title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward was married twice. His first marriage was to actress Venetia Barrett (born Venetia Mary Collett, 1928-2016) from 1952 to 1986. They had two sons: Tim Woodward (born 1953) and Peter Woodward (born 1956), both of whom became actors, as well as a daughter, the Tony Award-nominated actress Sarah Woodward (born 1963). Woodward left Barrett for actress Michele Dotrice, the daughter of his contemporary Roy Dotrice, and married her in New York City in January 1987. Their daughter, Emily Beth Woodward (born 1983), was present at the ceremony.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward was in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. Staying in the northern Cyprus town of Kyrenia, he was one of several Britons evacuated from the island by the Royal Navy aircraft carrier, "HMS Hermes" following the Turkish invasion and occupation of Kyrenia.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward was a prominent endorser of the Labour Party in the 1970 general election, featuring in publicity material. Later he announced support for the SDP.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward suffered a massive heart attack in 1987 (during the third season of "The Equalizer") and another one in 1994. He underwent triple bypass surgery in 1996 and quit smoking. In 2003 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. In July 2009, it was announced that a planned performance of "Love Letters", co-starring his wife Michele, would be postponed because of damage caused to his hip when he fell down the stairs at his West Country home.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, Cornwall, on 16 November 2009, at the age of 79, near his home at Hawker's Cove. He was buried at Padstow Cemetery and was survived by his wife, their daughter, and three children from his first marriage.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward won the 1970 BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his title role in "Callan". He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1978. At the 1987 Golden Globe Awards, he won Best Actor in a Dramatic TV Series for his role of Robert McCall in "The Equalizer". At the Emmy Awards from 1986 to 1990, he was nominated each year for "The Equalizer".


title: Tolkien (film)

text: Tolkien is a 2019 British-American biographical drama film directed by Dome Karukoski and written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford. It is about the early life of English professor J. R. R. Tolkien, author of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", as well as notable academic works. The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Colm Meaney, and Derek Jacobi.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: "Tolkien" was released in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2019, and in the United States on May 10, 2019, by Fox Searchlight Pictures, and was the first feature film released after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $9 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: As young children being raised by a widowed mother, J. R. R. Tolkien and his brother Hilary receive help from a local priest, Father Francis, who must relocate them from their home to small apartments in Birmingham due to financial hardships. Their mother is supportive and loving, filling their minds with stories of adventure and mystery which she recites by the fireplace at night. She becomes ill, however, and one day upon returning home from school, Tolkien finds her slumped in her chair, dead. Father Francis becomes the boys' legal guardian, and eventually finds a kindly rich woman who agrees to take them in, providing them with room and board while they continue their childhood education. There, Tolkien meets Edith Bratt, the woman's only other ward. Tolkien is taken with Edith, whose piano playing he admires, and the two become friends.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: At school, Tolkien immediately shows talent with languages, earning rough treatment from a rival classmate, Robert Gilson. When the two boys get into a fight, the headmaster—Robert's father—orders that they spend all of their time together for the remainder of the term. While both initially resent the assignment, Tolkien is soon accepted into Robert's small circle of friends, and the four—Tolkien, Gilson, Christopher Wiseman, and Geoffrey Smith—form a close friendship, the TCBS or "Tea Club and Barrovian Society", which grows with the years, even as they attend separate universities. Meanwhile, Tolkien continues his friendship with Edith, falling in love with her. Father Francis finds out about their relationship and recognizes that it is affecting Tolkien's grades, and so forbids him from pursuing her while under his guardianship. Tolkien is distraught, not wanting to lose the priest's financial support of his schooling. He relates the conversation to Edith, promising they will be able to be together when he reaches 21, the age of majority, but she instead ends the relationship.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: Tolkien struggles at the University of Oxford, but attracts the attention of Professor Joseph Wright, a prominent philologist. Tolkien realises that language is his true passion, and enrols in Wright's class. When the First World War breaks out, he and his friends all enlist in the armed forces. Before Tolkien leaves, Edith returns and the two declare their love for each other. At the Battle of the Somme, Tolkien, suffering from trench fever, goes to look for Smith, convinced that he is calling him, but is unable to find him and collapses unconscious. He wakes in a hospital weeks later with Edith by his side, to find that Smith and Gilson have been killed; Wiseman survived but was traumatised.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: Years later, Tolkien and Edith are married with four children, and Tolkien is now a professor at Oxford himself. The film ends with him inspired to write the famous opening line of "The Hobbit"..."In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit."


