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Sam Manekshaw

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw (4 April 1914 – 27 June 2008), also known as Sam Bahadur ("Sam the Brave"), was the chief of the army staff of the Indian Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and the first Indian Army officer to be promoted to the rank of field marshal. His active military career spanned four decades, beginning with service in World War II.

Manekshaw joined the first intake of the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun in 1932. He was commissioned into the 4th Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment. In World War II, he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. Following the Partition of India in 1947, he was reassigned to the 8th Gorkha Rifles. Manekshaw was seconded to a planning role during the 1947 Indo-Pakistani War and the Hyderabad crisis, and as a result, he never commanded an infantry battalion. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier while serving at the Military Operations Directorate. He became the commander of 167 Infantry Brigade in 1952 and served in this position until 1954 when he took over as the director of military training at Army Headquarters.

After completing the higher command course at the Imperial Defence College, he was appointed the general officer commanding of the 26th Infantry Division. He also served as the commandant of the Defence Services Staff College. In 1962, he was accused in a politically motivated treason trial, he was eventually found innocent but thus could not serve in the 1962 war. In 1963, Manekshaw was promoted to the rank of army commander and took over Western Command, then was transferred in 1964 to Eastern Command. In this role, in 1967, he was involved in the first Indian victory against a Chinese offensive during the Nathu La and Cho La clashes.

Manekshaw was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest Indian civilian award, in 1968 for responding to the insurgencies in Nagaland and Mizoram. Manekshaw became the seventh chief of army staff in 1969. Under his command, Indian forces providing them with arms and ammunitions to fight against the strong regular army of Pakistan in the Bangladesh-Pakistani War of 1971, which led to the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of India, in 1972 for his services to the nation. Manekshaw was promoted to the rank of field marshal in January 1973, the first of only two Indian officers to be ever promoted to this rank. He retired on 15 January 1973, a date celebrated as Army Day in India. Manekshaw died on 27 January 2008 due to complications from pneumonia.

Early life and family
Sam Manekshaw was born on 3 April 1914 in Amritsar to Hormizd (1871–1964), a doctor, and Hilla, née Mehta (1885–1970). Both of his parents were Parsis who had moved to Amritsar from the city of Valsad in coastal Gujarat. Manekshaw's parents had left Mumbai in 1903 for Lahore, where his father was going to start practising medicine. However, when their train halted at Amritsar station, Hilla found it impossible to travel any further due to her advanced pregnancy. After Hilla had recovered from child birth, the couple decided to stay in Amritsar, where Hormizd soon set up a clinic and pharmacy. The couple had four sons (Fali, Jan, Sam and Jami) and two daughters (Cilla and Sheru). Manekshaw was their fifth child and third son.

During World War II, Hormizd had served in the British Indian Army as a captain in the Indian Medical Service (now the Army Medical Corps). Manekshaw's elder brothers Fali and Jan became engineers, while his sisters Cilla and Sheru became teachers. Manekshaw's younger brother Jami became a doctor and served in the Royal Indian Air Force as a medical officer. In 1948, Jami became the first Indian to be awarded air surgeon's wings from Naval Air Station Pensacola in the United States, after completing a training course there. Jami joined his elder brother, Sam, in becoming a flag officer, and retired as an air vice marshal in the Indian Air Force.

Education
Manekshaw completed his primary schooling in Punjab, and then joined Sherwood College, Nainital. In 1931, he passed his senior high school examinations with distinction. He then asked his father to send him to London to study medicine, but his father refused as he was not old enough. His father was already supporting Sam's elder brothers who were studying engineering in London. Manekshaw instead enrolled at the Hindu Sabha College (now the Hindu College, Amritsar) and graduated in April 1932.

A formal notification for the entrance examination to enrol in the newly established Indian Military Academy (IMA) was issued in the early months of 1932. Examinations were scheduled for June or July. In an act of rebellion against his father's refusal to send him to London, Manekshaw applied for a place and sat for the entrance exams in Delhi. On 1 October 1932, he was one of the fifteen cadets to be selected through an open competition, and placed sixth in the order of merit.

Indian Military Academy
Manekshaw was part of the first batch of cadets at the IMA. Called "The Pioneers", this batch also included Smith Dun and Muhammad Musa Khan, the future commanders-in-chief of Burma and Pakistan, respectively. Although the academy was inaugurated on 10 December 1932, the cadets' military training commenced on 1 October 1932. As an IMA cadet, Manekshaw went on to achieve a number of distinctions: the first to serve as the chief of the army staff of India; and the only one to attain the rank of field marshal. The commandant of the Academy during this period was Brigadier Lionel Peter Collins. Manekshaw was almost suspended from the Academy when he went to Mussoorie for a holiday with Kumar Jit Singh (the Maharaja of Kapurthala) and Haji Iftikhar Ahmed, and did not return in time for the morning drills.

Of the 40 cadets inducted into the IMA, only 22 completed the course; they were commissioned as second lieutenants on 1 February 1935. Some of his batchmates were Dewan Ranjit Rai; Mohan Singh, the founder of the Indian National Army; Melville de Mellow, a famous radio presenter; and two generals of the Pakistani Army, Mirza Hamid Hussain and Habibullah Khan Khattak. Many of Manekshaw's batchmates were captured by Japan during World War II and would fight in the Indian National Army, which mostly drew its troops from Indian prisoners of war in Axis camps. Tikka Khan, who would later join the Pakistani Army during the Partition, was Manekshaw's junior at the IMA by five years and also his boxing partner.

Military career
When Manekshaw was commissioned, it was standard practice for newly commissioned Indian officers to be initially assigned to a British regiment before being sent to an Indian unit. Manekshaw thus joined the 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots, stationed at Lahore. He was later posted to the 4th Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment (4/12 FF), stationed in Burma. On 1 May 1938, he was appointed quartermaster of his company. Already fluent in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, English and his native language Gujarati, in October 1938 Manekshaw qualified as a Higher Standard army interpreter in Pashto.

World War II
There was a shortage of qualified officers at the outbreak of the war, officers were thus promoted without having served for the minimum period required for a promotion. Therefore, for the first two years of the conflict, Manekshaw was temporarily appointed to the ranks of captain and major before being promoted to the substantive rank of captain on 4 February 1942.

Battle of Pagoda Hill
Manekshaw saw action in Burma during the 1942 campaign at the Sittang River with 4/12 FF, and was recognised for his bravery in the battle. During the fighting around Pagoda Hill, a key position on the left of the Sittang bridgehead, he led his company in a counter-attack against the invading Imperial Japanese Army. Despite suffering 30% casualties, the company managed to achieve its objective, partly because of the aid received from Captain John Niel Randle's company. After capturing the hill, Manekshaw was hit by a burst of light machine gun fire, and was severely wounded in the stomach. While observing the battle, Major General David Cowan, general officer commanding of the 17th Infantry Division, spotted the wounded Manekshaw and awarded him the Military Cross. This award was made official with the publication of the notification in a supplement to the London Gazette. The citation reads:

"This officer was in command of the 'A' Company of his battalion when ordered to counter-attack the Pagoda Hill position, the key hill on the left of the Sittang Bridgehead, which had been captured by the enemy. The counterattack was successful despite 30% casualties, and this was largely due to the excellent leadership and bearing of Captain Manekshaw. This officer was wounded after the position had been captured."

Manekshaw was evacuated from the battlefield by Sher Singh, his orderly, who took him to an Australian surgeon. The surgeon initially declined to treat Manekshaw, saying that he had been too badly wounded. Manekshaw's chances of survival were low, but Sher Singh persuaded the doctor to treat him. Manekshaw regained consciousness, and when the surgeon asked what had happened to him, he replied that he had been "kicked by a mule". Impressed by Manekshaw's sense of humour, the surgeon treated him, removing the bullets from his lungs, liver, and kidneys. Most of his intestines were also removed.

Having recovered from his wounds, Manekshaw attended the eighth staff course at the Command and Staff College in Quetta between 23 August and 22 December 1943. On completion, he was posted as the brigade major of the Razmak Brigade. He served in that post until 22 October 1944, after which he joined the 9th Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment, part of the 14th Army commanded by General William Slim. On 30 October 1944, he received the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel. By the end of the war, he was appointed as a staff officer to the general officer commanding of the 20th Indian Infantry Division, Major General Douglas Gracey. During the Japanese surrender, Manekshaw was appointed to supervise the disarmament of over 10,000 Japanese prisoners of war (POWs). No cases of indiscipline or escape attempts were reported from the camp Manekshaw was in charge of. He was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant colonel on 5 May 1946, and completed a six-month lecture tour of Australia. From 1945 to 1946, Manekshaw and Yahya Khan were two of the staff officers of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck. Manekshaw was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 4 February 1947, and on his return from Australia was appointed a Grade 1 General Staff Officer (GSO1) in the Military Operations (MO) Directorate.

Post-independence
Due to the Partition of India in 1947, Manekshaw's unit, the 4th Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment, became part of the Pakistan Army. Manekshaw was therefore reassigned to the 8th Gorkha Rifles. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's first Governor General, also considered the founder of that nation, had reportedly asked Manekshaw to join the Pakistani Army, but Manekshaw had refused.

