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Castor oil

Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans. It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor. Its boiling point is 313 C and its density is 0.961 g/cm3. It includes a mixture of triglycerides in which about 90% of fatty acids are ricinoleates. Oleic acid and linoleic acid are the other significant components.

Castor oil and its derivatives are used in the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids, paints, dyes, coatings, inks, cold-resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon, and perfumes.

Etymology
The name probably comes from a confusion between the Ricinus plant that produces it and another plant, the Vitex agnus-castus. An alternative etymology, though, suggests that it was used as a replacement for castoreum.

Composition
Castor oil is well known as a source of ricinoleic acid, a monounsaturated, 18-carbon fatty acid. Among fatty acids, ricinoleic acid is unusual in that it has a hydroxyl functional group on the 12th carbon atom. This functional group causes ricinoleic acid (and castor oil) to be more polar than most fats. The chemical reactivity of the alcohol group also allows chemical derivatization that is not possible with most other seed oils.

Because of its ricinoleic acid content, castor oil is a valuable chemical in feedstocks, commanding a higher price than other seed oils. As an example, in July 2007, Indian castor oil sold for about US$0.90/kg ($0.41/lb), whereas U.S. soybean, sunflower, and canola oils sold for about $0.30/kg ($0.14/lb).

Uses
Annually, 270,000–360,000 tonnes (600–800 million pounds) of castor oil are produced for a variety of uses.

Human uses
Castor oil has been used orally to relieve constipation or to evacuate the bowel before intestinal surgery. The laxative effect of castor oil is attributed to ricinoleic acid, which is produced by hydrolysis in the small intestine. Use of castor oil for simple constipation is medically discouraged because it may cause violent diarrhea.

Food and preservative
In the food industry, food-grade castor oil is used in food additives, flavorings, candy (e.g., polyglycerol polyricinoleate in chocolate), as a mold inhibitor, and in packaging. Polyoxyethylated castor oil (e.g., Kolliphor EL) is also used in the food industries.

In India, Pakistan, and Nepal, food grains are preserved by the application of castor oil. It stops rice, wheat, and pulses from rotting. For example, the legume pigeon pea is commonly available coated in oil for extended storage.

Traditional medicine

Use of castor oil as a laxative is attested to in the c. 1550 BCE Ebers Papyrus, and was in use several centuries earlier.

According to the American Cancer Society, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that castor oil on the skin cures cancer or any other disease."

Childbirth
Castor oil has been historically used to induce labor in pregnant women. A 1984 study concluded "castor oil, which is more economical and convenient than oxytocin, can be used safely and effectively to stimulate labor". Another trial concluded "research is needed to attempt to quantify the efficacy of castor oil as a cervical priming and induction agent". Another comparison found "Women who receive castor oil have an increased likelihood of initiation of labor within 24 hours compared to women who receive no treatment. Castor oil use in pregnancy is underreported worldwide". Castor oil may be effective in triggering contractions in "patients who are at or past their delivery date but have not gone into labor". A 2022 meta-analysis published in an Iranian nursing and midwifery journal found "use of castor oil has positive effect on labor induction and increases the prevalence of vaginal delivery. None of the studies considered in this meta-analysis reported any serious harmful effects for the use of castor oil". Diarrhea (with concomitant risk of dehydration) is an expected side effect of ingesting castor oil to induce labor.

Punishment
Since children commonly strongly dislike the taste of castor oil, some parents punished children with a dose of it. Physicians recommended against the practice because they did not want medicines associated with punishment.

A heavy dose of castor oil could be used as a humiliating punishment for adults. Colonial officials used it in the British Raj (India) to deal with recalcitrant servants. Belgian military officials prescribed heavy doses of castor oil in Belgian Congo as a punishment for being too sick to work.

Castor oil was also a tool of punishment favored by the Falangist and later Francoist Spain during and following the Spanish Civil War. Its use as a form of gendered violence to repress women was especially prominent. This began during the war where Nationalist forces would specifically target Republican-aligned women, both troops and civilians, who lived in Republican-controlled areas. The forced drinking of castor oil occurred alongside sexual assault, rape, torture and murder of these women.

Its most notorious use as punishment came in Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini. It was a favorite tool used by the Blackshirts to intimidate and humiliate their opponents. Political dissidents were force-fed large quantities of castor oil by fascist squads so as to induce bouts of extreme diarrhea in the victims. This technique was said to have been originated by Gabriele D'Annunzio or Italo Balbo. This form of torture was potentially deadly, as the administration of the castor oil was often combined with nightstick beatings, especially to the rear, so that the resulting diarrhea would not only lead to dangerous dehydration but also infect the open wounds from the beatings. However, even those victims who survived had to bear the humiliation of the laxative effects resulting from excessive consumption of the oil.

Emollient
Castor oil has been used in cosmetic products included in creams and as a moisturizer. It is often combined with zinc oxide to form an emollient and astringent, zinc and castor oil cream, which is commonly used to treat infants for nappy rash.

Coatings
Castor oil is used as a biobased polyol in the polyurethane industry. The average functionality (number of hydroxyl groups per triglyceride molecule) of castor oil is 2.7, so it is widely used as a rigid polyol and in coatings. One particular use is in a polyurethane concrete where a castor-oil emulsion is reacted with an isocyanate (usually polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate) and a cement and construction aggregate. This is applied fairly thickly as a slurry, which is self-levelling. This base is usually further coated with other systems to build a resilient floor.

Castor oil is not a drying oil, meaning that it has a low reactivity with air compared with oils such as linseed oil and tung oil. However, dehydration of castor oil yields linoleic acids, which do have drying properties. In this process, the OH group on the ricinoleic acid along with a hydrogen from the next carbon atom are removed, forming a double bond which then has oxidative cross-linking properties and yields the drying oil. It is considered a vital raw material.

Precursor to industrial chemicals
Castor oil can react with other materials to produce other chemical compounds that have numerous applications. Transesterification followed by steam cracking gives undecylenic acid, a precursor to specialized polymer nylon 11, and heptanal, a component in fragrances. Breakdown of castor oil in strong base gives 2-octanol, both a fragrance component and a specialized solvent, and the dicarboxylic acid sebacic acid. Hydrogenation of castor oil saturates the alkenes, giving a waxy lubricant. Castor oil may be epoxidized by reacting the OH groups with epichlorohydrin to make the triglycidyl ether of castor oil which is useful in epoxy technology. This is available commercially as Heloxy 505.

The production of lithium grease consumes a significant amount of castor oil. Hydrogenation and saponification of castor oil yields 12-hydroxystearic acid, which is then reacted with lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate to give high-performance lubricant grease.

Since it has a relatively high dielectric constant (4.7), highly refined and dried castor oil is sometimes used as a dielectric fluid within high-performance, high-voltage capacitors.

Lubrication
Vegetable oils such as castor oil are typically unattractive alternatives to petroleum-derived lubricants because of their poor oxidative stability. Castor oil has better low-temperature viscosity properties and high-temperature lubrication than most vegetable oils, making it useful as a lubricant in jet, diesel, and racing engines. The viscosity of castor oil at 10 °C is 2,420 centipoise, but it tends to form gums in a short time, so its usefulness is limited to engines that are regularly rebuilt, such as racing engines. Lubricant company Castrol took its name from castor oil.

Castor oil has been suggested as a lubricant for bicycle pumps because it does not degrade natural rubber seals.

Early aviation and aeromodelling
Castor oil was the preferred lubricant for rotary engines, such as the Gnome engine after that engine's widespread adoption for aviation in Europe in 1909. It was used almost universally in rotary-engined Allied aircraft in World War I. Germany had to make do with inferior ersatz oil for its rotary engines, which resulted in poor reliability.

The methanol-fueled, two-cycle, glow-plug engines used for aeromodelling, since their adoption by model airplane hobbyists in the 1940s, have used varying percentages of castor oil as lubricants. It is highly resistant to degradation when the engine has its fuel-air mixture leaned for maximum engine speed. Gummy residues can still be a problem for aeromodelling powerplants lubricated with castor oil, however, usually requiring eventual replacement of ball bearings when the residue accumulates within the engine's bearing races. One British manufacturer of sleeve valved four-cycle model engines has stated the "varnish" created by using castor oil in small percentages can improve the pneumatic seal of the sleeve valve, improving such an engine's performance over time.

Turkey red oil
Turkey red oil, also called sulphonated (or sulfated) castor oil, is made by adding sulfuric acid to vegetable oils, most notably castor oil. It was the first synthetic detergent after ordinary soap. It is used in formulating lubricants, softeners, and dyeing assistants.

Biodiesel
Castor oil, like currently less expensive vegetable oils, can be used as feedstock in the production of biodiesel. The resulting fuel is superior for cold winters, because of its exceptionally low cloud point and pour point.

Initiatives to grow more castor for energy production, in preference to other oil crops, are motivated by social considerations. Tropical subsistence farmers would gain a cash crop.

Safety
The castor seed contains ricin, a toxic lectin. Heating during the oil extraction process denatures and deactivates the lectin. Harvesting castor beans, though, may not be without risk. The International Castor Oil Association FAQ document states that castor beans contain an allergenic compound called CB1A. This chemical is described as being virtually nontoxic, but has the capacity to affect people with hypersensitivity. The allergen may be neutralized by treatment with a variety of alkaline agents. The allergen is not present in the castor oil itself.

title: Castor oil


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Rubber bullet

Rubber bullets (also called rubber baton rounds) are a type of baton round. Despite the name, rubber bullets typically have either a metal core with a rubber coating, or are a homogeneous admixture with rubber being a minority component. Although they are considered a less lethal alternative to metal projectiles, rubber bullets can still cause fatal injuries as well as other serious injuries such as blindness or other permanent disabilities.

Like other similar projectiles made from plastic, wax, and wood, rubber bullets may be used for short range practice and animal control, but are most commonly used in riot control and to disperse protests.

