title: Vengaboys

text: September 20, 2021, also marked the Vengaboys' first live performance since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking part in 90's Nostalgia: Electric Circus, a Canadian tour featuring Eurodance music.


title: Ayyappan

text: Ayyappan, also called Dharmasastha and Manikandan, is a Hindu deity popular in Southern India, He is considered to be the epitome of dharma, truth, and righteousness and is often called upon to obliterate evil.


title: Ayyappan

text: Although devotion to Ayyappan has been prevalent earlier in South India, his popularity rose only in the late 20th century. According to Hindu theology, he is the son of Harihara (Vishnu in the form of Mohini, and Shiva). Ayyappan is also referred to as Ayyappa, Sastavu, Hariharasudhan, Manikandan, Shasta or Dharma Shasta and Sabarinath.


title: Ayyappan

text: The iconography of Ayyappan depicts him as a handsome celibate (Brahmachari) deity doing yoga and as an epitome of Dharma, who wears a bell around his neck. In the Hindu tradition popular in the Western Ghats of India, he was born with the powers of Shiva and Vishnu to confront and defeat the shape-shifting evil Buffalo demoness Mahishi. He was raised by a childless royal couple Rajashekara pandiyan and Koperundevi, and grows up as a warrior yogi champion of ethical and dharmic living. In South Indian portrayals, Ayyappan images show him riding a tigress, but in some places such as Sri Lanka he is shown as riding a white elephant.


title: Ayyappan

text: Ayyappan's popularity has grown in many parts of India, and the most prominent Ayyappan shrine is at Sabarimala, nestled in the hills of Pathanamthitta of Kerala. The shrine receives millions of pilgrims every year in late December and early January, many of whom prepare for weeks before and then climb the hill barefoot, making it one of the largest active pilgrimage sites in the world. The pilgrimage attracts a wide range of devotees, from diverse social or economic backgrounds, except women in their fertile age because Ayyappan is believed to be the celibate deity. He remains one of the few deities in Hindu tradition, who is respected by other religious communities, including Muslims and Christians in Kerala. The most significant festival linked to him is the Makaravilakku (Makara Sankranti), observed around the winter solstice.


title: Ayyappan

text: The name Ayyappan (sometimes spelled as Ayyappa or Aiyappan) may be related to as "Lord Father". The name may literally come from "Ayyan" and "Appan" both meaning "Father". The root names "Ayyan" and "Appan" denotes Mohini (Mohini here called father, she is a female form of the god Vishnu) and Shiva respectively. However, the word Ayyappan is not found in South Indian versions of the medieval era Puranas, leading scholars to the hypothesis that Ayyappan may have roots elsewhere. The alternate theory links it to the Malayali word "acchan" and Tamil word "appa" which means "father", with Ayyappan connoting "Lord-father". The alternate proposal is supported by the alternate name for Ayyappan being "Sastava" ("Sasta", "Sashta", "Sastra"), a Vedic term that also means "Teacher, Guide, Lord, Ruler". The words "Sastha" and "Dharmasastha" in the sense of a Hindu god are found in the Puranas.


title: Ayyappan

text: Ayyappan is also known as "Hariharasudhan" – meaning the "son of Harihara" or a fusion deity of "Hari" and "Hara", the names given to Vishnu and Shiva respectively. He is also called "Manikanta" from Mani, Sanskrit for precious stone, and "kanta", Sanskrit for neck. In some regions, Ayyappa and Ayyanar are considered to be the same deity given their similar origin. Others consider him as different because their worship methods are not the same.


title: Ayyappan

text: Ayyappan is a warrior deity. He is revered for his ascetic devotion to Dharma – the ethical and right way of living, to deploy his military genius and daring yogic war abilities to destroy those who are powerful but unethical, abusive and arbitrary. His iconography is usually shown with a bow and arrow upraised in his left hand, while in his right he holds either a bow or a sword diagonally across his left thigh. Other depictions of Ayyappan, particularly paintings, generally show him in a yogic posture wearing a bell around his neck and sometimes shown riding a tiger.


title: Ayyappan

text: The legends and mythology of Ayyappa varies across region like other Hindu gods and goddesses, reflecting a tradition that evolved and enriched over time, sometimes in conflicting ways. For example, the "Sribhutanatha Purana" text presents Ayyappan as an incarnation of the Hindu deity Hariharaputra, the son of Shiva and Mohini. This interaction between Shiva and Mohini is mentioned in the "Bhagavata Purana", but Ayyappan is not mentioned. In the oral tradition as represented by Malayalam folk songs, Ayyappa is presented as a warrior hero of Pandala kingdom. According to Eliza Kent, the legends in the Ayyappa tradition seem to be "artificially mixed and assembled into a kind of collage". Ruth Vanita suggests that Ayyappan probably emerged from the fusion of a Dravidian god of tribal provenance and the Puranic story of Shiva and Mohini's interaction.


title: Ayyappan

text: There once was a kingdom of Pandalam where Ayyappan originated. The royal family was childless. One day the king of Pandalam found a baby boy in a forest. The king carried the baby to an ascetic in the forest to inquire about the boy. The ascetic advised the king to take the baby home, raise him like his own son, and that in 12 years he would discover who the baby was. The royal family did so, naming the baby Manikantha.


title: Ayyappan

text: At age 12, the king wanted to formally invest Manikantha as the heir prince ("yuvraja"). However, the queen under the influence of an evil minister objected. The minister had advised the queen that only her younger biological child should be the next king. The younger child was disabled and lacked the ability to perform the duties of the king, something that the scheming evil minister thought would make him the de facto ruler. The minister persuaded the queen to feign an illness, ask for "tiger's milk" to cure her illness and demand that Manikantha be sent to get the milk from the forest. Manikantha volunteers, goes into the forest, and returns riding a tigress. The king, realising Manikantha's special ability recognizes the adopted son to be a divine being, resolves to make a shrine for him. For the location, Manikantha shoots an arrow that lands thirty kilometers away. The young boy then transforms into Ayyappan. The place where arrow landed is now an Ayyappa shrine, a site of a major pilgrimage that is particularly popular for visits on Makara Sankranti (about January 14).


title: Ayyappan

text: The above core story is shared wherever Ayyappan is revered in India. Sometimes the story is slightly different or extended, such as the younger son of the queen is not disabled, Ayyappan does bring tigress milk for the queen riding on a tiger, but after doing so Ayyappan renounces the kingdom, becomes an ascetic yogi and returns to live as a great warrior in the forested mountain.


title: Ayyappan

text: In the medieval age, the stories of Ayyappan expanded. One story has roots between the 1st and 3rd century CE, where Ayyappan evolves to be a deity who also protects traders and merchants from enemies such as robbers and plundering outlaws. Ayyappa came to be portrayed as a military genius. His temple and tradition inspired Hindu yogi mercenaries who protected the trade routes in South India from criminals and looters, restoring Dharmic trading practices.


title: Ayyappan

text: In one of the stories, Ayyappan is portrayed as a child of a priest whose father was murdered by the fearsome outlaw Udayanan. The outlaw also kidnaps a princess. Ayyappan then makes a daring rescue, attacks and kills evil Udayanan. In another version of this story, the rulers of Pantalam themselves sent Ayyappan as a mercenary to the Pantya rulers to whom the ruler of Pantalam was related. In another late medieval era variation of the story, Ayyappan forms an alliance with the Muslim warrior Vavar against Udayanan, the basis for some devotees worshiping both in a mosque and then in the Hindu temple before starting a pilgrimage to Ayyappan shrine.


title: Ayyappan

text: According to Paul Younger, supplementary legends appeared in the late medieval times that linked other Hindu deities and mythologies to Ayyappan heritage. One such story links Ayyappan to the buffalo-demon Mahishasura and buffalo-demoness Mahishasuri. The divine beings Datta and Lila came to earth as humans. Datta wanted to return to the divine realm, but Lila enjoyed her life on earth and Datta's company. She wanted to stay on earth. Datta became angry and cursed her to become a Mahishi, or water buffalo demoness. Lila in turn cursed him to become a Mahisha, or water buffalo demon. They plundered earth with their evil acts. The water buffalo demon Mahishasura was killed by goddess Durga, while the water demoness Mahishasuri was killed by Ayyapan, ending the terror of evil and liberating divine Lila who was previously cursed. These legends, states Younger, syncretically link and combine various Hindu traditions around Shiva (Shaivism), Vishnu (Vaishnavism) and Devi (Shaktism).


title: Ayyappan

text: There are many temples in Kerala whose presiding deity is Ayyappan, the most famous among them being the Sabarimala temple. Padinettam Padi Karuppan is Guardian Of Ayyappan temple. The temple attracts millions of visitors every year during mandala season from mid November to mid January. Other important temples are Kulathupuzha Sastha Temple, Aryankavu Sastha Temple, Achankovil Sree Dharmasastha Temple, Erumely Sree Dharmasastha Temple and Ponnambalamedu Temple.


title: Ayyappan

text: Ayyappan temples typically show him as a celibate yogi. A few important temples such as the one at Achankovil Sree Dharmasastha Temple near Travancore, however, depict him as a married man with two wives Poorna and Pushkala, as well as a son "Satyaka". Some of Ayyappan temples are believed to have been established by the Vishnu avatar Parashurama.


title: Ayyappan

text: Ayyappan has roots in Kerala, but his influence and popularity have grown among the Hindus in South Indian states. Of his many temples, the most significant is at Sabarimala (also spelled Sabarimalai), set in the forests of the Pathanamthitta district in the Western Ghats on the banks of river Pamba, southeast of Kottayam. It is a major pilgrimage, attracting millions of Hindus every year, particularly of Malayali, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu heritage.


title: Ayyappan

text: Many begin preparations months in advance by leading a simple life, doing yoga, abstaining from sex, eating a vegetarian diet or partially fasting, wearing black or blue or "sadhu"-style dress for forty one days, then trekking as a group to the shrine. The group does not recognize any form of social or economic discrimination such as caste, and all devotees form a fraternity welcoming each other as equals. The pilgrims call each other by the same name during the trek: "swami". After their long walk covering about 18 miles, they bathe in the Pamba river, then they climb 18 steps at the Sabarimala shrine, each representing a dharmic value (ethics, or interiorized gods). The shrine priests and devotees bring flowers from all over the Western Ghats and scatter them near the shrine, all the while chanting "shlokas".


