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Semantic memory

Semantic memory refers to general world knowledge that humans have accumulated throughout their lives. This general knowledge (word meanings, concepts, facts, and ideas) is intertwined in experience and dependent on culture. New concepts are learned by applying knowledge learned from things in the past.

Semantic memory is distinct from episodic memory—the memory of experiences and specific events that occur in one's life that can be recreated at any given point. For instance, semantic memory might contain information about what a cat is, whereas episodic memory might contain a specific memory of stroking a particular cat.

Semantic memory and episodic memory are both types of explicit memory (or declarative memory), or memory of facts or events that can be consciously recalled and "declared". The counterpart to declarative or explicit memory is implicit memory (also known as nondeclarative memory).

History
The idea of semantic memory was first introduced following a conference in 1972 between Endel Tulving and W. Donaldson on the role of organization in human memory. Tulving constructed a proposal to distinguish between episodic memory and what he termed semantic memory. He was mainly influenced by the ideas of Reiff and Scheers, who in 1959 made the distinction between two primary forms of memory. One form was entitled remembrances, and the other memoria. The remembrance concept dealt with memories that contained experiences of an autobiographic index, whereas the memoria concept dealt with memories that did not reference experiences having an autobiographic index. Semantic memory reflects the knowledge of the world, and the term general knowledge is often used. It holds generic information that is more than likely acquired across various contexts and is used across different situations. According to Madigan in his book titled Memory, semantic memory is the sum of all knowledge one has obtained—vocabulary, understanding of math, or all the facts one knows. In his book titled Episodic and Semantic Memory, Tulving adopted the term semantic from linguists to refer to a system of memory for "words and verbal symbols, their meanings and referents, the relations between them, and the rules, formulas, or algorithms for influencing them". The use of semantic memory differs from episodic memory: semantic memory refers to general facts and meanings one shares with others, while episodic memory refers to unique and concrete personal experiences. Tulving's proposal of this distinction was widely accepted, primarily because it allowed the separate conceptualization of world knowledge. Tulving discusses conceptions of episodic and semantic memory in his book titled Precise of Elements of Episodic Memory, in which he states that several factors differentiate between episodic memory and semantic memory in ways that include

 * 1) the characteristics of their operations,
 * 2) the kind of information they process, and
 * 3) their application to the real world as well as the memory laboratory.

In 2022, researchers Felipe De Brigard, Sharda Umanath, and Muireann Irish argued that Tulving conceptualized semantic memory to be different from episodic memory in that "episodic memories were viewed as supported via spatiotemporal relations while information in semantic memory was mediated through conceptual, meaning-based associations".

Recent research has focused on the idea that when people access a word's meaning, sensorimotor information that is used to perceive and act on the concrete object the word suggests is automatically activated. In the theory of grounded cognition, the meaning of a particular word is grounded in the sensorimotor systems. For example, when one thinks of a pear, knowledge of grasping, chewing, sights, sounds, and tastes used to encode episodic experiences of a pear are recalled through sensorimotor simulation. A grounded simulation approach refers to context-specific re-activations that integrate the important features of episodic experience into a current depiction. Such research has challenged previously utilized amodal views. The brain encodes multiple inputs such as words and pictures to integrate and create a larger conceptual idea by using amodal views (also known as amodal perception). Instead of being representations in modality-specific systems, semantic memory representations had previously been viewed as redescriptions of modality-specific states. Some accounts of category-specific semantic deficits that are amodal remain even though researchers are beginning to find support for theories in which knowledge is tied to modality-specific brain regions. The concept that semantic representations are grounded across modality-specific brain regions can be supported by episodic and semantic memory appearing to function in different yet mutually dependent ways. The distinction between semantic and episodic memory has become a part of the broader scientific discourse. For example, researchers speculate that semantic memory captures the stable aspects of our personality while episodes of illness may have a more episodic nature.

Jacoby and Dallas (1981)
This study was not created to solely provide evidence for the distinction of semantic and episodic memory stores. However, they did use the experimental dissociation method which provides evidence for Tulving's hypothesis.

In the first part, subjects were presented with a total of 60 words (one at a time) and were asked different questions.

 * Some questions asked were to cause the subject to pay attention to the visual appearance: Is the word typed in bold letters?
 * Some questions caused the participants to pay attention to the sound of the word: Does the word rhyme with ball?
 * Some questions caused the subjects to pay attention to the meaning of the word: Does the word refer to a form of communication?
 * Half of the questions were "no" answers and the other half "yes"

In the second phase of the experiment, 60 "old words" seen in stage one and 20 "new words" not shown in stage one were presented to the subjects one at a time.

The subjects were given one of two tasks:

Results showed that the percentage of correct answers in the semantic task (perceptual identification) did not change with the encoding conditions of appearance, sound, or meaning. The percentage of correct answers for the episodic task increased from the appearance condition (.50), to the sound condition (.63), to the meaning condition (.86). The effect was also greater for the "yes" encoding words than the "no" encoding words, which suggested a strong distinction of performance of episodic and semantic tasks, supporting Tulving's hypothesis.
 * Perceptual identification task: The words were flashed on a video-screen for 35 milliseconds and the subjects were required to say what the word was.
 * Episodic recognition task: Subjects were presented with each word and had to decide whether they had seen the word in the previous stage of the experiment.

Models
Semantic memory's contents are not tied to any particular instance of experience, as in episodic memory. Instead, what is stored in semantic memory is the "gist" of experience, an abstract structure that applies to a wide variety of experiential objects and delineates categorical and functional relationships between such objects. There are numerous sub-theories related to semantic memory that have developed since Tulving initially posited his argument on the differences between semantic and episodic memory; an example is the belief in hierarchies of semantic memory, in which different information one has learned with specific levels of related knowledge is associated. According to this theory, brains are able to associate specific information with other disparate ideas despite not having unique memories that correspond to when that knowledge was stored in the first place. This theory of hierarchies has also been applied to episodic memory, as in the case of work by William Brewer on the concept of autobiographical memory.

Network models
Networks of various sorts play an integral part in many theories of semantic memory. Generally speaking, a network is composed of a set of nodes connected by links. The nodes may represent concepts, words, perceptual features, or nothing at all. The links may be weighted such that some are stronger than others or, equivalently, have a length such that some links take longer to traverse than others. All these features of networks have been employed in models of semantic memory.

Teachable language comprehender
One of the first examples of a network model of semantic memory is the teachable language comprehender (TLC). In this model, each node is a word, representing a concept (like bird). Within each node is stored a set of properties (like "can fly" or "has wings") as well as links to other nodes (like chicken). A node is directly linked to those nodes of which it is either a subclass or superclass (i.e., bird would be connected to both chicken and animal). Properties are stored at the highest category level to which they apply; for example, "is yellow" would be stored with canary, "has wings" would be stored with bird (one level up), and "can move" would be stored with animal (another level up). Nodes may also store negations of the properties of their superordinate nodes (i.e., "NOT-can fly" would be stored with "penguin").

Processing in TLC is a form of spreading activation. When a node becomes active, that activation spreads to other nodes via the links between them. In that case, the time to answer the question "Is a chicken a bird?" is a function of how far the activation between the nodes for chicken and bird must spread, or the number of links between those nodes.

