text:
Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster

Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster, etc. (6 May 1892 – 8 March 1976), known as Lord Edward FitzGerald before 1922, was Ireland's Premier Peer of the Realm.

Life
Leinster was the youngest of the three sons born to Gerald, 5th Duke of Leinster, and his wife, the former Lady Hermione Duncombe.

He served in World War I, including taking part in the Gallipoli campaign.

He inherited the Dukedom in February 1922, upon the death of his eldest brother, Maurice FitzGerald, 6th Duke of Leinster, who never married and was confined to a mental institution at the time of his death.

An addicted gambler, Leinster enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle, including motor racing. He had already signed away his possible reversionary rights to the family's ancestral seat, Carton House, near Maynooth in County Kildare, not expecting that he would inherit the property and the title. He chose to live in England and his estates remained in the possession of the beneficiary, Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley, 1st Baronet, during the Duke's lifetime.

In 1936, Leinster testified at a bankruptcy hearing that he had travelled to the United States in 1928 in order to find an heiress to marry and that during his trip he "entertained lavishly on borrowed money in efforts to find an American wife who would pay off his debts". Two heiresses appeared to be interested but both eventually declined to become Duchess of Leinster.

Unable to repay his debts, the duke spent the final years of his life living in a small bedsit in Pimlico. He died by suicide in 1976 by taking an overdose of pentobarbital.

Personal life
The Duke of Leinster married four times, his wives being:
 * 1) The first wife was May Juanita Etheridge (4 August 1892 – 11 February 1935), a chorus girl and actress on the London Stage nicknamed the "Pink Pajama Girl", whom he married, in London, on 12 June 1913. She was daughter of Jesse Edward Etheridge, a salesman, buried at Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire, and son of a George Etheridge and wife ..., and his wife, the former Theresa Grace Harriett Ann Summerell. They separated in 1922, whereupon the duke paid his estranged wife approximately $50 a week, "on condition that she live in retirement and make no effort to communicate with her son". The duke sued the duchess for divorce in 1926, citing a George Frederick Newell as co-respondent. The couple finally divorced in 1930, with Stanley Williams, "a young chef", being named as co-respondent. After the end of her marriage, the duchess took the name May Murray by deed poll.. In 1935 she committed suicide by an overdose of sleeping draught. The Leinsters had one child, a son,
 * 2) *Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster (27 May 1914 – 3 December 2004)
 * 3) The second wife was (Agnes) Raffaelle Van Neck (14 December 1902 – 28 December 1993, London), an American socialite, who was the former wife of Clare Van Neck and the only child of Robert Davidson Kennedy and his first wife, the former May Nutting. The Duke and Mrs Van Neck married in London on 1 December 1932; they divorced in 1946, after some years of living in Scotland, the duke saying, "She said she could not live with black-faced sheep and lochs, and I saw a certain amount of truth in that".
 * 4) The third wife was Jessie Wessel, a former actress and music-hall performer, known professionally as Denise Orme (1884–1960). She was the maternal grandmother of Prince Aga Khan IV. Born Jessie Smither, daughter of a bartender named Alfred Smither, she had become a music-hall performer and then married and divorced firstly Danish diplomat Theodor William Wessel, and secondly The 3rd Baron Churston; Leinster became her third husband on 11 March 1946. By this marriage, the duke acquired seven stepchildren, including Joan Yarde-Buller, known at that time (1936–49) as Princess Taj-ud-dawlah, mother of Prince Aga Khan IV (born 1936).
 * 5) The fourth wife was Vivien Irene Conner, a waitress (19 February 1920 – Brighton, Sussex, 1992), the former wife of George William Conner and a daughter of Thomas Felton. She and the duke married in 1965. By this marriage, the duke had a stepson, Tony Conner.

The duke had an illegitimate son by Yvonne Denison Percy Probyn (later known as Yvonne FitzGerald), daughter of Col. J. Percy Probyn:
 * Adrian Dighton Desmond FitzGerald (born 1952), who wed twice. His wives and children were:
 * Colleen Theresa Cross, married 1972, divorced 1975. They had one child,
 * Kirsty FitzGerald (born 1973), wife of Andrew Keetch
 * Linda Jane Harris Clark, married 1982, divorced 1992

title: Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster


text:
Talk:List of communities in Quebec

Untitled
Is this page supposed to be about unorganized communities in general in the province, or organized municipalities only? As if it is about organized communities, a bunch of them no longer belong here, and i wouldn't mind doing a little cleaning. Thanks! User:fcsk

This page is out of date already, because it includes a number of communities that were merged into megacities in Gatineau, Montreal, Quebec City, Longueuil, and Saguenay.

My question is should we delete those entries, or redirect them to the cities they were merged with? - Montréalais

P.S. I did a major revision, adding accents and hyphens (style is hyphens between every word except articles, and the words Saint and Sainte spelled in full.) There are probably still errors, including ones I made - spurious or missing accents, etc. - and they all need to be checked against an original list which frankly I don't have the patience right now. We also need a list of which cities were merged into which megacities. I know I didn't remember them all. - Montréalais

 * Leave the city names that no longer exist because in biographies the reference is always to the original city name followed by NOW PART OF:
 * Montrealais Do not redesignate this Quebec again. It is a Provine of Canada and is the same designation I gave ALL Provinces. ....Ron Davis

I know that Quebec is a province of Canada. It says so in Quebec. I moved the page (using the Move function, which you should have used too, as it preserves the history) for three reasons: I think that all the lists of cities should be moved to List of communities in British Columbia et.seq., for the same reasons. - Montréalais
 * 1) the title Communities in the province of Quebec, Canada is excessively long;
 * 2) the title List of communities in Quebec matches the format List of cities in Canada;
 * 3) it has the word "List" in the title (an article "Communities..." etc. would ordinarily be expected to be about the communities, e.g. municipal politics and suchlike; compare List of popes etc.)

 * Please do not redesignate the PROVINCE of Quebec on my list of communities. Thank you....Ron Davis

It isn't "your" list of communities. We don't own articles on Wikipedia. And I didn't "redesignate" the province of Quebec. Everyone knows it's a province of Canada. That information is abundantly available. It's not like I renamed it "List of communities in the Free and Glorious People's Republic of Quebec", you know. p.s. I'm a federalist, if it makes you feel any better. - Montréalais

 * Your fictional title made me laugh out loud. Arthur

For the respect of people who may not be federalist shouldn't we say List of communities in Quebec. I am a federalist also but it seems like a slap in the face to throw the Canada on just for what seems political reasons. - stoltz.

To me, politics doesn't enter into it; it's for the reasons I stated above. Likewise, I would like to see List of communities in Alberta, List of communities in British Columbia, et.seq. Compare List of Georgia counties. - Montréalais

I agree montrealais. However, I suppose I assume that the only reason someone would want to add canada would be for nothing other than political reasons -stoltz.

