title: Metallurgy

text: Copper smelting is also documented at this site at about the same time period (soon after 6,000 BC), although the use of lead seems to precede copper smelting. Early metallurgy is also documented at the nearby site of Tell Maghzaliyah, which seems to be dated even earlier, and completely lacks that pottery. The Balkans were the site of major Neolithic cultures, including Butmir, Vinča, Varna, Karanovo, and Hamangia.


title: Metallurgy

text: The Varna Necropolis, Bulgaria, is a burial site in the western industrial zone of Varna (approximately 4 km from the city centre), internationally considered one of the key archaeological sites in world prehistory. The oldest gold treasure in the world, dating from 4,600 BC to 4,200 BC, was discovered at the site. The gold piece dating from 4,500 BC, recently founded in Durankulak, near Varna is another important example. Other signs of early metals are found from the third millennium BC in places like Palmela (Portugal), Los Millares (Spain), and Stonehenge (United Kingdom). However, the ultimate beginnings cannot be clearly ascertained and new discoveries are both continuous and ongoing.


title: Metallurgy

text: In the Near East, about 3,500 BC, it was discovered that by combining copper and tin, a superior metal could be made, an alloy called bronze. This represented a major technological shift known as the Bronze Age.


title: Metallurgy

text: The extraction of iron from its ore into a workable metal is much more difficult than for copper or tin. The process appears to have been invented by the Hittites in about 1200 BC, beginning the Iron Age. The secret of extracting and working iron was a key factor in the success of the Philistines.


title: Metallurgy

text: Historical developments in ferrous metallurgy can be found in a wide variety of past cultures and civilizations. This includes the ancient and medieval kingdoms and empires of the Middle East and Near East, ancient Iran, ancient Egypt, ancient Nubia, and Anatolia (Turkey), Ancient Nok, Carthage, the Greeks and Romans of ancient Europe, medieval Europe, ancient and medieval China, ancient and medieval India, ancient and medieval Japan, amongst others. Many applications, practices, and devices associated or involved in metallurgy were established in ancient China, such as the innovation of the blast furnace, cast iron, hydraulic-powered trip hammers, and double acting piston bellows.


title: Metallurgy

text: A 16th century book by Georg Agricola called "De re metallica" describes the highly developed and complex processes of mining metal ores, metal extraction and metallurgy of the time. Agricola has been described as the "father of metallurgy".


title: Metallurgy

text: Extractive metallurgy is the practice of removing valuable metals from an ore and refining the extracted raw metals into a purer form. In order to convert a metal oxide or sulphide to a purer metal, the ore must be reduced physically, chemically, or electrolytically. Extractive metallurgists are interested in three primary streams: feed, concentrate (metal oxide/sulphide) and tailings (waste).


title: Metallurgy

text: After mining, large pieces of the ore feed are broken through crushing or grinding in order to obtain particles small enough, where each particle is either mostly valuable or mostly waste. Concentrating the particles of value in a form supporting separation enables the desired metal to be removed from waste products.


title: Metallurgy

text: Mining may not be necessary, if the ore body and physical environment are conducive to leaching. Leaching dissolves minerals in an ore body and results in an enriched solution. The solution is collected and processed to extract valuable metals. Ore bodies often contain more than one valuable metal.


title: Metallurgy

text: Tailings of a previous process may be used as a feed in another process to extract a secondary product from the original ore. Additionally, a concentrate may contain more than one valuable metal. That concentrate would then be processed to separate the valuable metals into individual constituents.


title: Metallurgy

text: Much effort has been placed on understanding iron–carbon alloy system, which includes steels and cast irons. Plain carbon steels (those that contain essentially only carbon as an alloying element) are used in low-cost, high-strength applications, where neither weight nor corrosion are a major concern. Cast irons, including ductile iron, are also part of the iron-carbon system. Iron-Manganese-Chromium alloys (Hadfield-type steels) are also used in non-magnetic applications such as directional drilling.


title: Metallurgy

text: Other common engineering metals include aluminium, chromium, copper, magnesium, nickel, titanium, zinc, and silicon. These metals are most often used as alloys with the noted exception of silicon, as it is not a metal.


title: Metallurgy

text: In production engineering, metallurgy is concerned with the production of metallic components for use in consumer or engineering products. This involves production of alloys, shaping, heat treatment and surface treatment of product. The task of the metallurgist is to achieve balance between material properties, such as cost, weight, strength, toughness, hardness, corrosion, fatigue resistance and performance in temperature extremes. To achieve this goal, the operating environment must be carefully considered.


title: Metallurgy

text: Determining the hardness of the metal using the Rockwell, Vickers, and Brinell hardness scales is a commonly used practice that helps better understand the metal's elasticity and plasticity for different applications and production processes. In a saltwater environment, most ferrous metals and some non-ferrous alloys corrode quickly. Metals exposed to cold or cryogenic conditions may undergo a ductile to brittle transition and lose their toughness, becoming more brittle and prone to cracking. Metals under continual cyclic loading can suffer from metal fatigue. Metals under constant stress at elevated temperatures can creep.


title: Metallurgy

text: Cold-working processes, in which the product's shape is altered by rolling, fabrication or other processes, while the product is cold, can increase the strength of the product by a process called work hardening. Work hardening creates microscopic defects in the metal, which resist further changes of shape.


title: Metallurgy

text: Metals can be heat-treated to alter the properties of strength, ductility, toughness, hardness and resistance to corrosion. Common heat treatment processes include annealing, precipitation strengthening, quenching, and tempering:


title: Metallurgy

text: Often, mechanical and thermal treatments are combined in what are known as thermo-mechanical treatments for better properties and more efficient processing of materials. These processes are common to high-alloy special steels, superalloys and titanium alloys.


title: Metallurgy

text: Electroplating is a chemical surface-treatment technique. It involves bonding a thin layer of another metal such as gold, silver, chromium or zinc to the surface of the product. This is done by selecting the coating material electrolyte solution, which is the material that is going to coat the workpiece (gold, silver, zinc). There needs to be two electrodes of different materials: one the same material as the coating material and one that is receiving the coating material. Two electrodes are electrically charged and the coating material is stuck to the work piece. It is used to reduce corrosion as well as to improve the product's aesthetic appearance. It is also used to make inexpensive metals look like the more expensive ones (gold, silver).


title: Metallurgy

text: Shot peening is a cold working process used to finish metal parts. In the process of shot peening, small round shot is blasted against the surface of the part to be finished. This process is used to prolong the product life of the part, prevent stress corrosion failures, and also prevent fatigue. The shot leaves small dimples on the surface like a peen hammer does, which cause compression stress under the dimple. As the shot media strikes the material over and over, it forms many overlapping dimples throughout the piece being treated. The compression stress in the surface of the material strengthens the part and makes it more resistant to fatigue failure, stress failures, corrosion failure, and cracking.


title: Metallurgy

text: Thermal spraying techniques are another popular finishing option, and often have better high temperature properties than electroplated coatings. Thermal spraying, also known as a spray welding process, is an industrial coating process that consists of a heat source (flame or other) and a coating material that can be in a powder or wire form, which is melted then sprayed on the surface of the material being treated at a high velocity. The spray treating process is known by many different names such as HVOF (High Velocity Oxygen Fuel), plasma spray, flame spray, arc spray and metalizing.


title: Metallurgy

text: Metallurgists study the microscopic and macroscopic structure of metals using metallography, a technique invented by Henry Clifton Sorby.


title: Metallurgy

text: In metallography, an alloy of interest is ground flat and polished to a mirror finish. The sample can then be etched to reveal the microstructure and macrostructure of the metal. The sample is then examined in an optical or electron microscope, and the image contrast provides details on the composition, mechanical properties, and processing history.


title: Metallurgy

text: Crystallography, often using diffraction of x-rays or electrons, is another valuable tool available to the modern metallurgist. Crystallography allows identification of unknown materials and reveals the crystal structure of the sample. Quantitative crystallography can be used to calculate the amount of phases present as well as the degree of strain to which a sample has been subjected.


title: Chegg

text: Chegg, Inc., is an American education technology company based in Santa Clara, California. It provides homework help, digital and physical textbook rentals, textbooks, online tutoring, and other student services.


title: Chegg

text: The company was launched in 2005, and began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2013. As of March 2020, the company reported having 2.9 million subscribers to Chegg Services.


title: Chegg

text: The services provided by Chegg have been controversial because there have been reports of student cheating using Chegg services.


title: Chegg

text: In October 2000, Iowa State University students Josh Carlson, Mike Seager, and Mark Fiddleke launched Chegg's forerunner, Cheggpost, a Craigslist-style message board for Iowa State students. "Chegg" is a combination of the words "chicken" and "egg", and references the founders’ catch-22 feeling of being unable to obtain a job without experience, while being unable to acquire experience without a job.


title: Chegg

text: Carlson then teamed with Iowa State MBA Osman Rashid, an avid user of the site who recognized its potential to disrupt the textbook market, which had "drastically outpaced the rate of inflation". The company was incorporated in 2005 by Carlson, Rashid, and Aayush Phumbhra. At that time, it offered scholarship searches, internship matching, and college application advice. Some initial start-up funding was provided by Rashid.


title: Chegg

text: In February 2006, Carlson left the company. Phumbhra and Rashid rebranded, launching Chegg, Inc. in December 2007, with Rashid as CEO. After ending services unrelated to renting and purchasing textbooks, the company adjusted its business model to reflect that of Netflix's rental-based model, concentrating on renting textbooks to students, and Chegg expanded to a national market. It later added goods and student services through corporate acquisitions.


title: Chegg

text: In 2008, revenues were about $10 million; in 2009, revenues for the month of January were reported as $10 million.


title: Chegg

text: Following a brief tenure by former Ask.com and Match.com CEO Jim Safka in 2009, former Guitar Hero CEO Dan Rosensweig was appointed CEO in 2010.