In October 1947, Manekshaw was posted as the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 5 Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force) (3/5 GR (FF)). Before he had moved on to his new appointment, on 22 October, Pakistani forces infiltrated the Kashmir region, capturing Domel and Muzaffarabad. The following day, the ruler of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, appealed to India for help. On 25 October, Manekshaw accompanied V. P. Menon to Srinagar, where he carried out an aerial survey of the situation in Kashmir. On the same day, they flew back to Delhi, where Lord Mountbatten and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were briefed. On the morning of 27 October, Indian troops were sent to Kashmir to defend Srinagar from the Pakistani forces, who had reached the city's outskirts. Manekshaw's assignment as the commander of 3/5 GR (FF) was cancelled, and he was posted to the MO Directorate. As a consequence of the Kashmir dispute and the annexation of Hyderabad (whose events he briefed Sardar Patel on), Manekshaw never commanded a battalion. During his term at the MO Directorate, he was promoted to colonel, then brigadier. He was then appointed the director of military operations (DMO).

Manekshaw was one of the three army officers who represented India at the 1949 Karachi Conference. The Conference resulted in the Karachi Agreement and the Ceasefire Line (which evolved into the Line of Control). The other two army officers at the conference were Lt. Gen. S. M. Shrinagesh and Maj. Gen. KS Thimayya, while the two civilian officers were Vishnu Sahay and HM Patel.

Manekshaw was promoted to the rank of colonel on 4 February 1952, and in April was appointed the commander of 167 Infantry Brigade, headquartered at Firozpur. On 9 April 1954, he was appointed the director of military training at Army Headquarters. He was appointed the commandant of the Infantry School at Mhow on 14 January 1955, and also became the colonel of both the 8th Gorkha Rifles and the 61st Cavalry. During his tenure as the commandant of the Infantry School, he discovered that the training manuals were outdated, and was instrumental in revamping them to be consistent with the tactics employed by the Indian Army. He was promoted to the substantive rank of brigadier on 4 February 1957.

General officer
In 1957, he went to the Imperial Defence College, London, to attend a year long higher command course. On his return, he was appointed the general officer commanding (GOC) 26th Infantry Division on 20 December 1957, with the acting rank of major general. When he commanded the division, Gen. K. S. Thimayya was the chief of the army staff (COAS), and Krishna Menon the defence minister. During a visit to Manekshaw's division, Menon asked him what he thought of Thimayya. Manekshaw replied that it was improper to evaluate his superior, and told Menon not to ask anybody again. This annoyed Menon, and he told Manekshaw that if he wanted to, he could sack Thimayya, to which Manekshaw replied, "You can get rid of him. But then I will get another."

Manekshaw was promoted to substantive major general on 1 March 1959. On 1 October, he was appointed the Commandant of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, where he was caught up in a controversy that almost ended his career. In May 1961, Thimayya resigned as the COAS, and was succeeded by General Pran Nath Thapar. Earlier in the year, Major General Brij Mohan Kaul had been promoted to lieutenant general and appointed the Quarter Master General by Menon. The appointment was made against the recommendation of Thimayya, who resigned as a result. Kaul was made the chief of general staff (CGS), the second highest appointment at Army Headquarters after the COAS. Kaul cultivated a close relationship with Nehru and Menon and became even more powerful than the COAS. This was met with disapproval by senior army officials, including Manekshaw, who argued against the interference of the political leadership in the administration of the army. This led him to be marked as an anti-national.

Kaul sent informers to spy on Manekshaw who, as a result of the information gathered, was charged with sedition, and subjected to a court of inquiry. The charges against him were that he was more loyal to the Queen and the Crown than to India, because he had not removed portraits of the Queen and British military and civilian officers from the College and his office. The court, presided over by the general officer commanding-in-chief (GOC-in-C) of Western Command, Lt. Gen. Daulet Singh, exonerated Manekshaw as no evidence against him was found. Before a formal 'no case to answer' could be announced, the Sino-Indian War broke out; Manekshaw was not able to participate because of the court proceedings. The Indian Army was defeated in the war, for which Kaul and Menon were held primarily responsible, both were sacked. In November 1962, Nehru asked Manekshaw to take over the command of IV Corps. Manekshaw told Nehru that the court action against him was a conspiracy, and that his promotion had been due for almost eighteen months; Nehru apologised. Shortly after, on 2 December 1962, Manekshaw was promoted to acting lieutenant general and appointed the GOC of IV Corps at Tezpur.

Soon after taking charge, Manekshaw reached the conclusion that poor leadership had been a significant factor in IV Corps' failure in the war with China. He felt the first course of action was to improve the morale of his soldiers. Manekshaw identified the root cause of the low morale to be panicked withdrawals, ordered without allowing the soldiers to fight back. He ordered there to be no more retreats without his written permission. The next task Manekshaw took up was to reorganise the troops in the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), where he alleviated the shortages of equipment, accommodation and clothing. Analyst Srinath Raghavan noted that Corps Commander Manekshaw and COAS Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri had delayed moving into the NEFA region until the end of 1963, in order to avoid provoking a new Chinese offensive.

Promoted to substantive lieutenant general on 20 July 1963, Manekshaw was appointed an army commander on 5 December, taking command of Western Command as the GOC-in-C. Defence analyst Ajai Shukla, citing Anit Mukherjee, states that Western Command troops were reported to be moving from Punjab to Delhi after Nehru's death. This movement was seen as the precursor to a coup by the civilian establishment, while the army said it was moving in troops to manage the large crowds expected at Nehru's funeral. As a result, on 16 November 1964, Manekshaw was transferred from Shimla to Calcutta as the GOC-in-C Eastern Command. There he responded to the insurgencies in Nagaland and Mizoram, for which he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1968.

Nathu La and Cho La clashes
In 1967, five years after the War of 1962, China decided to capture four critical posts in Sikkim: Nathu La, Jelep La, Sebu La and Cho La. These posts were strategically valuable, as they oversaw the Chicken's Neck, the small strip of land which provides access to Northeast India. Major General Sagat Singh decided not to retreat following the Chinese attack. Manekshaw endorsed this initiative by Singh and remarked: "I am afraid they are enacting Hamlet without the Prince. I will now tell you how I intend to deal with this." The conflict ended in Indian victory following the Chinese withdrawal from the area.

Chief of army staff
Gen. P. P. Kumaramangalam retired as the chief of army staff (COAS) in June 1969. Though Manekshaw was the most senior army commander, the Defence Minister Sardar Swaran Singh favoured Lt. Gen. Harbaksh Singh, who had played a key role as the GOC-in-C of Western Command during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Despite this, Manekshaw was appointed as the eighth chief of the army staff on 8 June 1969. During his tenure, he was instrumental in stopping a plan to reserve quotas in the army for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Though he was a Parsi, a minority in India, Manekshaw felt reservation would compromise the ethos of the army and believed all must be given an equal chance.

In his capacity as the COAS, Manekshaw once visited a battalion of the 8 Gorkha Rifles in July 1969. He asked an orderly if he knew the name of his chief. The orderly replied that he did, and on being asked to name the chief, he said "Sam Bahadur" (lit. "Sam the Brave"). This eventually became Manekshaw's nickname. During this period, there were suspicions that Manekshaw would lead a coup and impose martial law. Indira Gandhi had asked him if he intended to coup, Manekshaw had denied. Once, an American diplomat, in the presence of Kenneth Keating, the US ambassador to India, had asked Manekshaw when he was going to stage a coup. Manekshaw reportedly said, "As soon as General Westmoreland takes over your country".

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was sparked by the Bangladesh Liberation war, a conflict between the traditionally dominant West Pakistanis and the East Pakistanis who were a majority of the population but lacked representation. In 1970, East Pakistanis called for Bengali autonomy, but the Pakistani government failed to meet these demands. In early 1971, opinion shifted towards secession in East Pakistan. In March, the Pakistan Armed Forces launched a fierce campaign to curb the secessionists, whose members included soldiers and police from East Pakistan. Thousands of East Pakistanis died, and nearly ten million refugees fled to West Bengal, an adjacent Indian state. In April, India decided to intervene militarily to create Bangladesh.

During a cabinet meeting towards the end of April, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked Manekshaw if he was prepared to go to war with Pakistan. He replied that most of his armoured and infantry divisions were deployed elsewhere, only twelve of his tanks were combat-ready, and they would be competing for rail carriages with the grain harvest. He also pointed out that the Himalayan passes would soon open up with the forthcoming monsoon, which would result in heavy flooding. After the cabinet had left the room, Manekshaw offered to resign; Gandhi declined and instead sought his advice. He said he could guarantee victory if she would allow him to handle the conflict on his own terms, and set a date for its initiation; Gandhi agreed.

Following the strategy planned by Manekshaw, the army launched several preparatory operations in East Pakistan, including training and equipping the Mukti Bahini, a local militia group of Bengali nationalists. About three brigades of regular Bangladeshi troops were trained, and 75,000 guerrillas were trained and equipped with arms and ammunition. These forces were used to harass the Pakistani Army forces stationed in East Pakistan in the lead-up to the war.