I tend to agree that List of communities in Quebec, List of communities in Alberta and so on is a better form of name. Communities in the Province of Quebec, Canada seems rather long-winded, and List of communities in the province of Quebec, Canada, which would be more correct (it is, after all, a list, not a "proper" article on the subject), is even more so. What do we lose by dropping the words "province" and "Canada"? Nothing that I can see. Titles, in general, should be as simple as possible, I think. That's why we have Ludwig van Beethoven and not The composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, a German. I'll move the pages later tonight if there are on serious objections and if nobody gets there before me. --Camembert

I suggest not, unless you wish to keep this site exclusively for North Americans. I know a great many (approx. 4.773 billion) people who have no idea what a "Quebec" or an "Ontario" is. They do however, recognize "Canada". This is not political, it is called good presentation in an encyclopedia. Comparing geography listings to people makes little sense....Ron Davis

 * That is why "Quebec" is described in the article Quebec. You could make this argument about anything. That's why we have articles and we don't just write the entire thing in the title.
 * Why would someone even be looking at an article about cities in Quebec if they don't know what Quebec is? How would they get to it?
 * Furthermore, even if, by some bizarre circumstance, someone tripped over this article who didn't know what Quebec was, the very first line of the article says, "...the province of Quebec, Canada." I'm having a lot of trouble seeing how this can be an argument against a concise title for this entry. - Montréalais

I take great exception to you and other "friends" joining in a clique to impose your views in clear violation of the Statemnent of Principles by Wikipedia's owner. Rather than watch the "Recent Changes" list and pounce on other people's work to format it YOUR WAY, would it not be better to spend your time creating new articles plus adding and editing content? Please do not bother me any more. It is very obvious you and your group try to pick fights in order to drive away people who refuse to conform to your demands on this OPEN site.....Ron Davis
 * Ron, the Wiki way is to operate by consensus. There is a clear majority of Montrealais, Camembert, stoltz and now me who think the article should be moved versus exactly one, you, who think it should stay.  We have List of cities in Germany, List of cities in Maryland, etc... that's the format we use.  This isn't a clique imposing its views, it's the way the wiki works -- you can add whatever you want but you must accept that others can and will change it. Tuf-Kat

 * I don't think you're being very fair, Ron - if we were seeking to "impose" our views on you, we would have moved the page back by now. What we're trying to do is convince you that List of communities in Quebec is the better title so that we can all agree and be friends, move on, and work on something else. I still believe that List of communities in Quebec is a better title than Communities of the Province of Quebec, Canada for the reasons Montréalais gives above (my point with the Beethoven comparison, by the way, was that one shouldn't explain the subject of an article in its title, but in the body of the article itself). However, I'll back out of this argument for the time being. Apologies if you took anything I said as a personal attack. It wasn't meant to be. --Camembert

I agree with Montréalais & Camembert. ''Gosh. Ron's tone sounds very familiar. Now where have we heard it before?'' :-) JtdIrL 06:33 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

The article itself seems very odd to me. Why is "Quebec" appended to every single item? I was kind of assuming that all of these communities in Quebec would be in Quebec. In List of African-Americans, I read "Muhammad Ali, boxer and poet"--not "Muhammad Ali, African-American". Anyone agree that adding "Quebec" is odd? Arthur 21:08 Mar 18, 2003 (UTC)

 * Better late than never... The fact is that all those articles, in accordance with accepted style, have ", Quebec" in their titles. - Montréalais 01:27 11 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Saint Leons
I've ben prepping to make a disambig at Saint Leon, which currently redirects to an Indiana city/town, as tehre are St. Leon, Manitoba and Saint Leon Hot Springs in British Columbia etc; there are numerous St Leons in Quebec - see here - but I don't know Quebec's geography and particulars enough to add them to your list.....Saint Leon in BC was either named for one of these, or for St. Pol-de-Leon in Finistered, France.Skookum1 (talk) 20:23, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Plase leave a note on Talk:St. Leon, Indiana or on my talkpage if any such articles are created. Thanks.Skookum1 (talk) 20:24, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:List of communities in Quebec


text:
Talk:Nova Scotia

Introduction & History sections
Due to lack of access to internet for days at a time, the dispute resolution case for these sections has been closed without adequate discussion. The matter present is two-fold: Representing, in the introduction, Wabanaki history on equal grounding and footing as European history; and, beefing up the history section as it pertains to Dawnland prior to post-Norse European colonization.

At the moment, the introduction remains mightily unsourced and extremely Euro-centric. There is but one line mentioning the Mi'kmaw nation and none indicating Wabanaki history or development in the province's birth and growth. There have been attempts to include these histories to no avail. This is not an attempt to include the Mi'kmaw creation story. That was removed, and there is no additional attempt to bring that back onto this page.

These histories include the Peace and Friendship Treaties which hold an equal importance to the Treaty of Paris (1763), especially as they continue to affect the running of day-to-day government operations (the Tripartite Forum, the new official language of the province, the Nova Scotian government's own admission that aboriginal title is an ongoing concern, etc. etc. etc.).

The fact of the matter is that Mi'kmaw history, and Indigenous histories at large, have been and are being written out of our history books. Another example from this page is the current line: "Britain fought France for the territory on numerous occasions for over a century afterwards." Modern historian, Todd Scott, says this: "In the early clashes between the British and Mi'kmaq, the British usually came out on the losing end, new research suggests. The Mi'kmaq were so successful at defending against the settlers, British soldiers were often too scared to leave their forts, according to historical documents." Yet, when I attempt to rewrite the sentence (with two cited sources instead of the current zero!) as: "Britain fought France and the Wabanaki Nations for the territory on numerous occasions for over a century afterwards," it gets erased.

At its core, Acadia and the Maritime provinces were established alongside and atop the Mi'kmaw country: Mi'kma'ki which had, and continues to have, seven/eight jurisdictional districts (like Canadian provinces). The Mi'kmaw nation still use its districts to understand their country's jurisdictions. This means the addition of a line such as: "In 1605, Acadia, France's first New France colony, was founded with the creation of Acadia's capital, Port-Royal, in one of the eight traditional districts of Miꞌkmaꞌki called Kespukwitk" is more than appropriate. It is akin to saying that Goa was established by the Portuguese in the Konkan region in, what was at the time, the Bijapur Sultanate. The difference is that the Bijapur Sultanate no longer exists where Mi'kma'ki does.

Additional notes: Time immemorial is a legal concept, not dramatising speech. The region in which both Mi'kma'ki and Nova Scotia exist is called Dawnland. The government structure of Mi'kma'ki still functions and maintains a government-to-government and nation-to-nation relationship with both the Canadian Crown and Nova Scotia, thus the Tripartite Forum. The transliterated name "Nopa Skoꞌsia" (which I gave two separated cited sources for!) should not have been erased neither in the header nor in the Etymology section. And, finally, Mi'kmaw Law is just as important as French Law and English Law, or "Netukulimk," "Civil Code," and "Common Law," respectively. It is the governing law of Mi'kma'ki, and the Peace and Friendship Treaties offer it real and true protection in ways that Civil Code does not have in a province with a large Acadian community. There is a reason the provincial and federal governments keep going to court over Indigenous issues, even though (and I quote) this page is apparently "not the place for laws and myths of one group comprising only 0.51% of the population."

I will leave this discussion on this somber note: On 4 June 2019, PM Justin Trudeau said “we accept the findings of the commissioners [of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission] that it was genocide.” From the Canadian Encyclopedia's article on the matter: "In 2018, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights decided to change its description of the atrocities committed against Indigenous peoples in Canada from 'cultural genocide' to 'genocide.'" The academic and policy model created by Gregory Stanton, the founding president of Genocide Watch, for understanding genocide lists "Denial" as the tenth and final stage of the act. The denial of the atrocities and the abject erasure of Indigenous histories is rampant on this continent. A Ohio State University article succinctly writes about the long history of Indigenous erasure (mainly from a US perspective; but, it is applicable to Canada as well), a history that extends back to the papal bulls inciting the "Doctrine of Discovery" which legally erased Indigenous land claims to their own countries due to them not being Christian. What is happening on this page is the denial of Wabanaki history and of treaty-protected Mi'kmaw sovereignty to overlapping territories, a denial which directly has roots in the genocidal history of the province itself. Please consider this as we move forward in updating the page.

PS – By citing genocide and actions that have roots therein, I am not targeting any one user nor seeking to place blame. I simply wish to a) update this page to a more truthful and equitable composition, and b) demonstrate what scholars, institutions, commissions, and whole governments are saying: Genocide happened, and our words and actions cannot ignore that fact. Again, this is not over-dramatising, I am quoting institutions, scholars, governments, et al. using legal terms (aka "time immemorial" and "genocide" which have set legal definitions). I do not throw this information around lightly, but when I call out erased and receive a response like "Spare me your drama about censorship," we must understand the context in which the censorship and erasure is occurring. There is a reason the Mi'kmaw nation "only [comprises] 0.51% of the population."