Rubber bullets were invented by the British Ministry of Defence for riot control purposes in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and were first used there in 1970.

Rubber projectiles have largely been replaced by other materials, as rubber tends to bounce uncontrollably.

Composition and physical properties
Analysis of the composition of the "rubber" pellets used by Chilean police shows that 80% of the pellets is made up of hard substances, chiefly silica and barium sulfate, while rubber makes up 20%. The measured hardness of the "rubber" pellets is 96.5 shore A. The hardness of the pellets explain why "exploded eyes" were so common in the 2019–2020 Chilean protests.

Riot control
The British Ministry of Defence developed rubber rounds—the "Round, Anti-Riot, 1.5in Baton"—in 1970 for riot control purposes in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. A low power propelling charge gave them a muzzle velocity of about 60 m/s and maximum range of about 100 m."The round is generally deployed in low trajectories or skip fired in the general direction (non-target specific) of the intended targets," causing pain but not injury, but is also intended to be direct fired at the discretion of the operator. From 1970 to 1975, about 55,000 rubber bullets were fired by the British Army in Northern Ireland. The bullets were intended to be fired at the legs of rioters or the ground in front of rioters where it would bounce, losing some of its velocity, and then hit the intended target. However, rubber bullets were often fired by security forces directly at people from close range, resulting in a number of individuals being killed or wounded. Humans rights campaigner and co-founder of United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets Emma Groves was blinded by a rubber bullet in 1971. In 1975, they were replaced by plastic bullets. In Northern Ireland over 35 years (1970–2005), about 125,000 rubber and plastic bullets were fired—an average of ten per day—causing 17 deaths.

The baton round was made available to British police forces outside Northern Ireland from 2001. In 2013 however, Ministry of Defence papers declassified from 1977 revealed it was aware rubber bullets were more dangerous than was publicly disclosed. The documents contained legal advice for the MoD to seek a settlement over a child who had been blinded in 1972, rather than go to court which would expose problems with the bullets and make it harder to fight future related cases. The papers stated that further tests would reveal serious problems with the bullets, including that they were tested "in a shorter time than was ideal", that they "could be lethal" and that they "could and did cause serious injuries".

Israeli rubber bullets are produced in two main types. The older type, the standard rubber bullet, is a steel sphere coated in a thin layer of rubber, weighing 14 grams, while the newly improved rubber bullet, introduced in 1989, is a rubber-coated metal cylinder 1.7 cm in diameter, weighing 15.4grams. Of the lethal injuries from this projectile, most are suffered to the head.

Smaller rubber bullets are used in riot shotguns and are available in a variety of types. One company, for example, makes both rubber buckshot rounds, containing 15 8.3mm diameter rubber balls per cartridge, and rubber baton rounds, containing a single 4.75-gram projectile. Israeli security forces used less-lethal weapons including rubber bullets in an operation on 28 February 2011 to demolish illegal structures in the West Bank settlement of Havat Gilad.

Self-defense
In some countries, less-lethal guns that fire rubber projectiles may be used by civilians for self-defense.
 * 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan – The civil population and private security guards are allowed to carry less-lethal gas pistols with the ability to fire rubber bullets.
 * 🇷🇴 Romania – Rubber bullet guns are one of the few firearms that can be owned in the country by private individuals.
 * 🇷🇺 Russia – Since 1999, the civil population, private security officers, and law control forces in Russia are permitted to use less-lethal weapons. A variety of handguns (Osa, Makarych, Horhe, etc.) are carried with specially weakened construction and barrel with internal lugs, making use of full-power loads and/or firing hard projectiles impossible, while rubber bullets just compress when passing the lug and so may be fired. Most common calibers are 9 mm and 10 mm with muzzle velocity sometimes almost matching normal handguns and bullets as light as 0.7 g.
 * 🇺🇦 Ukraine – Security guards may use less-lethal gas pistols with the ability to fire ammunition with rubber bullets.

Recreation
Rubber bullets, powered only by primer, are usually used for short-range indoor target practice or training, generally with handguns. They are intended only for target shooting, unlike paintballs or airsoft pellets, which are intended for use on suitably protected live targets. Rubber bullets, if used with a suitable backstop, can be recovered undamaged after firing, and reused many times.

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

title: Rubber bullet


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Faltings's theorem

Faltings's theorem is a result in arithmetic geometry, according to which a curve of genus greater than 1 over the field $$\mathbb{Q}$$ of rational numbers has only finitely many rational points. This was conjectured in 1922 by Louis Mordell, and known as the Mordell conjecture until its 1983 proof by Gerd Faltings. The conjecture was later generalized by replacing $$\mathbb{Q}$$ by any number field.

Background
Let $$C$$ be a non-singular algebraic curve of genus $$g$$ over $$\mathbb{Q}$$. Then the set of rational points on $$C$$ may be determined as follows:
 * When $$g=0$$, there are either no points or infinitely many. In such cases, $$C$$ may be handled as a conic section.
 * When $$g=1$$, if there are any points, then $$C$$ is an elliptic curve and its rational points form a finitely generated abelian group. (This is Mordell's Theorem, later generalized to the Mordell–Weil theorem.) Moreover, Mazur's torsion theorem restricts the structure of the torsion subgroup.
 * When $$g>1$$, according to Faltings's theorem, $$C$$ has only a finite number of rational points.

Proofs
Igor Shafarevich conjectured that there are only finitely many isomorphism classes of abelian varieties of fixed dimension and fixed polarization degree over a fixed number field with good reduction outside a fixed finite set of places. Aleksei Parshin showed that Shafarevich's finiteness conjecture would imply the Mordell conjecture, using what is now called Parshin's trick.

Gerd Faltings proved Shafarevich's finiteness conjecture using a known reduction to a case of the Tate conjecture, together with tools from algebraic geometry, including the theory of Néron models. The main idea of Faltings's proof is the comparison of Faltings heights and naive heights via Siegel modular varieties.

Later proofs

 * Paul Vojta gave a proof based on Diophantine approximation. Enrico Bombieri found a more elementary variant of Vojta's proof.
 * Brian Lawrence and Akshay Venkatesh gave a proof based on $p$-adic Hodge theory, borrowing also some of the easier ingredients of Faltings's original proof.

Consequences
Faltings's 1983 paper had as consequences a number of statements which had previously been conjectured:

 * The Mordell conjecture that a curve of genus greater than 1 over a number field has only finitely many rational points;
 * The Isogeny theorem that abelian varieties with isomorphic Tate modules (as $$\mathbb{Q}_{\ell}$$-modules with Galois action) are isogenous.

A sample application of Faltings's theorem is to a weak form of Fermat's Last Theorem: for any fixed $$n\ge 4$$ there are at most finitely many primitive integer solutions (pairwise coprime solutions) to $$a^n+b^n=c^n$$, since for such $$n$$ the Fermat curve $$x^n+y^n=1$$ has genus greater than 1.

Generalizations
Because of the Mordell–Weil theorem, Faltings's theorem can be reformulated as a statement about the intersection of a curve $$C$$ with a finitely generated subgroup $$\Gamma$$ of an abelian variety $$A$$. Generalizing by replacing $$A$$ by a semiabelian variety, $$C$$ by an arbitrary subvariety of $$A$$, and $$\Gamma$$ by an arbitrary finite-rank subgroup of $$A$$ leads to the Mordell–Lang conjecture, which was proved in 1995 by McQuillan following work of Laurent, Raynaud, Hindry, Vojta, and Faltings.

Another higher-dimensional generalization of Faltings's theorem is the Bombieri–Lang conjecture that if $$X$$ is a pseudo-canonical variety (i.e., a variety of general type) over a number field $$k$$, then $$X(k)$$ is not Zariski dense in $$X$$. Even more general conjectures have been put forth by Paul Vojta.

The Mordell conjecture for function fields was proved by Yuri Ivanovich Manin and by Hans Grauert. In 1990, Robert F. Coleman found and fixed a gap in Manin's proof.

title: Faltings's theorem


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Rhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom.

Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world's most prestigious international scholarship programs. Its founder, Cecil John Rhodes, wanted to promote unity among English-speaking nations and instill a sense of civic-minded leadership and moral fortitude in future leaders, irrespective of their chosen career paths. Initially restricted to male applicants from countries that are today within the Commonwealth, Germany and the United States, the scholarship is now open to men and women from all backgrounds around the world.

Rhodes Scholars have achieved distinction as politicians, academics, scientists and doctors, authors, entrepreneurs, and Nobel Prize winners. Many scholars have become heads of state or heads of government, including President of the United States Bill Clinton, President of Pakistan Wasim Sajjad, Prime Minister of Jamaica Norman Manley, Prime Minister of Malta Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister Of Canada John Turner, and Prime Ministers of Australia Tony Abbott, Bob Hawke, and Malcolm Turnbull. Other notable Rhodes Scholars include Nobel Prize-winning scientist Howard Florey, Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Spence, Australian High Court Justice James Edelman, journalist and American television host George Stephanopolous, astronomer Edwin Hubble, author Naomi Wolf, musician Kris Kristofferson, Jamaican Minister of Finance Nigel Clarke, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, film maker Terrence Malick, and director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly, President and CEO of Navigation Capital Partners David K Panton.

Founding and motivation
Numerous international scholarship programs were very much underway by 1900. Since the 1880s, governments, universities, and individuals in the settler colonies had been establishing travelling scholarships to home universities. By 1900, the travelling scholarship had become an important part of settler universities' educational visions. It served as a crucial mechanism by which they sought to claim their citizenship of what they saw as the expansive British academic world. The Rhodes program was a copy that soon became the best-known version. The Rhodes Trust established the scholarships in 1902 under the terms laid out in the eighth and final will of Cecil John Rhodes, dated 1 July 1899 and appended by several codicils through March 1902.

