text: Gujarat, like the other states of India, follows parliamentary system of government. The government is responsible for the Legislative Assembly and stays in power only if it has the support of a majority of its members. Elections take place on a first-past-the-post basis: the candidate with the most votes wins the seat regardless of an absolute majority. Every citizen of the state who is 18 and above is eligible to vote. The respective governors of the state then invite the leader of the largest party or coalition to form the government. The Constitution of India states that the term of Legislative Assemblies is five years. As is common in most other first-past-the-post electoral systems, the state's politics are dominated by two parties – the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).


title: 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election

text: The term of the prior Gujarat Legislative Assembly ended on 22 January 2018. The previous assembly election, held in 2012, resulted in BJP gaining a majority of seats and Narendra Modi becoming the chief minister. After the 2014 General Elections, Modi became the prime minister of the country and Anandiben Patel was appointed the chief minister of Gujarat. After the Patidar agitations, Dalit protests and claims of poor governance, she was replaced by Vijay Rupani as the chief minister by the party.


text: VVPAT-fitted EVMs were used in the entire Gujarat state at 50,128 polling stations in the 2017 elections, which was the first time that the entire state saw the implementation of VVPAT. VVPAT slips were counted in a polling station in each of Gujarat's 182 constituencies. There were 43.3 million registered voters in Gujarat as of September 25, 2017.


text: Other Backward Castes, excluding Muslim OBCs, comprised 48% of the total population of Gujarat. 147 communities were considered to be OBCs at the time of the election. Scheduled tribes (primarily Adivasis) comprised 15.5% of the population, while scheduled castes (Dalits) totalled 7%. Muslims of various castes constituted 9.7% of the population. Forward castes and others made up the remainder.


text: The votes were counted on 18 December 2017. Over 1.9% of all voters in the election specified the None of the Above (NOTA) option, which amounted to more than 500,000 votes.


text: In March 2020, five Congress MLAs from Gujarat resigned, bringing its tally down to 68. Three more resigned in June 2020, making it 65. The BJP subsequently won all eight seats in November by-elections with absolute majorities of the vote.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. It is based on the life of former Test, ODI and T20I captain of the Indian national cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The film stars the late Sushant Singh Rajput as MS Dhoni, along with Disha Patani, Kiara Advani, and Anupam Kher. The film chronicles the life of Dhoni from a young age through a series of life events.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The idea of the biopic was put forward by Dhoni's manager, Arun Pandey, after encountering an incident at an airport after the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final. Development began two years later, with the consent of Dhoni. Neeraj Pandey was later approached to helm the film while he was working on "Baby". Pandey recruited a number of people for researching into Dhoni's background and his life events. Dhoni eventually became a consultant on the film.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The film was released on 30 September 2016 by Fox Star Studios and received the widest release ever for a Bollywood film across 61 countries. In addition to being released in Hindi language, it was also dubbed in Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi languages, although the Marathi release was later cancelled due to opposition. Upon release, the film became a critical and commercial success. It is currently the fifth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2016 in India with .


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: In the pre-credits sequence there is a scene of the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final. MS Dhoni, India's captain, walks out to bat after Virat Kohli's wicket.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The film begins in Ranchi, 7 July 1981. At the hospital maternity unit, Paan Singh Dhoni is confused whether he has got a girl or boy. He later names his baby boy Mahendra 'Mahi' Singh Dhoni. Paan Singh is a pump operator who waters the practice ground. Fourteen years later, Mahi is spotted by a cricket coach while goalkeeping in a football game. He invites him to try out for the school cricket team as a wicketkeeper and selects him after being impressed. Mahi improves his batting and becomes a regular member of the team.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Three years later, a grown up Mahi helps win an inter-school cricket match. After achieving much fame, Mahi is selected for the Ranji Trophy but his draft notice is held up due to which he is late in reaching Kolkata despite his friends' help. But Mahi does not give up and, to please his father, he joins the Kharagpur Station as a ticket collector. Years later, Mahi's sister Jayanti is married to his friend Gautam Gupta.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: After some time, Mahi is depressed with his job. With the insistence of his manager, Mahi decides to play cricket alongside his work, and after his day-shifts he goes to practice cricket. He participates in different tournaments and as a result he gets selected for the Railways. After a good performance, he tries-out for the India national under-19 cricket team selections. Bihar loses to Punjab where Yuvraj Singh scores 301 and Mahi does not succeed though he is selected for the Duleep Trophy.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Mahi leaves his job and admits to his father that cricket is his only ambition and he wants to become a professional cricketer. He works hard and is selected in the national team and makes his debut. He meets and befriends Priyanka Jha, an office consultant, and scores a century after meeting her. She buys a watch for him as a Valentine's Day gift but dies in a truck accident on her way. Mahi again goes into depression and has bad form in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. As captain of the national side, he wins the T-20 World Cup, and leads India to the number one ranking in Test matches.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: In 2010, Mahi arrives at a hotel. Sakshi Singh Rawat, a hotel official fails to recognize him and later apologizes to him. They soon start dating and Mahi eventually proposes marriage to her after she mentions buying him a Valentine's Day's gift which he refuses. They marry and Mahi begins training for the 2011 World Cup. He eventually develops the team with new players. The film returns to the final where Mahi eases the pressure with a crucial innings. With 4 runs required, Mahi hits a six and India wins the final. His family, friends and coaches watching the match cry happy tears.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Development of a Dhoni biopic began after the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final and the discussion about the idea went on over the following years but remained dormant. Then, after a few years, Dhoni was at an airport when a child approached him and asked him a question on motivation. Dhoni sat down with the young boy and spent 5 minutes answering the question. His manager, Arun Pandey, asked why he spent that much time and Dhoni replied how his answer was pivotal in benefiting and motivating the boy. This incident then prompted Pandey to make a film about him saying [to Dhoni] that his story has the power to motivate millions of children like him. After the idea coalesced, Pandey began to convince Dhoni himself in order to adapt his life into a full-length feature film. When he was first approached on the idea of the adaptation, he became a little worried and questioned the need for it. But after being convinced by his peers, all he said was, "Don't misrepresent me. Show me as I am." It took Dhoni two years to finally agree. According to the "International Business Times", the film carried a production budget of around .


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Pandey was attracted to Dhoni's story not because of his successful cricket career, saying that "it's foolish to chase MS Dhoni's life story only because it's about cricket," but rather to instances and factors that made him the person he is today. Dhoni wasn't involved in writing the script. Pandey recruited a team of researchers who collated data and background information while the director was busy directing "Baby" (2015). The filmmakers decided that they would only green-light the film once they had a convincing story to tell after the research. Pandey met with Dhoni numerous times over a span of eight months and by the eighth month of their meetings, in 2014, the main arc of the story began to form. Their first meeting took place in Delhi during a cricket match. During their sporadic meetings, Pandey chose not to record and tape their conversations which prompted Dhoni to open up more.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Arun Pandey says 98% of the content in the film is reality. The team undertook two years of research on the various incidents and how they took place. Pandey says "such authenticity would be hard to find even in Hollywood." Pandey revealed several prominent aspects of Dhoni's life that were hidden before including the fact that Dhoni initially disdained cricket and had a predilection for football instead, his signature "helicopter shot" was taught to him by his friend Santosh Lal, he likes women who don't recognise him, he and Yuvraj Singh had close ties even before their respective stardom and it was Dhoni who ousted Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid from the team since he wanted to build a young team for the 2011 World Cup with better fielders and he wasn't too happy with the 'fitness' levels of the aforementioned cricketers.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Pandey decided to end the film with the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final since he felt "the arc of the story had a natural high at the 2011 World Cup win." He knew that they were chronicling almost 30 years of a sportsman's life "in a highly compressed manner" and said that had he extended the script to his sudden retirement during an ongoing series, the run time of the film would shoot up to six hours.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Neeraj Pandey was in the midst of shooting "Baby" (2015) when Arun Pandey, the manager of Dhoni, offered him an opportunity of making a biopic based on MS Dhoni. However, Pandey was sceptical and didn't wish to tackle such a subject until he met Dhoni himself. It was only after meeting Dhoni personally – during the second schedule of "Baby" – that he was convinced to helm the film. Although, to him, he treated the project not as a biopic, but more as an inspiring story. Pandey admits that he is not a fan of Dhoni and doesn't feel guilty about it. But he does have a predilection for cricket and other renowned cricketers like AB de Villiers and Sachin Tendulkar. He explained how not being a fan helped him direct the movie impartially, "I think if you are fan, as a director it would be difficult to be objective and impartial. A fan would only see positives. Even negatives will look like positives for him. So not being a fan helped me direct the movie impartially." It is the director's first biopic film.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Every question that came from the director or any member of the team working on the script was directly answered by Dhoni. He would clear any doubts of the director and Rajput. However, he did not want the film to serve as a whitewash of his life, "One thing I told (Neeraj) Pandey is that this movie should not be to glorify me. It's about the journey of a professional sportsperson and that's what it should depict."


