distribution is also dependent on route of administration. Smoking and inhalation of vaporized cannabis have better absorption than do other routes of administration, and therefore also have more predictable distribution. THC is highly protein bound once absorbed, with only 3% found unbound in the plasma. It distributes rapidly to highly vascularized organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys, as well as to various glands. Low levels can be detected in the brain, testes, and unborn fetuses, all of which are protected from systemic circulation via barriers. THC further distributes into fatty tissues a few days after administration due to its high lipophilicity, and is found deposited in the spleen and fat after redistribution.

Metabolism
Delta-9-THC is the primary molecule responsible for the effects of cannabis. Delta-9-THC is metabolized in the liver and turns into 11-OH-THC. 11-OH-THC is the first metabolic product in this pathway. Both Delta-9-THC and 11-OH-THC are psychoactive. The metabolism of THC into 11-OH-THC plays a part in the heightened psychoactive effects of edible cannabis.

Next, 11-OH-THC is metabolized in the liver into 11-COOH-THC, which is the second metabolic product of THC. 11-COOH-THC is not psychoactive.

Ingestion of edible cannabis products lead to a slower onset of effect than the inhalation of it because the THC travels to the liver first through the blood before it travels to the rest of the body. Inhaled cannabis can result in THC going directly to the brain, where it then travels from the brain back to the liver in recirculation for metabolism. Eventually, both routes of metabolism result in the metabolism of psychoactive THC to inactive 11-COOH-THC.

Excretion
Due to substantial metabolism of THC and CBD, their metabolites are excreted mostly via feces, rather than by urine. After delta-9-THC is hydroxylated into 11-OH-THC via CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP3A4, it undergoes phase II metabolism into more than 30 metabolites, a majority of which are products of glucuronidation. Approximately 65% of THC is excreted in feces and 25% in the urine, while the remaining 10% is excreted by other means. The terminal half-life of THC is 25 to 36 hours, whereas for CBD it is 18 to 32 hours.

CBD is hydroxylated by P450 liver enzymes into 7-OH-CBD. Its metabolites are products of primarily CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 activity, with potential activity of CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP2C9, and CYP2D6. Similar to delta-9-THC, a majority of CBD is excreted in feces and some in the urine. The terminal half-life is approximately 18–32 hours.

Administration

Smoking has been the means of administration of cannabis for many users, but it is not suitable for the use of cannabis as a medicine. It was the most common method of medical cannabis consumption in the US. It is difficult to predict the pharmacological response to cannabis because concentration of cannabinoids varies widely, as there are different ways of preparing it for consumption (smoked, applied as oils, eaten, infused into other foods, or drunk) and a lack of production controls. The potential for adverse effects from smoke inhalation makes smoking a less viable option than oral preparations. Cannabis vaporizers have gained popularity because of a perception among users that fewer harmful chemicals are ingested when components are inhaled via aerosol rather than smoke. Cannabinoid medicines are available in pill form (dronabinol and nabilone) and liquid extracts formulated into an oromucosal spray (nabiximols). Oral preparations are "problematic due to the uptake of cannabinoids into fatty tissue, from which they are released slowly, and the significant first-pass liver metabolism, which breaks down Δ9THC and contributes further to the variability of plasma concentrations".

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved smoked cannabis for any condition or disease, as it deems that evidence is lacking concerning safety and efficacy. The FDA issued a 2006 advisory against smoked medical cannabis stating: "marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision."

Ancient
Cannabis, called má 麻 (meaning "hemp; cannabis; numbness") or dàmá 大麻 (with "big; great") in Chinese, was used in Taiwan for fiber starting about 10,000 years ago. The botanist Hui-lin Li wrote that in China, "The use of Cannabis in medicine was probably a very early development. Since ancient humans used hemp seed as food, it was quite natural for them to also discover the medicinal properties of the plant." Emperor Shen-Nung, who was also a pharmacologist, wrote a book on treatment methods in 2737 BCE that included the medical benefits of cannabis. He recommended the substance for many ailments, including constipation, gout, rheumatism, and absent-mindedness. Cannabis is one of the 50 "fundamental" herbs in traditional Chinese medicine.

The Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) from Ancient Egypt describes medical cannabis. The ancient Egyptians used hemp (cannabis) in suppositories for relieving the pain of hemorrhoids.

Surviving texts from ancient India confirm that cannabis' psychoactive properties were recognized, and doctors used it for treating a variety of illnesses and ailments, including insomnia, headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, and pain, including during childbirth.

The Ancient Greeks used cannabis to dress wounds and sores on their horses, and in humans, dried leaves of cannabis were used to treat nose bleeds, and cannabis seeds were used to expel tapeworms.

In the medieval Islamic world, Arabic physicians made use of the diuretic, antiemetic, antiepileptic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic properties of Cannabis sativa, and used it extensively as medication from the 8th to 18th centuries.

Landrace strains

Cannabis seeds may have been used for food, rituals or religious practices in ancient Europe and China. Harvesting the plant led to the spread of cannabis throughout Eurasia about 10,000 to 5,000 years ago, with further distribution to the Middle East and Africa about 2,000 to 500 years ago. A landrace strain of cannabis developed over centuries. They are cultivars of the plant that originated in one specific region.

Widely cultivated strains of cannabis, such as "Afghani" or "Hindu Kush", are indigenous to the Pakistan and Afghanistan regions, while "Durban Poison" is native to Africa. There are approximately 16 landrace strains of cannabis identified from Pakistan, Jamaica, Africa, Mexico, Central America and Asia.

Modern
An Irish physician, William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, is credited with introducing cannabis to Western medicine. O'Shaughnessy discovered cannabis in the 1830s while living abroad in India, where he conducted numerous experiments investigating the drug's medical utility (noting in particular its analgesic and anticonvulsant effects). He returned to England with a supply of cannabis in 1842, after which its use spread through Europe and the United States. In 1845 French physician Jacques-Joseph Moreau published a book about the use of cannabis in psychiatry. In 1850 cannabis was entered into the United States Pharmacopeia. An anecdotal report of Cannabis indica as a treatment for tetanus appeared in Scientific American in 1880.