The war started officially on 3 December 1971, when Pakistani aircraft bombed Indian Air Force bases in western India. The Army Headquarters under Manekshaw's leadership formulated the following strategy: II Corps commanded by Lt. Gen. Tapishwar Narain Raina would enter from the west; IV Corps commanded by Lt. Gen. Sagat Singh would enter from the east; XXXIII Corps commanded by Lt. Gen. Mohan L. Thapan would enter from the north; and the 101 Communication Zone Area commanded by Maj. Gen. Gurbax Singh would provide support from the northeast. This strategy was to be executed by Eastern Command under Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora. Manekshaw instructed Lt. Gen. J.F.R. Jacob, chief of staff, Eastern Command, to inform the Indian prime minister that orders were being issued for the movement of troops from Eastern Command. The following day, the Indian Navy and Air Force also initiated full-scale operations on both the eastern and western fronts.

As the war progressed, India captured most of the strategic positions and isolated the Pakistani forces, who started to surrender or withdraw. The UN Security Council assembled on 4 December 1971 to discuss the situation. After lengthy discussions on 7 December, the United States put forward a resolution for an "immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of troops". While supported by the majority, the USSR vetoed it twice, and because of Pakistani atrocities in Bengal, the United Kingdom and France abstained. On 8 December, a C141 American cargo plane was seen unloading arms & other equipment at Karachi. Manekshaw prevented any further supplies by summoning the military attache at the US embassy in India and asking him to stop the drops which were in contravention of US public policy.

"'Indian forces have surrounded you. Your Air Force is destroyed. You have no hope of any help from them. Chittagong, Chalna and Mangla ports are blocked. Nobody can reach you from the sea. Your fate is sealed. The Mukti Bahini and the people are all prepared to take revenge for the atrocities and cruelties you have committed...Why waste lives? Don't you want to go home and be with your children? Do not lose time; there is no disgrace in laying down your arms to a soldier. We will give you the treatment befitting a soldier'."

Manekshaw addressed the Pakistani troops by radio broadcast on 9, 11 and 15 December, assuring them that they would receive honourable treatment from the Indian troops if they surrendered. The last two broadcasts were delivered as replies to messages from the Pakistani commanders Maj. Gen. Rao Farman Ali and Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi to their troops. These broadcasts had a demoralising effect; they convinced the Pakistani troops of the futility of further resistance and led to their decision to surrender.

On 11 December, Ali messaged the United Nations requesting a ceasefire, but it was not authorised by President Yahya Khan, and the fighting continued. Following several discussions and consultations, and subsequent attacks by the Indian forces, Khan decided to stop the war in order to avoid any additional Pakistani casualties. The actual decision to surrender was taken by Niazi on 15 December and was conveyed to Manekshaw through the United States Consul General in Dhaka via Washington. Manekshaw replied that he would stop the war only if the Pakistani troops surrendered to their Indian counterparts by 9 AM on 16 December. The deadline was extended to 3 PM on the same day at Niazi's request, and the instrument of surrender was formally signed on 16 December 1971 by Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi.

When the prime minister asked Manekshaw to go to Dhaka and accept the surrender of Pakistani forces, he declined, saying that the honour should go to the GOC-in-C Eastern Command, Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora. Concerned about maintaining discipline in the aftermath of the conflict, Manekshaw issued strict instructions forbidding looting and rape and stressed the need to respect and stay away from women. As a result, according to Singh, cases of looting and rape were negligible. While addressing his troops on the matter, Manekshaw was quoted as saying: "When you see a Begum (Muslim woman), keep your hands in your pockets, and think of Sam."

The war lasted 12 days and saw 93,000 Pakistani soldiers taken prisoner. It ended with the unconditional surrender of East Pakistan and resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. In addition to the prisoners of war (POWs), Pakistan suffered 6,000 casualties against India's 2,000. After the war, Manekshaw ensured good conditions for the POWs, but was criticised for treating them like "sons in law" by the cabinet. Singh recounts that in some cases he addressed them personally and talked to them privately, with just his aide-de-camp for company, while they shared a cup of tea. He made provisions for the prisoners to be supplied with the copies of the Quran, and allowed them to celebrate festivals and receive letters and parcels from their loved ones. However, he did not want them to be returned to Pakistan until a peace agreement was concluded, as the POWs numbered about four divisions of soldiers and could be deployed for another war. The Pakistani POWs remained in captivity for several years, used as leverage for Pakistan officially recognizing Bangladesh.

Manekshaw was India's official representative for the negotiations held on 28 November 1972 to demarcate the Line of Control in Kashmir after the war. Pakistan's representative was General Tikka Khan. The talks broke down due to disagreements on control over parts of Thako Chak and Kaiyan (located in Pakistan's Chicken's Neck), Chhamb and Tortuk. The second round of talks held from 5 to 7 December managed to resolve these issues.

Promotion to field marshal
After the war, Indira Gandhi decided to promote Manekshaw to the rank of field marshal and appoint him as the chief of defence staff (CDS). However, after several objections from the commanders of the navy and the air force, the appointment was dropped. Because Manekshaw was from the army, there were concerns that the comparatively smaller forces of the navy and air force would be neglected. Moreover, the bureaucrats felt that the appointment might reduce their influence over defence issues. Though Manekshaw was to retire in June 1972, his term was extended by a period of six months, and "in recognition of outstanding services to the Armed Forces and the nation," he was promoted to the rank of field marshal on 1 January 1973. The first Indian Army officer to be so promoted, he was formally conferred with the rank in a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's Residence) on 3 January.

Honours and post-retirement

For his service to India, the President of India, VV Giri, awarded Manekshaw the Padma Vibhushan in 1972. Manekshaw retired from active service on 15 January 1973 (celebrated as Army Day in India) after a career of nearly four decades. He moved with his family to Coonoor, the civilian town next to Wellington Cantonment, where he had served as commandant of the Defence Services Staff College early on in his career. Popular with Gorkha soldiers, Nepal fêted Manekshaw as an honorary general of the Nepalese Army in 1972. In 1977, he was awarded the Order of Tri Shakti Patta First Class, an order of knighthood of the Kingdom of Nepal by King Birendra. Following his service in the Indian Army, Manekshaw served as an independent director on the board and, in a few cases, as the chairman of several companies, like Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, Britannia Industries and Escorts Limited.

In May 2007, Gohar Ayub, the son of the Pakistani Field Marshal Ayub Khan, claimed that Manekshaw had sold Indian Army secrets to Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 for 20,000 rupees, but his accusations were dismissed by the Indian defence establishment.

Although Manekshaw was conferred the rank of field marshal in 1973, it was reported that he was not given the complete allowances he was entitled to. He did not receive these until 2007, when President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam met him in Wellington, and presented him with a cheque for inr 13000000 — his arrears of pay for over 30 years. Manekshaw was critical of politicians and civilian bureaucrats, and frequently mocked them, asking for example, "whether those of our political masters who have been put in charge of the defence of the country can distinguish a mortar from a motor; a gun from a howitzer; a guerrilla from a gorilla – although a great many in the past have resembled the latter.”

Manekshaw visited hospitalised soldiers during the Kargil War and was cited by COAS Ved Prakash Malik, the commander during the war, as his icon.

Personal life and death
Manekshaw married Silloo Bode on 22 April 1939 in Bombay. The couple had two daughters, Sherry and Maya (later Maja), born in 1940 and 1945 respectively. Manekshaw died of complications from pneumonia at the Military Hospital in Wellington, Tamil Nadu, at 12:30 a.m. on 27 June 2008 at the age of 94. Reportedly, his last words were "I'm okay!" He was buried at the Parsi cemetery in Udhagamandalam (Ooty), Tamil Nadu, with military honours, adjacent to his wife's grave. His funeral lacked governmental representation, which the media argued was a result of the civilian establishment's apathy towards the military, who feared that the military would stage a coup if it became too popular with the citizenry. A national day of mourning was not declared. While this was not a breach of protocol, such commemoration is customary for a leader of national importance. Bangladesh, however, did pay tribute to Manekshaw on his death. He was survived by two daughters and three grandchildren.

Character
Manekshaw was charismatic and known to be capable of charm. He was often described as a gentleman. Like others of his generation, his background in the British army gave him a fondness for some English habits, such as drinking whiskey and wearing his handlebar moustache. His background as a Parsi is sometimes attributed as a factor in his ambition and success. He commanded great loyalty from his troops, particularly the Gorkhas, due to his reputation for personal bravery, fairness and his avoidance of punishments. He came into conflict with politicians, however, because he stood up to their often unreasonable or unethical demands. They also disliked his popularity as they feared the possibility of a military coup. He dealt with politicians' demands through sarcasm, which however was recognised by figures such as Indira Gandhi. Manekshaw also did not hesitate from advocating for better strategies than those developed by the civilian establishment, a trait rarely found in the military brass today, according to Admiral Arun Prakash.

Legacy and assessment
Vijay Diwas (lit. Victory Day) is celebrated on 16 December every year in honor of the victory achieved under Manekshaw's leadership in 1971. On 16 December 2008, a postage stamp depicting Manekshaw in his field marshal's uniform was released by then President Pratibha Patil.