We are not falling into the WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS trap. We are citing modern and historical sources in good faith and writing at an encyclopedic level. This is not drama, this is truth.Danachos (talk) 21:28, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

 * Great info for main articles like Miꞌkmaq and Wabanaki Confederacy... would need to fix all the plagiarism from the camp site and others first (second time requested) need to review COPYPASTE again pls. Will ask for page history deletion shortly . Moxy -Maple Leaf (Pantone).svg 21:50, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

 * This article is not a soapbox or place to right past wrongs. The proposed addition is out-of-scope, and unbalances the article. Magnolia677 (talk) 23:21, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

 * No, Magnolia677, this is a page for historical accuracy about Nova Scotia. Ignoring treaties that have ongoing relevance to day-to-day government applications is not out-of-scope.
 * I would like to direct anyone besides these two editors to what was written by Magnolia677 on the DRN in regards to this piece: "This Indian tribe covered an area much larger than Nova Scotia, so adding five paragraphs and two photos unbalances the article. Moreover, the text is hardly relevant to this article about a Canadian province. Maybe if this tribe had made a large contribution to the province's development--built a railway or a university--then of course, but five paragraphs about their superstitions and treaty signing does not improve the article."
 * The use of "Indian" and "tribe" for describing an "Indigenous" "nation" of several "First Nations" should indicate from the get-go that this editor is commenting on matters outside of their scope, misunderstanding modern Canadian realities of Crown–Indigenous relations. The use of "superstitions" to describe documented (and, again, sourced and cited) histories (and, doubly again, not creation stories) is cause for concern. But, importantly, second, the reliance upon contemporary economic impact in order to write about historical realities (ignoring the whole point that the Mi'kmaq, and other Indigenous nations, were systematically excluded from economic activities due to the institutionally and governmentally defined genocide against their nation. Again, this is not righting wrongs or soapboxing, this is literally just writing plain and simple (and sourced and cited) history.
 * Moxy, what plagiarism? Where was it requested previously?
 * In terms of "great info for main articles," why have the following on these articles?: Information about previous rulers, clans, dynasties, and empires in Tamil Nadu's opener; information about Muslim invasions, kingdoms, and counties in Catalonia's; and, most similarly, a huge, bloated paragraph about the Irish War for Independence and the Troubles on the Northern Ireland article. Would it not be best, then, by your metric, to erase the third paragraph and much of the second of the NI page because that is "great info for main articles" like the above mentioned two?
 * PS – Please note this section has been reformatted to the best of my ability to improve readability. (I copied and pasted the responses above the "Content in dispute" response, and made the "Content in dispute" a sub-section below these responses). I promise none of the comments have been changed; just their location (and, thus, font size) has been updated. Danachos (talk) 04:11, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

 * Your long paragraph about genocide: it seems to be, in plain words, alleging that if people do not allow your extensive and transformative edits to this article, that they are taking part in an alleged genocide by denying that genocide by not allowing your collection of edits to occur. It's a little inflammatory. JM2023 (talk) 18:53, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

 * Founder of Genocide Watch, Gregory Stanton, created a tool: "the ten stages of genocide," of which the 10th is genocide denial.
 * The fact of the matter is that the abject erasure of Mi'kmaq from this page (aside literally nine sentences) is a form of denial. It not only denies history, but it denies realities that even the governments of Canada, Nova Scotia, and Mi'kma'ki recognize and affirm, as evidenced in the links above. The sources and the phrasing in the small but, yes, transformative edits are from modern-day governments and scholars.
 * It seems inflammatory because North American history is firmly in the tenth stage of genocide. To see it paralleled, consider the article on Turkey saying "The land that comprises what is now Turkey was inhabited by the Armenian people at the time of Ottoman contraction."
 * You can see the denial at work in your own comment: "an alleged genocide" when talking of established fact, both by commissions (source) and by PM Trudeau himself (source2). Danachos (talk) 14:53, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

 * Accusing me of denying genocide is very inflammatory and not appreciated. regardless, a government is not a source on whether a genocide happened, just as it is not a source on whether a genocide did not happen. Turkey's government has consistently denied the Armenian genocide. You must establish a that there is a consensus in the sources first -- verifiability, not truth -- and neither of the sources you just gave me refer to a genocide of the Mi'kmaq. Not to mention the fact that the edits you propose may or may not be undue -- the reason this article is "Eurocentric" is because it is about a European-founded political entity and their conflicts with each other and with the Mi'kmaq, not the Mi'kmaq themselves. JM2023 (talk) 09:35, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

Content in dispute:

 * Danachos (talk) 21:36, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Proposed move for Halifax history page
I propose that the Wikipedia article about the history of Halifax and the HRM, currently found at Community of Halifax, Nova Scotia, should be moved to History of Halifax (former city) and the Halifax Regional Municipality. The name is a bit longer and clumsier than I would prefer, but it's more logical than the current name because it accurately reflects the actual page topic. Feel free to join the discussion. Carguychris (talk) 17:11, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

 * I agree that it should be moved. The current title is not an accurate description of what the page is about.  I think it could just be "History of Halifax".  It's the general term, and I don't think the title should be too hung up on the details of municipal government. Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 02:10, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

 * I actually edited the request to simply History of Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is already a primary redirect. Carguychris (talk) 16:08, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Topographic Map Error
The topographic map in the "Geography" section is wrong. It shows a border between mainland Nova Scotia and Pictou Island, and that island itself is greyed out as if it were not a part of the province. Pictou Island is in fact a part of this province. All four Wikipedia articles for Pictou Island, including the English Wikipedia article for it, state that Pictou Island is indeed part of it. If someone more experienced than me is willing and able to correct the error, they should do so. JM2023 (talk) 18:28, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Reverted to an earlier version, as it was at 11:46, 8 November 2023
Danachos - you are well aware of the dispute involving you, Moxy, and Magnolia677. You proposed significant revisions to the article and received pushback against it, including most recently from me. Disappointed to see that you've just gone ahead months after and made those edits anyway despite the obvious lack of consensus and the obvious disagreement, without so much as a talk page section. I've reverted to an earlier version until consensus can be reached, one way or another. As others have said, this is not the place to WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS and it's not a WP:SOAPBOX. I won't tolerate accusations of genocide denial like you aimed at me last time. JM (talk) 11:41, 25 November 2023 (UTC)

Pre-confederation status
@JM2023, what citation do you need that Nova Scotia was a British colony before it was a province? Would it be enough if I grabbed any of the article's existing sources that refer to it as a colony? —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 15:42, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

 * If you can find an RS that refers to it as either "Nova Scotia Colony" or "Colony of Nova Scotia" it would be good. I didn't do an exhaustive search but I didn't find it referred to that way anywhere else on Wikipedia (same for NB and PEI).
 * As far as I know, although they were colonies, they were not titled "Colony of [blank]" or "[blank] Colony", and were just simply known by their basic names, in the same way that, for example, New Caledonia is a French colony simply referred to with its basic name.
 * But if you can find RS saying that these provinces were indeed officially called ex. "Nova Scotia Colony / Colony of Nova Scotia" then it would be an interesting addition, I just don't think they were, which is why I'm challenging it in the first place. Even if you find a source, it's not necessarily a good-enough source to verify anything, so it would have to be a pretty good source (maybe a government source?).
 * As for your second version where it was stated as "Nova Scotia colony" I don't think that's a meaningful addition because it's a strangely-phrased description, not an official name. But I wonder if it could instead say "British colony of Nova Scotia" or simply "British colony" (I prefer the latter over the former, especially if it's a description of "pre-confederation status") but I'm not really sure if that's significant enough to include either. JM (talk) 15:55, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Just fyi, even as a colony, when they needed to affix a "full name" for the colony, it was more often than not called the "Province of Nova Scotia".
 * See:
 * Treaty of 1752
 * Proclamation for Election, 1758
 * Statutes of NS, 1851
 * Leventio (talk) 17:16, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you, I didn't expect it to be named "colony" anywhere and I figured there was a good reason it wasn't in the article after 22 years (this article is older than me!) JM (talk) 18:09, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