title: Ayyappan

text: To keep the human traffic organized, Ayyappan devotees reserve and are assigned a pilgrimage day from one of the 51 days of pilgrimage, and each day sees over 100,000 walking pilgrims. Women of menstruating age (between the ages of 10-50) were strictly prohibited in the temple until 2018. This was said to be due to the belief that Lord Ayyappan is a Brahmachari (celibate) deity. The Supreme Court of India ruled on 28 September 2018 that women could not be prohibited from entering the temple. This led to violent protests.


title: Ayyappan

text: The devotees wear simple dress on the day of the pilgrimage up the hills and through the forest, many go barefoot, carry "irumudi" (a walking stick for regional Hindu yogis with two compartment little bag sometimes carried on head), wear Tulasi leaves and Rudraksha beads around their neck (symbolism for Vishnu and Shiva) while fellow Hindus gather along the trek path, cheering and helping them complete their journey. For the Ayyappan pilgrims, states E. Valentine Daniel, the pilgrimage is a part of their spiritual journey.


title: Ayyappan

text: He is also revered by Muslims in Kerala due to his friendship with Vavar, who is identified as a Muslim brigand in local versions of the Ayyappan myth. In this mythology, Ayyappan confronts the plunder-driven pirate robber Vavar in the jungle on his way to collect tigress milk. They fight. Ayyappan defeats Vavar, and Vavar changes his way, becomes Ayyappan's trusted lieutenant helping fight other pirates and robbers. In another version, Vavar is stated to be a Muslim saint from Arabia, who works with Ayyappan.


title: Ayyappan

text: A mosque dedicated to Ayyappan's lieutenant Vavar swami stands next to the Kadutha swami shrine at the foot of the pilgrimage path, both as a form of guardian deities. Some pilgrims offer a prayer to both, before beginning their Sabarimala forest and mountain pilgrimage hike. According to Kent, the mosque does not contain mortal remains of Vavar swami though the mosque near Sabarimala includes a grave, and no one can date Vavar nor provide when and where he lived, so he may be a myth. The Vavar legend and "palli" shrines may reflect the Hindu approach to accepting and co-opting legendary figures or saints of other religions within its fold.


title: Ayyappan

text: A number of Indian films have been made about the deity. These include: "Sabarimala Ayyappan" (1961) by S. M. Sriramulu Naidu, "Swami Ayyappan" (1975) by P. Subramaniam, "Saranam Ayyappa" (1980) by Dasarathan, "Arul Tharum Ayyappan" (1987) by Dasarathan, "Shiv Putra Swami Ayappa" (1990) by P.S. Mani, Sabarimala Sri Ayyappan (1990) by Renuka Sharma, "Engal Swamy Ayyappan" (1990) by Dasarathan, "Ayyappa Swamy Mahatyam" (1991), "Ayyappa Deeksha Mahimalu" (1992) by Guda Rama Krishna, "Swami Ayappa Shabarimalai" (1993) by K. Shankar, "Jai Hari Hara Putra Ayyappa" (1995), "Bhagwaan Ayyappa" (2007) by Irajaral Bhakhta and V. Swaminathan, "Swami Ayyappan" (2012) by Chetan Sharma and Mahesh Vettiyar, "Om Sharanam Ayyappa" (2015) by K. Sharath, "Sri Omkara Ayyappane" (2016) by Sai Prakash, "Ayyappa Kataksham" (2019) by Rudrapatla Venugopal.


title: Ayyappan

text: The Indian television channel Asianet launched a Malayalam-language series named "Swami Ayyappan" in 2006, this was followed by "Swami Ayyappan Saram" (2010), "Sabarimala Shri Dharmashasta" (2012) and "Sabarimala Swami Ayappan" (2019). The 2021 movie The Great Indian Kitchen prominently features a family of devotees of Ayyappan.


title: Ayyappan

text: The story of Ayyappa is dictated by Parvati to Ganesha in the Indian TV show on Sony TV, called Vighnaharta Ganesh.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: The Karate Kid is an American martial arts drama franchise created by Robert Mark Kamen. The series follows the journey of various coming-of-age teenagers who are taught in the ways of martial arts by an experienced mentor in order to stand up for themselves after being bullied, or assert their dominance towards others.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: The original film series began as a tetralogy, starting with the release of "The Karate Kid" (1984), after the success of which three sequels were produced: "The Karate Kid Part II" (1986), "The Karate Kid Part III" (1989), and "The Next Karate Kid" (1994). In 2010, a remake with a similar storyline but with a different set of characters, was released. Despite maintaining the original title, the remake focused on kung fu, as the film was set in China. A sixth film is scheduled to be released in 2024.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: "Cobra Kai" (2018–present) offers a continuation of the universe that the original films of the 1980s and 1990s created, three decades later. While directly based on Kamen's characters, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg created this series.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: An animated series, as well as tie-in video games among other pieces of merchandise, have also been released alongside the films.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: Daniel LaRusso and his mother have just moved to Reseda, Los Angeles from Newark, New Jersey at the start of the school year. Befriending classmate Ali Mills, he comes into conflict with Ali's ex-boyfriend and star pupil of the "Cobra Kai" dojo Johnny Lawrence and his gang. After being beaten up by the Cobra Kai gang in an after-school fight, Daniel finds an unlikely friend and karate sensei in his apartment complex's handyman, Mr. Miyagi, a proficient karate master. Making a deal with Johnny's merciless sensei, John Kreese, to end the fighting, Miyagi trains Daniel to compete at the All-Valley Karate Tournament.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: Immediately following the All-Valley Karate Tournament, Johnny is attacked by his furious sensei, John Kreese, in the parking lot. Mr. Miyagi intervenes, rescuing Johnny and passively humiliating Kreese in the process. Six months later, Miyagi receives a letter about his ailing father and plans to return to his home village on Okinawa Island. With Daniel in tow, Miyagi's past catches up with him as an old rivalry with a former friend is reignited.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: Six months after the 1984 All-Valley Karate Tournament, a down-and-out John Kreese visits his Vietnam War comrade, rich businessman Terry Silver. Silver sends Kreese on vacation to Tahiti, promising to re-establish the Cobra Kai dojo and get revenge on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. Meanwhile, Daniel and Miyagi have returned home from Okinawa to find Daniel's apartment building being demolished and his mother back in New Jersey taking care of a sick relative; Miyagi invites Daniel to stay with him. When Miyagi refuses to train Daniel to defend his title at the tournament, Daniel happens across Silver who offers to train him Cobra Kai-style.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: Mr. Miyagi (the only character from the previous films to return) travels to Boston, Massachusetts in order to attend a commemorative service in for the Japanese-American soldiers who fought in the 442nd Infantry Regiment in World War II. While there, he reacquaints with Louisa Pierce, the widow of his commanding officer. Louisa introduces him to her rebellious teenage granddaughter Julie, whose anger issues – resulting from her parents' deaths – make life difficult for Louisa. Offering to help, Miyagi sends Louisa to his home in Los Angeles for respite while he works to mentor Julie. Julie initially rebuffs Miyagi's help, but warms to him after coming into conflict with the leader of her school's shady security fraternity, Ned.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In this reimagining of the 1984 film, Dre Parker and his mother move from Detroit to Beijing after she transfers jobs. He befriends Meiying, a young musician who goes to his school, but draws the unwanted attention of Cheng, a kung fu prodigy whose family is close to Meiying's. Cheng and his friends relentlessly bully Dre at school to keep him away from Meiying, resulting in a fight on a school field trip where Dre is beaten up before being saved by his apartment building's maintenance man, Mr. Han. After failing to end the bullying by talking with Cheng's ruthless kung fu teacher, Mr. Han agrees to train Dre to compete at an upcoming kung fu tournament.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In a 2021 interview, the creators of "Cobra Kai" stated that characters from the 2010 film would not be appearing in the series. Collaboratively they said that the film is not a part of what they have categorized as "the Miyagi-verse": "Jackie Chan is mentioned in season 1 of the show as a human, so I think in our world, Jackie Chan is an actor and a performer. If the characters on our show have seen a movie called "The Karate Kid", they’ve seen that one".


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In September 2022, a new feature film, described as "the return of the original "Karate Kid" franchise", was confirmed to be in development. "Cobra Kai" co-creator Jon Hurwitz stated that the film was not connected to the television series. The film is scheduled to be released on June 7, 2024.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In this animated children's television series, a miniature shrine with mystical properties has been stolen from its resting place in Okinawa. Joined by Taki Tamurai, Daniel and Mr. Miyagi are tasked with locating it and returning it home, travelling the globe on a series of adventures. The characters were not voiced by the original film actors, although Pat Morita voiced the opening narration.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: With regard to "Cobra Kai", executive producer and co-creator Jon Hurwitz revealed that "The Karate Kid" series is not canon, but an Easter Egg from it appears in Season 3 in response to the question about the "Karate Kid" animated series official status within "The Karate Kid" universe. The Easter Egg was the Miyagi-Do shrine, briefly seen at Chozen Toguchi's dojo in Okinawa halfway through the season. The artifacts were recovered by Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi in the short-lived "Karate Kid" animated series, which ran for thirteen episodes in 1989.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: 34 years after the 1984 All-Valley Karate Tournament, a down-and-out Johnny Lawrence, now in his 50s, has just lost his job. After getting arrested for rescuing his teenage neighbor Miguel Diaz from a group of bullies, then getting cut-loose and disowned by his step-father, Johnny agrees to teach Miguel karate and reopens the Cobra Kai dojo, attracting social outcasts who build their self-confidence under his unorthodox tutelage. Meanwhile, Daniel LaRusso owns a successful chain of car dealerships and is happily married to his wife Amanda but struggles to keep a balanced life without the guidance of his now-deceased mentor, Mr. Miyagi. Johnny's estranged and troubled son, Robby Keene, hoping to get back at his father, comes under Daniel's wing – initially not knowing Robby's parentage – giving Robby a job at his car dealership and teaching him Miyagi-Do karate. Daniel and Johnny come into conflict after Cobra Kai's return is made public, while Daniel's daughter Samantha gets caught in the middle.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: According to Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, only the characters from the original four films "The Karate Kid" (1984), "The Karate Kid Part II" (1986), "The Karate Kid Part III" (1989), and "The Next Karate Kid" (1994) comprise the "Miyagi-verse" that shapes "Cobra Kai".