The original version of TLC did not put weights on the links between nodes. This version performed comparably to humans in many tasks, but failed to predict that people would respond faster to questions regarding more typical category instances than those involving less typical instances. Allan Collins and Quillian later updated TLC to include weighted connections to account for this effect, which allowed it to explain both the familiarity effect and the typicality effect. Its biggest advantage is that it clearly explains priming: information from memory is more likely to be retrieved if related information (the "prime") has been presented a short time before. There are still a number of memory phenomena for which TLC has no account, including why people are able to respond quickly to obviously false questions (like "is a chicken a meteor?") when the relevant nodes are very far apart in the network.

Semantic networks
TLC is an instance of a more general class of models known as semantic networks. In a semantic network, each node is to be interpreted as representing a specific concept, word, or feature; each node is a symbol. Semantic networks generally do not employ distributed representations for concepts, as may be found in a neural network. The defining feature of a semantic network is that its links are almost always directed (that is, they only point in one direction, from a base to a target) and the links come in many different types, each one standing for a particular relationship that can hold between any two nodes.

Semantic networks see the most use in models of discourse and logical comprehension, as well as in artificial intelligence. In these models, the nodes correspond to words or word stems and the links represent syntactic relations between them.

Feature models
Feature models view semantic categories as being composed of relatively unstructured sets of features. The semantic feature-comparison model describes memory as being composed of feature lists for different concepts. According to this view, the relations between categories would not be directly retrieved, and would be indirectly computed instead. For example, subjects might verify a sentence by comparing the feature sets that represent its subject and predicate concepts. Such computational feature-comparison models include the ones proposed by Meyer (1970), Rips (1975), and Smith et al. (1974).

Early work in perceptual and conceptual categorization assumed that categories had critical features and that category membership could be determined by logical rules for the combination of features. More recent theories have accepted that categories may have an ill-defined or "fuzzy" structure and have proposed probabilistic or global similarity models for the verification of category membership.

Associative models
The set of associations among a collection of items in memory is equivalent to the links between nodes in a network, where each node corresponds to a unique item in memory. Indeed, neural networks and semantic networks may be characterized as associative models of cognition. However, associations are often more clearly represented as an N×N matrix, where N is the number of items in memory; each cell of the matrix corresponds to the strength of the association between the row item and the column item.

Learning of associations is generally believed to be a Hebbian process, where whenever two items in memory are simultaneously active, the association between them grows stronger, and the more likely either item is to activate the other. See below for specific operationalizations of associative models.

Search of associative memory
A standard model of memory that employs association in this manner is the search of associative memory (SAM) model. Though SAM was originally designed to model episodic memory, its mechanisms are sufficient to support some semantic memory representations. The model contains a short-term store (STS) and long-term store (LTS), where STS is a briefly activated subset of the information in the LTS. The STS has limited capacity and affects the retrieval process by limiting the amount of information that can be sampled and limiting the time the sampled subset is in an active mode. The retrieval process in LTS is cue dependent and probabilistic, meaning that a cue initiates the retrieval process and the selected information from memory is random. The probability of being sampled is dependent on the strength of association between the cue and the item being retrieved, with stronger associations being sampled before one is chosen. The buffer size is defined as r, and not a fixed number, and as items are rehearsed in the buffer the associative strengths grow linearly as a function of the total time inside the buffer. In SAM, when any two items simultaneously occupy a working memory buffer, the strength of their association is incremented; items that co-occur more often are more strongly associated. Items in SAM are also associated with a specific context, where the strength of that association determined by how long each item is present in a given context. In SAM, memories consist of a set of associations between items in memory and between items and contexts. The presence of a set of items and/or a context is more likely to evoke some subset of the items in memory. The degree to which items evoke one another—either by virtue of their shared context or their co-occurrence—is an indication of the items' semantic relatedness.

In an updated version of SAM, pre-existing semantic associations are accounted for using a semantic matrix. During the experiment, semantic associations remain fixed showing the assumption that semantic associations are not significantly impacted by the episodic experience of one experiment. The two measures used to measure semantic relatedness in this model are latent semantic analysis (LSA) and word association spaces (WAS). The LSA method states that similarity between words is reflected through their co-occurrence in a local context. WAS was developed by analyzing a database of free association norms, and is where "words that have similar associative structures are placed in similar regions of space".

ACT-R: a production system model
The adaptive control of thought (ACT) (and later ACT-R (Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational) ) theory of cognition represents declarative memory (of which semantic memory is a part) as "chunks", which consist of a label, a set of defined relationships to other chunks (e.g., "this is a _", or "this has a _"), and any number of chunk-specific properties. Chunks can be mapped as a semantic network, given that each node is a chunk with its unique properties, and each link is the chunk's relationship to another chunk. In ACT, a chunk's activation decreases as a function of the time from when the chunk was created, and increases with the number of times the chunk has been retrieved from memory. Chunks can also receive activation from Gaussian noise and from their similarity to other chunks. For example, if chicken is used as a retrieval cue, canary will receive activation by virtue of its similarity to the cue. When retrieving items from memory, ACT looks at the most active chunk in memory; if it is above threshold, it is retrieved; otherwise an "error of omission" has occurred and the item has been forgotten. There is also retrieval latency, which varies inversely with the amount by which the activation of the retrieved chunk exceeds the retrieval threshold. This latency is used to measure the response time of the ACT model and compare it to human performance.

Statistical models
Some models characterize the acquisition of semantic information as a form of statistical inference from a set of discrete experiences, distributed across a number of contexts. Though these models differ in specifics, they generally employ an (Item × Context) matrix where each cell represents the number of times an item in memory has occurred in a given context. Semantic information is gleaned by performing a statistical analysis of this matrix.

Many of these models bear similarity to the algorithms used in search engines, though it is not yet clear whether they really use the same computational mechanisms.

Latent semantic analysis
One of the more popular models is latent semantic analysis (LSA). In LSA, a T × D matrix is constructed from a text corpus, where T is the number of terms in the corpus and D is the number of documents (here "context" is interpreted as "document" and only words—or word phrases—are considered as items in memory). Each cell in the matrix is then transformed according to the equation:

$$\mathbf{M}_{t,d}'=\frac{\ln{(1 + \mathbf{M}_{t,d})}}{-\sum_{i=0}^D P(i|t) \ln{P(i|t)}}$$

where $$P(i|t)$$ is the probability that context $$i$$ is active, given that item $$t$$ has occurred (this is obtained simply by dividing the raw frequency, $$\mathbf{M}_{t,d}$$ by the total of the item vector, $$\sum_{i=0}^D \mathbf{M}_{t,i}$$).

Hyperspace Analogue to Language (HAL)
The Hyperspace Analogue to Language (HAL) model considers context only as the words that immediately surround a given word. HAL computes an NxN matrix, where N is the number of words in its lexicon, using a 10-word reading frame that moves incrementally through a corpus of text. Like SAM, any time two words are simultaneously in the frame, the association between them is increased, that is, the corresponding cell in the NxN matrix is incremented. The bigger the distance between the two words, the smaller the amount by which the association is incremented (specifically, $$\Delta=11-d$$, where $$d$$ is the distance between the two words in the frame).

Location of semantic memory in the brain
The cognitive neuroscience of semantic memory is a controversial issue with two dominant views.