title: Chegg

text: Chegg began trading shares publicly on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2013. Its IPO was reported to have raised $187.5 million, with an initial market capitalization of about $1.1 billion.


title: Chegg

text: In 2014, Chegg entered a partnership with book distributor Ingram Content Group to distribute all of Chegg's physical textbook rentals.


title: Chegg

text: In April 2017, Chegg and Pearson Education began a textbook rental partnership; In the pilot program, the publisher Pearson made 50 editions of high-volume textbooks (both digital and print) available only to rent. Chegg served as the exclusive rental outlet.


title: Chegg

text: In September 2018, Chegg announced a data breach had occurred in April 2018 that may have involved 40 million active and inactive registered users. The breach may have included data such as user names, Chegg passwords, email addresses, and shipping addresses. The company reported that social security numbers and bank account information were not affected by the breach.


title: Chegg

text: In June 2021, Chegg unveiled Uversity, a new educational platform that will provide a space for professors and other educators to share content. In the same year, Chegg partnered with Varkey Foundation to launch Global Student Prize to recognise outstanding students that make an impact to local or international communities.


title: Chegg

text: In 2010, Chegg made its first acquisition, purchasing CourseRank, which was disabled in 2014. In the same year, Chegg also acquired Cramster, a provider of online homework help, and Notehall, an online marketplace for class notes.


title: Chegg

text: In 2011, Chegg acquired Zinch, a scholarship search and networking service for high school students and college recruiters, and continues to offer the service, under the Chegg brand name. Chegg acquired software company 3D3R in late 2011 to develop its digital textbook product, kickstart its mobile product group, and open an engineering office in Rehovot, Israel. In June 2014 Chegg acquired online tutoring platform InstaEDU, for a reported $30 million, renaming the division Chegg Tutors, and in October 2014 it acquired Internships.com.


title: Chegg

text: In 2017 Chegg acquired RefME, a free citation management tool available on web, iOS and Android. It was shut down on March 7, 2017, and user accounts were transferred over to CiteThisForMe, Chegg's own citation service.


title: Chegg

text: Chegg acquired Imagine Easy Solutions, a provider of online bibliography and research tools, for a reported $42 million, in 2016. In 2017, the company acquired Cogeon GmbH, a German math education provider, for $15 million cash;


title: Chegg

text: In 2018, Chegg acquired WriteLab, which uses AI to analyze text and suggest improvements, and online flash card tool StudyBlue.


title: Chegg

text: During late 2019, Chegg acquired online coding, design, and data science school Thinkful, for $80 million cash plus $20 million in cash or stock based on performance.


title: Chegg

text: 2022 saw Chegg acquire the language learning software service Busuu for 436 million USD. Busuu, a once private company, is now fully integrated into Chegg.


title: Chegg

text: Some services offered by Chegg have been repeatedly documented as being problematic. These services include "homework help" where "Chegg experts" solve homework questions for students. Academic file-sharing also occurs in the form of students posting homework question sheets soliciting answers. Academic file-sharing has been documented as being a form of violation of academic integrity at many schools.


title: Chegg

text: In February 2019, Chegg formed a partnership with Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL), to make online educational writing tools more accessible to its students. The affiliation was met by some faculty criticism, alluding to Chegg helping students cheat; OWL director Harry Denny reported that he did not expect Purdue's reputation to suffer as a result, citing that "My experience has been that the company is committed to partnering with faculty and administration to address their concerns." Purdue University prohibits students soliciting answers using Chegg's homework help: "While Chegg can be helpful to access textbooks and more practice problems, using this resource to find assignment answers is considered academic dishonesty because it is a form of copying and plagiarism.".


title: Chegg

text: A report published by Citron Research in July 2019 claims that "Chegg has created forums to circumvent Turnitin, proving that Chegg is helping users continue institutionalized cheating".


title: Chegg

text: During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, controversy around Chegg and companies offering similar services escalated, as many students had to learn from home with uncensored internet access. For example, Georgia Tech alerted students in a physics class that certain students in the class had cheated on their online final exam by using answers posted on Chegg, certain students in a chemistry class at Boston University were found to have similarly cheated on an online exam, students from two chemistry classes at the University of British Columbia were accused of using Chegg for cheating on exams, including using two incorrect answers posted on Chegg, and solutions to a physics exam at Washington University in St. Louis were posted on Chegg during the exam period. Chegg cooperated with the investigations. A study published in 2020 has found that Chegg answers student questions even though the questions have clear cues to indicate that the student is trying to buy answers for a current assessed activity—the questions are neither identified nor flagged as violations of academic integrity anywhere in the process.


title: Chegg

text: It has also been reported that students have been subjected to blackmail after having used the services of Chegg.


title: Chegg

text: While Chegg shared information such as usernames, emails, or IP addresses to colleges, in August of 2022, Chegg changed its "honor code policy" to limit the information they provide to universities and colleges. Chegg says that this change is to protect student privacy.


title: Chegg

text: In England's "Higher Education Cheating Services Prohibition Bill", Chegg has been mentioned as an example of a website offering cheating services.


title: Chegg

text: By 2016, textbook rentals and student services were about even in company revenues; by 2018, Chegg Services reported 3.1 million subscribers, with services accounting for 79% of revenue. Students may search for both scholarships and internships on the website, and typically pay to access Chegg Services, such as Study, Advanced Writing, Tutors, and Math Solver, on a monthly basis.


title: Chegg

text: Chegg was sued by Pearson for breach of copyright in 2021, alleging that Chegg infringed on its copyright by selling answers to end-of-chapter questions included in Pearson textbooks.


title: Chegg

text: Chegg sponsors music instruction contests for colleges in a program named Music 101. These conclude with live classroom instruction by noted music artists, and a $10,000 grant from its David B. Goldberg Music Scholarship fund for the winning school music department. In 2019, the company launched its ninth annual Chegg Music 101 campaign featuring YUNGBLUD. Previous events have featured U2, Imagine Dragons, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, Steve Aoki, and Liam Payne.


title: Canada lynx

text: The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), or Canadian lynx, is a medium-sized North American lynx that ranges across Alaska, Canada, and northern areas of the contiguous United States. It is characterized by its long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts at the tips, and broad, snowshoe-like paws. Its hindlimbs are longer than the forelimbs, so its back slopes downward to the front. The Canada lynx stands tall at the shoulder and weighs between . The lynx is a good swimmer and an agile climber. The Canada lynx was first described by Robert Kerr in 1792. Three subspecies have been proposed, but their validity is doubted; it is mostly considered a monotypic species.


title: Canada lynx

text: A specialist predator, the Canada lynx depends heavily on the snowshoe hare ("Lepus americanus") for food. This leads to a prey-predator cycle, as Canada lynxes respond to the cyclic rises and falls in snowshoe hare populations over the years in Alaska and central Canada. The Canada lynx population increases with an increasing hare population; if the hare population decreases in a given area, it moves to areas with more hares and has fewer offspring. The Canada lynx hunts mainly around twilight, or at night, when snowshoe hares tend to be active. The lynx waits for the hare on specific trails or in "ambush beds", then pounces on it and kills it by a bite on its head, throat or the nape of its neck. Individuals, particularly of the same sex, tend to avoid each other, forming "intrasexual" territories. The mating season is roughly a month long (from March to early April). After a gestation of two to three months, a litter of one to eight kittens is born. Offspring are weaned at 12 weeks.


title: Canada lynx

text: This lynx occurs predominantly in dense boreal forests, and its range strongly coincides with that of the snowshoe hare. Given its abundance throughout the range and lack of severe threats, the Canada lynx has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. This lynx is regularly trapped for the international fur trade in most of Alaska and Canada but is protected in the southern half of its range due to threats such as habitat loss.


title: Canada lynx

text: The scientific name "Felis lynx canadensis" was proposed by Robert Kerr in 1792 who described a lynx from Canada. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, several lynx zoological specimens were described:


title: Canada lynx

text: The placement of the Canada lynx in the genus "Lynx" was supported by Gerrit Miller in 1912. Until as late as the early 2000s, scientists were divided over whether "Lynx" should be considered a subgenus of "Felis", or a subfamily itself; some even doubted if the Canada lynx should be considered a species on its own. It was recognized by Wallace Christopher Wozencraft in 2005 as a valid "Lynx" species along with the bobcat ("L. rufus"), the Eurasian lynx ("L. lynx") and the Iberian lynx ("L. pardinus").


title: Canada lynx

text: The validity of the subspecific status of the Newfoundland lynx was questioned in 1975, as results of a study of coat colour, cranial measurements and weights of Canada lynx specimens showed that the standard measurements are not significantly distinct, apart from a few variations like the Newfoundland lynx's darker coat.


title: Canada lynx

text: In 2017, the Cat Specialist Group considered the Canada lynx a monotypic species, since it shows little morphological or genetic differences.


title: Canada lynx

text: The lynx population on Newfoundland is thought to have genetically diverged from the mainland Canada lynx around 20,000 to 33,000 years ago following the Last Glacial Period.