The scholarships were founded for two reasons: to promote unity within the British empire, and to strengthen diplomatic ties between Britain and the United States of America. In Rhodes's own words, "I…desire to encourage and foster an appreciation of the advantages which I implicitly believe will result from the union of the English-speaking peoples throughout the world and to encourage in the students from North America who would benefit from the American Scholarships." Rhodes also bequeathed scholarships to German students in the hope that, "a good understanding between England, Germany and the United States of America will secure the peace of the world."

Rhodes, who attended Oriel College, Oxford, believed the university's residential colleges would be the best venue to nurture diplomatic ties between future world leaders.

To this day, controversies persist over Rhodes's Anglo-supremacist beliefs, most of which date back to his 1877 confession of faith. However, such convictions did not play a part in the final vision for the scholarship. The scholarships are based on Rhodes's final will and testament, which states that "no student shall be qualified or disqualified for election…on account of his race or religious opinions".

The Rhodes Scholarships are administered and awarded by the Rhodes Trust, which is located at Rhodes House in Oxford. The trust has been modified by four acts of Parliament: the Rhodes Estate Act 1916, the Rhodes Trust Act 1929, the Rhodes Trust Act 1946; and most recently by the Rhodes Trust (Modification) Order 1976, a statutory instrument in accordance with Section 78 (4) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

20th century
In 1925, the Commonwealth Fund Fellowships (later renamed the Harkness Fellowships) were established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships by enabling British graduates to study in the United States. The Kennedy Scholarship program, created in 1966 as a memorial to John F. Kennedy, adopts a comparable selection process to the Rhodes Scholarships to allow ten British post-graduate students per year to study at either Harvard or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1953, the Parliament of the United Kingdom created the Marshall Scholarship as a coeducational alternative to the Rhodes Scholarship that would serve as a "living gift" to the United States.

Cecil Rhodes wished current scholars and Rhodes alumni (in the words of his will) to have "opportunities of meeting and discussing their experiences and prospects". This has been reflected, for example, in the initiation by the first warden (Sir Francis Wylie), of an annual warden's Christmas letter (now supplemented by Rhodes e-news and other communications); the creation of alumni associations in several countries, most prominently the Association of American Rhodes Scholars (which publishes The American Oxonian, founded in 1914, and oversees the Eastman Professorship); and the holding of reunions for Rhodes Scholars of all countries.

In recognition of the centenary of the foundation of the Rhodes Trust in 2003, four former Rhodes Scholars were awarded honorary degrees by the University of Oxford. These were John Brademas, Bob Hawke (Western Australia and University 1953), Rex Nettleford and David R. Woods. During the centenary celebrations, the foundation of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation was also marked.

21st century
In 2013, during the 110th Rhodes anniversary celebrations, John McCall MacBain, Marcy McCall MacBain and the McCall MacBain Foundation donated £75 million towards the fundraising efforts of the Rhodes Trust.

In 2015, Rhodes Scholar R. W. Johnson published a critical account of the decline of the Rhodes Trust under its warden, John Rowett, and commended its recovery under wardens Donald Markwell and Charles R. Conn.

As of 2018, due to the introduction of the Global Rhodes Scholarships, the Rhodes Scholarship is open to postgraduate students from anywhere in the world. Many of its greatest scholars have carried out its founder's later ideal of "equal rights for all civilized men" becoming some of the foremost voices in human rights and social justice. Some have even engaged in criticism of Cecil Rhodes himself (see Rhodes must fall). Because access to further education, particularly post-graduate education, is linked with social mobility and racial wealth disparity, the scholarship (which is for post-graduate students) continues to attract criticism; however, the scholarship's recent partnership with the Atlantic Philanthropies is intended to help address those issues.

In 2019, University of Tennessee graduate Hera Jay Brown became the first transgender woman to be selected for a Rhodes Scholarship. Two non-binary scholars were also selected for the 2020 class.

Selection criteria
In his will, Rhodes specified that he did not want his scholarships to go to "merely bookworms." He wanted each candidate assessed in regard to:
 * his literary and scholastic attainments
 * his fondness of and success in manly outdoor sports such as cricket, football and the like
 * his qualities of manhood, truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for the protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness, and fellowship
 * his exhibition during school days of moral force of character and of instincts to lead and to take an interest in his schoolmates for those latter attributes will be likely in after-life to guide him to esteem the performance of public duty as his highest aim

To assess candidates, Rhodes specified a 200-point scale, unequally applied to each of the four areas (3/10 to each of the first and third areas, 2/10 to each of the other two areas). The first area was to be judged by examination, the second and third by ballot from the candidate's fellow students, and the fourth by the headmaster of the candidate's school. The results for each candidate would be sent to the trustees of Rhodes's will, or their appointees, who would then give a final assessment by averaging the marks for each candidate. Except for the candidates submitted by the four schools in southern Africa, the trustees were vested with the final decisions.

Rhodes also added that the scholars should be distributed among the Colleges at Oxford, that the trustees could remove any scholar at their discretion, and that the trustees were to host an annual dinner so scholars could discuss their "experiences and prospects". The trustees were also encouraged to invite to the dinner other "persons who have shown sympathy with the views expressed by me in this my Will".

In 2018, the same criteria underwent revision:

 * literary and scholastic attainments
 * energy to use one's talents to the full
 * truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship
 * moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one's fellow beings

Each country's scholarship varies in its selectivity. In the United States, applicants must first pass a university-internal endorsement process, then proceed to one of the 16 U.S. districts committees. In 2020, approximately 2,300 students sought their institution's endorsement for the American Rhodes scholarship, among those 953 from 288 institutions were university-endorsed, of whom 32 were ultimately elected. This represents a 1.4% award rate when considering both endorsed and non-endorsed applicants. As such, the American Rhodes Scholarship is more selective than the Churchill Scholarship, Truman Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, Fulbright Scholarship, and Mitchell Scholarship. It is approximately as selective as the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which has an award rate of 1.3%. In Canada between 1997 and 2002, there were an average of 234 university-endorsed applicants annually for 11 scholarships, for an acceptance rate of 4.7%. In addition, Canadian provinces differ widely in the number of applications received, with Ontario receiving 58 applications on average for 2 spots (3.4%) and Newfoundland and Labrador receiving 18 applications for 1 spot (5.7%). According to the Rhodes Trust, the overall global acceptance rate stands at 0.7%, making it one of the most competitive scholarships in the world.

An early change was the elimination of the scholarships for Germany during the First and Second World Wars. No German scholars were chosen from 1914 to 1929, nor from 1940 to 1969. A change occurred in 1929, when an Act of Parliament established a fund separate from the original proceeds of Rhodes's will and made it possible to expand the number of scholarships. Between 1993 and 1995, scholarships were extended to other countries in the European Community.

Scholarship terms
Rhodes Scholars may study any full-time postgraduate course offered by the university, whether a taught master's program, a research degree, or a second undergraduate degree (senior status). The scholarship's basic tenure is two years. However, it may also be held for one year or three years. Applications for a third year are considered during the course of the second year. University and college fees are paid by the Rhodes Trust. In addition, scholars receive a monthly maintenance stipend to cover accommodation and living expenses. Although all scholars become affiliated with a residential college while at Oxford, they also enjoy access to Rhodes House, an early 20th-century mansion with numerous public rooms, gardens, a library, study areas, and other facilities.

Allocation of scholarships
There were originally 60 scholarships.

Four South African boys' schools were mentioned in Rhodes's will, each to receive an annual scholarship: the Boys High School in Stellenbosch (today known as Paul Roos Gymnasium); the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Rondebosch; the South African College Schools (SACS) in Newlands; and St Andrew's College in Grahamstown. These have subsequently been opened also to former students of their partner schools (girls' or co-educational schools).

During the ensuing 100 years, the trustees have added about another 40 scholarships at one time or another, though not all have continued. Some of these extended the scheme to Commonwealth countries not mentioned in the will. A more detailed allocation by region by year can be found at Rhodes Scholarship Allocations. Very brief summaries of some of the terms and conditions can be found on the trust's website. Complete details can be obtained from the nominating countries.

As of 2018, scholars are selected from over 20 Rhodes constituencies (64 countries) worldwide. In 2015, the Rhodes Scholarship extended into new territories, first with the announcement of a number of scholarships for China, later with the announcement of one to two scholarships per year for the United Arab Emirates. The organization administering the scholarships is preparing to begin naming scholars from China. The move into China is the biggest expansion since women became eligible in the 1970s.

Exclusion of women
The Rhodes Scholarship was originally, as per the language used in Rhodes's will, open only to "male students." That stipulation did not change until 1977. Rhodes developed his scholarships partly through conversation with William Thomas Stead, editor of The Pall Mall Gazette and confidant of Rhodes, and at one time an executor of the Will who was stricken from the role when he objected to Rhodes's ill-fated effort to seize the Transvaal. Shortly after Rhodes's death, Stead implied in a published article about the Will that he suggested that Rhodes open the scholarships to women, but Rhodes refused. Nothing more is said on the matter.

After his death, the will was under the control of the Board of Trustees of the Rhodes Trust. In 1916, however, the trustees introduced a bill into the House of Commons that, catering to popular British sentiment during the War, "revoked and annulled" the scholarships for Germans. Since then, legal control over the will has resided with Parliament.

In 1970, the trustees established the Rhodes Visiting Fellowships. Unlike the regular scholarship, a Visiting Fellow was expected to have a doctorate or comparable degree, and to use the two-year funded study to engage in independent research. Only 33 Visiting Fellowships were awarded.

In 1975, Parliament passed the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 that banned discrimination based on sex, including in education. The trustees then applied to the Secretary of State for Education to admit women into the scholarship, and in 1976 the request was granted. In 1977, women were finally admitted to the full scholarship.

Before Parliament passed the 1975 Act, some universities protested against the exclusion of women by nominating female candidates, who were later disqualified at the state level of the American competition. In 1977, the first year women were eligible, 24 women (out of 72 total scholars) were selected worldwide, with 13 women and 19 men selected from the United States. Since then, the average female share of the scholarship in the United States has been around 35 percent.