Many researchers and clinicians believe that semantic memory is stored by the same brain systems involved in episodic memory, that is, the medial temporal lobes, including the hippocampal formation. In this system, the hippocampal formation "encodes" memories, or makes it possible for memories to form at all, and the neocortex stores memories after the initial encoding process is completed. Recently, new evidence has been presented in support of a more precise interpretation of this hypothesis. The hippocampal formation includes, among other structures: the hippocampus itself, the entorhinal cortex, and the perirhinal cortex. These latter two make up the parahippocampal cortices. Amnesiacs with damage to the hippocampus but some spared parahippocampal cortex were able to demonstrate some degree of intact semantic memory despite a total loss of episodic memory, which strongly suggests that information encoding leading to semantic memory does not have its physiological basis in the hippocampus.

Other researchers believe the hippocampus is only involved in episodic memory and spatial cognition, which raises the question of where semantic memory may be located. Some believe semantic memory lives in the temporal cortex, while others believe that it is widely distributed across all brain areas.

Neural correlates and biological workings
The hippocampal areas associate semantic memory with declarative memory. The left inferior prefrontal cortex and the left posterior temporal areas are other areas involved in semantic memory use. Temporal lobe damage affecting the lateral and medial cortexes have been related to semantic impairments. Damage to different areas of the brain affect semantic memory differently.

Neuroimaging evidence suggests that left hippocampal areas show an increase in activity during semantic memory tasks. During semantic retrieval, two regions in the right middle frontal gyrus and the area of the right inferior temporal gyrus similarly show an increase in activity. Damage to areas involved in semantic memory result in various deficits, depending on the area and type of damage. For instance, Lambon Ralph, Lowe, & Rogers (2007) found that category-specific impairments can occur where patients have different knowledge deficits for one semantic category over another, depending on location and type of damage. Category-specific impairments might indicate that knowledge may rely differentially upon sensory and motor properties encoded in separate areas (Farah and McClelland, 1991).

Category-specific impairments can involve cortical regions where living and nonliving things are represented and where feature and conceptual relationships are represented. Depending on the damage to the semantic system, one type might be favored over the other. In many cases, there is a point where one domain is better than the other (such as the representation of living and nonliving things over feature and conceptual relationships or vice versa).

Different diseases and disorders can affect the biological workings of semantic memory. A variety of studies have been done in an attempt to determine the effects on varying aspects of semantic memory. For example, Lambon, Lowe, & Rogers studied the different effects semantic dementia and herpes simplex virus encephalitis have on semantic memory. They found that semantic dementia has a more generalized semantic impairment. Additionally, deficits in semantic memory as a result of herpes simplex virus encephalitis tend to have more category-specific impairments. Other disorders that affect semantic memory, such as Alzheimer's disease, has been observed clinically as errors in naming, recognizing, or describing objects. Whereas researchers have attributed such impairment to degradation of semantic knowledge.

Various neural imaging and research points to semantic memory and episodic memory resulting from distinct areas in the brain. Other research suggests that both semantic memory and episodic memory are part of a singular declarative memory system, yet represent different sectors and parts within the greater whole. Different areas within the brain are activated depending on whether semantic or episodic memory is accessed.

Category-specific semantic impairments
Category-specific semantic impairments are a neuropsychological occurrence in which an individual ability to identify certain categories of objects is selectively impaired while other categories remain undamaged. This condition can result in brain damage that is widespread, patchy, or localized. Research suggests that the temporal lobe, more specifically the structural description system, might be responsible for category specific impairments of semantic memory disorders.

Theories on category-specific semantic deficits tend to fall into two different groups based on their underlying principles. Theories based on the correlated structure principle, which states that conceptual knowledge organization in the brain is a reflection of how often an object's properties occur, assume that the brain reflects the statistical relation of object properties and how they relate to each other. Theories based on the neural structure principle, which states that the conceptual knowledge organization in the brain is controlled by representational limits imposed by the brain itself, assume that organization is internal. These theories assume that natural selective pressures have caused neural circuits specific to certain domains to be formed, and that these are dedicated to problem-solving and survival. Animals, plants, and tools are all examples of specific circuits that would be formed based on this theory.

Impairment categories
Category-specific semantic deficits tend to fall into two different categories, each of which can be spared or emphasized depending on the individual's specific deficit. The first category consists of animate objects with, animals being the most common deficit. The second category consists of inanimate objects with two subcategories: fruits and vegetables (biological inanimate objects), and artifacts being the most common deficits. The type of deficit does not indicate a lack of conceptual knowledge associated with that category, as the visual system used to identify and describe the structure of objects functions independently of an individual's conceptual knowledge base.

Most of the time, these two categories are consistent with case-study data. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule. Categories like food, body parts, and musical instruments have been shown to defy the animate/inanimate or biological/non-biological categorical division. In some cases, it has been shown that musical instruments tend to be impaired in patients with damage to the living things category despite the fact that musical instruments fall in the non-biological/inanimate category. However, there are also cases of biological impairment where musical instrument performance is at a normal level. Similarly, food has been shown to be impaired in those with biological category impairments. The category of food specifically can present some irregularities though because it can be natural, but it can also be highly processed, such as in a case study of an individual who had impairments for vegetables and animals, while their category for food remained intact.

The role of modality
Modality refers to a semantic category of meaning that has to do with necessity and probability expressed through language. In linguistics, certain expressions are said to have modal meanings. A few examples of this include conditionals, auxiliary verbs, adverbs, and nouns. When looking at category-specific semantic deficits, there is another kind of modality that looks at word relationships which is much more relevant to these disorders and impairments.

For category-specific impairments, there are modality-specific theories that are based on a few general predictions. These theories state that damage to the visual modality will result in a deficit of biological objects, while damage to the functional modality will result in a deficit of non-biological objects (artifacts). Modality-based theories assume that if there is damage to modality-specific knowledge, then all the categories that fall under it will be damaged. In this case, damage to the visual modality would result in a deficit for all biological objects with no deficits restricted to the more specific categories. For example, there would be no category specific semantic deficits for just "animals" or just "fruits and vegetables".

Semantic dementia
Semantic dementia is a semantic memory disorder that causes patients to lose the ability to match words or images to their meanings. It is fairly rare for patients with semantic dementia to develop category specific impairments, though there have been documented cases of it occurring. Typically, a more generalized semantic impairment results from dimmed semantic representations in the brain.

Alzheimer's disease is a subcategory of semantic dementia which can cause similar symptoms. The main difference between the two is that Alzheimer's is categorized by atrophy to both sides of the brain, while semantic dementia is categorized by loss of brain tissue in the front portion of the left temporal lobe. With Alzheimer's disease in particular, interactions with semantic memory produce different patterns in deficits between patients and categories over time which is caused by distorted representations in the brain. For example, in the initial onset of Alzheimer's disease, patients have mild difficulty with the artifacts category. As the disease progresses, the category specific semantic deficits progress as well, and patients see a more concrete deficit with natural categories. In other words, the deficit tends to be worse with living things as opposed to non-living things.

Herpes simplex virus encephalitis
Herpes simplex virus encephalitis (HSVE) is a neurological disorder which causes inflammation of the brain. Early symptoms include headache, fever, and drowsiness, but over time symptoms including diminished ability to speak, memory loss, and aphasia develop. HSVE can also cause category-specific semantic deficits to occur. When this happens, patients typically have damage temporal lobe damage that affects the medial and lateral cortex as well as the frontal lobe. Studies have also shown that patients with HSVE have a much higher incidence of category-specific semantic deficits than those with semantic dementia, though both cause a disruption of flow through the temporal lobe.