title: Canada lynx

text: According to a 2006 phylogenetic study, the ancestor of five extant felid lineages—"Lynx", "Leopardus", "Puma", "Felis" and "Prionailurus" plus "Otocolobus"—arrived in North America after crossing the Bering Strait (mya). "Lynx" diverged from the "Puma", "Felis" and "Prionailurus" plus "Otocolobus" lineages around 2.53–4.74mya. The Issoire lynx ("L. issiodorensis"), believed to be the ancestor of the four modern "Lynx" species, probably originated in Africa 4mya and occurred in Europe and northern Asia until it fell to extinction around 1mya. The populations of the Eurasian lynx that reached North America 2.6mya are believed to have initially settled in the southern half of the continent, as the northern part was covered by glaciers. The southern populations gradually evolved into the modern bobcat. Later, when the continent was invaded by the Eurasian lynx for a second time within the last 200,000 years, the populations that settled in the northern part of the continent, now devoid of glaciers, evolved into the Canada lynx. In his 1981 paper, Swedish paleontologist Lars Werdelin noted that the Canada lynx does not appear to have changed much since its first appearance. Canada lynx fossils excavated in North America date back to the Sangamonian and the Wisconsin Glacial Episode. The 2006 study gave the phylogenetic relationships of the Canada lynx as follows:


title: Canada lynx

text: The Canada lynx is a lean, medium-sized cat characterized by its long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts at the tips, and broad, snowshoe-like paws. Like the bobcat, the hindlimbs are longer than the forelimbs, so the back slopes downward to the front. The Canada lynx is sexually dimorphic, with males larger and heavier than females. The lynx is between in total length and stands tall at the shoulder; females weigh around while males around , though an exceptional male in Pennsylvania weighed . Physical proportions do not vary significantly across the range and are probably naturally selected to allow for survival on smaller prey. The stubby tail is long and has a completely black tip. Skeletal muscles make up 56.5 % of the Canada lynx's body weight.


title: Canada lynx

text: The long, thick fur, uniformly coloured with little to no markings except on the underside, insulates the lynx in its frosty habitat. The fur is typically yellowish brown, though in Newfoundland it can vary from brown or buff-grey in spring and summer to a greyish shade with a grizzled appearance in winter; the underparts are white and may have a few dark spots. An individual from Alaska was reported to have bluish-grey fur. The fur is generally shorter in summer than in winter. The backs of the ears are brown with a silvery-grey spot at the centre. Black tufts around in length emerge from the tips of the ears, which are lined with black fur. In winter, the hair on the lower cheek becomes longer, giving the impression of a ruffle covering the throat. There are four nipples.


title: Canada lynx

text: The claws are sharp and fully retractile. The large, broad paws are covered in long, thick fur and can spread as wide as to move quickly and easily on soft snow. Its paws can support almost twice as much weight as a bobcat's before sinking. Both species walk with the back foot typically following the front foot and often do not follow a straight line. The lynx's stride is , while the bobcat's varies between . Canada lynx tracks are generally larger than those of the bobcat; thicker fur may make the toe pads appear less prominent in the snow. In dirt the tracks of the lynx are long and wide, whereas in snow they are bigger ( long and wide). The warm coat, wide paws and long legs serve as adaptations for the lynx to navigate and hunt efficiently in snow.


title: Canada lynx

text: The Canada lynx has 28 teeth. The dental formula is . The deciduous dentition is , as the young do not have molars. The four long canines are used for puncturing and gripping. The lynx can feel where it is biting the prey with its canines because they are heavily laced with nerves. It also has four carnassial teeth that cut the meat into small pieces. To use its carnassials, the lynx must chew the meat with its head to its side. There are large spaces between the four canines and the rest of the teeth, and the second upper premolars are absent, to ensure the bite goes as deeply as possible into the prey.


title: Canada lynx

text: The Canada lynx can be told apart from the bobcat by its longer ear tufts, broader paws, shorter tail with a fully black tip, longer legs and the fewer markings and greyer shade of the coat. The bobcat is generally smaller than the Canada lynx, but in areas where they are sympatric the bobcat tends to be larger and may still be confused with the Canada lynx.


title: Canada lynx

text: The Canada lynx occurs predominantly in the dense boreal forest of Canada, and its range strongly coincides with that of the snowshoe hare. In the past, the lynx occurred in the northern United States in 24 states, possibly southward to the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico and northward to the tree line in the Arctic through coniferous forests in Alaska and Canada. The lynx continues to occur in its former range in most of Alaska and Canada. In the United States, the Canada lynx occurs in the Blue Mountains and the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, the northern Great Lakes region (in Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula) and northern New England (in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont). The lynx was successfully reintroduced in Colorado starting in 1999, after being extirpated from the state in the 1970s. Canada lynxes generally avoid open areas despite good prey availability; they face difficulty surviving in heavily logged areas and on agricultural land, though they can thrive well in deforested areas that have been left to regenerate at least fifteen years. Canada lynxes have been recorded up to an elevation of . It is considered extirpated in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Nevada, Indiana, and Ohio.


title: Canada lynx

text: A Canada lynx was shot near Newton Abbot in the United Kingdom in 1903 after it attacked two dogs. The animal remained unidentified at the time and was preserved by Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and was finally identified in a 2014 study. The researchers concluded it had probably been captive for some time, perhaps as an exotic pet or part of a travelling menagerie, but may have survived for a substantial period after escaping. They considered it "the earliest recorded example of an exotic cat on the loose in the UK".


title: Canada lynx

text: The Canada lynx tends to be nocturnal like its primary prey, the snowshoe hare. Nevertheless, activity may be observed during daytime. The lynx can cover daily, moving at , to procure prey. These lynxes are good swimmers; one account records a Canada lynx swimming across the Yukon River. Canada lynxes are efficient climbers, and will dodge predators by climbing high up in trees, but they hunt only on the ground. These lynxes are primarily solitary, with minimal social interaction except for the bond between mothers and female offspring, and the temporary association between individuals of opposite sexes during the mating season. Individuals of the same sex particularly tend to avoid each other, forming "intrasexual" territories—a social structure similar to that of bears, bobcats, cougars and mustelids. Intraspecific aggression and consequent cannibalism are rare, but may be more common when food is scarce.


title: Canada lynx

text: Canada lynxes establish home ranges that vary widely in size, depending upon the method of measurement. The two common methods are examining the tracks of the lynx in snow (snow-tracking) and radio telemetry; snow-tracking generally gives smaller sizes for home ranges. Studies based on snow-tracking have estimated home range sizes of , while those based on radio telemetry have given the area between . Like other cats, Canada lynxes scent-mark their ranges by spraying urine and depositing feces on snow or tree stumps and other prominent sites in and around their range.


title: Canada lynx

text: Factors such as the availability of prey (primarily snowshoe hare), the density of the lynxes and the topography of the habitat determine the shape and size of the home range. Studies have tried to correlate the abundance of snowshoe hares in an area with the sizes of lynxes' home ranges in that area. A 1985 study showed that the mean size of home ranges trebled—from —when the density of hares fell from . However, a few other studies have reported different responses from Canada lynxes at times of prey scarcity; some lynxes do not show any changes in their ranges, while others may resort to hunting in small areas, occupying small home ranges. Canada lynxes generally do not leave their home ranges frequently, though limited prey availability can force them to disperse or expand their ranges.


title: Canada lynx

text: Males tend to occupy larger ranges than do females; for instance, data from a 1980 radio telemetric analysis in Minnesota showed that males' home ranges spread over , while those of females covered . In a study in the southern Northwest Territories, ranges of individuals of opposite sexes were found to overlap extensively, while the ranges of individuals of the same sex hardly coincided. The study suggested that individuals do not show any significant tendency to avoid or mingle with one another, and thus only passively defend their ranges. Female home ranges contract in size when the females have offspring to take care of and expand to their original size at the time of weaning.


title: Canada lynx

text: Canada lynxes at the periphery of a population, given their smaller numbers and susceptibility to separation from the central population by natural barriers (such as rivers), might face more difficulty in breeding with lynxes towards the centre of the population and hence show lower genetic variability. However, Canada lynxes are known to disperse over large distances, often thousands of kilometres, which might increase genetic variability in widely separated populations. They typically move within areas where prey availability and the features of the snow (such as the hardness and the extent to which their paws sink into the snow) are more or less similar; individuals may disperse over smaller areas in areas of soft snow.


title: Canada lynx

text: The Canada lynx preys primarily on the snowshoe hare. These hares comprise 35–97% of their diet; the proportion varies by the season and the abundance of hares. However, at times when the hare's numbers drop, Canada lynxes will include other animals in their diet—such as ducks, grouse, moles, ptarmigan, American red squirrels, voles and young ungulates (Dall's sheep, mule deer and boreal woodland caribou)—though snowshoe hares continue to be the primary component. The Canada lynx tends to be less selective in summer and autumn, adding small mammals to their diet besides the hare. The reason behind this is unclear—it could be due to a greater abundance of alternate prey, or reduced success in hunting hares. A study in Alaska found that lynxes played a role in the decrease in populations of red fox, caribou and Dall's sheep when hares were very low in number. They have also been reported feeding occasionally on succulents, sedges and grasses. Canada lynxes ingest of food daily.


title: Canada lynx

text: Canada lynxes hunt around twilight or at night, the time when snowshoe hares tend to be active. They rely on their vision and sense of hearing to locate prey. The lynx will roam or wait (in what researchers often term "ambush beds") on certain trails that snowshoe hares frequent, pounce on a hare and kill it by a bite on its head, throat or the nape of its neck. Sometimes a chase of up to several bounds may be necessary to trap the prey. The lynx is assisted by its stereoscopic vision in detecting prey and measuring distances. Staying in cover while hunting helps the lynx conserve energy in its frigid habitat by avoiding unnecessary movement. Young ungulates are given a throat bite to suffocate them to death. The lynx may eat its kill immediately or cache it in snow or leaves to eat it over the next few days. Studies suggest success in hunting hares depends heavily on the distance between the lynx and the hare when the lynx begins chasing it and their relative speeds, which in turn depends on the hunting prowess of the lynx, the alertness of the hare and the vegetation cover among other factors. Canada lynxes will occasionally hunt together, though studies differ on how this affects the success rate compared to hunting solo. These lynxes may hunt in groups when hares are scarce. Scavenging is common; they will take ungulates killed by the cold or vehicles.


