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Cahors

Cahors (Caors ) is a commune in the western part of Southern France. It is the smallest prefecture among the 13 departments that constitute the Occitanie Region. The main city of the Lot department and the historical center of the Quercy, Cahors is home to 19,878 cadurciennes and cadurciens.

Nestled in a meander of the Lot and surrounded by steep arid limestone hills, this historic city is home to a great monumental diversity, mainly inherited from Roman times and the Middle Ages; the city's monuments include a historic city centre, Saint-Étienne cathedral, Roman walls and the famous Valentré bridge (a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the pilgrimage path to Santiago de Compostela). Famed for its wine and gastronomy (truffles and foie gras), this southern French city holds the label of the French Towns of Art and History. The Cadurcian economy is reliant on tertiary services and makes Cahors the Lot's economic centre.

History
Cahors has had a rich history since Celtic times. The original name of the town was Divona or Divona Cadurcorum, "Divona of the Cadurci," Divona was a fountain, now called "la fontaine des Chartreux", worshiped by the Cadurci, a Celtic people of Gaul before the Roman conquest in the 50s BC. The Cadurci were among the last Celtic tribes to resist the Roman invasion. Cahors derives from Cadurcorum. However, romanization was rapid and profound: Cahors became a large Roman city, with many monuments whose remnants can be seen today. It has declined economically since the Middle Ages, and lost its university in the 18th century. Today it is a popular tourist centre with people coming to enjoy its medieval quarter and the 14th-century fortified Valentré bridge. It is the seat of the Diocese of Cahors.

It was also notorious at that time for the financiers widely known as Cahorsins, Christians who charged interest on their loans. The church in these times said that using money as an end in itself (usury) was a sin. Because of this Cahors became synonymous with this sin, and was mentioned in Dante's Inferno (XI.50) alongside Sodom as wicked.

Pope John XXII, born Jacques Duèze or d'Euse, was born in Cahors in 1244, the son of a shoemaker.

In the 2007 Tour de France, Cahors was the start of stage 18. Cahors also in the 2022 Tour de France was the finish of stage 19.

Geography
The town is situated 115 km north of Toulouse, on the RN20 / A20, connecting the city, via Limoges to Paris and Orléans. The town's height above sea level is between 105 m and 332 m. The area of the town is 64.72 km2, with population density relatively high for France at 309 PD/km2.

Main sites

 * The Valentré Bridge, the symbol of the town. Building began in 1308 and was completed in 1378. The legend associated with this bridge is one of the most fully realized of all Devil's Bridge legends, with a carefully developed plot, complex characters, and a surprising dénouement. When the bridge was restored in 1879, the architect Paul Gout made reference to this by placing a small sculpture of the devil at the summit of one of the towers.
 * Cathédrale Saint-Étienne, a national monument.
 * Saint-Barthélémy Church (14th century).
 * Maison Henri IV or Hôtel de Roaldès (15th century).
 * Daurade quarter with:
 * Maison Hérétié (14th–16th centuries)
 * Maison Dolive (17th century)
 * Maison du Bourreau (13th century)
 * The barbican that once defended the Barre Gate.
 * Tour des pendus.
 * Palais Duèze.
 * Tower of Pope John XXII.
 * Collège Pélegry.
 * Cloister
 * Arc de Diane, a relic of ancient Roman baths.
 * Roman Amphitheatre – remains of an oval amphitheatre were revealed when the underground car park was excavated at the Place Gambetta, just west of, and partially beneath, Boulevard Gambetta in the city centre. The stone walls can be seen in the car park first level, below the statue of Leon Gambetta, and opened to the public in April 2009.

Wine

The area around Cahors produces wine, primarily robust and tannic red wine. Wine from the Cahors appellation must be made from at least 70% Malbec (also called Cot, Auxerrois and Pressac) grape, with a maximum of 30% Merlot or Tannat grape varieties.

Culture
The Cahors Blues Festival has taken place annually, in July, since 1982.

Education
From 1331 to 1751 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cahors managed the.

Pope John XXII granted a charter on 7 June 1331.

The university had three colleges at Cahors: Pélegry (1358), Rodez (1371), and San Michel (1473). Fénelon studied at this institution, which, in 1751, was dissolved as a separate institution and annexed to the University of Toulouse. The institution had faculties covering theology, law, medicine, arts and literature.

The university dissolved in 1751 and faculties annexed into the University of Toulouse.

Notable people

 * Gerald of Braga (died 1109), Benedictine monk and Bishop of Braga
 * Jacques de Via (died 1317) & Arnaud de Via (died 1335), Roman Catholic cardinals
 * Pope John XXII (1244 – 1334), Pope from 1316 to 1334, born Jacques Duèze.
 * Clément Marot (1496–1544) a Renaissance poet.
 * Blaise Gisbert (1657–1731), a Jesuit rhetorician and critic.
 * Jean Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751), Jesuit priest and writer.
 * Antoine Cavalleri (1698–1765), Jesuit professor of maths during the Age of Enlightenment
 * Jean-Baptiste Bessières (1768 in Prayssac – 1813), 1st Duke of Istria, military commander and Marshal of the Empire.
 * Charles Combes (1801–1872) engineer, his name is on the Eiffel Tower
 * Léon Gambetta (1838-1882), lawyer, politician and statesman; proclaimed the French Third Republic in 1870.
 * François Deloncle (1856–1922) an orientalist, journalist, diplomat and politician.
 * Jules Combarieu (1859–1916), musicologist and music critic.
 * Marie-Louise Dissard OBE GM (1881–1957), member of the French Resistance during WWII.
 * Louis Darquier de Pellepoix (1897–1980), Commissioner-General for Jewish Affairs under the Vichy Régime
 * Georges Gorse (1915-2002), politician and diplomat.
 * Marcel Marceau (1923–2007), actor and mime artist, died in Cahors rest home.
 * Émile Parisien (born 1982), a soprano and alto saxophonist, jazz musician and composer.
 * Émile Parisien (born 1982), a soprano and alto saxophonist, jazz musician and composer.

Sport

 * Philippe Benetton (born 1968), former rugby union footballer, now head coach
 * Fabien Galthié (born 1969), rugby union player now head coach of the France national team.
 * Oussama Souaidy (born 1981), a retired footballer who also played for Morocco.

title: Cahors


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Barry B. Longyear

Barry Brookes Longyear (born May 12, 1942 ) is an American author who resides in New Sharon, Maine.

Career
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Longyear is known best for the Hugo- and Nebula Award–winning novella Enemy Mine (1979, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine), which was subsequently made into an identically titled movie (1985) and a novelization in collaboration with David Gerrold. The story is of an encounter between a human and an alien soldier, whose races are at war. They are marooned together in space and have to come to overcome their mutual distrust in order to cooperate and survive. A greatly expanded version of the original novella as well as two novels completing the trilogy, The Tomorrow Testament and The Last Enemy, are gathered with additional materials into The Enemy Papers.

The novella helped Longyear to win the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1980. He was the only writer to win the Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards during the same year until this was matched by Rebecca Roanhorse in 2018.

He also wrote the series Circus World and Infinity Hold, several stand-alone novels, numerous short stories, and two books for the Alien Nation novelisation series. His trilogy "Infinity Hold", "Kill All the Lawyers", and "Keep the Law", was released during 2002 in a single paperback volume titled Infinity Hold 3 by the Author's Guild in a Backinprint.com edition. His recent Jaggers & Shad mystery stories, featuring two detectives in the Artificial Beings Crimes Division (Devon Office) are set mostly in Exeter and the surrounding Devon countryside and villages. The first of the tales, The Good Kill won the Analog AnLab award for Best Novella in 2006 and Murder in Parliament Street won the same award for 2007. The Hook won the 2021 Prometheus Award.

The series Circus World chronicles the adventures of a space-going circus troupe whose spaceship crashes, marooning them on a deserted planet without contact with the outside world.

The series Infinity Hold concerns a society developing from a group of violent convicts dumped on a new planet without police or government.

Saint Mary Blue is a novel about the course of treatment of a man who has substance abuse and mental health problems, while resident in a treatment facility.

The God Box is a stand-alone fantasy novel with a protagonist who finds himself the keeper of a small wooden box that provides cryptic guidance from the gods. He must stay ahead of a deadly manhunt and play his role in an ancient prophecy. The box, if asked, takes what he does not need, and gives him what he does need—but what he needs and what he thinks he needs are usually very different. This lends itself to humorous and unexpected situations.

Longyear has also written two mystery series, the Joe Torio mysteries (2011) and "Rope Paper Scissors" (2013).

Stand-alone novels

 * Sea of Glass (1987) ISBN 978-0595189656
 * Naked Came the Robot (1988) ISBN 978-0595200689
 * The God Box (1989) ISBN 978-0595121151
 * The Homecoming (1989) ISBN 978-0802768636
 * Jaggers & Shad: ABC Is for Artificial Beings Crimes (2010) ISBN 978-0615469560

Enemy Mine series

 * 1) Enemy Mine (Asimov's Science Fiction, Sep 1979; 1980 Hugo, Nebula & Locus winner) ISBN 978-0595309764
 * 2) The Tomorrow Testament (1983) ISBN 978-0595189663
 * 3) The Last Enemy (1997) ISBN 978-0595348756
 * 4) Collected in The Enemy Papers with additional material (1998) ISBN 1-56865-949-0

Infinity Hold series

 * 1) Infinity Hold 1989 ISBN 978-0595092741
 * 2) Infinity Hold\3 2002 (The complete Infinity Hold trilogy: Infinity Hold, Kill All the Lawyers, and Keep the Law)

Circus World series

 * 1) Circus World (1980) ISBN 978-0595189670
 * 2) City of Baraboo (1980) ISBN 978-0595121205
 * 3) Elephant Song (1981) ISBN 978-0595121182

Recovery works

 * 1) Saint Mary Blue (novel set in a treatment facility), SteelDragon Press, 1988 ISBN 978-0595138852
 * 2) Yesterday's Tomorrow: Recovery Meditations for Hard Cases, Hazelden, 1997 ISBN 978-1568381602
 * 3) "The Monopoly Man" (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2009)

Writing instruction

 * 1) Science Fiction Writer's Workshop-I ISBN 978-0595225538
 * 2) The Write Stuff Online Writing Seminar

Short story collections

 * 1) Manifest Destiny (including "Enemy Mine" and others in the same future history) ISBN 978-0425045305
 * 2) It Came from Schenectady ISBN 978-0595201723

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

title: Barry B. Longyear


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Polynomial hierarchy

In computational complexity theory, the polynomial hierarchy (sometimes called the polynomial-time hierarchy) is a hierarchy of complexity classes that generalize the classes NP and co-NP. Each class in the hierarchy is contained within PSPACE. The hierarchy can be defined using oracle machines or alternating Turing machines. It is a resource-bounded counterpart to the arithmetical hierarchy and analytical hierarchy from mathematical logic. The union of the classes in the hierarchy is denoted PH.