Brain lesions
A brain lesion refers to any abnormal tissue in or on the brain, most often caused by a trauma or infection. In one case study, a patient underwent surgery to remove an aneurysm, and the surgeon had to clip the anterior communicating artery which resulted in basal forebrain and fornix lesions. Before surgery, this patient was completely independent and had no semantic memory issues. However, after the operation and the lesions developed, the patient reported difficulty with naming and identifying objects, recognition tasks, and comprehension. The patient had a much more significant amount of trouble with objects in the living category which could be seen in the drawings of animals which the patient was asked to do and in the data from the matching and identification tasks. Every lesion is different, but in this case study researchers suggested that the semantic deficits presented themselves as a result of disconnection of the temporal lobe. The findings led to the conclusion that any type of lesion in the temporal lobe, depending on severity and location, has the potential to cause semantic deficits.

Semantic differences in gender
The following table summarizes conclusions from the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. These results give a baseline for the differences in semantic knowledge across gender for healthy subjects. Experimental data observes that males with category-specific semantic deficits are mainly impaired with fruits and vegetables while women with category specific semantic deficits are mainly impaired with animals and artifacts. It has been concluded that there are significant gender differences when it comes to category-specific semantic deficits, and that the patient will tend to be impaired in categories that had less existing knowledge to begin with.

Modality-specific impairments
Semantic memory is also discussed in reference to modality. Different components represent information from different sensorimotor channels. Modality specific impairments are divided into separate subsystems on the basis of input modality. Examples of different input modalities include visual, auditory, and tactile input. Modality-specific impairments are also divided into subsystems based on the type of information. Visual vs. verbal and perceptual vs. functional information are examples of information types.

Semantic memory disorders
Semantic memory disorders fall into two groups. Semantic refractory access disorders are contrasted with semantic storage disorders according to four factors: temporal factors, response consistency, frequency, and semantic relatedness. A key feature of semantic refractory access disorders is temporal distortions, where decreases in response time to certain stimuli are noted when compared to natural response times. In access disorders there are inconsistencies in comprehending and responding to stimuli that have been presented many times. Temporal factors impact response consistency. In storage disorders, an inconsistent response to specific items is not observed. Stimulus frequency determines performance at all stages of cognition. Extreme word frequency effects are common in semantic storage disorders while in semantic refractory access disorders word frequency effects are minimal. The comparison of close and distant groups tests semantic relatedness. Close groupings have words that are related because they are drawn from the same category, such as a list of clothing types. Distant groupings contain words with broad categorical differences, such as unrelated words. Comparing close and distant groups shows that in access disorders semantic relatedness had a negative effect, which is not observed in semantic storage disorders. Category-specific and modality-specific impairments are important components in access and storage disorders of semantic memory.

Present and future research
Positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow cognitive neuroscientists to explore different hypotheses concerning the neural network organization of semantic memory. By using these neuroimaging techniques researchers can observe the brain activity of participants while they perform cognitive tasks. These tasks can include, but are not limited to, naming objects, deciding if two stimuli belong in the same object category, or matching pictures to their written or spoken names.

A developing theory is that semantic memory, like perception, can be subdivided into types of visual information—color, size, form, and motion. Thompson-Schill (2003) found that the left or bilateral ventral temporal cortex appears to be involved in retrieval of knowledge of color and form, the left lateral temporal cortex in knowledge of motion, and the parietal cortex in knowledge of size.

Neuroimaging studies suggest a large, distributed network of semantic representations that are organized minimally by attribute, and perhaps additionally by category. These networks include "extensive regions of ventral (form and color knowledge) and lateral (motion knowledge) temporal cortex, parietal cortex (size knowledge), and premotor cortex (manipulation knowledge). Other areas, such as more anterior regions of temporal cortex, may be involved in the representation of nonperceptual (e.g. verbal) conceptual knowledge, perhaps in some categorically-organized fashion."

title: Semantic memory


text:
John of Tobolsk

John of Tobolsk (Иоанн Тобольский; 1651–1715) was born as Ioann Maksimovich Vasilkovskiy (Иоанн Максимович Васильковский) in Nieżyn, in the Czernihow Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was the only one of the seven sons of Maksym Wasylkowski Maksymowicz to enter the service of the Eastern Orthodox Church, in which he was appointed manager of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra by 1678. As Bishop Theodore of Uglich wanted someone to succeed him of Chernigov, he appointed John as Archimandrite of the Eletsky Monastery in 1695. Bishop Theodore of Uglich reposed in 1696 and John became Archbishop of Chernigov.

During his pastorate in Chernigov, John distinguished himself by operating a spiritual academy, writing prose and poetry inspired by faith, and inspiring faith in others. His most famous work is "Iliotropion", which he translated and adapted into Slavonic and Russian from the original Latin of the German Jesuit priest Jeremias Drexel. In the early 21st century, it remains the standard work on theodicy among the Eastern Orthodox.

In 1711, he was made Metropolitan of the Siberian city of Tobolsk, taking the place of Metropolitan Philotheos who wished to carry out missionary work among pagan tribes in remote places.

John died peacefully in 1715, inside his quarters while at prayer. John was honoured as a saint in Siberia by longstanding local veneration. His canonization was supported by Rasputin. In 1916 the Russian Orthodox Church officially glorified (canonized) him for veneration throughout the church. His feast day is June 10, the anniversary of his death.

John of Tobolsk is the namesake of John of Shanghai and San Francisco.

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

authors: Чръный человек

title: John of Tobolsk


text:
Wigwag (railroad)

Wigwag is a nickname for a type of railroad grade crossing signal once common in North America, referring to its pendulum-like motion that signaled a train's approach. The device is generally credited to Albert Hunt, a mechanical engineer at Southern California's Pacific Electric (PE) interurban streetcar railroad, who invented it in 1909 for safer railroad grade crossings. The term should not be confused with its usage in Britain, where "wigwag" generally refers to alternate flashing lights, such as those found at modern level crossings.

Rationale
Soon after the advent of the automobile, travel speeds were increasing and the popularity of enclosed cars made the concept of "stop, look, and listen" at railroad crossings difficult. Fatalities at crossings were increasing. Though the idea of automatic grade crossing protection was not new, no one had invented a fail-safe, universally recognized system. In those days, many crossings were protected by a watchman who warned of an oncoming train by swinging a red lantern in a side-to-side arc, used universally in the United States to signify "stop". This motion is still used today by railroad workers to indicate stop per the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR) Rule 5.3.1. It was presumed that a mechanical device that mimicked that movement would get the attention of approaching motorists and give an unmistakable warning.

Design
The earliest wigwags used by Pacific Electric, built in the railroad's shops, were gear-driven, but proved difficult to maintain. The final design, first installed in 1914 at a busy crossing near Long Beach, California, utilized alternating electromagnets pulling on an iron armature. A red steel target disc, slightly less than 2 ft in diameter was attached, which served as a pendulum. There was a red light in the center of the target, and with each swing of the target a mechanical gong sounded.