In 2007, the Association of American Rhodes Scholars published a retrospective on the first 30 years of female recipients, many of whom individually recounted personal experiences as well as professional accomplishments.

In his 2008 book Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarship (Yale University Press), biographer and historian Philip Ziegler writes that "The advent of women does not seem notably to have affected the balance of Scholars among the various professions, though it has reduced the incidence of worldly success." Although it is true that female recipients have not become heads of state yet, they have succeeded in many other ways as described in the Rhodes Project.

In South Africa, the will of Cecil Rhodes expressly allocated scholarships to four all-male private schools. In 1992, one of the four schools partnered with an all-girls school in order to allow female applicants. In 2012, the three remaining schools followed suit to allow women to apply. Today, four of the nine scholarships allocated to South Africa are open only to students and alumni of these schools and partner schools.

Exclusion of Black Africans
Beginning in 1970, scholars began protesting against the fact that all Rhodes Scholars from southern Africa were white, with 120 Oxford dons and 80 of the 145 Rhodes Scholars in residence at the time signing a petition calling for non-white scholars to be elected in 1971. The case of South Africa was especially difficult to resolve, because in his will establishing the scholarships, unlike for other constituencies, Rhodes specifically allocated four scholarships to alumni of four white-only private secondary schools. According to Schaeper and Schaeper, the issue became "explosive" in the 1970s and 1980s as scholars argued that the scholarship be changed while the trustees argued they were powerless to change the will. Despite such protests, only in 1991 with the rise of the African National Congress did black South Africans begin to win the scholarships.

Out of five thousand Rhodes Scholarships awarded between 1903 and 1990, about nine hundred went to students from Africa.

Criticism of Rhodes as colonialist
Public criticism of the scholarship has also focused on Cecil Rhodes's white supremacist views. For example, in 1966, regional committees in interviews asked a white American candidate to assure them he would not publicly belittle the scholarship after he referred to its founding on "blood money". In 2015, a South African Rhodes Scholar, Ntokozo Qwabe, began a campaign to address Rhodes's controversial historical and political legacy, with a focus on Qwabe's own views which included such statements as "dismantling the open glorification of colonial genocide in educational and other public spaces – which makes it easy for British people to believe that these genocides were 'not that bad' – and props up the continuing structural legacies of British colonialism, neocolonialism, and ongoing imperialism". Among other things, the campaign called for the removal of a statue of Rhodes from Oriel College and changes to Oxford's curriculum. While the college agreed to review the placement of the statue, the Chancellor of the university, Lord Patten, was critical of the accuracy of Qwabe's statements and warned against "pandering to contemporary views."

A group of Rhodes Scholars also created the group Redress Rhodes whose mission was to "attain a more critical, honest, and inclusive reflection of the legacy of Cecil John Rhodes" and to "make reparative justice a more central theme for Rhodes Scholars." Their demands include, among other things, shifting the Rhodes Scholarships awarded exclusively to previously all-white South African schools (rather than the at-large national pool), dedicating a "space at Rhodes House for the critical engagement with Cecil Rhodes's legacy, as well as imperial history", and ending a ceremonial toast Rhodes Scholars make to the founder. While the group does not have a position on the removal of the statue, its co-founder has called for the scholarship to be renamed as it is "the ultimate form of veneration and colonial apologism; it's a large part of why many continue to understand Rhodes as a benevolent founder and benefactor."

Public criticism has also focused on the alleged hypocrisy of applying for and accepting the Rhodes Scholarship while criticizing it, with University of Cambridge academic Mary Beard, writing in The Times Literary Supplement, arguing that Scholars "[could not] have your cake and eat it here: I mean you can't whitewash Rhodes out of history, but go on using his cash." Reacting to this criticism, Qwabe replied that "all that [Rhodes] looted must absolutely be returned immediately. I'm no beneficiary of Rhodes. I'm a beneficiary of the resources and labor of my people which Rhodes pillaged and slaved." A group of 198 Rhodes Scholars of various years later signed a statement supporting Qwabe and arguing that there was "no hypocrisy in being a recipient of a Rhodes scholarship and being publicly critical of Cecil Rhodes and his legacy—a legacy that continues to alienate, silence, exclude and dehumanize in unacceptable ways. There is no clause that binds us to find 'the good' in Rhodes's character, nor to sanitize the imperialist, colonial agenda he propagated."

Criticism over recipients not entering public service
The tendency of a growing number of Rhodes Scholars to enter business or private law, as opposed to public service for which the scholarship was intended, has been a source of frequent criticism and "occasional embarrassment." Writing in 2009, the Secretary of the Rhodes Trust criticised the trend of Rhodes Scholars to pursue careers in finance and business, noting that "more than twice as many [now] went into business in just one year than did in the entire 1970s", attributing it to "grotesque" remuneration offered by such occupations. At least a half dozen 1990s Rhodes Scholars became partners at Goldman Sachs and, since the 1980s, McKinsey has had numerous Rhodes Scholars as partners. Similarly, of Rhodes Scholars who became attorneys, about one-third serve as staff attorneys for private corporations, while another third remain in private practice or academic posts.

According to Schaeper and Schaeper, "From 1904 to the present, the program's critics have had two main themes: first, that too many scholars were content with comfortable, safe jobs in academe, in law, and in business; second, that too few had careers in government or other fields where public service was the number-one goal." Andrew Sullivan wrote in 1988 that "of the 1,900 or so living American scholars…about 250 fill middle-rank administrative and professorial positions in middle-rank state colleges and universities…[while] another 260...have ended up as lawyers."

Quality of post-graduate education at Oxford
In 2007, an op-ed in The Harvard Crimson by two American Rhodes Scholars caused an "international row over Oxford's status as a top university" when they criticised the university's post-graduate education as "outdated" and "frustrating" in comparison to their education in the United States, specifically pointing to the perceived low quality of instruction and an insufficient scholarship stipend for living expenses. They also criticised the Rhodes application process itself, arguing that potential applicants should not apply unless they are "ready to study and live in Oxford."

The original op-ed spurred responses on both sides of the Atlantic. Other students criticised the authors for their tone of "ingratitude and entitlement," while The Sunday Times noted that it fueled the rivalry between the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford and existing concerns about the quality of British graduate education. In response, the Rhodes Trust released two statements, one to The Sunday Times saying that "the criticisms…are unrepresentative of the vast majority of Americans" studying at Oxford, and another as a reply to the original op-ed arguing that "false expectations," particularly for those uncertain about their degree choice, and going to Oxford for the "wrong reasons," could contribute to dissatisfaction.

Notable scholars and career trajectories
Surveying the history of the Rhodes Scholarship, Schaeper and Schaeper conclude that while "few of them have 'changed the world'…most of them have been a credit to their professions…and communities," finding that "the great majority of Rhodes Scholars have had solid, respectable careers." Eight former Rhodes scholars subsequently became heads of government or heads of state, including Wasim Sajjad (Pakistan), Bill Clinton (United States), Dom Mintoff (Malta), John Turner (Canada), Norman Manley (Jamaica), and three Prime Ministers of Australia: Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

From 1951 to 1997, 32% of American Rhodes Scholars pursued careers in education and academia, 20% in law, 15% in business, and 10% in medicine and science. Although Cecil Rhodes imagined that scholars would "pursue a full-time career in government…the number of scholars in local, state and federal government has remained at a steady 7 per cent" over the past century. Of the 200 or so scholars who have spent their careers in government, "most of them have had solid, but undistinguished careers," while "perhaps forty or more can be said to have had a significant, national impact in their particular areas."

The most popular career choice for Rhodes Scholars is education and academia, with many becoming deans of law and medical schools and others becoming professors and lecturers. Many of the most distinguished Rhodes Scholars, such as Zambian activist Lucy Banda, have become prominent members of the civil rights movement. In 1990, third-wave feminist author Naomi Wolf put forward ideas about beauty and power with her book The Beauty Myth, ushering in a new type of feminism that has risen to prominence in the digital age.

Rhodes Scholars have had a notable impact in the fields of medicine and science. Howard Florey was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1922 after studying medicine at the University of Adelaide Medical School. In 1939 Florey, along with fellow scientist Ernst Boris Chain, led the team that successfully isolated and purified penicillin. Robert Q. Marston, an American Rhodes Scholar who studied with Florey, was Director of the National Institutes of Health (USA) from 1968 to 1973. He was credited with maintaining the high quality of basic science research in the Institutes.

Law
Challenging some of the convictions of the scholarship's founder is not a recent occurrence. As early as 1931, Afrikaans-born anti-apartheid lawyer and Rhodes Scholar Bram Fischer campaigned for equal rights for all South Africans. This led him to join the Communist Party of South Africa. Fischer was struck off the roll by the Johannesburg Bar Council in 1965 after he skipped bail on charges under the Suppression of Communism Act. He was later arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Other Rhodes Scholars have taken on difficult social causes with more success. Fred Paterson defended workers and unions at a reduced price, before he sat in parliament as the first and only Communist party member in Australian history. In 1978, former Rhodes Scholar Ann Olivarius sued Yale University over their mis-handling of on-campus sexual harassment complaints.

Education and child welfare
After leaving Oxford to write his first novel, former Rhodes Scholar Jonathan Kozol worked as a teacher in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. He would go on to write Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools, after witnessing first-hand the devastating effect educational inequality was having on America. Rhodes Scholars Marc Kielburger and Roxanne Joyal conduct similar work with their organization Free the Children. Together they build schools and educate children in developing countries across Africa.

Civil and human rights
Much of the Rhodes alumni civil and human rights work has been focused in Africa, particularly South Africa. South African Justice Edwin Cameron initially focused his attention on law and employment law, but later worked in the field of LGBT rights as well as co-founding the Aids Consortium. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nick Kristof was pivotal in shedding light on atrocities such as Tiananmen Square and the Darfur genocide. Professor Sandra Fredman has also written extensively on anti-discrimination law, human rights law and labour law. Rhiana Gunn-Wright was the creator of the Green New Deal.