Classes within the hierarchy have complete problems (with respect to polynomial-time reductions) that ask if quantified Boolean formulae hold, for formulae with restrictions on the quantifier order. It is known that equality between classes on the same level or consecutive levels in the hierarchy would imply a "collapse" of the hierarchy to that level.

Definitions
There are multiple equivalent definitions of the classes of the polynomial hierarchy.

Oracle definition
For the oracle definition of the polynomial hierarchy, define

 * $$\Delta_0^\mathsf{P} := \Sigma_0^\mathsf{P} := \Pi_0^\mathsf{P} := \mathsf{P},$$

where P is the set of decision problems solvable in polynomial time. Then for i ≥ 0 define

 * $$\Delta_{i+1}^\mathsf{P} := \mathsf{P}^{\Sigma_i^\mathsf{P}}$$
 * $$\Sigma_{i+1}^\mathsf{P} := \mathsf{NP}^{\Sigma_i^\mathsf{P}}$$
 * $$\Pi_{i+1}^\mathsf{P} := \mathsf{coNP}^{\Sigma_i^\mathsf{P}}$$

where $$\mathsf{P}^{\rm A}$$ is the set of decision problems solvable in polynomial time by a Turing machine augmented by an oracle for some complete problem in class A; the classes $$\mathsf{NP}^{\rm A}$$ and $$\mathsf{coNP}^{\rm A}$$ are defined analogously. For example, $$ \Sigma_1^\mathsf{P} = \mathsf{NP}, \Pi_1^\mathsf{P} = \mathsf{coNP} $$, and $$ \Delta_2^\mathsf{P} = \mathsf{P^{NP}} $$ is the class of problems solvable in polynomial time by a deterministic Turing machine with an oracle for some NP-complete problem.

Quantified boolean formulae definition
For the existential/universal definition of the polynomial hierarchy, let $L$ be a language (i.e. a decision problem, a subset of {0,1}*), let $p$ be a polynomial, and define

 * $$ \exists^p L := \left\{ x \in \{0,1\}^* \ \left| \ \left( \exists w \in \{0,1\}^{\leq p(|x|)} \right) \langle x,w \rangle \in L \right. \right\}, $$

where $$\langle x,w \rangle \in \{0,1\}^*$$ is some standard encoding of the pair of binary strings x and w as a single binary string. The language L represents a set of ordered pairs of strings, where the first string x is a member of $$\exists^p L$$, and the second string w is a "short" ($$|w| \leq p(|x|) $$) witness testifying that x is a member of $$\exists^p L$$. In other words, $$x \in \exists^p L$$ if and only if there exists a short witness w such that $$ \langle x,w \rangle \in L $$. Similarly, define

 * $$ \forall^p L := \left\{ x \in \{0,1\}^* \ \left| \ \left( \forall w \in \{0,1\}^{\leq p(|x|)} \right) \langle x,w \rangle \in L \right. \right\} $$

Note that De Morgan's laws hold: $$ \left( \exists^p L \right)^{\rm c} = \forall^p L^{\rm c} $$ and $$ \left( \forall^p L \right)^{\rm c} = \exists^p L^{\rm c} $$, where Lc is the complement of L.

Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a class of languages. Extend these operators to work on whole classes of languages by the definition

 * $$\exists^\mathsf{P} \mathcal{C} := \left\{\exists^p L \ | \ p \text{ is a polynomial and } L \in \mathcal{C} \right\}$$
 * $$\forall^\mathsf{P} \mathcal{C} := \left\{\forall^p L \ | \ p \text{ is a polynomial and } L \in \mathcal{C} \right\}$$

Again, De Morgan's laws hold: $$ \mathsf{co} \exists^\mathsf{P} \mathcal{C} = \forall^\mathsf{P} \mathsf{co} \mathcal{C} $$ and $$ \mathsf{co} \forall^\mathsf{P} \mathcal{C} = \exists^\mathsf{P} \mathsf{co} \mathcal{C} $$, where $$\mathsf{co}\mathcal{C} = \left\{ L^c | L \in \mathcal{C} \right\}$$.

The classes NP and co-NP can be defined as $$ \mathsf{NP} = \exists^\mathsf{P} \mathsf{P} $$, and $$ \mathsf{coNP} = \forall^\mathsf{P} \mathsf{P} $$, where P is the class of all feasibly (polynomial-time) decidable languages. The polynomial hierarchy can be defined recursively as

 * $$ \Sigma_0^\mathsf{P} := \Pi_0^\mathsf{P} := \mathsf{P} $$
 * $$ \Sigma_{k+1}^\mathsf{P} := \exists^\mathsf{P} \Pi_k^\mathsf{P} $$
 * $$ \Pi_{k+1}^\mathsf{P} := \forall^\mathsf{P} \Sigma_k^\mathsf{P} $$

Note that $$ \mathsf{NP} = \Sigma_1^\mathsf{P} $$, and $$ \mathsf{coNP} = \Pi_1^\mathsf{P} $$.

This definition reflects the close connection between the polynomial hierarchy and the arithmetical hierarchy, where R and RE play roles analogous to P and NP, respectively. The analytic hierarchy is also defined in a similar way to give a hierarchy of subsets of the real numbers.

Alternating Turing machines definition
An alternating Turing machine is a non-deterministic Turing machine with non-final states partitioned into existential and universal states. It is eventually accepting from its current configuration if: it is in an existential state and can transition into some eventually accepting configuration; or, it is in a universal state and every transition is into some eventually accepting configuration; or, it is in an accepting state.

We define $$\Sigma_k^\mathsf{P}$$ to be the class of languages accepted by an alternating Turing machine in polynomial time such that the initial state is an existential state and every path the machine can take swaps at most k – 1 times between existential and universal states. We define $$\Pi_k^\mathsf{P}$$ similarly, except that the initial state is a universal state.

If we omit the requirement of at most k – 1 swaps between the existential and universal states, so that we only require that our alternating Turing machine runs in polynomial time, then we have the definition of the class AP, which is equal to PSPACE.

Relations between classes in the polynomial hierarchy
The union of all classes in the polynomial hierarchy is the complexity class PH.

The definitions imply the relations:

 * $$\Sigma_i^\mathsf{P} \subseteq \Delta_{i+1}^\mathsf{P} \subseteq \Sigma_{i+1}^\mathsf{P}$$
 * $$\Pi_i^\mathsf{P} \subseteq \Delta_{i+1}^\mathsf{P} \subseteq \Pi_{i+1}^\mathsf{P}$$
 * $$\Sigma_i^\mathsf{P} = \mathsf{co}\Pi_{i}^\mathsf{P}$$

Unlike the arithmetic and analytic hierarchies, whose inclusions are known to be proper, it is an open question whether any of these inclusions are proper, though it is widely believed that they all are. If any $$\Sigma_k^\mathsf{P} = \Sigma_{k+1}^\mathsf{P}$$, or if any $$\Sigma_k^\mathsf{P} = \Pi_{k}^\mathsf{P}$$, then the hierarchy collapses to level k: for all $$i > k$$, $$\Sigma_i^\mathsf{P} = \Sigma_k^\mathsf{P}$$. In particular, we have the following implications involving unsolved problems:

The case in which NP = PH is also termed as a collapse of the PH to the second level. The case P = NP corresponds to a collapse of PH to P.
 * P = NP if and only if P = PH.
 * If NP = co-NP then NP = PH. (co-NP is $$\Pi_1^\mathsf{P}$$.)

The question of collapse to the first level is generally thought to be extremely difficult. Most researchers do not believe in a collapse, even to the second level.

Relationships to other classes

The polynomial hierarchy is an analogue (at much lower complexity) of the exponential hierarchy and arithmetical hierarchy.

It is known that PH is contained within PSPACE, but it is not known whether the two classes are equal. One useful reformulation of this problem is that PH = PSPACE if and only if second-order logic over finite structures gains no additional power from the addition of a transitive closure operator over relations of relations (i.e., over the second-order variables).

If the polynomial hierarchy has any complete problems, then it has only finitely many distinct levels. Since there are PSPACE-complete problems, we know that if PSPACE = PH, then the polynomial hierarchy must collapse, since a PSPACE-complete problem would be a $$\Sigma_{k}^\mathsf{P}$$-complete problem for some k.

Each class in the polynomial hierarchy contains $$\leq_{\rm m}^\mathsf{P}$$-complete problems (problems complete under polynomial-time many-one reductions). Furthermore, each class in the polynomial hierarchy is closed under $$\leq_{\rm m}^\mathsf{P}$$-reductions: meaning that for a class $\mathsf{P} \overset{?}{=} \mathsf{NP}$ in the hierarchy and a language $$L \in \mathcal{C}$$, if $$A \leq_{\rm m}^\mathsf{P} L$$, then $$A \in \mathcal{C}$$ as well. These two facts together imply that if $$K_i$$ is a complete problem for $$\Sigma_{i}^\mathsf{P}$$, then $$\Sigma_{i+1}^\mathsf{P} = \mathsf{NP}^{K_i}$$, and $$\Pi_{i+1}^\mathsf{P} = \mathsf{coNP}^{K_i}$$. For instance, $$\Sigma_{2}^\mathsf{P} = \mathsf{NP}^\mathsf{SAT}$$. In other words, if a language is defined based on some oracle in $\mathsf{PH} \overset{?}{=} \mathsf{PSPACE}$, then we can assume that it is defined based on a complete problem for $\mathcal{C}$. Complete problems therefore act as "representatives" of the class for which they are complete.

The Sipser–Lautemann theorem states that the class BPP is contained in the second level of the polynomial hierarchy.

Kannan's theorem states that for any k, $$\Sigma_2$$ is not contained in SIZE(nk).

