title: Psychiatry

text: Increasingly, psychiatrists are limiting their practices to psychopharmacology (prescribing medications), as opposed to previous practice in which a psychiatrist would provide traditional 50-minute psychotherapy sessions, of which psychopharmacology would be a part, but most of the consultation sessions consisted of "talk therapy". This shift began in the early 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s and 2000s. A major reason for this change was the advent of managed care insurance plans, which began to limit reimbursement for psychotherapy sessions provided by psychiatrists. The underlying assumption was that psychopharmacology was at least as effective as psychotherapy, and it could be delivered more efficiently because less time is required for the appointment. Because of this shift in practice patterns, psychiatrists often refer patients whom they think would benefit from psychotherapy to other mental health professionals, e.g., clinical social workers and psychologists.


title: Psychiatry

text: The earliest known texts on mental disorders are from ancient India and include the Ayurvedic text, Charaka Samhita. The first hospitals for curing mental illness were established in India during the 3rd century BCE.


title: Psychiatry

text: The Greeks also created early books about mental disorders. Hippocrates theorized that physiological abnormalities may be the root of mental disorders. Historians note that Greek philosophers, including Thales, Plato, and Aristotle (especially in his "De Anima" treatise), addressed the workings of the mind. As early as the 4th century BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that mental disorders had physical rather than supernatural causes. In 387 BCE, Plato suggested that the brain is where mental processes take place.In 4th to 5th Century B.C. Greece, Hippocrates wrote that he visited Democritus and found him in his garden cutting open animals. Democritus explained that he was attempting to discover the cause of madness and melancholy. Hippocrates praised his work. Democritus had with him a book on madness and melancholy. During the 5th century BCE, mental disorders, especially those with psychotic traits, were considered supernatural in origin, a view which existed throughout ancient Greece and Rome, as well as Egyptian regions. Alcmaeon, believed the brain, not the heart, was the “organ of thought.”He tracked the ascending sensory nerves from the body to the brain, theorizing that mental activity originated in the CNS and that the cause of mental illness resided within the brain. He applied this understanding to classify mental diseases and treatments. Religious leaders often turned to versions of exorcism to treat mental disorders often utilizing methods that many consider to be cruel or barbaric methods. Trepanning was one of these methods used throughout history.


title: Psychiatry

text: In the 6th century AD, Lin Xie carried out an early psychological experiment, in which he asked people to draw a square with one hand and at the same time draw a circle with the other (ostensibly to test people's vulnerability to distraction). It has been cited that this was an early psychatric experiment.


title: Psychiatry

text: The Islamic Golden Age fostered early studies in Islamic psychology and psychiatry, with many scholars writing about mental disorders. The Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, also known as "Rhazes", wrote texts about psychiatric conditions in the 9th century. As chief physician of a hospital in Baghdad, he was also the director of one of the first bimaristans in the world.


title: Psychiatry

text: The first bimaristan was founded in Baghdad in the 9th century, and several others of increasing complexity were created throughout the Arab world in the following centuries. Some of the bimaristans contained wards dedicated to the care of mentally ill patients. During the Middle ages, Psychatric hospitals and lunatic asylums were built and expanded throughout Europe. Specialist hospitals such as Bethlem Royal Hospital in London were built in medieval Europe from the 13th century to treat mental disorders, but were used only as custodial institutions and did not provide any type of treatment. It is the oldest extant psychatric hospital in the world.


title: Psychiatry

text: An ancient text known as "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine" identifies the brain as the nexus of wisdom and sensation, includes theories of personality based on yin–yang balance, and analyzes mental disorder in terms of physiological and social disequilibria. Chinese scholarship that focused on the brain advanced during the Qing Dynasty with the work of Western-educated Fang Yizhi (1611–1671), Liu Zhi (1660–1730), and Wang Qingren (1768–1831). Wang Qingren emphasized the importance of the brain as the center of the nervous system, linked mental disorder with brain diseases, investigated the causes of dreams, insomnia, psychosis, depression and epilepsy.


title: Psychiatry

text: The beginning of psychiatry as a medical specialty is dated to the middle of the nineteenth century, although its germination can be traced to the late eighteenth century. In the late 17th century, privately run asylums for the insane began to proliferate and expand in size. In 1713, the Bethel Hospital Norwich was opened, the first purpose-built asylum in England. In 1656, Louis XIV of France created a public system of hospitals for those with mental disorders, but as in England, no real treatment was applied.


title: Psychiatry

text: During the Enlightenment attitudes towards the mentally ill began to change. It came to be viewed as a disorder that required compassionate treatment. In 1758, English physician William Battie wrote his "Treatise on Madness" on the management of mental disorder. It was a critique aimed particularly at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, where a conservative regime continued to use barbaric custodial treatment. Battie argued for a tailored management of patients entailing cleanliness, good food, fresh air, and distraction from friends and family. He argued that mental disorder originated from dysfunction of the material brain and body rather than the internal workings of the mind.


title: Psychiatry

text: The introduction of moral treatment was initiated independently by the French doctor Philippe Pinel and the English Quaker William Tuke. In 1792, Pinel became the chief physician at the Bicêtre Hospital. Patients were allowed to move freely about the hospital grounds, and eventually dark dungeons were replaced with sunny, well-ventilated rooms. Pinel's student and successor, Jean Esquirol (1772–1840), went on to help establish 10 new mental hospitals that operated on the same principles.


title: Psychiatry

text: Although Tuke, Pinel and others had tried to do away with physical restraint, it remained widespread into the 19th century. At the Lincoln Asylum in England, Robert Gardiner Hill, with the support of Edward Parker Charlesworth, pioneered a mode of treatment that suited "all types" of patients, so that mechanical restraints and coercion could be dispensed with—a situation he finally achieved in 1838. In 1839, Sergeant John Adams and Dr. John Conolly were impressed by the work of Hill, and introduced the method into their Hanwell Asylum, by then the largest in the country.


title: Psychiatry

text: The modern era of institutionalized provision for the care of the mentally ill, began in the early 19th century with a large state-led effort. In England, the Lunacy Act 1845 was an important landmark in the treatment of the mentally ill, as it explicitly changed the status of mentally ill people to patients who required treatment. All asylums were required to have written regulations and to have a resident qualified physician. In 1838, France enacted a law to regulate both the admissions into asylums and asylum services across the country.


title: Psychiatry

text: In the United States, the erection of state asylums began with the first law for the creation of one in New York, passed in 1842. The Utica State Hospital was opened around 1850. Many state hospitals in the United States were built in the 1850s and 1860s on the Kirkbride Plan, an architectural style meant to have curative effect.


title: Psychiatry

text: At the turn of the century, England and France combined had only a few hundred individuals in asylums. By the late 1890s and early 1900s, this number had risen to the hundreds of thousands. However, the idea that mental illness could be ameliorated through institutionalization ran into difficulties. Psychiatrists were pressured by an ever-increasing patient population, and asylums again became almost indistinguishable from custodial institutions.


title: Psychiatry

text: In the early 1800s, psychiatry made advances in the diagnosis of mental illness by broadening the category of mental disease to include mood disorders, in addition to disease level delusion or irrationality. The 20th century introduced a new psychiatry into the world, with different perspectives of looking at mental disorders. For Emil Kraepelin, the initial ideas behind biological psychiatry, stating that the different mental disorders are all biological in nature, evolved into a new concept of "nerves", and psychiatry became a rough approximation of neurology and neuropsychiatry. Following Sigmund Freud's pioneering work, ideas stemming from psychoanalytic theory also began to take root in psychiatry. The psychoanalytic theory became popular among psychiatrists because it allowed the patients to be treated in private practices instead of warehoused in asylums.


title: Psychiatry

text: By the 1970s, however, the psychoanalytic school of thought became marginalized within the field. Biological psychiatry reemerged during this time. Psychopharmacology and neurochemistry became the integral parts of psychiatry starting with Otto Loewi's discovery of the neuromodulatory properties of acetylcholine; thus identifying it as the first-known neurotransmitter. Subsequently, it has been shown that different neurotransmitters have different and multiple functions in regulation of behaviour. In a wide range of studies in neurochemistry using human and animal samples, individual differences in neurotransmitters' production, reuptake, receptors' density and locations were linked to differences in dispositions for specific psychiatric disorders. For example, the discovery of chlorpromazine's effectiveness in treating schizophrenia in 1952 revolutionized treatment of the disorder, as did lithium carbonate's ability to stabilize mood highs and lows in bipolar disorder in 1948. Psychotherapy was still utilized, but as a treatment for psychosocial issues. This proved the idea of neurochemical nature of many psychiatric disorders.


title: Psychiatry

text: Another approach to look for biomarkers of psychiatric disorders is Neuroimaging that was first utilized as a tool for psychiatry in the 1980s.


title: Psychiatry

text: In 1963, US president John F. Kennedy introduced legislation delegating the National Institute of Mental Health to administer Community Mental Health Centers for those being discharged from state psychiatric hospitals. Later, though, the Community Mental Health Centers focus shifted to providing psychotherapy for those with acute but less serious mental disorders. Ultimately there were no arrangements made for actively following and treating severely mentally ill patients who were being discharged from hospitals, resulting in a large population of chronically homeless people with mental illness.