The Manekshaw Centre in the Delhi Cantonment is named for the field marshal. The centre was inaugurated by the President of India on 21 October 2010. The biannual Army Commanders' conference takes place at the centre. The Manekshaw parade ground in Bengaluru is also named after him. The Republic Day celebrations in Karnataka are held at this ground every year. A flyover bridge in Ahmedabad's Shivranjeeni area was named after him in 2008 by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. In 2014, a granite statue was erected in his honour at Wellington, in the Nilgiris district, close to the Manekshaw Bridge on the Ooty–Coonoor road, which had been named after him in 2009. His statue is also on the Maneckji Mehta Road in Pune Cantonment. The Centre for Land Warfare Studies, an Indian military think tank, publishes its research papers in a collection called the Manekshaw Papers as a tribute to the field marshal.

Manekshaw has been portrayed in film and fiction. Vicky Kaushal played the role of Manekshaw in the 2023 biopic Sam Bahadur. He is also featured conversing with his Pakistani adversary and former Burma war colleague Tiger Niazi in Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children, in the chapter entitled "Sam and the Tiger".

Soldiers' pay
In 1970, the Armed Forces and the Army in particular had the opportunity for the first time to get their pay determined by the Pay Commission, which set the pay levels for all other government employees. Armed Forces personnel had not been considered for the 1st and 2nd Pay Commissions but were to be considered for the 3rd Pay Commission. Manekshaw convinced the government to apply the 3rd Pay Commission's recommendations for military personnel and set pay scales for them proportionate to their service conditions (termed hazard pay), a practice which continues to this day.

Strategy and doctrine
Manekshaw's strategies during the 1971 war have been considered by analysts to be the precursor to the Indian Cold Start military doctrine, which calls for integrated offensive attacks. Formulated along with his deputies Aurora and Singh, Manekshaw's shock and awe tactic of deploying IV Corps, which was geographically disadvantaged, contributed significantly to the military victory. Analysts consider Manekshaw and Aurora to have created a Blitzkrieg style of warfare which was even more rapid.

Defence analyst Robert M. Citino noted that the speed of the 1971 campaign had been impressive, but it had taken too much time to mobilise the units involved; its logistics had been rather crude; and it could have run into problems if there had been an air force in East Pakistan. Manekshaw said the following about the campaign: "To say that it was something like what Rommel did would be ridiculous".

General André Beaufre, a French military theorist, had been invited by Manekshaw to analyse the 1971 war. Beaufre had previously observed the Battles of Chumb and Basantar from the Pakistani side. Beaufre concluded that the Indian operations on the Eastern Front were maneuver warfare but the operations in and around the Shakargarh bulge had been too slow.

On 12 October 1966, while on a flight from Delhi to Kolkata, Manekshaw was a co passenger with William K. Hitchcock, the Consul General of the USA in Kolkata. On the flight, Manekshaw talked to Hitchcock about the need for more military involvement in Kashmir and criticized COAS Chaudhuri's decision to not deploy the 300,000 Indian soldiers of Eastern Command in the 1965 War due to fear of a Chinese offensive. Maneksaw also expressed his worries over India's dependence on Soviet defence equipment, and said he would have advocated for India taking a more American friendly stance on the Vietnam War if he had had more power.

Procurement
Manekshaw was an advocate for a strong domestic defence industrial base and procurement reforms, which he believed could shorten the long order and delivery cycles of the Indian Armed Forces. He was also a critic of defence equipment imports and over reliance on the Soviet Union and its successor state, Russia. During the 1971 War, Manekshaw managed to urgently procure equipment to achieve numerical superiority and raise new divisions. However, he could not make any lasting reforms to the procurement process.

Special operations
After being convinced by Brigadier Bhawani Singh on the need for special operations, Manekshaw approved the plans for the Chachro Raid, which the brigadier had drawn up himself. The raid resulted in the capture of 13000 km2 of Pakistani territory up to Umerkot in Sindh province, and is considered by analysts to be the most successful operation by an Indian special operations unit.

Counter insurgency
While responding to the insurgency in Mizoram in 1966, Manekshaw implemented the policy of merging small villages (termed spatialisation) as a counter insurgency tool. The intended effect was to prevent insurgents from hiding in sparsely populated villages, and to enable safer civilian and military operations. By forcing insurgents to operate out of uninhabited areas, they were denied access to food and supplies; the army also had to patrol a smaller area and did not have to engage in high casualty urban warfare as a result of the policy.

title: Sam Manekshaw


text: User talk:24.6.36.207

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

title: User talk:24.6.36.207


text: User talk:155.69.5.234

title: User talk:155.69.5.234


text:
Śródmieście, Warsaw

Śródmieście (, literally 'City centre') is the central district of Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. It encompasses the Old Town, the city's historic core, and is the centre of cultural, commercial and political life of the capital.

Geography
Located in the heart of Warsaw, it encompasses an area of approximately 15.57 km2. The district is characterized by its diverse landscape, which includes the Vistula River to the east, forming its natural border, and the historic Old Town at its core.

Śródmieście shares borders with four other districts: Żoliborz to the north, Wola to the west, Ochota to the south-west, and Mokotów to the south, making it a vital hub of urban activity in the capital city.

Subdivisions
Śródmieście is subdivided into nine municipal neighbourhoods, each governed by the neighbourhood council. The current subdivision had been established on 10 March 2016.

The district is also subdivided into areas of the City Information System. Such subdivision was established in 1996. Those are:
 * Muranów
 * New Town (Nowe Miasto)
 * North Downtown (Śródmieście Północne)
 * Old Town (Stare Miasto)
 * Powiśle
 * Solec
 * South Downtown (Śródmieście Południowe)
 * Ujazdów

Places of interest

 * Warsaw Old Town
 * Krasiński Palace
 * POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
 * Pawiak
 * Hale Mirowskie
 * Nożyk Synagogue
 * Presidential Palace
 * Zachęta National Gallery of Art
 * Saxon Garden
 * Grand Theatre
 * Palace of the Ministry of Revenues and Treasury
 * Palace of Culture and Science
 * Warszawa Centralna railway station
 * Mokotów Field
 * Łazienki Park
 * Ujazdów Park
 * Parliament of Poland
 * National Museum
 * Copernicus Science Centre
 * University of Warsaw Library
 * Stadion Miejski

Bridges

 * Gdańsk Bridge
 * Silesian–Dąbrowa Bridge
 * Holy Cross Bridge
 * Poniatowski Bridge
 * Łazienki Bridge

Streets and squares

 * Castle Square
 * Bank Square
 * Grzybowski Square
 * Iron-Gate Square
 * Konstytucji Square
 * Krasiński Square
 * Piłsudski Square
 * Theatre Square
 * Three Crosses Square
 * Warsaw Insurgents Square
 * Saviour Square

Education
The district is home to several prestigious educational institutions. Most notable among them are the University of Warsaw, Warsaw University of Technology, Chopin University of Music, Collegium Civitas, Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art, and the Academy of Fine Arts.

Schools include the Stefan Batory High School.

title: Śródmieście, Warsaw


text:
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title: Talk:End Hits


text:
Mine Safety and Health Administration

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is a large agency of the United States Department of Labor which administers the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) to enforce compliance with mandatory safety and health standards as a means to eliminate fatal accidents, to reduce the frequency and severity of nonfatal accidents, to minimize health hazards, and to promote improved safety and health conditions in the nation's mines. MSHA carries out the mandates of the Mine Act at all mining and mineral processing operations in the United States, regardless of size, number of employees, commodity mined, or method of extraction. David Zatezalo was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, and head of MSHA, on November 30, 2017. He served until January 20, 2021. Jeannette Galanais served as Acting Assistant Secretary by President Joe Biden on February 1, 2021 until Christopher Williamson took office on April 11, 2022.

MSHA is organized into several divisions. The Coal Mine Safety and Health division is divided into 12 districts covering coal mining in different portions of the United States. The Metal-Nonmetal Mine Safety and Health division covers six regions of the United States.

Early legislation
In 1891, Congress passed the first federal statute governing mine safety. The 1891 law was relatively modest legislation that applied only to mines in U.S. territories, and, among other things, established minimum ventilation requirements at underground coal mines and prohibited operators from employing children under 12 years of age.

In 1910, Congress established the Bureau of Mines as a new agency in the Department of the Interior. The Bureau was charged with the responsibility to conduct research and to reduce accidents in the coal mining industry, but was given no inspection authority until 1941, when Congress empowered federal inspectors to enter mines. In 1947, Congress authorized the formulation of the first code of federal regulations for mine safety.

The Federal Coal Mine Safety Act of 1952 provided for annual inspections in certain underground coal mines, and gave the Bureau limited enforcement authority, including power to issue violation notices and imminent danger withdrawal orders. The 1952 Act also authorized the assessment of civil penalties against mine operators for noncompliance with withdrawal orders or for refusing to give inspectors access to mine property, although no provision was made for monetary penalties for noncompliance with the safety provisions. In 1966, Congress extended coverage of the 1952 Coal Act to all underground coal mines.

The first federal statute directly regulating non-coal mines did not appear until the passage of the Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act of 1966. The 1966 Act provided for the promulgation of standards, many of which were advisory, and for inspections and investigations; however, its enforcement authority was minimal.