Genetics
In 2014, Iranian Rhodes Scholar Pardis Sabeti used genome sequencing and computational genetics to identify the source of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. She is also the front-person for indie-rock band Thousand Days.

Another Rhodes Scholar working in genome research is the mathematician and geneticist Eric Lander. His ideas in human genetics, particularly mapping and sequencing, led to the creation of The Cancer Genome Atlas.

Disease and epidemiology
Salim Yusuf, an Indian scholar, conducted significant research into heart health and its relationship to developing economies. He observed that shifts in the developing world, particularly dietary changes and increased urbanization, lead to higher incidences of heart attacks and strokes.

In Zimbabwe, A. Tariro Makadzange has researched perinatally infected children with HIV and HIV-positive adults with cryptococcal disease. Since graduating from Oxford, she has set up a new infectious disease laboratory at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.

Sir Alimuddin Zumla, a British-Zambian, infectious diseases scholar declined an offer to take up the scholarship. Decades later, Zumla was recognized by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science as one of the world's top 1% most cited researchers.

Surgery
After studying at Oxford, surgeon and author Atul Gawande became an advisor to Bill Clinton and the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. In recent years he has devised an innovative checklist for a successful surgery. Other surgical innovations brought about by Rhodes Scholars include the GliaSite technique, a device that lowers the risks associated with radiation therapy in brain tumours.

A number of Rhodes scholars have gone on to careers in neurosurgery. One of the most influential neurosurgeons of all time, Wilder Penfield, was a Canadian Rhodes Scholar in 1915. Neurosurgeon Sir Hugh Cairns was a Rhodes Scholar for South Australia in 1917, whose treatment of Lawrence of Arabia led to research that informed the introduction of motorcycle helmets. Neurosurgeon Griffith Harsh was a Rhodes Scholar and created the GliaSite device.

Literature
One of the first recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship was the American poet, educator and critic John Crowe Ransom. He became a founding member of the influential Fugitive literary group. A contemporary of Ransom's who also became a Rhodes Scholar was Robert Penn Warren. Warren was lambasted by his peers who told him that the study of English literature was a soft option; seeking to rebut such attacks, he introduced new critical ideas into the study of poetry and fiction, and these ideas went on to change how literature was taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, not only in America itself. Tasmanian Rhodes Scholar Richard Flanagan (Tasmania and Worcester, 1984) is a celebrated author, having been awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2014 for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Hip-hop
In 2006 (before receiving a Rhodes Scholarship), lawyer and current Lieutenant Governor of New York Antonio Delgado critiqued capitalism and racial injustice under the name "AD the Voice."

Roughly 90 years previously, the phrase "keeping it real" was used by Rhodes scholar Alain Locke in his book The New Negro to describe the pursuit of in the face of mainstream media's portrayal of African American culture. Locke's work inspired the Harlem Renaissance movement, and "keeping it real" has since become a universally recognized hip-hop ethos.

Space exploration
After studying ion propulsion at Oxford, Dr. Jennifer Gruber embarked on a career as a space engineer. She is currently coordinating missions between the Johnson Space Center and the International Space Station as an employee of NASA.

Cosmology
Rhodes Scholar Brian Greene co-founded ISCAP, Columbia's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics. As well as winning a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, Greene made some ground-breaking discoveries in the field of superstring theory and was one of the cosmologists to co-discover superstring theory.

Comparison to other post-graduate scholarships
The Rhodes Scholarship model has inspired successor scholarships in many countries. These include:

 * The Kennedy Scholarship for British nationals to study at Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1964)
 * The international Yenching Scholarship for study at Peking University (2015)
 * The international Schwarzman Scholarship for study at Tsinghua University (2016)
 * The international Knight-Hennessy Scholars to study at Stanford University (2018)
 * The international McCall MacBain Scholars to study at McGill University (2019)

In structure and selection criteria, the scholarship is similar to the John Monash Scholarship, Schwarzman Scholarship, Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarship and Leadership Program, Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, Yenching Scholarship, Fulbright Program, Erasmus Mundus scholarship, and Chevening Scholarship. As with the Rhodes, the Gates Cambridge, Yenching, Knight-Hennessy, and Schwarzman scholarships are tenable at only one university. The Knight-Hennessy and Schwarzman Scholarships similarly award scholarships to students from all nations, with a focus on public service and leadership.

title: Rhodes Scholarship


text:
ECC

ECC may refer to:

Education

 * ECC (eikaiwa), a Japanese English teaching company
 * Eastern Christian College, in Bel Air, Maryland, United States; defunct
 * El Camino College, in Alondra Park, California, United States
 * Elgin Community College, in Illinois, United States
 * Erie Community College, in Williamsville, New York, United States
 * Essex County College, in New Jersey, United States
 * Eveland Christian College, in San Mateo, Isabela
 * Ewing Christian College, in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Government and politics

 * Economic Coordination Committee (Pakistan), of the Government of Pakistan
 * End Conscription Campaign, a former South African anti-apartheid organization
 * European civil code
 * European Commodity Clearing, the energy clearing house for the European Energy Exchange
 * Electronic Communications Committee of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations
 * Electronic Communications Convention, a treaty aiming at facilitating the use of electronic communications in international trade
 * European Cryptologic Center of the United States National Security Agency

Music

 * Eastern Conference Champions, an American indie rock band
 * Eugene Concert Choir, an American choir
 * The Evolution Control Committee, an American experimental music band

Religion

 * Ecclesiastes, a book of the Hebrew Bible
 * Ecumenical Catholic Church, US
 * Ecumenical Catholic Communion, US
 * Ecumenical Christian Centre, in Bengaluru, India
 * Evangelical Covenant Church, North America

Sports

 * East Central Conference (IHSAA), an athletic conference from 1947 to 1969 in Eastern Indiana
 * East Coast Conference (Division I), a former US NCAA Division I athletics conference
 * East Coast Conference, a US NCAA Division II athletics conference
 * ECC Antwerp, an indoor tennis tournament
 * European Challenge Cup, a rugby union competition
 * European Champions Cup (disambiguation)
 * European Cricket Council, an international body in cricket

Science and technology

 * 3,4-Epoxycyclohexylmethyl-3’,4’-epoxycyclohexane carboxylate, a resin with industrial applications
 * Early childhood caries, a tooth disease in children
 * Elliptic-curve cryptography, a public-key cryptography algorithm
 * Endocervical curettage, a medical procedure
 * Engineered cementitious composite, a.k.a. bendable concrete
 * Error correction code
 * ECC memory, a type of computer memory
 * Exchange coupled composite media
 * SAP ECC, enterprise resource planning software

Transport

 * Crossair Europe, a defunct French airline
 * Eccles railway station, Manchester, England (National Rail station code)
 * Electric Car Corporation, a British seller of electric cars
 * Volvo ECC, a concept car
 * A class designation for Reading electric multiple units

Other uses

 * Electronic Check Council, an American industry association
 * English China Clays, an English mining company
 * Emergency control centre, or emergency communications centre

title: ECC


text:
Magnetoencephalography

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using very sensitive magnetometers. Arrays of SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) are currently the most common magnetometer, while the SERF (spin exchange relaxation-free) magnetometer is being investigated for future machines. Applications of MEG include basic research into perceptual and cognitive brain processes, localizing regions affected by pathology before surgical removal, determining the function of various parts of the brain, and neurofeedback. This can be applied in a clinical setting to find locations of abnormalities as well as in an experimental setting to simply measure brain activity.

History
MEG signals were first measured by University of Illinois physicist David Cohen in 1968, before the availability of the SQUID, using a copper induction coil as the detector. To reduce the magnetic background noise, the measurements were made in a magnetically shielded room. The coil detector was barely sensitive enough, resulting in poor, noisy MEG measurements that were difficult to use. Later, Cohen built a much better shielded room at MIT, and used one of the first SQUID detectors, just developed by James E. Zimmerman, a researcher at Ford Motor Company, to again measure MEG signals. This time the signals were almost as clear as those of EEG. This stimulated the interest of physicists who had been looking for uses of SQUIDs. Subsequent to this, various types of spontaneous and evoked MEGs began to be measured.

At first, a single SQUID detector was used to successively measure the magnetic field at a number of points around the subject's head. This was cumbersome, and, in the 1980s, MEG manufacturers began to arrange multiple sensors into arrays to cover a larger area of the head. Present-day MEG arrays are set in a helmet-shaped vacuum flask that typically contain 300 sensors, covering most of the head. In this way, MEGs of a subject or patient can now be accumulated rapidly and efficiently.

Recent developments attempt to increase portability of MEG scanners by using spin exchange relaxation-free (SERF) magnetometers. SERF magnetometers are relatively small, as they do not require bulky cooling systems to operate. At the same time, they feature sensitivity equivalent to that of SQUIDs. In 2012, it was demonstrated that MEG could work with a chip-scale atomic magnetometer (CSAM, type of SERF). More recently, in 2017, researchers built a working prototype that uses SERF magnetometers installed into portable individually 3D-printed helmets, which they noted in interviews could be replaced with something easier to use in future, such as a bike helmet.

The basis of the MEG signal
Synchronized neuronal currents induce weak magnetic fields. The brain's magnetic field, measuring at 10 femtotesla (fT) for cortical activity and 103 fT for the human alpha rhythm, is considerably smaller than the ambient magnetic noise in an urban environment, which is on the order of 108 fT or 0.1 μT. The essential problem of biomagnetism is, thus, the weakness of the signal relative to the sensitivity of the detectors, and to the competing environmental noise.