title: Psychiatry

text: The institution of psychiatry has attracted controversy since its inception. Scholars including those from social psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and critical psychiatry have produced critiques. It has been argued that psychiatry confuses disorders of the mind with disorders of the brain that can be treated with drugs. that its use of drugs is in part due to lobbying by drug companies resulting in distortion of research; and that the concept of "mental illness" is often used to label and control those with beliefs and behaviours that the majority of people disagree with; and that it is too influenced by ideas from medicine causing it to misunderstand the nature of mental distress. Critique of psychiatry from within the field comes from the critical psychiatry group in the UK.


title: Psychiatry

text: Double argues that most critical psychiatry is anti-reductionist. Rashed argues new mental health science has moved beyond this reductionist critique by seeking integrative and biopsychosocial models for conditions and that much of critical psychiatry now exists with orthodox psychiatry but notes that many critiques remain unaddressed


title: Psychiatry

text: The term "anti-psychiatry" was coined by psychiatrist David Cooper in 1967 and was later made popular by Thomas Szasz. The word "Antipsychiatrie" was already used in Germany in 1904. The basic premise of the anti-psychiatry movement is that psychiatrists attempt to classify "normal" people as "deviant"; psychiatric treatments are ultimately more damaging than helpful to patients; and psychiatry's history involves (what may now be seen as) dangerous treatments, such as psychosurgery an example of this being the frontal lobectomy (commonly called a lobotomy). The use of lobotomies largely disappeared by the late 1970s.


title: Stem cell

text: In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell in a cell lineage. They are found in both embryonic and adult organisms, but they have slightly different properties in each. They are usually distinguished from progenitor cells, which cannot divide indefinitely, and precursor or blast cells, which are usually committed to differentiating into one cell type.


title: Stem cell

text: In mammals, roughly 50–150 cells make up the inner cell mass during the blastocyst stage of embryonic development, around days 5–14. These have stem-cell capability. "In vivo", they eventually differentiate into all of the body's cell types (making them pluripotent). This process starts with the differentiation into the three germ layers – the ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm – at the gastrulation stage. However, when they are isolated and cultured "in vitro", they can be kept in the stem-cell stage and are known as embryonic stem cells (ESCs).


title: Stem cell

text: Adult stem cells are found in a few select locations in the body, known as niches, such as those in the bone marrow or gonads. They exist to replenish rapidly lost cell types and are multipotent or unipotent, meaning they only differentiate into a few cell types or one type of cell. In mammals, they include, among others, hematopoietic stem cells, which replenish blood and immune cells, basal cells, which maintain the skin epithelium, and mesenchymal stem cells, which maintain bone, cartilage, muscle and fat cells. Adult stem cells are a small minority of cells; they are vastly outnumbered by the progenitor cells and terminally differentiated cells that they differentiate into.


title: Stem cell

text: Research into stem cells grew out of findings by Canadian biologists Ernest McCulloch, James Till and Andrew J. Becker at the University of Toronto and the Ontario Cancer Institute in the 1960s. , the only established medical therapy using stem cells is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, first performed in 1958 by French oncologist Georges Mathé. Since 1998 however, it has been possible to culture and differentiate human embryonic stem cells (in stem-cell lines). The process of isolating these cells has been controversial, because it typically results in the destruction of the embryo. Sources for isolating ESCs have been restricted in some European countries and Canada, but others such as the UK and China have promoted the research. Somatic cell nuclear transfer is a cloning method that can be used to create a cloned embryo for the use of its embryonic stem cells in stem cell therapy. In 2006, a Japanese team led by Shinya Yamanaka discovered a method to convert mature body cells back into stem cells. These were termed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).


title: Stem cell

text: The term "stem cell" was coined by Theodor Boveri and Valentin Haecker in late 19th century. Pioneering works in theory of blood stem cell were conducted in the beginning of 20th century by Artur Pappenheim, Alexander Maximow, Franz Ernst Christian Neumann.


title: Stem cell

text: The key properties of a stem cell were first defined by Ernest McCulloch and James Till at the University of Toronto and the Ontario Cancer Institute in the early 1960s. They discovered the blood-forming stem cell, the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC), through their pioneering work in mice. McCulloch and Till began a series of experiments in which bone marrow cells were injected into irradiated mice. They observed lumps in the spleens of the mice that were linearly proportional to the number of bone marrow cells injected. They hypothesized that each lump (colony) was a clone arising from a single marrow cell (stem cell). In subsequent work, McCulloch and Till, joined by graduate student Andrew John Becker and senior scientist Louis Siminovitch, confirmed that each lump did in fact arise from a single cell. Their results were published in "Nature" in 1963. In that same year, Siminovitch was a lead investigator for studies that found colony-forming cells were capable of self-renewal, which is a key defining property of stem cells that Till and McCulloch had theorized.


title: Stem cell

text: The first therapy using stem cells was a bone marrow transplant performed by French oncologist Georges Mathé in 1958 on five workers at the Vinča Nuclear Institute in Yugoslavia who had been affected by a criticality accident. The workers all survived.


title: Stem cell

text: In 1981, embryonic stem (ES) cells were first isolated and successfully cultured using mouse blastocysts by British biologists Martin Evans and Matthew Kaufman. This allowed the formation of murine genetic models, a system in which the genes of mice are deleted or altered in order to study their function in pathology. By 1998, embryonic stem cells were first isolated by American biologist James Thomson, which made it possible to have new transplantation methods or various cell types for testing new treatments. In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka’s team in Kyoto, Japan converted fibroblasts into pluripotent stem cells by modifying the expression of only four genes. The feat represents the origin of induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells.


title: Stem cell

text: In 2011, a female maned wolf, run over by a truck, underwent stem cell treatment at the Zoo Brasília, this being the first recorded case of the use of stem cells to heal injuries in a wild animal.


title: Stem cell

text: 1. Asymmetric cell division: a stem cell divides into one mother cell, which is identical to the original stem cell, and another daughter cell, which is differentiated.


title: Stem cell

text: When a stem cell self-renews, it divides and does not disrupt the undifferentiated state. This self-renewal demands control of cell cycle as well as upkeep of multipotency or pluripotency, which all depends on the stem cell.


title: Stem cell

text: 2. Stochastic differentiation: when one stem cell grows and divides into two differentiated daughter cells, another stem cell undergoes mitosis and produces two stem cells identical to the original.


title: Stem cell

text: Stem cells use telomerase, a protein that restores telomeres, to protect their DNA and extend their cell division limit (the Hayflick limit).


title: Stem cell

text: Potency specifies the differentiation potential (the potential to differentiate into different cell types) of the stem cell.


title: Stem cell

text: In practice, stem cells are identified by whether they can regenerate tissue. For example, the defining test for bone marrow or hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is the ability to transplant the cells and save an individual without HSCs. This demonstrates that the cells can produce new blood cells over a long term. It should also be possible to isolate stem cells from the transplanted individual, which can themselves be transplanted into another individual without HSCs, demonstrating that the stem cell was able to self-renew.


title: Stem cell

text: Properties of stem cells can be illustrated "in vitro", using methods such as clonogenic assays, in which single cells are assessed for their ability to differentiate and self-renew. Stem cells can also be isolated by their possession of a distinctive set of cell surface markers. However, "in vitro" culture conditions can alter the behavior of cells, making it unclear whether the cells shall behave in a similar manner "in vivo". There is considerable debate as to whether some proposed adult cell populations are truly stem cells.


title: Stem cell

text: Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are the cells of the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, formed prior to implantation in the uterus. In human embryonic development the blastocyst stage is reached 4–5 days after fertilization, at which time it consists of 50–150 cells. ESCs are pluripotent and give rise during development to all derivatives of the three germ layers: ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. In other words, they can develop into each of the more than 200 cell types of the adult body when given sufficient and necessary stimulation for a specific cell type. They do not contribute to the extraembryonic membranes or to the placenta.


title: Stem cell

text: During embryonic development the cells of the inner cell mass continuously divide and become more specialized. For example, a portion of the ectoderm in the dorsal part of the embryo specializes as 'neurectoderm', which will become the future central nervous system. Later in development, neurulation causes the neurectoderm to form the neural tube. At the neural tube stage, the anterior portion undergoes encephalization to generate or 'pattern' the basic form of the brain. At this stage of development, the principal cell type of the CNS is considered a neural stem cell.


title: Stem cell

text: The neural stem cells self-renew and at some point transition into radial glial progenitor cells (RGPs). Early-formed RGPs self-renew by symmetrical division to form a reservoir group of progenitor cells. These cells transition to a neurogenic state and start to divide asymmetrically to produce a large diversity of many different neuron types, each with unique gene expression, morphological, and functional characteristics. The process of generating neurons from radial glial cells is called neurogenesis. The radial glial cell, has a distinctive bipolar morphology with highly elongated processes spanning the thickness of the neural tube wall. It shares some glial characteristics, most notably the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). The radial glial cell is the primary neural stem cell of the developing vertebrate CNS, and its cell body resides in the ventricular zone, adjacent to the developing ventricular system. Neural stem cells are committed to the neuronal lineages (neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes), and thus their potency is restricted.


title: Stem cell

text: Nearly all research to date has made use of mouse embryonic stem cells (mES) or human embryonic stem cells (hES) derived from the early inner cell mass. Both have the essential stem cell characteristics, yet they require very different environments in order to maintain an undifferentiated state. Mouse ES cells are grown on a layer of gelatin as an extracellular matrix (for support) and require the presence of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) in serum media. A drug cocktail containing inhibitors to GSK3B and the MAPK/ERK pathway, called 2i, has also been shown to maintain pluripotency in stem cell culture. Human ESCs are grown on a feeder layer of mouse embryonic fibroblasts and require the presence of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF or FGF-2). Without optimal culture conditions or genetic manipulation, embryonic stem cells will rapidly differentiate.