title: Canada lynx

text: Apart from Canada lynxes, coyotes are also major predators of the snowshoe hare. A study showed that, compared to Canada lynxes, coyotes' feet sink deeper in the snow due to their smaller size and hence a larger body mass to foot area ratio, prompting them to ambush their prey instead of chasing it as lynxes often do. A study of those two animals in southwest Yukon showed that when the hare population increased, both killed more than necessary for subsistence; lynxes need to kill 0.4 to 0.5 hare per day to meet their energy requirements but were observed to kill 1.2 hares per day during this period. Coyotes, with a success rate of 36.9%, emerged as more successful hunters than lynxes that succeeded in 28.7% of their hunts; however, this may have resulted from the greater number of adult coyotes in the studied population. Lynxes rarely cached their kills, unlike coyotes, and this may have led to incomplete consumption of some kills. When snowshoe hare numbers declined, both predators hunted for the same time period as they did when hares were abundant, but lynxes killed more hares than they had earlier. Moreover, lynxes supplemented their diet with American red squirrels.


title: Canada lynx

text: A specialist predator, the Canada lynx depends heavily on snowshoe hares for food. Snowshoe hare populations in Alaska and central Canada undergo cyclic rises and falls—at times the population densities can fall from as high as to as low as . Consequently, a period of hare scarcity occurs every eight to 11 years. An example of a prey-predator cycle, the cyclic variations in snowshoe hare populations significantly affect the numbers of their predators—lynxes and coyotes—in the region. When the hare populations plummet, lynxes often move to areas with more hares, sometimes covering over , and tend not to produce litters; as the hares' numbers increase, so does the lynx population. In northern Canada, the abundance of lynxes can be estimated from records maintained by the Hudson's Bay Company and the Canadian government since the 1730s. Lynx populations have been found to vary periodically three- to seventeen-fold. These cycles have been cited as an example of the Lotka–Volterra predator–prey equations, caused by the interplay of three major factors—food, predation and social interaction. A study involving statistical modelling of the interspecific relations of the snowshoe hare, the plant species it feeds on and its predators (including the Canada lynx) suggested that while the demographics of the lynx depend primarily on the hare, the hare's dynamics depend on both its diet and its predators, of which the Canada lynx is just one. Environmental factors such as forest fires, precipitation and snowfall might also significantly affect this prey-predator cycle.


title: Canada lynx

text: The mating season is roughly a month long, from March to early April. Urine marking and mating calls are part of display behaviour and increase the interaction between individuals of opposite sexes. Females can be induced ovulators when the availability of mates is low, or spontaneous ovulators when several mates are available. Females have only a single estrus cycle; estrus lasts three to five days in captivity. Individuals have been observed making long wailing vocalizations, probably as mating calls. Before birth, the female prepares a maternal den, usually in very thick brush, and typically inside thickets of shrubs, trees or woody debris.


title: Canada lynx

text: After a gestation of two to three months, a litter of one to eight kittens is born. Lynx reproductive cycles and litter sizes have been observed to vary with prey availability; litter size would typically contract in years of snowshoe hare decline (along with high infant mortality rates), and increase when hares were abundant. Kittens weigh from at birth and initially have greyish buff fur with black markings. They are blind the first fourteen days and weaned at twelve weeks. Most births occur from May to July. Kittens leave the den after about five weeks and begin hunting at between seven and nine months of age. They leave the mother at around ten months, as the next breeding season begins, but they do not reach the full adult size until around two years of age. Female offspring typically settle in home ranges close to their mothers and remain in contact with them for life, while male offspring move far from their mother's range. Females reach sexual maturity at ten months but often delay breeding another year; males mature at age two or three. Canada lynxes have been reported to live sixteen years in the wild, though most do not survive ten; in captivity they may make it to twenty-seven.


title: Canada lynx

text: The Canada lynx is known to host several parasites including "Cylicospirura felineus", "Taenia" species, "Toxocara cati", "Toxascaris leonina" and "Troglostrongylus wilsoni". Canada lynxes could have played a role in the transmission of the zoonotic parasite "Toxoplasma gondii" to the Inuit in North America. A study in 2019 identified a gammaherpesvirus species in the Canada lynx for the first time. The study discovered a novel percavirus, named LcaGHV1, in spleen samples of Canada lynxes from Maine and Newfoundland. A study identified plague as a major cause of mortality in reintroduced populations in Colorado.


title: Canada lynx

text: Fishers are known to hunt Canada lynxes occasionally in the northeastern United States; a study in northern Maine identified predation by fishers as the leading cause of Canada lynx mortality over twelve years, though it did not appear to affect population growth in the lynxes.


title: Canada lynx

text: Canada lynxes are trapped in specific seasons in most of Alaska and Canada; hunting seasons and quotas are set based on population data. Alberta typically leads in the production of pelts, accounting for nearly a third of Canada's total. Following a cyclic fall in populations during the mid to late 1980s, there was a sharp decline in the prices and harvest of Canada lynx furs—the average number of pelts exported from Canada and the United States fell from 35,669 in 1980–1984 to 7,360 between 1986 and 1989. Subsequently, the numbers have increased to 15,387 during 2000–2006. Average illegal trade in fur and live animals appears to be negligible on the national scale. Even without regulation, the lynx-hare cycles and the distribution of the lynx have remained unaffected over the last century.


title: Canada lynx

text: A survey of the international wildlife trade between 1980 and 2004 recorded that among all lynxes, the Canada lynx accounted for thirty percent of legal items and had little part in illegal trade. While it was unclear which lynxes were preferred in North America, bobcat and Canada lynx furs appeared to be in greater demand than those of other lynxes in Asian and European markets.


title: Canada lynx

text: In eastern Canada the lynx is threatened by competition with the eastern coyote, whose numbers in the region have risen in the last few decades. Habitat loss is the main threat in the contiguous United States, while trapping is a relatively insignificant cause of mortality. Hybridization between Canada lynxes and bobcats has been reported in the southern periphery of the range. Hybridization between closely related species might significantly delimit the geographic range of the species, especially if they are endangered as reproductive success in females would be reduced by the birth of sterile offspring; on the other hand, fertile hybrids can compete and breed further with the parent species, potentially reducing the numbers of the parent species. Canada lynx-bobcat hybrids have shown signs of reproductive success and do not appear to pose any big threat to the parent species. The Canada lynx is abundant over its broad range and has not been significantly threatened by legal trade for centuries. Therefore, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies the Canada lynx as Least Concern.


title: Canada lynx

text: However, populations are relatively lower in the southern half of the range and are protected from the fur trade. The lynx is listed as Endangered in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. On March 24, 2000, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued its Final Rule, which designated the Canada lynx a Threatened Species in 14 contiguous states. In 2005, the USFWS demarcated six major areas for revival where lynx reproduction had been reported in the past two decades: northern Maine and New Hampshire, northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Montana and northeastern Idaho, the Kettle River Range and the "Wedge area" between the Kettle and Columbia rivers of Washington, the northern Cascade Range of Washington, and the Greater Yellowstone area of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. By 2010, after an 11-year effort, the lynx had been successfully reintroduced into Colorado. The initial introduction was in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado, but self-sustaining populations were established throughout the south-central Colorado Rockies as far north as Summit County. A 2012 study showed numbers had improved in the northeastern United States; however, a 2008 study showed lynx populations were not doing well in Washington because of habitat fragmentation. A 2017 study reported increasing numbers in many areas in the United States. In January 2018, the USFWS declared that the Canada lynx no longer needed special protections in the United States following measures to preserve their populations, and their "Threatened" status may be revoked in the future.


title: Canada lynx

text: Various techniques have been employed to study Canada lynx populations; the data collected can provide useful information on the ecology and distribution of the species and pave the way for effective conservation measures. In scent stations, the lynx is typically lured into camera-monitored areas by skunk scent (sometimes catnip) and a "flasher" such as a bird wing on a string. This technique, though systematic, might be too expensive to carry out in large areas. Other methods include radio telemetry and snow tracking. Snow tracking might be a challenge in areas lacking roads, and sometimes bobcat tracks can be mistaken for those of the Canada lynx. Hair-snaring involves collecting hairs shed by the lynx, especially when they rub against objects (such as the snow); a study showed a mixture of beaver castoreum and catnip oil can strongly induce rubbing behaviour in lynxes. This method is generally inexpensive, and chances of misidentification are low as physical evidence like hairs can be genetically analysed.


title: Canada lynx

text: Between 1989 and 1992, a reintroduction attempt into New York State was made when 80 lynx were caught in from northwestern Canada and released into the Adirondacks by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Some of the released lynx dispersed into the surrounding states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. After the attempt, Canada lynx were officially considered extirpated in New York State, but are still fully protected under state law. Nineteen individuals were killed in traffic accidents, eight were mistakenly shot by bobcat hunters, and the remaining died from unknown causes or predation.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang Yixing (; born ), known professionally as Lay Zhang or simply Lay (), is a Chinese rapper, singer, songwriter, dancer, actor and businessman. Zhang first gained recognition for participating in the Chinese television talent show "Star Academy" in 2005. He later debuted as a member of the K-pop boy group Exo and its Chinese sub-unit Exo-M under SM Entertainment in 2012.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In 2015, Zhang founded a personal agency for his solo activities and music releases and released an autobiography titled "Standing Firm at 24". In 2016, Zhang released his first extended play (EP), "Lose Control", to commercial success. The EP peaked at number one on the Gaon Album Chart and number four on "Billboard"s US World Albums chart. Since his debut as a solo artist, Zhang has released four EPs and four studio albums. He founded the Chromosome Entertainment Group, which began recruiting trainees worldwide, in 2020.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang has been included on the "Forbes" China Celebrity 100 (placing in the top 20 in multiple years) and on the CelebrityZ Top 100 Most Valuable Celebrities list (placing 23rd in 2016) published by market research company Kantar and Chinese business magazine "CBN Weekly". Outside of music, Zhang became the first celebrity to serve as publicity ambassador for the Communist Youth League of China of Changsha in 2016 and has also ventured into acting. He has starred in films and television shows such as "Ex-Files 2" (2015), "The Mystic Nine" (2016), "Kung Fu Yoga" (2017), "The Island" (2018), "The Golden Eyes" (2019), "Empress of the Ming" (2019) and "Crime Crackdown" (2021).