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: "The Karate Kid" is a semi-autobiographical story based on the life of its screenwriter, Robert Mark Kamen. At age 17, after the 1964 New York World's Fair, Kamen was beaten up by a gang of bullies. He thus began to study martial arts in order to defend himself. Kamen was unhappy with his first teacher who taught martial arts as a tool for violence and revenge. He moved on to study Okinawan Gōjū-ryū karate under a Japanese teacher who did not speak English, but was himself a student of Chōjun Miyagi.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: As a Hollywood screenwriter, Kamen was mentored by Frank Price who told him that producer Jerry Weintraub had optioned a news article about the young child of a single mother who had earned a black belt to defend himself against the neighborhood bullies. Kamen then combined his own life story with the news article and used both to create the screenplay for "The Karate Kid". Additionally, given John G. Avildsen's involvement with both films, Sylvester Stallone often joked with Kamen that the writer had "ripped off" the "Rocky" films with "The Karate Kid".


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: DC Comics had a character called Karate Kid. The filmmakers received special permission from DC Comics in 1984 to use the title for the first film (and subsequent sequels).


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: A number of actors were considered for the part of Daniel LaRusso (originally Daniel Weber), including Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr., Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, Emilio Estevez, Nicolas Cage, Anthony Edwards, C. Thomas Howell, Tom Cruise, Eric Stoltz and D. B. Sweeney. Ralph Macchio was ultimately cast on the strength of his performance as Johnny Cade in "The Outsiders" (1983). Macchio has stated that his performance as Johnny influenced the development of Daniel LaRusso in "The Karate Kid".


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: Macchio later commented that the character was originally named Danny Weber, but was later changed to LaRusso.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: The studio originally wanted the role of Mr. Miyagi to be played by Toshiro Mifune, who had appeared in the Akira Kurosawa films "Rashomon" (1950), "Seven Samurai" (1954), and "The Hidden Fortress" (1958), but the actor did not speak English. Pat Morita later auditioned for the role but was rejected for the part due to his close association with stand-up comedy and with his character Arnold on the sitcom "Happy Days". After a few failed attempts, Morita grew a beard and patterned his accent after his uncle, which led to him being cast in the role.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In a 2020 interview with "Collider", William Zabka revealed that Pat Morita pitched him an idea in 2005, for a fifth film where Johnny Lawrence, now a doctor, is tasked with caregiving for Mr. Miyagi who is in the final stages of his life, and whose health is failing him. During the early days of development, Morita passed away and the project was abandoned.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In January 2022, Ralph Macchio revealed that he had previously been approached in 2012 about the potential for a "The Karate Kid" and "Rocky" crossover film. Intended to be directed by John G. Avildsen, the plot would have involved Daniel LaRusso's daughter and Rocky Balboa, Jr. opening a dojo together. Macchio stated that he and Milo Ventimiglia were pitched the idea, but described the concept as "awful". After Macchio expressed his disinterest in the story, the project subsequently fell into development hell, before being abandoned in favor of "Creed" and "Cobra Kai".


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In January 2020, a Broadway musical adaptation of "The Karate Kid" was revealed to be in development. Amon Miyamoto will serve as director, with an accompanying novel being written by the original film's screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen. Drew Gasparini will serve as the lyricist and composer of the score, while Keone & Mari Madrid will choreograph the play. Kumiko Yoshii, Michael Wolk will serve as producers, with The Kinoshita Group. The cast will include Jovanni Sy as Mr. Miyagi, John Cardoza as Daniel LaRusso, Kate Baldwin as Lucille LaRusso, Alan H. Green as John Kreese, Jake Bentley Young as Johnny Lawrence, Jetta Juriansz as Ali Mills and Luis-Pablo Garcia as Freddie Fernandez. The opening date has yet to be announced.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: The film spawned a franchise of related items and memorabilia such as action figures, head bands, posters, and T-shirts. A novelization was made by B.B. Hiller and published in 1984. The novel had a scene that was in the rehearsal when Daniel encounters Johnny during school at lunch. Also at the end, there was a battle between Miyagi and Kreese in the parking lot after the tournament which was the original ending for the film and used as the beginning of "The Karate Kid Part II".


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In 2015, toy company Funko revived The Karate Kid action figures. Two versions of character Daniel Larusso, a version of character Johnny Lawrence and a version of Mr. Miyagi were part of the line. The toys were spotted at retailers Target and Amazon.com.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: A video game based on the first film was developed by Atlus and published by LJN for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. A video game based on the second film, titled "", was released in 1986.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: "", a video game based on the television series "Cobra Kai", was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in October 2020, while Microsoft Windows version was released in January 2021.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: A mobile game entitled "Cobra Kai: Card Fighter" was released on iOS and Android devices in March 2021.


title: The Karate Kid (franchise)

text: In 2022, Ralph Macchio published the memoir "Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me" (Dutton), in which he reflects upon the making of and legacy of the "Karate Kid" films and "Cobra Kai".


title: Nail clubbing

text: Nail clubbing, also known as digital clubbing or clubbing, is a deformity of the finger or toe nails associated with a number of diseases, mostly of the heart and lungs. When it occurs together with joint effusions, joint pains, and abnormal skin and bone growth it is known as hypertrophic osteoarthropathy.


title: Nail clubbing

text: Clubbing is associated with lung cancer, lung infections, interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis, or cardiovascular disease. Clubbing may also run in families, and occur unassociated with other medical problems.


title: Nail clubbing

text: The incidence of clubbing is unknown; it was present in about 1% of people admitted to an internal medicine unit of a hospital. Clubbing has been recognized as a sign of disease since the time of Hippocrates.


title: Nail clubbing

text: Nail clubbing is not specific to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Therefore, in patients with COPD and significant degrees of clubbing, a search for signs of bronchogenic carcinoma (or other causes of clubbing) might still be indicated. A congenital form has also been recognized.


title: Nail clubbing

text: A special form of clubbing is hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy (HPOA), known in continental Europe as Pierre Marie-Bamberger syndrome. This is the combination of clubbing and thickening of periosteum (connective tissue lining of the bones) and synovium (lining of joints), and is often initially diagnosed as arthritis. It is commonly associated with lung cancer.


title: Nail clubbing

text: Primary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy is HPOA without signs of pulmonary disease. This form has a hereditary component, although subtle cardiac abnormalities can occasionally be found. It is known eponymously as the Touraine–Solente–Golé syndrome. This condition has been linked to mutations in the gene on the fourth chromosome (4q33-q34) coding for the enzyme 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (HPGD); this leads to decreased breakdown of prostaglandin E2 and elevated levels of this substance.


title: Nail clubbing

text: When clubbing is observed, pseudoclubbing should be excluded before making the diagnosis. Associated conditions may be identified by taking a detailed medical history—particular attention is paid to lung, heart, and gastrointestinal conditions—and conducting a thorough clinical examination, which may disclose associated features relevant to the underlying diagnosis. Additional studies such as a chest X-ray and a chest CT-scan may reveal otherwise asymptomatic cardiopulmonary disease.


title: Nail clubbing

text: Schamroth's sign or Schamroth's window test (originally demonstrated by South African cardiologist Leo Schamroth on himself) is a popular test for clubbing. When the distal phalanges (bones nearest the fingertips) of corresponding fingers of opposite hands are directly opposed (place fingernails of same finger on opposite hands against each other, nail to nail), a small diamond-shaped "window" is normally apparent between the nailbeds. If this window is obliterated, the test is positive and clubbing is present.


title: Nail clubbing

text: The exact frequency of clubbing in the population is not known. A 2008 study found clubbing in 1%, or 15 patients, of 1511 patients admitted to a department of internal medicine in Belgium. Of these, 40%, or 6 patients, turned out to have significant underlying disease of various causes, while 60%, or 9 patients, had no medical problems on further investigations and remained well over the subsequent year.


title: Nail clubbing

text: At least since the time of Hippocrates, clubbing has been recognized as a sign of disease. The phenomenon has been called "Hippocratic fingers".


title: Mujahideen

text: Mujahideen, or Mujahidin (), is the plural form of mujahid (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in "jihad" (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the community ("ummah").


title: Mujahideen

text: The widespread use of the word in English began with reference to the guerrilla-type militant groups led by the Islamist Afghan fighters in the Soviet–Afghan War (see Afghan mujahideen). The term now extends to other jihadist groups in various countries such as Myanmar (Burma), Cyprus, and the Philippines.


title: Mujahideen

text: In its roots, the Arabic word "mujahideen" refers to any person performing "jihad". In its post-classical meaning, "jihad" refers to an act that is spiritually comparable in reward to promoting Islam during the early 600s CE. These acts could be as simple as sharing a considerable amount of one's income with the poor.


title: Mujahideen

text: The modern term of "mujahideen" referring to spiritual Muslim warriors originates in the 19th century, when the term became increasingly identified with the militant Islamic revivalist movement of Syed Ahmad Barelvi, whose self-styled "mujāhidīn" fought both Sikh expansion and Company rule in India. The root of Barelvi's ideas dated back to 1829, when he came back to the village of Sitana from a pilgrimage to the city of Mecca and began preaching war against the "infidels" in the area defining the Northwest border of British India, which was largely under the influence of the Sikhs and British empires. Although he eventually died in battle, the sect he had created continued to grow and the Islamic warriors influenced by his ideals gained more power and prominence. During this period, Pashtun tribal leaders in Afghanistan fought against the British East India Company in the First Anglo-Afghan War (with the British referring to them as the "Sitana Fanatics").


title: Mujahideen

text: The term continued to be used throughout India for Muslim resistance to British colonial rule. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, these holy warriors were said to accept any desertian Indian sepoys and recruit them into their ranks. As time went by, the sect grew ever larger until it was not only conducting bandit raids, but even controlling areas in Afghanistan.


title: Mujahideen

text: The first known use of the word "mujahideen" in reference to what are today known as jihadists was supposedly in the late 19th century, in 1887, by Thomas Patrick Hughes (1838–1911).