Coal Act
The Coal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969, generally referred to as the Coal Act, was more comprehensive and more stringent than any previous federal legislation governing the mining industry. The Coal Act included surface as well as underground coal mines within its scope, required two annual inspections of every surface coal mine and four at every underground coal mine, and dramatically increased federal enforcement powers in coal mines. The Coal Act also required monetary penalties for all violations, and established criminal penalties for knowing and willful violations. The safety standards for all coal mines were strengthened, and health standards were adopted. The Coal Act included specific procedures for the development of improved mandatory health and safety standards, and provided compensation for miners who were totally and permanently disabled by the progressive respiratory disease caused by the inhalation of fine coal dust pneumoconiosis or "black lung".

In 1973, the Secretary of the Interior, through administrative action, created the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration (MESA) as a new departmental agency separate from the Bureau of Mines. MESA assumed the safety and health enforcement functions formerly carried out by the Bureau to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest between the enforcement of mine safety and health standards and the Bureau's responsibilities for mineral resource development. (MESA was the predecessor organization to MSHA, prior to March 9, 1978.)

Mine Act and creation of MSHA
More recently, Congress passed the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, the legislation which currently governs MSHA's activities. The Mine Act amended the 1969 Coal Act in a number of significant ways, and consolidated all federal health and safety regulations of the mining industry, coal as well as non-coal mining, under a single statutory scheme. The Mine Act strengthened and expanded the rights of miners, and enhanced the protection of miners from retaliation for exercising such rights. Mining fatalities dropped sharply under the Mine Act from 272 in 1977 to 45 in 2014. The Mine Act also transferred responsibility for carrying out its mandates from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Labor, and created MSHA, which is a large independent agency that functions in business oversight.  Additionally, the Mine Act established the independent Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission to provide for independent review of the majority of MSHA's enforcement actions.

Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (MINER Act) in 2006. The MINER Act amended the Mine Act to require mine-specific emergency response plans in underground coal mines; added new regulations regarding mine rescue teams and sealing of abandoned areas; required prompt notification of mine accidents; and enhanced civil penalties.

Respirator Regulations
MSHA inherited regulatory power of respirators from the Bureau of Mines, which was shared with NIOSH until the passage of 42 CFR Part 84, which withdrew MSHA's involvement from the approval process of respirators.

Modern regulations
Modern mining regulation in the United States is carried out by MSHA and governed by The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 and MSHA's Program Policy Manual Volume III.

On January 27, 2012 as required under the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules which require covered SEC-reporting issuers that are "operator(s)" (or that has a subsidiary that is an "operator") of a "coal or other mine" to disclose certain mine safety violations, citations and orders and related matters for each coal or other mine that they operate. Covered mine "operator(s)" are also required to file a current report on Form 8-K to disclose the receipt of certain orders and notices from the U.S. Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) related to a coal or other mine that they operate.

Accidents and accident reporting
Mine operators are required by law to report all mining accidents within 15 minutes of when the operator knew or should have known about the accident.

Immediately reportable accidents and injuries are:
 * 1) A death of an individual at a mine;
 * 2) An injury to an individual at a mine which has a reasonable potential to cause death;
 * 3) An entrapment of an individual for more than thirty minutes;
 * 4) An unplanned inundation of a mine by a liquid or gas;
 * 5) An unplanned ignition or explosion of gas or dust;
 * 6) An unplanned mine fire not extinguished within 30 minutes of discovery;
 * 7) An unplanned ignition or explosion of a blasting agent or explosive;
 * 8) An unplanned roof fall at or above the anchorage zone in active workings where roof bolts are in use; or, an unplanned roof or rib fall in active workings that impairs ventilation or impedes passage;
 * 9) A coal or rock outburst that causes withdrawal of miners or which disrupts regular mining activity for more than one hour;
 * 10) An unstable condition at an impoundment, refuse pile, or culm bank which requires emergency action in order to prevent failure, or which causes individuals to evacuate an area; or, failure of an impoundment, refuse pile or culm bank;
 * 11) Damage to hoisting equipment in a shaft or slope which endangers an individual or which interferes with use of the equipment for more than thirty minutes; and
 * 12) An event at a mine which causes death or bodily injury to an individual not at the mine at the time the event occurs.

Statistical analyses performed by MSHA show that between 1990 and 2004, the industry cut the rate of injuries (a measure comparing the rate of incidents to overall number of employees or hours worked) by more than half and fatalities by two-thirds following three prior decades of steady improvement.

MSHA inspections
MSHA employs nearly one safety inspector for every four coal mines. Underground coal mines are thoroughly inspected at least four times annually by MSHA inspectors. In addition, miners can report violations, and request additional inspections. Miners with such concerns for their work safety cannot be penalized with any threat to the loss of employment.

Additionally, the Mine Safety and Health Act authorizes the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop recommendations for mine health standards for the Mine Safety and Health Administration; administer a medical surveillance program for miners, including chest X-rays to detect pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) in coal miners; conduct on-site investigations in mines; and test and certify personal protective equipment and hazard-measurement instruments.

title: Mine Safety and Health Administration


text:
Agnolo (given name)

Agnolo is an Italian masculine given name, an ancient Tuscan form of Angelo. Angiolo is another Tuscan variant of the same given name.

Agnolo may refer to:
 * Agnolo Aniello Fiore (15th century), Italian sculptor
 * Agnolo di Baccio d'Agnolo (16th century), Italian architect
 * Agnolo di Tura (14th century), Italian chronicler
 * Agnolo Firenzuola (c. 1493–1545), Italian poet
 * Agnolo Gaddi (c. 1350–1396), Italian painter
 * Agnolo Pandolfini (1360–1446), Renaissance humanist
 * Agnolo Poliziano (1454–1494), Italian poet

title: Agnolo (given name)


text:
Tau protein

The tau proteins (abbreviated from tubulin associated unit ) form a group of six highly soluble protein isoforms produced by alternative splicing from the gene MAPT (microtubule-associated protein tau). They have roles primarily in maintaining the stability of microtubules in axons and are abundant in the neurons of the central nervous system (CNS), where the cerebral cortex has the highest abundance. They are less common elsewhere but are also expressed at very low levels in CNS astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.

Pathologies and dementias of the nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are associated with tau proteins that have become hyperphosphorylated insoluble aggregates called neurofibrillary tangles. The tau proteins were identified in 1975 as heat-stable proteins essential for microtubule assembly, and since then they have been characterized as intrinsically disordered proteins.

Microtubule stabilization
Tau proteins are found more often in neurons than in non-neuronal cells in humans. One of tau's main functions is to modulate the stability of axonal microtubules.   Other nervous system microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) may perform similar functions, as suggested by tau knockout mice that did not show abnormalities in brain development – possibly because of compensation in tau deficiency by other MAPs.

Although tau is present in dendrites at low levels, where it is involved in postsynaptic scaffolding, it is active primarily in the distal portions of axons, where it provides microtubule stabilization but also flexibility as needed. Tau proteins interact with tubulin to stabilize microtubules and promote tubulin assembly into microtubules. Tau has two ways of controlling microtubule stability: isoforms and phosphorylation.

In addition to its microtubule-stabilizing function, Tau has also been found to recruit signaling proteins and to regulate microtubule-mediated axonal transport.

mRNA translation
Tau is a negative regulator of mRNA translation in Drosophila, mouse, and human brains, through its binding to ribosomes, which results in impaired ribosomal function, reduction of protein synthesis and altered synaptic function.  Tau interacts specifically with several ribosomal proteins, including the crucial regulator of translation rpS6.

Behavior
The primary non-cellular functions of tau is to negatively regulate long-term memory and to facilitate habituation (a form of non-associative learning), two higher and more integrated physiological functions. Since regulation of tau is critical for memory, this could explain the linkage between tauopathies and cognitive impairment.

In mice, while the reported tau knockout strains present without overt phenotype when young, when aged, they show some muscle weakness, hyperactivity, and impaired fear conditioning. However, neither spatial learning in mice, nor short-term memory (learning) in Drosophila seems to be affected by the absence of tau.

In addition, tau knockout mice have abnormal sleep-wake cycle, with increased wakefulness periods and decreased non-rapid eye movements (NREM) sleep time.

Other functions
Other typical functions of tau include cellular signalling, neuronal development, neuroprotection and apoptosis. Atypical, non-standard roles of tau are also under current investigation, such as its involvement in chromosome stability, its interaction with the cellular transcriptome, its interaction with other cytoskeletal or synaptic proteins, its involvement in myelination or in brain insulin signaling, its role in the exposure to chronic stress and in depression, etc.

Genetics
In humans, the MAPT gene for encoding tau protein is located on chromosome 17q21, containing 16 exons. The major tau protein in the human brain is encoded by 11 exons. Exons 2, 3 and 10 are alternatively spliced, which leads to the formation of six tau isoforms. In the human brain, tau proteins constitute a family of six isoforms with a range of 352–441 amino acids. Tau isoforms are different in having either zero, one, or two inserts of 29 amino acids at the N-terminal part (exons 2 and 3) and three or four repeat-regions at the C-terminal part (exon 10). Thus, the longest isoform in the CNS has four repeats (R1, R2, R3 and R4) and two inserts (441 amino acids total), while the shortest isoform has three repeats (R1, R3 and R4) and no insert (352 amino acids total).

The MAPT gene has two haplogroups, H1 and H2, in which the gene appears in inverted orientations. Haplogroup H2 is common only in Europe and in people with European ancestry. Haplogroup H1 appears to be associated with increased probability of certain dementias, such as Alzheimer's disease. The presence of both haplogroups in Europe means that recombination between inverted haplotypes can result in the lack of one of the functioning copies of the gene, resulting in congenital defects.