The use of cannabis in medicine began to decline by the end of the 19th century, due to difficulty in controlling dosages and the rise in popularity of synthetic and opium-derived drugs. Also, the advent of the hypodermic syringe allowed these drugs to be injected for immediate effect, in contrast to cannabis which is not water-soluble and therefore cannot be injected.

In the United States, the medical use of cannabis further declined with the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which imposed new regulations and fees on physicians prescribing cannabis. Cannabis was removed from the U.S. Pharmacopeia in 1941, and officially banned for any use with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

Cannabis began to attract renewed interest as medicine in the 1970s and 1980s, in particular due to its use by cancer and AIDS patients who reported relief from the effects of chemotherapy and wasting syndrome. In 1996, California became the first U.S. state to legalize medical cannabis in defiance of federal law. In 2001, Canada became the first country to adopt a system regulating the medical use of cannabis.

Legal status
[[File:Map-of-world-medical-cannabis-laws.svg|thumb|right|380px|alt=Map of world medical cannabis laws| Legal status of (whole-plant) medical cannabis worldwide

{{legend|#0ea817|Legal as authorized by a physician}} {{legend|#0d00f2|Legal for any use (no prescription required)}}

See also countries that have decriminalized or where enforcement is limited. ]]

Countries that have legalized the medical use of cannabis include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Rwanda, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay. Other countries have more restrictive laws that allow only the use of isolated cannabinoid drugs such as Sativex or Epidiolex. Countries with the most relaxed policies include Canada, the Netherlands, Thailand, and Uruguay, where cannabis can be purchased without need for a prescription. In Mexico, THC content of medical cannabis is limited to one percent. In the United States, the legality of medical cannabis varies by state.

Cannabis and its derivatives are subject to regulation under three United Nations treaties: the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug under the Single Convention treaty, meaning that medical use is allowed but that it is considered to be an addictive drug with a serious risk of abuse – along with other drugs such as opium and cocaine. Prior to December 2020 it was also included in Schedule IV, a subset of Schedule I, which is for only the most dangerous drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. Member nations of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted 27–25 to remove it from Schedule IV on 2 December 2020, following a World Health Organization recommendation for removal in January 2019.

United States
In the United States, the use of cannabis for medical purposes is legal in 38 states, four out of five permanently inhabited U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. An additional 10 states have more restrictive laws allowing the use of low-THC products. Cannabis remains illegal at the federal level under the Controlled Substances Act, which classifies it as a Schedule I drug with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. In December 2014, however, the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment was signed into law, prohibiting the Justice Department from prosecuting individuals acting in accordance with state medical cannabis laws.

Distribution

The method of obtaining medical cannabis varies by region and by legislation. In the US, most consumers grow their own or buy it from cannabis dispensaries in states where it is legal. Marijuana vending machines for selling or dispensing cannabis are in use in the United States and are planned to be used in Canada. In 2014, the startup Meadow began offering on-demand delivery of medical marijuana in the San Francisco Bay Area, through their mobile app.

Almost 70% of medical cannabis is exported from the United Kingdom, according to a 2017 United Nations report, with much of the remaining amount coming from Canada and the Netherlands.

Insurance
In the United States, health insurance companies may not pay for a medical marijuana prescription as the Food and Drug Administration must approve any substance for medicinal purposes. Before this can happen, the FDA must first permit the study of the medical benefits and drawbacks of the substance, which it has not done since it was placed on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. Therefore, all expenses incurred fulfilling a medical marijuana prescription will possibly be incurred as out-of-pocket. However, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has ruled that workers' compensation insurance must pay for prescribed marijuana as part of the state's Medical Cannabis Program.

Positions of medical organizations
Medical organizations that have issued statements in support of allowing access to medical cannabis include the American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, American Medical Student Association, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Epilepsy Foundation, and Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Organizations that oppose the legalization of medical cannabis include the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Psychiatric Association. However, the AAP also supports rescheduling for the purpose of facilitating research.

The American Medical Association and American College of Physicians do not take a position on the legalization of medical cannabis, but have called for the Schedule I classification to be reviewed. The American Academy of Family Physicians and American Society of Addiction Medicine also do not take a position, but do support rescheduling to better facilitate research. The American Heart Association says that "many of the concerning health implications of cannabis include cardiovascular diseases" but that it supports rescheduling to allow "more nuanced ... marijuana legislation and regulation" and to "reflect the existing science behind cannabis". The American Cancer Society and American Psychological Association have noted the obstacles that exist for conducting research on cannabis, and have called on the federal government to better enable scientific study of the drug.

Cancer Research UK say that while cannabis is being studied for therapeutic potential, "claims that there is solid "proof" that cannabis or cannabinoids can cure cancer is highly misleading to patients and their families, and builds a false picture of the state of progress in this area".

Brand names
In the US, the FDA has approved two oral cannabinoids for use as medicine: dronabinol and nabilone. Dronabinol, synthetic THC, is listed as Schedule II. Nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid, is also Schedule II, indicating high potential for side effects and addiction. Both received approval for sale in the US in 1985, under the brand names Marinol and Cesamet. Nabiximols, an oromucosal spray derived from two strains of Cannabis sativa and containing THC and CBD, is not approved in the United States, but is approved in several European countries, Canada, and New Zealand as of 2013. As of 2018, medical marijuana in Canada is being legally distributed to registered patients in bud, drops and capsule forms by such companies as Canopy Growth Corp. and Aurora Cannabis.

As an antiemetic, these medications are usually used when conventional treatment for nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy fail to work.

Nabiximols is used for treatment of spasticity associated with MS when other therapies have not worked, and when an initial trial demonstrates "meaningful improvement". Trials for FDA approval in the US are underway. It is also approved in several European countries for overactive bladder and vomiting. When sold under the trade name Sativex as a mouth spray, the prescribed daily dose in Sweden delivers a maximum of 32.4 mg of THC and 30 mg of CBD; mild to moderate dizziness is common during the first few weeks.