title: Mujahideen

text: In Central Asia from 1916 to the 1930s, Islamic guerrillas were opponents of Tsarism and Bolshevism and were called referred to by the Soviets as "basmachi" ('bandits'). These groups called themselves "mojahed", describing themselves as standing for Islam. Other proto-mujahideen include Usman dan Fodio, Jahangir Khoja, and Muhammad Ahmed Al Mahdi.


title: Mujahideen

text: The modern phenomenon of jihadism that presents jihad (offensive or defensive) as the "casus belli" for insurgencies, guerrilla warfare, and international terrorism, originated in the 20th century and draws on early-to-mid-20th century Islamist doctrines such as Qutbism.


title: Mujahideen

text: The name was most closely associated, however, with the mujahideen in Afghanistan, a coalition of guerrilla groups in Afghanistan that opposed the invading Soviet forces and eventually toppled the Afghan communist government during the Afghan War (1978–92). Rival factions thereafter fell out among themselves, precipitating the rise of the Taliban and the opposing Northern Alliance. Like the term "jihad"—to which it is lexicographically connected—the name has been used rather freely, both in the press and by Islamic militants themselves, and often has been used to refer to any Muslim groups engaged in hostilities with non-Muslims or even with secularized Muslim regimes.


title: Mujahideen

text: Arguably the best-known mujahideen outside the Islamic world are the various, loosely aligned Afghan opposition groups who initially rebelled against the government of the pro-Soviet Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) during the late 1970s. At the DRA's request, the Soviet Union brought forces into the country to aid the government in 1979. The mujahideen fought against Soviet and DRA troops during the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989). Afghanistan's resistance movement originated in chaos and, at first, regional warlords waged virtually all of its fighting locally. As warfare became more sophisticated, outside support and regional coordination grew. The basic units of mujahideen organization and action continued to reflect the highly decentralized nature of Afghan society and strong loci of competing mujahideen and Pashtun tribal groups, particularly in isolated areas among the mountains. Eventually, the seven main mujahideen parties allied as the political bloc called Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen. However the parties were not under a single command and had ideological differences.


title: Mujahideen

text: Many Muslims from other countries assisted the various mujahideen groups in Afghanistan. Some groups of these veterans became significant players in later conflicts in and around the Muslim world. Osama bin Laden, originally from a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia, was a prominent organizer and financier of an all-Arab Islamist group of foreign volunteers; his Maktab al-Khadamat funnelled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the Muslim world into Afghanistan, with the assistance and support of the Saudi and Pakistani governments. These foreign fighters became known as "Afghan Arabs" and their efforts were coordinated by Abdullah Yusuf Azzam.


title: Mujahideen

text: Although the mujahideen were aided by the Pakistani, American, British, Chinese and Saudi governments, the mujahideen's primary source of funding was private donors and religious charities throughout the Muslim world—particularly in the Persian Gulf. Jason Burke recounts that "as little as 25 per cent of the money for the Afghan jihad was actually supplied directly by states."


title: Mujahideen

text: Mujahideen forces caused serious casualties to the Soviet forces, and made the war very costly for the Soviet Union. In 1989 the Soviet Union withdrew its forces from Afghanistan. In February 1989 the seven Sunni mujahideen factions formed the Afghan Interim Government (AIG) in Peshawar, led by Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, as an attempt for a united front against the DRA. The AIG became a failure, partly because it could not solve the differences between the factions; partly because of limited public support as it excluded the Iran-backed Shia mujahideen factions, and the exclusion of supporters of ex-King Mohammed Zahir Shah; and the mujahideen's failure in the Battle of Jalalabad in March 1989.


title: Mujahideen

text: In 1992 the DRA's last president, Mohammad Najibullah, was overthrown and most mujahideen factions signed the Peshawar Accords. However, the mujahideen could not establish a functional united government, and many of the larger mujahideen groups began to fight each other over power in Kabul.


title: Mujahideen

text: After several years of devastating fighting, in a small Pashtun village, a mullah named Mohammed Omar organized a new armed movement with the backing of Pakistan. This movement became known as the Taliban ("students" in Pashto), referring to how most Taliban had grown up in refugee camps in Pakistan during the 1980s and were taught in the Saudi-backed Wahhabi madrassas, religious schools known for teaching a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.


title: Mujahideen

text: Even before independence, the Turkish Cypriot community maintained its own paramilitary force (the Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, or TMT), trained and equipped by the Turkish Army. In 1967, this force was renamed the "Mücahit" ("Mujahideen"), and in 1975 the Mücahit was renamed the Turkish Cypriot Security Force. In 1974, Turkey led a land invasion of Northern Cyprus with the aim of protecting the Turkish minority population after a Greek-inspired coup brought a threat of union of the island with Greece. Since then there has been no major fighting on Cyprus and the nation continues to be an independent country, though strongly linked with Turkey militarily and politically.


title: Mujahideen

text: While more than one group in Iran has called itself mujahideen, the most famous is the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI; Persian: Mojāhedin-e Khalq), an Islamic organization that advocates for the overthrow of the leadership of the Iranian Republic. The group has taken part in multiple well-known conflicts in the region, and has been at odds with the conservative government of the Islamic Republic of Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.


title: Mujahideen

text: Another mujahideen was the Mujahedin-e Islam, an Islamic party led by Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani. It formed part of the Iranian National Front during the time of Mohammed Mosaddeq's oil nationalization, but broke away from Mosaddeq over his allegedly un-Islamic policies.


title: Mujahideen

text: From 1947 to 1961, local mujahideen fought against Burmese government soldiers in an attempt to have the Mayu peninsula in northern Arakan, Burma (present-day Rakhine State, Myanmar) secede from the country, so it could be annexed by East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the mujahideen lost most of their momentum and support, resulting in most of them surrendering to government forces.


title: Mujahideen

text: In the 1990s, the well-armed Rohingya Solidarity Organisation was the main perpetrator of attacks on Burmese authorities positioned on the Bangladesh–Myanmar border.


title: Mujahideen

text: In 1969, political tensions and open hostilities developed between the Government of the Philippines and jihadist rebel groups. The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was established by University of the Philippines professor Nur Misuari to condemn the killings of more than 60 Filipino Muslims and later became an aggressor against the government while the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a splinter group from the MNLF, was established to seek an Islamic state within the Philippines and is more radical and more aggressive.


title: Mujahideen

text: The conflict is ongoing; casualty statistics vary for the conflict however the conservative estimates of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program indicate that at least 6,015 people were killed in armed conflict between the Government of Philippines and ASG, BIFM, MILF, and MNLF factions between 1989 and 2012. Abu Sayyaf is an Islamic separatist group in the southern Philippines, formed in 1991. The group is known for its kidnappings of Western nationals and Filipinos, for which it has received several large ransom-payments. Some Abu Sayyaf members have studied or worked in Saudi Arabia and developed relations with the mujahideen members while fighting and training in the war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.


title: Mujahideen

text: The 1990s are a transitional period between the Mujahideen outfits forming part of the proxy wars between the Cold War superpowers and the emergence of contemporary jihadism in the wake of the US "War on Terror" and the "Arab Spring".


title: Mujahideen

text: Al-Qaeda saw its formative period during this time, and jihadism formed part of the picture in regional conflicts of the 1990s, including the Yugoslav Wars, the Somali Civil War, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the First Chechen War, etc.


title: Mujahideen

text: During the Bosnian war 1992–1995, many foreign Muslims came to Bosnia as mujahideen. Muslims around the world who shared mujahideen beliefs and respected the author of Islamic Declaration come to the aid of fellow Muslims. Alija Izetbegovic, author of Islamic Declaration and in his younger days author of poem "To the Jihad" was particularly happy about the presence of Mujahedeens in Bosnia and gave them full support. El Mujahid members claimed that in Bosnia they only have respect for Alija Izetbegovic and the head of the Bosnian Army Third Corps, Sakib Mahmuljin. The number of foreign Muslim volunteers in Bosnia was estimated at about 4,000 in contemporary newspaper reports. Later research estimated the number to be about 400. They came from various places such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories; to quote the summary of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia judgment:


title: Mujahideen

text: The evidence shows that foreign volunteers arrived in central Bosnia in the second half of 1992 with the aim of helping Muslims. Mostly they came from North Africa, the Near East and the Middle East. The foreign volunteers differed considerably from the local population, not only because of their physical appearance and the language they spoke, but also because of their fighting methods. The various foreign, Muslim volunteers were primarily organized into an umbrella detachment of the 7th Muslim Brigade, which was a brigade of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, based in Zenica. This independent subdivision colloquially known as "El-Mudžahid", was composed exclusively of foreign nationals and not Bosnians (whereas the 7th Muslim Brigade was entirely made up of native Bosnians) and consisted of somewhere between 300 and 1,500 volunteers. Enver Hadžihasanović, Lieutenant Colonel of the Bosnian Army's 3rd Corps, appointed Mahmut Karalić (Commandant), Asim Koričić (Chief of Staff) and Amir Kubura (Assistant Chief for Operational and Curricula) to lead the group.


title: Mujahideen

text: Some of the mujahideen funnelled arms and money into the country which Bosnia direly needed due to a United Nations-sanctioned arms embargo restricting the import of weapons into all of the republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. However, many of the mujahideen were extremely devout Muslims of the strict Salafi sect, which contrasted sharply with the relatively secular society of Bosnian Muslims. This led to friction between the mujahideen and the Bosnians.


title: Mujahideen

text: Foreign volunteers in Bosnia have been accused of committing war crimes during the conflict. However, the ICTY has never issued indictments against mujahideen fighters. Instead, the ICTY indicted some Bosnian Army commanders on the basis of superior criminal responsibility. The ICTY acquitted Amir Kubura and Enver Hadžihasanović of the Bosnian 3rd Corps of all charges related to the incidents involving mujahideen. Furthermore, the Appeals Chamber noted that the relationship between the 3rd Corps and the El Mujahedin detachment was not one of subordination but was instead close to overt hostility since the only way to control the detachment was to attack them as if they were a distinct enemy force.