The MEG (and EEG) signals derive from the net effect of ionic currents flowing in the dendrites of neurons during synaptic transmission. In accordance with Maxwell's equations, any electrical current will produce a magnetic field, and it is this field that is measured. The net currents can be thought of as current dipoles, i.e. currents with a position, orientation, and magnitude, but no spatial extent. According to the right-hand rule, a current dipole gives rise to a magnetic field that points around the axis of its vector component.

To generate a signal that is detectable, approximately 50,000 active neurons are needed. Since current dipoles must have similar orientations to generate magnetic fields that reinforce each other, it is often the layer of pyramidal cells, which are situated perpendicular to the cortical surface, that gives rise to measurable magnetic fields. Bundles of these neurons that are orientated tangentially to the scalp surface project measurable portions of their magnetic fields outside of the head, and these bundles are typically located in the sulci. Researchers are experimenting with various signal processing methods in the search for methods that detect deep brain (i.e., non-cortical) signal, but no clinically useful method is currently available.

It is worth noting that action potentials do not usually produce an observable field, mainly because the currents associated with action potentials flow in opposite directions and the magnetic fields cancel out. However, action fields have been measured from peripheral nerve system.

Magnetic shielding
Since the magnetic signals emitted by the brain are on the order of a few femtoteslas, shielding from external magnetic signals, including the Earth's magnetic field, is necessary. Appropriate magnetic shielding can be obtained by constructing rooms made of aluminium and mu-metal for reducing high-frequency and low-frequency noise, respectively.

Magnetically shielded room (MSR)
A magnetically shielded room (MSR) model consists of three nested main layers. Each of these layers is made of a pure aluminium layer plus a high-permeability ferromagnetic layer, similar in composition to molybdenum permalloy. The ferromagnetic layer is supplied as 1 mm sheets, while the innermost layer is composed of four sheets in close contact, and the outer two layers are composed of three sheets each. Magnetic continuity is maintained by overlay strips. Insulating washers are used in the screw assemblies to ensure that each main layer is electrically isolated. This helps eliminate radio frequency radiation, which would degrade SQUID performance. Electrical continuity of the aluminium is also maintained by aluminium overlay strips to ensure AC eddy current shielding, which is important at frequencies greater than 1 Hz. The junctions of the inner layer are often electroplated with silver or gold to improve conductivity of the aluminium layers.

Active shielding system
Active systems are designed for three-dimensional noise cancellation. To implement an active system, low-noise fluxgate magnetometers are mounted at the center of each surface and oriented orthogonally to it. This negatively feeds a DC amplifier through a low-pass network with a slow falloff to minimize positive feedback and oscillation. Built into the system are shaking and degaussing wires. Shaking wires increase the magnetic permeability, while the permanent degaussing wires are applied to all surfaces of the inner main layer to degauss the surfaces. Moreover, noise cancellation algorithms can reduce both low-frequency and high-frequency noise. Modern systems have a noise floor of around 2–3 fT/Hz0.5 above 1 Hz.

The inverse problem
The challenge posed by MEG is to determine the location of electric activity within the brain from the induced magnetic fields outside the head. Problems such as this, where model parameters (the location of the activity) have to be estimated from measured data (the SQUID signals) are referred to as inverse problems (in contrast to forward problems where the model parameters (e.g. source location) are known and the data (e.g. the field at a given distance) is to be estimated.) The primary difficulty is that the inverse problem does not have a unique solution (i.e., there are infinite possible "correct" answers), and the problem of defining the "best" solution is itself the subject of intensive research. Possible solutions can be derived using models involving prior knowledge of brain activity.

The source models can be either over-determined or under-determined. An over-determined model may consist of a few point-like sources ("equivalent dipoles"), whose locations are then estimated from the data. Under-determined models may be used in cases where many different distributed areas are activated ("distributed source solutions"): there are infinitely many possible current distributions explaining the measurement results, but the most likely is selected. Localization algorithms make use of given source and head models to find a likely location for an underlying focal field generator.

One type of localization algorithm for overdetermined models operates by expectation-maximization: the system is initialized with a first guess. A loop is started, in which a forward model is used to simulate the magnetic field that would result from the current guess. The guess is adjusted to reduce the discrepancy between the simulated field and the measured field. This process is iterated until convergence.

Another common technique is beamforming, wherein a theoretical model of the magnetic field produced by a given current dipole is used as a prior, along with second-order statistics of the data in the form of a covariance matrix, to calculate a linear weighting of the sensor array (the beamformer) via the Backus-Gilbert inverse. This is also known as a linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) beamformer. When the beamformer is applied to the data, it produces an estimate of the power in a "virtual channel" at the source location.

The extent to which the constraint-free MEG inverse problem is ill-posed cannot be overemphasized. If one's goal is to estimate the current density within the human brain with say a 5mm resolution then it is well established that the vast majority of the information needed to perform a unique inversion must come not from the magnetic field measurement but rather from the constraints applied to the problem. Furthermore, even when a unique inversion is possible in the presence of such constraints said inversion can be unstable. These conclusions are easily deduced from published works.

Magnetic source imaging
The source locations can be combined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images to create magnetic source images (MSI). The two sets of data are combined by measuring the location of a common set of fiducial points marked during MRI with lipid markers and marked during MEG with electrified coils of wire that give off magnetic fields. The locations of the fiducial points in each data set are then used to define a common coordinate system so that superimposing the functional MEG data onto the structural MRI data ("coregistration") is possible.

A criticism of the use of this technique in clinical practice is that it produces colored areas with definite boundaries superimposed upon an MRI scan: the untrained viewer may not realize that the colors do not represent a physiological certainty, not because of the relatively low spatial resolution of MEG, but rather some inherent uncertainty in the probability cloud derived from statistical processes. However, when the magnetic source image corroborates other data, it can be of clinical utility.

Dipole model source localization
A widely accepted source-modeling technique for MEG involves calculating a set of equivalent current dipoles (ECDs), which assumes the underlying neuronal sources to be focal. This dipole fitting procedure is non-linear and over-determined, since the number of unknown dipole parameters is smaller than the number of MEG measurements. Automated multiple dipole model algorithms such as multiple signal classification (MUSIC) and multi-start spatial and temporal modeling (MSST) are applied to the analysis of MEG responses. The limitations of dipole models for characterizing neuronal responses are (1) difficulties in localizing extended sources with ECDs, (2) problems with accurately estimating the total number of dipoles in advance, and (3) dependency on dipole location, especially depth in the brain.

Distributed source models
Unlike multiple-dipole modeling, distributed source models divide the source space into a grid containing a large number of dipoles. The inverse problem is to obtain the dipole moments for the grid nodes. As the number of unknown dipole moments is much greater than the number of MEG sensors, the inverse solution is highly underdetermined, so additional constraints are needed to reduce ambiguity of the solution. The primary advantage of this approach is that no prior specification of the source model is necessary. However, the resulting distributions may be difficult to interpret, because they only reflect a "blurred" (or even distorted) image of the true neuronal source distribution. The matter is complicated by the fact that spatial resolution depends strongly on various parameters such as brain area, depth, orientation, number of sensors etc.

Independent component analysis (ICA)
Independent component analysis (ICA) is another signal processing solution that separates different signals that are statistically independent in time. It is primarily used to remove artifacts such as blinking, eye muscle movement, facial muscle artifacts, cardiac artifacts, etc. from MEG and EEG signals that may be contaminated with outside noise. However, ICA has poor resolution of highly correlated brain sources.

Use in the field
In research, MEG's primary use is the measurement of time courses of activity. MEG can resolve events with a precision of 10 milliseconds or faster, while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which depends on changes in blood flow, can at best resolve events with a precision of several hundred milliseconds. MEG also accurately pinpoints sources in primary auditory, somatosensory, and motor areas. For creating functional maps of human cortex during more complex cognitive tasks, MEG is most often combined with fMRI, as the methods complement each other. Neuronal (MEG) and hemodynamic fMRI data do not necessarily agree, in spite of the tight relationship between local field potentials (LFP) and blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals. MEG and BOLD signals may originate from the same source (though the BOLD signals are filtered through the hemodynamic response).

MEG is also being used to better localize responses in the brain. The openness of the MEG setup allows external auditory and visual stimuli to be easily introduced. Some movement by the subject is also possible as long as it does not jar the subject's head. The responses in the brain before, during, and after the introduction of such stimuli/movement can then be mapped with greater spatial resolution than was previously possible with EEG. Psychologists are also taking advantage of MEG neuroimaging to better understand relationships between brain function and behavior. For example, a number of studies have been done comparing the MEG responses of patients with psychological troubles to control patients. There has been great success isolating unique responses in patients with schizophrenia, such as auditory gating deficits to human voices. MEG is also being used to correlate standard psychological responses, such as the emotional dependence of language comprehension.

Recent studies have reported successful classification of patients with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Sjögren's syndrome, chronic alcoholism, facial pain and thalamocortical dysrhythmias. MEG can be used to distinguish these patients from healthy control subjects, suggesting a future role of MEG in diagnostics.

A large part of the difficulty and cost of using MEG is the need for manual analysis of the data. Progress has been made in analysis by computer, comparing a patient's scans with those drawn from a large database of normal scans, with the potential to reduce cost greatly.

Brain connectivity and neural oscillations
Based on its perfect temporal resolution, magnetoencephalography (MEG) is now heavily used to study oscillatory activity in the brain, both in terms of local neural synchrony and cross-area synchronisation. As an example for local neural synchrony, MEG has been used to investigate alpha rhythms in various targeted brain regions, such as in visual or auditory cortex. Other studies have used MEG to study the neural interactions between different brain regions (e.g., between frontal cortex and visual cortex). Magnetoencephalography can also be used to study changes in neural oscillations across different stages of consciousness, such as in sleep.