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang Yixing was born Zhang Jiashuai (Chinese: 张加帅) in Changsha, Hunan, China on 7 October 1991. His legal name was later changed to Zhang Yixing. His first known acting role was at age six, starring as Huan Huan in the 1998 Chinese television drama "We The People". In 2000, at age nine, Zhang participated in a Chinese television show as a fan club member of the Taiwanese singer and actor Jimmy Lin, Zhang's first contact with the entertainment industry. Zhang began became a local child star after winning third place in a competition organized by the Hunan-based television show "Star Academy" in 2005. He also appeared in an episode of "Yue Ce Yue Xin Kai" and Liu Na's variety show "Na Ke Bu Yi Yang" between 2005 and 2006. In April 2006, he auditioned for a leading part in Zhang Jizhong's "The Duke of Mount Deer" but did not win the role despite being a finalist.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In 2008, Zhang auditioned for SM Entertainment at the South Korean company's global casting audition in Wuhan. At the time, he was 16 years old and studying at the High School Attached to Hunan Normal University. After successfully passing the auditions, Zhang moved to South Korea to complete his idol training. In 2011, prior to his debut with Exo, he briefly worked with Shinee on their Shinee World Tour as Jonghyun's dance replacement.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang debuted as a K-pop idol under the stage name "Lay", which he stated SM Entertainment gave him because there is a character named Huaze Lei who "is talented and likes music quite a bit" in the Taiwanese drama "Meteor Garden". He was first unveiled as one of the four Chinese members of Exo in a teaser video titled "Phoenix" in January 2012.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Following the release of the singles "What Is Love" and "History" in 2012, he and the other eleven members held their pre-debut showcase in Seoul Olympic Stadium on 31 March 2012, as well as a second showcase and press conference at the Great Hall of the Beijing University of International Business and Economics. The group debuted on 8 April 2012 with the single "Mama", and Exo-M's first performance in China was publicly televised at the 12th Yinyue Fengyun Bang Awards.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In December 2012, Zhang was featured in SM Entertainment's project dance group SM the Performance alongside fellow Exo member Kai and labelmates Yunho, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Minho and Taemin. On 29 December, the group performed their single "Spectrum", which was released the following day, at the 2012 SBS Gayo Daejeon. As Exo attained domestic stardom, their studio album "XOXO" became the first to sell more than one million copies in South Korea in 12 years.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Early in 2014, Zhang composed and performed the song "I'm Lay" for his solo performance during Exo's first headlining concert tour, The Lost Planet. Later that year, he performed another self-composed song, "I'm Coming", on a special year-end television program on Hunan TV. Zhang also composed the song "Promise" on the repackaged edition of Exo's second studio album, "Love Me Right", and wrote the lyrics for the Chinese version of the song.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In April 2015, SM Entertainment announced that a personal studio had been established for Zhang's activities in China. In May 2015, he became a regular cast member of the Chinese reality television show "Go Fighting!". Zhang subsequently starred in the second, third, and fourth seasons of the show, which helped increased his popularity in China.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 18 September, the limited edition of Zhang's autobiography "Standing Firm at 24" was published, while the standard edition became available on 7 October. The book documented important events throughout his life and broke several online sales records, selling 68,537 copies in the first 24 minutes of pre-sales. Zhang placed fourth on the 10th Chinese Celebrity Writers List, the youngest celebrity author to enter the chart. He was first place in the 2015 installment of the Annual Celebrity Book Sales and ranked first Asia's Best Books twice on its monthly chart and six times on its weekly charts. Zhang's autobriography made Rakuten's lists, with 400,000 copies sold in six months.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In November 2015, Zhang made his film debut with a supporting role in the Chinese romantic comedy movie "Ex-Files 2: The Backup Strikes Back", which was a box office hit. He later won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 2016 China Britain Film Festival for his performance. He also wrote and recorded an original soundtrack for the movie titled "Alone (One Person)", which reached number one on the Baidu Music Chart and later won Best Movie Original Soundtrack awards at the 16th Top Chinese Music Awards and 4th V-Chart Awards. Zhang also starred in the Chinese comedy film "Oh My God" and collaborated with his co-stars Coco Jiang Wen and Li Xiaolu on an original soundtrack for the movie titled "Happy Youth", which debuted at number eight on the "Billboard" V Chart.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In January 2016, Zhang and the other cast members of "Go Fighting!" appeared in the Chinese movie "Royal Treasure". In April 2016, he received the Most Popular Newcomer award at the 16th Top Chinese Music Awards.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In May 2016, Zhang made his small screen debut in the Chinese television series "To Be A Better Man." Written by Lay and co-composed and arranged with Divine Channel, "Monodrama" broke records by staying at number one on YinYueTai's V Chart for five consecutive weeks.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In July 2016, Zhang starred in the Chinese action mystery drama "The Mystic Nine", a prequel to "The Lost Tomb". The series achieved domestic success, placing first in television ratings and setting a record for the most online views garnered in a day. It has since accumulated over 12 billion total views. Zhang went on to star in a spin-off of the television series titled "", which focused solely on Zhang's character. "Flowers Bloom in February" was also successful, accumulating over 500 million views.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In October 2016, Zhang made his debut as a solo artist with the release of "What U Need?" as a surprise gift for his fans on his birthday. The song reached number four spot on the China V Chart and "Billboard" World Digital Songs chart. He performed it for the first time on 10 October at the 2016 Asia Song Festival in Busan, South Korea.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 28 October, Zhang released his debut extended play (EP) "Lose Control", which contained six Mandarin tracks and the music video for the title song.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Lay was involved in much of the production of the EP, participating in songwriting and arrangement as well as translating the original lyrics himself into English, Korean and Japanese.


title: Lay Zhang

text: The song "Lose Control" stayed as number one on "Billboard's" China V Chart for six consecutive weeks. Pre-orders for "Lose Control" surpassed 200,000 copies, and it debut at number one on the Gaon Album Chart. It also reached number four on Billboard's US World Albums chart. Zhang performed "Lose Control" for the first time on the music program "The Show" on 15 November.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 27 January 2017, Zhang made his maiden appearance on CCTV Spring Gala Festival and sang a duet alongside Chinese actor Jing Boran.


title: Lay Zhang

text: The same month, he starred with Jackie Chan in the Indian-Chinese action film "Kung Fu Yoga" directed by Stanley Tong, playing an archaeologist assistant. The film grossed $245.2 million, the highest-grossing comedy film in China at the time. A post-release music video of "Goosebump" sung by Fazilpuria featured him and Jackie Chan.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 17 February, Zhang made his last public appearance with Exo on the Hong Kong concerts of their world tour Exo Planet 3 – The Exo'rdium. Afterwards, he halted activities with the group due to overlapping schedules with his solo career in mainland China. In April, Zhang starred in the Chinese patriotic film "The Founding of an Army" and was praised for his portrayal of Lu Deming. Later in April, Zhang starred in the Chinese remake of the hit Japanese romance television series "Operation Love". He composed and performed the song "Pray" for the drama. In July, Zhang voiced Jackson Storm in the Chinese-dubbed version of Disney's animated film "Cars 3".


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 25 September, Zhang released the music video for "I Need U", a pre-release track from his album "Lay 02 Sheep". The music video ranked number one on "Billboard"'s China Weibo Live Chart. The album was released on 7 October along with the music video for the song "Sheep". On its first day of digital sales, the album broke five records on QQ Music for the Gold, Double Gold, Triple Gold, Platinum and Diamond (¥5 million in 9 hours 11 minutes) certifications. The album premiere 2017 Zhang Yixing Showcase was held at the Beijing National Aquatics Center on 12 October, where he performed "I Need U", "Sheep" and other singles. In October, Zhang was announced to be starring as the male lead alongside label-mate Krystal Jung in the South Korean-Chinese romance film "Unexpected Love", the poster for which was revealed in the Cannes Film Festival.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 22 December, Zhang released his second EP "Winter Special Gift" on QQ Music and KuGou. The music video of the lead single for the album, "Goodbye Christmas", was released on the same day. Within one day of digital sales, the album surpassed Gold, Double Gold, Triple Gold and Platinum sales marks on QQ Music. The album later surpassed the Diamond sales mark on the platform as well. The same month, Zhang was appointed as the presenter and production director of iQiyi's hit talent recruiting program "Idol Producer".