Toda's theorem states that the polynomial hierarchy is contained in P#P.

General references

 * 1) A. R. Meyer and L. J. Stockmeyer.  The Equivalence Problem for Regular Expressions with Squaring Requires Exponential Space.  In Proceedings of the 13th IEEE Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory, pp. 125–129, 1972.  The paper that introduced the polynomial hierarchy.
 * 2) L. J. Stockmeyer. The polynomial-time hierarchy. Theoretical Computer Science, vol.3, pp. 1–22, 1976.
 * 3) C. Papadimitriou. Computational Complexity. Addison-Wesley, 1994. Chapter 17. Polynomial hierarchy, pp. 409–438.
 * 4)  Section 7.2: The Polynomial Hierarchy, pp. 161–167.
 * 1)  Section 7.2: The Polynomial Hierarchy, pp. 161–167.

title: Polynomial hierarchy


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/VfD-Mark Falla

This page is an archive of the discussion surrounding the proposed deletion of the page entitled Mark Falla.

This page is kept as an historic record.

The result of the debate was to delete the article.

No indication of why notable. I couldn't find anything on google either. Maximus Rex 15:38, 16 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Delete. - Hephaestos|§ 15:44, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Same here. Delete.--Beelzebubs 15:49, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. No reason in the article for inclusion. Probable vanity and autobiography, by anon. Andrewa 20:28, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * There are so many things to say that I will refrain from saying. Just delete.  RickK 20:51, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Complete vanity. Delete -- Cyrius|&#9998 21:35, May 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Like they said. --Zigger 22:26, 2004 May 16 (UTC)
 * Vanity, no evidence of notability given. Dpbsmith 00:51, 17 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, either vanity or a bad gay joke, either way it's non-notable. --Starx 01:40, 17 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Andris 02:54, May 17, 2004 (UTC)
 * I agree with Rick. Oh, the things that could be said.  Awful.  Delete. - Lucky 6.9 17:31, 17 May 2004 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue or the deletion should be placed on other relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


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Helmuts Balderis

Helmuts Balderis-Sildedzis (born 31 July 1952) is a former Latvian professional ice hockey player. He played on the right wing and participated at the 1980 Winter Olympics, where the Soviet team unexpectedly lost to the United States. He played part of a single season in the National Hockey League after being drafted in 1989 by the Minnesota North Stars, becoming the oldest player to be drafted by an NHL team at the age of 36. In 1998, he was inducted into International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.

Playing career
Balderis played in the Soviet Hockey League for Dinamo Riga (1969–1977, 1980–1985) and CSKA Moscow (1977–80), having been transferred to the latter as a precondition for being accepted in the Soviet national team. He was the leading scorer in the 1977 and 1984 seasons, winning the Player of the Year award in 1977. He was the best player of Soviet-occupied Latvia in the 1970s and 1980s and the most prolific scorer from that country, tallying 333 goals in Soviet league play.

Balderis played for the Soviet national team at multiple tournaments, winning the silver medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics and gold medals at the World Championships in 1978, 1979 and 1983. Overall, Balderis played in five World Championships (1976–1979, 1983), 1976 Canada Cup and 1980 Winter Olympics. He was named Best Forward in the 1977 World Championships. Balderis was not selected for the USSR's 1984 Olympic team and played in only one major international tournament after he left CSKA Moscow to go back to play for Dinamo Riga in 1980.

In 1985, Balderis retired and became a coach in Japan. He returned in 1989, when Soviet players were allowed to play in the NHL. Balderis was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars, playing 26 games and scoring 3 goals with 6 assists. He became the oldest player drafted by an NHL team (36) and the oldest player to score his first goal (37). He retired again after one season in Minnesota, but came out of retirement for the second time when Latvia regained its independence. Balderis played several games for the newly recreated Latvian national team (in 1992), serving as its captain and scoring 2 goals. He later coached the team and served as its general manager. As of 2017, he serves as a board member of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation.

Awards

 * Soviet league First All-Star Team (1977)
 * Izvestia Trophy (Soviet League Top Scorer) (1977, 1983)
 * Soviet League Player of the Year (1977)
 * World Championships All-Star Team (1977)
 * Named Best Forward at the World Championships (1977)
 * Leading Scorer of the Latvian League (1993)
 * In 1998, he was inducted into International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.

title: Helmuts Balderis


text:
List of Saturday Night Live cast members

, the late-night live variety series Saturday Night Live (SNL) has featured 164 cast members. The ensemble was originally referred to as the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.

List
As of 2023, 164 comedians have served as cast members on the show. Sid Caesar is the only person to be named an honorary cast member. Caesar was presented with a plaque during the goodnights of his hosting stint in 1983.

Timeline
Lighter colors denote "featured players" versus repertory cast members.

Longest tenures
The following comedians have served as cast members on the show for more than 9 seasons:

Shortest tenures
Two people have been publicly announced as having been hired to the cast, but never performed as cast members:

 * Catherine O'Hara, hired in 1981, quit before appearing on air. She has subsequently hosted the show twice.
 * Shane Gillis was announced as a cast member in 2019, but the offer was withdrawn due to controversies surrounding past use of racial stereotypes. Gillis went on to host episode 12 of season 49.

One person was credited as a cast member but did not actually appear on the show as such.
 * Emily Prager was hired as part of Ebersol's temporary season six cast following the termination of Jean Doumanian. She was credited for one episode even though she did not appear on the show, as her skit was cut after dress rehearsal. She was not chosen for season seven of the show. Prager had worked as a writer on the show, and also made several appearances in skits prior to being officially named as a member of the cast.

The following cast members spent less than a full 20-episode season on the show.

President of the United States impressionists
Darrell Hammond had the longest tenure portraying a U.S. president, portraying Bill Clinton from 1995–2001 and George W. Bush during 2003. He, Joe Piscopo, and Phil Hartman are the only cast members to have portrayed two sitting presidents. Jason Sudeikis portrayed two sitting presidents, but the portrayal of the second president was performed as a host, rather than a cast member.

George H. W. Bush grew fond of Dana Carvey's impersonation of him. Carvey was invited to headline a White House Christmas party in 1992, during the lame duck period after Bush had lost the election. Two years later, on October 22, 1994, when Carvey hosted the show for the first time, Bush appeared in pre-recorded videos, in both the cold open and the opening monologue, critiquing Carvey's impersonation of him.

Presidents are not usually portrayed on Saturday Night Live after they leave office. Exceptions are limited to the portrayal of former president Richard Nixon who left office prior to the launch of the show in 1975, Bill Clinton who appeared in sketches related to the presidential campaigns of his wife, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump who continued to be politically active after leaving office. Dan Aykroyd portrayed Nixon from 1975–79, and Darrell Hammond portrayed Nixon on episode 12 of season 34. James Austin Johnson portrayed Trump in several episodes of seasons 47-49.

Impersonation of Donald Trump
Donald Trump, having been a public figure before being president, was portrayed by several cast members over the years. He was portrayed by Phil Hartman (1988–1990), Darrell Hammond (1999–2011, 2015–2016), Jason Sudeikis (2012) and Taran Killam (2015). Alec Baldwin started impersonating Trump as a guest during the 42nd season of SNL in late 2016, when Trump was the Republican nominee during the 2016 United States presidential elections. Baldwin continued with the guest impersonations of Trump after the elections when Trump was president-elect, as well as after Trump was sworn in as president. Baldwin continued to impersonate Trump throughout Trump's presidency.

Alec Baldwin's impersonation of Donald Trump earned him an Emmy award in 2017, in spite of his public declaration that he "loathes the role." At the end of Season 44, Baldwin publicly announced that he will cease impersonating Trump, but changed his mind prior to the beginning of Season 45 after SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels convinced him to continue with the impersonation. Following the 2020 presidential elections in which Trump lost re-election, Baldwin tweeted "I don't believe I've ever been this overjoyed to lose a job before!"

Trump has criticized Baldwin's portrayal on multiple occasions. In response, Baldwin taunted Trump with statements such as "release your tax returns and I'll stop." In June 2021, after Trump had left office, it was reported that while Trump was in office he had inquired if the Federal Communications Commission or the United States Justice Department could force SNL to stop portraying him. Trump denied that he has ever made such an inquiry, but claimed that his portrayal by SNL "should be considered an illegal campaign contribution from the Democrat Party." He also criticized Baldwin's portrayal of him, but praised Darrell Hammond's portrayal of him.

Returning to host
Several former SNL cast members have returned to host the show. The first former cast member to come back and host the show was Chevy Chase in February 1978. While the majority of cast members who also hosted the show were first cast members and then hosted after leaving the show, there have been two cast members who have hosted the show prior to joining the cast: Billy Crystal (he hosted the show twice during the ninth season prior to joining the cast in the tenth season) and Michael McKean (he hosted the show in the tenth season and joined the cast in the nineteenth season). McKean is also the only eventual cast member who first appeared as a musical guest (with Spinal Tap, May 1984).

Eddie Murphy is the only cast member to have hosted the show while still a cast member. He also holds the distinction of having the longest gap between successive hosting of the show. There was a 35 year and 6 day gap between his second and third hostings of the show.

Adam Sandler and Dan Aykroyd tie the record of the longest gap between leaving the show as a cast member and returning as a host. Both hosted the show for the first time nine days shy of 24 years from last appearance as cast. However, both made appearances on the show during the gap. On the flip side, Bill Murray holds the record for having the shortest gap between leaving the show and returning to host at 287 days after leaving the cast.


text:
Shemp Howard

Shemp Howard (born Samuel Horwitz; March 11, 1895 – November 22, 1955), was an American comedian and actor. He was called "Shemp" because "Sam" came out that way in his mother's thick Litvak accent.

He is best known as the third Stooge in the Three Stooges, a role he played when the act began in the early 1920s (1923–1932), while it was still associated with Ted Healy and known as "Ted Healy and his Stooges"; and again from 1946 until his death in 1955. During the fourteen years between his times with the Stooges, he had a successful solo career as a film comedian, including a series of shorts by himself and with partners. He reluctantly returned to the Stooges as a favor to his brother Moe and friend Larry Fine to replace his brother Curly as the third Stooge after Curly's illness.