Focal epilepsy
The clinical uses of MEG are in detecting and localizing pathological activity in patients with epilepsy, and in localizing eloquent cortex for surgical planning in patients with brain tumors or intractable epilepsy. The goal of epilepsy surgery is to remove the epileptogenic tissue while sparing healthy brain areas. Knowing the exact position of essential brain regions (such as the primary motor cortex and primary sensory cortex, visual cortex, and areas involved in speech production and comprehension) helps to avoid surgically induced neurological deficits. Direct cortical stimulation and somatosensory evoked potentials recorded on electrocorticography (ECoG) are considered the gold standard for localizing essential brain regions. These procedures can be performed either intraoperatively or from chronically indwelling subdural grid electrodes. Both are invasive.

Noninvasive MEG localizations of the central sulcus obtained from somatosensory evoked magnetic fields show strong agreement with these invasive recordings. MEG studies assist in clarification of the functional organization of primary somatosensory cortex and to delineate the spatial extent of hand somatosensory cortex by stimulation of the individual digits. This agreement between invasive localization of cortical tissue and MEG recordings shows the effectiveness of MEG analysis and indicates that MEG may substitute invasive procedures in the future.

Fetal
MEG has been used to study cognitive processes such as vision, audition, and language processing in fetuses and newborns. Only two bespoke MEG systems, designed specifically for fetal recordings, operate worldwide. The first was installed at the University of Arkansas in 2000, and the second was installed at the University of Tübingen in 2008. Both devices are referred to as SQUID arrays for reproductive assessment (SARA) and utilize a concave sensor array whose shape compliments the abdomen of a pregnant woman. Fetal recordings of cortical activity are feasible with a SARA device from a gestational age of approximately 25 weeks onward until birth. Although built for fetal recordings, SARA systems can also record from infants placed in a cradle head-first toward the sensory array. While only a small number of devices worldwide are capable of fetal MEG recordings as of 2023, the proliferation of optically pumped magnetometers for MEG in neuroscience research will likely result in a greater number of research centers capable of recording and publishing fetal MEG data in the near future.

Traumatic brain injury
MEG can be used to identify traumatic brain injury, which is particularly common among soldiers exposed to explosions. Such injuries are not easily diagnosed by other methods, and are often misdiagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Comparison with related techniques
MEG has been in development since the 1960s but has been greatly aided by recent advances in computing algorithms and hardware, and promises improved spatial resolution coupled with extremely high temporal resolution (better than 1 ms). Since the MEG signal is a direct measure of neuronal activity, its temporal resolution is comparable with that of intracranial electrodes.

MEG complements other brain activity measurement techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG), positron emission tomography (PET), and fMRI. Its strengths consist in independence of head geometry compared to EEG (unless ferromagnetic implants are present), non-invasiveness, use of no ionizing radiation, as opposed to PET and high temporal resolution as opposed to fMRI.

MEG in comparison to EEG
Although EEG and MEG signals originate from the same neurophysiological processes, there are important differences. Magnetic fields are less distorted than electric fields by the skull and scalp, which results in a better spatial resolution of the MEG. Whereas scalp EEG is sensitive to both tangential and radial components of a current source in a spherical volume conductor, MEG detects only its tangential components. Scalp EEG can, therefore, detect activity both in the sulci and at the top of the cortical gyri, whereas MEG is most sensitive to activity originating in sulci. EEG is, therefore, sensitive to activity in more brain areas, but activity that is visible in MEG can also be localized with more accuracy.

Scalp EEG is sensitive to extracellular volume currents produced by postsynaptic potentials. MEG detects intracellular currents associated primarily with these synaptic potentials because the field components generated by volume currents tend to cancel out in a spherical volume conductor. The decay of magnetic fields as a function of distance is more pronounced than for electric fields. Therefore, MEG is more sensitive to superficial cortical activity, which makes it useful for the study of neocortical epilepsy. Finally, MEG is reference-free, while scalp EEG relies on a reference that, when active, makes interpretation of the data difficult.

title: Magnetoencephalography


text:
Political divisions of Russia

Russia is divided into several types and levels of subdivisions.

Federal subjects

Since 30 September 2022, the Russian Federation has consisted of eighty-nine federal subjects that are constituent members of the Federation. However, six of these federal subjects—the Republic of Crimea, the Donetsk People's Republic, the Kherson Oblast, the Lugansk People's Republic, the federal city of Sevastopol, and the Zaporozhye Oblast—are internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. All federal subjects are of equal federal rights in the sense that they have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council (upper house of the Federal Assembly). They do, however, differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy.

De jure, excluding the occupied Ukrainian territories, there are 6 types of federal subjects—21 republics, 9 krais, 46 oblasts, 2 federal cities, 1 autonomous oblast, and 4 autonomous okrugs.

Autonomous okrugs are the only ones that have a peculiar status of being federal subjects in their own right, yet at the same time they are considered to be administrative divisions of other federal subjects (with the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug being the only exception).

Status of the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia
On 18 March 2014, as a part of the annexation of Crimea and following the establishment of the Republic of Crimea (an independent entity that was recognized only by Russia), a treaty was signed between Russia and the Republic of Crimea incorporating the Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol as constituent members of the Russian Federation. According to the Treaty, the Republic of Crimea is accepted as a federal subject with the status of a republic while the City of Sevastopol has received federal city status. Neither the Republic of Crimea nor the city of Sevastopol are politically recognized as parts of Russia by most countries.

Similarly, Russia also annexed four Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporozhzhia on 30 September 2022 after internationally-unrecognized referendums held days prior, during the invasion of Ukraine that began in late February, which were organized by Russian occupation authorities in territories where hostilities were ongoing and much of the population had fled. It occurred seven months after the start of the invasion and less than a month after the start of the Ukrainian Kharkiv counteroffensive. The signing ceremony was held in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow in the presence of occupation authority heads Leonid Pasechnik, Denis Pushilin, Yevgeny Balitsky, and Vladimir Saldo, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Like Crimea, none of the four occupied regions are internationally recognized as part of Russia.

Administrative divisions
Prior to the adoption of the 1993 Constitution of Russia, the administrative-territorial structure of Russia was regulated by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of 17 August 1982 "On the Procedures of Dealing with the Matters of the Administrative-Territorial Structure of the RSFSR". The 1993 Constitution, however, did not identify the matters of the administrative-territorial divisions as the responsibility of the federal government nor as the joint responsibility of the federal government and the subjects. This was interpreted by the governments of the federal subjects as a sign that the matters of the administrative-territorial divisions became solely the responsibility of the federal subjects. As a result, the modern administrative-territorial structures of the federal subjects vary significantly from one federal subject to another. While the implementation details may be considerably different, in general, however, the following types of high-level administrative divisions are recognized:
 * administrative districts (raions)
 * cities/towns and urban-type settlements of federal subject significance
 * closed administrative-territorial formations

Autonomous okrugs and okrugs are intermediary units of administrative divisions, which include some of the federal subject's districts and cities/towns/urban-type settlements of federal subject significance.
 * Autonomous okrugs, while being under the jurisdiction of another federal subject, are still constitutionally recognized as federal subjects on their own right. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is an exception in that it is not administratively subordinated to any other federal subject of Russia.
 * Okrugs are usually former autonomous okrugs that lost their federal subject status due to a merger with another federal subject.

Typical lower-level administrative divisions include:
 * selsoviets (rural councils)
 * towns and urban-type settlements of the administrative district significance
 * city districts

Municipal divisions
In the course of the Russian municipal reform of 2004–2005, all federal subjects of Russia were to streamline the structures of local self-government, which is guaranteed by the Constitution of Russia. The reform mandated that each federal subject was to have a unified structure of municipal government bodies by 1 January 2005, and a law enforcing the reform provisions went into effect on 1 January 2006. According to the law, the units of the municipal division (called "municipal formations") are as follows:
 * Municipal district, a group of urban and rural settlements, often along with the inter-settlement territories. In practice, municipal districts are usually formed within the boundaries of existing administrative districts (raions).
 * Urban settlement (Russia), a city/town or an urban-type settlement, possibly together with adjacent rural and/or urban localities
 * Rural settlement (Russia), one or several rural localities
 * Urban okrug, an urban settlement not incorporated into a municipal district. In practice, urban okrugs are usually formed within the boundaries of existing cities of federal subject significance.
 * Intra-urban territory (intra-urban municipal formation) of a federal city, a part of a federal city's territory. In Moscow, these are called municipal formations (which correspond to districts); in St. Petersburg—municipal okrugs, towns, and settlements. In Sevastopol (located on the Crimean Peninsula, which is a territory disputed between Russia and Ukraine), they are known as municipal okrugs and a town.

Territories not included as a part of municipal formations are known as inter-settlement territory, a concept introduced in 2019.

The Federal Law was amended on 27 May 2014 to include new types of municipal divisions:
 * Urban okrug with intra-urban divisions, an urban okrug divided into intra-urban districts at the lower level of the municipal hierarchy
 * Intra-urban district, a municipal formation within an urban okrug with intra-urban divisions. This municipal formation type would typically be established within the borders of existing city districts (i.e., the administrative divisions in some of the cities of federal subject significance).

In June 2014, Chelyabinsky Urban Okrug became the first urban okrug to implement intra-urban divisions.

Federal legislation introduced on May 1, 2019, added an additional territorial unit:
 * Municipal okrug, a grouping of several settlements without municipal status. Municipal okrugs formally exercise local self-government either through direct means or through electoral and other institutions.

Federal districts
All the federal subjects are grouped into eight federal districts, each administered by an envoy appointed by the President of Russia. The envoys serve as liaisons between the federal subjects and the federal government and are primarily responsible for overseeing the compliance of the federal subjects with federal laws.

Economic regions
For economic and statistical purposes the federal subjects are grouped into twelve economic regions. Economic regions and their parts sharing common economic trends are in turn grouped into economic zones and macrozones.

Military districts
In order for the Armed Forces to provide an efficient management of military units, their training, and other operational activities, the federal subjects are grouped into five military districts. Each military district operates under the command of the district headquarters, headed by the district commander, and is subordinated to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

title: Political divisions of Russia


text:
Jump blues

Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, jazz, and boogie woogie usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as part of the swing revival.