The new model, combining sight, motion and sound, was dubbed the magnetic flagman, and was manufactured by the Magnetic Signal Company of Los Angeles, California, though it is unclear exactly when production began. After the distinctive signals were installed, train and car collisions decreased at PE grade crossings. The signs became so common throughout the area that they were near-icons of Southern California motoring. Their popularity led to Magnetic Signal wigwags appearing at railroad crossings across the United States—including on Alaska's Copper River and Northwestern Railway and on several Hawaiian railroads—and across Canada, Mexico, and as far away as Australia. There are also photographs of the Magnetic Flagman in use in Europe.

Three mechanically-identical versions were produced. The upper-quadrant model was mounted directly atop a steel pole and waved the target above the motor box. It was intended for use where space was limited. Since the target could not serve as the pendulum, a cast iron counterweight opposite the target was used. Accurate computer-generated animation of that type of signal can be seen in the 2006 movie, Cars. The lower-quadrant version waved the target below the motor box and was intended to be cantilevered from a pole, over road traffic. Some railroads, especially in the north-western US, mounted their lower quadrant versions directly on top of a tall steel pole similar to the upper quadrant signal. They were placed on one side of the road, or on an island in the center of the road, and often had crossbucks fastened on top of the motor box. A lower quadrant signal of that kind is seen in the 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Though Magnetic Signal manufactured a steel pole and cast-iron base for the purpose (which served as a cabinet for backup batteries and relays), PE often mounted the cantilevers on the wooden poles that also supported the overhead catenary providing power for streetcars. That rendered batteries unnecessary, since any failure of PE's generators resulted in a shutdown of the railway. It also permitted the relays to be housed in a separate, inexpensive cabinet, reducing the cost of the installation.

The third and least common version was a pole-mounted lower-quadrant signal, with the motor box fixed to the top of an octagonal steel frame that surrounded the target, presumably to protect both banner and motor box from being damaged by road vehicles. Dubbed the "peach basket" because of the protective framework, the apparatus was crowned by another visual warning, the traditional X-shaped "RAILROAD CROSSING" sign, or crossbucks. The majority of peach baskets were used by the Union Pacific Railroad. One version of the signal had the lower stripe on the banner replaced with the word stop that was lighted. When the signal was at rest, the words were hidden behind a screen that was painted to look like the missing stripe. They were either mounted on an island in the center of the road or on the side of the road.

The Magnetic Flagman wigwag waves its target using large, black electromagnets pulling against an iron armature. Sliding contacts switch the current from one magnet to the other. Each Magnetic Flagman includes a builder's plate (bottom center) detailing patent dates and power requirements.

There were a few other models that were either manufactured by Magnetic Signal or customized by the different railroads. Some examples included two signals on the same pole for different traffic approaches, a circular upper quadrant signal in which the target swung in a circular frame, and three-position signals where the target was hidden behind a sign when the signal was inactive. The Norfolk and Western Railway decided to make a change in which the motion-limiting bumpers were placed on the front of the signal instead of inside at the rear, so that the torque on the armature was reduced. They also had unique lights on their banners.

Any version could be ordered to operate using the railroad signal standard of 8 volts DC (VDC) current, or the 600 VDC used to power streetcars and electric locomotives, with little more than a change in the electromagnets. Most, if not all, of the 600 VDC units were used by PE. With the conversion to diesel power after PE sold its passenger operations in 1953, those 600 VDC wigwags were gradually converted to 8 VDC units. There were also some 110 volt AC models of Magnetic Flagman used on several railroads, including Norfolk and Western, Winston-Salem Southbound, and the Milwaukee Road. Since AC power did not generate good torque, a coil cutoff device was installed that utilized all four magnets until full motion of the banner was obtained, then two of the magnets went off line and movement was maintained by the remaining two magnets.

Various options were available. One was a round, counterbalancing "sail" for use in windy areas and which was sometimes painted in the same scheme as the main target. A warning light with adjustable housing was offered, as was an "OUT OF ORDER" warning sign that dropped into view if power to the signal was interrupted. There was a rare adjustable turret-style mount for properly aiming the signal if space did not allow the cantilever to fully extend over the roadway. The last known example of the turret-mounted wigwag was removed from service in Gardena, California in 2000, while the versions with the warning signs were mostly shipped to Australia. One surviving example is on display at the Newport Railway Museum in Melbourne, Victoria, and one has been restored and now operates on the Puffing Billy Railway. An example or two of each signal still survive with collectors.

A ruling by the United States Interstate Commerce Commission mandated a change in the target in the early 1930s. It required a change in the paint scheme from solid red to a black cross and border on a white background, but there was no other change until a ruling that required the alternating red lights in use today. That, along with other rules about grade crossing signaling that the wigwags were unable to meet due to their power requirements, rendered them obsolete for new installations after 1949, but grandfathering laws allowed them to remain until the crossings they protected were upgraded. The Magnetic Signal Company was sold to the Griswold Signal Company of Minneapolis shortly after World War II. Production of new signals continued until 1949, and replacement parts until 1960.

The symbol of a black cross on a white background was adopted in the US as the traffic sign warning drivers about an unprotected grade crossing and was incorporated into the corporate logo of the Santa Fe Railroad. It remains in use today, although with a yellow background and the cross rotated 45 degrees into an "X". Some railroads, among them the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, used a concentric black circle on a white background, resembling a bullseye, but that scheme was rare, partly because the L&N used few wigwags.

In modern America and elsewhere
Few wigwag signals currently remain in place, and the number dwindles as crossings are upgraded and spare parts become scarce. Once broken down and sold (or given away) as scrap as modern flashers took their place, they are now railroad collectibles, commanding a hefty price and winding up in personal collections of railroad officials, train spotters, and other individual collectors. Magnetic Flagman made in Minneapolis, Minnesota after production was moved from Los Angeles are especially rare and are valued by collectors.

Although many wig wags are still used by heritage railroads and railroad museums, there are only 14 railroad crossings with at least one wigwag remaining in use for regular railroads in the United States as of 2022. All 14 are in California. There is also a non-working example located in Pullman, Washington. This is stark contrast from Federal Railroad Administration data from 2004, showing there were 1,098 railroad crossings in the United States having one or more wigwags as their warning device. Of those 1,098 crossings having wigwags, 398 were in California, 117 in Wisconsin, 97 in Illinois, 66 in Texas and 45 in Kansas. The 2004 data showed a total of 44 states have at least one railroad crossing having a wigwag as its warning device. A previous FRA publication from 1983 showed 2,618 crossings equipped with wigwags.

The last wigwag on a main rail line, a Magnetic Flagman upper-quadrant at a rural crossing in Delhi, Colorado on the BNSF Railway, was removed in March 2021 and now resides at the Colorado Railroad Museum. Until destroyed by a truck in April 2004, a lower-quadrant Magnetic Flagman wigwag protected a private crossing of a BNSF line hidden from public view by a sound barrier in Pittsburg, California. The wigwag, the last "Model 10" in active use, was replaced by standard highway flashers. The Model 10 was distinguished by its short, low-hanging cantilever and use of crossbucks mounted higher than the cantilever. They were almost exclusively used by the Santa Fe, although there were also a few of this model on the Southern Pacific. In 2011–12, working replica wigwags were installed at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California along the Red Car Trolley as well as show wigwags that were placed in Radiator Springs Racers.

Anaheim had a working signal along the Union Pacific Costa Mesa branch at Lemon and Santa Ana Streets before being removed on February 25, 2019. This same signal may have been featured in the 1922 Magnetic Flagman catalog.