Structure
Six tau isoforms exist in human brain tissue, and they are distinguished by their number of binding domains. Three isoforms have three binding domains and the other three have four binding domains. The binding domains are located in the carboxy-terminus of the protein and are positively charged (allowing it to bind to the negatively charged microtubule). The isoforms with four binding domains are better at stabilizing microtubules than those with three binding domains. Tau is a phosphoprotein with 79 potential serine (Ser) and threonine (Thr) phosphorylation sites on the longest tau isoform. Phosphorylation has been reported on approximately 30 of these sites in normal tau proteins.

Phosphorylation of tau is regulated by a host of kinases, including PKN, a serine/threonine kinase. When PKN is activated, it phosphorylates tau, resulting in disruption of microtubule organization. Phosphorylation of tau is also developmentally regulated. For example, fetal tau is more highly phosphorylated in the embryonic CNS than adult tau. The degree of phosphorylation in all six isoforms decreases with age due to the activation of phosphatases. Like kinases, phosphatases too play a role in regulating the phosphorylation of tau. For example, PP2A and PP2B are both present in human brain tissue and have the ability to dephosphorylate Ser396. The binding of these phosphatases to tau affects tau's association with microtubules.

Phosphorylation of tau has also been suggested to be regulated by O-GlcNAc modification at various Ser and Thr residues.

Mechanism
The accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau in neurons is associated with neurofibrillary degeneration. The actual mechanism of how tau propagates from one cell to another is not well identified. Also, other mechanisms, including tau release and toxicity, are unclear. As tau aggregates, it replaces tubulin, which in turn enhances fibrilization of tau. Several propagation methods have been proposed that occur by synaptic contact such as synaptic cell adhesion proteins, neuronal activity and other synaptic and non-synaptic mechanisms. The mechanism of tau aggregation is still not completely elucidated, but several factors favor this process, including tau phosphorylation and zinc ions.

Release
Tau involves in uptake and release process, which is known as seeding. Uptake of tau protein mechanism requires the presence of heparan sulfate proteoglycans at the cell surface, which happen by macropinocytosis. On the other hand, tau release depends on neuronal activity. Many factors influence tau release, for example, type of isoforms or MAPT mutations that change the extracellular level of tau. According to Asai and his colleagues, the spreading of tau protein occurs from the entorhinal cortex to the hippocampal region in the early stages of the disease. They also suggested that microglia were also involved in the transport process, and their actual role is still unknown.

Toxicity
Tau causes toxic effects through its accumulation inside cells. Many enzymes are involved in toxicity mechanism such as PAR-1 kinase. This enzyme stimulates phosphorylation of serine 262 and 356, which in turn leads to activate other kinases (GSK-3 and CDK5) that cause disease-associated phosphoepitopes. The degree of toxicity is affected by different factors, such as the degree of microtubule binding. Toxicity could also happen by neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), which leads to cell death and cognitive decline.

Clinical significance
Hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein (tau inclusions, pTau) can result in the self-assembly of tangles of paired helical filaments and straight filaments, which are involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia and other tauopathies. All of the six tau isoforms are present in an often hyperphosphorylated state in paired helical filaments in the Alzheimer's disease brain. In other neurodegenerative diseases, the deposition of aggregates enriched in certain tau isoforms has been reported. When misfolded, this otherwise very soluble protein can form extremely insoluble aggregates that contribute to a number of neurodegenerative diseases. Tau protein has a direct effect on the breakdown of a living cell caused by tangles that form and block nerve synapses.

Gender-specific tau gene expression across different regions of the human brain has recently been implicated in gender differences in the manifestations and risk for tauopathies. Some aspects of how the disease functions also suggest that it has some similarities to prion proteins.

Tau hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease
The tau hypothesis states that excessive or abnormal phosphorylation of tau results in the transformation of normal adult tau into paired-helical-filament (PHF) tau and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). The stage of the disease determines NFTs' phosphorylation. In AD, at least 19 amino acids are phosphorylated; pre-NFT phosphorylation occurs at serine 199, 202 and 409, while intra-NFT phosphorylation happens at serine 396 and threonine 231. Through its isoforms and phosphorylation, tau protein interacts with tubulin to stabilize microtubule assembly. All of the six tau isoforms are present in an often hyperphosphorylated state in paired helical filaments (PHFs) in the AD brain.

Tau mutations have many consequences, including microtubule dysfunction and alteration of the expression level of tau isoforms. Mutations that alter function and isoform expression of tau lead to hyperphosphorylation. The process of tau aggregation in the absence of mutations is not known but might result from increased phosphorylation, protease action or exposure to polyanions, such as glycosaminoglycans. Hyperphosphorylated tau disassembles microtubules and sequesters normal tau, MAPT 1 (microtubule associated protein tau 1), MAPT 2 and ubiquitin into tangles of PHFs. This insoluble structure damages cytoplasmic functions and interferes with axonal transport, which can lead to cell death.

Hyperphosphorylated forms of tau protein are the main component of PHFs of NFTs in the brain of AD patients. It has been well demonstrated that regions of tau six-residue segments, namely PHF6 (VQIVYK) and PHF6* (VQIINK), can form tau PHF aggregation in AD. Apart from the PHF6, some other residue sites like Ser285, Ser289, Ser293, Ser305 and Tyr310, located near the C-terminal of the PHF6 sequences, play key roles in the phosphorylation of tau. Hyperphosphorylated tau differs in its sensitivity and its kinase as well as alkaline phosphatase activity and is, along with beta-amyloid, a component of the pathologic lesion seen in Alzheimer disease. A recent hypothesis identifies the decrease of reelin signaling as the primary change in Alzheimer's disease that leads to the hyperphosphorylation of tau via a decrease in GSK3β inhibition.

A68 is a name sometimes given (mostly in older publications) to the hyperphosphorylated form of tau protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

In 2020, researchers from two groups published studies indicating that an immunoassay blood test for the p-tau-217 form of the protein could diagnose Alzheimer's up to decades before dementia symptoms were evident.

Traumatic brain injury
Repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a central component of contact sports, especially American football, and the concussive force of military blasts. It can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition characterized by fibrillar tangles of hyperphosphorylated tau. After severe traumatic brain injury, high levels of tau protein in extracellular fluid in the brain are linked to poor outcomes.

Prion-like propagation hypothesis
The term "prion-like" is often used to describe several aspects of tau pathology in various tauopathies, like Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. True prions are defined by their ability to induce misfolding of native proteins to perpetuate the pathology. True prions, like PRNP, are also infectious with the capability to cross species. Since tau has yet to be proven to be infectious it is not considered to be a true prion but instead a "prion-like" protein. Much like true prions, pathological tau aggregates have been shown to have the capacity to induce misfolding of native tau protein. Both misfolding competent and non-misfolding competent species of tau aggregates have been reported, indicating a highly specific mechanism.

Interactions
Tau protein has been shown to interact with:
 * Alpha-synuclein,
 * FYN,
 * Proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Src
 * S100B, and
 * YWHAZ.

title: Tau protein


text:
Minerals Management Service

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) was an agency of the United States Department of the Interior that managed the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf (OCS).

Due to perceived conflict of interest and poor regulatory oversight following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Inspector General investigations, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a secretarial order on May 19, 2010, splitting MMS into three new federal agencies: the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue. MMS was temporarily renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) during this reorganization before being formally dissolved on October 1, 2011.

Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Agency received most of its revenue from leasing federal lands and waters to oil and natural gas companies with a profit margin of 98%. It was among the top five revenue sources to the federal government, the IRS being number one. As the MMS (before transition to BOEMRE), the Agency's signature feature according to an informational trifold was that it had "become our Nation's leader in offshore energy development and the collection of royalties on behalf of the American Public." With respect to enforcement of regulations and safety, this same publication indicated that the "MMS also funds advanced scientific studies and enforces the highest safety and environmental standards." The Agency's mission statement was put more formally in its 2010 Budget Proposal:

"MMS's mission is to manage the energy and mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf and Federal and American Indian mineral revenues to enhance public and trust benefits, promote responsible use, and realize fair value."

History
The Minerals Management Service was created on January 19, 1982. In January 1983, Congress passed the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act with the stated purpose:

"To ensure that all oil and gas originated on the public lands and on the Outer Continental Shelf are properly accounted for under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and for other purposes."

The Secretary of the Interior at the time, James G. Watt, designated MMS as the administrative agency responsible for execution of activities under the Act.

With the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, MMS was given authority to develop renewable energy projects, such as wave, wind and current energy, on the Outer Continental Shelf. As of 2010, the agency was composed of two operating units, the MRM and OEMM. The agency's offshore renewable energy program included development of renewable energy, such as wind, wave, and solar.
 * Offshore Energy and Minerals Management (OEMM) – Under the guidance of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the OEMM managed energy and mineral development in over 1.71 billion offshore acres of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and annually disburses to the U.S. Treasury expected of $5 billion in minerals revenue in 2010.
 * Minerals Revenue Management (MRM) – Through the MRM program, the agency collected, accounted for, and disbursed mineral revenues from federal and American Indian leases.