Relative to inhaled consumption, peak concentration of oral THC is delayed, and it may be difficult to determine optimal dosage because of variability in patient absorption.

In 1964, Albert Lockhart and Manley West began studying the health effects of traditional cannabis use in Jamaican communities. They developed, and in 1987 gained permission to market, the pharmaceutical "Canasol", one of the first cannabis extracts.

Research
A 2022 review concluded that "oral, synthetic cannabis products with high THC-to-CBD ratios and sublingual, extracted cannabis products with comparable THC-to-CBD ratios may be associated with short-term improvements in chronic pain and increased risk for dizziness and sedation."

title: Medical cannabis


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Chameleon

Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colours, being capable of colour-shifting camouflage. The large number of species in the family exhibit considerable variability in their capacity to change colour. For some, it is more of a shift of brightness (shades of brown); for others, a plethora of colour-combinations (reds, yellows, greens, blues) can be seen.

Chameleons are also distinguished by their zygodactylous feet, their prehensile tail, their laterally compressed bodies, their head casques, their projectile tongues used for catching prey, their swaying gait, and in some species crests or horns on their brow and snout. Chameleons' eyes are independently mobile, and because of this the chameleon’s brain is constantly analyzing two separate, individual images of its environment. When hunting prey, the eyes focus forward in coordination, affording the animal stereoscopic vision.

Chameleons are diurnal and adapted for visual hunting of invertebrates, mostly insects, although the large species also can catch small vertebrates. Chameleons typically are arboreal, but there are also many species that live on the ground. The arboreal species use their prehensile tail as an extra anchor point when they are moving or resting in trees or bushes; because of this, their tail is often referred to as a "fifth limb". Depending on species, they range from rainforest to desert conditions and from lowlands to highlands, with the vast majority occurring in Africa (about half of the species are restricted to Madagascar), but with a single species in southern Europe, and a few across southern Asia as far east as India and Sri Lanka. They have been introduced to Hawaii and Florida.

Etymology
The English word chameleon is a simplified spelling of Latin chamaeleōn, a borrowing of the Greek χαμαιλέων (khamailéōn), a compound of χαμαί (khamaí) "on the ground" and λέων (léōn) "lion".

Classification
In 1986, the family Chamaeleonidae was divided into two subfamilies, Brookesiinae and Chamaeleoninae. Under this classification, Brookesiinae included the genera Brookesia and Rhampholeon, as well as the genera later split off from them (Palleon and Rieppeleon), while Chamaeleoninae included the genera Bradypodion, Calumma, Chamaeleo, Furcifer and Trioceros, as well as the genera later split off from them (Archaius, Nadzikambia and Kinyongia). Since that time, however, the validity of this subfamily designation has been the subject of much debate, although most phylogenetic studies support the notion that the pygmy chameleons of the subfamily Brookesiinae are not a monophyletic group.

While some authorities have previously preferred to use this subfamilial classification on the basis of the absence of evidence principle, these authorities later abandoned this subfamilial division, no longer recognizing any subfamilies with the family Chamaeleonidae.

In 2015, however, Glaw reworked the subfamilial division by placing only the genera Brookesia and Palleon within the Brookesiinae subfamily, with all other genera being placed in Chamaeleoninae.

Change of color
Some chameleon species are able to change their skin coloration. Different chameleon species are able to vary their colouration and pattern through combinations of pink, blue, red, orange, green, black, brown, light blue, yellow, turquoise, and purple. Chameleon skin has a superficial layer which contains pigments, and under the layer are cells with very small (nanoscale) guanine crystals. Chameleons change colour by "actively tuning the photonic response of a lattice of small guanine nanocrystals in the s-iridophores". This tuning, by an unknown molecular mechanism, changes the wavelength of light reflected off the crystals which changes the colour of the skin. The colour change was duplicated ex vivo by modifying the osmolarity of pieces of white skin.

Colour change in chameleons has functions in camouflage, but most commonly in social signaling and in reactions to temperature and other conditions. The relative importance of these functions varies with the circumstances, as well as the species. Colour change signals a chameleon's physiological condition and intentions to other chameleons. Because chameleons are ectothermic, another reason why they change colour is to regulate their body temperatures, either to a darker colour to absorb light and heat to raise their temperature, or to a lighter colour to reflect light and heat, thereby either stabilizing or lowering their body temperature. Chameleons tend to show brighter colours when displaying aggression to other chameleons, and darker colours when they submit or "give up". Most chameleon genera (exceptions are Chamaeleo, Rhampholeon and Rieppeleon) have blue fluorescence in a species specific pattern in their skull tubercles and in Brookesia there is also some in tubercles on the body. The fluorescence is derived from bones that only are covered in very thin skin and it possibly serves a signaling role, especially in shaded habitats.

Some species, such as Smith's dwarf chameleon and several others in the genus Bradypodion, adjust their colours for camouflage depending on the vision of the specific predator species (for example, bird or snake) by which they are being threatened. In the introduced Hawaiian population of Jackson's chameleon, conspicuous colour changes that are used for communication between chameleons have increased whereas anti-predator camouflage colour changes have decreased relative to the native source population in Kenya where there are more predators.

Chameleons have two superimposed layers within their skin that control their colour and thermoregulation. The top layer contains a lattice of guanine nanocrystals, and by exciting this lattice the spacing between the nanocrystals can be manipulated, which in turn affects which wavelengths of light are reflected and which are absorbed. Exciting the lattice increases the distance between the nanocrystals, and the skin reflects longer wavelengths of light. Thus, in a relaxed state the crystals reflect blue and green, but in an excited state the longer wavelengths such as yellow, orange, green, and red are reflected.

The skin of a chameleon also contains some yellow pigments, which combined with the blue reflected by a relaxed crystal lattice results in the characteristic green colour which is common of many chameleons in their relaxed state. Chameleon colour palettes have evolved through evolution and the environment. Chameleons living in the forest have a more defined and colourful palette compared to those living in the desert or savanna, which have more of a basic, brown, and charred palette.