Collector and notable film director, Chris M. Allport owns and operates a restored, lower-quadrant Magnetic Flagman (made in Minneapolis) wigwag at his studio in Los Angeles, California.

A single lower-quadrant wigwag in the industrial city of Vernon, California, once protected a crossing on 49th Street with eight separate tracks on the BNSF Harbor Subdivision. A link between downtown Los Angeles and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, this line currently sees less traffic since the completion of the more direct Alameda Corridor between downtown and the harbor. This project eliminated many at-grade crossings along Alameda Street and a number of Southern Pacific wigwags remaining from the PE era. Those remaining protect crossings of lightly used spur lines primarily in California and Wisconsin, the latter state featuring a different signal produced by Bryant-Zinc purchased by the Railroad Supply Company, which later became the Western Railroad Supply Company (WRRS).

The signal was removed sometime in late April 2020. Its removal and that of the Anaheim signal the previous year marked the end of Southern California wigwags still in revenue service.

Wigwags manufactured by WRRS and its predecessors were once numerous in the Midwest, with almost every town using them to protect their main crossings. The most common model was called the Autoflag #5. They functioned in much the same way as the Magnetic Flagmen. They utilized alternating electromagnets to swing a shaft with an attached illuminated banner. Bells were not integral to the devices as with the Magnetic Flagmen. They employed standard bells that were used on other types of signals, and mounted either to the mast or to a bracket on the top of the center harp style, as in the Devil's Lake, WI photo.

Autoflag #5s were widely used on the Chicago & North Western (C&NW), Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q), Illinois Central, Soo Line and the Milwaukee Road Railroads. A few were also used on the Louisville & Nashville and the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio (GM&O) as well as other roads in the US and Canada. Most of these wigwags were removed in the 1970-1980s as crossings were updated. They were made in both a lower quadrant style and a center harp style similar to the Magnetic Flagman's peachbasket style. Early on, there were Autoflag #5s that would hold the banner behind a shield much like the Magnetic Flagman disappearing banner-style. These were replaced as time went on with the standard two-position banner that hung vertically when not energized. Several railroad, such as the GM&O and CB&Q, had a second light below the main light on the banner. This served as a second reserve light in case of failure of both bulbs in the main light and as a signal maintainers' warning of a burned-out bulb without having to climb up and open the main light to check each bulb. If the secondary light was illuminated, there was an issue with burned out bulbs in the main light.

Wigwags were also manufactured by Union Switch and Signal (US&S). They were primarily used in the northeastern US, with a few in Florida, although the Frisco had some in the Great Plains. An example was also pictured in a review of Hawaiian sugar cane railroads from the 1940s. They were manufactured in both a disappearing banner style in the East and standard two-position in the Great Plains. While there are a few examples in museums, the sole surviving US&S wigwag in service in the US is a two-position style in Joplin, MO on an ex-Frisco industrial spur. It was not destroyed in the May, 2011 Joplin tornado, being a few blocks outside the damage path. These were a bit different in design from the Autoflag #5 and the Magnetic Flagman. The swing of the banner was produced through a drive shaft. Some of them, particularly on the Boston & Maine Railroad, had chase lights mounted above the banner that simulated the movement of the banner. The last one of this type with the chase lights was removed in 1985 and US&S wigwags were thought to have disappeared from the USA until the discovery of the specimen in Joplin. There are a number of US&S wigwags that have been preserved and restored by museums.

US&S and WRRS wigwags were also used by the CPR on its Canadian lines. There were two wig-wags in service in Canada, located on the CN CASO sub near Tilbury, Ontario. Both were WRRS Autoflag #5s with disappearing banners. Disappearing banners were the only style of wigwag approved for use in Canada. They were slated to be removed in early 2009, although they were still in place as of November 2009. In 2011, the CASO sub was abandoned and the wigwags were removed.

The wigwags at the crossing that mark the location of the western terminus of the BNSF Railway (successor to the Santa Fe) on West Richmond Avenue in Point Richmond, CA became pawns in a fight over local control in 2001 when BNSF said it was going to remove them once they installed more modern devices, after the state's transportation authority pressured it to upgrade the crossing. Nevertheless, in July 2019 the two upper wig wags were put operative again after the Richmond community raised funds ($2,000) to restore the devices, which had been out of use for 18 years. The two upper-quadrant wigwags are the last of their kind paired together in active use. Both wigwags remain as non-operative decorations at the crossing, coexisting with the modern gates, red lights and bells. In the interest of safety, information signs were posted at the wigwags stating that the wigwags are non-operational. The ability to be activated by trains was retained, but only for special events.

On the episode of American Restoration aired on April 16, 2013, a pair of WRRS Autoflag #5 wigwag signals were restored for the Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, Nevada.

In Australia, a wigwag is left preserved along the abandoned Victor Harbor railway line in Mount Barker, South Australia. In the Netherlands there was one wigwag; at a portal on the Damlaan in Leidschendam (the famous blue tramway line)(1924-1961) There are at least 5 wigwags left in Chile; one in Padre Hurtado, one outside San Felipe, and three in Llaillay. Unknown if they are in use. There have also been some in France, Italy, and Switzerland.

Preservation
Several wig-wag signals have been preserved at heritage railroads and museums, including, but not necessarily limited to the following:

 * Arizona Railway Museum
 * California State Railroad Museum
 * Colfax Railroad Museum
 * Colorado Railroad Museum
 * Conway Scenic Railroad
 * East Troy Electric Railroad Museum
 * Edaville Railroad
 * Elgin County Railway Museum
 * Frisco Heritage Museum
 * Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum
 * Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum
 * Illinois Railway Museum
 * Mid-Continent Railway Museum
 * Monticello Railway Museum
 * Nevada Northern Railway Museum
 * North Carolina Transportation Museum
 * Orange Empire Railway Museum
 * Oregon Electric Railway Museum
 * National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide
 * Rosenberg Railroad Museum
 * San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum
 * Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
 * Virginia Museum of Transportation
 * Western Pacific Railroad Museum
 * Whippany Railway Museum
 * Old Prairie Town
 * Texas Transport Museum

title: Wigwag (railroad)


text:
Kill and Kill Again

Kill and Kill Again is a 1981 action film directed by Ivan Hall. The film stars James Ryan as Steve Chase who is hired to save the scientist Horatio Kane, who has been kidnapped by the scientist Marduk. Chase gathers together a team of mercenaries who find their way to the villain's stronghold and then find themselves fighting for their lives as they are captured.

Kill and Kill Again is a sequel to the film Kill or Be Killed and began filming in June 1980. The film was shot in Europe and the United States with the cast predominantly being from South Africa. It was released in New York on May 8, 1981. It received negative reviews from Variety and The New York Times who found the film "unexciting" and with a "horrible plot", respectively.

Plot
Martial arts champion Steve Chase is hired by Kandy Kane to rescue her father, Dr. Horatio Kane, who had accidentally discovered a mind-control drug while researching potatoes as an energy source. The government offers Steve $2 million to find him, but he gets $5 million and is allowed to select his own team. He recruits four of his old friends: a mystic known as the Fly, a reclusive former martial arts champ named Gypsy Billy, a large former wrestler named Gorilla, and a goofy cheerful fellow called Hot Dog.