title: Stem cell

text: A human embryonic stem cell is also defined by the expression of several transcription factors and cell surface proteins. The transcription factors Oct-4, Nanog, and Sox2 form the core regulatory network that ensures the suppression of genes that lead to differentiation and the maintenance of pluripotency. The cell surface antigens most commonly used to identify hES cells are the glycolipids stage specific embryonic antigen 3 and 4, and the keratan sulfate antigens Tra-1-60 and Tra-1-81. The molecular definition of a stem cell includes many more proteins and continues to be a topic of research.


title: Stem cell

text: By using human embryonic stem cells to produce specialized cells like nerve cells or heart cells in the lab, scientists can gain access to adult human cells without taking tissue from patients. They can then study these specialized adult cells in detail to try to discern complications of diseases, or to study cell reactions to proposed new drugs.


title: Stem cell

text: Because of their combined abilities of unlimited expansion and pluripotency, embryonic stem cells remain a theoretically potential source for regenerative medicine and tissue replacement after injury or disease., however, there are currently no approved treatments using ES cells. The first human trial was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in January 2009. However, the human trial was not initiated until October 13, 2010 in Atlanta for spinal cord injury research. On November 14, 2011 the company conducting the trial (Geron Corporation) announced that it will discontinue further development of its stem cell programs. Differentiating ES cells into usable cells while avoiding transplant rejection are just a few of the hurdles that embryonic stem cell researchers still face. Embryonic stem cells, being pluripotent, require specific signals for correct differentiation – if injected directly into another body, ES cells will differentiate into many different types of cells, causing a teratoma. Ethical considerations regarding the use of unborn human tissue are another reason for the lack of approved treatments using embryonic stem cells. Many nations currently have moratoria or limitations on either human ES cell research or the production of new human ES cell lines.


title: Stem cell

text: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) or mesenchymal stromal cells, also known as medicinal signaling cells are known to be multipotent, which can be found in adult tissues, for example, in the muscle, liver, bone marrow and adipose tissue. Mesenchymal stem cells usually function as structural support in various organs as mentioned above, and control the movement of substances. MSC can differentiate into numerous cell categories as an illustration of adipocytes, osteocytes, and chondrocytes, derived by the mesodermal layer. Where the mesoderm layer provides an increase to the body’s skeletal elements, such as relating to the cartilage or bone. The term “meso” means middle, infusion originated from the Greek, signifying that mesenchymal cells are able to range and travel in early embryonic growth among the ectodermal and endodermal layers. This mechanism helps with space-filling thus, key for repairing wounds in adult organisms that have to do with mesenchymal cells in the dermis (skin), bone, or muscle.


title: Stem cell

text: Mesenchymal stem cells are known to be essential for regenerative medicine. They are broadly studied in clinical trials. Since they are easily isolated and obtain high yield, high plasticity, which makes able to facilitate inflammation and encourage cell growth, cell differentiation, and restoring tissue derived from immunomodulation and immunosuppression. MSC comes from the bone marrow, which requires an aggressive procedure when it comes to isolating the quantity and quality of the isolated cell, and it varies by how old the donor. When comparing the rates of MSC in the bone marrow aspirates and bone marrow stroma, the aspirates tend to have lower rates of MSC than the stroma. MSC are known to be heterogeneous, and they express a high level of pluripotent markers when compared to other types of stem cells, such as embryonic stem cells. MSCs injection leads to wound healing primarily through stimulation of angiogenesis.


title: Stem cell

text: Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have the ability to divide indefinitely while keeping their pluripotency, which is made possible through specialized mechanisms of cell cycle control. Compared to proliferating somatic cells, ESCs have unique cell cycle characteristics—such as rapid cell division caused by shortened G1 phase, absent G0 phase, and modifications in cell cycle checkpoints—which leaves the cells mostly in S phase at any given time. ESCs’ rapid division is demonstrated by their short doubling time, which ranges from 8 to 10 hours, whereas somatic cells have doubling time of approximately 20 hours or longer. As cells differentiate, these properties change: G1 and G2 phases lengthen, leading to longer cell division cycles. This suggests that a specific cell cycle structure may contribute to the establishment of pluripotency.


title: Stem cell

text: Particularly because G1 phase is the phase in which cells have increased sensitivity to differentiation, shortened G1 is one of the key characteristics of ESCs and plays an important role in maintaining undifferentiated phenotype. Although the exact molecular mechanism remains only partially understood, several studies have shown insight on how ESCs progress through G1—and  potentially other phases—so rapidly.


title: Stem cell

text: The cell cycle is regulated by complex network of cyclins, cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdk), cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (Cdkn), pocket proteins of the retinoblastoma (Rb) family, and other accessory factors. Foundational insight into the distinctive regulation of ESC cell cycle was gained by studies on mouse ESCs (mESCs). mESCs showed a cell cycle with highly abbreviated G1 phase, which enabled cells to rapidly alternate between M phase and S phase. In a somatic cell cycle, oscillatory activity of Cyclin-Cdk complexes is observed in sequential action, which controls crucial regulators of the cell cycle to induce unidirectional transitions between phases: Cyclin D and Cdk4/6 are active in the G1 phase, while Cyclin E and Cdk2 are active during the late G1 phase and S phase; and Cyclin A and Cdk2 are active in the S phase and G2, while Cyclin B and Cdk1 are active in G2 and M phase. However, in mESCs, this typically ordered and oscillatory activity of Cyclin-Cdk complexes is absent. Rather, the Cyclin E/Cdk2 complex is constitutively active throughout the cycle, keeping retinoblastoma protein (pRb) hyperphosphorylated and thus inactive. This allows for direct transition from M phase to the late G1 phase, leading to absence of D-type cyclins and therefore a shortened G1 phase. Cdk2 activity is crucial for both cell cycle regulation and cell-fate decisions in mESCs; downregulation of Cdk2 activity prolongs G1 phase progression, establishes a somatic cell-like cell cycle, and induces expression of differentiation markers.


title: Stem cell

text: In human ESCs (hESCs), the duration of G1 is dramatically shortened. This has been attributed to high mRNA levels of G1-related Cyclin D2 and Cdk4 genes and low levels of cell cycle regulatory proteins that inhibit cell cycle progression at G1, such as p21, p27, and p57. Furthermore, regulators of Cdk4 and Cdk6 activity, such as members of the Ink family of inhibitors (p15, p16, p18, and p19), are expressed at low levels or not at all. Thus, similar to mESCs, hESCs show high Cdk activity, with Cdk2 exhibiting the highest kinase activity. Also similar to mESCs, hESCs demonstrate the importance of Cdk2 in G1 phase regulation by showing that G1 to S transition is delayed when Cdk2 activity is inhibited and G1 is arrest when Cdk2 is knocked down. However unlike mESCs, hESCs have a functional G1 phase. hESCs show that the activities of Cyclin E/Cdk2 and Cyclin A/Cdk2 complexes are cell cycle-dependent and the Rb checkpoint in G1 is functional.


title: Stem cell

text: ESCs are also characterized by G1 checkpoint non-functionality, even though the G1 checkpoint is crucial for maintaining genomic stability. In response to DNA damage, ESCs do not stop in G1 to repair DNA damages but instead, depend on S and G2/M checkpoints or undergo apoptosis. The absence of G1 checkpoint in ESCs allows for the removal of cells with damaged DNA, hence avoiding potential mutations from inaccurate DNA repair. Consistent with this idea, ESCs are hypersensitive to DNA damage to minimize mutations passed onto the next generation.


title: Stem cell

text: Adult stem cells, also called somatic (from Greek σωματικóς, "of the body") stem cells, are stem cells which maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found. They can be found in children, as well as adults.


title: Stem cell

text: Stem cells can also be taken from umbilical cord blood just after birth. Of all stem cell types, autologous harvesting involves the least risk. By definition, autologous cells are obtained from one's own body, just as one may bank their own blood for elective surgical procedures.


title: Stem cell

text: Pluripotent adult stem cells are rare and generally small in number, but they can be found in umbilical cord blood and other tissues. Bone marrow is a rich source of adult stem cells, which have been used in treating several conditions including liver cirrhosis, chronic limb ischemia and endstage heart failure. The quantity of bone marrow stem cells declines with age and is greater in males than females during reproductive years. Much adult stem cell research to date has aimed to characterize their potency and self-renewal capabilities. DNA damage accumulates with age in both stem cells and the cells that comprise the stem cell environment. This accumulation is considered to be responsible, at least in part, for increasing stem cell dysfunction with aging (see DNA damage theory of aging).


title: Stem cell

text: Most adult stem cells are lineage-restricted (multipotent) and are generally referred to by their tissue origin (mesenchymal stem cell, adipose-derived stem cell, endothelial stem cell, dental pulp stem cell, etc.). Muse cells (multi-lineage differentiating stress enduring cells) are a recently discovered pluripotent stem cell type found in multiple adult tissues, including adipose, dermal fibroblasts, and bone marrow. While rare, muse cells are identifiable by their expression of SSEA-3, a marker for undifferentiated stem cells, and general mesenchymal stem cells markers such as CD90, CD105. When subjected to single cell suspension culture, the cells will generate clusters that are similar to embryoid bodies in morphology as well as gene expression, including canonical pluripotency markers Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog.