Evolution
The oldest described chameleon is Anqingosaurus brevicephalus from the Middle Paleocene (about 58.7–61.7 mya) of China. Other chameleon fossils include Chamaeleo caroliquarti from the Lower Miocene (about 13–23 mya) of the Czech Republic and Germany, and Chamaeleo intermedius from the Upper Miocene (about 5–13 mya) of Kenya.

The chameleons are probably far older than that, perhaps sharing a common ancestor with iguanids and agamids more than 100 mya (agamids being more closely related). Since fossils have been found in Africa, Europe, and Asia, chameleons were certainly once more widespread than they are today.

Although nearly half of all chameleon species today live in Madagascar, this offers no basis for speculation that chameleons might originate from there. In fact, it has recently been shown that chameleons most likely originated in mainland Africa. It appears there were two distinct oceanic migrations from the mainland to Madagascar. The diverse speciation of chameleons has been theorized to have directly reflected the increase in open habitats (savannah, grassland, and heathland) that accompanied the Oligocene period. Monophyly of the family is supported by several studies.

Daza et al. (2016) described a small (10.6 mm in snout-vent length), probably neonatal lizard preserved in the Cretaceous (Albian-Cenomanian boundary) amber from Myanmar. The authors noted that the lizard has "short and wide skull, large orbits, elongated and robust lingual process, frontal with parallel margins, incipient prefrontal boss, reduced vomers, absent retroarticular process, low presacral vertebral count (between 15 and 17) and extremely short, curled tail"; the authors considered these traits to be indicative of the lizard's affiliation with Chamaeleonidae. The phylogenetic analysis conducted by the authors indicated that the lizard was a stem-chamaeleonid. However, Matsumoto & Evans (2018) reinterpreted this specimen as an albanerpetontid amphibian. This specimen was given the name Yaksha perettii in 2020, and was noted to have several convergently chameleon-like features, including adaptations for ballistic feeding.

While the exact evolutionary history of colour change in chameleons is still unknown, there is one aspect of the evolutionary history of chameleon colour change that has already been conclusively studied: the effects of signal efficacy. Signal efficacy, or how well the signal can be seen against its background, has been shown to correlate directly to the spectral qualities of chameleon displays. Dwarf chameleons, the chameleon of study, occupy a wide variety of habitats from forests to grasslands to shrubbery. It was demonstrated that chameleons in brighter areas tended to present brighter signals, but chameleons in darker areas tended to present relatively more contrasting signals to their backgrounds. This finding suggests that signal efficacy (and thus habitat) has affected the evolution of chameleon signaling. Stuart-Fox et al. note that it makes sense that selection for crypsis is not seen to be as important as selection for signal efficacy, because the signals are only shown briefly; chameleons are almost always muted cryptic colours.

Description

Chameleons vary greatly in size and body structure, with maximum total lengths varying from 22 mm in male Brookesia nana (one of the world's smallest reptiles) to 68.5 cm in the male Furcifer oustaleti. Many have head or facial ornamentation, such as nasal protrusions, or horn-like projections in the case of Trioceros jacksonii, or large crests on top of their heads, like Chamaeleo calyptratus. Many species are sexually dimorphic, and males are typically much more ornamented than the female chameleons.

Typical sizes of species of chameleon commonly kept in captivity or as pets are:

The feet of chameleons are highly adapted to arboreal locomotion, and species such as Chamaeleo namaquensis that have secondarily adopted a terrestrial habit have retained the same foot morphology with little modification. On each foot, the five distinguished toes are grouped into two fascicles. The toes in each fascicle are bound into a flattened group of either two or three, giving each foot a tongs-like appearance. On the front feet, the outer, lateral, group contains two toes, whereas the inner, medial, group contains three. On the rear feet, this arrangement is reversed, the medial group containing two toes, and the lateral group three. These specialized feet allow chameleons to grip tightly onto narrow or rough branches. Furthermore, each toe is equipped with a sharp claw to afford a grip on surfaces such as bark when climbing. It is common to refer to the feet of chameleons as didactyl or zygodactyl, though neither term is fully satisfactory, both being used in describing different feet, such as the zygodactyl feet of parrots or didactyl feet of sloths or ostriches, none of which is significantly like chameleon feet. Although "zygodactyl" is reasonably descriptive of chameleon foot anatomy, their foot structure does not resemble that of parrots, to which the term was first applied. As for didactyly, chameleons visibly have five toes on each foot, not two.

Some chameleons have a crest of small spikes extending along the spine from the proximal part of the tail to the neck; both the extent and size of the spikes vary between species and individuals. These spikes help break up the definitive outline of the chameleon, which aids it when trying to blend into a background.

Senses
Chameleons have the most distinctive eyes of any reptile. The upper and lower eyelids are joined, with only a pinhole large enough for the pupil to see through. Each eye can pivot and focus independently, allowing the chameleon to observe two different objects simultaneously. This gives them a full 360-degree arc of vision around their bodies. Prey is located using monocular depth perception, not stereopsis. Chameleons have the highest magnification (per size) of any vertebrate, with the highest density of cones in the retina.

Like snakes, chameleons do not have an outer or a middle ear, so there is neither an ear-opening nor an eardrum. However, chameleons are not deaf: they can detect sound frequencies in the range of 200–600 Hz.

Chameleons can see in both visible and ultraviolet light. Chameleons exposed to ultraviolet light show increased social behavior and activity levels, are more inclined to bask, feed, and reproduce as it has a positive effect on the pineal gland.

Feeding
All chameleons are primarily insectivores that feed by ballistically projecting their long tongues from their mouths to capture prey located some distance away. While the chameleons' tongues are typically thought to be one and a half to two times the length of their bodies (their length excluding the tail), smaller chameleons (both smaller species and smaller individuals of the same species) have recently been found to have proportionately larger tongue apparatuses than their larger counterparts. Thus, smaller chameleons are able to project their tongues greater distances than the larger chameleons that are the subject of most studies and tongue length estimates, and can project their tongues more than twice their body length.