 * I'd be happy with "British colony of Nova Scotia" or "British colony" or "colony with the same name" or "Nova Scotia (colony)" or anything similar. I do think it is useful for every province's infobox to have the same field saying what is was before it became a province. In the case of Nova Scotia, the answer to that question might be less interesting than for Newfoundland or Quebec, but I think it should be in the infobox for the sake of consistency with the other provinces. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 19:37, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I think another issue that has to be considered is that many provinces have articles for their former statuses (i.e. Newfoundland was a Dominion and Quebec was the Canada East division of the Province of Canada. And out west and up north it would mostly be NWT). But for a province like Nova Scotia, where it was always just "Nova Scotia" and simply joined confederation and became a federal constituent, the article covers all of Nova Scotia's history, from colony to province. Logically, there need not be a "pre-confederation" line in the infobox for such cases, as pre-confederation is still the same article; if I were the only one deciding, I would simply omit the pre-confederation line altogether.
 * Also see above, where Leventio shows that when it was not simply Nova Scotia it was "Province of Nova Scotia" anyway (although that itself may simply be a capitalized noun that is not part of a title, given its from the era where all nouns were often capitalized).
 * Like I said, on a sliding scale from "Nova Scotia Colony" to "British colony" to nothing at all, obviously "British colony" is closer to what I want (nothing) than "Nova Scotia Colony". It's not like I can reasonably stop you from adding what you want to the article without having to go through an ordeal, but I would strongly recommend that there just not be a line about pre-confederation in the infobox, given the above. JM (talk) 21:09, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Nova Scotia


text:
Rosenheim (district)

Rosenheim is a Landkreis (district) in the south of Bavaria, Germany. Neighboring districts are, clockwise from the west, Miesbach, Munich, Ebersberg, Mühldorf, and Traunstein, with the Austrian province Tirol across the southern border. The district entirely surrounds the city of Rosenheim, which is independently administered but hosts the district's administration; both the city and the district share the "RO" designation for their license plates.

History
The district was created in 1972 when the former districts Rosenheim, Bad Aibling, and parts of Wasserburg am Inn were merged.

Geography
The Rosenheim district is located in the foothills of the Alps, the Chiemgau. The landscape is dominated by moraines created by the Inn Glacier in the last glacial period, including many lakes. To the east of the district is the largest of these lakes, the Chiemsee. The main rivers in the district are the Inn and the Mangfall, which meet in the city of Rosenheim.

Mountain ranges in the south of the district include the Chiemgauer Alpen and the Mangfallgebirge, which also contains the Wendelstein, at 1838 m the highest elevation in the district.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms includes the distinctive Bavarian fusily at the top. The crossed leaves of the water lily on the left are taken from the Frauenchiemsee coat of arms, symbolizing the Chiemsee area of the district, and the red lion represents the city of Wasserburg. The coat of arms was granted in 1976.

title: Rosenheim (district)


text:
Wasa

Wasa or WASA may refer to:

Places

 * Wasa, Cameroon, a town in Extrême-Nord region
 * Wasa, British Columbia, Canada, a settlement
 * Wasa Lake, British Columbia, Canada
 * Vaasa, Finland, a town, formerly spelled Wasa
 * Wasa (Tanzanian ward), a ward in Iringa Rural district

Ships and shipping

 * Vasa (ship), 17th-century Swedish warship, formerly spelled Wasa
 * SS Wasa (1907) a Swedish cargo ship sold to Norway in 1925 and renamed SS Henry
 * Wasa 30, a Swedish sailboat
 * Wasa Line, a former Finnish shipping company

WASA

 * Dhaka WASA (Water Supply and Sewerage Authority), Bangladesh
 * District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, Washington DC
 * Water and Sewerage Authority, Trinidad and Tobago
 * Western Action Shooting Association
 * Western Australia Softball Association
 * WASA-LD, a low-power television station licensed to serve Port Jervis, New York, United States

Other uses

 * Wasabröd, a Swedish company that produces crispbread
 * Wasa people, a people of Ghana
 * Wasa language, a variety of the Akan languages of Ghana and eastern Ivory Coast
 * Wasa Research Station, a Swedish research facility in Antarctica, established in 1988/1989
 * IK Wasa, a Swedish sports club
 * Legion Wasa, a Swedish political party

title: Wasa


text:
Birthday attack

A birthday attack is a bruteforce collision attack that exploits the mathematics behind the birthday problem in probability theory. This attack can be used to abuse communication between two or more parties. The attack depends on the higher likelihood of collisions found between random attack attempts and a fixed degree of permutations (pigeonholes). With a birthday attack, it is possible to find a collision of a hash function with $50%$ chance in $\sqrt{2^n} = 2^{n / 2}$, with $2^{n-1}$  being the classical preimage resistance security with the same probability. There is a general (though disputed ) result that quantum computers can perform birthday attacks, thus breaking collision resistance, in $\sqrt[3]{2^n} = 2^{n / 3}$.

Although there are some digital signature vulnerabilities associated with the birthday attack, it cannot be used to break an encryption scheme any faster than a brute-force attack.

Understanding the problem

As an example, consider the scenario in which a teacher with a class of 30 students (n = 30) asks for everybody's birthday (for simplicity, ignore leap years) to determine whether any two students have the same birthday (corresponding to a hash collision as described further). Intuitively, this chance may seem small. Counter-intuitively, the probability that at least one student has the same birthday as any other student on any day is around 70% (for n = 30), from the formula $$1-\frac{365!}{(365-n)!\cdot 365^n}$$.

If the teacher had picked a specific day (say, 16 September), then the chance that at least one student was born on that specific day is $$1 - (364/365)^{30}$$, about 7.9%.

In a birthday attack, the attacker prepares many different variants of benign and malicious contracts, each having a digital signature. A pair of benign and malicious contracts with the same signature is sought. In this fictional example, suppose that the digital signature of a string is the first byte of its SHA-256 hash. The pair found is indicated in green – note that finding a pair of benign contracts (blue) or a pair of malicious contracts (red) is useless. After the victim accepts the benign contract, the attacker substitutes it with the malicious one and claims the victim signed it, as proven by the digital signature.

Mathematics
Given a function $$f$$, the goal of the attack is to find two different inputs $$x_{1}, x_{2}$$ such that $$f(x_{1}) = f(x_{2})$$. Such a pair $$x_{1}, x_{2}$$ is called a collision. The method used to find a collision is simply to evaluate the function $$f$$ for different input values that may be chosen randomly or pseudorandomly until the same result is found more than once. Because of the birthday problem, this method can be rather efficient. Specifically, if a function $$f(x)$$ yields any of $$H$$ different outputs with equal probability and $$H$$ is sufficiently large, then we expect to obtain a pair of different arguments $$x_{1}$$ and $$x_{2}$$ with $$f(x_{1}) = f(x_{2})$$ after evaluating the function for about $$1.25\sqrt{H}$$ different arguments on average.