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 1 April 2018, Zhang returned as one of the main cast in the fourth season of hit Chinese variety show "Go Fighting!". He attended the 2018 CCTV New Year's Gala, where he performed a dance in collaboration with Huang Bo and William Chan. He also participated in the national anthem and its music video for "Youth Day" in China in May. In July, Zhang made a guest appearance for the web series "The Tomb of Sea", where he portrayed a descendant of his character from the hit 2016 TV series "The Mystic Nine". In August, Zhang starred in Huang Bo's commercially and critically successful directorial debut film "The Island", where he received acclaim for his performance.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang made his first appearance in the US at the music festival Lollapalooza, where he collaborated with DJ Alan Walker. The duo later collaborated on a remixed version of Zhang's previous single "Sheep", titled "Sheep Relift" and released on 30 August.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang's second album "Namanana" was released on 19 October, with the pre-release single "Give Me a Chance" released on 5 October. The album contained 22 songs, including a collaboration with American singer Bazzi, 11 of which are in the Chinese language with English versions of each. "Namanana" debuted at number 21 on "Billboard" 200, making Lay the highest ranked Mandopop artist on the chart. The album also placed first on the World Albums and Independent Albums charts.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 24 December, Lay released a Christmas-themed digital single titled "When It's Christmas". The same month, he joined Chinese EDM talent show "Rave Now" as a mentor alongside Alan Walker.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 20 January, Zhang attended a Samsung event at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai as the ambassador of Samsung Galaxy A8s and performed on-stage alongside ASAP Ferg and Steve Aoki, respectively. That month, Zhang returned as the production director and presenter of the Chinese survival show "Idol Producer 2". On 3 February, Zhang performed a Chinese New Year song with Dilraba Dilmurat, Phoenix Legend, Wallace Chung, and Zhou Dongyu at the 2019 CCTV New Year's Gala.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang attended the 61st Annual Grammy Awards as its promotional ambassador on 10 February, the only Chinese celebrity invited to the red carpet event and live ceremony. On 26 February, a Michael Jackson tribute song titled "Let's Shut Up & Dance" was released by Zhang in collaboration with American singer Jason Derulo and K-pop group and SM Entertainment labelmate NCT 127. That same month, a third wax figure of Zhang was revealed in Madame Tussauds Hong Kong, following wax figures in Madame Tussauds Shanghai and Beijing. Zhang also starred as the protagonist in the Chinese fantasy-adventure series "The Golden Eyes", which aired on iQiyi from 26 February to 12 April 2019. On 15 March, Zhang released a digital single titled "Lovebird" as a collaborative song with American EDM and hip-hop group Far East Movement. On 6 May, Zhang made his first appearance at the annual fashion exhibition Met Gala in New York City as an ambassador for Valentino, wearing a custom-made suit called "Time Traveller" designed by the house's creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang appeared as Emperor Yingzong of Ming in the historical drama "Empress of the Ming" in 2019. On 14 June, Zhang released a digital EP titled "Honey" and its title track of the same name. The EP sold over 1.87 million digital copies three minutes after release on QQ Music, breaking his personal record for "Namanana." It also earned QQ Music's Golden Hall status for surpassing nine sales levels and earning the Gold Diamond certification. Zhang embarked on his first international concert tour, Grand Line, in July 2019. Tickets for the concert at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai sold out in eight seconds, while tickets for the Nanjing show sold out in twenty-five seconds. He also performed in Bangkok, Thailand. In December 2019, Zhang released the single "Grandmother (外婆)", which served as a tribute to his grandmother who had passed away earlier in the year.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 19 March 2020, Lay Zhang released the song "Love You More" with artists Steve Aoki and Will.i.am and featuring Jessica Carrie Lee as part of Aoki's "Neon Future IV" album.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 1 June 2020, Zhang released the first part of his fourth album, "Lit"; the second part was released on 21 July 2020. In June 2020, Zhang won the competition of iQiyi's "I'm a Singer-Songwriter 2". He also appeared as a producer mentor on Youku's "We are Young". In August 2020, Zhang started appearing as a mentor and captain in the third season of the Chinese dance survival show "Street Dance of China." He also filmed for the drama "Challenges at Midlife".


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 7 October 2020, Zhang officially announced the establishment of his entertainment company, Chromosome Entertainment Group. Through its official accounts on Twitter, Weibo, and Instagram, the company revealed a trainee selection program modeled after the one Zhang participated in under SM Entertainment. Several celebrities expressed their congratulatory remarks to Zhang's new venture, including the founder and former CEO of SM Entertainment, Lee Soo-man.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Lay released his fourth studio album, "Producer", on 5 February 2021, with lead single "Joker" released four days prior. The album featured studio versions of the songs he composed for his appearance in the second season of "I'm a Singer-Songwriter".


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 7 June 2021, after a three-year absence from Exo, Lay appeared in their mini-album "Don't Fight the Feeling".


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 7 October 2021, Lay released the single "Samadhi Real Fire", the pre-release single for his new EP "East", which was released on 15 October.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 8 April 2022, Lay released the song "酒(JIU)" in celebration of EXO 10th Year Debut Anniversary. Also announced later that day, he would be departing from SM Entertainment after the conclusion of his ten-year contract with the company.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 21 September 2022, Lay released the music video for the song "Veil", the title track of his EP "West" (西) that he released five days later on 26 September 2022.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang has composed and produced numerous songs, including "Exo 2014" by Exo and the tracks on each of his solo albums "Lose Control", "Lay 02 Sheep", "Winter Special Gift" and "Namanana." He also wrote and composed his 2015 SM Station single "Monodrama". Zhang composed "Alone", the original soundtrack for his 2015 romantic-comedy film "Ex-Files 2", as well as "Prayer", for his 2017 Chinese web-drama "Operation Love". He also helped compose the songs "Not to be Continued" by Chinese singer Karen Mok, which was released in May 2018 for her 25th anniversary album, and MC Jin's single "Debut" in the same year. Zhang has also written songs for Yu Quan and Show Luo. In April 2018, Zhang won the Best Producer award at the Chinese Top Ten Music Awards, revealing in an interview that at one point he lost over 99 unreleased self-composed tracks.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Many of Zhang's released songs contain elements of traditional Chinese music, such as the instruments hulusi, guzheng and gong. Zhang mentioned in an interviews that he considers his main genre to be M-pop, which stands for "Mix Mandarin popular music" and blends different languages. One example is his collaborative single with American EDM and hip-hop group Far East Movement titled "Lovebird", which contains both the English and Mandarin languages. "The Assembly Call", the opening track of his 2018 album "Namanana", is an instrumental that showcases different traditional Chinese sounds and music.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang has frequently been associated with his Chinese zodiac sign, the sheep, which he has used throughout his solo career and most notably on his 2017 solo album "Lay 02 Sheep" and its lead single "Sheep". He has been nicknamed "little sheep" in China by fans and media.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In his autobiography, "Standing Firm at 24", Zhang revealed that he struggled with anxiety when performing on stage but was able to face his fears and overcome them through his dedication to training and working hard alongside the rest of the members of Exo. He also revealed that while he had received some formal instruction in learning the guitar and piano, he was mostly self-taught.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang supports the One China policy and "is against any acts or words that split his country." In August 2019, during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, Zhang expressed support for the Hong Kong police and declared himself "one of 1.4 billion guardians of the Chinese flag" on his official Weibo account.


title: Lay Zhang

text: Zhang has had tie-ins with over 30 companies, including Converse, MAC Cosmetics, Chaumet Paris, Ray-Ban, Milka Chocolate, H&M and Perrier; as a result, he has topped lists of K-pop idols with the most endorsement deals. He was Calvin Klein's first Chinese global spokesperson for their underwear and jean lines. Additionally, as an ambassador of high-end fashion house Valentino, Zhang attended multiple fashion shows and events in Asia and Europe, as well at the annual Met Gala. He has also served as a promotional ambassador for Huawei Nova from 2015 to 2018.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In July 2016, Zhang was appointed by the Communist Youth League of China of Changsha as its publicity ambassador, the first celebrity to hold such title. Since then, he has served as publicity ambassador for three consecutive years.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In October 2017, Zhang signed a contract with the vice president of Tencent Music Entertainment Group and became a member of "Music+ Plan" (Music+ 计划) alongside TFBoys, Wang Leehom and more. In September 2018, Zhang signed an agreement with Easy Entertainment in which his personal studio will collaborate with Easy Entertainment to create a new team to manage Zhang's promotional activities.


title: Lay Zhang

text: In 2019, Zhang pulled out from an endorsement contract with Samsung Electronics because the tech giant allegedly listed Hong Kong and Taiwan as separate countries on their website, violating the One China policy. Zhang's Chinese management company released the following statement: "Samsung has severely offended the national feelings of our Chinese compatriots by being ambiguous about the integrity of our sovereignty and territory. We would like to express our regret, but we will not tolerate this."


title: Lay Zhang

text: In February 2015, Zhang participated in the "Return Home with Love for A Thousand Miles", a large-scale public welfare activities and volunteer project. The project included on-site delivery of relief supplies to labour workers which helps them return home faster and to help labour workers in a timely manner to reinforce physical safety. On 2 May, Zhang established his own foundation entitled, "Zhang Yixing Arts Scholarship" on behalf of providing scholarship for his alma mater middle school, Hunan Masters College Middle School where he will donate 100 thousand yuan annually. His intentions were encourage talented youth to pursue their dreams.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 7 September, Zhang responded to a campus soccer public welfare project, "Summit of Hope" ("希望之颠"). He uploaded a video on his Weibo account in an attempt to publicise the project.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 1 February 2016, Zhang donated an undisclosed amount to a joint Weibo public welfare funding project (#一起9加1#) which aids impoverished families for the upcoming Lunar New Year. In March 2016, during the second season of "Go Fighting!", Zhang and the other cast members visited a community-run migrant worker dependent school located in Chuansha Xin Town of Shanghai as part of the "Go Fighting Welfare Development Project" ("极限公益成长计划"). The initiative donated more than 1.2 million yuan worth of materials for over 12 schools nationwide. On 1 May, Zhang participated in the Youku "Go Fighting Minute Challenge" public welfare project on Weibo where he sent greetings to as many friends and families as possible in one minute and urged the public to express positive energy and to donate to charity. He donated another 1 million yuan and a piano to his alma mater. Later that year, in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of his alma mater, Zhang once more donated another 1 million yuan to his scholarship foundation. On 2 July, Zhang was honorably appointed as the Publicity Ambassador of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), expressed that he will dedicate himself to his appointment and appealed to the public to do charity through singing the national anthem. On 9 September, Zhang attended the 2016 BAZAAR Stars' Charity Night which resulted in him donating 10 ambulances with worth amounting to 700 thousand yuan. Due to his charitable contributions, Zhang was ranked number 15th by the China Philanthropist Magazine in the '2016 China's Top Philanthropist Celebrity List'.