title: Tolkien (film)

text: On November 21, 2013, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Chernin Entertainment announced they were developing a biographical film about the English philologist and author of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", J. R. R. Tolkien, based on a screenplay by David Gleeson.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: The film was to touch on many themes in Tolkien's early life, including his friendships, love of languages, religion, and romance with Edith Bratt. Another biopic, "Tolkien and Lewis" – about Tolkien and his friend C. S. Lewis – had been reported to be in production the previous year, but did not proceed. On July 24, 2017, Dome Karukoski was hired to direct the film with the screenplay from Gleeson and Stephen Beresford, which Chernin produced for Fox Searchlight to distribute.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: Karukoski related that he had grown up fatherless and in poverty, and that because of this, he felt, as a child, a strong connection to Tolkien, who had similar experiences. Karukoski also mentioned that he had wanted to create a biopic about Tolkien since he was 12, which was when he first read Tolkien's works, and that it had been a dream of his to create film adaptations of "The Lord of the Rings". He described the effect of Tolkien's works on him as "life-changing", saying that when he was bullied as a child, "it was like the characters became friends of mine." Of the author, he said: "[w]hat struck me the most is that he lived an amazing life... this beautiful, emotional story about love and friendship. So many things about what I had read about [in] the books, occurred or were instrumental in his own life. [The "Tolkien" film was] a film that had to be made."


title: Tolkien (film)

text: In July 2017, Nicholas Hoult was recruited as the frontrunner for the title role. On August 30, 2017, Lily Collins was cast to co-star with Hoult, as Edith Bratt, love and later wife of Tolkien; Bratt was also the inspiration for Lúthien in "The Silmarillion". Colm Meaney, Tom Glynn-Carney, and Genevieve O'Reilly joined the cast in October 2017, and Craig Roberts was added the following month. Principal photography commenced in October 2017 in the United Kingdom, and concluded on December 14, 2017.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: On April 23, 2019, the Tolkien Estate issued a statement making it clear that the family and estate did not endorse the film or its content. The film was released on May 3, 2019, in the United Kingdom and on May 10, 2019 in the United States.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: "Tolkien" has grossed $4.5 million in the United States, and $4.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $9 million. In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside "Pokémon Detective Pikachu", "Poms" and "The Hustle", and was projected to gross $2–4 million from 1,425 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to $2.2 million and finishing in ninth.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""Tolkien" has the period trappings and strong performances of a worthy biopic, but lacks the imagination required to truly do its subject justice." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it a 76% positive score.


title: Tolkien (film)

text: Giving the film two out of five stars, Wendy Ide for "The Observer" commented "[a] decades-long trudge through Middle-earth would seem like a carefree skip through the park compared to this slog of a literary biopic." David Sims, writing for "The Atlantic", criticized the biopic as lacking imagination and subtlety, stating, "The result doesn't rise above the insight of a Wikipedia page." Sheila O'Malley, reviewing the film for Roger Ebert.com, comments that having Tolkien literally "see[ing] dragons and what would eventually become the Eye of Sauron and the Nazgûl, unfurling across the hellscape of No-man's-Land ... is a very reductive approach to literature". Worse, in O'Malley's view, is that by explicitly showing the Somme as "'inspiration'" (her quotation marks) for Middle-earth, the film "diminish[es] both the battle and the books".