Early life
Howard was born Samuel Horwitz on March 11, 1895 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York. He was the third of five Horwitz brothers born to Lithuanian Jewish parents Solomon Horwitz (1872–1943) and Jennie Horwitz (1870–1939). He had two older brothers, Irving (1891–1939) and Benjamin (Jack) (1893–1976). His two younger brothers were Moses (Moe) Howard (1897–1975) and Jerome (Curly) Howard (1903–1952).

Howard's first name, Shmuel, after his grandfather, was anglicized to Samuel, and his parents and brothers usually called him Sam.

Show business
Shemp's brother Moe Howard started in show business as a youngster, on stage and in films. Moe and Shemp eventually tried their hands as minstrel-show-style "blackface" comedians with an act they called "Howard and Howard – A Study in Black". At the same time, they worked for a rival vaudeville circuit, without makeup.

By 1922, Moe had teamed up with his boyhood friend Ted Healy in a "roughhouse" act. One day Moe spotted his brother Shemp in the audience and yelled at him from the stage. Quick-witted Shemp yelled right back, and walked up onto the stage. From then on he was part of the act, usually known as "Ted Healy and His Stooges". The Howard brothers were the original Stooges; Larry Fine joined them in 1928. On stage, Healy sang and told jokes while his three noisy stooges got in his way, and Healy retaliated with physical and verbal abuse. Shemp played a bumbling fireman in the Stooges' first film, Soup to Nuts (1930), the only film where he played one of Healy's gang.

After a disagreement with Healy in August 1930, Moe, Larry and Shemp left to launch their own act, "Howard, Fine & Howard", and joined the RKO vaudeville circuit. They premiered at Los Angeles's Paramount Theatre on August 28, 1930. In 1931 they added "Three Lost Soles" to the act's name, and took on Jack Walsh as their straight man. Moe, Larry and Shemp continued until July 1932, when Ted Healy approached them to team up again for the Shuberts' Broadway revue "Passing Show of 1932", and they accepted the offer. In spite of their past differences, Moe knew an association with the nationally known Healy would provide opportunities the three comics were not getting on their own.

On August 16, 1932, in a contract dispute, Healy walked out of the Shuberts' revue during rehearsals. Three days later, tired of what he considered Healy's domineering handling of the Stooges' career, Shemp left Healy's act to remain with "Passing Show", which closed in September during roadshow performances and after pan reviews in Detroit and Cincinnati. Shemp regrouped to form his own act and played on the road for a few months. He landed at Brooklyn's Vitaphone Studios for movie appearance opportunities in May 1933. When he split from Healy, Shemp was immediately replaced by his and Moe's younger brother Jerry Howard, known as Curly.

Solo years
Shemp Howard, like many New York City-based performers, found work at Vitaphone. Originally playing bit roles in their Roscoe Arbuckle comedies, showing off his comical appearance, he was given speaking roles and supporting parts almost immediately. He was featured with studio comics Jack Haley, Ben Blue and Gus Shy; then co-starred with Harry Gribbon, Daphne Pollard, and Johnnie Berkes, and finally starred in his own two-reel comedies. The independently produced Convention Girl (1935) featured Shemp in a very rare straight role as a blackmailer and would-be murderer.

Shemp preferred to improvise dialogue and jokes, which became his trademark. In late 1935, Vitaphone was licensed to produce short comedies based on the "Joe Palooka" comic strip. Shemp was cast as "Knobby Walsh", and though only a supporting character, he became the comic focus of the series, with Johnnie Berkes and Lee Weber as his foils. He co-starred in the first seven shorts, released in 1936–1937. Nine of them were produced, the last two done after Shemp's departure from Vitaphone.

Howard unsuccessfully attempted to lead his own group of "stooges" in the Van Beuren musical comedy short The Knife of the Party. In 1937 he followed his brothers' lead, moved to the West Coast, and landed supporting actor roles at several studios, mainly Columbia Pictures and Universal. He worked exclusively at Universal from August 1940 to August 1943, performing with such comics as W. C. Fields, and with comedy duos Abbott and Costello and Olsen and Johnson. He lent comic relief to Charlie Chan and The Thin Man murder mysteries. He appeared in several Universal B-musicals of the early 1940s, including Private Buckaroo (1942), Strictly in the Groove (1942), How's About It? (1943), Moonlight and Cactus (1944) and San Antonio Rose (1941); in the latter of which he was paired with Lon Chaney Jr. as a faux Abbott and Costello. Most of these projects took advantage of his improvisational skills. When Broadway comedian Frank Fay walked out on a series of feature films teaming him with Billy Gilbert, Gilbert called on his closest friend, Shemp Howard, to replace him in three B-comedy features for Monogram Pictures, filmed in 1944–45. He also played a few serious parts, such as his supporting role in Pittsburgh (1942), starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne.

The Three Stooges: 1946–1955
From 1938 to 1940 and again from 1944 to 1946, Howard appeared in Columbia's two-reel comedies, co-starring with Columbia regulars Andy Clyde, The Glove Slingers, El Brendel, and Tom Kennedy. He was given his own starring series in 1944. He was working for Columbia in this capacity when his brother Curly was felled by a debilitating stroke on May 6, 1946. Curly had already suffered a series of strokes prior to the filming of If a Body Meets a Body (1945), and in January 1945 Shemp filled in for Curly at a week-long appearance at the St. Charles Theatre in New Orleans.

Shemp agreed to fill in for Curly in Columbia's popular Stooge shorts, knowing that if he refused, Moe and Larry would be out of work. He intended to stay only until Curly recovered, which never happened as Curly's health continued to worsen. Curly died on January 18, 1952, at the age of 48. Shemp agreed to remain with the group permanently.

Shemp's role as the third Stooge was much different from Curly's. His characterization was more relaxed as opposed to Curly's energetic persona. Unlike Curly, who had many distinct mannerisms, Shemp's most notable characteristic as a Stooge was a high-pitched "bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee!" sound, a sort of soft screech done by inhaling. It was a multipurpose effect: he emitted this sound when scared, sleeping (done as a form of snoring), overtly happy, or dazed. It became his trademark sound as the "nyuk nyuk" sound had become Curly's. Because of his established solo career, he was also given opportunities in the films to do some of his own comic routines.

During this period, The Three Stooges ventured into live television appearances, beginning on Tuesday, October 19, 1948, with Milton Berle on his Texaco Star Theatre program.

Shemp appeared with Moe and Larry in 77 short subjects, four of which were produced posthumously using stock footage. The trio also made the feature film Gold Raiders (1951). Shemp suffered a mild stroke in November 1952, but recovered within weeks. The medical episode had no noticeable effect on his remaining films with the Stooges, many of which were remakes of earlier films that also used recycled footage to reduce costs.

Personal life
In September 1925, Shemp married Gertrude Frank (1905–1982). They had one child, Morton (1927–1972).

Shemp had several phobias, including of airplanes, automobiles, dogs, and water. According to Moe's autobiography, Shemp was involved in a driving accident as a teenager and never obtained a driver's license.

Death
On November 22, 1955, Shemp went out with associates Al Winston and Bobby Silverman to a boxing match, one of Shemp's favorite pastimes, at the Hollywood Legion Stadium. While returning home in a taxi that evening, Shemp died of a massive heart attack, at the age of 60.

Moe's autobiography gives a death date of November 23, 1955, which became the date cited by other accounts. Much of that book was finished posthumously by his daughter and son-in-law, and some details were confused. The Los Angeles County Coroner's death certificate states that Shemp Howard died on Tuesday, November 22, 1955, at 11:35 [PM] PST. Howard's obituary appeared in the November 23 afternoon editions of Los Angeles newspapers, citing the death on the night of November 22.

Shemp Howard is interred in a crypt in the Indoor Mausoleum at the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles. His younger brother Curly is also interred there, in an outdoor tomb in the Western Jewish Institute section, as well as his parents Solomon and Jennie Horwitz and older brother Benjamin "Jack".

Tributes
The Three Stooges earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street on August 30, 1983.

The "Fake Shemps" and legacy
Columbia had promised exhibitors eight Three Stooges comedies for 1956, but only four were completed at the time of Shemp Howard's death. To fulfill the contract, producer Jules White filmed four more shorts posthumously by reusing old footage of Howard with new connecting scenes played by a body double, longtime Stooge supporting actor, Joe Palma, who is seen mostly from the back. He came to be known by Stooge fans as the "Fake Shemp", a term which director Sam Raimi later coined in reference to any body double replacing an actor.

The re-edited films are often regarded as inferior. Rumpus in the Harem borrows from Malice in the Palace, Hot Stuff from Fuelin' Around, and Commotion on the Ocean from Dunked in the Deep; all of which were originally released in 1949, then rereleased in 1956. The best-received and most technically accomplished is Scheming Schemers (1956), combining new footage with recycled clips from three old Stooge shorts: A Plumbing We Will Go (1940), Half-Wits Holiday (1947) and Vagabond Loafers (1949).

When it was time to renew the Stooges's contract, Columbia hired comedian Joe Besser to replace Shemp. Columbia discontinued filming new Stooge short subject comedies in December 1957, releasing the last new short in June 1959, but kept the series going into the 1960s by reissuing Shemp's Stooge shorts to theaters. This, as well as a TV release of Stooge shorts, allowed Shemp Howard to remain a popular star for long after he died.

In the television biopic The Three Stooges (2000), Shemp Howard was portrayed by John Kassir.