We consider the following experiment. From a set of H values we choose n values uniformly at random thereby allowing repetitions. Let p(n; H) be the probability that during this experiment at least one value is chosen more than once. This probability can be approximated as

 * $$ p(n;H) \approx 1 - e^{-n(n-1)/(2H)} \approx 1-e^{-n^2/(2H)}$$

Let n(p; H) be the smallest number of values we have to choose, such that the probability for finding a collision is at least p. By inverting this expression above, we find the following approximation

 * $$n(p;H)\approx \sqrt{2H\ln\frac{1}{1-p}}$$

and assigning a 0.5 probability of collision we arrive at

 * $$n(0.5;H) \approx 1.1774 \sqrt H$$

Let Q(H) be the expected number of values we have to choose before finding the first collision. This number can be approximated by

 * $$Q(H)\approx \sqrt{\frac{\pi}{2}H}$$

As an example, if a 64-bit hash is used, there are approximately $1.8$ different outputs. If these are all equally probable (the best case), then it would take 'only' approximately 5 billion attempts ($5.38$) to generate a collision using brute force. This value is called birthday bound and for n-bit codes it could be approximated as 2n/2. Other examples are as follows:

 * {| class="wikitable" style="white-space:nowrap; text-align:center;"

! rowspan="2"| Bits ! rowspan="2"| Possible outputs (H) ! colspan="10"| Desired probability of random collision (2 s.f.) (p) ! $$ ! $$ ! $$ ! $$ ! $$ ! 0.1% ! 1% ! 25% ! 50% ! 75% !scope="row"| 16 !scope="row"| 216 (~6.5 x 104) !scope="row"| 32 !scope="row"| 232 (~$4.3$) !scope="row"| 64 !scope="row"| 264 (~$1.8$) !scope="row"| 96 !scope="row"| 296 (~$1.9$) !scope="row"| 128 !scope="row"| 2128 (~$6.1$) !scope="row"| 192 !scope="row"| 2192 (~$3.3$) !scope="row"| 256 !scope="row"| 2256 (~$5.1$) !scope="row"| 384 !scope="row"| 2384 (~$7.2$) !scope="row"| 512 !scope="row"| 2512 (~$7.9$)
 * <2
 * <2
 * <2
 * <2
 * <2
 * 11
 * 36
 * 190
 * 300
 * 430
 * <2
 * <2
 * <2
 * 3
 * 93
 * 2900
 * 9300
 * 50,000
 * 77,000
 * 110,000
 * 6
 * 190
 * 6100
 * 190,000
 * 6,100,000
 * }
 * Table shows number of hashes n(p) needed to achieve the given probability of success, assuming all hashes are equally likely. For comparison, $4$ to $1.3$ is the uncorrectable bit error rate of a typical hard disk. In theory, MD5 hashes or UUIDs, being roughly 128 bits, should stay within that range until about 820 billion documents, even if its possible outputs are many more.
 * }
 * Table shows number of hashes n(p) needed to achieve the given probability of success, assuming all hashes are equally likely. For comparison, $4$ to $1.3$ is the uncorrectable bit error rate of a typical hard disk. In theory, MD5 hashes or UUIDs, being roughly 128 bits, should stay within that range until about 820 billion documents, even if its possible outputs are many more.
 * }
 * Table shows number of hashes n(p) needed to achieve the given probability of success, assuming all hashes are equally likely. For comparison, $4$ to $1.3$ is the uncorrectable bit error rate of a typical hard disk. In theory, MD5 hashes or UUIDs, being roughly 128 bits, should stay within that range until about 820 billion documents, even if its possible outputs are many more.
 * }
 * Table shows number of hashes n(p) needed to achieve the given probability of success, assuming all hashes are equally likely. For comparison, $4$ to $2.1$ is the uncorrectable bit error rate of a typical hard disk. In theory, MD5 hashes or UUIDs, being roughly 128 bits, should stay within that range until about 820 billion documents, even if its possible outputs are many more.
 * }
 * Table shows number of hashes n(p) needed to achieve the given probability of success, assuming all hashes are equally likely. For comparison, $3.3$ to $4.7$ is the uncorrectable bit error rate of a typical hard disk. In theory, MD5 hashes or UUIDs, being roughly 128 bits, should stay within that range until about 820 billion documents, even if its possible outputs are many more.
 * }
 * Table shows number of hashes n(p) needed to achieve the given probability of success, assuming all hashes are equally likely. For comparison, $3.4$ to $2.6$ is the uncorrectable bit error rate of a typical hard disk. In theory, MD5 hashes or UUIDs, being roughly 128 bits, should stay within that range until about 820 billion documents, even if its possible outputs are many more.

It is easy to see that if the outputs of the function are distributed unevenly, then a collision could be found even faster. The notion of 'balance' of a hash function quantifies the resistance of the function to birthday attacks (exploiting uneven key distribution.) However, determining the balance of a hash function will typically require all possible inputs to be calculated and thus is infeasible for popular hash functions such as the MD and SHA families. The subexpression $$\ln\frac{1}{1-p}$$ in the equation for $$n(p;H)$$ is not computed accurately for small $$p$$ when directly translated into common programming languages as  due to loss of significance. When  is available (as it is in C99) for example, the equivalent expression   should be used instead. If this is not done, the first column of the above table is computed as zero, and several items in the second column do not have even one correct significant digit.

Simple approximation
A good rule of thumb which can be used for mental calculation is the relation

 * $$p(n) \approx {n^2 \over 2H}$$

which can also be written as

 * $$H \approx {n^2 \over 2p(n)}$$.

or

 * $$n \approx \sqrt { 2H \times p(n)}$$.

This works well for probabilities less than or equal to 0.5.

This approximation scheme is especially easy to use when working with exponents. For instance, suppose you are building 32-bit hashes ($$H = 2^{32}$$) and want the chance of a collision to be at most one in a million ($$ p \approx 2^{-20} $$), how many documents could we have at the most?

 * $$n \approx \sqrt { 2 \times 2^{32} \times 2^{-20}} = \sqrt { 2^{1+32-20} } = \sqrt { 2^{13} } = 2^{6.5} \approx 90.5 $$

which is close to the correct answer of 93.

Digital signature susceptibility
Digital signatures can be susceptible to a birthday attack or more precisely a chosen-prefix collision attack. A message $$m$$ is typically signed by first computing $$f(m)$$, where $$f$$ is a cryptographic hash function, and then using some secret key to sign $$f(m)$$. Suppose Mallory wants to trick Bob into signing a fraudulent contract. Mallory prepares a fair contract $$m$$ and a fraudulent one $$m'$$. She then finds a number of positions where $$m$$ can be changed without changing the meaning, such as inserting commas, empty lines, one versus two spaces after a sentence, replacing synonyms, etc. By combining these changes, she can create a huge number of variations on $$m$$ which are all fair contracts.

In a similar manner, Mallory also creates a huge number of variations on the fraudulent contract $$m'$$. She then applies the hash function to all these variations until she finds a version of the fair contract and a version of the fraudulent contract which have the same hash value, $$f(m) = f(m')$$. She presents the fair version to Bob for signing. After Bob has signed, Mallory takes the signature and attaches it to the fraudulent contract. This signature then "proves" that Bob signed the fraudulent contract.

The probabilities differ slightly from the original birthday problem, as Mallory gains nothing by finding two fair or two fraudulent contracts with the same hash. Mallory's strategy is to generate pairs of one fair and one fraudulent contract. For a given hash function $$2^n$$ is the number of possible hashes. The birthday problem equations does not exactly apply here, the number of hashes Mallory actually generates for a $$50%$$ chance is twice as much as required for a simple collision $$2^{n/2} \times 2$$ which corresponds to $$2^{(n/2)+1}$$.

To avoid this attack, the output length of the hash function used for a signature scheme can be chosen large enough so that the birthday attack becomes computationally infeasible, i.e. about twice as many bits as are needed to prevent an ordinary brute-force attack.

Besides using a larger bit length, the signer (Bob) can protect himself by making some random, inoffensive changes to the document before signing it, and by keeping a copy of the contract he signed in his own possession, so that he can at least demonstrate in court that his signature matches that contract, not just the fraudulent one.

Pollard's rho algorithm for logarithms is an example for an algorithm using a birthday attack for the computation of discrete logarithms.

Reverse attack
The same fraud is possible if the signer is Mallory, not Bob. Bob could suggest a contract to Mallory for a signature. Mallory could find both an inoffensively-modified version of this fair contract that has the same signature as a fraudulent contract, and Mallory could provide the modified fair contract and signature to Bob. Later, Mallory could produce the fraudulent copy. If Bob doesn't have the inoffensively-modified version contract (perhaps only finding their original proposal), Mallory's fraud is perfect. If Bob does have it, Mallory can at least claim that it is Bob who is the fraudster.

title: Birthday attack


text:
Lactobacillus

Lactobacillus is a genus of gram-positive, aerotolerant anaerobes or microaerophilic, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacteria. Until 2020, the genus Lactobacillus comprised over 260 phylogenetically, ecologically, and metabolically diverse species; a taxonomic revision of the genus assigned lactobacilli to 25 genera (see below).