The government officials brief them on their mission: Wellington Forsyth III, a billionaire who supposedly disappeared years ago, now calls himself Marduk (MAR-dook); they believe he kidnapped Kane for his mind-control drug to create an army with the intention of totalitarianism. Having seized control of a town called Ironville, Marduk is now a warlord with many followers under his control from Kane's drug (which has to be re-administered when it wears off). They want Steve and his team to stop Marduk's plans and rescue Kane. When Kandy insists on joining them, Steve eventually relents when she reveals that she too can fight.

In his fortress, Marduk seeks a challenger for his undefeated champion, the Optimus, a large man who fights with raw power. Steve and his group wrangle their way into Ironville only to be captured by Marduk's guards, and are each forced to fight members of his army. They all best their respective opponents, including Steve who defeats the Optimus. Marduk then forces Steve to drink a new serum and orders him to kill his friends, but the serum fails and Steve forces Marduk to declare everyone free and destroy him instead. Chaos erupts, and Steve eventually saves Kane from being shot by Marduk's top guard. Marduk tries to escape via helicopter, but cannot take off with Gorilla holding one of the rotors. The remaining guards open fire on Gorilla, but end up hitting the helicopter, which explodes with Marduk still on board.

Kandy later reveals that she was actually an undercover government agent, and the real Kandy Kane, formerly under Marduk's control, has been reunited with her father, who decides to stay behind to give his antidote to everyone else affected, and the heroes head for home.

Production
In an article on February 11, 1980, The Hollywood Reporter stated that Film Ventures International would produce a sequel to the film Kill or Be Killed titled Kill or Be Killed, Part II to be scheduled to start filming in June 1980. The film was being referred to Kill or Be Killed II by July 24, 1980 in the Hollywood Reporter and later referred to as Kill and Kill Again in a November 4, 1980 article of the Hollywood Reporter.

The cast of the film was predominantly from South Africa. Variety reported on September 24, 1980 that Diane Newman had been cast in the film, but she does not appear in the film's credits. Filming ended in the United States on July 24, 1980 and was set to move to locations in Europe.

Release
Kill and Kill Again was released in New York on May 8, 1981. On August 12, 1980, the Hollywood Reporter announced that a third film in the series was planned. As of December 2013, no follow-up film has gone into production.

Proposed Third Film
During his commentary on the Blu-Ray edition of Kill and Kill Again, James Ryan gave full details on the proposed third film of the franchise. The film was to be titled Most Dangerous Man and would feature Ryan returning as Steve Chase as now a secret agent. The film was to be in a James Bond-manner with karate sequences. He even said that a female lead was chosen in the form of a young Sharon Stone. However, the collapse of Film Ventures International ended up derailing the plans for the film and Ryan returned full-time to South Africa.

Reception
From contemporary reviews, Variety's "Lor." found that the fight scenes were "unexciting", as the "choreography is too pat and lacks danger." while concluding the film to be a "good-natured karate actioner for genre fans" Vincent Canby of The New York Times stated the film had a "horrible plot" that "contains a lot of action, but most of the violence is in the grunting and groaning that accompanies the various karate chops."

title: Kill and Kill Again


text:
Law degree

A law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers, but while their names can be similar, each country's law degrees differ in terms of legal training and the types of legal practice they allow. Generally, law degrees include the Bachelor of Laws (LLB), the Master of Laws (LLM), and the Doctor of Laws (LLD or JSD), among others. These degrees are usually obtained through a combination of coursework, research, and practical experiences, such as internships or clinical legal education. Law degrees are recognized as a necessary step towards becoming a licensed lawyer in many jurisdictions, and they also provide a foundation for various other career paths such as academia, policy, or consultancy.

List of common degrees

 * Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
 * Master of Laws (LLM)
 * Doctor of Laws (LLD)
 * Juris Doctor (JD)
 * Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD)
 * Master of Studies in Law (MSL)

History
The first academic degrees were law degrees, and the first law degrees were doctorates. The foundations of the first universities in Europe were the glossators of the 11th century, which were schools of law. The first European university, Bologna, was founded by four legal scholars in the 12th century. The first academic title of "doctor" applied to scholars of law. The degree and title were not applied to scholars of other disciplines until the 13th century.

The University of Bologna served as the model for other law schools of the medieval age. While it was common for students of law to visit and study at schools in other countries, that was not the case with England. This was because of the English rejection of Roman law. Although the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge did teach canon law up until the English Reformation, its importance was always superior to civil law in those institutions.

Types of degrees
The type of law degree conferred differs according to the jurisdiction.

Austria
Magister iuris (Mag. iur.) ("Master of Law") in Austria. It is a master's level degree and the first academic title within both systems. After three years of practice, students can take the "Anwaltsprüfung," an equivalent of the bar exam.

Brazil
Bacharel em Direito (Bachelor of Laws) or Bacharel em Ciências Jurídicas e Sociais (Bachelor of Laws and Social Sciences), in Brazil. It is an undergraduate degree. To be a lawyer and be admitted at the Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil (Brazilian Bar Association), the Bachelor must be approved at the Brazilian Bar Exam. If the Selection and Registration Committee accept the new member, they will be considered an Advogado (Attorney at Law/Advocate).

Canada
Canada's legal system is composed of both common law and civil law elements. As of 2019, the professional degree required to become a common law lawyer is a Juris Doctor (J.D.). Formerly, this degree was called a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B., Legum Baccalaureatus in Latin), but the name was phased out. LL.B. holders were often given the chance to convert their degrees to the new designation. Despite having the word "Doctor" in the name, the J.D. remains a second-entry undergraduate programme, requiring some years of undergraduate study before applicants are eligible. For Quebec, where provincial law is a hybrid of French-heritage civil law for civil matters and common law for public, criminal, and federal law matters, the professional degree is often called the Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) in English, and has other designations at various institutions in Quebec. Prior to getting called to the bar in one of Canada's provinces or territories, degree-holders must complete bar exams and articling terms (professional apprenticeships with practising lawyers) or the equivalent thereof.

For graduate academic study in law, the master's level designation is the Master of Laws (LL.M., Legum Magister in Latin). Doctoral-level legal research degrees vary in title by institution, but the designations include the Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D., Scientiae Juridicae Doctor in Latin), Doctor of Philosophy in Law (Ph.D., Philosophiae Doctor in Latin), or Doctor of Laws (LL.D., Legum Doctor in Latin) for common law-based doctorates and the Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) for civil law-based doctorates.

The degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D., Legum Doctor in Latin) is reserved at some universities for honorary use.

Croatia
Magister iuris (Mag. iur.) ("Master of Law") in Croatia. It is a master's level degree and the first academic title within the system. After three years of practice, students can take the "Pravosudni ispit," an equivalent of the bar exam.

Finland
The Finnish title of varatuomari is the basic qualification for the legal profession. It is obtained by a one-year externship at a district court after completing a master's degree in law in a university.

Germany
Erstes Juristisches Staatsexamen is partially equivalent to the Bar exam, since the second part (Zweites Juristisches Staatsexamen), is the German equivalent to the Bar exam in the U.S. At some universities you either become a "Lizentiat des Rechts (Licentiatus iuris)", a Magister iuris, or a Diplom-Jurist. It is a master's-level degree.

Italy
Laurea di Dottore in Giurisprudenza for graduates before the Bologna Process reforms, or Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza after the Bologna Process reforms ("Juris Doctor"), in Italy. It is a masters level degree, however all graduates of Italian universities are authorized to use the title of "dottore" (Italian for doctor).