The tongue apparatus consists of highly modified hyoid bones, tongue muscles, and collagenous elements. The hyoid bone has an elongated, parallel-sided projection, called the entoglossal process, over which a tubular muscle, the accelerator muscle, sits. The accelerator muscle contracts around the entoglossal process and is responsible for creating the work to power tongue projection, both directly and through the loading of collagenous elements located between the entoglossal process and the accelerator muscle. The tongue retractor muscle, the hyoglossus, connects the hyoid and accelerator muscle, and is responsible for drawing the tongue back into the mouth following tongue projection.

Tongue projection occurs at extremely high performance, reaching the prey in as little as 0.07 seconds, having been launched at accelerations exceeding 41 g. The power with which the tongue is launched, known to exceed 3000 W kg−1, exceeds that which muscle is able to produce, indicating the presence of an elastic power amplifier to power tongue projection. The recoil of elastic elements in the tongue apparatus is thus responsible for large percentages of the overall tongue projection performance.

One consequence of the incorporation of an elastic recoil mechanism to the tongue projection mechanism is relative thermal insensitivity of tongue projection relative to tongue retraction, which is powered by muscle contraction alone, and is heavily thermally sensitive. While other ectothermic animals become sluggish as their body temperatures decline, due to a reduction in the contractile velocity of their muscles, chameleons are able to project their tongues at high performance even at low body temperatures. The thermal sensitivity of tongue retraction in chameleons, however, is not a problem, as chameleons have a very effective mechanism of holding onto their prey once the tongue has come into contact with it, including surface phenomena, such as wet adhesion and interlocking, and suction. The thermal insensitivity of tongue projection thus enables chameleons to feed effectively on cold mornings prior to being able to behaviorally elevate their body temperatures through thermoregulation, when other sympatric lizards species are still inactive, likely temporarily expanding their thermal niche as a result.

Bones
Certain species of chameleons have bones that glow when under ultraviolet light, also known as biogenic fluorescence. Some 31 different species of Calumma chameleons, all native to Madagascar, displayed this fluorescence in CT scans. The bones emitted a bright blue glow and could even shine through the chameleon's four layers of skin. The face was found to have a different glow, appearing as dots otherwise known as tubercles on facial bones. The glow results from proteins, pigments, chitin, and other materials that make up a chameleon's skeleton, possibly giving chameleons a secondary signaling system that does not interfere with their colour-changing ability, and may have evolved from sexual selection.

Distribution and habitat

Chameleons primarily live in the mainland of sub-Saharan Africa and on the island of Madagascar, although a few species live in northern Africa, southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta), the Middle East, southeast Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and several smaller islands in the western Indian Ocean. Introduced, non-native populations are found in Hawaii and Florida.

Chameleons are found only in tropical and subtropical regions and inhabit all kinds of lowland and mountain forests, woodlands, shrublands, savannas, and sometimes deserts, but each species tends to be a restricted to only one of a few different habitat types. The typical chameleons from the subfamily Chamaeleoninae are arboreal, usually living in trees or bushes, although a few (notably the Namaqua chameleon) are partially or largely terrestrial. The genus Brookesia, which comprises the majority of the species in the subfamily Brookesiinae, live low in vegetation or on the ground among leaf litter. Many chameleon species have small distributions and are considered threatened. Declining chameleon numbers are mostly due to habitat loss.

Reproduction
Most chameleons are oviparous, but all Bradypodion species and many Trioceros species are ovoviviparous (although some biologists prefer to avoid the term ovoviviparous because of inconsistencies with its use in some animal groups, instead just using viviparous).

The oviparous species lay eggs three to six weeks after copulation. The female will dig a hole—from 10 –, deep depending on the species—and deposit her eggs. Clutch sizes vary greatly with species. Small Brookesia species may only lay two to four eggs, while large veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) have been known to lay clutches of 20–200 (veiled chameleons) and 10–40 (panther chameleons) eggs. Clutch sizes can also vary greatly among the same species. Eggs generally hatch after four to 12 months, again depending on the species. The eggs of Parson's chameleon (Calumma parsoni) typically take 400 to 660 days to hatch.

Chameleons lay flexible-shelled eggs which are affected by environmental characteristics during incubation. The egg mass is the most important in differentiating survivors of Chameleon during incubation. An increase in egg mass will depend on temperature and water potential. To understand the dynamics of water potential in Chameleon eggs, the consideration of exerted pressure on eggshells will be essential because the pressure of eggshells play an important role in the water relation of eggs during entire incubation period

The ovoviviparous species, such as the Jackson's chameleon (Trioceros jacksonii) have a five- to seven-month gestation period. Each young chameleon is born within the sticky transparent membrane of its yolk sac. The mother presses each egg onto a branch, where it sticks. The membrane bursts and the newly hatched chameleon frees itself and climbs away to hunt for itself and hide from predators. The female can have up to 30 live young from one gestation.

Diet
Chameleons generally eat insects, but larger species, such as the common chameleon, may also take other lizards and young birds. The range of diets can be seen from the following examples:

 * The veiled chameleon, Chamaeleo calyptratus from Arabia, is insectivorous, but eats leaves when other sources of water are not available. It can be maintained on a diet of crickets. They can eat as many as 15–50 large crickets a day.
 * Jackson's chameleon (Trioceros jacksonii) from Kenya and northern Tanzania eat a wide variety of small animals including ants, butterflies, caterpillars, snails, worms, lizards, geckos, amphibians, and other chameleons, as well as plant material, such as leaves, tender shoots, and berries. It can be maintained on a mixed diet including kale, dandelion leaves, lettuce, bananas, tomatoes, apples, crickets, and waxworms.
 * The common chameleon of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, Chamaeleo chamaeleon, mainly eats wasps and mantises; such arthropods form over three-quarters of its diet. Some experts advise that the common chameleon should not be fed exclusively on crickets; these should make up no more than half the diet, with the rest a mixture of waxworms, earthworms, grasshoppers, flies, and plant materials such as green leaves, oats, and fruit.
 * Some chameleons like the panther chameleon of Madagascar regulate their vitamin D3 levels, of which their insect diet is a poor source, by exposing themselves to sunlight since its UV component increases internal production.