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Director Pandey, who had not seen any of Sushant Singh Rajput's films, followed his intuition when it came to casting him. Akshay Kumar wanted to play the lead role and wanted Rajput to play the younger MS Dhoni but Rajput was always the director's first choice given how both Dhoni and Rajput hail from the same part of India, which made it easy for him to get the dialect right and the fact he has a predilection for sports like Dhoni. When he met Rajput and chatted with him for 15 minutes, he knew that the accent, the setting and the milieu they needed to capture would not be a problem. Rajput admits that he is a fan of Dhoni, and describes himself as an "ardent" cricket fan. Rajput's sister is a professional cricketer who once made it to the women's national team, while he himself wasn't very good at the sport no matter how hard he tried, even failing to get selected for the school team.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: He found it difficult to get Dhoni's mannerisms right. He said that he did not pretend to be Dhoni, but actually felt like the cricketer while essaying the title role. In order to prepare for his role, he had to go through an exhaustive prolonged training for a period of 18 months before shooting began and watched his videos for hours, to a point that he subconsciously started picking up some of his traits. For instance, in order to grasp Dhoni's trademark "Helicopter shot," the team would carefully analyse it and fix the bowling machine into one spot and then play the same shot at least 200 to 300 times a day for a week to a point that it came naturally to him. He also met Dhoni thrice before filming commenced. Former wicketkeeper Kiran More personally coached Rajput for thirteen months, including wicket-keeping and batting before he started learning Dhoni's body language. He practiced for four hours, starting at 6:00 every morning. Rajput described More as a "tough taskmaster," who treated him like a professional cricketer rather than an actor. Dhoni's batting style was scientifically analysed, learnt and practised and an analyst was called on board for this. Training sessions were recorded and compared with the cricketer's real game. It took a further six months for Rajput to feel confident that he looked and played like Dhoni.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The film was shot mainly in authentic and real-life locations where Dhoni spent much of his childhood and teenage years, with Pandey saying that 95% of the locations in the film were authentic. In an effort to stay true to the crux of the biopic, Neeraj also shot scenes from the film in Dhoni's real home in Ranchi, Jharkhand where his parents and brother Narendra currently live. Shooting also took place at Kharagpur railway station where Dhoni once worked as a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE), his old school, Jawahar Vidya Mandir and at the quarter number 142 of Mecon Limited he shared with his four roommates while studying engineering. The filmmakers were also shown his former social hangout as well as introduced to the food he liked eating whilst growing up. Dhoni's real school teacher was cast in the film.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Rajput learned Dhoni's signature 'helicopter' shot by the end of the first day, but suffered a hairline fracture and had to leave for two weeks.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: "M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story" received the widest release for a Bollywood film receiving a day-and-date release both in India and internationally in a total of 61 countries across approximately 4,500 screens worldwide on the week ending 2 October 2016.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: However, the film was not released in Pakistan due to problems following the 2016 Uri attack. Sabina Islam, media and marketing manager of the distributor IMGC Global Entertainment in Pakistan told "The Express Tribune", "We wouldn't want to release anything that can aggravate the current situation of the two countries. Dhoni is India's hero so it's risky." The film was also not released in Punjabi and Marathi languages. This was because Fox had wanted to release the film on the same day-and-date but a dubbed version in the two aforementioned languages could not be produced at that time.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Even though attempts were made later to dub and release the film in the Marathi language in the state of Maharashtra, this was however not possible. This was because Amey Khopkar, chief of Chitrapat Karmachari Sena, the film affairs wing of regional political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena told the filmmakers that releasing the film in the language would cause unfair competition for regional movies by giving rise to a scenario where more filmmakers will release Hindi films dubbed in Marathi, prompting Pandey to scrap the plan.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The film was declared tax-free in Uttar Pradesh by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav a day after its release, and in Dhoni's home state, Jharkhand, a few days later. Maharashtra was also declared tax-free on 5 October by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The filmmakers organised large promotions, which later helped the movie register good advance booking. A teaser trailer was released on 15 March 2016, in conjunction with the commencement of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20. The first official poster was released on 7 July 2016, on Dhoni's 35th birthday. In late September 2016, the cast flew to Chennai to promote the film where Dhoni and Rajput met veteran actor Rajinikanth at his residence and discussed the film.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Maruti Suzuki released two MS Dhoni inspired special edition of Alto cars – the Alto 800 and Alto K10 – as part of the company's association with the film. The two cars were unveiled by Dhoni and R S Kalsi, Maruti Suzuki India Executive Director of Marketing and Sales in Hyderabad on 24 September. As a part of the association, Maruti Suzuki ran a series of customer engagement activities on social media.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The film recouped around ₹900 million (US$13.5 million) before its release via multiple platforms and ancillary; ₹550 million (US$8.2 million) from satellite rights; ₹200 million (US$3 million) from endorsement brands; ₹100 million (US$1.5 million) for overseas distribution rights; and ₹50 million (US$750,920) for music rights.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Internationally, the film was released in 60 countries across 1,000 screens in conjunction with its Indian premiere. According to Vijay Singh, that marks the biggest-ever release for a Hindi film in Tamil and Telugu and one of the widest for any Indian film internationally. It was released in key markets including the United States and Canada and the U.K. and in the other regular Bollywood diaspora markets in South East Asia, Africa and Europe. Through a chain of distributors the film also went out in non-regular Bollywood territories such as Japan, Spain, France, Hungary, Poland, the Philippines and the West Indies.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The film was released on Friday, 30 September, across approximately 3,500 screens and delivered an opening of on its first day, occupying 45–50% of the total marketplace which is the biggest opener of Sushant's career. Buoyed by positive reviews, the film earned a total of net the second biggest opening for a Hindi release in 2016 behind "Sultan". The Tamil version of the film collected in its opening weekend in Tamil Nadu, which is the highest for a film dubbed from Hindi in the state.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Following its weekend debut, the film witnessed a sharp fall on Monday earning and ₹ on Tuesday. By 11 October, the film had grossed a total of in India and is currently the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film of 2016 in India.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Internationally, the film made an estimated in its opening weekend from 60 countries. It had successful debuts in many markets, including $1.1 million in the U.S., $995,000 in the Middle East, $263,000 in the U.K. where it ranked at No. 9, and $194,000 in Australia for tenth spot. The film received a limited release in the U.S. and Canada across 256 theaters and earned $1,108,650 at an average of $4,331 per theater, debuting at number 14 at the box office, becoming the third Bollywood film of 2016 to debut above $1 million, following "Sultan" and "Fan".


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: The film was noted for omitting certain aspects of Dhoni's life and in the realm of cricket that were deemed noteworthy such as the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 press conference, where Dhoni brought the entire team and read out a statement of unity, the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing and betting case and the alleged rift with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. The film also does not include Dhoni's take on the two-year ban imposed on Chennai Super Kings from playing in the Twenty20 which he captained at that time, which ultimately led to the Supreme Court asking N. Srinivasan to step aside as BCCI  President. The film also does not provide any explanation to Dhoni's purchase (and eventual sale) of the 15% stake in the player management firm Rhiti Sports, or why he was named the vice-president of India Cements. While the film featured his sister Jayanti, there was no mention about his real life elder brother, Narendra Singh Dhoni, who is a politician. Chanchal Bhattacharya, a specialised cricket coach who used to train young cricketers in Dhoni's school campus pinpointed at a pivotal incident during Dhoni's days which was absent in the movie: Dhoni once scored a century for East Zone in a Deodhar Trophy against Central Zone. Karsan Ghavri, who was the coach of East Zone at that time, praised Dhoni's century saying that "this lad will represent the country one day."


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: "The Hindu" said, "of course such sanitisation makes the film lose out on interesting layers and complexity, but, curiously, the focused, unwavering eulogising of Dhoni also helps it get an unmistakeable emotional acuity." In a more positive take, Andy Bull of "The Guardian" said that not every aspect of Dhoni's life could be included in the three-hour-and-10-minute-long biopic. He quoted John Briley's famous line from the script he wrote for Richard Attenborough's "Gandhi": "No man's life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime."


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor gave a positive review of the film, praising the performance of Rajput in particular. Several professional Indian sportsmen and sportswomen such as cricketer Mohammad Kaif, and badminton player Saina Nehwal had high regards for the film.


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Rachel Saltz of "The New York Times" gave a negative review of the film saying that "you don't have to understand cricket to enjoy a good cricket movie", e.g. "Lagaan" (2001), but one does "have to be a cricket fan, and an indulgent one at that" for "M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story". She found the term "hagiographic" unfit for the film and labelled the film as "long and languid." She concluded saying "I learned more about Mr. Dhoni — his enigmatic character and what marked him as a great captain — by reading about him after watching this movie than I did during three long hours."


title: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

text: Amaal Mallik composed the soundtrack for M.S. Dhoni. Rochak Kohli composed one song as a guest composer. T-Series acquired the music rights for the film. The 10 song album features the voices of singers Armaan Malik, Arijit Singh, Siddharth Basrur, Rochak Kohli and Palak Muchhal; it was released in three different language versions: Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. Tamil lyrics were penned by P. Vijay, Telugu by Chaitanya Prasad and Marathi by Guru Thakur. The background music was composed by Sanjoy Chowdhury.


title: Mu (letter)

text: Mu (uppercase Μ, lowercase μ; Ancient Greek , or μυ—both ) is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced bilabial nasal . In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 40. Mu was derived from the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for water, which had been simplified by the Phoenicians and named after their word for water, to become 𐤌 (mem). Letters that derive from mu include the Roman M and the Cyrillic М.


title: Mu (letter)

text: In Modern Greek, the letter is spelled and pronounced . In polytonic orthography, it is written with an acute accent: .


title: Mu (letter)

text: The lowercase letter mu (μ) is used as a special symbol in many academic fields. Uppercase mu is not used, because it appears identical to Latin M.


title: Mu (letter)

text: "μ" is conventionally used to denote certain things; however, any Greek letter or other symbol may be used freely as a variable name.


title: Mu (letter)

text: The Olympus Corporation manufactures a series of digital cameras called Olympus μ (known as Olympus Stylus in North America)


title: Mu (letter)

text: These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.


title: Warrant officer

text: Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the most senior of the non-commissioned officer (NCO) ranks, or in a separate category of their own. Warrant officer ranks are especially prominent in the militaries of Commonwealth nations and the United States.


title: Warrant officer

text: The name of the rank originated in medieval England. It was first used during the 13th century, in the Royal Navy, where Warrant Officers achieved the designation by virtue of their accrued experience or seniority, and technically held the rank by a warrant—rather than by a formal commission (as in the case of a commissioned officer). Nevertheless, WOs in the British services have traditionally been considered and treated as distinct from non-commissioned officers, as such (even though neither group has, technically, held a commission).