title: Tolkien (film)

text: On the other hand, Graeme Tuckett of "Stuff" gave the film four out of five stars and called it "A subtle, delicate biopic of The Lord of the Rings author." Writing for "The Plain Dealer", Chuck Yarborough graded it A, calling it "a wonderful piece of art" and "a magical film worthy of the wizardry of Gandalf himself." Yarborough later rated it the 2nd best film of the year, after "Rocketman".


title: Tolkien (film)

text: The film was criticized for giving no indication that Tolkien's faith was a central theme in his life, despite its impact on his work. Karukoski explained the decision as motivated by the difficulty of portraying something as "internal" as religion in Tolkien's life. Karukoski related that he had attempted to create scenes that depicted Tolkien's more religious side, but those scenes failed to engage initial audiences and were cut from the film. Nevertheless, Karukoski explained that although there are no overt references to religion in the film, religion is still implied: "We have scenes where he attends communion and helps Father Francis to show that he was a man of faith. There are also layered scenes, where he looks up to the heavens for an answer as if asking God for help. There's another scene where a figure is on a cross. Many people won't notice those hints because they're so eternal." Other reviews stated that Tolkien's Christian faith is embedded in the film as it is in his Middle-earth writings.


title: Basic access authentication

text: In the context of an HTTP transaction, basic access authentication is a method for an HTTP user agent (e.g. a web browser) to provide a user name and password when making a request. In basic HTTP authentication, a request contains a header field in the form of codice_1, where credentials is the Base64 encoding of ID and password joined by a single colon codice_2.


title: Basic access authentication

text: It was originally implemented by Ari Luotonen at CERN in 1993 and defined in the HTTP 1.0 specification in 1996.


title: Basic access authentication

text: HTTP Basic authentication (BA) implementation is the simplest technique for enforcing access controls to web resources because it does not require cookies, session identifiers, or login pages; rather, HTTP Basic authentication uses standard fields in the HTTP header.


title: Basic access authentication

text: The BA mechanism does not provide confidentiality protection for the transmitted credentials. They are merely encoded with Base64 in transit and not encrypted or hashed in any way. Therefore, basic authentication is typically used in conjunction with HTTPS to provide confidentiality.


title: Basic access authentication

text: Because the BA field has to be sent in the header of each HTTP request, the web browser needs to cache credentials for a reasonable period of time to avoid constantly prompting the user for their username and password. Caching policy differs between browsers.


title: Basic access authentication

text: HTTP does not provide a method for a web server to instruct the client to "log out" the user. However, there are a number of methods to clear cached credentials in certain web browsers. One of them is redirecting the user to a URL on the same domain, using credentials that are intentionally incorrect. However, this behavior is inconsistent between various browsers and browser versions. Microsoft Internet Explorer offers a dedicated JavaScript method to clear cached credentials:


title: Basic access authentication

text: In modern browsers, cached credentials for basic authentication are typically cleared when clearing browsing history. Most browsers allow users to specifically clear only credentials, though the option may be hard to find, and typically clears credentials for all visited sites.


title: Basic access authentication

text: When the server wants the user agent to authenticate itself towards the server after receiving an unauthenticated request, it must send a response with a "HTTP 401 Unauthorized" status line and a "WWW-Authenticate" header field.


title: Basic access authentication

text: This parameter indicates that the server expects the client to use UTF-8 for encoding username and password (see below).


title: Basic access authentication

text: When the user agent wants to send authentication credentials to the server, it may use the "Authorization" header field.


title: Basic access authentication

text: For example, if the browser uses "Aladdin" as the username and "open sesame" as the password, then the field's value is the Base64 encoding of "Aladdin:open sesame", or "QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==". Then the "Authorization" header field will appear as:


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: The World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by WWE. It was one of two top championships in WWE from 2002 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2013, complementing the WWE Championship, and one of three top championships from 2006 to 2010 with the addition of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: The title was established under the Raw brand in 2002, after Raw and SmackDown became distinct brands under WWE, and moved between both brands on different occasions (mainly as a result of the WWE draft) until August 29, 2011, when all programming became full roster "supershows". The World Heavyweight Championship was retired at on December 15, 2013, when it was unified with the WWE Championship. Triple H was the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion, with Randy Orton being the last.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: The title was one of six to be represented by the historic Big Gold Belt, first introduced in 1986. Its heritage can be traced back to the first world heavyweight championship, thereby giving the belt a legacy over 100 years old, the oldest in the world.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: The title's origins lay in the first world heavyweight championship, and then to events that began in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), which had many different territorial promotions as members. In the late 1980s, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was a member of the NWA, having been formed by the purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), which had absorbed many other NWA members, by Turner Broadcasting, which aired WCW's programming. During this time, WCW used the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as its world title. The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was soon established when the recognition was awarded to then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair in 1991. In 1993, WCW seceded from the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), itself a former member of the NWA. Both organizations grew into mainstream prominence and were eventually involved in a television ratings war dubbed the Monday Night Wars. Near the end of the ratings war, WCW began a financial decline which culminated in March 2001 with the WWF's purchase of selected assets of WCW.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: As a result of the purchase, the WWF acquired the video library of WCW, select talent contracts, and championships among other assets. The slew of former WCW talent joining the WWF roster began "The Invasion" that effectively phased out the WCW name. Following this, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWF Championship, the WWF's world title, at Vengeance in December. At the event, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was decommissioned with Chris Jericho becoming the final WCW World Heavyweight Champion and the subsequent Undisputed WWF Champion after defeating The Rock and Steve Austin respectively. The WWF title became the undisputed championship in professional wrestling until September 2002 with the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, spun off from the Undisputed WWE Championship as the successor to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: By 2002, WWE's roster had doubled in size due to the overabundance of contracted workers. As a result of the increase, WWE divided the roster through its two main television programs, "Raw" and "SmackDown", assigning championships and appointing figureheads to each brand of the same name. This expansion became known as the "Brand Extension". In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Following these changes, the Undisputed WWE Championship remained unaffiliated with either brand as competitors from both brands could challenge the Undisputed Champion. Following the appointment of Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon as General Managers of the Raw and SmackDown brands, respectively, Stephanie McMahon contracted then-WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar to the SmackDown brand, leaving the Raw brand without a world title. On September 2, Eric Bischoff announced the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship. Bischoff awarded the title to Triple H, who had been designated number-one contender to Lesnar's title the previous week. Immediately afterwards, the Undisputed Championship returned to being the WWE Championship as it was no longer undisputed.<ref name="Raw9/2"></ref> The World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship switched brands a number of times before the first brand split ended in 2011.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: While introduced in 2002 as a new title, the WWE often made allusions to other titles including those of WCW and the NWA, amalgamating the history of the championship with the history of the belt that represents it. As affirmed by WWE, the World Heavyweight Championship is not a continuation of the WCW Championship, but rather its successor by way of the WWE Undisputed Championship, just as the WCW Championship spun off from the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Due to its relation to both titles, its lineage is connected with the earliest recognized world heavyweight championship. In 2009, WWE released a DVD set called "History of the World Heavyweight Championship" that definitively linked the title to the WCW and NWA titles.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: Following the end of the first brand extension in 2011, both the World Heavyweight Champion and WWE Champion could appear on both "Raw" and "SmackDown". In 2013, the night after Survivor Series, then-World Heavyweight Champion John Cena made a challenge to then-WWE Champion Randy Orton to determine an undisputed WWE world champion. Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a TLC match at the pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the WWE Championship was renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The unified championship retained the lineage of the WWE Championship, and the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. With his victory over John Cena, Randy Orton became the final World Heavyweight Champion. Like with the Undisputed Championship, the Big Gold Belt was used in tandem with the WWE Championship belt to represent the WWE World Heavyweight Championship until a single belt was presented to then champion Brock Lesnar in August 2014.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the World Heavyweight Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: The inaugural champion was Triple H, and there were 25 different champions overall. The longest reigning champion was Batista who held the title from April 3, 2005, to January 10, 2006, for a total of 282 days. Triple H holds the record for longest combined reigns at 616 days. The shortest reigning champion was Randy Orton in his fourth reign, who immediately retired the championship upon winning it and unifying it with the WWE Championship. He was also the youngest champion, at the age of 24. The oldest champion was The Undertaker who won at the age of 44. Edge held the title the most times with seven championship reigns. There were six vacancies throughout the title's history.