Anti-predator adaptations
Chameleons are preyed upon by a variety of other animals. Birds and snakes are the most important predators of adult chameleons. Invertebrates, especially ants, put a high predation pressure on chameleon eggs and juveniles. Chameleons are unlikely to be able to flee from predators and rely on crypsis as their primary defense. Chameleons can change both their colours and their patterns (to varying extents) to resemble their surroundings or disrupt the body outline and remain hidden from a potential enemy's sight. Only if detected, chameleons actively defend themselves. They adopt a defensive body posture, present an attacker with a laterally flattened body to appear larger, warn with an open mouth, and, if needed, utilize feet and jaws to fight back. Vocalization is sometimes incorporated into threat displays.

Parasites
Chameleons are parasitized by nematode worms, including threadworms (Filarioidea). Threadworms can be transmitted by biting insects such as ticks and mosquitoes. Other roundworms are transmitted through food contaminated with roundworm eggs; the larvae burrow through the wall of the intestine into the bloodstream.

Chameleons are subject to several protozoan parasites, such as Plasmodium, which causes malaria, Trypanosoma, which causes sleeping sickness, and Leishmania, which causes leishmaniasis.

Chameleons are subject to parasitism by coccidia, including species of the genera Choleoeimeria, Eimeria, and Isospora.

As pets
Chameleons are popular reptile pets, mostly imported from African countries like Madagascar, Tanzania, and Togo. The most common in the trade are the Senegal chameleon (Chamaeleo senegalensis), the Yemen or veiled chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus), the panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis), and Jackson's chameleon (Trioceros jacksonii). Other chameleons seen in captivity (albeit on an irregular basis) include such species as the carpet chameleon (Furcifer lateralis), Meller’s chameleon (Trioceros melleri), Parson’s chameleon (Calumma parsonii), and several species of pygmy and leaf-tailed chameleons, mostly of the genera Brookesia, Rhampholeon, or Rieppeleon. These are among the most sensitive reptiles one can own, requiring specialized attention and care.

The U.S. has been the main importer of chameleons since the early 1980s accounting for 69% of African reptile exports. However, there have been large declines due to tougher regulations to protect species from being taken from the wild and due to many becoming invasive in places like Florida. They have remained popular though which may be due to the captive-breeding in the U.S. which has increased to the point that the U.S. can fulfill its demand, and has now even become a major exporter as well. In the U.S. they are so popular, that despite Florida having six invasive chameleon species due to the pet trade, reptile hobbyists in these areas search for chameleons to keep as pets or to breed and sell them, with some selling for up to a thousand dollars.

Historical understandings

Aristotle (4th century BC) describes chameleons in his History of Animals. Pliny the Elder (1st century AD) also discusses chameleons in his Natural History, noting their ability to change colour for camouflage.

The chameleon was featured in Conrad Gessner's Historia animalium (1563), copied from De aquatilibus (1553) by Pierre Belon.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the eponymous Prince says "Excellent, i' faith, of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air, promise-crammed." This refers to the Elizabethan belief that chameleons lived on nothing but the air.

General bibliography

 * Le Berre, François; Bartlett, Richard D. (2009). The Chameleon Handbook. Barron's Educational Series. 3rd Edition. ISBN 0764141422.

title: Chameleon


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Talk:Medical cannabis

Article needs positive information
The whole Medical uses section is just full of Low quality evidence to no evidence uses. Anyone that knows anything about cannabis knows there's high quality research that exist too. This article completely lacks it. Even some conflicting research can be found easily. I think we need to do a much better job relaying accurate information here.

Joseph507357 (talk) 00:09, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

 * Perhaps better to say "Article needs accurate information," which it does have based on WP:MEDRS -quality reviews and the existing regulatory status for medical uses. See the first two paragraphs of MEDRS here.
 * The existing article represents what is available for sources, according to the definitions: "review articles (especially systematic reviews) published in reputable medical journals; academic and professional books written by experts in the relevant fields and from respected publishers; and guidelines or position statements from national or international expert bodies." Zefr (talk) 01:10, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Science Writing
— Assignment last updated by Amnot Areso (talk) 14:33, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Medical cannabis


text:
Modular synthesizer

Modular synthesizers are synthesizers composed of separate modules for different functions. The modules can be connected together by the user to create a patch. The outputs from the modules may include audio signals, analog control voltages, or digital signals for logic or timing conditions. Typical modules are voltage-controlled oscillators, voltage-controlled filters, voltage-controlled amplifiers and envelope generators.

History
The first modular synthesizer was developed by German engineer Harald Bode in the late 1950s. The 1960s saw the introduction of the Moog synthesizer and the Buchla Modular Electronic Music System, created around the same period. The Moog was composed of separate modules which created and shaped sounds, such as envelopes, noise generators, filters, and sequencers, connected by patch cords.

The Japanese company Roland released the Roland System 100 in 1975, followed by the System 700 in 1976 and the System 100m in 1979.

In the late 1970s, modular synthesizers started to be largely supplanted in pop music by highly integrated keyboard synthesizers, racks of MIDI-connected gear, and samplers. By the 1990s, modular synthesizers had fallen out of favor compared to cheaper, smaller digital and software synthesizers. However, there continued to be a community who chose the physically patched approach, the flexibility and the sound of traditional modular systems.

Since the late 1990s, there has been a resurgence in the popularity of analog synthesizers aided by physical standardization practices, an increase in available retro gear and interest, decreased production costs and increased electronic reliability and stability, the rediscovered ability of modules to control things other than sound, and a generally heightened education through the development of virtual synthesis systems such as VCV Rack, MAX/MSP, Pd and Reaktor etc.

Types of module
The basic modular functions are: signal, control, logic/timing. Typically, inputs and outputs are an electric voltage.