title: Stem cell

text: Adult stem cell treatments have been successfully used for many years to treat leukemia and related bone/blood cancers through bone marrow transplants. Adult stem cells are also used in veterinary medicine to treat tendon and ligament injuries in horses.


title: Stem cell

text: The use of adult stem cells in research and therapy is not as controversial as the use of embryonic stem cells, because the production of adult stem cells does not require the destruction of an embryo. Additionally, in instances where adult stem cells are obtained from the intended recipient (an autograft), the risk of rejection is essentially non-existent. Consequently, more US government funding is being provided for adult stem cell research.


title: Stem cell

text: With the increasing demand of human adult stem cells for both research and clinical purposes (typically 1–5 million cells per kg of body weight are required per treatment) it becomes of utmost importance to bridge the gap between the need to expand the cells in vitro and the capability of harnessing the factors underlying replicative senescence. Adult stem cells are known to have a limited lifespan in vitro and to enter replicative senescence almost undetectably upon starting in vitro culturing.


title: Stem cell

text: Also called perinatal stem cells, these multipotent stem cells are found in amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood. These stem cells are very active, expand extensively without feeders and are not tumorigenic. Amniotic stem cells are multipotent and can differentiate in cells of adipogenic, osteogenic, myogenic, endothelial, hepatic and also neuronal lines.


title: Stem cell

text: Use of stem cells from amniotic fluid overcomes the ethical objections to using human embryos as a source of cells. Roman Catholic teaching forbids the use of embryonic stem cells in experimentation; accordingly, the Vatican newspaper "Osservatore Romano" called amniotic stem cells "the future of medicine".


title: Stem cell

text: It is possible to collect amniotic stem cells for donors or for autologous use: the first US amniotic stem cells bank was opened in 2009 in Medford, MA, by Biocell Center Corporation and collaborates with various hospitals and universities all over the world.


title: Stem cell

text: Adult stem cells have limitations with their potency; unlike embryonic stem cells (ESCs), they are not able to differentiate into cells from all three germ layers. As such, they are deemed multipotent.


title: Stem cell

text: However, reprogramming allows for the creation of pluripotent cells, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), from adult cells. These are not adult stem cells, but somatic cells (e.g. epithelial cells) reprogrammed to give rise to cells with pluripotent capabilities. Using genetic reprogramming with protein transcription factors, pluripotent stem cells with ESC-like capabilities have been derived. The first demonstration of induced pluripotent stem cells was conducted by Shinya Yamanaka and his colleagues at Kyoto University. They used the transcription factors Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4 to reprogram mouse fibroblast cells into pluripotent cells. Subsequent work used these factors to induce pluripotency in human fibroblast cells. Junying Yu, James Thomson, and their colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison used a different set of factors, Oct4, Sox2, Nanog and Lin28, and carried out their experiments using cells from human foreskin. However, they were able to replicate Yamanaka's finding that inducing pluripotency in human cells was possible.


title: Stem cell

text: Induced pluripotent stem cells differ from embryonic stem cells. They share many similar properties, such as pluripotency and differentiation potential, the expression of pluripotency genes, epigenetic patterns, embryoid body and teratoma formation, and viable chimera formation, but there are many differences within these properties. The chromatin of iPSCs appears to be more "closed" or methylated than that of ESCs. Similarly, the gene expression pattern between ESCs and iPSCs, or even iPSCs sourced from different origins. There are thus questions about the "completeness" of reprogramming and the somatic memory of induced pluripotent stem cells. Despite this, inducing somatic cells to be pluripotent appears to be viable.


title: Stem cell

text: As a result of the success of these experiments, Ian Wilmut, who helped create the first cloned animal Dolly the Sheep, has announced that he will abandon somatic cell nuclear transfer as an avenue of research.


title: Stem cell

text: IPSCs has helped the field of medicine significantly by finding numerous ways to cure diseases. Since human IPSCc has given the advantage to make "in vitro" models to study toxins and pathogenesis.


title: Stem cell

text: Furthermore, induced pluripotent stem cells provide several therapeutic advantages. Like ESCs, they are pluripotent. They thus have great differentiation potential; theoretically, they could produce any cell within the human body (if reprogramming to pluripotency was "complete"). Moreover, unlike ESCs, they potentially could allow doctors to create a pluripotent stem cell line for each individual patient. Frozen blood samples can be used as a valuable source of induced pluripotent stem cells. Patient specific stem cells allow for the screening for side effects before drug treatment, as well as the reduced risk of transplantation rejection. Despite their current limited use therapeutically, iPSCs hold great potential for future use in medical treatment and research.


title: Stem cell

text: The key factors controlling the cell cycle also regulate pluripotency. Thus, manipulation of relevant genes can maintain pluripotency and reprogram somatic cells to an induced pluripotent state. However, reprogramming of somatic cells is often low in efficiency and considered stochastic.


title: Stem cell

text: With the idea that a more rapid cell cycle is a key component of pluripotency, reprogramming efficiency can be improved. Methods for improving pluripotency through manipulation of cell cycle regulators include: overexpression of Cyclin D/Cdk4, phosphorylation of Sox2 at S39 and S253, overexpression of Cyclin A and Cyclin E, knockdown of Rb, and knockdown of members of the Cip/Kip family or the Ink family. Furthermore, reprogramming efficiency is correlated with the number of cell divisions happened during the stochastic phase, which is suggested by the growing inefficiency of reprogramming of older or slow diving cells.


title: Stem cell

text: Lineage is an important procedure to analyze developing embryos. Since cell lineages shows the relationship between cells at each division. This helps in analyzing stem cell lineages along the way which helps recognize stem cell effectiveness, lifespan, and other factors. With the technique of cell lineage mutant genes can be analyzed in stem cell clones that can help in genetic pathways. These pathways can regulate how the stem cell perform.


title: Stem cell

text: To ensure self-renewal, stem cells undergo two types of cell division (see "Stem cell division and differentiation" diagram). Symmetric division gives rise to two identical daughter cells both endowed with stem cell properties. Asymmetric division, on the other hand, produces only one stem cell and a progenitor cell with limited self-renewal potential. Progenitors can go through several rounds of cell division before terminally differentiating into a mature cell. It is possible that the molecular distinction between symmetric and asymmetric divisions lies in differential segregation of cell membrane proteins (such as receptors) between the daughter cells.


title: Stem cell

text: An alternative theory is that stem cells remain undifferentiated due to environmental cues in their particular niche. Stem cells differentiate when they leave that niche or no longer receive those signals. Studies in "Drosophila" germarium have identified the signals decapentaplegic and adherens junctions that prevent germarium stem cells from differentiating.


title: Stem cell

text: Stem cell therapy is the use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition. Bone marrow transplant is a form of stem cell therapy that has been used for many years because it has proven to be effective in clinical trials.


title: Stem cell

text: Stem cell implantation may help in strengthening the left-ventricle of the heart, as well as retaining the heart tissue to patients who have suffered from heart attacks in the past.


title: Stem cell

text: Stem cell treatments may lower symptoms of the disease or condition that is being treated. The lowering of symptoms may allow patients to reduce the drug intake of the disease or condition. Stem cell treatment may also provide knowledge for society to further stem cell understanding and future treatments. The physicians' creed would be to do no injury, and stem cells make that simpler than ever before. Surgical processes by their character are harmful. Tissue has to be dropped as a way to reach a successful outcome. One may prevent the dangers of surgical interventions using stem cells. Additionally, there's a possibility of disease, and whether the procedure fails, further surgery may be required. Risks associated with anesthesia can also be eliminated with stem cells. On top of that, stem cells have been harvested from the patient's body and redeployed in which they're wanted. Since they come from the patient’s own body, this is referred to as an autologous treatment. Autologous remedies are thought to be the safest because there's likely zero probability of donor substance rejection.


title: Stem cell

text: Stem cell treatments may require immunosuppression because of a requirement for radiation before the transplant to remove the person's previous cells, or because the patient's immune system may target the stem cells. One approach to avoid the second possibility is to use stem cells from the same patient who is being treated.


title: Stem cell

text: Pluripotency in certain stem cells could also make it difficult to obtain a specific cell type. It is also difficult to obtain the exact cell type needed, because not all cells in a population differentiate uniformly. Undifferentiated cells can create tissues other than desired types.


title: Stem cell

text: Some stem cells form tumors after transplantation; pluripotency is linked to tumor formation especially in embryonic stem cells, fetal proper stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells. Fetal proper stem cells form tumors despite multipotency.


title: Stem cell

text: Ethical concerns are also raised about the practice of using or researching embryonic stem cells. Harvesting cells from the blastocyst result in the death of the blastocyst. The concern is whether or not the blastocyst should be considered as a human life. The debate on this issue is mainly a philosophical one, not a scientific one.


title: Stem cell

text: Stem cell tourism is the industry in which patients (and sometimes their families) travel to another jurisdiction, to obtain stem cell procedures which are not approved but which are advertised on the Internet as proven cures.


title: Stem cell

text: The United States, in recent years, has had an explosion of "stem cell clinics". Stem cell procedures are highly profitable for clinics. The advertising sounds authoritative but the efficacy and safety of the procedures is unproven. Patients sometimes experience complications, such as spinal tumors and death. The high expense can also lead to financial ruin. According to researchers, there is a need to educate the public, patients, and doctors about this issue.


title: Stem cell

text: According to the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the largest academic organization that advocates for stem cell research, stem cell therapies are under development and cannot yet be said to be proven. Doctors should inform patients that clinical trials continue to investigate whether these therapies are safe and effective but that unethical clinics present them as proven.