title: World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

text: Randy Orton was the final champion in his fourth reign. He defeated John Cena in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match at in Houston, Texas on December 15, 2013 to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships.


title: Direct current

text: Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or even through a vacuum as in electron or ion beams. The electric current flows in a constant direction, distinguishing it from alternating current (AC). A term formerly used for this type of current was galvanic current.


title: Direct current

text: The abbreviations "AC" and "DC" are often used to mean simply "alternating" and "direct", as when they modify "current" or "voltage".


title: Direct current

text: Direct current may be converted from an alternating current supply by use of a rectifier, which contains electronic elements (usually) or electromechanical elements (historically) that allow current to flow only in one direction. Direct current may be converted into alternating current via an inverter.


title: Direct current

text: Direct current has many uses, from the charging of batteries to large power supplies for electronic systems, motors, and more. Very large quantities of electrical energy provided via direct-current are used in smelting of aluminum and other electrochemical processes. It is also used for some railways, especially in urban areas. High-voltage direct current is used to transmit large amounts of power from remote generation sites or to interconnect alternating current power grids.


title: Direct current

text: Direct current was produced in 1800 by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta's battery, his Voltaic pile. The nature of how current flowed was not yet understood. French physicist André-Marie Ampère conjectured that current travelled in one direction from positive to negative. When French instrument maker Hippolyte Pixii built the first dynamo electric generator in 1832, he found that as the magnet used passed the loops of wire each half turn, it caused the flow of electricity to reverse, generating an alternating current. At Ampère's suggestion, Pixii later added a commutator, a type of "switch" where contacts on the shaft work with "brush" contacts to produce direct current.


title: Direct current

text: The late 1870s and early 1880s saw electricity starting to be generated at power stations. These were initially set up to power arc lighting (a popular type of street lighting) running on very high voltage (usually higher than 3000 volt) direct current or alternating current. This was followed by the widespread use of low voltage direct current for indoor electric lighting in business and homes after inventor Thomas Edison launched his incandescent bulb based electric "utility" in 1882. Because of the significant advantages of alternating current over direct current in using transformers to raise and lower voltages to allow much longer transmission distances, direct current was replaced over the next few decades by alternating current in power delivery. In the mid-1950s, high-voltage direct current transmission was developed, and is now an option instead of long-distance high voltage alternating current systems. For long distance undersea cables (e.g. between countries, such as NorNed), this DC option is the only technically feasible option. For applications requiring direct current, such as third rail power systems, alternating current is distributed to a substation, which utilizes a rectifier to convert the power to direct current.


title: Direct current

text: The term "DC" is used to refer to power systems that use only one electrical polarity of voltage or current, and to refer to the constant, zero-frequency, or slowly varying local mean value of a voltage or current. For example, the voltage across a DC voltage source is constant as is the current through a DC current source. The DC solution of an electric circuit is the solution where all voltages and currents are constant. It can be shown that any stationary voltage or current waveform can be decomposed into a sum of a DC component and a zero-mean time-varying component; the DC component is defined to be the expected value, or the average value of the voltage or current over all time.


title: Direct current

text: Although DC stands for "direct current", DC often refers to "constant polarity". Under this definition, DC voltages can vary in time, as seen in the raw output of a rectifier or the fluctuating voice signal on a telephone line.