Since its inception in 1982 through FY2008, the agency had disbursed approximately $200 billion to federal, state, and American Indian accounts.

On June 21, 2010, the Minerals Management Service was renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and reorganized.

Operations
As of 2009, the Agency employed about 1,600 people, which was proposed to grow by less than one hundred in 2010.

Organization
The BOEMRE was reorganized in May 2010 under the direction of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The bureau is organized into these three newly created agencies:

 * Bureau of Ocean Energy Management – Responsible for leasing areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for conventional and renewable energy resources.
 * Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement – Responsible for ensuring comprehensive oversight, safety, and environmental protection in all offshore energy activities.
 * Office of Natural Resources Revenue – Responsible for royalty and revenue management, including collection and distribution of revenue, auditing and compliance, and asset management.

Criticism and controversies
Since the inception of the MMS, and in particular since the 1990s, the Agency has been embroiled or implicated in numerous scandals. For example, in 1990 MMS employees were linked to prostitution, and in 2008 the Department of Interior's Inspector General reported that MMS employees had participated in drug use and sexual activity with employees from the very energy firms they were to be regulating.

Collection of oil and gas royalties
From the 1950s to at least 2002, drilling for oil and gas on federal lands and waters produced the second largest source of revenue for the federal government other than taxes. The Minerals Revenue Management (MRM) division of MMS was responsible for managing all royalties associated with both onshore and offshore oil and gas production from federal mineral leases. In 1997, in light of evidence that industry was getting around royalty regulations and underpaying royalties to the tune of billions of dollars, MMS proposed a more stringent rule to collect royalty payments in value (RIV), meaning in the form of cash payments from companies producing from federal leases. In response to that rule-making, industry proposed an alternative—"royalty-in-kind" (RIK) meaning in the form of actual oil or gas production. In fact, the industry opposed cash payments (RIV) and planned legal challenges to government efforts to establish regulations for fair market-based royalty payments. A pilot test of the RIK concept was conducted. The Bush administration allowed the pilot to expand to a full program, with industry support, even though the bill authorizing the program failed to pass in Congress. In FY2008, the RIK program accounted for more than 50% of the Agency's revenue collections. When MRM collected royalties-in-kind, the oil or gas received from producers was offered for sale by the U.S. Government on the open market and the proceeds from these sales were taken as revenues. The RIK program within MRM was responsible for managing these in-kind sales.

In 2003, the General Accounting Office (GAO) noted that the MMS had failed to develop "clear strategic objectives linked to statutory requirements nor collected the necessary information to effectively monitor and evaluate the Royalty-in-Kind Program". From 2003 to 2008, the GAO consistently challenged the legitimacy of the statistics published by the MMS that it used to support its claims that the RIK program was a success and justify its expansion. Deficits in accounting practices, policies and procedures, and information systems used by the MMS led to concerns that the industry was significantly underpaying on their royalty obligations. Computer systems in use by the Agency were considered to be sufficiently inadequate that a failure to report revenue or provide RIK by an industry member could not be reliably detected. For instance, the GAO estimated that underpayments amounted to ~$160 million USD in 2006. The GAO also disputed the practice of tracking oil and gas RIK deliveries on a monthly rather than daily basis, a practice used by the MMS and supported by the Department of the Interior, but potentially prone to abuse by producers. Other contributing factors to the placing the accuracy of revenue streams at risk were insufficiently trained personnel and insufficient numbers of personnel working in the RIK program and a lack of standard reporting method by industry members, leading to manual rather than computer-based processing of more than half of the data required for RIK data inputs.

Citing its scandals and the persistent incapacity of the RIK program to fulfill its statutory obligations, Interior Secretary Salazar announced in September 2009 that the RIK program would be shut down. Due to existing lease contracts with RIK provisions, the program as of 2010 is still winding down. On October 7, 2009, the U.S. House Oversight Committee reported the loss of billions in revenue resulting from MMS mismanagement and cozy relationships with industry officials. According to Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, there may be a conflict of interest for the Minerals Management Service to collect revenue and also oversee safety.

Gifts, gratuities and the revolving door
In September 2008, reports by the Inspector General of the Interior Department, Earl E. Devaney, were released that implicated over a dozen officials of the MMS of unethical and criminal conduct in the performance of their duties. The investigation found MMS employees had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sex with energy company representatives. MMS staff had also accepted gifts and free holidays amid "a culture of ethical failure", according to the investigation. The New York Times's summary states the investigation revealed "a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration's watch."

A May 2010 inspector general investigation revealed that MMS regulators in the Gulf region had allowed industry officials to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency. MMS staff had routinely accepted meals, tickets to sporting events, and gifts from oil companies. Staffers also used government computers to view pornography. In 2009 the regional supervisor of the Gulf region for MMS pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year's probation in federal court for lying about receiving gifts from an offshore drilling contractor. "This deeply disturbing report is further evidence of the cozy relationship between MMS and the oil and gas industry," Salazar said.

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) alleges that MMS has suffered from a systemic revolving door problem between the Department of Interior and the oil and gas industries. For example, thirteen months after departing as MMS director, Bush appointee Randall Luthi became president of the National Oceans Industries Association (NOIA) whose mission is "to secure reliable access and a favorable regulatory and economic environment for the companies that develop the nation's valuable offshore energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner." Luthi succeeded Tom Fry, who was MMS director under the Clinton administration. Luthi and Fry represented precisely the industries their agency was tasked with being a watchdog over. Lower level administrators influencing MMS have also gone on to work for the companies they once regulated: In addition, Jimmy Mayberry served as Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Minerals Revenue Management (MRM), managed by MMS, from 2000 to January 2003. After he left, he created an energy consulting company that was awarded an MMS contract via a rigged bid. He was convicted along with a former MMS coworker Milton Dial who also came to work at the company. Both were found guilty of felony violation of conflict of interest law.

Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and restructuring
On May 11, 2010, in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that MMS would be restructured so that the safety and environmental functions are carried out by a unit with full independence from MMS in order to ensure that federal inspectors will have more tools, resources, and greater authority to enforce laws and regulations that apply to oil and gas companies operating on the Outer Continental Shelf. Another outcome of the spill was the retirement of the associate director for offshore energy and minerals management at the time of the spill, Chris Oynes.

MMS's regulatory decisions contributing to the 2010 oil spill included, in negligence, the decision that an acoustically controlled shut-off valve (BOP) would not be required as a last resort against underwater spills at the site, MMS's failure to suggest other "fail-safe" mechanisms after a 2004 report raised questions about the reliability of the electrical remote-control devices., and the fact that MMS gave permission to dozens of oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that assess threats to endangered species and to assess the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.

On May 19, 2010 Salazar announced that MMS will be broken up into three separate divisions, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, which will separately oversee energy leasing, safety enforcement, and revenue collection.

S. Elizabeth (Liz) Birnbaum served as the Director of the then named Minerals Management Service from July 15, 2009 to her resignation on May 27, 2010 amidst the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. On June 15, 2010 President Obama named Michael R. Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor and inspector general for the Justice Department, to head up efforts to restructure BOEMRE. Bob Abbey, then director of the Bureau of Land Management, took over as Acting Director of BOEMRE until his replacement could be confirmed. Amidst efforts to reorganize the beleaguered agency, on June 21, 2010, Bromwich was sworn in as BOEMRE's new director, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a Secretarial Order that renamed the Minerals Management Service the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Almost a year later, William K. Reilly, who co-chaired the commission charged with investigating the Horizon blowout, was quoted as saying "they changed the name, but all the people are the same" and "it's embarrassing" in reference to the current situation.

title: Minerals Management Service


text:
Albert One

Albert One is an artificial intelligence chatbot created by Robby Garner and designed to mimic the way humans make conversations using a multi-faceted approach in natural language programming.

History
In both 1998 and 1999, Albert One won the Loebner Prize Contest, a competition between chatterbots. Some parts of Albert were deployed on the internet beginning in 1995, to gather information about what kinds of things people would say to a chatterbot. Another element of Albert One involved the building of a large database of human statements, and associated replies. This portion of the project was tested at the 1994-1997 Loebner Prize contests.

Albert was the first of Robby Garner's multifaceted bots. The Albert One system was composed of several subsystems. Among those were a version of Eliza, the therapist, Elivs, another Eliza-like bot, and several other helper applications working together in a hierarchical arrangement. As a continuation of the stimulus-response library, various other database queries and assertions were tested to arrive at each of Albert's responses. Robby went on to develop networked examples of this kind of hierarchical "glue" at The Turing Hub.

title: Albert One


text:
North Ealing tube station

North Ealing is a London Underground station on the Uxbridge branch of the Piccadilly line between Ealing Common and Park Royal. The station is located on Station Road, a short distance from the junction of Queen's Drive and Hanger Lane (A406, North Circular Road). It is in Travelcard Zone 3. West Acton station on the Central line is located about 550 metres to the east at the other end of Queen's Drive.

Despite its name, the station is geographically located to the east of Ealing Broadway; the areas of Gurnell, Pitshanger, Montpelier and Hanger Hill/Hanger Lane are more geographically suited to the term "North Ealing". There is even a primary school named North Ealing within Pitshanger.