title: Mujahideen

text: The ICTY Trial Chamber convicted Rasim Delic, the former chief of the Bosnian Army General Staff. The ICTY found that Delic had effective control over the El Mujahid Detachment. He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for his failure to prevent or punish the cruel treatment of twelve captured Serb soldiers by the Mujahideen. Delic remained in the Detention Unit while appellate proceedings continued.


title: Mujahideen

text: Some individuals of the Bosnian Mujahideen, such as Abdelkader Mokhtari, Fateh Kamel, and Karim Said Atmani, gained particular prominence within Bosnia as well as international attention from various foreign governments. They were all North African volunteers with well established links to Islamic Fundamentalist groups before and after the Bosnian War.


title: Mujahideen

text: In 2015, former Human Rights Minister and Federation BiH Vice President Mirsad Kebo talked about numerous war crimes committed against Serbs by mujahideen in Bosnia and their links with current and past Muslim officials including former and current presidents of federation and presidents of parliament based on war diaries and other documented evidence. He gave evidence to the BiH federal prosecutor.


title: Mujahideen

text: The term "mujahideen" has often been used to refer to all separatist fighters in the case of the First and Second Chechen Wars. However, in this article, mujahideen is used to refer to the foreign, non-Caucasian fighters who joined the separatists’ cause for the sake of Jihad. They are often called Ansaar (helpers) in related literature dealing with this conflict to prevent confusion with the native fighters.


title: Mujahideen

text: Foreign mujahideen have played a part in both Chechen wars. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent Chechen declaration of independence, foreign fighters began entering the region and associating themselves with local rebels (most notably Shamil Basayev). Many of the foreign fighters were veterans of the Soviet–Afghan War. The mujahideen also made a significant financial contribution to the separatists’ cause; with their access to the immense wealth of Salafist charities like al-Haramein, they soon became an invaluable source of funds for the Chechen resistance, which had few resources of its own.


title: Mujahideen

text: Most of the mujahideen decided to remain in Chechnya after the withdrawal of Russian forces. In 1999, foreign fighters played an important role in the ill-fated Chechen incursion into Dagestan, where they suffered a decisive defeat and were forced to retreat back into Chechnya. The incursion provided the new Russian government with a pretext for intervention. Russian ground forces invaded Chechnya again in 1999.


title: Mujahideen

text: The separatists were less successful in the Second Chechen War. Russian officials claimed that the separatists had been defeated as early as 2002. The Russians also succeeded in killing the most prominent mujahideen commanders, most notably Ibn al-Khattab and Abu al-Walid.


title: Mujahideen

text: Although the region has since been far from stable, separatist activity has decreased, though some foreign fighters remain active in Chechnya. In the last months of 2007, the influence of foreign fighters became apparent again when Dokka Umarov proclaimed the Caucasus Emirate being fought for by the Caucasian Mujahadeen, a pan-Caucasian Islamic state of which Chechnya was to be a province. This move caused a rift in the resistance movement between those supporting the Emirate and those who were in favour of preserving the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.


title: Mujahideen

text: In India, an outfit calling itself the Indian Mujahideen came to light in 2008 with multiple large scale terror attacks. On 26 November 2008, a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for a string of attacks across Mumbai. The "Weekly Standard" claimed, "Indian intelligence believes the Indian Mujahideen is a front group created by Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami to confuse investigators and cover the tracks of the Students Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI, a radical Islamist movement with aim to establish Islamic rule over India. In the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmiri Muslim separatists opposing Indian rule are often known as "mujahideen". The members of the Salafi movement (within Sunni Islam) in the south Indian state of Kerala is known as "Mujahids".


title: Mujahideen

text: Many militant groups have been involved in the war in North West Pakistan, most notably the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Al Qaeda, and ISIS Khorasan Province. These groups refer to themselves as the "mujahideen" in their war against the Pakistani military and the west. Several different militant groups have also taken root in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Most noticeable of these groups are Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Hizbul Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). A 1996 report by Human Rights Watch estimated the number of active mujahideen at 3,200.


title: Mujahideen

text: In Bangladesh, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was an Islamist organisation that was officially banned by the government of Bangladesh in February 2005 after attacks on NGOs. It struck back in mid-August when it detonated 500 bombs at 300 locations throughout Bangladesh.


title: Mujahideen

text: The term "mujahideen" is sometimes applied to fighters who joined the insurgency after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.


title: Mujahideen

text: Some groups also use the word "mujahideen" in their names, like Mujahideen Shura Council and Mujahideen Army.


title: Mujahideen

text: Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq as part of the George W. Bush administration's post 9/11 foreign policy, many foreign Mujahideen joined several Sunni militant groups resisting the U.S. occupation of Iraq. A considerable part of the insurgents did not come from Iraq but instead from many other Arab countries, notably Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Among these recruits was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who would go on to assume the leadership of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).


title: Mujahideen

text: Various Islamic groups, often referred to as mujahideen and jihadists, have participated in the Syrian civil war. Alawites, the sect to which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belongs, are considered to be heretics in some Sunni Muslim circles. In this sense, radical Sunni jihadist organizations and their affiliates have been anti-Assad. Jihadist leaders and intelligence sources said foreign fighters had begun to enter Syria only in February 2012. In May 2012, Syria's U.N. envoy Bashar Ja'afari declared that dozens of foreign fighters from Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Britain, France elsewhere had been captured or killed, and urged Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to stop "their sponsorship of the armed rebellion". Jihadist leaders and intelligence sources said foreign fighters had begun to enter Syria only in February 2012. In June, it was reported that hundreds of foreign fighters, many linked to al-Qaeda, had gone to Syria to fight against Assad. When asked if the United States would arm the opposition, Hillary Clinton expressed doubts that such weapons would be effective in the toppling of the Syrian government and may even fall into the hands of al-Qaeda or Hamas.


title: Mujahideen

text: American officials assumed already in 2012 that Qaidat al-Jihad (a.k.a. Al-Qaeda in Iraq) has conducted bomb attacks against Syrian government forces, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that al-Qaeda in Iraq members have gone to Syria, where the militants previously received support and weapons from the Syrian government in order to destabilize the US occupation of Iraq. On 23 April, one of the leaders of Fatah al-Islam, Abdel Ghani Jawhar, was killed during the Battle of Al-Qusayr, after he unintentionally blew himself up while making a bomb. In July 2012, Iraq's foreign minister again warned that members of al-Qaeda in Iraq were seeking refuge in Syria and moving there to fight.


title: Mujahideen

text: A member of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades in Lebanon admitted that his group had sent fighters to Syria. On 12 November 2018, the United States closed its financial system to an Iraqi named, Shibl Muhsin 'Ubayd Al-Zaydi and others over concerns that they were sending Iraqi fighters to Syria and financial support to other Hezbollah activities in the region.


title: Mujahideen

text: The Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC) was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. Department of State.


title: Mujahideen

text: On 12 November 2018, the Department of State blacklisted the Al-Mujahidin Brigades (AMB) over its alleged Hezbollah associations, as well as Jawad Nasrallah, son of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, from using the United States financial system and further naming him a terrorist associated with evidence of his involvement in attacks against Israel in the West Bank. It had been reported in Israel that the AMB was formerly linked to the Fatah rather than the Hamas organization.


title: Mujahideen

text: Boko Haram has been active in Nigeria since it was founded in 2001. It existed in other forms before 2001. Although it initially limited its operations to northeast Nigeria, it has since expanded to other parts of Nigeria, and to Cameroon, Niger and Chad. Boko Haram seeks to implement sharia law across Nigeria.


title: Mujahideen

text: The currently active jihadist groups in Somalia derive from the Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya group active during the 1990s.


title: Mujahideen

text: In July 2006, a Web-posted message purportedly written by Osama bin Laden urged Somalis to build an Islamic state in the country and warned western states that his al-Qaeda network would fight against them if they intervened there. Foreign fighters began to arrive, though there were official denials of the presence of mujahideen in the country. Even so, the threat of jihad was made openly and repeatedly in the months preceding the Battle of Baidoa. On 23 December 2006, Islamists, for the first time, called upon international fighters to join their cause. The term "mujahideen" is now openly used by the post-ICU resistance against the Ethiopians and the TFG.


title: Mujahideen

text: Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen is said to have non-Somali foreigners in its ranks, particularly among its leadership. Fighters from the Persian Gulf and international jihadists were called to join the holy war against the Somali government and its Ethiopian allies. Though Somali Islamists did not use suicide bombing tactics before, the foreign elements of al-Shabaab are blamed for several suicide bombings. Egypt has a longstanding policy of securing the Nile River flow by destabilizing Ethiopia. Similarly, recent media reports said that Egyptian and Arab jihadists were the core members of Al-Shabaab, and were training Somalis in sophisticated weaponry and suicide bombing techniques.


title: Mujahideen

text: In April 2017, the government of China prohibited parents from choosing the name "Mujahid" as the given name for a child. The list included more than two dozen names and was targeted at the 10 million Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Italian motor manufacturer Alfa Romeo has participated many times in Formula One. It currently participates as Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen while being operated by Sauber Motorsport AG. The brand has competed in motor racing as both a constructor and engine supplier sporadically between and , and later as a commercial partner since . The company's works drivers won the first two World Drivers' Championships in the pre-war Alfetta: Nino Farina in 1950 and Juan Manuel Fangio in . Following these successes, Alfa Romeo withdrew from Formula One.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: During the 1960s, although the company had no official presence in the top tier of motorsport, several Formula One teams used independently developed Alfa Romeo engines to power their cars. In the early 1970s, Alfa provided Formula One support for their works driver Andrea de Adamich, supplying adapted versions of their 3-litre V8 engine from the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3 sports car to power Adamich's McLaren () and March () entries. None of these engine combinations scored championship points.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: In the mid-1970s, Alfa engineer Carlo Chiti designed a flat-12 engine to replace the T33 V8, which achieved some success in taking the 1975 World Sportscar Championship. Bernie Ecclestone, then owner of the Brabham Formula One team, persuaded Alfa Romeo to supply this engine free for the 1976 Formula One season. Although the Brabham-Alfa Romeo's first season was relatively modest, during the and World Championships their cars took 14 podium finishes, including two race victories for Niki Lauda.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: The company's sporting department, Autodelta, returned as the works team in . This second period as a constructor was less successful than the first. Between the company's return and its withdrawal as a constructor at the end of , Alfa works drivers did not win a race and the team never finished higher than sixth in the World Constructors' Championship. The team's engines were also supplied to Osella from to 1987, but they scored only two World Championship points during this period.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: The Alfa Romeo logo returned to Formula One in 2015, appearing on the Scuderia Ferrari cars. In late 2017, Alfa Romeo announced that they were to become title sponsors for Sauber from , and had entered into a technical and commercial partnership with the team. Alfa Romeo returned to the sport when Sauber was renamed at the beginning of .