title: Stem cell

text: Some of the fundamental patents covering human embryonic stem cells are owned by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) – they are patents 5,843,780, 6,200,806, and 7,029,913 invented by James A. Thomson. WARF does not enforce these patents against academic scientists, but does enforce them against companies.


title: Stem cell

text: In 2006, a request for the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to re-examine the three patents was filed by the Public Patent Foundation on behalf of its client, the non-profit patent-watchdog group Consumer Watchdog (formerly the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights). In the re-examination process, which involves several rounds of discussion between the USPTO and the parties, the USPTO initially agreed with Consumer Watchdog and rejected all the claims in all three patents, however in response, WARF amended the claims of all three patents to make them more narrow, and in 2008 the USPTO found the amended claims in all three patents to be patentable. The decision on one of the patents (7,029,913) was appealable, while the decisions on the other two were not. Consumer Watchdog appealed the granting of the '913 patent to the USPTO's Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) which granted the appeal, and in 2010 the BPAI decided that the amended claims of the '913 patent were not patentable. However, WARF was able to re-open prosecution of the case and did so, amending the claims of the '913 patent again to make them more narrow, and in January 2013 the amended claims were allowed.


title: Stem cell

text: In July 2013, Consumer Watchdog announced that it would appeal the decision to allow the claims of the '913 patent to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), the federal appeals court that hears patent cases. At a hearing in December 2013, the CAFC raised the question of whether Consumer Watchdog had legal standing to appeal; the case could not proceed until that issue was resolved.


title: Stem cell

text: Research is underway to develop various sources for stem cells, and to apply stem cell treatments for neurodegenerative diseases and conditions, diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions. Research is also underway in generating organoids using stem cells, which would allow for further understanding of human development, organogenesis, and modeling of human diseases.


title: Stem cell

text: In more recent years, with the ability of scientists to isolate and culture embryonic stem cells, and with scientists' growing ability to create stem cells using somatic cell nuclear transfer and techniques to create induced pluripotent stem cells, controversy has crept in, both related to abortion politics and to human cloning.


title: Stem cell

text: Hepatotoxicity and drug-induced liver injury account for a substantial number of failures of new drugs in development and market withdrawal, highlighting the need for screening assays such as stem cell-derived hepatocyte-like cells, that are capable of detecting toxicity early in the drug development process.


title: Stem cell

text: In August 2021, researchers in the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre at the University Health Network published their discovery of a dormancy mechanism in key stem cells which could help develop cancer treatments in the future.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy (now Liberty Christian Academy) in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell and his twin brother Gene were born in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, Virginia, on August 11, 1933, the sons of Helen Virginia ("née" Beasley) and Carey Hezekiah Falwell. His father was an entrepreneur and one-time bootlegger who was agnostic who shot and killed his own brother Garland and died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1948 at the age of 55. His paternal grandfather was a staunch atheist. Falwell was a member of a group in Fairview Heights known to the police as "the Wall Gang" because they sat on a low concrete wall at the Pickeral Café. Falwell met Macel Pate on his first visit to Park Avenue Baptist Church in 1949, where she played piano. They married on April 12, 1958. The couple had sons Jerry Jr. (a lawyer, and former chancellor of Liberty University) and Jonathan (senior pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church) and a daughter Jeannie (a surgeon).


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell and his wife had a close relationship, and she supported him throughout his career. The Falwells often appeared together in public, and they did not shy away from showing physical affection. Reflecting on his marriage, Falwell jokingly commented, "Macel and I have never considered divorce. Murder maybe, but never divorce." Macel appreciated her husband's non-combative, affable nature, writing in her book that he "hated confrontation and didn't want strife in our home... he did everything in his power to make me happy." The Falwells were married nearly fifty years until his death.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: He graduated from Brookville High School in Lynchburg, and from the then-unaccredited Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, in 1956, where he enrolled in order to subvert Pate's relationship with her fiancé there. Falwell was later awarded three honorary doctorates: Doctor of Divinity from Tennessee Temple Theological Seminary, Doctor of Letters from California Graduate School of Theology, and Doctor of Laws from Central University in Seoul, South Korea.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In 1956, aged 22, Falwell founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church. Originally located at 701 Thomas Road in Lynchburg, Virginia, with 35 members, the church became a megachurch. In the same year, he began "The Old-Time Gospel Hour", a nationally syndicated radio and television ministry. When Falwell died, his son Jonathan became heir to his father's ministry, and took over as the senior pastor of the church. At this time, the weekly program's name was changed to "Thomas Road Live".


title: Jerry Falwell

text: During the 1950s and 1960s, Falwell spoke and campaigned against the civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and the racial desegregation of public school systems by the US federal government. Liberty Christian Academy (LCA, founded as Lynchburg Christian Academy) is a Christian school in Lynchburg which was described in 1966 by the "Lynchburg News" as "a private school for white students".


title: Jerry Falwell

text: The Lynchburg Christian Academy later opened in 1967 by Falwell as a segregation academy and as a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: The Liberty Christian Academy is today recognized as an educational facility by the Commonwealth of Virginia through the Virginia State Board of Education, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and the Association of Christian Schools International.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In 1971, Falwell co-founded Liberty University with Elmer L. Towns. Liberty University offers over 350 accredited programs of study, with approximately 13,000 residential students and 90,000 online.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: The Moral Majority became one of the largest political lobby groups for evangelical Christians in the United States during the 1980s. According to Falwell's self-published autobiography, the Moral Majority was promoted as being "pro-life, pro-traditional family, pro-moral, and pro-American" and was credited with delivering two thirds of the white evangelical vote to Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential election. According to Jimmy Carter, "that autumn [1980] a group headed by Jerry Falwell purchased $10 million in commercials on southern radio and TV to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian." During his time as head of the Moral Majority, Falwell consistently pushed for Republican candidates and for conservative politics. This led Billy Graham to criticize him for "sermonizing" about political issues that lacked a moral element. Graham later stated at the time of Falwell's death, "We did not always agree on everything, but I knew him to be a man of God. His accomplishments went beyond most clergy of his generation."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In March 1987, Pentecostal televangelist Jim Bakker became the subject of media scrutiny when it was revealed that he had a sexual encounter (and alleged rape) with Jessica Hahn and had paid for her silence. Bakker believed that fellow Pentecostal pastor Jimmy Swaggart was attempting to take over his ministry because he had initiated a church investigation into allegations of his sexual misconduct. To avoid the takeover, Bakker resigned on March 19 and appointed Falwell to succeed him as head of his PTL ministry, which included the PTL Satellite Network, television program "The PTL Club" and the Christian-themed amusement park Heritage USA.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Bakker believed Falwell would temporarily lead the ministry until the scandal died down, but Falwell barred Bakker from returning to PTL on April 28, and referred to him as "probably the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history". Later that summer, as donations to the ministry declined in the wake of Bakker's scandal and resignation, Falwell raised $20 million to keep PTL solvent and delivered on a promise to ride the water slide at Heritage USA. Despite this, Falwell was unable to bring the ministry out of bankruptcy and he resigned in October 1987.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell strongly advocated beliefs and practices influenced by his version of biblical teachings. The church, Falwell asserted, was the cornerstone of a successful family. Not only was it a place for spiritual learning and guidance, it was also a gathering place for fellowship and socializing with like-minded individuals. Often he built conversations he had with parishioners after the worship service into focused speeches or organized goals he would then present to a larger audience via his various media outlets.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell found the Vietnam War problematic because he felt it was being fought with "limited political objectives", when it should have been an all out war against the North. In general, Falwell held that the president "as a minister of God" has the right to use arms to "bring wrath upon those who would do evil."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: On his evangelist program "The Old-Time Gospel Hour" in the mid-1960s, Falwell regularly featured segregationist politicians like governors Lester Maddox and George Wallace. About Martin Luther King he said: "I do question the sincerity and non-violent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left-wing associations."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In 1977, Falwell supported Anita Bryant's campaign, which was called by its proponents "Save Our Children", to overturn an ordinance in Dade County, Florida, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and he supported a similar movement in California.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Twenty-eight years later, during a 2005 MSNBC television appearance, Falwell said he was not troubled by reports that the nominee for Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John G. Roberts (whose appointment was confirmed by the US Senate) had done volunteer legal work for gay rights activists on the case of "Romer v. Evans". Falwell told then-MSNBC host Tucker Carlson that if he were a lawyer, he too would argue for civil rights for LGBT people. "I may not agree with the lifestyle, but that has nothing to do with the civil rights of that part of our constituency", said Falwell. When Carlson countered that conservatives "are always arguing against 'special rights' for gays," Falwell said equal access to housing and employment are basic rights, not special rights. "Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or conservative value. It's an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell's staunch pro-Israel stand, sometimes referred to as "Christian Zionism", drew the strong support of the Anti-Defamation League and its leader Abraham Foxman. However, they condemned what they perceived as intolerance towards Muslims in Falwell's public statements. They also criticized him for remarking that "Jews can make more money accidentally than you can on purpose." In his book "Listen, America!" Falwell referred to the Jewish people as "spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Savior."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell repeatedly denounced certain teachings in public schools and secular education in general, calling them breeding grounds for atheism, secularism, and humanism, which he claimed to be in contradiction with Christian morality. He advocated that the United States change its public education system by implementing a school voucher system which would allow parents to send their children to either public or private schools. In his book "America Can Be Saved" he wrote that "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell supported President George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative, but had strong reservations concerning where the funding would go and the restrictions placed on churches:


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In the 1980s Falwell said sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa would result in what, he felt, would be a worse situation, such as a Soviet-backed revolution. He also urged his followers to buy up gold Krugerrands and push US "reinvestment" in South Africa. In 1985 he drew the ire of many when he called Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a phony "as far as representing the black people of South Africa".