Mexico
Licenciatura en Derecho ("Bachelor in Law") in Mexico.

Russia
In Russia, students attend university to earn a Specialist degree in law. A Russian law degree is graduate-level degree, which allows for PhD research after admission to the PhD department (aspirantura), though formally it is not at the master's level.

Spain
Spanish universities confer a Bachelor's Degree in Law. At one time, students earned law degrees as a part of the five-year Bologna Process. The modern Spanish law program consists of four years, with internship and to specialize and it has a graduate level (it is necessary to study a master's degree).

Switzerland
Lizentiat der Rechtswissenschaften (German) / Licence en droit (French) until 2004 and Master of Law (MLaw) since 2004 (as a result of the Bologna Process) in Switzerland. It is a masters level degree.

Ukraine
Since 2017 the main degree in law in Ukraine is a Master of Laws degree (mahistr prava, 1.5 or 2 years of study after obtaining a Bachelor of Laws degree).

It may be obtained only after obtaining a Bachelor of Laws degree (bakalavr prava, 4 years of study after graduation from high school).

Until 2017 Ukrainian universities also conferred a Specialist in Law degrees (spetsialist prava or iuryst). Until 2002 it required 5 years of study after graduation from high school (according to the system of education inherited from the Soviet era). In 2002–2017, a Specialist in Law degree existed alongside the Master of Laws; in these years Specialist in Law programs lasted 1 year after obtaining Bachelor of Laws degree). In 2016, students were enrolled on the specialist's programs for the last time.

United Kingdom and Ireland
Universities in the United Kingdom generally award a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) for undergraduate legal studies, although some award a Bachelor of Arts as their standard undergraduate law degree, as with the B.A. in jurisprudence at the University of Oxford and the B.A. Tripos in Law at the University of Cambridge. The Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) degree awarded by the University of Oxford is in fact a postgraduate degree, similar to an LL.M. elsewhere.

In the Republic of Ireland, undergraduate law degrees are offered in the same fashion as in the United Kingdom. While the constituent universities of the National University of Ireland award a Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) degree as their primary undergraduate law degree, it is in fact a common law degree that is directly equivalent to an LL.B. degree elsewhere. The Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree is the degree generally awarded by other universities and colleges in Ireland.

Many universities also offer a Master of Laws. Also referred to as an LL.M. from its Latin name, Legum Magister. It is an advanced academic degree pursued by those holding a professional law degree or a degree in a relevant field.

Others
Juris Doctor (J.D.) in the United States and Japan (also offered at some schools in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Hong Kong). It is a professional degree. Association of American Universities Data Exchange. Glossary of Terms for Graduate Education. Accessed May 26, 2008; National Science Foundation (2006). "Time to Degree of U.S. Research Doctorate Recipients ," "InfoBrief, Science Resource Statistics" NSF 06-312, 2006, p. 7. (under "Data notes" mentions that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); San Diego County Bar Association (1969). "Ethics Opinion 1969-5". Accessed May 26, 2008. (under "other references" discusses differences between academic and professional doctorate, and statement that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); University of Utah (2006). University of Utah – The Graduate School – Graduate Handbook. Accessed May 28, 2008. (the J.D. degree is listed under doctorate degrees); German Federal Ministry of Education. "U.S. Higher Education / Evaluation of the Almanac Chronicle of Higher Education" (in German). Accessed May 26, 2008. (report by the German Federal Ministry of Education analysing the Chronicle of Higher Education from the U.S. and stating that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); Encyclopædia Britannica. (2002). "Encyclopædia Britannica", 3:962:1a. (the J.D. is listed among other doctorate degrees).

Legum Doctor (known as the LL.D., or in some jurisdictions Doctor of Laws) is in some jurisdictions the highest academic degree in law and is equivalent to a Ph.D., and in others is an honorary degree only.

Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) is a research doctorate in law awarded mostly in the United States and Canada.

title: Law degree


text:
Liberty! The Saga of Sycamore Shoals

'Liberty! The Saga of Sycamore Shoals, formerly known as The Wataugans', is an outdoor historical drama that takes place in Elizabethton, Tennessee, at the Sycamore Shoals Historic Area. Designated the official outdoor drama of the state of Tennessee, it is presented by the Friends of Sycamore Shoals every June each night of the first four weekends (Fri-Sat the first two weeks and Thurs-Sat the second two weeks). Employing a mixed cast of volunteering professional and amateur local actors and re-enactors engaged through an open casting call, Liberty depicts the early history of the area that is now northeast Tennessee.

Act I
The early settlers along the Holston and Watauga Rivers in modern East Tennessee find themselves outside the jurisdiction of North Carolina and Virginia, and, in 1772, form a government of their own, the Watauga Association, described by such historians as Theodore Roosevelt as the first free and independent government (at least by men of European descent) on the American continent. At the time, it was regarded by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, as an attempt to set up a 'Separate State,' which made it 'a dangerous example' to other disaffected colonists.

In 1775, Judge Richard Henderson's Transylvania Purchase, buying most of modern Kentucky and Middle Tennessee from the Cherokee Indians is opposed by the young warrior Dragging Canoe. He and his followers also oppose the purchase by the Watauga Association of the land they currently occupy. Although most of the older chiefs, including Dragging Canoe's father Atta-culla-culla, favour peace with the white settlers, the younger warriors attack the settlements in the area, bringing the act to a climax with the 1776 attack on the reproduction of Fort Watauga (more properly known as Fort Caswell) that has stood in the park since the 1970s. In the battle, John Sevier, who would later be the only governor of the State of Franklin and the first governor of the State of Tennessee, meets his second wife, the high-spirited and athletic Catherine Sherrill, pulling her over the wall of the fort after her running leap made while fleeing from the Cherokees.

Act I concludes with the breaking of the siege and news of the Declaration of Independence.

Act II
The 1780 wedding of John Sevier and 'Bonnie Kate' Sherrill is interrupted by a messenger with news of the war being fought against the British on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains. Major Patrick Ferguson, a British officer assigned to lead American Loyalist Militia in pacifying the rebellion in the west, has threatened to march over the mountains, hang the leaders, and lay waste to the country with fire and sword. Local leaders attending the wedding agree to muster the local militia on September 25, 1780, and march over the mountains to meet Ferguson before he can endanger their families. The ensuing march, culminating in the Battle of Kings Mountain, earned the participants the nickname "Overmountain Men," and their victory over the British is sometimes referred to as the turning point of the American Revolution in the South.

The drama depicts the battle in the distance on a small hill beside the fort that serves as a backdrop for the entire performance. The distant battle is accompanied by narration and exciting (yet loud) fireworks and gunfire.

During the absence of the militia, the women of the settlement and the few remaining men (one out of seven were drafted to stay behind) defend themselves from the Cherokee and British Indian agents.

The drama concludes with the return of the Overmountain Men and a brief narration of the later accomplishments of some of their more prominent members, like Landon Carter.

History
Due to legal problems, "The Wataugans" was rewritten, and obtained a new name. After the change, the drama was performed in Nashville for one weekend.

For its twenty ninth Season, 2007, the title "The Wataugans" was changed to "Liberty! The Saga of Sycamore Shoals." The Watauga Historical Association is no longer in existence, replaced as the primary backer for the play by the Friends of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park.

"Liberty!" was made Tennessee's official outdoor drama by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2009.

title: Liberty! The Saga of Sycamore Shoals