Origins

Jump blues evolved from the music of big bands such as those of Lionel Hampton and Lucky Millinder in the early 1940s which produced musicians such as Louis Jordan, Jack McVea, Earl Bostic, and Arnett Cobb. Jordan was the most popular of the jump blues stars; other artists who played the genre include Roy Brown, Amos Milburn, and Joe Liggins, as well as sax soloists Jack McVea, Big Jay McNeely, and Bull Moose Jackson. Hits included singles such as Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry", Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" and Big Jay McNeely's "Deacon's Hop".

"One important stylistic prototype in the development of R&B was jump blues, pioneered by Louis Jordan, with ... His Tympany Five ... three horns and a rhythm section, while stylistically his music melded elements of swing and blues, incorporating the shuffle rhythm, boogie-woogie bass lines, and short horn patterns or riffs. The songs featured the use of African American vernacular language, humor, and vocal call-and-response sections between Jordan and the band. Jordan’s music appealed to both African American and white audiences, and he had broad success with hit songs like 'Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby' (1944)."

Blues and jazz were part of the same musical world, with many musicians straddling both genres. Jump bands such as the Tympany Five, which came into being at the same time as the boogie-woogie revival, achieved maximum effect with an eight-to-the-bar boogie-woogie style.

Jordan's "raucous recordings" with the Tympany Five like "Saturday Night Fish Fry", one of the first to feature a distorted electric guitar, "literally made its listeners jump to its pulsing beat". At least two other Jordan records are viewed as jump blues, "Caldonia" and "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie". Jordan's jump blues combined good-natured novelty lyrics (some with suggestive double meanings); pushing the tempo; strengthening the beat; layering the sound with his bluesy saxophone and playful melodies.

Lionel Hampton recorded the stomping big-band blues song "Flying Home" in 1942. Featuring a choked, screaming tenor sax performance by Illinois Jacquet, the song was a hit in the "race" category. Billboard described "Flying Home" as "an unusually swingy side...with a bright bounce in the medium tempo and a steady drive maintained, it's a jumper that defies standing still".

Both Hampton and Jordan combined the popular boogie-woogie rhythm, a grittier version of swing-era saxophone styles as exemplified by Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, and playful, humorous lyrics or verbal asides laced with jive talk.

As this urban, jazz-based music became more popular, musicians who wanted to "play for the people" began favoring a heavy, insistent beat. which appealed to black listeners who no longer wished to be identified with "life down home".

Jump groups, employed to play for jitterbug dances at a much lower cost than big bands, became popular with agents and ballroom owners. The saxophonist Art Chaney said "[w]e were insulted when an audience wouldn't dance".

Jump was especially popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s, through artists such as Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, Roy Brown, Charles Brown, Helen Humes, T-Bone Walker, Roy Milton, Billy Wright, Wynonie Harris, Louis Prima, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Less frequently mentioned, Goree Carter also recorded some jump blues; his "Rock Awhile" is said by Robert Palmer to be an appropriate candidate for the title of first rock and roll record.

By the mid-1950s, jump blues had been all but forgotten, with a few exceptions such as "Five Guys Named Moe" and some songs from the 1980s, by the Honeydrippers.

The term "rock and roll" had a strong sexual connotation in jump blues and R&B, but by the time DJ Alan Freed referred to rock and roll in the mid 1950s, "the sexual component had been dialled down enough that it simply became an acceptable term for dancing".

title: Jump blues


text:
Country blues

Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in the early 20th century. It stands in contrast primarily to the urban blues style, especially in the pre-war era.

History
Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson (Texas), Charley Patton (Mississippi), Blind Willie McTell (Georgia) were among the first to record blues songs in the 1920s. Country blues ran parallel to urban blues, which was popular in cities.

Historian Elijah Wald notes many similarities between blues, bluegrass, and country & western styles with roots in the American south. Record labels in the 1920s and 1930s carefully segregated musicians and defined styles for racially targeted audiences. Over time, the rural black and rural white music evolved into different styles, with artists such as Bobby Bland, Ray Charles, and Willie Nelson lamenting the divide.

Folklorist Alan Lomax was one of the first to use the term and applied it to a field recording he made of Muddy Waters at the Stovall Plantation, Mississippi, in 1941. In 1959, music historian Samuel Charters wrote The Country Blues, an influential scholarly work on the subject. He also produced an album, also titled The Country Blues, with early recordings by Jefferson, McTell, Sleepy John Estes, Bukka White, and Robert Johnson.

Charters's works helped to introduce the then-nearly forgotten music to the American folk music revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. The acoustic roots-focused movement also gave rise to the terms "folk blues" and "acoustic blues", especially being applied to performances and recordings made around this period. "Country blues" has also been used to describe regional acoustic styles, such as Delta blues, Piedmont blues, or the earliest Chicago, Texas, and Memphis blues.

title: Country blues


text:
Altai

Altai or Altay may refer to:

Places

 * Altai Mountains, in Central and East Asia, a region shared by China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia

In China

 * Altay Prefecture (阿勒泰地区), Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China
 * Altay City (阿勒泰市), also spelled "Aletai", a city of Altay Prefecture

In Kazakhstan

 * Altai Town, a town in Kazakhstan, until 2019 known as Zyryan or Zyryanovsk

In Mongolia

 * Altai City
 * Altai, Govi-Altai, a sum (district)
 * Altai, Bayan-Ölgii, a sum
 * Altai, Khovd, a sum

In Russia

 * Altai Krai, a federal subject of Russia
 * Altay, Altay Krai
 * Altai Republic, a federal subject of Russia

People and languages

 * Altay (name), a list of people with the given name or surname
 * Altai people, an ethnic group
 * Altai languages, the languages spoken by these people

Other uses

 * Altai, a historical novel by Wu Ming
 * Rupes Altai, a feature of the geography of the Moon
 * Altay sheep, a sheep breed
 * Altay S.K., a football club from İzmir, Turkey
 * Altay S.K. (women's football), women's football team from İzmir, Turkey
 * Altay (tank), a Turkish main battle tank
 * Altay-class oiler, a Soviet Navy ship class
 * Altai gas pipeline, a proposed natural gas pipeline between Russia and China
 * Altai (mobile telephone system), a Soviet pre-cellular radiotelephone service

title: Altai


text:
Louisiana blues

Louisiana blues is a genre of blues music that developed in the period after World War II in the state of Louisiana. It is generally divided into two major subgenres, with the jazz-influenced New Orleans blues based on the musical traditions of that city and the slower tempo swamp blues incorporating influences from zydeco and Cajun music from around Baton Rouge.

Major artists in the New Orleans tradition include Professor Longhair and Guitar Slim and for swamp blues Slim Harpo and Lightnin' Slim. Both genres peaked in popularity in the 1960s; interest declined in the later 1960s, but there have been occasional revivals since the 1970s.

New Orleans blues
The blues that developed in the 1940s and 1950s in and around the city of New Orleans was strongly influenced by jazz and incorporated Caribbean influences, it is dominated by piano and saxophone but has also produced major guitar bluesmen. Major figures in the genre include Professor Longhair and Guitar Slim, who both produced major regional, national R&B chart and even mainstream hits.

Swamp blues
Swamp blues developed around Baton Rouge in the 1950s and which reached a peak of popularity in the 1960s. It generally has a slow tempo and incorporates influences from other genres of music, particularly the regional styles of zydeco and Cajun music. Its most successful proponents included Slim Harpo and Lightnin' Slim, who enjoyed a number of rhythm and blues and national hits and whose work was frequently covered by bands of the British Invasion.

title: Louisiana blues


text:
Swamp blues

Swamp blues is a type of Louisiana blues that developed in the Black communities of Southwest Louisiana in the 1950s. It incorporates influences from other genres, particularly zydeco and Cajun. Its most successful proponents include Slim Harpo and Lightnin' Slim, who enjoyed national rhythm and blues hits.

Characteristics
Swamp blues has a laid-back, slow tempo, and generally is a more rhythmic variation of Louisiana blues, incorporating influences from New Orleans blues, zydeco, soul music and Cajun music. It is characterized by simple but effective guitar work and is influenced by the boogie patterns used on Jimmy Reed records and the work of Lightnin' Hopkins and Muddy Waters. The sound of swamp blues was characterized by "eerie echo, shuffle beats, tremolo guitars, searing harmonica and sparse percussion".

History
Swamp blues originated in the Black communities of Southwest Louisiana in the 1950s and was particularly associated with record producer J. D. "Jay" Miller. In the 1950s, Miller recorded many blues artists around the city, distributing their recordings through Excello Records in Nashville, Tennessee. The most successful and influential artist with whom he worked was guitarist and harmonica player Slim Harpo. Other major artists included Lightnin' Slim, Lazy Lester, Silas Hogan, Lonesome Sundown, and piano player Katie Webster. A number of their songs, particularly those of Slim Harpo, were covered by British Invasion bands, including the Rolling Stones, The Kinks and the Yardbirds. The popularity of the genre faded in the 1970s, with many swamp bluesmen turning to zydeco which remained popular with black audiences.

title: Swamp blues


text:
Baton Rouge (disambiguation)

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana.

Baton Rouge may also refer to:

Ships

 * USC&GS Baton Rouge, previously USCS Baton Rouge, a survey ship in commission in the United States Coast Survey from 1875 to 1878 and in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1878 to 1880
 * USS Baton Rouge, a United States Navy submarine in commission from 1977 to 1995

Arts

 * Baton Rouge (band), American hard rock band
 * Bâton rouge (1985 film), a French film
 * Baton Rouge (1988 film), a Spanish film

Other uses

 * Baton Rouge, South Carolina, an unincorporated community
 * Bâton Rouge (restaurant), a Canadian restaurant chain
 * Petit bâton rouge, a small red stick used for color grading by the Tabasco pepper harvesters

title: Baton Rouge (disambiguation)