Filmography (Non-Stooge)

 * Features
 * Soup to Nuts (1930)
 * Convention Girl (1935)
 * Hollywood Round-Up (1937)
 * Headin' East (1937)
 * Behind Prison Gates (1939)
 * Another Thin Man (1939)
 * The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady (1939)
 * The Leather Pushers (1939)
 * Give Us Wings (1939)
 * The Bank Dick (1939)
 * Murder Over New York (1939)
 * Millionaires in Prison (1940)
 * The Invisible Woman (1940)
 * Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga (1941)
 * Buck Privates (1941)
 * Hold That Ghost (1941)
 * Meet the Chump (1941)
 * Road Show (1941)
 * Mr. Dynamite (1941)
 * The Flame of New Orleans (1941)
 * Too Many Blondes (1941)
 * In the Navy (1941)
 * Tight Shoes (1941)
 * San Antonio Rose (1941)
 * Hit the Road (1941)
 * Cracked Nuts (1941)
 * Hellzapoppin' (1941)
 * Butch Minds the Baby (1942)
 * The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942)
 * Mississippi Gambler (1942)
 * Private Buckaroo (1942)
 * Strictly in the Groove (1942)
 * Arabian Nights (1942)
 * How's About It (1942)
 * ''Pittsburgh (1942)
 * Keep 'Em Slugging (1943)
 * Crazy House (1943)
 * Three of a Kind (1943)
 * Moonlight and Cactus (1943)
 * Strange Affair (1944)
 * Crazy Knights (1944)
 * Trouble Chasers (1945)
 * The Gentleman Misbehaves (1946)
 * One Exciting Week (1946)
 * Dangerous Business (1946)
 * Blondie Knows Best (1946)
 * Africa Screams (1949)
 * Gold Raiders (1951)
 * Two Reelers
 * Salt Water Daffy (1933)
 * Close Relations (1933)
 * Paul Revere Jr. (1933)
 * Gobs Of Fun (1933)
 * In The Dough (1933)
 * Here Comes Flossie! (1934)
 * Howd' Ya Like That? (1934)
 * Henry The Ache (1934)
 * The Wrong, Wrong Trail (1934)
 * Mushrooms (1934)
 * The Knife Of The Party (1934)
 * Everybody Likes Music (1934)
 * Pugs and Kisses (1934)
 * Very Close Veins (1934)
 * Pure Feud (1934)
 * Corn On The Cop (1934)
 * I Scream (1934)
 * Rambling 'Round Radio Row # 7 (Series 2 # 1) (1934)
 * Art Trouble (1934)
 * My Mummy's Arms (1934)
 * Daredevil O'Dare (1934)
 * Smoked Hams (1934)
 * So You Won't T-T-T-Talk (1934)
 * Dizzy & Daffy (1934)
 * A Peach Of A Pair, (1934)
 * His First Flame (1935)
 * Convention Girl (1935)
 * Why Pay Rent? (1935)
 * Serves You Right (1935)
 * On The Wagon (1935)
 * The Officer's Mess (1935)
 * While The Cat's Away (1936)
 * For The Love Of Pete (1936)
 * Absorbing Junior (1936)
 * Here's Howe (1936)
 * Punch And Beauty (1936)
 * The Choke's On You (1936)
 * The Blonde Bomber (1936)
 * Kick Me Again (1937)
 * Taking The Count (1937)
 * Hollywood Round-Up (1937)
 * Headin' East (1937)
 * The Leather Pushers (1938)
 * Home On The Rage (1938)
 * Glove Slingers (1939)
 * Money Squawks (1940)
 * The Lone Wolf Meets A Lady (1940)
 * Boobs In The Woods (1940)
 * Pleased To Mitt You (1940)
 * Pick A Peck Of Plumbers (1944)
 * Open Season For Saps (1944)
 * Off Again, On Again (1945)
 * Where The Pest Begins (1945)
 * A Hit With A Miss (1945)
 * Mr. Noisy (1946)
 * Jiggers, My Wife (1946)
 * Society Mugs (1946)
 * Bride And Gloom (1947)
 * with The Three Stooges
 * Fright Night (1947)
 * Out West (1947)
 * Hold That Lion! (1947) (His brother Curly Howard in a cameo)
 * Brideless Groom (1947)
 * Sing a Song of Six Pants (1947)
 * All Gummed Up (1947)
 * Shivering Sherlocks (1948)
 * Pardon My Clutch (1948)
 * Squareheads of the Round Table (1948)
 * Fiddlers Three (1948)
 * The Hot Scots (1948)
 * Heavenly Daze (1948)
 * I'm a Monkey's Uncle (1948)
 * Mummy's Dummies (1948)
 * Crime on Their Hands (1948)
 * The Ghost Talks! (1949)
 * Who Done It? (1949)
 * Hokus Pokus (1949)
 * Fuelin' Around (1949)
 * Malice in the Palace (1949) (brother Curly Howard's second cameo as a Chef filmed but not used)
 * Vagabond Loafers (1949)
 * Dunked in the Deep (1949)
 * Punchy Cowpunchers (1950)
 * Hugs and Mugs (1950)
 * Dopey Dicks (1950)
 * Love at First Bite (1950)
 * Self-Made Maids (1950)
 * Three Hams on Rye (1950)
 * Studio Stoops (1950)
 * Slaphappy Sleuths (1950)
 * A Snitch in Time (1950)
 * Three Arabian Nuts (1951)
 * Baby Sitters Jitters (1951)
 * Don't Throw That Knife (1951)
 * Scrambled Brains (1951)
 * Merry Mavericks (1951)
 * The Tooth Will Out (1951)
 * Hula-La-La (1951)
 * Pest Man Wins (1951)
 * A Missed Fortune (1952)
 * Listen, Judge (1952)
 * Corny Casanovas (1952)
 * He Cooked His Goose (1952)
 * Gents in a Jam (1952)
 * Three Dark Horses (1952)
 * Cuckoo on a Choo Choo (1952)
 * Up in Daisy's Penthouse (1953)
 * Booty and the Beast (1953)
 * Loose Loot (1953)
 * Tricky Dicks (1953)
 * Spooks! (1953) (first flat widescreen short)
 * Pardon My Backfire (1953)
 * Rip, Sew and Stitch (1953)
 * Bubble Trouble (1953)
 * Goof on the Roof (1953)
 * Income Tax Sappy (1954)
 * Musty Musketeers (1954)
 * Pals and Gals (1954)
 * Knutzy Knights (1954)
 * Shot in the Frontier (1954)
 * Scotched in Scotland (1954)
 * Fling in the Ring (1955)
 * Of Cash and Hash (1955)
 * Gypped in the Penthouse (1955)
 * Bedlam in Paradise (1955)
 * Stone Age Romeos (1955)
 * Wham-Bam-Slam! (1955)
 * Hot Ice (1955)
 * Blunder Boys (1955)
 * Husbands Beware (1956)
 * Creeps (1956)
 * Flagpole Jitters (1956)
 * For Crimin' Out Loud (1956)
 * Rumpus in the Harem (1956) (“Fake Shemp”; filmed after his death)
 * Hot Stuff (1956) (“Fake Shemp”; filmed after his death)
 * Scheming Schemers (1956) (“Fake Shemp”; filmed after his death)
 * Commotion on the Ocean (1956) (“Fake Shemp”; filmed after his death)

title: Shemp Howard


text:
Sinistral and dextral

Sinistral and dextral, in some scientific fields, are the two types of chirality ("handedness") or relative direction. The terms are derived from the Latin words for "left" (sinister) and "right" (dexter). Other disciplines use different terms (such as dextro- and laevo-rotary in chemistry, or clockwise and anticlockwise in physics) or simply use left and right (as in anatomy).

Relative direction and chirality are distinct concepts. Relative direction is from the point of view of the observer; a completely symmetric object has a left side and a right side, from the observer's point of view, if the top and bottom and direction of observation are defined. Chirality, however, is observer-independent: no matter how one looks at a right-hand screw thread, it remains different from a left-hand screw thread. Therefore, a symmetric object has sinistral and dextral directions arbitrarily defined by the position of the observer, while an asymmetric object that shows chirality may have sinistral and dextral directions defined by characteristics of the object, regardless of the position of the observer.

Gastropods
Because the coiled shells of gastropods are asymmetric, they possess a quality called chirality–the "handedness" of an asymmetric structure.

Over 90% of gastropod species have shells in which the direction of the coil is dextral (right-handed). A small minority of species and genera have shells in which the coils are almost always sinistral (left-handed). Very few species show an even mixture of dextral and sinistral individuals (for example, Amphidromus perversus).

Flatfish

The most obvious characteristic of flatfish, other than their flatness, is their asymmetric morphology: both eyes are on the same side of the head in the adult fish. In some families of flatfish, the eyes are always on the right side of the body (dextral or right-eyed flatfish), and in others, they are always on the left (sinistral or left-eyed flatfish). Primitive spiny turbots include equal numbers of right- and left-sided individuals, and are generally more symmetric than other families.

Geology

In geology, the terms sinistral and dextral refer to the horizontal component of the movement of blocks on either side of a fault or the sense of movement within a shear zone. These are terms of relative direction, as the movement of the blocks is described relative to each other when viewed from above. Movement is sinistral (left-handed) if the block on the other side of the fault moves to the left, or if straddling the fault the left side moves toward the observer. Movement is dextral (right-handed) if the block on the other side of the fault moves to the right, or if straddling the fault the right side moves toward the observer.

title: Sinistral and dextral


text:
Talk:Siegfried Line

Request to translate de:Westwall into this article
A request has been made to translate de:Westwall into this article. If you are able to do this please make a note on Translation into English Ellsworth 15:55, 16 May 2004 (UTC)

There appears to be contradiction between the de:Westwall and Siegfried Line.

 * "Adolf Hitler ließ die Anlage, die eher von propagandistischem denn strategischen Wert war, zwischen 1938 und 1940 erbauen"

 * "The first was built in 1916-1917, during the First World War."

There is no mention in de:Westwall of what happened before 1938.

Aimaz 11:27, 30 June 2004 (UTC)

(from Translation into English)
 * Article: de:Westwall
 * Corresponding English-language article: Siegfried Line
 * Worth doing because: English version is a stub, German looks comprehensive
 * Originally Requested by: Ellsworth 23:13, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Status: Claimed - am going to start work on this Saintswithin 18:53, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Other notes: Appears completed, I'm editing. -- Jmabel 18:54, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)

Westwall before 1938?
As I know was the beginning of building up the westwall known in english as siegfried line in the year 1938.

Confusing sentence
"It is most likely that the name simply came into use from the end of 1938, without Nazi propaganda using the term to a great extent."