Lactobacillus species constitute a significant component of the human and animal microbiota at a number of body sites, such as the digestive system, and the female genital system. In women of European ancestry, Lactobacillus species are normally a major part of the vaginal microbiota. Lactobacillus forms biofilms in the vaginal and gut microbiota, allowing them to persist during harsh environmental conditions and maintain ample populations. Lactobacillus exhibits a mutualistic relationship with the human body, as it protects the host against potential invasions by pathogens, and in turn, the host provides a source of nutrients. Lactobacilli are among the most common probiotic found in food such as yogurt, and it is diverse in its application to maintain human well-being, as it can help treat diarrhea, vaginal infections, and skin disorders such as eczema.

Metabolism
Lactobacilli are homofermentative, i.e. hexoses are metabolised by glycolysis to lactate as major end product, or heterofermentative, i.e. hexoses are metabolised by the Phosphoketolase pathway to lactate, CO2 and acetate or ethanol as major end products. Most lactobacilli are aerotolerant and some species respire if heme and menaquinone are present in the growth medium. Aerotolerance of lactobacilli is manganese-dependent and has been explored (and explained) in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (previously Lactobacillus plantarum). Lactobacilli generally do not require iron for growth.

The Lactobacillaceae are the only family of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that includes homofermentative and heterofermentative organisms; in the Lactobacillaceae, homofermentative or heterofermentative metabolism is shared by all strains of a genus. Lactobacillus species are all homofermentative, do not express pyruvate formate lyase, and most species do not ferment pentoses. In L. crispatus, pentose metabolism is strain specific and acquired by lateral gene transfer.

Genomes
The genomes of lactobacilli are highly variable, ranging in size from 1.2 to 4.9 Mb (megabases). Accordingly, the number of protein-coding genes ranges from 1,267 to about 4,758 genes (in Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis and Lentilactobacillus parakefiri, respectively). Even within a single species there can be substantial variation. For instance, strains of L. crispatus have genome sizes ranging from 1.83 to 2.7 Mb, or 1,839 to 2,688 open reading frames. Lactobacillus contains a wealth of compound microsatellites in the coding region of the genome, which are imperfect and have variant motifs. Many lactobacilli also contain multiple plasmids. A recent study has revealed that plasmids encode the genes which are required for adaptation of lactobacilli to the given environment.

Speci
The genus Lactobacillus comprises the following species:

 * Lactobacillus acetotolerans Entani et al. 1986

 * Lactobacillus acidophilus (Moro 1900) Hansen and Mocquot 1970 (Approved Lists 1980)

 * "Lactobacillus alvi" Kim et al. 2011
 * Lactobacillus amylolyticus Bohak et al. 1999

 * Lactobacillus amylovorus Nakamura 1981

 * Lactobacillus apis Killer et al. 2014

 * "Lactobacillus backi" Bohak et al. 2006

 * Lactobacillus bombicola Praet et al. 2015

 * Lactobacillus colini Zhang et al. 2017

 * Lactobacillus crispatus (Brygoo and Aladame 1953) Moore and Holdeman 1970 (Approved Lists 1980)

 * Lactobacillus delbrueckii (Leichmann 1896) Beijerinck 1901 (Approved Lists 1980)

 * Lactobacillus equicursoris Morita et al. 2010

 * Lactobacillus fornicalis Dicks et al. 2000

 * Lactobacillus gallinarum Fujisawa et al. 1992

 * Lactobacillus gasseri Lauer and Kandler 1980

 * Lactobacillus gigeriorum Cousin et al. 2012
 * "Lactobacillus ginsenosidimutans" Jung et al. 2013

 * Lactobacillus hamsteri Mitsuoka and Fujisawa 1988

 * Lactobacillus helsingborgensis Olofsson et al. 2014
 * Lactobacillus helveticus (Orla-Jensen 1919) Bergey et al. 1925 (Approved Lists 1980)

 * Lactobacillus hominis Cousin et al. 2013

 * Lactobacillus iners Falsen et al. 1999

 * Lactobacillus intestinalis (ex Hemme 1974) Fujisawa et al. 1990

 * Lactobacillus jensenii Gasser et al. 1970 (Approved Lists 1980)

 * "Lactobacillus jinshani" Yu et al. 2020

 * Lactobacillus johnsonii Fujisawa et al. 1992

 * Lactobacillus kalixensis Roos et al. 2005

 * Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens Fujisawa et al. 1988

 * Lactobacillus kimbladii Olofsson et al. 2014

 * Lactobacillus kitasatonis Mukai et al. 2003

 * Lactobacillus kullabergensis Olofsson et al. 2014

 * Lactobacillus melliventris Olofsson et al. 2014

 * Lactobacillus mulieris Rocha et al. 2020

 * Lactobacillus nasalidis Suzuki-Hashido et al. 2021

 * Lactobacillus panisapium Wang et al. 2018

 * Lactobacillus paragasseri Tanizawa et al. 2018

 * Lactobacillus pasteurii Cousin et al. 2013

 * Lactobacillus porci Kim et al. 2018

 * Lactobacillus psittaci Lawson et al. 2001

 * "Lactobacillus raoultii" Nicaise et al. 2018

 * Lactobacillus rodentium Killer et al. 2014
 * Lactobacillus rogosae Holdeman and Moore 1974 (Approved Lists 1980)

 * Lactobacillus taiwanensis Wang et al. 2009

 * "Lactobacillus thermophilus" Ayers and Johnson 1924

 * "Lactobacillus timonensis" Afouda et al. 2017

 * Lactobacillus ultunensis Roos et al. 2005

 * Lactobacillus xujianguonis Meng et al. 2020

Taxonomy
The genus Lactobacillus currently contains 44 species which are adapted to vertebrate hosts or to insects. In recent years, other members of the genus Lactobacillus (formerly known as the Leuconostoc branch of Lactobacillus) have been reclassified into the genera Atopobium, Carnobacterium, Weissella, Oenococcus, and Leuconostoc. The Pediococcus species P. dextrinicus has been reclassified as a Lapidilactobacillus dextrinicus and most lactobacilli were assigned to Paralactobacillus or one of the 23 novel genera of the ''Lactobacillaceae. '' Two websites inform on the assignment of species to the novel genera or species (http://www.lactobacillus.uantwerpen.be/; http://www.lactobacillus.ualberta.ca/).

Phylogeny
The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature and the phylogeny is based on whole-genome sequences.

Vaginal tract
Lactobacillus s.s. species are considered "keystone species" in the vaginal flora of reproductive-age women. Most, but not all, healthy women have vaginal floras dominated by one of four species of Lactobacillus: L. iners, L. crispatus, L. gasseri and L. jensenii. Other women have a more diverse mix of anaerobic microorganisms.

Interactions with pathogens
Lactobacilli produce hydrogen peroxide which inhibits the growth and virulence of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans in vitro and in vivo. In vitro studies have also shown that lactobacilli reduce the pathogenicity of C. albicans through the production of organic acids and certain metabolites. Both the presence of metabolites, such as sodium butyrate, and the decrease in environmental pH caused by the organic acids reduce the growth of hyphae in C. albicans, which reduces its pathogenicity. Lactobacilli also reduce the pathogenicity of C. albicans by reducing C. albicans biofilm formation. Biofilm formation is reduced by both the competition from lactobacilli, and the formation of defective biofilms which is linked to the reduced hypha growth mentioned earlier. On the other hand, following antibiotic therapy, certain Candida species can suppress the regrowth of lactobacilli at body sites where they cohabitate, such as in the gastrointestinal tract.

In addition to its effects on C. albicans, Lactobacillus sp. also interact with other pathogens. For example, Limosilactobacillus reuteri (formerly Lactobacillus reuteri) can inhibit the growth of many different bacterial species by using glycerol to produce the antimicrobial substance called reuterin. Another example is Ligilactobacillus salivarius (formerly Lactobacillus salivarius), which interacts with many pathogens through the production of salivaricin B, a bacteriocin.