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Alfa Romeo had often been a force in Grand Prix racing before World War II. Cars like the P2 and the P3 were winners regularly until the German Mercedes and Auto Union cars came around in 1934; Alfa by this time had withdrawn temporarily as a manufacturer from racing but continued to give direct support to privateers like Enzo Ferrari and his Scuderia Ferrari team. From 1934 to the start of World War II in 1939, Alfa rarely won and their cars looked rather outdated and badly built compared to the high-tech Mercedes. Alfa was able to make the 158 for the 1938 season, although this car was not competitive against Mercedes; but was to become dominant later on; Alfa continued to use this car at Grands Prix in 1946 to 1949. When the new Formula One World Championship had come around, Alfa had dominated post-WWII racing from 1946 to 1949 – winning every Grand Prix they entered except for 3.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: In 1950 Nino Farina won the inaugural World Championship of Drivers in a 158 with a supercharger, in 1951 Juan Manuel Fangio won while driving an Alfetta 159 (an evolution of the 158 with a two-stage compressor). The Alfetta's engines were extremely powerful for their capacity: in 1951 the 159 engine was producing around but this was at the price of fuel consumption of 125 to 175 litres per 100 km (1.5 mpg–U.S. / 3 mpg–imp). In 1952, facing increased competition from their former employee, Ferrari; Alfa Romeo, a state-owned company, decided to withdraw after a refusal of the Italian government to fund the expensive design of a new car to replace their 13-year-old workhorse. Surprisingly, Alfa Romeo involvement in racing was made with a very thin budget, using mostly pre-war technology and material during the two seasons. For instance, the team won two championships using only nine pre-war built engine blocks.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: During 1977, and after some persuasion by Chiti, Alfa Romeo gave Autodelta permission to start developing a Formula One car on their behalf. Thus named the Alfa Romeo 177, the car made its debut at the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix. The partnership with Brabham had finished before the end of the season, with Bernie Ecclestone's outfit returning to Ford/Cosworth DFV engines. This second Alfa works Formula One project was never truly successful during its existence from the middle of 1979 until the end of 1985. During this period Alfa Romeo achieved two pole positions, Bruno Giacomelli led much of the 1980 United States Grand Prix before retiring with electrical trouble, three 3rd places, two 2nd places and one fastest lap. They also endured tragedy when their driver Patrick Depailler was killed testing for the 1980 German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring. In they had the services of Mario Andretti but continued to be dogged by poor reliability. After a restructuring of Autodelta, the team operations and design of the car were outsourced to Euroracing in , with the works engines still being supplied by Autodelta. The team's best season was when the team switched to the turbocharged 890T V8 engine and achieved 6th place in the Constructors' Championship, largely thanks to two second-place finishes for Andrea de Cesaris.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: While the turbocharged 890T proved competitive in 1983, more powerful and fuel-efficient engines from BMW, Ferrari, Renault, TAG-Porsche and Honda, plus the FIA imposed 220-litre fuel limit with no re-fuelling allowed during pit stops during , saw the decline of the Euro racing Alfa Romeo team as a competitive force in Grand Prix racing. The 890T (the only turbo V8 engine used in GP racing at this time) was very thirsty and suffered badly at fast circuits- particularly both of Alfa's home circuits of Imola and Monza. To temporarily rectify this problem, the team had to run with less boost to save fuel- which made the engine underpowered, and this proved to be a severe hindrance at fast circuits- the kind of circuits where they almost always had to do that. The engine was developed but the fuel consumption problems were never really rectified. Riccardo Patrese's third-place finish at the 1984 Italian Grand Prix being the last podium finish for the team, with both Patrese and Eddie Cheever often failing to finish races throughout 1984 and due to running out of fuel- Cheever ran out of fuel 5 laps before the end at Alfa's home Grand Prix at Monza- close to Alfa's headquarters in Milan.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: The team's 1985 car, the Alfa Romeo 185T proved to be so uncompetitive that the 1984 car, the 184T was re-called into service mid-season. After being updated to 1985 specifications the car, now dubbed the 184 TB, was an improvement over the 1985 car, but results were still not forthcoming. In an interview he gave in 2000, Riccardo Patrese described the 185T as "the worst car I ever drove".


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Alfa Romeo pulled out of Formula One as a constructor following the final race of the 1985 season in Australia.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: In January 2019, Sauber announced the team would rename to Alfa Romeo Racing, but unlike BMW Sauber, the ownership, Swiss racing licence and management structure would remain unchanged. Alfa Romeo's challenger for the season was the C38, continuing the naming convention from previous Sauber Formula One cars. The C38 included unique aerodynamic design elements in comparison to its rivals and predecessors, particularly at the front of the car as a result of regulation changes for the new season. 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen and former Sauber reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi were hired as the team's drivers. Giovinazzi briefly led the Singapore Grand Prix for four laps, the first Alfa Romeo driver to lead a lap since Andrea de Cesaris did so at the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix. The team's best result of the year came at the chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix, where Räikkönen and Giovinazzi were classified 4th and 5th respectively. Alfa Romeo finished the year in 8th place in the Constructors' Championship with 57 points.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Alfa Romeo entered the season with an unchanged driver lineup. In January 2020 the team announced that they would enter a title sponsorship arrangement with Polish oil company PKN Orlen and that Robert Kubica would join as a reserve driver.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Alfa Romeo Racing would remain as the team's name after Sauber and Alfa Romeo had reached an agreement.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Räikkönen retired from Formula One after concluding the 2021 championship season, while Giovinazzi departed the team to compete in Formula E. The team signed former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and Formula 2 graduate Zhou Guanyu for the season.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Alfa Romeo are due to pull out of Formula One at the end of 2023, ending their partnership with Sauber.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: During the 1960s, several minor F1 teams used Alfa Romeo straight-4 engines in cars such as the LDS Mk1 and Mk2 "Specials", Coopers and De Tomasos.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: In 1962, Peter de Klerk created a custom-made, single-seater racing special built for the South African Formula One Championship. De Klerk's car was powered by an Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.5-litre straight-4 engine that was also used by LDS, but unlike the LDS cars, de Klerk's car was christened as the Alfa Special. The Special participated in two Grands Prix, retiring at the 1963 South African Grand Prix and finishing 10th at the 1965 South African Grand Prix. It also entered five non-championship Grands Prix, scoring a podium finish at the 1963 Rand Grand Prix.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: In the end of the 1960s, Alfa Romeo was developing a new V8 engine for its racing cars, this engine was tested briefly in Cooper T86C F1-3-68 by Lucien Bianchi. Alfa Romeo briefly returned to Formula One for the and seasons with a V8 engine based on their sportscar unit. In 1970 the unit was mainly entrusted to Andrea de Adamich, a long time Alfa driver, in a third works McLaren. The combination often failed to qualify and was uncompetitive when it did run in the races. In 1971 a similar arrangement saw de Adamich run most of the second half of the season in a works March car, with a similar lack of success.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: In 1976 Bernie Ecclestone did a deal for the Brabham Formula One team to use Alfa Romeo engines based on their new flat-12 sports car unit, designed by Carlo Chiti. The engines were free and produced a claimed against the of the ubiquitous Cosworth DFV; although the 12-cylinder Alfa engine was heavier and used more oil and water than the 8-cylinder DFV, because of more mechanical processes going on in it. Packaging the engines was difficult – they had to be removed to change the spark plugs – and the high fuel consumption engine required no fewer than four separate fuel tanks to contain of fuel. Gordon Murray's increasingly adventurous designs, like the BT46 which won two races in 1978, were partly a response to the challenge of producing a suitably light and aerodynamic chassis around the bulky unit. When aerodynamic ground effect became important in 1978, it was clear that the low, wide engines would interfere with the large venturi tunnels under the car which were needed to create the ground effect. At Murray's instigation, Alfa produced a narrower V12 design in only three months for the 1979 season, but it continued to be unreliable and fuel inefficient.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: For the 1987 season, Alfa Romeo made a deal to supply engines to Ligier. A Gianni Tonti designed, twin turbo 1500 cc straight-4 named the Alfa Romeo 415T was tested in a Ligier JS29 by René Arnoux. When Fiat (the same company that owned F1 giant Ferrari) took control of Alfa Romeo, the deal was cancelled (ostensibly due to negative remarks by Arnoux about the engine, comparing it to used food) and Ligier had to use Megatron (ex BMW) engines for the entire 1987 season.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Alfa also supplied engines to the small and unsuccessful Italian Osella team from 1983 to 1988. Normally aspirated (1983) and turbo (1984–1987) engines were used. In the beginning, Alfa also offered some technical input to the small Turin team; the 1984 Osella (the model FA 1/F) was based on the 1983 works Alfa Romeo 183T, the first chassis was a lightly reworked 183T. All the following Osella models up to the FA1L in 1988 had their origins in the 183T design.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: By 1988, the last turbo season, Alfa was fed up with the negative publicity generated by Enzo Osella's cars, so the Milan-based manufacturer prohibited the further use of its name in connection with the engine. The 1988 engines were simply dubbed "Osella V8". At the end of that season, the relationship finished, ending Alfa Romeo's involvement in Formula One.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: In 1985, Alfa Romeo started a V10 Formula One engine project, in anticipation of the upcoming rules forbidding turbo engines. The engine was targeted to be used with Ligier Formula One cars. This was the first modern V10 Formula One engine, followed soon by Honda and Renault engines. The Alfa Romeo V1035 F1 engine was designed by Pino D'Agostino during the 1986 season. In its first stage the 3.5 litre engine produced and the last version from 1986 could produce at 13300 rpm. After the co-operation with Ligier was cancelled the engine was available to the 164 Pro Car project.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: In 1988, Alfa Romeo (Fiat Group) bought Motor Racing Developments Ltd. (otherwise known as the Brabham F1 team) to build a chassis for a new ProCar series.<ref name="mcz.com/f1"></ref> The car developed was V10 powered Alfa Romeo 164 ProCar (Brabham BT57) and was planned to race in a special racing series (as a support event to Formula One Grands Prix).