title: Direct current

text: Some forms of DC (such as that produced by a voltage regulator) have almost no variations in voltage, but may still have variations in output power and current.


title: Direct current

text: A direct current circuit is an electrical circuit that consists of any combination of constant voltage sources, constant current sources, and resistors. In this case, the circuit voltages and currents are independent of time. A particular circuit voltage or current does not depend on the past value of any circuit voltage or current. This implies that the system of equations that represent a DC circuit do not involve integrals or derivatives with respect to time.


title: Direct current

text: If a capacitor or inductor is added to a DC circuit, the resulting circuit is not, strictly speaking, a DC circuit. However, most such circuits have a DC solution. This solution gives the circuit voltages and currents when the circuit is in DC steady state. Such a circuit is represented by a system of differential equations. The solution to these equations usually contain a time varying or transient part as well as constant or steady state part. It is this steady state part that is the DC solution. There are some circuits that do not have a DC solution. Two simple examples are a constant current source connected to a capacitor and a constant voltage source connected to an inductor.


title: Direct current

text: In electronics, it is common to refer to a circuit that is powered by a DC voltage source such as a battery or the output of a DC power supply as a DC circuit even though what is meant is that the circuit is DC powered.


title: Direct current

text: DC is commonly found in many extra-low voltage applications and some low-voltage applications, especially where these are powered by batteries or solar power systems (since both can produce only DC).


title: Direct current

text: Domestic DC installations usually have different types of sockets, connectors, switches, and fixtures from those suitable for alternating current. This is mostly due to the lower voltages used, resulting in higher currents to produce the same amount of power.


title: Direct current

text: It is usually important with a DC appliance to observe polarity, unless the device has a diode bridge to correct for this.


title: Direct current

text: EMerge Alliance is the open industry association developing standards of DC power distribution in hybrid houses and commercial buildings.


title: Direct current

text: Most automotive applications use DC. An automotive battery provides power for engine starting, lighting, the ignition system, the climate controls, and the infotainment system among others. The alternator is an AC device which uses a rectifier to produce DC for battery charging. Most highway passenger vehicles use nominally 12 V systems. Many heavy trucks, farm equipment, or earth moving equipment with Diesel engines use 24 volt systems. In some older vehicles, 6 V was used, such as in the original classic Volkswagen Beetle. At one point a 42 V electrical system was considered for automobiles, but this found little use. To save weight and wire, often the metal frame of the vehicle is connected to one pole of the battery and used as the return conductor in a circuit. Often the negative pole is the chassis "ground" connection, but positive ground may be used in some wheeled or marine vehicles.


title: Direct current

text: In a battery electric vehicle, there are usually two separate DC systems. The "low voltage" DC system typically operates at 12V, and serves the same purpose as in an internal combustion engine vehicle. The "high voltage" system operates at 300-400V (depending on the vehicle), and provides the power for the traction motors. Increasing the voltage for the traction motors reduces the current flowing through them, increasing efficiency.


title: Direct current

text: Telephone exchange communication equipment uses standard −48 V DC power supply. The negative polarity is achieved by grounding the positive terminal of power supply system and the battery bank. This is done to prevent electrolysis depositions. Telephone installations have a battery system to ensure power is maintained for subscriber lines during power interruptions.


title: Direct current

text: Other devices may be powered from the telecommunications DC system using a DC-DC converter to provide any convenient voltage.


title: Direct current

text: Many telephones connect to a twisted pair of wires, and use a bias tee to internally separate the AC component of the voltage between the two wires (the audio signal) from the DC component of the voltage between the two wires (used to power the phone).


title: Direct current

text: High-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission systems use DC for the bulk transmission of electrical power, in contrast with the more common alternating current systems. For long-distance transmission, HVDC systems may be less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses.


title: Direct current

text: Applications using fuel cells (mixing hydrogen and oxygen together with a catalyst to produce electricity and water as byproducts) also produce only DC.