title: Lay Zhang

text: On 9 September 2017, Zhang attended the 2017 BAZAAR Stars' Charity Night and donated 15 ambulances, valued at 1.05 million yuan. In January 2018, he starred in a public welfare movie "I'm Beside You", in which he sang and composed the theme song. On 30 March 2018, he starred as a guest recitalist in CCTV's "Trust in China" talk show. Zhang ranked number 18 by the China Philanthropist Magazine in the 2017 China's Top Philanthropist Celebrity List. In January 2018, Zhang participated as a cameo in the campaign movie "For Love With You"; the theme song of the movie, "I'm By Your Side", was sung by Zhang.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone, sold under the brand name Rocephin, is a third-generation cephalosporin antibiotic used for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections. These include middle ear infections, endocarditis, meningitis, pneumonia, bone and joint infections, intra-abdominal infections, skin infections, urinary tract infections, gonorrhea, and pelvic inflammatory disease. It is also sometimes used before surgery and following a bite wound to try to prevent infection. Ceftriaxone can be given by injection into a vein or into a muscle.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Common side effects include pain at the site of injection and allergic reactions. Other possible side effects include "C. difficile"-associated diarrhea, hemolytic anemia, gall bladder disease, and seizures. It is not recommended in those who have had anaphylaxis to penicillin but may be used in those who have had milder reactions. The intravenous form should not be given with intravenous calcium. There is tentative evidence that ceftriaxone is relatively safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It is a third-generation cephalosporin that works by preventing bacteria from making a cell wall.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone was patented in 1978 and approved for medical use in 1982. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone and other third-generation antibiotics are used to treat organisms that tend to be resistant to many other antibiotics. Due to emergent resistance, ceftriaxone should not be used for the treatment of "Enterobacter" infections. Before using ceftriaxone, it is important to determine the susceptibility of the bacteria. If sepsis is being considered, empiric therapy may be initiated prior to susceptibility testing.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone is also a choice drug for treatment of bacterial meningitis caused by pneumococci, meningococci, "Haemophilus influenzae", and "susceptible enteric Gram-negative rods, but not "Listeria monocytogenes"."


title: Ceftriaxone

text: In combination with doxycycline or azithromycin, ceftriaxone used to be recommended by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhea. Due to increased risk of developing azithromycin resistant strains and the high efficacy of higher doses of ceftriaxone the guidance has been updated to mono-antibiotic therapy with a higher dose of ceftriaxone.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Like other third-generation cephalosporins, ceftriaxone is active against "Citrobacter" spp., "Serratia marcescens", and beta-lactamase-producing strains of "Haemophilus" and "Neisseria". However, unlike ceftazidime and cefoperazone, ceftriaxone does not have useful activity against "Pseudomonas aeruginosa". It is generally not active against "Enterobacter" species, and its use should be avoided in the treatment of "Enterobacter" infections, even if the isolate appears susceptible, because of the emergence of resistance. Some organisms, such as "Citrobacter", "Providencia", and "Serratia", have the ability to become resistant through the development of cephalosporinases (enzymes that hydrolyze cephalosporins and render them inactive).


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone is available for administration via the intramuscular or the intravenous routes. Diluents containing calcium should not be used to reconstitute ceftriaxone, and it must not be administered in intravenous lines containing other calcium-containing solutions, as a ceftriaxone-calcium precipitate could form.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone is pregnancy category B. It has not been observed to cause birth defects in animal studies, but a lack of well-controlled studies done in pregnant women exists.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Low concentrations of ceftriaxone are excreted in breast milk that are "not expected to cause adverse effects in breastfed infants." The manufacturer recommends that caution be exercised when administering ceftriaxone to women who breastfeed.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Hyperbilirubinemic neonates are contraindicated for the use of ceftriaxone. It can compete with bilirubin and displace it from binding to albumin, increasing the risk of bilirubin encephalopathy.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: show differences in efficacy and safety of ceftriaxone in geriatrics compared to younger patients but "greater sensitivity of some older individuals cannot be ruled out."


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Although generally well tolerated, the most common adverse reactions associated with ceftriaxone are changes in white blood cell counts, local reactions at site of administration, rash, and diarrhea.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Some less frequently reported adverse events (incidence < 1%) include phlebitis, itchiness, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, elevations of bilirubin, elevations in creatinine, headache and dizziness.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone may precipitate in bile, causing biliary sludge, biliary pseudolithiasis, and gallstones, especially in children. Hypoprothrombinaemia and bleeding are specific side effects. Haemolysis is reported. It has also been reported to cause post kidney failure in children. Like other antibiotics, ceftriaxone use can result in "Clostridium difficile"-associated diarrhea ranging from mild diarrhea to fatal colitis.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone should not be used in those with an allergy to ceftriaxone or any component of the formulation. Although there is negligible cross-reactivity between penicillins and third-generation cephalosporins, caution should still be used when using ceftriaxone in penicillin-sensitive patients. Caution should be used in people who have had previous severe penicillin allergies. It should not be used in hyperbilirubinemic neonates, particularly those who are premature because ceftriaxone is reported to displace bilirubin from albumin binding sites, potentially causing bilirubin encephalopathy. Concomitant use with intravenous calcium-containing solutions/products in neonates (≤28 days) is contraindicated even if administered through different infusion lines due to rare fatal cases of calcium-ceftriaxone precipitations in neonatal lungs and kidneys.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone is a third-generation antibiotic from the cephalosporin family of antibiotics. It is within the β-lactam family of antibiotics. Ceftriaxone selectively and irreversibly inhibits bacterial cell wall synthesis by binding to transpeptidases, also called transamidases, which are penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) that catalyze the cross-linking of the peptidoglycan polymers forming the bacterial cell wall. The peptidoglycan cell wall is made up of pentapeptide units attached to a polysaccharide backbone with alternating units of N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmuramic acid. PBPs act on a terminal D-alanyl-D-alanine moiety on a pentapeptide unit and catalyze the formation of a peptide bond between the penultimate D-alanine and a glycine unit on an adjacent peptidoglycan strand, releasing the terminal D-alanine unit in the process. The structure of ceftriaxone mimics the D-alanyl-D-alanine moiety, and the PBP attacks the beta-lactam ring in ceftriaxone as if it were its normal D-alanyl-D-alanine substrate. The peptidoglycan cross-linking activity of PBPs is a construction and repair mechanism that normally helps to maintain bacterial cell wall integrity, so the inhibition of PBPs leads to damage and destruction of the cell wall and eventually to cell lysis.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Absorption: Ceftriaxone can be administered intravenously and intramuscularly, and the drug is completely absorbed. It is not available orally.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Distribution: Ceftriaxone penetrates tissues and body fluids well, including cerebrospinal fluid to treat central nervous system infections. Ceftriaxone is reversibly bound to human plasma proteins and the binding of ceftriaxone decreases with increasing concentration from a value of 95% at plasma concentrations less than 25 mcg/mL to 85% at plasma concentration of 300 mcg/mL. Over a 0.15 to 3 g dose range in healthy adult subjects, the apparent volume of distribution ranged from 5.8 to 13.5 L.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Metabolism: 33–67% of ceftriaxone is renally excreted as unchanged drug, but no dose adjustments are required in renal impairment with dosages up to 2 grams per day. The rest is excreted in the bile as inactive compounds from hepatic and gut flora metabolism.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Elimination: The average elimination half-life in healthy adults is 5.8–8.7 hours . In people with renal impairment, the average elimination half-life increases to 11.4–15.7 hours.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone is commercially available as a white to yellowish-orange crystalline powder for reconstitution. Reconstituted ceftriaxone injection solutions are light yellow- to amber-colored depending on how long the solution had been reconstituted, the concentration of ceftriaxone in the solution, and the diluent used. To reduce pain with intramuscular injections, ceftriaxone may be reconstituted with lidocaine.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: The "syn"-configuration of the methoxyoxime moiety confers resistance to beta-lactamase enzymes produced by many Gram-negative bacteria. The stability of this configuration results in increased activity of ceftriaxone against otherwise resistant Gram-negative bacteria. In place of the easily hydrolyzed acetyl group of cefotaxime, ceftriaxone has a metabolically stable thiotriazinedione moiety.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone seems to increase excitatory amino acid transporter-2 pump expression and activity in the central nervous system, so has a potential to reduce glutamatergic toxicity.