I'm not sure I follow this exactly. Would it be accurate to say "It is most likely that the name simply came into popular use toward the end of 1938; at that time it had not been heavily used in Nazi propaganda, although the Nazi regime later used the term." I'd like to substitute that, but I want to make sure it is factually accurate. -- Jmabel 18:57, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)

 * After consultation with German speaker about the "zunächst", have changed it.Saintswithin

Caption wrong?
The caption to one of the Dragon's Teeth photos says 5 "teeth" . There are definitely more than 5 in the photograph. Perhaps it is meant to say 5 foot teeth?
 * Each section has five teeth, as far as I understand it. Take a look at the article next to the photo where it describes how they're made. Saintswithin 15:17, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thank you.
This is a brilliant article. It is comprehensive, and wholly interesting. I appreciate the work that has gone into this. glasperlenspiel 20:17, Dec 1, 2004 (UTC)

I agree. Very comprehensive, and a fascinating read! One of the best WW2-related articles I've read! Devari 05:54, September 13, 2005 (UTC)

Huertgen/Vietnam comparison is nonsense !
Claims that more than 50,000 US soldiers died in Huertgen battle, are pure nonsense. See de:Allerseelenschlacht for a quite detailed examination. See also: Battle of Hurtgen Forest

WernerE (german.wiki) - 05.4.2005

 * I have no expertise in this, but the two articles you cite both suggest that the 10,000 you have substituted is much too low. Would someone who knows more about this than I please look into this? -- Jmabel | Talk 21:53, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

-
 * In the end, nobody knows the exact number of dead: 11,827 - or 13,569 - or 9,934 - but you won't argue, that it's a big difference if I claim
 * there were more than 50,000 or
 * there were some 10,000 dead.
 * Bear in mind that the term "casualties" does not mean "all dead" - a point often ignored in Germany, where I come from. It matters me that the www.volksbund.de (german war graves organization) claims more than 50,000 US dead for battle of Hurtgen (see info for graveyard "Vossenack"). It's dubious to spread such information against better knowledge.

 * Excuse my English, WernerE - 08.4.2005

-
 * Agreed. But your citations don't particularly bear out your claim. Not that the previous claim was well cited, either. I am asking someone to produce citations for a reasonable range of numbers. -- Jmabel | Talk 00:50, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

The article says ...With this organisation’s help, huge numbers of workers - up to half a million at a time - were found to work on the Siegfried Line... and ...Life on the building site and after work was monotonous and many people gave up and left....

It might be useful to clarify the wording "workers were found" with a note that many workers were 'recruited' in occupied territory. These workers didn't have the option to leave. My now 83-year old neighbor lived in a hole in the ground for almost 2 years with his father to escape this work.

Billy Joel
In the section The role of the Siegfried Line at the beginning of the war: "This phase of the history of the Siegfried Line is memorialized in the Billy Joel song Seigfried Line, a previously unreleased track from his 2005 boxed set My Lives." I'll presume that this is true, but is it really notable enough to belong in the article? If it is, is it really important enough, boxed set and all, to interrupt the general flow of the narrative rather than being somewhere at the bottom? It doesn't seem to me to throw any light at all on the topic for someone who turns here for research purposes. -- Jmabel | Talk 07:45, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree. I was totally engrossed in the article, until right in the middle of important, well-written narrative, it screeches off on tangent to mention a B-side Billy Joel track. I don't even see it as being important enough to belong in a footnote; if there are any Billy Joel fans reading the article, they will probably be doing so because they are already aware of the reference in the song, whereas everyone else reading the article will hardly get a distorted view of history because they weren't made aware that someone sang about it. Mixsynth 01:55, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

 * I also agree. The contemporary song "The Siegfried Line" by Jimmy Kennedy & Michael Carr might be worth referring to in the context of the phoney war but the Billy Joel song at most needs a one line mention. I was going to raise this here and see what the response was but in light of the above comments I'll 'be bold' and edit it.IanOfNorwich (talk) 07:52, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

 * And by the way... i would rather eat Belgian chocolates than Dutch chocolates... Billy Barbarian!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.200.220.100 (talk) 21:45, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Questionable link
The link to the mp3 extract of the song in English is a link to a modern commercial site of someone signing the song for a nostalgia audience. It is thus both not authentic, and commercial. This is surely a problem, but I wanted someone else's opinion before removing it. Johncmullen1960 (talk) 07:18, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Likely false friend
The translation Westwall(de) = western wall(en) seems a tad false-friendish to me. The Wall(de) is more related to "rampart" or "parapet", with a slight subtext of "mound". The latter in the sense of the ancient roman limes structure or mounds found around medieval castles. The Wall(de) has NO connotation to the brick structure one could paint a mural on. Having that in mind, the German term and its derivation seem very straight forward to me. No changes to the article, an English native speaker should please cross check that, I'm no language professional. 137.226.12.155 (talk) 08:08, 2 August 2008 (UTC)
 * seconding this, I think most english speakers looking for "West Wall" would be looking for the one in Israel. 82.181.175.18 (talk) 15:23, 22 August 2009 (UTC)
 * WTF? The Western Wall? Or the Wailing Wall?
 * Look, the term Westwall - even if it is a mistranslation of the German - is the only unambiguous English name of the [German fortification] system. (And frankly, using the term "Siegfried Line" here is just going to cause more confusion). 72.83.168.24 (talk) 02:51, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Dude, my father fought on it with the rest of the 109th Regiment of the 28th Infantry DIV and received his First Purple Heart there. He always called it the Siegfried Line."  There's no need to apologize to Germany because it allowed Adolph Hitler to become "Fuhrer" and then the Germanic Peoples" enabled him until we had to destroy the whole of Germany to kill off the Nazis.  When it comes to 20th Century Germany, it is what the Expeditionary and Allied Forces said it was.  Using 'Siegfried Line" is just another way to keep reminding Germany how evil it was in the 20th Century and how many innocent people it killed . . . END OF STORY. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JCHeverly (talk • contribs) 20:13, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

User:JCHeverly 23:01, 13 August 2013 (UTC)
 * In the English edition of wikipedia you use the name under which a subject is known by the English speaking public, hence Siegfried Line. In the german wikipedia you may use Westwall, which translates as "western rampart". (german "Wall" like English "wall" derives from Latin "vallum" meaning rampart) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.115.75.230 (talk) 09:00, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

What a mess ...
I've spent a half hour or so cleaning up some of the more egregious statements of opinion, weasel wording and unreferenced statements tagged as far back as four and a half years ago, but this is still a badly underreferenced article which could use some TLC.  ῲ Ravenswing ῴ  12:30, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Western air defence zone
There were no concrete FlaK "towers" in the western air defence zone, only concrete foundations for heavy FlaK or maybe wooden towers for light FlaK, standing on concrete foundations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.204.139.123 (talk) 09:12, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Excellent German Website on the Siegfried Line/Westwall
http://westwall.elvamie.nl/index.php Check it out. In German, but Google Chrome translates well. Loaded w/ pics and maps. Not for nothin'. . . johncheverly 18:56, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Just call the Westwall the Westwall and make Siegfried Line a dab page.
Since it can either refer to the Siegfried line of WWI or the Westwall of WWII. 108.45.79.25 (talk) 00:31, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 15 June 2016

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. After relisting, there has been no support for this move. (closed by a page mover) (non-admin closure).  Anarchyte  ( work  |  talk )   11:36, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

Siegfried Line → Westwall – First, "Siegfried Line" is ambiguous, and the article has to begin with disambiguation; "Westwall" is unambiguous. Second, "Westwall" seems to be the more familiar name. Any frequency comparison would need to strip out WWI references and Wikipedia clones. 108.45.79.25 (talk) 00:39, 15 June 2016 (UTC) --Relisting.  Event horizon51  (talk) 17:24, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

 * Oppose per WP:UCN/WP:USEENGLISH, i.e. not Denglish. The first paragraph of the intro does a fine job explaining away any ambiguity. —  AjaxSmack   01:49, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

But Westwall is the normal American English term
Since Westwall is the normal American English term, how can WP:UCN/WP:USEENGLISH be a reason to oppose the proposed move? 108.45.79.25 (talk) 23:09, 14 July 2016 (UTC)

Internationalization of this article is required
American casualties should not be provided to the exclusion of allied casualties. This reads like an American story not a wikipedia article. I'll try and correct where I can but this is not my area of expertise. WayeMason (talk) 01:42, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

The Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung)
I've taken out all references to this. Possibly does deserve a "see also" or one-line reference of some sort (feel free to make such an addition) - but not the double-billing that it had before my edit. - Snori (talk) 11:18, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

Name section
The name section explains what the Germans called the line at various times, but Why did the British call it the "Siegfried Line"? This is a far mor pertinent question for an English language encyclopeadia. -- PBS (talk) 20:26, 28 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Mostly due to the legendary dragon-slaying hero in Wagner - all those ramifications. Didn't help Nazi Germany in the end.50.111.33.214 (talk) 18:35, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

Dragons teeth relics from WW2!
I just watched a programme about dragons teeth and it was too expensive to remove them? I was just thinking that it would be appropriate for them to be used as memorial plac's that could be engraved in memory of all soldiers and people from both sides that died in the area that the dragons teeth lay? 💐🌹💐 88.105.251.10 (talk) 15:01, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Siegfried Line


text:
Talk:George Westinghouse

Comment
The opening paragraph (comparison with Edison) is very POV and adds nothing meaningful to the article.

Edison V. Westinghouse
I belive that this article is very well written. It's opening comment is supported by the text extreamly well --69.81.167.49 23:28, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hmm... at the very least, it is an odd opening paragraph, not a good way to start the article off. As far as POV goes, it may just slightly be leaning in that direction, but without nessesarily crossing over the line. func (talk) 03:29, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * I've had a shot at improving the intro, at least. J.K. 08:06, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)

last paragraph
well written article, excepting this: from the last paragraph, "He was mourned."

As this stands, well, my reaction is "odd that it's pointed out. he vast majority of people are." If this an attmept to convey that there was a public mourning, it doesn't. ("He was publically mourned." would be a start there, if that's the intention.)

I think i'm going to delete the sentence in a few days unless it's clarified. I mean no disrespect to him, but just generally being mourned isn't particularly noteworthy.

last paragraph
The opening paragraph (comparison with Edison) is very POV and adds nothing meaningful to the article. It souldn't talk about Edison's fight with him. It doesn't fit.

Renamed Company ???
A quote from the article:

 * That same year, he formed the "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company", which was renamed the "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" in 1889.