title: Ayesha Dutt

text: Ayesha Dutt (born 5 June 1960) is an Indian film producer, former model, and actress. She is married to Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff and the mother of Tiger Shroff.


title: Ayesha Dutt

text: She was born to a Bengali father, Ranjan Dutt, an air vice marshal in the Indian Air Force, and Claude Marie Dutt De Cavey, a French national of Belgian descent.


title: Ayesha Dutt

text: Ayesha contested the Miss Young World contest in Manila. She did not make it to the finals, but was elected the most popular girl at the contest by her fellow contestants. She began her career as a model and became successful.


title: Ayesha Dutt

text: Dutt married her longtime boyfriend and Bollywood actor, Jackie Shroff on her birthday on 5 June 1987. She later turned into a film producer. The couple run a media company, Jackie Shroff Entertainment Limited. They jointly owned 10% shares in Sony TV since its launch until 2012 when they sold their stake and ended their 15-year-long association with Sony TV. The Shroffs have two children. Her elder child is also a Bollywood actor, Tiger Shroff (born 1990), and a daughter, Krishna Shroff (born 1993).


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The 122-mm howitzer D-30 (GRAU index 2A18) is a Soviet howitzer that first entered service in 1960. It is a robust piece that focuses on the essential features of a towed field gun suitable for all conditions. The D-30 has a maximum range of 15.4 kilometers, or over 21 km using rocket-assisted projectile ammunition.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: With its striking three-leg mounting, the D-30 can be rapidly traversed through 360 degrees. Although no longer manufactured in the nations of the former Soviet Union, the D-30 is still manufactured internationally and is in service in more than 60 countries' armed forces.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The barrel assembly of the 2A18 gun is used by the 2S1 self-propelled howitzer. There are also Egyptian, Chinese, Serbian and Syrian self-propelled variants and conversions. The Syrian conversion utilizes the hull of a T-34 tank.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The 122 mm (originally 48 lines) calibre was adopted by Russia in the early 20th century, becoming very important to Soviet artillery during the Second World War. Development of the D-30 began in the 1950s, as a replacement for the M-30 howitzer, widely used in divisional and regimental artilleries. The D-30 also replaced the remaining 76 mm M1942 guns in motor rifle regiments.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: Military requirements that led to the D-30 can only be deduced. Its role supporting tank and motor rifle regiments, and Soviet doctrine from the Great Patriotic War, suggest that while indirect fire was the primary role, direct fire anti-tank was very important. The latter is evidenced by the very effective HEAT shell, the low silhouette of the piece, its wide and rapid top-traverse and its shield.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The D-30 was designed by the well established design bureau at Artillery Plant No 9 in Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg), at the time led by the eminent artillery designer Fëdor Fëdorovich Petrov (1902–1978). This team was responsible for designing the earlier M-30, the post-war 152 mm D-20 gun-howitzer, and other guns.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: Soviet divisional artillery was assigned to manoeuvre regiments (in regimental artillery groups – RAGs) and as divisional troops (in divisional artillery groups – DAGs). A RAG was normally three batteries, each of six pieces, to each motor rifle and tank regiment. DAGs were mostly equipped with 152 mm pieces, but the DAG of a motor rifle division included a D-30 battalion. The role of an RAG was a normal field artillery role to support manoeuvre forces with indirect, semi direct and direct fire.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The D-30 entered Soviet service in 1963 and is sometimes referred to as the M1963. In 1967, widespread introduction of self-propelled guns was authorised and the D-30's barrel and ammunition was used for the new 2S1. When the 2S1 entered service, it was usually assigned to tank regiments and motor rifle regiments equipped with BMP infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs). D-30s were retained in motor rifle regiments equipped with BTR APCs.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The D-30 has been widely exported and used in wars around the world, notably in the Middle East, and particularly in the Iran–Iraq War, a long-lasting war of attrition similar to World War I.