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: Alfa Romeo branding has appeared on the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One cars from the 2015 until the 2018 season, starting with the Ferrari SF15-T.


title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One

text: On 29 November 2017, it was announced that Alfa Romeo would be the title sponsor of the Sauber Formula One team starting from the 2018 season in a "multi-year technical and commercial partnership agreement". On 2 December 2017, a press conference was held at the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese (Milan), illustrating the terms of the agreement between the FCA Group and the Swiss Sauber team, followed by a presentation ceremony for the livery and the driver line-up consisting of Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson. A January 2018 interview with Frederic Vasseur revealed that Alfa Romeo were intending to take over the Sauber team, and on 1 February 2019 it was announced that the team would enter the season as Alfa Romeo Racing, although the ownership and management structure will remain unchanged for the season.


title: Melanin

text: Melanin (; from ) is a broad term for a group of natural pigments found in most organisms. Eumelanin is produced through a multistage chemical process known as melanogenesis, where the oxidation of the amino acid tyrosine is followed by polymerization. The melanin pigments are produced in a specialized group of cells known as melanocytes. Functionally, eumelanin serves as protection against UV radiation.


title: Melanin

text: There are five basic types of melanin: eumelanin, pheomelanin, neuromelanin, allomelanin and pyomelanin. The most common type is eumelanin, of which there are two types— brown eumelanin and black eumelanin. Pheomelanin, which is produced when melanocytes are malfunctioning due to derivation of the gene to its recessive format is a cysteine-derivative that contains polybenzothiazine portions that are largely responsible for the of red yellow tint given to some skin or hair colors. Neuromelanin is found in the brain. Research has been undertaken to investigate its efficacy in treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's. Allomelanin and pyomelanin are two types of nitrogen-free melanin.


title: Melanin

text: In the human skin, melanogenesis is initiated by exposure to UV radiation, causing the skin to darken. Eumelanin is an effective absorbent of light; the pigment is able to dissipate over 99.9% of absorbed UV radiation. Because of this property, eumelanin is thought to protect skin cells from UVA and UVB radiation damage, reducing the risk of folate depletion and dermal degradation. Exposure to UV radiation is associated with increased risk of malignant melanoma, a cancer of melanocytes (melanin cells). Studies have shown a lower incidence for skin cancer in individuals with more concentrated melanin, i.e. darker skin tone.


title: Melanin

text: In humans, melanin is the primary determinant of skin color. It is also found in hair, the pigmented tissue underlying the iris of the eye, and the stria vascularis of the inner ear. In the brain, tissues with melanin include the medulla and pigment-bearing neurons within areas of the brainstem, such as the locus coeruleus. It also occurs in the zona reticularis of the adrenal gland.


title: Melanin

text: The melanin in the skin is produced by melanocytes, which are found in the basal layer of the epidermis. Although, in general, human beings possess a similar concentration of melanocytes in their skin, the melanocytes in some individuals and ethnic groups produce variable amounts of melanin. Some humans have very little or no melanin synthesis in their bodies, a condition known as albinism.


title: Melanin

text: Because melanin is an aggregate of smaller component molecules, there are many different types of melanin with different proportions and bonding patterns of these component molecules. Both pheomelanin and eumelanin are found in human skin and hair, but eumelanin is the most abundant melanin in humans, as well as the form most likely to be deficient in albinism.


title: Melanin

text: Eumelanin polymers have long been thought to comprise numerous cross-linked 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI) and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (DHICA) polymers.


title: Melanin

text: There are two types of eumelanin, which are brown eumelanin and black eumelanin. Those two types of eumelanin chemically differ from each other in their pattern of polymeric bonds. A small amount of black eumelanin in the absence of other pigments causes grey hair. A small amount of brown eumelanin in the absence of other pigments causes yellow (blond) hair. The eumelanin is present in the skin and hair, etc.


title: Melanin

text: Pheomelanins (or phaeomelanins) impart a range of yellowish to reddish colors. Pheomelanins are particularly concentrated in the lips, nipples, glans of the penis, and vagina. When a small amount of brown eumelanin in hair, which would otherwise cause blond hair, is mixed with red pheomelanin, the result is orange hair, which is typically called "red" or "ginger" hair. Pheomelanin is also present in the skin, and redheads consequently often have a more pinkish hue to their skin as well. Exposure of the skin to ultraviolet light increases pheomelanin content as it does for eumelanin but rather than absorbing light pheomelanin within the hair and skin reflect yellow to red light which minimizes UV radiation exposure.


title: Melanin

text: In chemical terms, pheomelanins differ from eumelanins in that the oligomer structure incorporates benzothiazine and benzothiazole units that are produced, instead of DHI and DHICA, when the amino acid L-cysteine is present.


title: Melanin

text: Trichochromes (formerly called trichosiderins) are pigments produced from the same metabolic pathway as the eumelanins and pheomelanins, but unlike those molecules they have low molecular weight. They occur in some red human hair. In other words pheomelanin contains sulfur which provides the yellow color while eumelanin does not contain sulfur.


title: Melanin

text: Neuromelanin (NM) is a dark insoluble polymer pigment produced in specific populations of catecholaminergic neurons in the brain. Humans have the largest amount of NM, which is present in lesser amounts in other primates, and totally absent in many other species. The biological function remains unknown, although human NM has been shown to efficiently bind transition metals such as iron, as well as other potentially toxic molecules. Therefore, it may play crucial roles in apoptosis and the related Parkinson's disease.


title: Melanin

text: Melanins have very diverse roles and functions in various organisms. A form of melanin makes up the ink used by many cephalopods (see cephalopod ink) as a defense mechanism against predators. Melanins also protect microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, against stresses that involve cell damage such as UV radiation from the sun and reactive oxygen species. Melanin also protects against damage from high temperatures, chemical stresses (such as heavy metals and oxidizing agents), and biochemical threats (such as host defenses against invading microbes). Therefore, in many pathogenic microbes (for example, in "Cryptococcus neoformans", a fungus) melanins appear to play important roles in virulence and pathogenicity by protecting the microbe against immune responses of its host. In invertebrates, a major aspect of the innate immune defense system against invading pathogens involves melanin. Within minutes after infection, the microbe is encapsulated within melanin (melanization), and the generation of free radical byproducts during the formation of this capsule is thought to aid in killing them. Some types of fungi, called radiotrophic fungi, appear to be able to use melanin as a photosynthetic pigment that enables them to capture gamma rays and harness this energy for growth.


title: Melanin

text: The darker feathers of birds owe their color to melanin and are less readily degraded by bacteria than unpigmented ones or those containing carotenoid pigments. Feathers that contain melanin are also 39% more resistant to abrasion than those that do not because melanin granules help fill the space between the keratin strands that form feathers. Pheomelanin synthesis in birds implies the consumption of cysteine, a semi‐essential amino acid that is necessary for the synthesis of the antioxidant glutathione (GSH) but that may be toxic if in excess in the diet. Indeed, many carnivorous birds, which have a high protein content in their diet, exhibit pheomelanin‐based coloration.


title: Melanin

text: Melanin is also important in mammalian pigmentation. The coat pattern of mammals is determined by the agouti gene which regulates the distribution of melanin. The mechanisms of the gene have been extensively studied in mice to provide an insight into the diversity of mammalian coat patterns.


title: Melanin

text: Melanin in arthropods has been observed to be deposited in layers thus producing a Bragg reflector of alternating refractive index. When the scale of this pattern matches the wavelength of visible light, structural coloration arises: giving a number of species an iridescent color.


title: Melanin

text: Arachnids are one of the few groups in which melanin has not been easily detected, though researchers found data suggesting spiders do in fact produce melanin.


title: Melanin

text: Some moth species, including the wood tiger moth, convert resources to melanin to enhance their thermoregulation. As the wood tiger moth has populations over a large range of latitudes, it has been observed that more northern populations showed higher rates of melanization. In both yellow and white male phenotypes of the wood tiger moth, individuals with more melanin had a heightened ability to trap heat but an increased predation rate due to a weaker and less effective aposematic signal.


title: Melanin

text: Melanin protects "Drosophila" flies and mice against DNA damage from non-UV radiation. Important studies in Drosophila models include Hopwood "et al.", 1985. Much of our understanding of the radioprotective effects of melanin against gamma radiation come from the laboratories and research groups of Irma Mosse. Mosse began in radiobiology in the Soviet era, was increasingly supported by government funding in the wake of the discovery of radiotrophic microbes in Chernobyl, and continues under the Belarusian Institute of Genetics and Cytology. Her most significant contribution is Mosse "et al.", 2000 on mice but also includes Mosse "et al.", 1994, Mosse "et al.", 1997, Mosse "et al.", 1998, Mosse "et al.", 2001, Mosse "et al.", 2002, Mosse "et al.", 2006, Mosse "et al.", 2007 and Mosse "et al.", 2008.


title: Melanin

text: Melanin produced by plants are sometimes referred to as 'catechol melanins' as they can yield catechol on alkali fusion. It is commonly seen in the enzymatic browning of fruits such as bananas. Chestnut shell melanin can be used as an antioxidant and coloring agent. Biosynthesis involves the oxidation of indole-5,6-quinone by the tyrosinase type polyphenol oxidase from tyrosine and catecholamines leading to the formation of catechol melanin. Despite this many plants contain compounds which inhibit the production of melanins.


title: Melanin

text: It is now understood that melanins do not have a single structure or stoichiometry. Nonetheless, chemical databases such as PubChem include structural and empirical formulae; typically "3,8-Dimethyl-2,7-dihydrobenzo[1,2,3-"cd":4,5,6-"c"′"d"′]diindole-4,5,9,10-tetrone". This can be thought of as a single monomer that accounts for the measured elemental composition and some properties of melanin, but is unlikely to be found in nature. Solano claims that this misleading trend stems from a report of an empirical formula in 1948, but provides no other historical detail.