The before and after company names are the same. There must be a mistake somewhere. The linked article, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, says this new name came in 1945, so it is not clear what the company's old name was. H Padleckas 08:03, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Tesla
I'm not sure it is quite right to describe Westinghouse as Tesla's 'friend'. As far as I can tell it was very one sided - Westinghouse got a lot out of Tesla and Tesla didn't get much in return. Also Westinghouse did not support Tesla after his initial work on a.c. - e.g. Tesla had to go to JP Morgan for support on his wireless transmission project. I think 'business partner' would be nearer the truth than 'friend' 4kinnel 16:00, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

section Electricity and the "War of Currents" should be shortened
I think the section Electricity and the "War of Currents" should be shortened, because Main article War of Currents exists. The section should be the abstruct of the article War of Currents. But I cannot think the section is the abstruct. So sentences should be moved (and merged ) from the section Electricity and the "War of Currents" to the article War of Currents, if they do not exist in the article. Thank you. Penpen0216 09:46, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Benz Velo Picture
Any reason the picture of Benz's Velo is here? I don't see any reference to it in the text. JaKaL! (talk) 13:07, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
 * When you see some thing like this, be bold and take it out! That particular error has been here since May 08 - I guess no-one reads the article, or people just like pictures of old cars. --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:07, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

No evidence that Tesla "conceived" rotaing magnetic field in 1882
No evidence that Tesla created anything concerning AC motor and rotating magnetic field before 1888. Galileo Ferraris discovered the principle in 1885 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Magnagr (talk • contribs) 19:03, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Unverified Tesla
I have rewritten the sections referring to Tesla because it seemed to be unreferenced Tesla fan fiction/myth such as this was a "Tesla system", that this had anything to do with Tesla's time at Edison, or that induction motors were immediately adopted. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 22:51, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Heritage
Westinghouse's first American ancestor was an ethnic German immigrant from Westphalia named Wistinghausen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:45:490E:23A:456C:80E9:AB62:DFC2 (talk) 09:50, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be a "Death and Legacy" section?
Seems odd not to have it StainlessSteelScorpion (talk) 20:43, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

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title: Talk:George Westinghouse


text:
Martigny-sur-l'Ante

Martigny-sur-l'Ante is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.

Geography
The commune is part of the area known as Suisse Normande.

The commune is made up of the following collection of villages and hamlets, La Croix, Les Prés, La Champinière, La Corbetière, La Gare, Quinquefougère and Martigny-sur-l'Ante.

The source of the river Ante, a tributary of the Dives, is in the commune.

title: Martigny-sur-l'Ante


text:
Counterfactual (disambiguation)

Counterfactual is counterfactual conditional, a conditional containing an if-clause which is contrary to fact.

Counterfactual may also refer to:

Arts and social science

 * Counterfactual thinking, in psychology
 * Counterfactual thought experiments, in philosophy, science, etc.
 * Counterfactual history, in historiography
 * Alternate history, a literary genre
 * Counterfactual subjunctive, grammatical forms which in English are known as the past and pluperfect forms of the English subjunctive mood

Physics

 * Counterfactual definiteness, in quantum theory
 * Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester, in quantum theory (counterfactual measurements)

Contrafactualité

title: Counterfactual (disambiguation)


text:
Martragny

Martragny is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Moulins en Bessin.

title: Martragny


text:
Lactoferrin

Lactoferrin (LF), also known as lactotransferrin (LTF), is a multifunctional protein of the transferrin family. Lactoferrin is a globular glycoprotein with a molecular mass of about 80 kDa that is widely represented in various secretory fluids, such as milk, saliva, tears, and nasal secretions. Lactoferrin is also present in secondary granules of PMNs and is secreted by some acinar cells. Lactoferrin can be purified from milk or produced recombinantly. Human colostrum ("first milk") has the highest concentration, followed by human milk, then cow milk (150 mg/L).

Lactoferrin is one of the components of the immune system of the body; it has antimicrobial activity (bacteriocide, fungicide) and is part of the innate defense, mainly at mucoses. It is constantly produced and released into saliva, tears, as well as seminal and vaginal fluid. Lactoferrin provides antibacterial activity to human infants. Lactoferrin interacts with DNA and RNA, polysaccharides and heparin, and shows some of its biological functions in complexes with these ligands.

Lactoferrin supplements reduce the risk of respiratory tract infections, based on a recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. As with any supplements sold online, quality may be an issue because nutritional supplement production quality controls are not subject to the same strict regulatory process as medicines.

History
Occurrence of iron-containing red protein in bovine milk was reported as early as in 1939; however, the protein could not be properly characterized because it could not be extracted with sufficient purity. Its first detailed studies were reported around 1960. They documented the molecular weight, isoelectric point, optical absorption spectra and presence of two iron atoms per protein molecule. The protein was extracted from milk, contained iron and was structurally and chemically similar to serum transferrin. Therefore, it was named lactoferrin in 1961, though the name lactotransferrin was used in some earlier publications, and later studies demonstrated that the protein is not restricted to milk. The antibacterial action of lactoferrin was also documented in 1961, and was associated with its ability to bind iron.

Genes of lactoferrin
At least 60 gene sequences of lactoferrin have been characterized in 11 species of mammals. In most species, stop codon is TAA, and TGA in Mus musculus. Deletions, insertions and mutations of stop codons affect the coding part and its length varies between 2,055 and 2,190 nucleotide pairs. Gene polymorphism between species is much more diverse than the intraspecific polymorphism of lactoferrin. There are differences in amino acid sequences: 8 in Homo sapiens, 6 in Mus musculus, 6 in Capra hircus, 10 in Bos taurus and 20 in Sus scrofa. This variation may indicate functional differences between different types of lactoferrin.

In humans, lactoferrin gene LTF is located on the third chromosome in the locus 3q21-q23. In oxen, the coding sequence consists of 17 exons and has a length of about 34,500 nucleotide pairs. Exons of the lactoferrin gene in oxen have a similar size to the exons of other genes of the transferrin family, whereas the sizes of introns differ within the family. Similarity in the size of exons and their distribution in the domains of the protein molecule indicates that the evolutionary development of lactoferrin gene occurred by duplication. Study of polymorphism of genes that encode lactoferrin helps selecting livestock breeds that are resistant to mastitis.

Molecular structure
Lactoferrin is one of the transferrin proteins that transfer iron to the cells and control the level of free iron in the blood and external secretions. It is present in the milk of humans and other mammals, in the blood plasma and neutrophils and is one of the major proteins of virtually all exocrine secretions of mammals, such as saliva, bile, tears and pancreas. Concentration of lactoferrin in the milk varies from 7 g/L in the colostrum to 1 g/L in mature milk.

X-ray diffraction reveals that lactoferrin is based on one polypeptide chain that contains about 700 amino acids and forms two homologous globular domains named N-and C-lobes. N-lobe corresponds to amino acid residues 1-333 and C-lobe to 345-692, and the ends of those domains are connected by a short α-helix. Each lobe consists of two subdomains, N1, N2 and C1, C2, and contains one iron binding site and one glycosylation site. The degree of glycosylation of the protein may be different and therefore the molecular weight of lactoferrin varies between 76 and 80 kDa. The stability of lactoferrin has been associated with the high glycosylation degree.

Lactoferrin belongs to the basic proteins, its isoelectric point is 8.7. It exists in two forms: iron-rich hololactoferrin and iron-free apolactoferrin. Their tertiary structures are different; apolactoferrin is characterized by "open" conformation of the N-lobe and the "closed" conformation of the C-lobe, and both lobes are closed in the hololactoferrin.

Each lactoferrin molecule can reversibly bind two ions of iron, zinc, copper or other metals. The binding sites are localized in each of the two protein globules. There, each ion is bonded with six ligands: four from the polypeptide chain (two tyrosine residues, one histidine residue and one aspartic acid residue) and two from carbonate or bicarbonate ions.

Lactoferrin forms a reddish complex with iron; its affinity for iron is 300 times higher than that of transferrin. The affinity increases in weakly acidic medium. This facilitates the transfer of iron from transferrin to lactoferrin during inflammations, when the pH of tissues decreases due to accumulation of lactic and other acids. The saturated iron concentration in lactoferrin in human milk is estimated as 10 to 30% (100% corresponds to all lactoferrin molecules containing 2 iron atoms). It is demonstrated that lactoferrin is involved not only in the transport of iron, zinc and copper, but also in the regulation of their intake. Presence of loose ions of zinc and copper does not affect the iron binding ability of lactoferrin, and might even increase it.

Polymeric forms
Both in blood plasma and in secretory fluids lactoferrin can exist in different polymeric forms ranging from monomers to tetramers. Lactoferrin tends to polymerize both in vitro and in vivo, especially at high concentrations. Several authors found that the dominant form of lactoferrin in physiological conditions is a tetramer, with the monomer:tetramer ratio of 1:4 at the protein concentrations of 10−5 M.

It is suggested that the oligomer state of lactoferrin is determined by its concentration and that polymerization of lactoferrin is strongly affected by the presence of Ca2+ ions. In particular, monomers were dominant at concentrations below 10−10−10−11 M in the presence of Ca2+, but they converted into tetramers at lactoferrin concentrations above 10−9−10−10 M. Titer of lactoferrin in the blood corresponds to this particular "transition concentration" and thus lactoferrin in the blood should be presented both as a monomer and tetramer. Many functional properties of lactoferrin depend on its oligomeric state. In particular, monomeric, but not tetrameric lactoferrin can strongly bind to DNA.

Function
Lactoferrin belongs to the innate immune system. Apart from its main biological function, namely binding and transport of iron ions, lactoferrin also has antibacterial, antiviral, antiparasitic, catalytic, anti-cancer, and anti-allergic functions and properties.

Enzymatic activity of lactoferrin
Lactoferrin hydrolyzes RNA and exhibits the properties of pyrimidine-specific secretory ribonucleases. In particular, by destroying the RNA genome, milk RNase inhibits reverse transcription of retroviruses that cause breast cancer in mice. Parsi women in West India have the milk RNase level markedly lower than in other groups, and their breast cancer rate is three times higher than average. Thus, ribonucleases of milk, and lactoferrin in particular, might play an important role in pathogenesis.

Lactoferrin receptor
The lactoferrin receptor plays an important role in the internalization of lactoferrin; it also facilitates absorption of iron ions by lactoferrin. It was shown that gene expression increases with age in the duodenum and decreases in the jejunum. The moonlighting glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) has been demonstrated to function as a receptor for lactoferrin.