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In 1994, Falwell promoted and distributed the video documentary "The Clinton Chronicles: An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton". The video purported to connect Bill Clinton to a murder conspiracy involving Vince Foster, James McDougall, Ron Brown, and a cocaine-smuggling operation. The theory was discredited, but the recording sold more than 150,000 copies.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: The film's production costs were partly met by "Citizens for Honest Government", to which Falwell paid $200,000 in 1994 and 1995. In 1995 Citizens for Honest Government interviewed Arkansas state troopers Roger Perry and Larry Patterson regarding the murder conspiracy about Vincent Foster. Perry and Patterson also gave information regarding the allegations in the Paula Jones affair.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: The infomercial for the 80-minute videotape included footage of Falwell interviewing a silhouetted journalist who claimed to be afraid for his life. The journalist accused Clinton of orchestrating the deaths of several reporters and personal confidants who had gotten too close to his supposed illegal activities. The silhouetted journalist was subsequently revealed to be Patrick Matrisciana, the producer of the video and president of Citizens for Honest Government. "Obviously, I'm not an investigative reporter", Matrisciana admitted to investigative journalist Murray Waas. Later, Falwell seemed to back away from personally trusting the video. In an interview for the 2005 documentary "The Hunting of the President", Falwell admitted, "to this day I do not know the accuracy of the claims made in "The Clinton Chronicles"."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell condemned homosexuality as forbidden by the Bible. Gay rights groups called Falwell an "agent of intolerance" and "the founder of the anti-gay industry" for statements he had made and for campaigning against LGBT social movements. Falwell supported Anita Bryant's 1977 "Save Our Children" campaign to overturn a Florida ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and a similar movement in California. In urging the repeal of the ordinance, Falwell told one crowd, "Gay folks would just as soon kill you as look at you." When the LGBT-friendly Metropolitan Community Church was almost accepted into the World Council of Churches, Falwell called them "brute beasts" and stated that they are, "part of a vile and satanic system" that "will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven." He later denied saying this. Falwell also regularly linked the AIDS pandemic to LGBT issues and stated, "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals, it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: After comedian and actress Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian, Falwell referred to her in a sermon as "Ellen DeGenerate". DeGeneres responded, "Really, he called me that? Ellen DeGenerate? I've been getting that since the fourth grade. I guess I'm happy I could give him work."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell's legacy regarding homosexuality is complicated by his support for LGBT civil rights (see "civil rights" section above), as well as his attempts to reconcile with the LGBT community in later years. In October 1999, Falwell hosted a meeting of 200 evangelicals with 200 gay people and lesbians at Thomas Road Baptist Church for an "Anti-Violence Forum", during which he acknowledged that some American evangelicals' comments about homosexuality entered the realm of hate speech that could incite violence. At the forum, Falwell told homosexuals in attendance, "I don't agree with your lifestyle, I will never agree with your lifestyle, but I love you" and added, "Anything that leaves the impression that we hate the sinner, we want to change that." He later commented to "New York Times" columnist Frank Rich that "admittedly, evangelicals have not exhibited an ability to build a bond of friendship to the gay and lesbian community. We've said "go somewhere else, we don't need you here [at] our churches.""


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In February 1999, an unsigned article that media outlets attributed to Falwell was published in the "National Liberty Journal" a promotional publication of the university he founded claimed that the purple Teletubby named Tinky Winky was intended as a gay role model. An article published in 1998 by the "Salon" website had noted Tinky Winky's status as a gay icon. In response, Steve Rice, spokesperson for Itsy Bitsy Entertainment, which licenses the "Teletubbies" in the United States, said, "I really find it absurd and kind of offensive." The UK show was aimed at pre-school children, but the article stated "he is purple – the gay pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle – the gay-pride symbol". Apart from those characteristics Tinky Winky also carries a magic bag which the "NLJ" and "Salon" articles said was a purse. Falwell added that "role modeling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children".


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Falwell said on Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club", "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"<ref name="falwell 9/11">Falwell speaks about WTC disaster, Christian Broadcasting Network </ref> In his opinion, LGBT organizations had angered God, thereby in part causing God to let the attacks happen. Falwell believed the attacks were "probably deserved", a statement which Christopher Hitchens described as treason. Following heavy criticism, Falwell said that no one but the terrorists were to blame, and stated, "If I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize." Falwell was subsequently the object of some of his own followers' outrage for retracting his statements about divine judgment on America and its causes, because they had heard the same themes in his preaching over many years that America must repent of its lack of devotion to God, immoral living, and timid support of Israel if America wanted divine protection and blessing.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell also said, "Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell set out in his Christian ministry as a fundamentalist, having attended a conservative Bible college and following strict standards of ecclesiastical and personal separatism; he was thus known and respected in Independent Fundamental Baptist circles, being praised in Christian fundamentalist publications such as "The Sword of the Lord". Though he never officially stated his rejection of this movement, the evidence of his life from the late 1970s onwards indicates that he moved toward a conservative evangelical standpoint to the right of mainline Protestantism or "open" evangelicalism but to the left of traditional, separatist fundamentalism. It was reported that he had refused to attend parties at which alcohol was served early in his life, but he relaxed this stricture as he was increasingly invited to major events through the contacts which he developed in conservative politics and religion.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: His foray into national politics appears to have been a catalyst for this change; when he established the Moral Majority which joined "Bible Christians" (Independent and conservative Southern Baptists) in a political alliance with charismatics, Roman Catholics, Jews, Mormons and others and rejected the level of separation that was preached by most movement fundamentalists. Bob Jones University declared that the Moral Majority organization "was Satanic", holding the view that it was a step towards the apostate one-world church and government body because it would cross the line from a political alliance to a religious one between true Christians and the non-born-again, which was forbidden by their interpretation of the Bible. David Cloud's Way of Life Literature also criticized Falwell for his associations with Catholics, Pentecostals and liberal Christians, tracing his alleged "apostasy" back to his role in the political Religious Right.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Though he never wavered in his belief in the inerrancy of the Bible (except for moderating its alleged view of racial differences, the significance of baptism, and other concepts relative to his theology) and the doctrines which conservative Christians widely see as essential to salvation, his rhetoric generally became more mellow, less militant and comparatively more inclusive from the 1980s onwards. Cultural anthropologist Susan Friend Harding, in her extensive ethnographic study of Falwell, noted that he adapted his preaching to win a broader, less extremist audience as he grew famous. This manifested itself in several ways: For example, he no longer condemned "worldly" lifestyle choices such as dancing, drinking wine, and attending movie theaters; softening his rhetoric which predicted an apocalypse and God's vengeful wrath; and shifting from a belief in outright biblical patriarchy to a complementarian view of appropriate gender roles. He further mainstreamed himself by aiming his strongest criticism at "secular humanists", pagans or various liberals in place of the racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic rhetoric that was common among Southern fundamentalist preachers but increasingly condemned as hate speech by the consensus of American society.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell opposed Islam. According to "Asharq Al-Awsat", a pan-Arab newspaper, Falwell called Islam "satanic". In a televised interview with "60 Minutes", Falwell called Muhammad a "terrorist", to which he added: "I concluded from reading Muslim and non-Muslim writers that Muhammad was a violent man, a man of war." Falwell later apologized to Muslims for what he had said about Muhammad and affirmed that he did not necessarily intend to offend "honest and peace-loving" Muslims. However, as he refused to remove his comments about Islam from his website, the sincerity of his apology was doubted. Egyptian Christian intellectuals, in response, signed a statement in which they condemned and rejected what Falwell had said about Muhammad being a terrorist.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: From the 1970s on, Falwell was involved in legal matters which occupied much of his time and propelled his name recognition.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In 1972, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation of bonds issued by Falwell's organizations. The SEC charged Falwell's church with "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in unsecured church bonds. The church won a 1973 federal court case prosecuted at the behest of the SEC, in which the court exonerated the church and ruled that while technical violations of law did occur, there was no proof the church intended any wrongdoing.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell filed a $10 million lawsuit against "Penthouse" for publishing an article based upon interviews he gave to freelance reporters, after failing to convince a federal court to place an injunction upon the publication of that article. The suit was dismissed in Federal district court in 1981 on the grounds that the article was not defamatory or an invasion of Falwell's privacy (the Virginia courts had not recognized this privacy tort, which is recognized in other states).