title: Warrant officer

text: Warrant officers in the United States are classified in rank category "W" (NATO "WO"), which is distinct from "O" (commissioned officers) and "E" (enlisted personnel). However, Chief Warrant Officers are officially commissioned, on the same basis as commissioned officers, and take the same oath. US WOs are usually experts in a particular technical field, with long service as enlisted personnel; in some cases, however, direct entrants may become WOs—for example, individuals completing helicopter pilot training in the US Army Aviation Branch become flight warrant officers immediately.


title: Warrant officer

text: In Commonwealth countries, warrant officers have usually been included alongside NCOs and enlisted personnel in a category called other ranks (ORs), which is equivalent to the US "E" category (i.e. there is no separate "W" category in these particular services). In Commonwealth services, warrant officers rank between chief petty officer and sub-lieutenant in the navy, between staff sergeant and second lieutenant in the army and between flight sergeant and pilot officer in the air force.


title: Warrant officer

text: The warrant officer corps began in the nascent Royal Navy, which dates its founding to 1546. At that time, noblemen with military experience took command of the new navy, adopting the military ranks of lieutenant and captain. These officers often had no knowledge of life on board a ship—let alone how to navigate such a vessel—and relied on the expertise of the ship's master and other seamen who tended to the technical aspects of running the ship. As cannon came into use, the officers also required gunnery experts; specialist gunners began to appear in the 16th century and also had warrant officer status. Literacy was one thing that most warrant officers had in common, and this distinguished them from the common seamen: according to the Admiralty regulations, "no person shall be appointed to any station in which he is to have charge of stores, unless he can read and write, and is sufficiently skilled in arithmetic to keep an account of them correctly". Since all warrant officers had responsibility for stores, this was enough to debar the illiterate.


title: Warrant officer

text: In origin, warrant officers were specialist professionals whose expertise and authority demanded formal recognition. In the 18th century they fell into two clear categories: on the one hand, those privileged to share with the commissioned officers in the wardroom and on the quarterdeck; and on the other, those who ranked with more junior members of the ship's crew. Somewhere between the two, however, were the standing officers, notable because, unlike the rest of the ship's company, they remained with the ship even when it was out of commission (e.g. for repair, refitting or replenishment, or whilst laid up); in these circumstances they were under the pay and supervision of the Royal Dockyard.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the early 19th century, they were joined in the wardroom by naval chaplains, who also had warrant officer status (though they were only usually present on larger vessels).


title: Warrant officer

text: Other warrant officers included surgeon's mates, boatswain's mates and carpenter's mates, sailmakers, armourers, schoolmasters (involved in the education of boys, midshipmen and others aboard ship) and clerks. Masters-at-arms, who had formerly overseen small-arms provision on board, had by this time taken on responsibility for discipline.


title: Warrant officer

text: By the end of the century, the rank structure could be illustrated as follows (the warrant officers are underlined):


title: Warrant officer

text: In 1843, the wardroom warrant officers were given commissioned status, while in 1853 the lower-grade warrant officers were absorbed into the new rate of chief petty officer, both classes thereby ceasing to be warrant officers. On 25 July 1864 the standing warrant officers were divided into two grades: warrant officers and chief warrant officers (or "commissioned warrant officers", a phrase that was replaced in 1920 with "commissioned officers promoted from warrant rank", although they were still usually referred to as "commissioned warrant officers", even in official documents).


title: Warrant officer

text: By the time of the First World War, their ranks had been expanded with the adoption of modern technology in the Royal Navy to include telegraphists, electricians, shipwrights, artificer engineers, etc. Both warrant officers and commissioned warrant officers messed in the warrant officers' mess rather than the wardroom (although in ships too small to have a warrant officers' mess, they did mess in the wardroom). Warrant officers and commissioned warrant officers also carried swords, were saluted by ratings, and ranked between sub-lieutenants and midshipmen.


title: Warrant officer

text: In 1949, the ranks of warrant officer and commissioned warrant officer were changed to "commissioned officer" and "senior commissioned officer", the latter ranking with but after the rank of lieutenant, and they were admitted to the wardroom, the warrant officers' messes closing down. Collectively, these officers were known as "branch officers", being retitled "special duties" officers in 1956. In 1998, the special duties list was merged with the general list of officers in the Royal Navy, all officers now having the same opportunity to reach the highest commissioned ranks.


title: Warrant officer

text: The Royal Australian Navy rank of warrant officer (WO) is the Navy's only rank appointed by warrant and is equivalent to the Army's WO1, and the RAAF's warrant officer. The most senior non-commissioned member of the Navy is the Warrant Officer of the Navy (WO-N), an appointment that is only held by one person at a time.


title: Warrant officer

text: The Australian Army has two warrant officer ranks: warrant officer class two (WO2) and warrant officer class one (WO1), the latter being senior in rank. The equivalent rank of WO2 in the Navy is now chief petty officer, and the RAAF equivalent of the Army's WO2 is now flight sergeant, although in the past there were no equivalents. All warrant officers are addressed as "sir" or "ma'am" by subordinates. To gain the attention of a particular warrant officer in a group, they can be addressed as "Warrant Officer Bloggs, sir/ma'am" or by their appointment, e.g. "ASM Bloggs, sir/ma'am". Some warrant officers hold an appointment such as company sergeant major (WO2) or regimental sergeant major (WO1). The warrant officer appointed to the position of Regimental Sergeant Major of the Army (RSM-A) is the most senior enlisted soldier in the Australian Army and differs from other Army warrant officers in that their rank is just warrant officer (WO). The appointment of RSM-A was introduced in 1983. The rank insignia are: a crown for a WO2 (or a crown in a square on DPCU (camouflage uniform) rank slides); the Australian Commonwealth Coat of Arms (changed from the Royal Coat of Arms in 1976) for a WO1; and the Australian Commonwealth Coat of Arms surrounded by a laurel wreath for the RSM-A.


title: Warrant officer

text: The Royal Australian Air Force rank of warrant officer (WOFF) is the RAAF's only rank appointed by warrant and is equivalent to both the Army's WO1 and the Navy's WO. The most senior non-commissioned member of the RAAF is the Warrant Officer of the Air Force (WOFF-AF), an appointment that is only held by one person at a time.


title: Warrant officer

text: Warrant officer is the lowest junior commissioned officer rank in the Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh Air Force, ranking below senior warrant officer and master warrant officer.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the Belgian Army and Luxembourg Army, the ranks are "adjudant" (OR-8), "adjudant-chef" (OR-9) and "adjudant-major" (OR-9) (or "adjudant-majoor" in Dutch). In Dutch, they are collectively known as "keuronderofficier" (OR-7 to OR-8) and "hoofd onderofficier" (OR-9). "Adjudant-onderofficier" is the only rank of warrant officer in the Royal Netherlands Army.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force, the cadre of warrant officers includes the specific ranks of warrant officer ("adjudant" in French), master warrant officer ("adjudant-maître"), and chief warrant officer ("adjudant-chef"). Before unification in 1968, there were two ranks of warrant officer (WO2 and WO1) in the Canadian Army and RCAF that followed the British structure.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the French Army, Air Force and Gendarmerie, the ranks of ( in the navy) and ( in the navy) may be considered equivalent to Commonwealth warrant officer ranks. These ranks are senior to the rank of and junior to the rank of . Like the officers, the are entitled to the "mon" before their rank, as in "".


title: Warrant officer

text: In France, each corps has a colour (gold for most infantry units, artillery, the air force and engineers, or silver for most cavalry units, transport and materiel corps). A French adjutant wears a band, with thin red line, in the opposite colour to that of his corps. A chief adjutant wears a band, with thin red line, in the colour of his corps. In order to distinguish an "adjutant" from a "chief adjutant" it is necessary to know the arm's colour.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the Indonesian Armed Forces, there are two warrant officer ranks known as "pembantu letnan" (assistant lieutenant). These are warrant officer 2nd class ("pelda") and warrant officer 1st class ("peltu").


title: Warrant officer

text: Junior commissioned officers are the Indian Armed Forces equivalent of warrant officer ranks. Those in the Indian Air Force actually use the ranks of junior warrant officer, warrant officer and master warrant officer.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the British Indian Army, warrant officer ranks existed but were restricted to British personnel, mostly in specialist appointments such as conductor and sub-conductor. Unlike in the British Army, although these appointments were warranted, the appointment and rank continued to be the same and the actual rank of warrant officer was never created. Indian equivalents were viceroy's commissioned officers.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the Malaysian Armed Forces, warrant officers () are the highest ranks for non commissioned officers.


title: Warrant officer

text: The New Zealand Army usage is the same as the Australian Army, having two ranks. The warrant officer class 2 (WO2), addressed as "sergeant major", and the warrant officer class 1 (WO1), addressed as "sir" or "ma'am". There are also appointments such as company and squadron sergeant major (CSM and SSM) which are usually WO2 positions and regimental sergeant major (RSM), which are usually WO1 positions. The highest ranking WO1 holds the position of Sergeant Major of the Army (SMA). In certain uniforms, WO2s wear black shoes, the same as the enlisted ranks, whilst WO1s wear brown shoes, in common with commissioned officers. The exception to this are WO1s of the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps (RNZAC), who wear black shoes.


title: Warrant officer

text: The Royal New Zealand Navy has a single warrant officer rank, addressed as "sir" or "ma'am". This rank is equivalent to the Army WO1.


title: Warrant officer

text: The Royal New Zealand Air Force also has a single warrant officer rank, equivalent to the Navy warrant officer, and the Army warrant officer class 1 (WO1). A warrant officer in the RNZAF is addressed as "sir" or "ma'am". Previously an aircrew warrant officer was known as master aircrew; however this rank and designation is no longer used. The RNZAF also has a post of Warrant Officer of the Air Force, the most senior warrant officer position in the RNZAF.


title: Warrant officer

text: In Russia, the equivalents of warrant officer are praporshchik in the ground and air forces and michman in the navy.