History
North Ealing station was opened on 23 June 1903 by the District Railway (DR, now the District line) on its new extension from north of Ealing Common to Park Royal & Twyford Abbey (closed and replaced by Park Royal in 1931), where the Royal Agricultural Society's Park Royal show grounds had been recently opened. The line was opened fully to South Harrow on 28 June 1903.

This new extension was, together with the existing tracks between Ealing Common and Acton Town, the first section of the Underground's surface lines to be electrified and operate electric instead of steam trains. The deep-level tube lines open at that time (City & South London Railway, Waterloo & City Railway and Central London Railway) had been electrically powered from the start.

North Ealing was the only station on the South Harrow branch not rebuilt in the 1930s to the "Holden" style for the start of the Piccadilly Line service. As a result, it retains its slightly rural air. A 1930s railway sub-station is built alongside the Eastbound platform and is typical of the LPTB brick and concrete architectural style of the period.

On 4 July 1932 the Piccadilly line was extended to run west of its original terminus at Hammersmith sharing the route with the District line to Ealing Common. From Ealing Common to South Harrow, the District line was replaced by the Piccadilly line and, from this date, District line trains west from Ealing Common ran to Ealing Broadway only.

In 2018, it was announced that the station would gain step free access by 2022, as part of a £200M investment to increase the number of accessible stations on the Tube.

Services
The peak time service in trains per hour (tph) is:
 * 12tph to Cockfosters (Eastbound)
 * 6tph to Rayners Lane (Westbound)
 * 6tph to Uxbridge via Rayners Lane (Westbound)

The off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is:
 * 6tph to Cockfosters (Eastbound)
 * 3tph to Rayners Lane (Westbound)
 * 3tph to Uxbridge via Rayners Lane (Westbound)

Connections
London Buses routes 112, 483 and night route N83 serve the station.

title: North Ealing tube station


text:
National Agricultural Statistics Service

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is the statistical branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System. NASS has 12 regional offices throughout the United States and Puerto Rico and a headquarters unit in Washington, D.C. NASS conducts hundreds of surveys and issues nearly 500 national reports each year on issues including agricultural production, economics, demographics and the environment. NASS also conducts the United States Census of Agriculture every five years.

History
During the Civil War, USDA collected and distributed crop and livestock statistics to help farmers assess the value of the goods they produced. At that time, commodity buyers usually had more current and detailed market information than did farmers, a circumstance that often prevented farmers from getting a fair price for their goods. Producers in today's marketplace would be similarly handicapped were it not for the information provided by NASS.

The creation of USDA's Crop Reporting Board in 1905 (now called the Agricultural Statistics Board) was another landmark in the development of a nationwide statistical service for agriculture. A USDA reorganization in 1961 led to the creation of the Statistical Reporting Service, known today as National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

The 1997 Appropriations Act shifted the responsibility of conducting the Census of Agriculture from U.S. Census Bureau to USDA. Since then the census has been conducted every five years by NASS. Results from the 2012 Census of Agriculture were released on May 2, 2014.

Surveys and reports
The primary sources of information for NASS reports are farmers, ranchers, livestock feeders, slaughterhouse managers, grain elevator operators and other agribusinesses. NASS relies on these survey respondents to voluntarily supply data for most reports.

NASS surveys are conducted in a variety of ways, including mail surveys, telephone interviews, online response, face-to-face interviews and field observations. Once the information is gathered and interpreted, NASS issues estimates and forecasts for crops and livestock and publishes reports on a variety of topics including production and supplies of food and fiber, prices paid and received by farmers, farm labor and wages, farm income and finances, and agricultural chemical use. NASS's field offices publish local data about many of the same topics.

Importance of NASS data
Producers, farm organizations, agribusinesses, lawmakers and government agencies all rely on the information produced by NASS. For instance:
 * Statistical information on acreage, production, stocks, prices and value is essential for the smooth operation of federal farm programs.
 * Agricultural data are indispensable for planning and administering related federal and state programs in such areas as consumer protection, conservation and environmental quality, trade, education and recreation.
 * NASS data helps to ensure an orderly flow of goods and services among agriculture's producing, processing and marketing sectors.
 * Reliable, timely and detailed crop and livestock statistics help to maintain a stable economic climate and minimize the uncertainties and risks associated with the production, marketing and distribution of commodities.
 * Farmers and ranchers rely on NASS reports in making various production and marketing decisions, such as how much grain to plant, how much livestock to raise and when to buy or sell agricultural commodities.
 * NASS estimates and forecasts are used by the transportation sector, warehouse and storage companies, banks and other lending institutions, commodity traders and food processors.
 * The businesses that provide farmers with seeds, equipment, chemicals and other goods and services use the data when planning their marketing strategies.
 * Analysts transform the statistics into projections of coming trends, interpretations of the trends' economic implications and evaluations of alternative courses of action for producers, agribusinesses and policymakers.
 * Crop reports relating to acreage, yields, and production.


text:
National Center for Education Statistics

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States. It also conducts international comparisons of education statistics and provides leadership in developing and promoting the use of standardized terminology and definitions for the collection of those statistics. NCES is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System.

History
The functions of NCES have existed in some form since 1867, when Congress passed legislation providing "That there shall be established at the City of Washington, a department of education, for the purpose of collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems, and methods of teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country."

Organizational structure
The National Center for Education Statistics fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.

The structure and activities of the center consist of the following divisions.

Office of the Commissioner
The Office of the Commissioner sets policy and standards for the center and oversees its operation, thus ensuring that statistical quality and confidentiality are maintained.

Administrative Data Division (ADD)
Administrative Data Division (ADD) oversees planning, design, operations, statistical analysis, reporting, and dissemination of administrative records data at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education levels, and on libraries.

Assessment Division (AD)
Assessment Division (AD) creates, designs, develops, implements and reports on the National Assessment of Educational Progress at the national level and coordinates assessment and related data collection activities with the states. The staff also conducts a variety of other related education assessment studies.

Sample Surveys Division (SSD)
Sample Surveys Division (SSD) oversees planning design, operations, statistical analysis reporting, and dissemination of data from sample surveys at all levels of education, including early childhood and adult, and international data, such as High School and Beyond (HS&B). Surveys on vocational and technical education are also included in this division.

Annual Reports and Information Staff (ARIS)
The Annual Reports and Information Staff (ARIS) prepares analyses that synthesize data on a variety of education topics, and disseminates these analyses through indicator reports, tabular reports, and web tools.

Current publications by ARIS include:
 * Report on the Condition of Education, annual report mandated by the U.S. Congress, produced annually, since 1975, and presented to Congress and The White House.
 *  Digest of Education Statistics, a compilation of statistical tables covering all levels of education
 * Projections of Education Statistics, a report which provides projections for key education statistics
 * Indicators of School Crime and Safety, a report that covers topics on crime and safety in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education
 * Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups, a report that profiles current conditions and recent trends in the education of students by racial and ethnic group
 * Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States, an annual report that provides trends in high school dropout and completion rates

Assessment programs

 * The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide assessment of achievement among primary and secondary students
 * The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), a large study performed roughly every decade since 1992
 * The International Assessments Activities (IAA) coordinates the participation of U.S. adults, students, teachers, principals, and schools in various international studies

Early childhood studies

 * The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS)
 * Components of the National Household Education Survey (NHES)

Elementary and secondary studies

 * The Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study (BTLS), a study of a cohort of beginning public school teachers initially interviewed as part of the 2007–08 Schools and Staffing Survey
 * The Common Core of Data which annually collects fiscal and non-fiscal data about all public schools, public school districts and state education agencies in the United States
 * The School Survey on Crime and Safety
 * The National Longitudinal Study for the Class of 1972 (NLS:72)
 * The High School & Beyond Study (HSB), which interviewed high school sophomore and senior cohorts beginning in 1980 in an effort to understand trends in educational attainment, vocation, and labor market choices
 * The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1998 (NELS:88), which began with an 8th grade cohort in 1988, providing trend data about critical transitions experienced by young people as they develop, attend school, and embark on their careers
 * The Middle Grades Longitudinal Study of 2017–18 (MGLS:2017), the first longitudinal study of a nationally representative cohort of grade 6 students in the United States
 * The Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), a longitudinal survey that monitors the transitions of a national sample of tenth graders in 2002 to postsecondary education and the world of work
 * The High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS), which follows a cohort of more than 25,000 9th graders in 2009 through their high school, postsecondary, and early career experiences, focusing on college decision-making and on math learning based on a new algebra assessment
 * The Private School Universe Survey (PSS), which builds an accurate and complete list of private schools to serve as a sampling frame for NCES sample surveys of private schools and to report data on the total number of private schools, teachers, and students in the survey universe
 * Components of the National Household Education Survey (NHES)
 * The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), which collects extensive data on American public and private elementary and secondary schools including teachers, principals, schools, school districts, and library media centers. SASS has been replaced by the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS).

Postsecondary studies

 * The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which collects aggregate institutional data on more than 7,000 postsecondary institutions that participate in Title IV federal student aid programs
 * The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), a nationally representative cross-sectional study of how students and families pay for college
 * The Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS), a nationally representative longitudinal study that follows first-time, beginning students for six years after their entry to college and provides information about students' persistence and attainment outcomes
 * The Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B), a nationally representative longitudinal study that follows baccalaureate graduates for up to ten years, collecting information on their early labor market experiences and post-baccalaureate training and education