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In 1983, Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine "Hustler" carried a parody of a Campari ad, featuring a mock "interview" with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued for $45 million, alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A jury rejected the invasion of privacy and libel claims, holding that the parody could not have reasonably been taken to describe true events, but ruled in favor of Falwell on the emotional distress claim and awarded damages of $200,000. This was upheld on appeal. Flynt then appealed to the US Supreme Court, which unanimously held that the First Amendment prevents public figures from recovering damages for emotional distress caused by parodies.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: After Falwell's death, Larry Flynt released a comment regarding his friendship over the years with Falwell.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: My mother always told me that no matter how much you dislike a person, when you meet them face to face you will find characteristics about them that you like. Jerry Falwell was a perfect example of that. I hated everything he stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses. I always appreciated his sincerity even though I knew what he was selling and he knew what I was selling.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In 1984, Falwell was ordered to pay gay rights activist and former Baptist Bible College classmate Jerry Sloan $5,000 after losing a court battle. In July 1984 during a televised debate in Sacramento, California, Falwell denied calling the gay-friendly Metropolitan Community Churches "brute beasts" and "a vile and Satanic system" that will "one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven".


title: Jerry Falwell

text: When Sloan insisted he had a tape, Falwell promised $5,000 if he could produce it. Sloan did, Falwell refused to pay, and Sloan successfully sued. The money was donated to build Sacramento's first LGBT community center, the Lambda Community Center, serving "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex" communities. Falwell appealed the decision with his attorney charging that the Jewish judge in the case was prejudiced. He lost again and was made to pay an additional $2,875 in sanctions and court fees.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In "Lamparello v. Falwell", a dispute over the ownership of the Internet domain "fallwell.com", the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed an earlier District Court decision, arguing that Christopher Lamparello, who owned the domain, "clearly created his website intending only to provide a forum to criticize ideas, not to steal customers." Lamparello's website describes itself as not being connected to Jerry Falwell and is critical of Falwell's views on homosexuality. On April 17, 2006, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the Court of Appeals ruling that Lamparello's usage of the domain was legal.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Previous to this, a different man had turned over "" and "jerryfallwell.com" after Falwell threatened to sue for trademark infringement. Lawyers for Public Citizen Litigation Group's Internet Free Speech project represented the domain name owners in both cases.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: On July 31, 2006, CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" program featured a segment on "whether the crisis in the Middle East is actually a prelude to the end of the world". In an interview Falwell claimed, "I believe in the premillennial, pre-tribulational coming of Christ for all of his church, and to summarize that, your first poll, do you believe Jesus' coming the second time will be in the future, I would vote yes with the 59 percent and with Billy Graham and most evangelicals."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In 1999, Falwell declared the Antichrist would probably arrive within a decade and "of course he'll be Jewish". After accusations of anti-Semitism Falwell apologized and explained he was simply expressing the theological tenet that the Antichrist and Christ share many attributes.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: In early 2005, Falwell was hospitalized for two weeks with a viral infection, discharged, and then rehospitalized on May 30, 2005, in respiratory arrest. He was subsequently released from the hospital and returned to his duties. Later in 2005, a stent was implanted to treat a 70 percent blockage in his coronary arteries.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: On May 15, 2007, Falwell was found without pulse and unconscious in his office at about 10:45 a.m., after he missed a morning appointment, and was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. "I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast ... He went to his office, I went to mine and they found him unresponsive," said Ron Godwin, the executive vice president of Falwell's Liberty University. His condition was initially reported as "gravely serious"; CPR was administered unsuccessfully. At 2:10 p.m., during a live press conference, a doctor for the hospital confirmed that Falwell had died of "cardiac arrhythmia, or sudden cardiac death". A statement issued by the hospital reported he was pronounced dead at Lynchburg General Hospital at 12:40 p.m., at the age of 73. Falwell's family, including his wife, the former Macel Pate (1933–2015), and sons, Jerry Falwell Jr. and Jonathan Falwell, were at the hospital at the time of the pronouncement.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell's funeral took place on May 22, 2007, at Thomas Road Baptist Church after he lay in repose both at the church and at Liberty University. Falwell's burial service was private. He is interred at a spot on the Liberty University campus near the Carter Glass Mansion and Falwell's office. Buried nearby is his mentor, B. R. Lakin.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: After his death, his sons succeeded him at his two positions; Jerry Falwell Jr. took over as president of Liberty University while Jonathan Falwell became the senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church. His daughter, Jeannie F. Savas, is a surgeon.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: The last televised interview with Jerry Falwell Sr. was conducted by Christiane Amanpour for the CNN original series "CNN Presents: God's Warriors." He had been interviewed on May 8, one week before his death; in the interview he revealed that he had asked God for at least 20 more years in order to accomplish his vision for the university he founded. Falwell's last televised sermon was his May 13, 2007, message on Mother's Day.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Views on Falwell's legacy are mixed. Supporters praise his advancement of his socially conservative message. They also tout his evangelist ministries, and his stress on church planting and growth. Conversely, many of his detractors have accused him of hate speech and identified him as an "agent of intolerance".


title: Jerry Falwell

text: The antitheistic social commentator Christopher Hitchens described his work as "Chaucerian fraud" and a "faith-based fraud." Hitchens took special umbrage with Falwell's alignment with "the most thuggish and demented Israeli settlers", and his declaration that 9/11 represented God's judgment on America's sinful behaviour; deeming it "extraordinary that not even such a scandalous career is enough to shake our dumb addiction to the 'faith-based.'" Hitchens also mentioned that, despite his support for Israel, Falwell "kept saying to his own crowd, yes, you have got to like the Jews, because they can make more money in 10 minutes than you can make in a lifetime". Appearing on CNN a day after Falwell's death, Hitchens said, "The empty life of this ugly little charlatan proves only one thing: that you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you will just get yourself called 'reverend'."


title: Jerry Falwell

text: At one point, prank callers, especially gay activists, constituted an estimated 25 percent of Falwell's total calls, until the ministry disconnected the toll-free number in 1986. Edward Johnson, in the mid-1980s, programmed his Atari home computer to make thousands of repeat phone calls to Falwell's 1-800 phone number, since Johnson claimed Falwell had swindled large amounts of money from his followers, including Johnson's own mother. Southern Bell forced Johnson to stop after he had run up Falwell's telephone bill an estimated $500,000.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Falwell's son, Jerry Falwell Jr., is an American lawyer who took over as the president of Liberty University upon his father's death, serving until being put on indefinite leave on August 7, 2020, after posting an inappropriate photo with a young woman on social media. He then resigned on August 24 amid further questions about his and his wife's sexual and financial involvement with an associate. Falwell Jr. later said that the real reason his father began attending church as a teenager was because he had fallen in love with Macel (who played piano there, and was engaged at the time). Later he used deception to convince her to break off the engagement.


title: Jerry Falwell

text: Filmmaker Terrence Malick had intended to write and direct a film that focuses on the lives of both Jerry Falwell and pianist-singer Jerry Lee Lewis since the 1980s, but the project went unproduced.


title: Moussaka

text: Moussaka (, , ) is an eggplant- or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, which is common in the Balkans and the Middle East, with many local and regional variations.


title: Moussaka

text: The best-known version in Europe and the Americas is the Greek variant created in the 1920s by Nikolaos Tselementes. Many versions have a top layer made of milk-based sauce thickened with egg (custard) or flour (béchamel sauce). In Greece, the dish is layered and typically served hot. Tselementes also proposed a vegan variant for orthodox fast days. Romania also has a vegan version that replaces meat with mushrooms or a mix of sautéed onions and rice.


title: Moussaka

text: The versions in Egypt, Turkey and the rest of the Middle East are quite different. In Egypt, "messa'aa" can be made vegan or vegetarian as well as with meat; in all cases, the main ingredient is the fried eggplant. In Turkey, "mussaka" consists of thinly sliced and fried eggplant served in a tomato-based meat sauce, warm or at room temperature. In Saudi Arabia is eaten hot, but in other Arab countries, it is often eaten cold, but occasionally hot as well.


title: Moussaka

text: The English name for moussaka was borrowed from Greek () and from other Balkan languages, all borrowed from Ottoman Turkish, which in turn borrοwed it from Arabic (, ). The word is first attested in English in 1862, written "mùzàkkà".


title: Moussaka

text: Most versions are based primarily on sautéed aubergine (eggplant) and tomato, usually with minced meat, mostly lamb. The Greek version includes layers of meat and eggplant topped with a béchamel ("white") sauce and baked.


title: Moussaka

text: The modern Greek version was created by the French-trained Greek chef Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1920s. His recipe has three layers that are separately cooked before being combined for the final baking: a bottom layer of sliced eggplant sautéed in olive oil; a middle layer of ground lamb lightly cooked with chopped or puréed tomatoes, onion, garlic, and spices (cinnamon, allspice and black pepper); and a top layer of béchamel sauce or savoury custard.


title: Moussaka

text: There are variations on this basic recipe, sometimes with no top sauce, sometimes with other vegetables. Such variants may include, in addition to the eggplant slices, sautéed zucchini (courgette) slices, part-fried potato slices, or sautéed mushrooms. There is a fast-day (vegan) version in Tselementes' cookbook, which includes neither meat nor dairy products, just vegetables (ground eggplant is used instead of ground meat), tomato sauce, and bread crumbs.


title: Moussaka

text: Another variant is "" () which consists of whole small eggplants stuffed with ground meat and topped with béchamel and baked.


title: Moussaka

text: In Albania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, and Romania, potatoes are used instead of eggplant, pork or beef mince, and the top layer is usually milk or yogurt mixed with raw eggs, sometimes with a small amount of flour added. There is also a three-layer version: the bottom layer consists of ground pork and beef, the middle layer of potato slices, and the top layer is typically a custard. Each layer is cooked on its own and layered in a pan and baked until the top is browned.


title: Moussaka

text: Typically, the Romanian version is made with potatoes or eggplant or cabbage. The layers start with the vegetable, then the layer of meat (usually pork), then vegetables, until the pot is full. Sometimes bread crumbs are used as a topping, sometimes slices of tomatoes and crushed cheese. The pot is then filled with tomato sauce. There is also a pasta variant, with pasta being used instead of vegetables. The "fasting" variant, which is vegan, replaces meat with mushrooms or a mix of sautéed onions and rice.