The difference between a synthesizer module and a stand-alone effects unit is that an effects unit will have connections for input and output of the audio signal and knobs or switches for users to control various parameters of the device (for example, the modulation rate for a chorus effect) while a synthesizer module may have connections for input and output, but will also have connections so that the device's parameters can be further controlled by other modules (for example, to connect a low-frequency oscillator module to the modulation input of a delay module to get the chorus effect.)

There exist many different types of modules. Modules with the same basic functions may have different inputs, outputs and controls, depending on their degree of complexity. Some examples include the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which may have options for sync (hard or soft), linear or exponential frequency modulation, and variable waveshape; the voltage-controlled filter (VCF) that may have both resonance and bandwidth controls; and the envelope generator which may provide outputs at each stage of the process. Examples of more complex modules include the frequency shifter, sequencer, and vocoder.

Modular synthesizers may be bulky and expensive. There are some standards that manufacturers follow for their range of physical synthesizers, such as 1 V/octave control voltages, and gate and trigger thresholds providing general compatibility; however, connecting synthesizers from different manufacturers may require cables with different kinds of plugs.

German engineer Dieter Doepfer believed modular synthesizers could still be useful for creating unique sounds, and created a new, smaller modular system, the Doepfer A-100. This led to a new standard for modular systems, Eurorack; as of 2017, over 100 companies, including Moog and Roland, were developing Eurorack modules.

Typical modules
Modules can usually be categorized as either sources or processors. Standard modules found in a modular synthesizer are:

Sources - characterized by an output, but no signal input; it may have control inputs:
 * VCO – Voltage-controlled oscillator, outputs a signal whose frequency is a function of input control voltage and settings. In its basic form, these may be simple waveforms (most usually a square wave or a sawtooth wave, but also includes pulse, triangle and sine waves), however these can be dynamically changed through such controls as sync, frequency modulation, and self-modulation.
 * Noise source - Common types of noise offered by modular synthesizers include white, pink, and low frequency noise.
 * LFO - A low-frequency oscillator may or may not be voltage-controlled. It may be operated with a period anywhere from a fortieth of a second to several minutes. It is generally used as a control voltage for another module. For example, modulating a VCO will produce a frequency modulation perceived as vibrato, while modulating a VCA will produce amplitude modulation perceived as tremolo, depending on the control frequency. A rectangular wave output from a LFO can be used as a logic output for timing or trigger functions on other modules.
 * EG - An envelope generator is a transient voltage source. A trigger control signal applied to an envelope generator produces a single, shaped voltage. Often configured as ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release) it provides a control voltage that rises and falls. Usually it controls the amplitude of a VCA or the cutoff frequency of a VCF, but the patchable structure of the synthesizer makes it possible to use the envelope generator to modulate other parameters such as the frequency or pulse width of the VCO. Simpler EGs (AD or AR) or more complex (DADSR—delay, attack, decay, sustain, release) are sometimes available.
 * Sequencer or analog sequencer, is a family of compound module types that may be a source or a processor. As a source, depending upon the configuration, it may produce a sequence of voltages, usually set by adjusting values on front panel knobs. The sequencer may also output a trigger, or gate, at each step. Sequencers are stepped by a trigger being applied to the trigger input. Designs may allow for stepping forwards or backwards, oscillating patterns, random order, or only using a limited number of steps. An example of an analog sequencer and controller with this level of complexity is the Doepfer A-154, A-155 combination.

Processors - characterized by a signal input and an output and may have control inputs:
 * VCF - Voltage-controlled filter, which attenuates frequencies below (high-pass), above (low-pass) or both below and above (band-pass) a certain frequency. Most VCFs have variable resonance, sometimes voltage-controlled.
 * VCA - Voltage-controlled amplifier, varies the amplitude of a signal in response to an applied control voltage. The response curve may be linear or exponential. Also called a two-quadrant multiplier.
 * LPG - Low-pass gate, is a compound module, similar to a VCA combined with a VCF. The circuit uses a resistive opto-isolator to respond to the control voltage, which also filters the sound, allowing more high-frequency information through at higher amplification.
 * RM - Ring modulator - Two audio inputs are utilized to create sum and difference frequencies while suppressing the original signals. Also called an analog multiplier or frequency mixer.
 * Mixer - A module that adds voltages.
 * Multiple - Fan out a voltage output to multiple inputs.
 * Slew limiter - A sub-audio low-pass filter. When used in a control voltage path to an oscillator, produces a portamento effect.
 * S&H - Sample and hold, is usually used as a control-voltage processor. Depending upon the design, usually an ascending edge (trigger), captures the value of the voltage at the input, and outputs this voltage until the trigger input reads another voltage and repeats the process.
 * Sequencer, (see also above), as a processor, may have a signal input into each step, (location or stage), which is output, when stepped to. An example of this type of sequencer is the Doepfer A-155.
 * Custom control inputs - It is possible to connect any kind of voltage to a modular synthesizer as long as it remains in the usable voltage range of the instrument, usually -15V to +15V.

Modern manufacturers of modular hardware synthesizers
Hardware offerings range from complete systems in cases to kits for hobbyists. Many manufacturers augment their range with products based on recent re-designs of classic modules; often both the original and subsequent reworked designs are available free on the Internet, the original patents having lapsed. Many hobbyist designers also make available bare PCB boards and front panels for sale to other hobbyists.

 * Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments (formerly Buchla & Associates)
 * Doepfer Musikelektronik (A-100)
 * Moog Music (formerly Big Briar, formerly Moog)
 * Synthesis Technology
 * PAiA Electronics
 * Analogue Systems
 * Sound Transform Systems
 * Studio Electronics
 * Synthesizers.com
 * Synton Fenix

Form factors
Many early synthesizer modules had height in integer inches: 11" (e.g., Roland 700), 10" (e.g., Wavemakers), 9" (e.g., Aries), 8" (e.g., ARP 2500), 7" (e.g., Polyfusion, Buchla, Serge), 6" (e.g., Emu) and width in 1/4" inch multiples. More recently it has become more popular to follow the standard 19" rack unit system: 6U (Wiard), 5U (8.75" e.g., Moog/Modcan), 4U (e.g., Serge), 3U (Eurorack).