title: Warrant officer

text: The rank of warrant officer is given to selected non-commissioned officers in National Civil Defence Cadet Corps units. It is above the rank of staff sergeant, and below the rank of cadet lieutenant. It is the highest rank a cadet can attain in the NCDCC while they are in secondary school. The rank insignia is one point-up chevron, a Singapore coat of arms, and a garland below.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the Singapore Armed Forces, warrant officers begin as third warrant officers (3WO), previously starting at the rank of second warrant officer, abbreviated differently as WO2 instead. This rank is given to former specialists who have attained the rank of master sergeant and have either gone through, or are about to go through the Warfighter Course at the Specialist and Warrant Officer Advanced School (SWAS) in the Specialist and Warrant Officer Institute (SWI). In order to be promoted to a second warrant officer (2WO) and above, they must have been selected for and graduated from the joint warrant officer course at the SAFWOS Leadership School. Warrant officers rank between specialists and commissioned officers. They ordinarily serve as battalion or brigade regimental sergeant majors. Many of them serve as instructors and subject-matter experts in various training establishments. Warrant officers are also seen on the various staffs headed by the respective specialist officers. There are six grades of warrant officer (3WO, 2WO, 1WO, MWO, SWO and CWO).


title: Warrant officer

text: Warrant officers used to have their own mess. For smaller camps, this mess is combined with the officers' mess. Warrant officers have similar responsibilities to commissioned officers.


title: Warrant officer

text: Warrant officers are usually addressed as ""encik"" ("mister" in Malay language) or as "warrant (surname)" or ""encik"" (surname). Exceptions to this are those who hold appointments. Warrant officers holding the appointment such as commanding officer (CO) and officer commanding (OC) are to be addressed as "sir" by other ranks, and those holding sergeant major appointments such as regimental sergeant major (RSM), company sergeant major (CSM), formation sergeant major (FSM), institute sergeant major (ISM) and the Sergeant Major of the Army (SMA) are to be addressed as "sergeant major" by other ranks. Also, all warrant officers holding the rank of chief warrant officer (CWO) are to be addressed as "sir" by other ranks. Since all warrant officers are non-commissioned officers, they are not saluted.


title: Warrant officer

text: Although ceremonial swords are usually reserved for commissioned officers, warrant officers of the rank of master warrant officer (MWO) and above are presented with ceremonial swords, but continue to carry the pace stick, with the sword sheathed during drills and parades.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the Singapore Civil Defence Force, there are two warrant officer ranks. These ranks are (in order of ascending seniority): 2nd warrant officer and 1st warrant officer.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the South African National Defence Force, a warrant officer (WO) is set apart from those who hold a non-commissioned officer (NCO) rank. Warrant officers hold a warrant of appointment endorsed by the Minister of Defence. Warrant officers hold very specific powers, which are set out in the Defence Act and the Military Defence Supplementary Measures Act. Before 2008, there were two classes – warrant officer class 1 and 2. A warrant officer class 1 could be appointed to positions such as regimental sergeant major, formation sergeant major or Sergeant Major of the Army or Warrant Officer of the Navy. In 2008, five new warrant officer ranks were introduced above warrant officer class 1: senior warrant officer (SWO), master warrant officer (MWO), chief warrant officer (CWO), senior chief warrant officer (SCWO) and master chief warrant officer (MCWO).


title: Warrant officer

text: In 1973, warrant officers reappeared in the Royal Navy, but these appointments followed the army model, with the new warrant officers being ratings rather than officers. They were initially known as fleet chief petty officers (FCPOs), but were renamed warrant officers in the 1980s. They rank with warrant officers class one in the British Army and Royal Marines and with warrant officers in the Royal Air Force.


title: Warrant officer

text: There are executive warrant officers for commands and ships. Five branches (surface ships, submarines, Royal Marines, Fleet Air Arm, and Maritime Reserves) each have a command warrant officer. The senior RN WO is the Warrant Officer of the Royal Navy. Under the Navy Command Transformation Programme, there are now a Fleet Commander's Warrant Officer and a Second Sea Lord's Warrant Officer, all working with the Warrant Officer of the Naval Service, taking over the roles of the Command Warrant Officers.


title: Warrant officer

text: In 2004, the rank of warrant officer class 2 was introduced. However, the rank was phased out in April 2014, but is being reinstated for non-technical and technical branches of the Royal Navy in 2021.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the British Army, there are two warrant ranks, warrant officer class two (WO2) and warrant officer class one (WO1), the latter being the senior of the two. These ranks were previously abbreviated as WOII and WOI (using Roman instead of Indo-Arabic numerals). "Warrant officer first class" or "second class" is incorrect. The rank immediately below WO2 is staff sergeant (or colour sergeant). From 1938 to 1940 there was a WOIII platoon sergeant major rank.


title: Warrant officer

text: In March 2015, the new appointment of Army Sergeant Major was created, though the holder is not in fact a warrant officer but a commissioned officer holding the rank of captain. The creation of the appointment of command sergeant major was announced in 2009.


title: Warrant officer

text: Before 1879, the Royal Marines had no warrant officers: by the end of 1881, the Royal Marines had given warrant rank to their sergeant-majors and some other senior non-commissioned officers, in a similar fashion to the army. When the army introduced the ranks of warrant officer class I and class II in 1915, the Royal Marines did the same shortly after. From February 1920, Royal Marines warrant officers class I (renamed warrant officers) were given the same status as Royal Navy warrant officers and the rank of warrant officer class II was abolished in the Royal Marines, with no further promotions to this rank.


title: Warrant officer

text: The marines had introduced warrant officers equivalent in status to the Royal Navy's from 1910 with the Royal Marines gunner (originally titled gunnery sergeant-major), equivalent to the navy's warrant rank of gunner. Development of these ranks closely paralleled that of their naval counterparts: as in the Royal Navy, by the Second World War there were warrant officers and commissioned warrant officers (e.g. staff sergeant majors, commissioned staff sergeant majors, Royal Marines gunners, commissioned Royal Marines gunners, etc.). As officers, they were saluted by junior ranks in the Royal Marines and the army. These all became (commissioned) branch officer ranks in 1949, and special duties officer ranks in 1956. These ranks would return in 1972, this time similar to their army counterparts, and not as the RN did before. The most senior Royal Marines warrant officer is the Corps Regimental Sergeant Major. Unlike the RN proper (since 2014), it retains both WO ranks.


title: Warrant officer

text: The Royal Air Force first used the ranks of sergeant major first and second class as inherited from the Royal Flying Corps, with the rank badges of the Royal coat of arms and the crown respectively. In the 1930s, these ranks were renamed warrant officer class I and II as in the Army. In 1939, the RAF abolished the rank of WOII and retained just the WOI rank, referred to as just warrant officer (WO), which it remains to this day. The RAF has no equivalent to WO2 (NATO OR-8), an RAF WO being equivalent to WO1 (NATO OR-9) and wearing the same badge of rank, the Royal coat of arms. The correct way to address a warrant officer is "sir" or "ma'am" by airmen and "mister or warrant officer -surname-" by officers. Most RAF warrant officers do not hold appointments as in the army or Royal Marines; the exception to this is the station warrant officer, who is considered a "first amongst equals" on an RAF station. Warrant officer is the highest non-commissioned rank and ranks above flight sergeant.


title: Warrant officer

text: In 1946, the RAF renamed its aircrew warrant officers to master aircrew, a designation which still survives. In 1950, it renamed warrant officers in technical trades to master technicians, a designation which survived only until 1964.


title: Warrant officer

text: The most senior RAF warrant officer by appointment, although holding the same rank as all other warrant officers, is the Warrant Officer of the Royal Air Force, known as the Chief of the Air Staff's Warrant Officer from the post's creation in 1996 until 2021.


title: Warrant officer

text: In the United States Armed Forces, a warrant officer (grade W-1 to W-5) is ranked as an officer above the senior-most enlisted ranks, as well as officer cadets and officer candidates, but below the officer grade of O‑1 (NATO: OF‑1). All warrant officers rate a salute from those ranked below them; i.e., the enlisted ranks. Warrant officers are highly skilled, single-track specialty officers, and while the ranks are authorized by Congress, each branch of the military selects, manages, and utilizes warrant officers in slightly different ways. For appointment to warrant officer (W-1), normally a warrant is approved by the service secretary of the respective branch of service. However, appointment to this rank can come via commission by the President, but this is less common. For the chief warrant officer ranks (CW‑2 to CW‑5), these warrant officers are commissioned by the President. Both warrant officers and chief warrant officers take the same oath of office as regular commissioned officers (O-1 to O-10).


title: Warrant officer

text: A small number of warrant officers command detachments, units, activities, vessels, aircraft, and armored vehicles, as well as lead, coach, train, and counsel subordinates. However, the warrant officer's primary task is to serve as a technical expert, providing valuable skills, guidance, and expertise to commanders and organizations in their particular field.


title: Warrant officer

text: All U.S. armed services employ warrant officer grades except the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force. Although still technically authorized, the Air Force discontinued appointing new warrant officers in 1959, retiring its last chief warrant officer from the Air Force Reserve in 1992. Space Force inherited the same lack of warrant officers from the Air Force, although its inaugural Chief Master Sergeant, Roger A. Towberman, stated in a January 2021 interview that Space Force would study the issue and decide whether or not to introduce them.


title: Warrant officer

text: The U.S. Army utilizes warrant officers heavily and separates them into two types: Aviators and technical. Army aviation warrant officers pilot both rotary-wing and fixed wing aircraft and represent the largest group of Army warrant officers. Technical warrant officers in the Army specialize in a single branch technical area such as intelligence, sustainment, supply, military police, or special forces; and provide advice and support to commanders. For example, a military police officer and a military intelligence officer both have to be branch qualified in their respective fields, learning how to manage the entire spectrum of their profession. However, within those broad fields warrant officers include such specialists as CID Special Agents (a very specific track within the military police) and Counterintelligence Special Agents (a very specific track within military intelligence). These technical warrant officers allow for a soldier with subject matter expertise (like non-commissioned officers), but with the authority of a commissioned officer. Both technical and aviation warrant officers go through initial training and branch assignment at the Army Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS), followed by branch-specific training and education paths. Technical warrant officers are generally selected from the non-commissioned officer ranks (typically E-6 through E-9). Aviation warrant officer candidates can apply from all branches of service, including junior enlisted and non-prior service civilians (aviation warrant officers join through the Warrant Officer Flight Training Program).