Probiotics
Fermenting bacteria like lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce hydrogen peroxide which protects themselves from oxygen toxicity. The accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in growth media, and its antagonistic effects on Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas, have been demonstrated by researchers. LAB cultures have been used as starter cultures to create fermented foods since the beginning of the 20th century. Elie Metchnikoff won a Nobel prize in 1908 for his work on LAB.

Lactobacilli administered in combination with other probiotics benefits cases of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), although the extent of efficacy is still uncertain. The probiotics help treat IBS by returning homeostasis when the gut microbiota experiences unusually high levels of opportunistic bacteria. In addition, lactobacilli can be administered as probiotics during cases of infection by the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori. Helicobacter pylori is linked to cancer, and antibiotic resistance impedes the success of current antibiotic-based eradication treatments. When probiotic lactobacilli are administered along with the treatment as an adjuvant, its efficacy is substantially increased and side effects may be lessened.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common condition associated with bile acid-induced oxidative stress and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in esophageal tissues that cause inflammation and DNA damage. In an experimental model of GERD, Lactobacillus species (L. acidophilus, L. plantarum and L. fermentum) facilitated the repair of DNA damage caused by bile-induced ROS. For patients with GERD, there is significant interest in the anti-inflammatory effect of Lactobacilli that may help prevent progression to Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Also, lactobacilli are used to help control urogenital and vaginal infections, such as bacterial vaginosis (BV). Lactobacilli produce bacteriocins to suppress pathogenic growth of certain bacteria, as well as lactic acid and H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide). Lactic acid lowers the vaginal pH to around 4.5 or less, hampering the survival of other bacteria, and H2O2 reestablishes the normal bacterial microbiota and normal vaginal pH. In children, lactobacilli such as Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus (previously L. rhamnosus) are associated with a reduction of atopic eczema, also known as dermatitis, due to anti-inflammatory cytokines secreted by this probiotic bacteria. In addition, lactobacilli with other probiotic organisms in ripened milk and yogurt aid development of immunity in the mucous intestine in humans by raising the number of LgA (+).

Oral health
Some lactobacilli have been associated with cases of dental caries (cavities). Lactic acid can corrode teeth, and the Lactobacillus count in saliva has been used as a "caries test" for many years. Lactobacilli characteristically cause existing carious lesions to progress, especially those in coronal caries. The issue is, however, complex, as recent studies show probiotics can allow beneficial lactobacilli to populate sites on teeth, preventing streptococcal pathogens from taking hold and inducing dental decay. The scientific research of lactobacilli in relation to oral health is a new field and only a few studies and results have been published. Some studies have provided evidence of certain Lactobacilli which can be a probiotic for oral health. Some species, but not all, show evidence in defense to dental caries. Due to these studies, there have been applications of incorporating such probiotics in chewing gum and lozenges. There is also evidence of certain Lactobacilli that are beneficial in the defense of periodontal disease such as gingivitis and periodontitis.

Food production
Lactobacilli comprise most food fermenting lactic acid bacteria and are used as starter cultures in industry for controlled fermentation in the production of wine, yogurt, cheese, sauerkraut, pickles, beer, cider, kimchi, cocoa, kefir, and other fermented foods, as well as animal feeds and the bokashi soil amendment. Lactobacillus species are dominant in yogurt, cheese, and sourdough fermentations. The antibacterial and antifungal activity of lactobacilli relies on production of bacteriocins and low molecular weight compounds that inhibits these microorganisms.

Sourdough bread is made either spontaneously, by taking advantage of the bacteria naturally present in flour, or by using a "starter culture", which is a symbiotic culture of yeast and lactic acid bacteria growing in a water and flour medium. The bacteria metabolize sugars into lactic acid, which lowers the pH of their environment and creates the signature sourness associated with yogurt, sauerkraut, etc.

In many traditional pickling processes, vegetables are submerged in brine, and salt-tolerant lactobacilli feed on natural sugars found in the vegetables. The resulting mix of salt and lactic acid is a hostile environment for other microbes, such as fungi, and the vegetables are thus preserved—remaining edible for long periods.

Lactobacilli, especially pediococci and L. brevis, are some of the most common beer spoilage organisms. They are, however, essential to the production of sour beers such as Belgian lambics and American wild ales, giving the beer a distinct tart flavor.

title: Lactobacillus


text:
Actuarial science

Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in insurance, pension, finance, investment and other industries and professions. More generally, actuaries apply rigorous mathematics to model matters of uncertainty and life expectancy.

Actuaries are professionals trained in this discipline. In many countries, actuaries must demonstrate their competence by passing a series of rigorous professional examinations focused in fields such as probability and predictive analysis.

Actuarial science includes a number of interrelated subjects, including mathematics, probability theory, statistics, finance, economics, financial accounting and computer science. Historically, actuarial science used deterministic models in the construction of tables and premiums. The science has gone through revolutionary changes since the 1980s due to the proliferation of high speed computers and the union of stochastic actuarial models with modern financial theory.

Many universities have undergraduate and graduate degree programs in actuarial science. In 2010, a study published by job search website CareerCast ranked actuary as the #1 job in the United States. The study used five key criteria to rank jobs: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, and stress. In 2023, U.S. News & World Report ranked actuary as the eighth-best job in the business sector and the 13th-best job in STEM.

Life insurance, pensions and healthcare
Actuarial science became a formal mathematical discipline in the late 17th century with the increased demand for long-term insurance coverage such as burial, life insurance, and annuities. These long term coverages required that money be set aside to pay future benefits, such as annuity and death benefits many years into the future. This requires estimating future contingent events, such as the rates of mortality by age, as well as the development of mathematical techniques for discounting the value of funds set aside and invested. This led to the development of an important actuarial concept, referred to as the present value of a future sum. Certain aspects of the actuarial methods for discounting pension funds have come under criticism from modern financial economics.

 * In traditional life insurance, actuarial science focuses on the analysis of mortality, the production of life tables, and the application of compound interest to produce life insurance, annuities and endowment policies. Contemporary life insurance programs have been extended to include credit and mortgage insurance, key person insurance for small businesses, long term care insurance and health savings accounts.
 * In health insurance, including insurance provided directly by employers, and social insurance, actuarial science focuses on the analysis of rates of disability, morbidity, mortality, fertility and other contingencies. The effects of consumer choice and the geographical distribution of the utilization of medical services and procedures, and the utilization of drugs and therapies, is also of great importance. These factors underlay the development of the Resource-Base Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) at Harvard in a multi-disciplined study. Actuarial science also aids in the design of benefit structures, reimbursement standards, and the effects of proposed government standards on the cost of healthcare.
 * In the pension industry, actuarial methods are used to measure the costs of alternative strategies with regard to the design, funding, accounting, administration, and maintenance or redesign of pension plans. The strategies are greatly influenced by short-term and long-term bond rates, the funded status of the pension and benefit arrangements, collective bargaining; the employer's old, new and foreign competitors; the changing demographics of the workforce; changes in the internal revenue code; changes in the attitude of the internal revenue service regarding the calculation of surpluses; and equally importantly, both the short and long term financial and economic trends. It is common with mergers and acquisitions that several pension plans have to be combined or at least administered on an equitable basis. When benefit changes occur, old and new benefit plans have to be blended, satisfying new social demands and various government discrimination test calculations, and providing employees and retirees with understandable choices and transition paths. Benefit plans liabilities have to be properly valued, reflecting both earned benefits for past service, and the benefits for future service. Finally, funding schemes have to be developed that are manageable and satisfy the standards board or regulators of the appropriate country, such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board in the United States.
 * In social welfare programs, the Office of the Chief Actuary (OCACT), Social Security Administration plans and directs a program of actuarial estimates and analyses relating to SSA-administered retirement, survivors and disability insurance programs and to proposed changes in those programs. It evaluates operations of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, conducts studies of program financing, performs actuarial and demographic research on social insurance and related program issues involving mortality, morbidity, utilization, retirement, disability, survivorship, marriage, unemployment, poverty, old age, families with children, etc., and projects future workloads. In addition, the Office is charged with conducting cost analyses relating to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, a general-revenue financed, means-tested program for low-income aged, blind and disabled people. The office provides technical and consultative services to the Commissioner, to the board of trustees of the Social Security Trust Funds, and its staff appears before Congressional Committees to provide expert testimony on the actuarial aspects of Social Security issues.