Two 3U unit standards, in particular, are notable: Frac Rack (e.g., PAiA), which uses the entire 3U for the front panel, and Eurorack (e.g., Doepfer) which has a 2 mm horizontal lip that the front panels are seated between. Further minor variations exist where European or Japanese manufacturers round a U measurement up or down to some closer convenient metric equivalent; for example, the common 5U modules are exactly 8.75 in, but non-American manufacturers may prefer 220 or 230 mm.

Electrical
Other differences are in the plugs used, which can match 1/4-inch (6.3 mm) or 3.5 mm phone connectors, banana jacks, or breadboard patch leads; in the main power supply, which is most often ±12 V or ±15 V, but can range from 2.5±2.5 V to 0±18 V for different manufacturers or systems; in the trigger or gate voltages (Moog S-trigger or positive gate), with typical audio signal levels (often ±5 V with ±5 V headroom); and with control voltages of volts/octave, typically 1 V/octave, but in some cases 1.2 V/octave.

In most analog modular systems the frequency is exponentially related to the control voltage (such as 1 volt/octave or 1.2 volts/octave), sometimes called linear because the human ear perceives frequencies in a logarithmic fashion, with each octave having the same perceptual size. Some synthesizers (such as Korg MS-20, ETI 4600) use a system where the frequency (but not the perceived pitch) is linear with voltage.

Due to the continuously variable nature of knobs and sliders, reproducing an exact patch can be difficult.

Modular software synthesizers
There are also software synthesizers for personal computers which are organized as interconnectable modules. Many of these are virtual analog synthesizers, where the modules simulate hardware functionality. Some of them are also virtual modular systems, which simulate real historical modular synthesizers.

 * AudioMulch
 * Arturia Modular V
 * Bidule
 * Bitwig Studio (The Grid)
 * ChucK
 * CreamwareAudio Modular III
 * Csound
 * Doepfer
 * MaxMSP
 * Moog Model 15
 * Kyma
 * Pure Data
 * Reaktor
 * SunVox
 * SuperCollider
 * VCV Rack
 * Wren for Windows (open-source)

Computers have grown so powerful that software programs can realistically model the signals, sounds, and patchability of modular synthesizers. While potentially lacking the physical presence of desirable analog sound generation, real voltage manipulation, knobs, sliders, cables, and LEDs, software modular synthesizers offer the infinite variations and visual patching at a more affordable price and in a compact form factor.

The popular plugin formats such as VST may be combined in a modular fashion.

Semi-modular synthesizers

A modular synthesizer has a case or frame into which arbitrary modules can be fitted; modules are usually connected together using patch cords and a system may include modules from different sources, as long as it fits the form factors of the case and uses the same electrical specifications.

A semi-modular synthesizer on the other hand is a collection of modules from a single manufacturer that makes a cohesive product, an instrument. Modules may not be swapped out and usually a typical configuration has been pre-wired. The modules are typically not separable and may physically be parts of a contiguous circuit board. However, the manufacturer provides mechanisms to allow the user to connect modules in different orders and often to connect external components or modules (chosen and supplied by the user) between those of the instrument.

Matrix systems
Matrix systems use pin matrices or other crosspoint switches rather than patch cords. The ARP 2500 was the first synthesizer to use a fixed switch matrix. The pin matrix was made popular in the EMS VCS-3 and its descendants like the EMS Synthi 100. Other systems include the ETI 4600, and the Maplin 5600s.

The clean logical layout of these matrices has inspired a number of manufacturers like Arturia to include digitally programmable matrices in their analog or virtual analog synthesizers. Many fully digital synthesizers, like the Alesis Ion, make use of the logic and nomenclature of a modulation matrix, even when the graphical layout of a hardware matrix is completely absent.

Patch override systems
The different modules of a semi-modular synthesizer are wired together into a typical configuration, but can be re-wired by the user using patch cords. Some examples are the ARP 2600, Anyware Semtex, Cwejman S1, EML101, Evenfall Minimodular, Future Retro XS, Korg MS-10 / MS-20 / PS-3100 / PS-3200 / PS-3300, Mungo State Zero, Roland System 100, Korg Volca Modular and Moog Mother-32.

Electronically reconfigurable systems
Reconfigurable systems allow certain signals to be routed through modules in different orders without the use of patch cords. Examples include the Oberheim Matrix and Rhodes Chroma, and Moog Voyager.

Hybrid modular synthesizers
Hybrid synthesizers use hardware and software in combination to realize patches. Examples include the Arturia Origin by Arturia (fully self-contained), Clavia Nord Modular and Clavia Nord Modular G2 (these need an external computer to edit patches) and Audiocubes.

title: Modular synthesizer


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Talk:National Gallery, London, England

This is an ugly cut-and-paste move. If you get a user account, 64.228.30.69, you'll be able to move things and preserve their history. Were you planning on using National Gallery as a disambiguation page? if not, why the move? I will revert this unless someone convinces me not to. See Talk:National Gallery --rbrwr

...I did move it back, and then (using "move page") to National Gallery, London (there's no real need to disambiguate London). --rbrwr

title: Talk:National Gallery, London, England


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Egbere

In Yoruba mythology, Egbere is a malevolent spirit that is believed to reside in the woods and is often encountered during the nighttime.

According to the mythology, Egbere is described as being short in stature and is associated with a small mat. It is said to constantly cry. Additionally, there is a belief that anyone who manages to take the mat of wealth from Egbere will attain unimaginable riches.

title: Egbere


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Talk:National Gallery

National gallery or national art gallery
Which name is correct?175.103.25.138 (talk) 13:00, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

 * This is called "The National Gallery". There are several institutions around the world called "The National Art Gallery" but not this one of those. If you look at their website you will see that they only use the name "National Gallery". We can describe the institution as a national art gallery, but that is just a description, not its name. --DanielRigal (talk) 13:10, 13 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Yup. "National gallery". Ceoil  (talk) 18:24, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:National Gallery