title: Warrant officer

text: The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard discontinued the grade of W-1 in 1975, appointing and commissioning all new entrants as chief warrant officer two (pay grade W-2, with rank abbreviation of CWO2). This was to prevent a pay decrease that an entrant may take since all Navy chief warrant officers are selected strictly from the chief petty officer pay grades (E-7 through E-9). The Coast Guard allows E-6 personnel to apply for chief warrant officer rank, but only after they have displayed their technical ability by earning a placement in the top 50% on the annual eligibility list for advancement to E-7. In 2018, the U.S. Navy expanded the warrant program, re-implementing the W-1 pay grade for cyber warrant officers and accepting three new WO1s in fiscal year 2019.


title: Warrant officer

text: Warrant officers in the Army holding the rank of warrant officer 1 (WO1) are formally addressed as "Mr/Ms" [last name]. Upon promotion to chief warrant officer 2, "Chief" becomes an additional authorized term of address. WO1s are informally addressed as "Chief" by many soldiers as well. In the Navy, warrant officers are typically addressed as "Mr/Ms" [last name], "Chief Warrant Officer", or informally as "Warrant" regardless of their grade.


title: Warrant officer

text: The U.S. Maritime Service (USMS), which is established at 46 U.S. Code § 51701, falls under the authority of the Maritime Administration of the Department of Transportation and is authorized to appoint warrant officers. In accordance with 46 U.S. Code § 51701, the USMS rank structure must be the same as that of the U.S. Coast Guard while uniforms worn are those of the U.S. Navy with distinctive USMS insignia and devices. The USMS has appointed warrant officers, of various specialty fields, during and after World War II.


title: Warrant officer

text: Warrant officer rank is also occasionally used in law enforcement agencies to grant status and pay to certain senior specialist officers who are not in command, such as senior technicians or helicopter pilots. As in the armed forces, they rank above sergeants, but below lieutenants. For example, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol had several warrant officer helicopter pilot positions from the 1960s until the mid-1980s. The WO insignia was a silver bar with a black square in the center. The WO ranks were abolished when the aviation program expanded and nearly twenty trooper pilot positions were created. The New York State Police rank of technical lieutenant is similar to a warrant officer rank insofar as it is used to grant commissioned officer authority to non-commissioned officers with extensive technical expertise.


title: Mnemonic

text: A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding.


title: Mnemonic

text: Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imagery as specific tools to encode information in a way that allows for efficient storage and retrieval. Mnemonics aid original information in becoming associated with something more accessible or meaningful—which, in turn, provides better retention of the information.


title: Mnemonic

text: Commonly encountered mnemonics are often used for lists and in auditory form, such as short poems, acronyms, initialisms, or memorable phrases, but mnemonics can also be used for other types of information and in visual or kinesthetic forms. Their use is based on the observation that the human mind more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, physical, sexual, humorous, or otherwise "relatable" information, rather than more abstract or impersonal forms of information.


title: Mnemonic

text: The word "mnemonic" is derived from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'of memory' or 'relating to memory' and is related to Mnemosyne ("remembrance"), the name of the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. Both of these words are derived from (), 'remembrance, memory'. Mnemonics in antiquity were most often considered in the context of what is today known as the art of memory.


title: Mnemonic

text: Ancient Greeks and Romans distinguished between two types of memory: the "natural" memory and the "artificial" memory. The former is inborn, and is the one that everyone uses instinctively. The latter in contrast has to be trained and developed through the learning and practice of a variety of mnemonic techniques.


title: Mnemonic

text: Mnemonic systems are techniques or strategies consciously used to improve memory. They help use information already stored in long-term memory to make memorization an easier task.


title: Mnemonic

text: The general name of mnemonics, or "memoria technica", was the name applied to devices for aiding the memory, to enable the mind to reproduce a relatively unfamiliar idea, and especially a series of dissociated ideas, by connecting it, or them, in some artificial whole, the parts of which are mutually suggestive. Mnemonic devices were much cultivated by Greek sophists and philosophers and are frequently referred to by Plato and Aristotle.


title: Mnemonic

text: Philosopher Charmadas was famous for his outstanding memory and for his ability to memorize whole books and then recite them.


title: Mnemonic

text: In later times, the poet Simonides was credited for development of these techniques, perhaps for no reason other than that the power of his memory was famous. Cicero, who attaches considerable importance to the art, but more to the principle of order as the best help to memory, speaks of Carneades (perhaps Charmades) of Athens and Metrodorus of Scepsis as distinguished examples of people who used well-ordered images to aid the memory. The Romans valued such helps in order to support facility in public speaking.


title: Mnemonic

text: The Greek and the Roman system of mnemonics was founded on the use of mental places and signs or pictures, known as "topical" mnemonics. The most usual method was to choose a large house, of which the apartments, walls, windows, statues, furniture, etc., were each associated with certain names, phrases, events or ideas, by means of symbolic pictures. To recall these, an individual had only to search over the apartments of the house until discovering the places where images had been placed by the imagination.


title: Mnemonic

text: In accordance with this system, if it were desired to fix a historic date in memory, it was localised in an imaginary town divided into a certain number of districts, each with ten houses, each house with ten rooms, and each room with a hundred quadrates or memory-places, partly on the floor, partly on the four walls, partly on the ceiling. Therefore, if it were desired to fix in the memory the date of the invention of printing (1436), an imaginary book, or some other symbol of printing, would be placed in the thirty-sixth quadrate or memory-place of the fourth room of the first house of the historic district of the town. Except that the rules of mnemonics are referred to by Martianus Capella, nothing further is known regarding the practice until the 13th century.


title: Mnemonic

text: Among the voluminous writings of Roger Bacon is a tractate "De arte memorativa". Ramon Llull devoted special attention to mnemonics in connection with his "ars generalis." The first important modification of the method of the Romans was that invented by the German poet Conrad Celtes, who, in his "Epitoma in utramque Ciceronis rhetoricam cum arte memorativa nova" (1492), used letters of the alphabet for associations, rather than places. About the end of the 15th century, Peter of Ravenna (b. 1448) provoked such astonishment in Italy by his mnemonic feats that he was believed by many to be a necromancer. His "Phoenix artis memoriae" (Venice, 1491, 4 vols.) went through as many as nine editions, the seventh being published at Cologne in 1608.


title: Mnemonic

text: About the end of the 16th century, Lambert Schenkel ("Gazophylacium", 1610), who taught mnemonics in France, Italy and Germany, similarly surprised people with his memory. He was denounced as a sorcerer by the University of Louvain, but in 1593 he published his tractate "De memoria" at Douai with the sanction of that celebrated theological faculty. The most complete account of his system is given in two works by his pupil Martin Sommer, published in Venice in 1619. In 1618 John Willis (d. 1628?) published "Mnemonica; sive ars reminiscendi", containing a clear statement of the principles of topical or local mnemonics. Giordano Bruno included a "memoria technica" in his treatise "De umbris idearum," as part of his study of the "ars generalis" of Llull. Other writers of this period are the Florentine Publicius (1482); Johannes Romberch (1533); Hieronimo Morafiot, "Ars memoriae" (1602);and B. Porta, "Ars reminiscendi" (1602).


title: Mnemonic

text: In 1648 Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein revealed what he called the "most fertile secret" in mnemonics — using consonants for figures, thus expressing numbers by words (vowels being added as required), in order to create associations more readily remembered. The philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz adopted an alphabet very similar to that of Wennsshein for his scheme of a form of writing common to all languages.


title: Mnemonic

text: Wennsshein's method was adopted with slight changes afterward by the majority of subsequent "original" systems. It was modified and supplemented by Richard Grey (1694-1771), a priest who published a "Memoria technica" in 1730. The principal part of Grey's method is briefly this:


title: Mnemonic

text: Wennsshein's method is comparable to a Hebrew system by which letters also stand for numerals, and therefore words for dates.


title: Mnemonic

text: To assist in retaining the mnemonical words in the memory, they were formed into memorial lines. Such strange words in difficult hexameter scansion, are by no means easy to memorise. The vowel or consonant, which Grey connected with a particular figure, was chosen arbitrarily.


title: Mnemonic

text: A later modification was made in 1806 Gregor von Feinaigle, a German monk from Salem near Constance. While living and working in Paris, he expounded a system of mnemonics in which (as in Wennsshein) the numerical figures are represented by letters chosen due to some similarity to the figure or an accidental connection with it. This alphabet was supplemented by a complicated system of localities and signs. Feinaigle, who apparently did not publish any written documentation of this method, travelled to England in 1811. The following year one of his pupils published "The New Art of Memory" (1812), giving Feinaigle's system. In addition, it contains valuable historical material about previous systems.


title: Mnemonic

text: Other mnemonists later published simplified forms, as the more complicated menemonics were generally abandoned. Methods founded chiefly on the so-called laws of association (cf. Mental association) were taught with some success in Germany.


title: Mnemonic

text: A wide range of mnemonics are used for several purposes. The most commonly used mnemonics are those for lists, numerical sequences, foreign-language acquisition, and medical treatment for patients with memory deficits.


title: Mnemonic

text: A common mnemonic for remembering lists is to create an easily remembered acronym, or, taking each of the initial letters of the list members, create a memorable phrase in which the words with the same acronym as the material. Mnemonic techniques can be applied to most memorisation of novel materials.