title: Moussaka

text: In the rest of the Balkans, the top layer is often a custard: this is the version introduced in the UK by Elizabeth David's "Mediterranean Cookery" and where it remains the usual presentation. Grated cheese or bread crumbs are often sprinkled on top.


title: Moussaka

text: In the Levant, moussaka is a cooked dish made up primarily of tomatoes and eggplant, similar to Sicilian caponata, and may also include chickpeas. It may be served cold as a mezze dish, or hot.


title: Moussaka

text: The Egyptian version of moussaka is made from layers of fried eggplant immersed in tomato sauce and then baked. A layer of seasoned cooked ground beef is usually added between the eggplant before baking. The dish can be served hot but is usually chilled for a day or so to improve the taste.


title: Moussaka

text: Turkish ' is not layered. Instead, thinly sliced eggplant is fried and served in tomato-based meat sauce seasoned with green peppers, garlic and onions. It is generally eaten with ' and . There are also variants with zucchini (courgettes, '), carrots (') and potatoes ("").


title: Roman calendar

text: The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the dictator Julius Caesar and emperor Augustus in the late 1stcenturyBC and sometimes includes any system dated by inclusive counting towards months' kalends, nones, and ides in the Roman manner. The term usually excludes the Alexandrian calendar of Roman Egypt, which continued the unique months of that land's former calendar; the Byzantine calendar of the later Roman Empire, which usually dated the Roman months in the simple count of the ancient Greek calendars; and the Gregorian calendar, which refined the Julian system to bring it into still closer alignment with the tropical year.


title: Roman calendar

text: Roman dates were counted inclusively forward to the next of three principal days: the first of the month (the kalends), a day shortly before the middle of the month (the ides), and eight days—nine, counting inclusively—before this (the nones). The original calendar consisted of ten months beginning in spring with March; winter was left as an unassigned span of days. These months ran for 38 nundinal cycles, each forming an eight-day week (nine days counted inclusively, hence the name) ended by religious rituals and a public market. The winter period was later divided into two months, January and February. The legendary early kings Romulus and Numa Pompilius were traditionally credited with establishing this early fixed calendar, which bears traces of its origin as an observational lunar one. In particular, the kalends, nones, and ides seem to have derived from the first sighting of the crescent moon, the first-quarter moon, and the full moon respectively. The system ran well short of the solar year, and it needed constant intercalation to keep religious festivals and other activities in their proper seasons. This is a typical element of lunisolar calendars. For superstitious reasons, such intercalation occurred within the month of February even after it was no longer considered the last month.


title: Roman calendar

text: After the establishment of the Republic, years began to be dated by consulships and control over intercalation was granted to the pontifices, who eventually abused their power by lengthening years controlled by their political allies and shortening the years in their rivals' terms of office. Having won his war with Pompey, Caesar used his position as Rome's chief pontiff to enact a calendar reform in 46BC, coincidentally making the year of his third consulship last for 446days. In order to avoid interfering with Rome's religious ceremonies, the reform added all its days towards the ends of months and did not adjust any nones or ides, even in months which came to have 31days. The Julian calendar was supposed to have a single leap day on 24 February (a doubled or ) every fourth year, but following Caesar's assassination the priests figured this using inclusive counting and mistakenly added this bissextile () day every three years. In order to bring the calendar back to its proper place, Augustus was obliged to suspend intercalation for one or two decades. The revised calendar remained slightly longer than the solar year; by the 16th century the date of Easter had shifted so far away from the vernal equinox that Pope Gregory XIII ordered the calendar's adjustment, resulting in the Gregorian calendar.


title: Roman calendar

text: The original Roman calendar is believed to have been an observational lunar calendar whose months began from the first signs of a new crescent moon. Because a lunar cycle is about days long, such months would have varied between . Twelve such months would have fallen short of the solar year; without adjustment, such a year would have quickly rotated out of alignment with the seasons in the manner of the Islamic calendar. Given the seasonal aspects of the later calendar and its associated religious festivals, this was presumably avoided through some form of intercalation or the suspension of the calendar during winter.


title: Roman calendar

text: Rome's 8-day week, the nundinal cycle, was shared with the Etruscans, who used it as the schedule of royal audiences. It was presumably a part of the early calendar and was credited in Roman legend variously to Romulus and Servius Tullius.


title: Roman calendar

text: The Romans themselves described their first organized year as one with ten fixed months, each of . Such a decimal division fitted general Roman practice. The four 31 day months (March, May, Quintilis, and October) were called "full" (') and the others "hollow" ('). Its 304 days made up exactly 38 nundinal cycles. The system is usually said to have left the remaining 50 odd days of the year as an unorganized "winter", although Licinius Macer's lost history apparently stated the earliest Roman calendar employed intercalation instead and Macrobius claims the 10 month calendar was allowed to shift until the summer and winter months were completely misplaced, at which time additional days belonging to no month were simply inserted into the calendar until it seemed things were restored to their proper place.


title: Roman calendar

text: Later Roman writers credited this calendar to Romulus, their legendary first king and culture hero, although this was common with other practices and traditions whose origin had been lost to them. Some scholars doubt the existence of this calendar at all, as it is only attested in late Republican and Imperial sources and supported only by the misplaced names of the months from September to December. Rüpke also finds the coincidence of the length of the supposed "Romulan" year with the length of the first ten months of the Julian calendar to be suspicious.


title: Roman calendar

text: Other traditions existed alongside this one, however. Plutarch's "Parallel Lives" recounts that Romulus's calendar had been solar but adhered to the general principle that the year should last for 360 days. Months were employed secondarily and haphazardly, with some counted as 20 days and others as 35 or more.


title: Roman calendar

text: The attested calendar of the Roman Republic was quite different. It followed Greek calendars in assuming a lunar cycle of days and a solar year of synodic months ( days), which align every fourth year after the addition of two intercalary months. Two months were added at the end of the year to complete the cycle during winter, January and February, before the intercalary month inserted every two years; the intercalary month was sometimes known as Mercedonius.


title: Roman calendar

text: The inequality between the lunar year of 355 days and the tropical year of days led to a shortfall over four years of ( × 4) = 41 days. Theoretically, 22 days were interpolated into the calendar in the second year of the four-year cycle and 23 days in the fourth. This produced an excess of four days over the four years in line with the normal one day excess over one year.


title: Roman calendar

text: The method of correction was to truncate February by five days and follow it with the which thus commenced (normally) on the day after 23 February and had either 27 or 28 days. It did not acquire the alternative name Mercedonius until post-classical times. 23 February was the Terminalia and in a normal year it was "" Thus the dates of the festivals of the last five days of February were preserved on account of them being actually named and counted inclusively in days before the calends of March; they were traditionally part of the celebration for the new year. There was occasionally a delay of one day (a being inserted between 23 February and the start of the ) for the purpose of avoiding a clash between a particular festival and a particular day of the week (see for another example). The Roman superstitions concerning the numbering and order of the months seem to have arisen from Pythagorean superstitions concerning the luckiness of odd numbers.


title: Roman calendar

text: These Pythagorean-based changes to the Roman calendar were generally credited by the Romans to Numa Pompilius, Romulus's successor and the second of Rome's seven kings, as were the two new months of the calendar. Most sources thought he had established intercalation with the rest of his calendar. Although Livy's Numa instituted a "lunar" calendar, the author claimed the king had instituted a 19-year system of intercalation equivalent to the Metonic cycle centuries before its development by Babylonian and Greek astronomers. Plutarch's account claims he ended the former chaos of the calendar by employing 12months totalling 354days—the length of the lunar and Greek years—and biennial intercalary months of 22days.


title: Roman calendar

text: According to Livy's Periochae, the beginning of the consular year changed from March to January1 in 153BC to respond to a rebellion in Hispania. Plutarch believed Numa was responsible for placing January and February first in the calendar; Ovid states January began as the first month and February the last, with its present order owing to the Decemvirs. W. Warde Fowler believed the Roman priests continued to treat January and February as the last months of the calendar throughout the Republican period.


title: Roman calendar

text: According to the later writers Censorinus and Macrobius, to correct the mismatch of the correspondence between months and seasons due to the excess of one day of the Roman average year over the tropical year, the insertion of the intercalary month was modified according to the scheme: common year (355 days), leap year with 23-day February followed by 27-day Mercedonius (377 days), common year, leap year with 23-day February followed by 28-day Mercedonius (378 days), and so on for the first 16 years of a 24-year cycle. In the last 8 years, the intercalation took place with the month of Mercedonius only 27 days, except the last intercalation which did not happen. Hence, there would be a typical common year followed by a leap year of 377 days for the next 6 years and the remaining 2 years would sequentially be common years. The result of this twenty-four-year pattern was of great precision for the time: 365.25 days, as shown by the following calculation:


title: Roman calendar

text: The consuls' terms of office were not always a modern calendar year, but ordinary consuls were elected or appointed annually. The traditional list of Roman consuls used by the Romans to date their years began in 509BC.


title: Roman calendar

text: Gnaeus Flavius, a secretary ("scriba") to censor App. Claudius Caecus, introduced a series of reforms in 304BC. Their exact nature is uncertain, although he is thought to have begun the custom of publishing the calendar in advance of the month, depriving the priests of some of their power but allowing for a more consistent calendar for official business.