title: Ceftriaxone

text: Ceftriaxone has been shown to have neuroprotective properties in a number of neurological disorders, including spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Despite earlier negative results in the 1990s, a large clinical trial was undertaken in 2006 to test ceftriaxone in ALS patients, but was stopped early after it became clear that the results would not meet the predetermined criteria for efficacy.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: The economy of Vietnam is a mixed socialist-oriented market economy, which is the 37th-largest in the world as measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and 23rd-largest in the world as measured by purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2020. Vietnam is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the World Trade Organization.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: Since the mid-1980s, through the Đổi Mới reform period, Vietnam has made a shift from a highly centralized command economy to a mixed economy. This economy uses both directive and indicative planning through five-year plans, with support from an open market-based economy. Over that period, the economy has experienced rapid growth. In the 21st century, Vietnam is in a period of being integrated into the global economy. Almost all Vietnamese enterprises are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Vietnam has become a leading agricultural exporter and served as an attractive destination for foreign investment in Southeast Asia. In the current period, Vietnam's economy relies largely on foreign direct investment to attract the capital from overseas to support its continual economic rigor. Foreign investment on the luxury hotels sector and resorts will rise to support high-end tourist industry.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: According to a forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers in February 2017, Vietnam may be the fastest-growing of the world's economies, with a potential annual GDP growth rate of about 5.1%, which would make its economy the 10th-largest in the world by 2050. Vietnam has also been named among the Next Eleven and CIVETS countries. Despite economic achievement following Doi Moi, there exist issues that cause many analysts and researchers to remain worried about the recent economic slowdown in the country.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: Civilization in Vietnam had been built on agriculture. The feudal dynasties always considered agriculture as the main economic base, and their economic thoughts have been predicated on physiocracy. Land ownership was regulated, and such large-scale works as dykes were constructed in the Red River Delta to facilitate wet rice cultivation. In peaceful times, soldiers were sent home to do farm work. Furthermore, the court prohibited slaughtering water buffalo and cattle and held many agriculture-related ceremonies. Handicrafts and art were valued, but commerce was deprecated, and businessmen were called by the derogatory term "con buôn". Thang Long (Hanoi) was the main handicraft manufacturing center of the country. Chinese noted that the Vietnamese were doing business just like the same with in the Chinese Song dynasty. From the 9th to 13th century, the Vietnamese traded ceramics and silks with regional powers such as China, Champa, Western Xia, Java among others. Further archeological evidence suggests that Muslim traders had lived in Hanoi from around the 9th to 10th centuries, based on Muslim ceramics found in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: However, from the 16th century, Confucianism was losing its influence on Vietnamese society and a monetary pre-capitalism economy began to develop. During the Lê–Mạc period, the state encouraged semi-industrial business and sea-traders, as the Vietnamese economy would mainly depended on them for the next 250 years. Cities such as Dong Kinh, Hội An and others grew quickly as rapid urbanization and were constrained, and foreign countries with their different cultures and their invasion ambitions later were seen as a threat.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: During the 17th century, Vietnam's economy had reached its peak as the country was the third-largest economic power in East Asia and Southeast Asia. In the late 18th century, the economy suffered depression because of a series of diseases and disaster such as the Tay Son peasant rebellion which devastated the country. In 1806, Emperor Gia Long of the new Nguyễn dynasty imposed the Sea Ban policy, which banned all Vietnamese oversea business and Western merchants to enter Vietnam. This policy of closure led to downfall and stagnation of the Vietnamese economy in the early-19th century, and contributed to Vietnam becoming a French colony.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: Until the French colonization in the mid-19th century, Vietnam's economy had been mostly agrarian, subsistence-based and village-oriented. French colonizers, however, deliberately developed the regions differently as the French needed raw materials and a market for French manufactured goods, designating the South for agricultural production as it was better suited for agriculture, and the North for manufacturing as it was naturally wealthy in mineral resources. Though the plan exaggerated regional divisions, the development of exports—coal from the North, rice from the South—and the importation of French manufactured goods stimulated domestic commerce.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: The separation distorted the basic Vietnamese economy by overly stressing regional economic differences. In the South, while irrigated rice remained the principal subsistence crop, the French introduced plantation agriculture with products such as tea, cotton, and tobacco. The colonial government also developed some extractive industries, such as the mining of coal, iron, and nonferrous metals. A shipbuilding industry was begun in Hanoi; railroads, roads, power stations, and hydraulics works were constructed. In the South, agricultural development concentrated on rice cultivation, and, nationally, rice and rubber were the main items of export. Domestic and foreign trade were centered around the Saigon-Cholon area. Industry in the South consisted mostly of food-processing plants and factories producing consumer goods.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: When the North and South were divided politically in 1954, they also adopted different economic ideologies: socialism in the North and capitalism in the South. Destruction caused by the Second Indochina War from 1954 to 1975 seriously strained the economy. The situation was worsened by the country's 1.5 million military and civilian deaths, and the subsequent exodus of 1 million refugees, including tens of thousands of professionals, intellectuals, technicians and skilled workers out of the millions of war refugees.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: The government's Second Five-Year Plan (1976–1981) aimed for solid high annual growth rates in industrial and agricultural sectors and national income and sought to integrate the North and the South, but the goals were not attained. The economy remained dominated by small-scale production, low labor productivity, material and technological shortfalls, and insufficient food and consumer goods. The more modest goals of the Third Five-Year Plan (1981–85) were a compromise between ideological and pragmatic factions; they emphasized the development of agriculture and industry. Efforts were also made to decentralize planning and improve the managerial skills of government officials.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: After reunification in 1975, the economy of Vietnam was plagued by enormous difficulties in production, imbalances in supply and demand, inefficiencies in distribution and circulation, soaring inflation rates, and rising debt problems. Vietnam is one of the few countries in modern history to experience a sharp economic deterioration in a postwar reconstruction period. Its peacetime economy was one of the poorest in the world and had shown a negative to very slow growth in total national output as well as in agricultural and industrial production. Vietnam's gross domestic product ( GDP) in 1984 was valued at US$18.1 billion with a per capita income estimated to be between US$200 and US$300 per year. Reasons for this mediocre economic performance have included severe climatic conditions that afflicted agricultural crops, bureaucratic mismanagement, elimination of private ownership, extinction of entrepreneurial classes in the South, and military occupation of Cambodia (which resulted in a cutoff of much-needed international aid for reconstruction).


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: From the late 1970s until the early 1990s, Vietnam was a member of the Comecon, and therefore was heavily dependent on trade with the Soviet Union and its allies. Following the dissolution of the Comecon and the loss of its traditional trading partners, Vietnam was forced to liberalize trade, devalue its exchange rate to increase exports, and embark on a policy of economic development. Between 1975 and 1994, the United States imposed a trade embargo on Vietnam, forbidding any trade during the 19-year period.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: In 1986, Vietnam launched a political and economic renewal campaign ("Đổi Mới") that introduced reforms to facilitate the transition from a centralized economy to a "socialist-oriented market economy". "Đổi Mới" combined government planning with free-market incentives and encouraged the establishment of private businesses and foreign investment, including foreign-owned enterprises. Furthermore, the Vietnam government stressed the necessity to lower birth rates when developing the economic and social rights of the population by implementing a policy that restricted the number of children per household to two, called the two-child policy. By the late 1990s, the success of the business and agricultural reforms ushered in under "Đổi Mới" was evident. More than 30,000 private businesses had been created, the economy was growing at an annual rate of more than 7%, and poverty was nearly halved.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: Throughout the 1990s, exports increased by as much as 20% to 30% in some years. In 1999, exports accounted for 40% of GDP, an impressive performance in the midst of the economic crisis that hit other countries in Asia. Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, which freed Vietnam from textile quotas enacted worldwide as part of the Multi Fibre Arrangement (MFA) in 1974. The MFA placed restrictions on the import by industrialized countries of textiles from developing countries. For China and other WTO members, however, textile quotas under the MFA expired at the end of 2004 as agreed in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1994. A 2019 study found that Vietnam's WTO entry led to substantial gains in productivity for private firms, but had no impact on state-owned enterprises. In the absence of state-owned enterprises, "the overall productivity gains would have been about 40% larger in a counterfactual Vietnamese economy."


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: Vietnam's economic policy following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis has been a cautious one, emphasizing macroeconomic stability rather than growth. While the country shifted toward a more market-oriented economy, the Vietnamese government still continues to hold a tight rein over major state sectors, such as the banking system, state-owned enterprises and foreign trade. GDP growth fell to 6% in 1998 and 5% in 1999. The economy saw continuous real GDP growth of at least 5% since 2000.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: The signing of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between the United States and Vietnam on July 13, 2000, was a significant milestone. The BTA provided for "normal trade relations" (NTR) status of Vietnamese goods in the U.S. market. It was expected that access to the U.S. market would allow Vietnam to hasten its transformation into a manufacturing-based, export-oriented economy. Furthermore, it would attract foreign investment, not only from the U.S., but also from Europe, Asia and other regions.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: In 2001, the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam approved a 10-year economic plan that enhanced the role of the private sector, while reaffirming the primacy of the state. Growth then rose to 6% to 7% between 2000 and 2002 even in the midst of the global recession, making it the world's second fastest-growing economy. At the same time, investment grew threefold and domestic savings quintupled.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: In 2003, the private sector accounted for more than one-quarter of all industrial output. However, between 2003 and 2005, Vietnam fell dramatically in the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness report rankings, largely due to negative perceptions of the effectiveness of government institutions. Official corruption is endemic, and Vietnam lags in property rights, efficient regulation of markets, and labor and financial market reforms.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: Vietnam had an average GDP growth of 7.1% a year from 2000 to 2004. The GDP growth was 8.4% in 2005, the second-largest in Asia, trailing only China's. The government estimated that GDP grew in 2006 by 8.17%. According to the Minister of Planning and Investment, the government targeted a GDP growth of around 8.5% in 2007.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: On November 7, 2006, the General Council at the World Trade Organization (WTO) approved Vietnam's accession package. On January 11, 2007, Vietnam officially became the WTO's 149th member, after 11 years of preparation, including eight years of negotiation. The country's access to the WTO was intended to provide an important boost to the economy, as it ensured that the liberalizing reforms continue and created options for trade expansion. However, the accession also brought serious challenges, requiring the economy to open up to increasing foreign competition.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: Vietnam's economy continues to expand at an annual rate in excess of 7%, one of the fastest-growing in the world, but it grew from an extremely low base, as it suffered the crippling effect of the Vietnam War from the 1950s to the 1970s, as well as the austerity measures introduced in its aftermath. In 2012, the communist party was forced to apologise about the mismanagement of the economy after large numbers of SOEs went bankrupt and inflation rose. The main danger has been over the bad debt in the banks totalling to 15% and forecast growth is 5.2% for 2012 but this is also due to the global economic crisis. The government has launched schemes to reform the economy, however, such as lifting foreign ownership cap from 49% and partially privatizing the country's state-owned companies that have been responsible for the recent economic downturn. By the end of 2013, the government is expected to privatize 25–50% of SOEs, only maintaining control on public services and military. The recent reforms have created a major boom in the Vietnamese stock market as confidence in the Vietnamese economy is returning.


title: Economy of Vietnam

text: Vietnam's current economic turmoil has given rise to question of a new period of changing political economy, however. Poverty remains to be the main concern on the national performance index as of 2018. The Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) found that 28% of survey respondents cited poverty as their main problem. Most respondents agreed with the statement that "[P]overty reduction is imperative to ensuring that Vietnam becomes an advanced, developed country. The percentage of the poorest Vietnamese respondents who believed that their economic situation would worsen increased from 13% in 2016 to 26% in 2017. The percentage of respondents with health insurance increased from 74% in 2016 to 81% in 2017, with strongest gains in the rural population groups.