title: Mnemonic

text: Mnemonic phrases or poems can be used to encode numeric sequences by various methods, one common one is to create a new phrase in which the number of letters in each word represents the according digit of pi. For example, the first 15 digits of the mathematical constant pi (3.14159265358979) can be encoded as "Now I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics"; "Now", having 3 letters, represents the first number, 3. Piphilology is the practice dedicated to creating mnemonics for pi.


title: Mnemonic

text: Another is used for "calculating" the multiples of 9 up to 9 × 10 using one's fingers. Begin by holding out both hands with all fingers stretched out. Now count left to right the number of fingers that indicates the multiple. For example, to figure 9 × 4, count four fingers from the left, ending at your left-hand index finger. Bend this finger down and count the remaining fingers. Fingers to the left of the bent finger represent tens, fingers to the right are ones. There are three fingers to the left and six to the right, which indicates 9 × 4 = 36. This works for 9 × 1 up through 9 × 10.


title: Mnemonic

text: For remembering the rules in adding and multiplying two signed numbers, Balbuena and Buayan (2015) made the letter strategies LAUS (like signs, add; unlike signs, subtract) and LPUN (like signs, positive; unlike signs, negative), respectively.


title: Mnemonic

text: Mnemonics may be helpful in learning foreign languages, for example by transposing difficult foreign words with words in a language the learner knows already, also called "cognates" which are very common in the Spanish language. A useful such technique is to find linkwords, words that have the same pronunciation in a known language as the target word, and associate them visually or auditorially with the target word.


title: Mnemonic

text: For example, in trying to assist the learner to remember "ohel" (), the Hebrew word for "tent", the linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann proposes the memorable sentence ""Oh hell", there's a raccoon in my "tent"". The memorable sentence "There's a "fork" in "Ma's leg"" helps the learner remember that the Hebrew word for "fork" is "mazleg" (). Similarly, to remember the Hebrew word "bayit" (), meaning "house", one can use the sentence "that's a lovely "house", I'd like to "buy it"." The linguist Michel Thomas taught students to remember that "estar" is the Spanish word for "to be" by using the phrase "to be a star".


title: Mnemonic

text: Another Spanish example is by using the mnemonic "Vin Diesel Has Ten Weapons" to teach irregular command verbs in the you(tú) form. Spanish verb forms and tenses are regularly seen as the hardest part of learning the language. With a high number of verb tenses, and many verb forms that are not found in English, Spanish verbs can be hard to remember and then conjugate. The use of mnemonics has been proven to help students better learn foreign languages, and this holds true for Spanish verbs. A particularly hard verb tense to remember is command verbs. Command verbs in Spanish are conjugated differently depending on who the command is being given to. The phrase, when pronounced with a Spanish accent, is used to remember "Ven Di Sal Haz Ten Ve Pon Sé", all of the irregular Spanish command verbs in the you(tú) form. This mnemonic helps students attempting to memorize different verb tenses.


title: Mnemonic

text: Another technique is for learners of gendered languages to associate their mental images of words with a colour that matches the gender in the target language. An example here is to remember the Spanish word for "foot," "pie," [pee-ay] with the image of a foot stepping on a pie, which then spills blue filling (blue representing the male gender of the noun in this example).


title: Mnemonic

text: For French verbs which use être as an auxiliary verb for compound tenses : DR and MRS VANDERTRAMPP: descendre, rester, monter, revenir, sortir, venir, arriver, naître, devenir, entrer, rentrer, tomber, retourner, aller, mourir, partir, passer.


title: Mnemonic

text: Masculine countries in French (le): "Neither can a breeze make a sane Japanese chilly in the USA." (les) Netherlands (Pays-Bas), Canada, Brazil (Brésil), Mexico (Mexique), Senegal, Japan (Japon), Chile (Chili), & (les) USA (États-Unis d'Amérique).


title: Mnemonic

text: Mnemonics can be used in aiding patients with memory deficits that could be caused by head injuries, strokes, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions.


title: Mnemonic

text: In a study conducted by Doornhein and De Haan, the patients were treated with six different memory strategies including the mnemonics technique. The results concluded that there were significant improvements on the immediate and delayed subtest of the RBMT, delayed recall on the Appointments test, and relatives rating on the MAC from the patients that received mnemonics treatment. However, in the case of stroke patients, the results did not reach statistical significance.


title: Mnemonic

text: Academic study of the use of mnemonics has shown their effectiveness. In one such experiment, subjects of different ages who applied mnemonic techniques to learn novel vocabulary outperformed control groups that applied contextual learning and free-learning styles.


title: Mnemonic

text: Mnemonics were seen to be more effective for groups of people who struggled with or had weak long-term memory, like the elderly. Five years after a mnemonic training study, a research team followed-up 112 community-dwelling older adults, 60 years of age and over. Delayed recall of a word list was assessed prior to, and immediately following mnemonic training, and at the 5-year follow-up. Overall, there was no significant difference between word recall prior to training and that exhibited at follow-up. However, pre-training performance gains scores in performance immediately post-training and use of the mnemonic predicted performance at follow-up. Individuals who self-reported using the mnemonic exhibited the highest performance overall, with scores significantly higher than at pre-training. The findings suggest that mnemonic training has long-term benefits for some older adults, particularly those who continue to employ the mnemonic.


title: Mnemonic

text: This contrasts with a study from surveys of medical students that approximately only 20% frequently used mnemonic acronyms.


title: Mnemonic

text: In humans, the process of aging particularly affects the medial temporal lobe and hippocampus, in which the episodic memory is synthesized. The episodic memory stores information about items, objects, or features with spatiotemporal contexts. Since mnemonics aid better in remembering spatial or physical information rather than more abstract forms, its effect may vary according to a subject's age and how well the subject's medial temporal lobe and hippocampus function.


title: Mnemonic

text: This could be further explained by one recent study which indicates a general deficit in the memory for spatial locations in aged adults (mean age 69.7 with standard deviation of 7.4 years) compared to young adults (mean age 21.7 with standard deviation of 4.2 years). At first, the difference in target recognition was not significant.


title: Mnemonic

text: The researchers then divided the aged adults into two groups, aged unimpaired and aged impaired, according to a neuropsychological testing. With the aged groups split, there was an apparent deficit in target recognition in aged impaired adults compared to both young adults and aged unimpaired adults. This further supports the varying effectiveness of mnemonics in different age groups.


title: Mnemonic

text: Moreover, different research was done previously with the same notion, which presented with similar results to that of Reagh et al. in a verbal mnemonics discrimination task.


title: Mnemonic

text: Studies (notably "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two") have suggested that the short-term memory of adult humans can hold only a limited number of items; grouping items into larger chunks such as in a mnemonic might be part of what permits the retention of a larger total amount of information in short-term memory, which in turn can aid in the creation of long-term memories.


title: Sister Act

text: Sister Act is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Paul Rudnick (as Joseph Howard). It stars Whoopi Goldberg as a lounge singer forced to join a convent after being placed in a witness protection program. It also features Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, Mary Wickes, and Harvey Keitel.


title: Sister Act

text: "Sister Act" was one of the most financially successful comedies of the early 1990s, grossing $231 million worldwide against a $31 million budget. The film spawned a franchise, which consists of the 1993 sequel "" and a musical adaptation, which premiered in 2006. A third film is in development for Disney+.


title: Sister Act

text: In 1968, Deloris Wilson is a young Catholic school student, who is less than serious about her studies, greatly embarrassing her nun teachers.


title: Sister Act

text: Twenty-four years later, in 1992, Deloris is a lounge singer in Reno, Nevada, performing as Deloris Van Cartier. After she witnesses her gangster boyfriend Vince LaRocca execute an informant, police lieutenant Eddie Souther places her in witness protection. She is brought to Saint Katherine's Convent in Saint Katherine's Parish, in a run-down neighborhood in San Francisco. Deloris initially objects, then relents.


title: Sister Act

text: The head nun of St. Katherine's, "Reverend Mother", also objects to taking Deloris in but Monsignor O'Hara, the local parish priest, convinces her to go along with it as the police will pay the failing convent a good sum of money to do so. Disguised as "Sister Mary Clarence", Deloris initially has difficulty dealing with the rigid and simple convent life but befriends the other nuns, (Sister Mary Patrick, the elderly Sister Mary Lazarus and the Novice Sister Mary Robert). One night, after a poorly attended Sunday Mass, with a lackluster performance from the convent choir, led by Mary Lazarus, Deloris sneaks out to a bar, followed by Mary Patrick and Mary Robert. They are caught by the Reverend Mother, who orders Deloris join the struggling choir. With her singing experience, Deloris is elected their director and transforms the choir.


title: Sister Act

text: At the next Sunday Mass, Deloris leads the much-improved choir in a traditional hymn, then shifts into a combined Gospel and Rock and Roll interpretation. Although Reverend Mother is infuriated, Monsignor O'Hara congratulates the choir for their unorthodox performance as new people were attracted to the service. Convinced by Deloris, he allows the nuns to clean the church and the neighborhood. Their singing and efforts to revitalize the neighborhood attract media attention, and the parish starts to thrive.


title: Sister Act

text: Souther chastises Deloris for nearly being exposed on national television as Vince has placed a bounty on her head. She assures him she will try to keep a lower profile and Souther attends a Mass. The nun's choir continues to amaze parishioners and visitors, especially with a rendition of "My Guy" – rewritten and performed as "My God".


title: Sister Act

text: O'Hara informs the convent that Pope John Paul II, having heard of the choir's success, will visit the church. Deloris tells Reverend Mother that Vince's upcoming trial means she will soon leave; the Mother reveals she has resigned as abbess, believing she is no longer useful to the convent as her authority was undermined. Deloris tries to convince her to stay but the Mother retorts that she believes herself too old-fashioned and incapable to continue in office.