Bone activity
Ribonuclease-enriched lactoferrin has been used to examine how lactoferrin affects bone. Lactoferrin has shown to have positive effects on bone turnover. It has aided in decreasing bone resorption and increasing bone formation. This was indicated by a decrease in the levels of two bone resorption markers (deoxypyridinoline and N-telopeptide) and an increase in the levels two bone formation markers (osteocalcin and alkaline phosphatase). It has reduced osteoclast formation, which signifies a decrease in pro-inflammatory responses and an increase in anti-inflammatory responses which indicates a reduction in bone resorption as well.

Interaction with nucleic acids
One of the important properties of lactoferrin is its ability to bind with nucleic acids. The fraction of protein extracted from milk, contains 3.3% RNA, but, the protein preferably binds to double-stranded DNA rather than single-stranded DNA. The ability of lactoferrin to bind DNA is used for its isolation and purification using affinity chromatography with columns containing immobilized DNA-containing sorbents, such as agarose with the immobilized single-stranded DNA.

Antibacterial activity
Lactoferrin's primary role is to sequester free iron, and in doing so remove essential substrate required for bacterial growth. Antibacterial action of lactoferrin is also explained by the presence of specific receptors on the cell surface of microorganisms. Lactoferrin binds to lipopolysaccharide of bacterial walls, and the oxidized iron part of the lactoferrin oxidizes bacteria via formation of peroxides. This affects the membrane permeability and results in the cell breakdown (lysis).

Although lactoferrin also has other antibacterial mechanisms not related to iron, such as stimulation of phagocytosis, the interaction with the outer bacterial membrane described above is the most dominant and most studied. Lactoferrin not only disrupts the membrane, but even penetrates into the cell. Its binding to the bacteria wall is associated with the specific peptide lactoferricin, which is located at the N-lobe of lactoferrin and is produced by in vitro cleavage of lactoferrin with another protein, trypsin. A mechanism of the antimicrobial action of lactoferrin has been reported as lactoferrin targets H+-ATPase and interferes with proton translocation in the cell membrane, resulting in a lethal effect in vitro.

Lactoferrin prevents the attachment of H. pylori in the stomach, which in turn, aids in reducing digestive system disorders. Bovine lactoferrin has more activity against H. pylori than human lactoferrin.

Antiviral activity
Lactoferrin in sufficient strength acts on a wide range of human and animal viruses based on DNA and RNA genomes, including the herpes simplex virus 1 and 2, cytomegalovirus, HIV, hepatitis C virus,  hantaviruses, rotaviruses, poliovirus type 1, human respiratory syncytial virus, murine leukemia viruses and Mayaro virus. Activity against COVID-19 has been speculated but not proven.

The most studied mechanism of antiviral activity of lactoferrin is its diversion of virus particles from the target cells. Many viruses tend to bind to the lipoproteins of the cell membranes and then penetrate into the cell. Lactoferrin binds to the same lipoproteins thereby repelling the virus particles. Iron-free apolactoferrin is more efficient in this function than hololactoferrin; and lactoferricin, which is responsible for antimicrobial properties of lactoferrin, shows almost no antiviral activity.

Beside interacting with the cell membrane, lactoferrin also directly binds to viral particles, such as the hepatitis viruses. This mechanism is also confirmed by the antiviral activity of lactoferrin against rotaviruses, which act on different cell types.

Lactoferrin also suppresses virus replication after the virus penetrated into the cell. Such an indirect antiviral effect is achieved by affecting natural killer cells, granulocytes and macrophages – cells, which play a crucial role in the early stages of viral infections, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Antifungal activity
Lactoferrin and lactoferricin inhibit in vitro growth of Trichophyton mentagrophytes, which are responsible for several skin diseases such as ringworm. Lactoferrin also acts against the Candida albicans – a diploid fungus (a form of yeast) that causes opportunistic oral and genital infections in humans. Fluconazole has long been used against Candida albicans, which resulted in emergence of strains resistant to this drug. However, a combination of lactoferrin with fluconazole can act against fluconazole-resistant strains of Candida albicans as well as other types of Candida: C. glabrata, C. krusei, C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis. Antifungal activity is observed for sequential incubation of Candida with lactoferrin and then with fluconazole, but not vice versa. The antifungal activity of lactoferricin exceeds that of lactoferrin. In particular, synthetic peptide 1–11 lactoferricin shows much greater activity against Candida albicans than native lactoferricin.

Administration of lactoferrin through drinking water to mice with weakened immune systems and symptoms of aphthous ulcer reduced the number of Candida albicans strains in the mouth and the size of the damaged areas in the tongue. Oral administration of lactoferrin to animals also reduced the number of pathogenic organisms in the tissues close to the gastrointestinal tract. Candida albicans could also be completely eradicated with a mixture containing lactoferrin, lysozyme and itraconazole in HIV-positive patients who were resistant to other antifungal drugs. Such antifungal action when other drugs deem inefficient is characteristic of lactoferrin and is especially valuable for HIV-infected patients. Contrary to the antiviral and antibacterial actions of lactoferrin, very little is known about the mechanism of its antifungal action. Lactoferrin seems to bind the plasma membrane of C. albicans inducing an apoptotic-like process.

Anticarcinogenic activity
The anticancer activity of bovine lactoferrin (bLF) has been demonstrated in experimental lung, bladder, tongue, colon, and liver carcinogeneses on rats, possibly by suppression of phase I enzymes, such as cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2). Also, in another experiment done on hamsters, bovine lactoferrin decreased the incidence of oral cancer by 50%. Currently, bLF is used as an ingredient in yogurt, chewing gums, infant formulas, and cosmetics.

Cystic fibrosis
The human lung and saliva contain a wide range of antimicrobial compound including lactoperoxidase system, producing hypothiocyanite and lactoferrin, with hypothiocyanite missing in cystic fibrosis patients. Lactoferrin, a component of innate immunity, prevents bacterial biofilm development. The loss of microbicidal activity and increased formation of biofilm due to decreased lactoferrin activity is observed in patients with cystic fibrosis. In cystic fibrosis, antibiotic susceptibility may be modified by lactoferrin. These findings demonstrate the important role of lactoferrin in human host defense and especially in lung. Lactoferrin with hypothiocyanite has been granted orphan drug status by the EMEA and the FDA.

Necrotizing enterocolitis
Low quality evidence suggests that oral lactoferrin supplementation with or without the addition of a probiotic may decrease late onset of sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis (stage II or III) in preterm infants with no adverse effects.

In diagnosis
Lactoferrin levels in tear fluid have been shown to decrease in dry eye diseases such as Sjögren's syndrome. A rapid, portable test utilizing microfluidic technology has been developed to enable measurement of lactoferrin levels in human tear fluid at the point-of-care with the aim of improving diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome and other forms of dry eye disease.

Extraction
Bovine lactoferrin can be isolated from raw milk, colostrum, or whey using methods such as salt extraction, chromatography, and membrane filtration. Lactoferrin from a variety of species, including humans, can also be produced using transgenic organisms as a recombinant protein.

Nanotechnology
Lactotransferrin has been used in the synthesis of fluorescent gold quantum clusters, which has potential applications in nanotechnology.

title: Lactoferrin


text:
Sayat-Nova

Sayat-Nova (Armenian: Սայեաթ-Նովայ (сlassical), Սայաթ-Նովա (reformed) ; საიათნოვა; سایات‌نووا; ; born Harutyun Sayatyan; 14 June 1712 – 22 September 1795) was an Armenian poet, musician and ashugh, who had compositions in a number of languages.

Name
The name Sayat-Nova has been given several interpretations. One version reads the name as "Lord of Song" (from Arabic sayyid and Persian nava) or "King of Songs". Others read the name as grandson (Persian neve) of Sayad or hunter (sayyad) of song. Charles Dowsett considers all these derivations to be unlikely and proposes the reading New Time (from Arabic sa'at and Russian nova) instead.

Biography
Sayat-Nova's mother, Sara, was born in Tiflis, and his father, Karapet, either in Aleppo or Adana. He was born in Tiflis. Sayat-Nova was skilled in writing poetry, singing, and playing the kamancheh, Chonguri, Tambur. He lost his position at the royal court when he fell in love with the king's sister Ana; he spent the rest of his life as an itinerant bard.

In 1759 he was ordained as a priest in the Armenian Apostolic Church. His wife, Marmar, died in 1768, leaving behind four children. He served in locations including Tiflis and Haghpat Monastery. In 1795 he was killed in Haghpat Monastery by the invading army of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, the Shah of Iran. Agha Mohammad Khan demanded that Sayat Nova convert from Christianity to Islam, which he refused to do, and declaring his religion is undeniably Armenian Christian. Hence he was promptly executed by beheading. He is buried at the Armenian Cathedral of Saint George in Tbilisi.

Legacy
In Armenia, Sayat-Nova is considered a great poet who made a considerable contribution to the Armenian poetry and music of his century. Although he lived his entire life in a deeply religious society, his works are mostly secular and full of romantic expressionism.

About 220 songs have been attributed to Sayat-Nova, although he may have written thousands more. Sayat-Nova also wrote some poems moving between all three.

In popular culture

 * Sayat Nova Dance Company of Boston is named after him.
 * The 1969 Armenian film Sayat Nova directed by Sergei Parajanov follows the poet's path from his childhood wool-dyeing days to his role as a courtier and finally his life as a monk. It was released in the United States under the title The Color of Pomegranates. It is not a biography of Sayat Nova, but a series of tableaux vivants of Armenian costume, embroidery and religious rituals depicting scenes and verses from the poet's life.
 * A book on his life and work by Charles Dowsett was published in 1997 titled Sayat'-nova: An 18th-century Troubadour: a Biographical and Literary Study.
 * The first translations of the Armenian odes of Sayat Nova in European languages were in Russia by Valery Bryusov in 1916, in Georgia by Ioseb Grishashvili in 1918, in Poland by Leopold Lewin in 1961 and in France by Elisabeth Mouradian and the French poet Serge Venturini in 2006; the book was dedicated to Sergei Parajanov.
 * There is a street and a music school named after him in Yerevan, Armenia; an Armenian-American dance ensemble in the United States; and a pond in Mont Orford, Quebec, Canada.
 * A brand of Armenian Cognac is named after him.
 * An Armenian restaurant opened in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood in 1970 is named after him.
 * In 2020, a perfume created by Dmitry Bortnikoff and Rajesh Balkrishnan was named after him.
 * The piano piece "Elegy in Memory of Aram Khachaturian" by Arno Babajanian is based on a melody by Sayat-Nova.

title: Sayat-Nova