Applications to other forms of insurance
Actuarial science is also applied to property, casualty, liability, and general insurance. In these forms of insurance, coverage is generally provided on a renewable period, (such as a yearly). Coverage can be cancelled at the end of the period by either party.

Property and casualty insurance companies tend to specialize because of the complexity and diversity of risks. One division is to organize around personal and commercial lines of insurance. Personal lines of insurance are for individuals and include fire, auto, homeowners, theft and umbrella coverages. Commercial lines address the insurance needs of businesses and include property, business continuation, product liability, fleet/commercial vehicle, workers compensation, fidelity and surety, and D&O insurance. The insurance industry also provides coverage for exposures such as catastrophe, weather-related risks, earthquakes, patent infringement and other forms of corporate espionage, terrorism, and "one-of-a-kind" (e.g., satellite launch). Actuarial science provides data collection, measurement, estimating, forecasting, and valuation tools to provide financial and underwriting data for management to assess marketing opportunities and the nature of the risks. Actuarial science often helps to assess the overall risk from catastrophic events in relation to its underwriting capacity or surplus.

In the reinsurance fields, actuarial science can be used to design and price reinsurance and retrocession arrangements, and to establish reserve funds for known claims and future claims and catastrophes.

Actuaries in criminal justice
There is an increasing trend to recognize that actuarial skills can be applied to a range of applications outside the traditional fields of insurance, pensions, etc. One notable example is the use in some US states of actuarial models to set criminal sentencing guidelines. These models attempt to predict the chance of re-offending according to rating factors which include the type of crime, age, educational background and ethnicity of the offender. However, these models have been open to criticism as providing justification for discrimination against specific ethnic groups by law enforcement personnel. Whether this is statistically correct or a self-fulfilling correlation remains under debate.

Another example is the use of actuarial models to assess the risk of sex offense recidivism. Actuarial models and associated tables, such as the MnSOST-R, Static-99, and SORAG, have been used since the late 1990s to determine the likelihood that a sex offender will re-offend and thus whether he or she should be institutionalized or set free.

Actuarial science related to modern financial economics
Traditional actuarial science and modern financial economics in the US have different practices, which is caused by different ways of calculating funding and investment strategies, and by different regulations.

Regulations are from the Armstrong investigation of 1905, the Glass–Steagall Act of 1932, the adoption of the Mandatory Security Valuation Reserve by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which cushioned market fluctuations, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board, (FASB) in the US and Canada, which regulates pensions valuations and funding.

History
Historically, much of the foundation of actuarial theory predated modern financial theory. In the early twentieth century, actuaries were developing many techniques that can be found in modern financial theory, but for various historical reasons, these developments did not achieve much recognition.

As a result, actuarial science developed along a different path, becoming more reliant on assumptions, as opposed to the arbitrage-free risk-neutral valuation concepts used in modern finance. The divergence is not related to the use of historical data and statistical projections of liability cash flows, but is instead caused by the manner in which traditional actuarial methods apply market data with those numbers. For example, one traditional actuarial method suggests that changing the asset allocation mix of investments can change the value of liabilities and assets (by changing the discount rate assumption). This concept is inconsistent with financial economics.

The potential of modern financial economics theory to complement existing actuarial science was recognized by actuaries in the mid-twentieth century. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a distinct effort for actuaries to combine financial theory and stochastic methods into their established models. Ideas from financial economics became increasingly influential in actuarial thinking, and actuarial science has started to embrace more sophisticated mathematical modelling of finance. Today, the profession, both in practice and in the educational syllabi of many actuarial organizations, is cognizant of the need to reflect the combined approach of tables, loss models, stochastic methods, and financial theory. However, assumption-dependent concepts are still widely used (such as the setting of the discount rate assumption as mentioned earlier), particularly in North America.

Product design adds another dimension to the debate. Financial economists argue that pension benefits are bond-like and should not be funded with equity investments without reflecting the risks of not achieving expected returns. But some pension products do reflect the risks of unexpected returns. In some cases, the pension beneficiary assumes the risk, or the employer assumes the risk. The current debate now seems to be focusing on four principles:
 * 1) financial models should be free of arbitrage.
 * 2) assets and liabilities with identical cash flows should have the same price. This is at odds with FASB.
 * 3) the value of an asset is independent of its financing.
 * 4) how pension assets should be invested

Essentially, financial economics state that pension assets should not be invested in equities for a variety of theoretical and practical reasons.

Pre-formalisation
Elementary mutual aid agreements and pensions arose in antiquity. Early in the Roman empire, associations were formed to meet the expenses of burial, cremation, and monuments—precursors to burial insurance and friendly societies. A small sum was paid into a communal fund on a weekly basis, and upon the death of a member, the fund would cover the expenses of rites and burial. These societies sometimes sold shares in the building of columbāria, or burial vaults, owned by the fund—the precursor to mutual insurance companies. Other early examples of mutual surety and assurance pacts can be traced back to various forms of fellowship within the Saxon clans of England and their Germanic forebears, and to Celtic society. However, many of these earlier forms of surety and aid would often fail due to lack of understanding and knowledge.

Initial development
The 17th century was a period of advances in mathematics in Germany, France and England. At the same time there was a rapidly growing desire and need to place the valuation of personal risk on a more scientific basis. Independently of each other, compound interest was studied and probability theory emerged as a well-understood mathematical discipline. Another important advance came in 1662 from a London draper, the father of demography, John Graunt, who showed that there were predictable patterns of longevity and death in a group, or cohort, of people of the same age, despite the uncertainty of the date of death of any one individual. This study became the basis for the original life table. One could now set up an insurance scheme to provide life insurance or pensions for a group of people, and to calculate with some degree of accuracy how much each person in the group should contribute to a common fund assumed to earn a fixed rate of interest. The first person to demonstrate publicly how this could be done was Edmond Halley (of Halley's comet fame). Halley constructed his own life table, and showed how it could be used to calculate the premium amount someone of a given age should pay to purchase a life annuity.

Early actuaries
James Dodson's pioneering work on the long term insurance contracts under which the same premium is charged each year led to the formation of the Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorship (now commonly known as Equitable Life) in London in 1762. William Morgan is often considered the father of modern actuarial science for his work in the field in the 1780s and 90s. Many other life insurance companies and pension funds were created over the following 200 years. Equitable Life was the first to use the word "actuary" for its chief executive officer in 1762. Previously, "actuary" meant an official who recorded the decisions, or "acts", of ecclesiastical courts. Other companies that did not use such mathematical and scientific methods most often failed or were forced to adopt the methods pioneered by Equitable.

Technological advances
In the 18th and 19th centuries, calculations were performed without computers. The computations of life insurance premiums and reserving requirements are rather complex, and actuaries developed techniques to make the calculations as easy as possible, for example "commutation functions" (essentially precalculated columns of summations over time of discounted values of survival and death probabilities). Actuarial organizations were founded to support and further both actuaries and actuarial science, and to protect the public interest by promoting competency and ethical standards. However, calculations remained cumbersome, and actuarial shortcuts were commonplace. Non-life actuaries followed in the footsteps of their life insurance colleagues during the 20th century. The 1920 revision for the New-York based National Council on Workmen's Compensation Insurance rates took over two months of around-the-clock work by day and night teams of actuaries. In the 1930s and 1940s, the mathematical foundations for stochastic processes were developed. Actuaries could now begin to estimate losses using models of random events, instead of the deterministic methods they had used in the past. The introduction and development of the computer further revolutionized the actuarial profession. From pencil-and-paper to punchcards to current high-speed devices, the modeling and forecasting ability of the actuary has rapidly improved, while still being heavily dependent on the assumptions input into the models, and actuaries needed to adjust to this new world.

title: Actuarial science


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