title: Sister Act

text: Souther discovers a corrupt detective in his own department, who has given Deloris' location to Vince and rushes to San Francisco to warn her. She and Mary Robert are kidnapped by Vince's men but Deloris helps her escape. Afterward, Reverend Mother reveals to the nuns that Sister Mary Clarence is Deloris Van Cartier and explains why she had been hiding in their convent. They decide to rescue Deloris, requesting a helicopter pilot to fly them to Reno.


title: Sister Act

text: Vince orders his men to kill Deloris but they cannot bring themselves to shoot her dressed in a nun's habit. Arriving at Vince's casino, the nuns find her after she escapes from Vince's men. They become trapped in the casino lounge and Deloris prepares to sacrifice herself. Vince is hesitant, but prepares to shoot her. His hesitation is just long enough for Souther to shoot Vince in the arm, and to arrest all three.


title: Sister Act

text: Thanking Deloris for her actions, Reverend Mother decides to remain as abbess of the convent. Returning to San Francisco, the choir, led by Deloris, sing "I Will Follow Him" to a packed audience in a refurbished Saint Katherine's, receiving a standing ovation from all, including Reverend Mother, the Pope, Monsignor O'Hara, and Souther. Deloris continues to guide and coach the choir as a touring musical group.


title: Sister Act

text: Screenwriter Paul Rudnick pitched "Sister Act" to producer Scott Rudin in 1987, with Bette Midler in mind for the lead role. The script was brought to Disney. However, Midler turned down the role, fearing that her fans would not want to see her play a nun. Eventually, Whoopi Goldberg signed on to play the lead. As production commenced, the script was rewritten by a half dozen screenwriters, including Carrie Fisher, Robert Harling, and Nancy Meyers. With the movie no longer resembling his original script, Rudnick asked to be credited with a pseudonym in the film, deciding on Joseph Howard.


title: Sister Act

text: The church in which Deloris takes sanctuary is St. Paul's Catholic Church, located at Valley and Church Streets in Noe Valley, an upper-middle-class neighborhood of San Francisco. The storefronts on the opposite side of the street were redressed to give the appearance of a run-down neighborhood. Filming took place from to .


title: Sister Act

text: Though the order of the nuns in the film is said to be a Carmelite one by Sister Mary Patrick, their religious habit is similar in appearance to that of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis (minus the cross). Members of the real-life Order, however, no longer wear their traditional habit.


title: Sister Act

text: The film's soundtrack was released by Hollywood Records on June 9, 1992, in conjunction with the film, and contained the musical numbers performed by actors in the film itself, pre-recorded songs that were used as part of the background music, and instrumental music composed by Marc Shaiman for the film. The soundtrack album debuted at #74 and eventually reached #40 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart where it charted for 54 weeks. The album received a Gold certification from the RIAA for shipment of 500,000 copies on January 13, 1993. The album was certified platinum in Australia.


title: Sister Act

text: The film received a generally positive reception from critics, holding a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 27 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Looking for a sweet musical comedy about a witness to a crime hiding out from killers in a convent? There's nun better than "Sister Act"." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 2.5 stars out of a possible 4. He wrote that Goldberg and Wickes both offered humorous performances, but the film overall "plays like a missed opportunity" due to slow pacing and trouble integrating the organized crime scenes into a comedy film. Metacritic gave the film a score of 51 based on the 23 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Sister Act

text: The film was a box-office success, grossing $139.6 million in the U.S. and $92 million in other countries, effectively grossing $231.6 million worldwide, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film worldwide of 1992. It sat at the #2 spot for four weeks, behind "Lethal Weapon 3", "Patriot Games", and "Batman Returns" in succession.


title: Sister Act

text: On June 10, 1993, actress Donna Douglas and her partner Curt Wilson in Associated Artists Entertainment, Inc. filed a $200 million lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company, Whoopi Goldberg, Bette Midler, their production companies, and Creative Artists Agency claiming the film was plagiarized from the book "A Nun in the Closet", owned by the partners. Douglas and Wilson argued that, in 1985, they had developed a screenplay for the book, which had been submitted to Disney, Goldberg, and Midler three times during 1987 and 1988. The lawsuit noted over 100 similarities between the movie and the book/screenplay as evidence of plagiarism. In 1994, Douglas and Wilson declined a $1 million offer in an attempt to win the case. The judge found in favor of Disney and the other defendants. Wilson stated at the time, "They would have had to copy our stuff verbatim for us to prevail."


title: Sister Act

text: In November 2011, a nun named Delois Blakely filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and Sony Pictures claiming that "The Harlem Street Nun", an autobiography she wrote in 1987, was the basis for the 1992 film. She alleged that a movie executive expressed an interest in the movie rights after she wrote a three-page synopsis. She sued for "breach of contract, misappropriation of likeness and unjust enrichment." Blakely dropped the original lawsuit in January 2012 to serve a more robust lawsuit in late August 2012 with the New York Supreme Court, asking for $1 billion in damages from Disney. In early February 2013, the New York Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, awarding no damages to Blakely.


title: Sister Act

text: The Region 1 DVD was released on November 6, 2001; however, the disc has no anamorphic enhancement, similar to early DVDs from Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Special Features include the film's theatrical trailer; music videos for "I Will Follow Him" by Deloris and the Sisters, and "If My Sister's in Trouble" by Lady Soul, both of which contain clips from the film; and a featurette titled "Inside Sister Act: The Making Of".


title: Sister Act

text: The all-region Blu-ray including both films was released on June 19, 2012, with both films presented in 1080p. The three-disc set also includes both films on DVD with the same bonus features as previous releases.


title: Sister Act

text: The musical "Sister Act", directed by Peter Schneider and choreographed by Marguerite Derricks, premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California on October 24, 2006, and closed on December 23, 2006. It broke records, grossing $1,085,929 to become the highest grossing show ever at the venue. The production then moved to the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, where it ran from January 17 to February 25, 2007.


title: Sister Act

text: The musical then opened in the West End at the London Palladium on June 2, 2009, following previews from May 7. The production was directed by Peter Schneider, produced by Whoopi Goldberg together with the Dutch company Stage Entertainment, and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast, with set design by Klara Zieglerova, costume design by Lez Brotherston and lighting design by Natasha Katz. Following a year-long search, 24-year-old actress Patina Miller was cast as Deloris, alongside Sheila Hancock as the Mother Superior, Ian Lavender as Monsignor Howard, Chris Jarman as Shank, Ako Mitchell as Eddie, Katie Rowley Jones as Sister Mary Robert, Claire Greenway as Sister Mary Patrick and Julia Sutton as Sister Mary Lazarus. The musical received four Laurence Olivier Awards nominations, including Best Musical. On October 30, 2010, the show played its final performance at the London Palladium and transferred to Broadway.


title: Sister Act

text: The musical opened at the Broadway Theatre on April 20, 2011, with previews beginning March 24, 2011. Jerry Zaks directed the Broadway production with Douglas Carter Beane rewriting the book. Miller, who originated the role of Deloris in the West End production, reprised her role, making her Broadway debut. She was replaced by Raven-Symoné, also making her Broadway debut. The original Broadway cast featured Victoria Clark (Mother Superior), Fred Applegate (Monsignor), Sarah Bolt (Sister Mary Patrick), Chester Gregory (Eddie), Kingsley Leggs (Curtis), Marla Mindelle (Sister Mary Robert) and Audrie Neenan (Sister Mary Lazarus). The musical received five Tony Award nominations including Best Musical.


title: ABB

text: ABB Ltd. is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ASEA Brown Boveri, later simplified to the initials ABB. Both companies were established in the late 1800s and were major electrical equipment manufacturers, a business that ABB remains active in today. The company has also since expanded to robotics and automation technology.


title: ABB

text: It is ranked 341st in the Fortune Global 500 list of 2018 and has been a global Fortune 500 company for 24 years. Until the sale of its Power Grids division in 2020, ABB was Switzerland's largest industrial employer.


title: ABB

text: ABB is traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zürich, Nasdaq Stockholm in Sweden, and the New York Stock Exchange in the United States.


title: ABB

text: An ABB entity plead guilty for bid rigging in 2001, and the company has had 3 US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bribing resolutions against it - in 2004, 2010, and 2022.


title: ABB

text: Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA, English translation: General Swedish Electrical Limited Company) was founded in 1883 in Västerås, Sweden by Ludvig Fredholm as manufacturer of electrical light and generators.


title: ABB

text: Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) was formed in 1891 in Zurich, Switzerland by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri as a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies producing AC and DC motors, generators, steam turbines and transformers.


title: ABB

text: On 10 August 1987, ASEA and BBC announced they would merge to form ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB). The new corporation would remain headquartered in both Zurich, Switzerland and Västerås, Sweden, with each parent company holding 50 percent. The merger created a global industrial group with revenue of approximately $15 billion and 160,000 employees.


title: ABB

text: When ABB began operations on 5 January 1988, its core operations included power generation, transmission and distribution; electric transportation; and industrial automation and robotics.


title: ABB

text: In its first year, ABB made some 15 acquisitions, including the environmental control group Fläkt AB of Sweden, the contracting group Sadelmi/Cogepi of Italy, and the railway manufacturer Scandia-Randers A/S of Denmark.


title: ABB

text: In 1989, ABB purchased an additional 40 companies, including Westinghouse Electric's transmission and distribution assets, and announced an agreement to purchase the Stamford, Connecticut-based Combustion Engineering (C-E).


title: ABB

text: The following year, ABB bought the robotics business of Cincinnati Milacron in the US. The acquisition expanded ABB's presence in automated spot-welding and positioned the company to better serve the American automotive industry. ABB's 1991 introduction of the IRB 6000 robot, demonstrated its increased capacity in this field. The first modular robot, the IRB 6000, can be reconfigured to perform a variety of specific tasks. At the time of its launch, the IRB 6000 was the fastest and most accurate spot-welding robot on the market.