title: Melanin

text: The first step of the biosynthetic pathway for both eumelanins and pheomelanins is catalysed by tyrosinase.


title: Melanin

text: Melanin is brown, non-refractile, and finely granular with individual granules having a diameter of less than 800 nanometers. This differentiates melanin from common blood breakdown pigments, which are larger, chunky, and refractile, and range in color from green to yellow or red-brown. In heavily pigmented lesions, dense aggregates of melanin can obscure histologic detail. A dilute solution of potassium permanganate is an effective melanin bleach.


title: Melanin

text: There are approximately nine types of oculocutaneous albinism, which is mostly an autosomal recessive disorder. Certain ethnicities have higher incidences of different forms. For example, the most common type, called oculocutaneous albinism type 2 (OCA2), is especially frequent among people of black African descent and white Europeans. People with OCA2 usually have fair skin, but are often not as pale as OCA1. They (OCA2 or OCA1? see comments in History) have pale blonde to golden, strawberry blonde, or even brown hair, and most commonly blue eyes. 98.7–100% of modern Europeans are carriers of the derived allele SLC24A5, a known cause of nonsyndromic oculocutaneous albinism. It is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by a congenital reduction or absence of melanin pigment in the skin, hair, and eyes. The estimated frequency of OCA2 among African-Americans is 1 in 10,000, which contrasts with a frequency of 1 in 36,000 in white Americans. In some African nations, the frequency of the disorder is even higher, ranging from 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000. Another form of Albinism, the "yellow oculocutaneous albinism", appears to be more prevalent among the Amish, who are of primarily Swiss and German ancestry. People with this IB variant of the disorder commonly have white hair and skin at birth, but rapidly develop normal skin pigmentation in infancy.


title: Melanin

text: Ocular albinism affects not only eye pigmentation but visual acuity, as well. People with albinism typically test poorly, within the 20/60 to 20/400 range. In addition, two forms of albinism, with approximately 1 in 2,700 most prevalent among people of Puerto Rican origin, are associated with mortality beyond melanoma-related deaths.


title: Melanin

text: The connection between albinism and deafness is well known, though poorly understood. In his 1859 treatise "On the Origin of Species", Charles Darwin observed that "cats which are entirely white and have blue eyes are generally deaf". In humans, hypopigmentation and deafness occur together in the rare Waardenburg's syndrome, predominantly observed among the Hopi in North America. The incidence of albinism in Hopi Indians has been estimated as approximately 1 in 200 individuals. Similar patterns of albinism and deafness have been found in other mammals, including dogs and rodents. However, a lack of melanin "per se" does not appear to be directly responsible for deafness associated with hypopigmentation, as most individuals lacking the enzymes required to synthesize melanin have normal auditory function. Instead, the absence of melanocytes in the stria vascularis of the inner ear results in cochlear impairment, though why this is, is not fully understood.


title: Melanin

text: In Parkinson's disease, a disorder that affects neuromotor functioning, there is decreased neuromelanin in the substantia nigra and locus coeruleus as a consequence of specific dropping out of dopaminergic and noradrenergic pigmented neurons. This results in diminished dopamine and norepinephrine synthesis. While no correlation between race and the level of neuromelanin in the substantia nigra has been reported, the significantly lower incidence of Parkinson's in blacks than in whites has "prompt[ed] some to suggest that cutaneous melanin might somehow serve to protect the neuromelanin in substantia nigra from external toxins."


title: Melanin

text: In addition to melanin deficiency, the molecular weight of the melanin polymer may be decreased by various factors such as oxidative stress, exposure to light, perturbation in its association with melanosomal matrix proteins, changes in pH, or in local concentrations of metal ions. A decreased molecular weight or a decrease in the degree of polymerization of ocular melanin has been proposed to turn the normally anti-oxidant polymer into a pro-oxidant. In its pro-oxidant state, melanin has been suggested to be involved in the causation and progression of macular degeneration and melanoma. Rasagiline, an important monotherapy drug in Parkinson's disease, has melanin binding properties, and melanoma tumor reducing properties.


title: Melanin

text: Higher eumelanin levels also can be a disadvantage, however, beyond a higher disposition toward vitamin D deficiency. Dark skin is a complicating factor in the laser removal of port-wine stains. Effective in treating white skin, in general, lasers are less successful in removing port-wine stains in people of Asian or African descent. Higher concentrations of melanin in darker-skinned individuals simply diffuse and absorb the laser radiation, inhibiting light absorption by the targeted tissue. In a similar manner, melanin can complicate laser treatment of other dermatological conditions in people with darker skin.


title: Melanin

text: Freckles and moles are formed where there is a localized concentration of melanin in the skin. They are highly associated with pale skin.


title: Melanin

text: Nicotine has an affinity for melanin-containing tissues because of its precursor function in melanin synthesis or its irreversible binding of melanin. This has been suggested to underlie the increased nicotine dependence and lower smoking cessation rates in darker pigmented individuals.


title: Melanin

text: Melanocytes insert granules of melanin into specialized cellular vesicles called melanosomes. These are then transferred into the keratinocyte cells of the human epidermis. The melanosomes in each recipient cell accumulate atop the cell nucleus, where they protect the nuclear DNA from mutations caused by the ionizing radiation of the sun's ultraviolet rays. In general, people whose ancestors lived for long periods in the regions of the globe near the equator have larger quantities of eumelanin in their skins. This makes their skins brown or black and protects them against high levels of exposure to the sun, which more frequently result in melanomas in lighter-skinned people.


title: Melanin

text: Not all the effects of pigmentation are advantageous. Pigmentation increases the heat load in hot climates, and dark-skinned people absorb 30% more heat from sunlight than do very light-skinned people, although this factor may be offset by more profuse sweating. In cold climates dark skin entails more heat loss by radiation. Pigmentation also hinders synthesis of vitamin D. Since pigmentation appears to be not entirely advantageous to life in the tropics, other hypotheses about its biological significance have been advanced, for example a secondary phenomenon induced by adaptation to parasites and tropical diseases.


title: Melanin

text: Early humans evolved to have dark skin color around 1.2 million years ago, as an adaptation to a loss of body hair that increased the effects of UV radiation. Before the development of hairlessness, early humans had reasonably light skin underneath their fur, similar to that found in other primates. The most recent scientific evidence indicates that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa between 200,000 and 100,000 years, and then populated the rest of the world through one migration between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, in some areas interbreeding with certain archaic human species (Neanderthals, Denisovans, and possibly others). It seems likely that the first modern humans had relatively large numbers of eumelanin-producing melanocytes, producing darker skin similar to the indigenous people of Africa today. As some of these original people migrated and settled in areas of Asia and Europe, the selective pressure for eumelanin production decreased in climates where radiation from the sun was less intense. This eventually produced the current range of human skin color. Of the two common gene variants known to be associated with pale human skin, "Mc1r" does not appear to have undergone positive selection, while "SLC24A5" has undergone positive selection.


title: Melanin

text: As with peoples having migrated northward, those with light skin migrating toward the equator acclimatize to the much stronger solar radiation. Nature selects for less melanin when ultraviolet radiation is weak. Most people's skin darkens when exposed to UV light, giving them more protection when it is needed. This is the physiological purpose of sun tanning. Dark-skinned people, who produce more skin-protecting eumelanin, have a greater protection against sunburn and the development of melanoma, a potentially deadly form of skin cancer, as well as other health problems related to exposure to strong solar radiation, including the photodegradation of certain vitamins such as riboflavins, carotenoids, tocopherol, and folate.


title: Melanin

text: Melanin in the eyes, in the iris and choroid, helps protect them from ultraviolet and high-frequency visible light; people with gray, blue, and green eyes are more at risk of sun-related eye problems. Further, the ocular lens yellows with age, providing added protection. However, the lens also becomes more rigid with age, losing most of its accommodation—the ability to change shape to focus from far to near—a detriment due probably to protein crosslinking caused by UV exposure.


title: Melanin

text: Recent research suggests that melanin may serve a protective role other than photoprotection. Melanin is able to effectively chelate metal ions through its carboxylate and phenolic hydroxyl groups, in many cases much more efficiently than the powerful chelating ligand ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA). Thus, it may serve to sequester potentially toxic metal ions, protecting the rest of the cell. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the loss of neuromelanin observed in Parkinson's disease is accompanied by an increase in iron levels in the brain.


title: Melanin

text: Evidence exists in support of a highly cross-linked heteropolymer bound covalently to matrix scaffolding melanoproteins. It has been proposed that the ability of melanin to act as an antioxidant is directly proportional to its degree of polymerization or molecular weight. Suboptimal conditions for the effective polymerization of melanin monomers may lead to formation of lower-molecular-weight, pro-oxidant melanin that has been implicated in the causation and progression of macular degeneration and melanoma. Signaling pathways that upregulate melanization in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) also may be implicated in the downregulation of rod outer segment phagocytosis by the RPE. This phenomenon has been attributed in part to foveal sparing in macular degeneration.


title: Melanin

text: The research done by Sarna's team proved that heavily pigmented melanoma cells have Young's modulus about 4.93 kPa, when in non-pigmented ones it was only 0.98 kPa. In another experiment they found that elasticity of melanoma cells is important for its metastasis and growth: non-pigmented tumors were bigger than pigmented and it was much easier for them to spread. They shown that there are both pigmented and non-pigmented cells in melanoma tumors, so that they can both be drug-resistant and metastatic.


title: Japan Ground Self-Defense Force

text: The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service branches.


title: Japan Ground Self-Defense Force

text: New military guidelines, announced in December 2010, direct the Japan Self-Defense Forces away from their Cold War focus on the Soviet Union to a new focus on China, especially in respect of the dispute over the Senkaku Islands.


title: Japan Ground Self-Defense Force

text: The JGSDF operates under the command of the chief of the ground staff, based in the city of Ichigaya, Shinjuku, Tokyo. The present chief of staff is General Yoshihide Yoshida. The JGSDF numbered around 150,000 soldiers in 2018.


title: Japan Ground Self-Defense Force

text: Soon after the end of the Pacific War in 1945 with Japan accepting the Potsdam Declaration, the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy were dismantled by the orders of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). Both were replaced by the United States Armed Forces occupation force, which assumed responsibility for the external defense of Japan.