title: ABB

text: In the early 1990s, ABB started expanding in Central and Eastern Europe. By the end of 1991, the company employed 10,000 people in the region. The following year, that number doubled. A similar pattern played out in Asia, where economic reforms in China and the lifting of some Western sanctions, helped open the region to a new wave of outside investment and industrial growth. By 1994, ABB had 30,000 employees and 100 plants, engineering, service and marketing centers across Asia - numbers that would continue to grow. Through the 1990s, ABB continued its strategy of targeted expansion in Eastern Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas.


title: ABB

text: In 1995, ABB agreed to merge its rail engineering unit with that of Daimler-Benz AG of Germany. The goal was to create the world's largest maker of locomotives and railway cars. The new company, ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation (Adtranz), had an initial global market share of nearly 12 percent. The merge took effect on 1 January 1996.


title: ABB

text: A few months after the July 1997 Asian financial crisis, ABB announced plans to accelerate its expansion in Asia. The company also acted to improve the productivity and profitability of its Western operations, taking an $850 million restructuring charge as it shifted more resources to emerging markets and scaled back some facilities in higher-cost countries.


title: ABB

text: In 1998, ABB acquired Sweden-based Alfa Laval's automation unit, which at the time was one of Europe's top suppliers of process control systems and automation equipment.


title: ABB

text: As a final step in the integration of the companies formerly known as ASEA and BBC, in 1999 the directors unanimously approved a plan to create a unified, single class of shares in the group.


title: ABB

text: That same year, ABB completed its purchase of Elsag Bailey Process Automation, a Netherlands-based maker of industrial control systems, for $2.1 billion. The acquisition increased ABB's presence in the high-tech industrial robotics and factory control system sectors, which reducing its reliance on traditional heavy engineering sectors such as power generation and transmission.


title: ABB

text: In 1999, the company sold its stake in the Adtranz train-building business to DaimlerChrysler. Instead of building complete locomotives, ABB's transportation activities shifted increasingly toward traction motors and electric components.


title: ABB

text: That same year, ABB and France-based Alstom, announced the merger of their power generation businesses in a 50-50 joint company, ABB Alstom Power. Separately, ABB agreed to sell its nuclear power business to British Nuclear Fuels of the United Kingdom.


title: ABB

text: In 2000, ABB divested its interests in ABB Alstom Power and sold its boiler and fossil-fuel operations (including Gas turbines) to Alstom. Thereafter, ABB's power business was focused on renewable energy and transmission and distribution.


title: ABB

text: In 2002, ABB announced its first-ever annual loss, a $691 million net loss for 2001. The loss was caused by ABB's decision to nearly double its provisions for settlement costs in asbestos-related litigation against Combustion Engineering in the US from $470 million to $940 million. The claims were linked to asbestos products sold by Combustion Engineering prior to its acquisition by ABB.


title: ABB

text: At the same time, ABB's board announced it would seek the return of money "paid in excess of obligations to Goran Lindahl and to Percy Barnevik," two former chief executive officers of the group. Barnevik received some $89 million in pension benefits when he left ABB in 2001; Lindahl, who succeeded Barnevik as CEO, had received $50 million in pension benefits.


title: ABB

text: In 2006, ABB put an end to its financial uncertainties by finalizing a $1.43 billion plan to settle asbestos liabilities against its US subsidiaries, Combustion Engineering and ABB Lummus Global, Inc. In August 2007, ABB Lummus Global, ABB's downstream oil and gas business, was sold to CB&I. In 2004, ABB had sold its upstream oil and gas business, ABB Vetco Gray. ABB's plan going forward was to support the oil and gas industry with its core automation and power technology businesses.


title: ABB

text: In 2008, ABB agreed to acquire Kuhlman Electric Corporation, a US-based maker of transformers for the industrial and electric utility sectors. In December 2008, ABB acquired Ber-Mac Electrical and Instrumentation to expand its presence in Western Canada's oil and gas industries.


title: ABB

text: In 2010 K-TEK, a manufacturer of level measurement instruments, became part of ABB's Measurement Products business unit within ABB's Process Automation division.


title: ABB

text: In July 2010, ABB in Cary, North Carolina received a $4.2 million grant from the federal government to develop energy storing magnets.


title: ABB

text: On 10 January 2011, ABB invested $10 million in ECOtality, a San Francisco-based developed of charging stations and power storage technologies, to enter North America's electric vehicle charging market. On 1 July ABB announced the acquisition of Epyon B.V. of the Netherlands, an early leader in the European EV-charging infrastructure and maintenance markets.


title: ABB

text: In 2011, ABB acquired Baldor Electric for $4.2 billion in an all-cash transaction. The move aligned with ABB's strategy to increase its market share in the North American industrial motors business.


title: ABB

text: On 30 January 2012, ABB acquired Thomas & Betts, a North American leader in low voltage products for industrial, construction and utility applications, in a $3.9 billion cash transaction. On 15 June 2012 it completed the acquisition of commercial and industrial wireless technology specialists Tropos.


title: ABB

text: In July 2013, ABB acquired Power-One in a $1 billion all-cash transaction, to become the leading global manufacturer of solar inverters. Also in 2013, Fastned selected ABB to supply more than 200 Terra fast-charging stations along highways in the Netherlands. Ulrich Spiesshofer was named ABB's CEO, succeeding Joe Hogan.


title: ABB

text: In 2016, ABB won the contract of TANAP Project in Turkiye, ABB will deliver the telecommunications, security and control infrastructure to contribute to safe, secure and reliable operation of the pipeline throughout its lifetime.


title: ABB

text: The TANAP pipeline is the largest diameter, and with 1,850 km length the longest pipeline ever built in Turkey crossing 20 districts and will bring Azerbaijan's natural gas through Georgia, Turkey and Greece directly to Europe. The $11 billion TANAP pipeline will interconnect with the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCPx) at Turkey's border with Georgia and the Trans Adriatic (TAP) at its border with Greece.


title: ABB

text: On 6 July 2017, ABB announced it had completed its acquisition of Bernecker + Rainer Industrie-Elektronik (B&R), the largest independent provider of product and software-based, open-architecture for machine and factory automation.


title: ABB

text: In 2018, ABB became the title partner of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, the world's first fully electric international FIA motorsport series.


title: ABB

text: On 30 June 2018, ABB completed its acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions, General Electric's global electrification business.


title: ABB

text: On 17 December 2018, ABB announced it had agreed to sell 80.1% of its Power Grids business to Hitachi. The former Power Grids division is now a part of the Hitachi Group and has been rebranded to Hitachi Energy.


title: ABB

text: In March 2020, ABB announced that it had agreed to sell its solar inverter business to Italian solar inverter manufacturer Fimer. The transaction includes all of ABB's manufacturing and R&D sites in Finland, Italy and India, along with 800 employees across 26 countries.


title: ABB

text: In December 2022, ABB opened a robotics mega factory in Shanghai. The new 67,000 square meter facility represents $150 million investment.


title: ABB

text: In 1990, ABB launched Azipod, a family of electric propulsion systems that extends below the hulls of large ships, providing both thrust and steering functions. Developed in cooperation with the Finnish shipbuilder Masa-Yards, Azipod has demonstrated the viability of hybrid-electric power in seagoing vessels, while also increasing maneuverability, fuel efficiency and space efficiency.


title: ABB

text: In 1998, ABB launched the FlexPicker, a robot using a three-armed delta design uniquely suited to the picking and packing industry.


title: ABB

text: In 2000, ABB brought to market the world's first commercial, high-voltage, shore-to-ship electric power, at the Swedish port of Gothenburg. Supplying electricity to berthed ships from the shore enables vessels to shut down their engines while in port, significantly reducing noise, vibrations and carbon emissions.


title: ABB

text: In 2004, ABB launched its Extended Automation System 800xA, an industrial system for the process industries. Today, the company is the global market leader in distributed control systems.


title: ABB

text: In 2014, ABB unveiled YuMi, a collaborative industrial robot. The innovative, dual-arm assembly robot permits people and machines to work side by side, unlocking new potential for automation in a range of industries.


title: ABB

text: In 2018, ABB unveiled the Terra High Power charger for electric vehicles, capable of delivering enough to charge in eight minutes to enable an electric car to travel 200 kilometers.


title: ABB

text: ABB's Electrification business area offers products and services from substation to socket. Customers include a wide range of industry and utility operations, plus commercial and residential buildings. The business has strong exposure to a range of rapidly growing segments, including renewables, e-mobility, data centers and smart buildings.


title: ABB

text: Its offerings include electric vehicle infrastructure, solar inverters, modular substations, distribution automation; products to protect people, installations and electronic equipment from electrical overload such as enclosures, cable systems and low-voltage circuit breakers; measuring and sensing devices, control products, switches and wiring accessories.


title: ABB

text: The business also offers KNX systems that integrate and automate a building's electrical installations, ventilation systems, and security and data communication networks. Electrification incorporates an "Electrification Solutions" unit manufacturing low voltage switchgear and motor control centers.


title: ABB

text: The acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions, which closed in June 2018, further strengthened ABB's #2 global position in electrification.


title: ABB

text: ABB's Motion business area provides a range of electrical motors, generators, drives and services, as well as integrated digital powertrain solutions. Motion is the #1 player in the market globally.


title: ABB

text: ABB's Robotics & Discrete Automation business area combines machine and factory automation systems, mainly from B&R, which ABB acquired in 2017, with a comprehensive robotics concepts and applications suite.


title: ABB

text: ABB has installed over 300,000 robots globally. The Robotics & Discrete Automation business has been positioned to capture the opportunities associated with the “factory of the future” by providing services for flexible manufacturing and smart machinery.


title: ABB

text: The business is #2 globally, with a #1 position in robotics in the high-growth Chinese market, where ABB is expanding its innovation and production capacity by investing in a new robotics factory in Shanghai.


title: ABB

text: The Process Automation business area provides a range of services for process and hybrid industries, including its industry-specific integrated automation, electrification and digital services, control technologies, software and advanced services, as well as measurement & analytics, marine and turbocharging offerings.