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The gun remains a mainstay of artillery forces in developing countries and was deployed in the war in Afghanistan. Soldiers from several western armies have been trained on the D-30 by various user nations in order to be able to train Afghan soldiers on it.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: In 2017, the Algerian military displayed a locally developed variant mounted on a Mercedes-Benz Zetros truck. It includes four stabilization legs to absorb firing impacts.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: Distinctive features of the D-30 include its low mobile mounting and above-barrel recoil system. The three-legged mobile mount is unusual for field artillery, with stabilizers that are clamped together for towing and deployed when in action. A large tow linkage is fixed to the muzzle; in transport the barrel serves as a trail. Similar mounts were a feature of several 76-mm pre-war (1931–1935) universal (both field and anti-aircraft) guns designed by Leningrad's Kirov Plant (L-1, L-2 and L-3). Other examples were the 1939 French 47SA39 APX, and 1943 German 105-mm light field howitzers designs by Skoda and Krupp; neither entered service. The Bofors 105 mm L28 Light Field Howitzer 4140 was similarly arranged with four legs and did enter Swedish service. The 1930s-designed British 2-pdr. anti-tank gun was another piece featuring a three-legged mounting.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: Compared to the M-30, the new howitzer had a significantly longer 35 calibre gun barrel, just short of being a gun-howitzer by Soviet definition. Like other guns of the period, it had a high efficiency muzzle brake; this improved muzzle velocity by 175 m/s to a total of 650 m/s for HE, and raised maximum range by 3,500 m beyond the similar M-30. Maximum range was 2 km better than the 76 mm M1942 at 15.3 km. Weight increased by 650 kg over the M-30, to 3,150 kg; the D-30 is over twice the weight of the 76mm M1942. Accuracy improved, with mean error at about 10 km dropping from 35 m with the M-30 to just 21 m.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: Effective stabilisation length is a fundamental aspect of a gun mount, and legs 120° apart need to be longer than those with a smaller angle. The D-30's design minimises this problem in several ways. Trunnions are close to the ground, as a result of placing the recoil system and cradle above the barrel. The trunnions are also at the very rear of the breech; this maximises the recoil space when firing at higher elevation angles. Their rearward position also pushes the recoiling element forward on the mount, maximizing relative rearward span of the stabilizers and so stability during recoil. Additionally there is a very efficient muzzle brake, which absorbs about half the recoil. There is no mechanism to reduce recoil length as the angle of elevation increases.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: Some of the design decisions have a price. The muzzle brake produces about twice the overpressure in the area around the gun that is acceptable to Western armies, and is the reason it is often seen being fired with a long lanyard, which reduces rate of fire. Furthermore, the maximum elevation angle is restricted to 18° (early versions) or 22° (later versions) when the breech is over a trail leg. This is enforced by a mechanical cam that prevents the piece firing for about 60% of the total top traverse, and limits range to about 12 km, with full maximum range only possible in the central arc of about 48° between each pair of legs. The extreme rearward location of the trunnions means the elevating mass is unbalanced, requiring a strong balancing mechanism to enable manual elevation. To do this, the D-30 uses compression balancing gears.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: A central jack is powered by hand-operated hydraulics. This jack is lowered while the wheels are raised to permit two of the stabiliser legs to be swung 120° rearwards. The mounting is then lowered and the ends of the legs spiked to the ground. This mounting provides for quick traversing to fire in any direction.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The pair of large tires are suspended on a single trailing arm; maximum towing speed is 60 km/h on the road. As was normal in Soviet designs, the tyres were filled with foam. Initially, the D-30 had no brakes and no seat for the layer—non-essential luxuries.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: A sliding block breech was adopted instead of the M-30's pre-1914 screw pattern, giving a slight increase in the rate of fire. It is a semi-automatic vertical sliding block breech, with a tied jaw; the block moves down to open and opens automatically ejecting the empty cartridge case as the recuperator forces the gun tube back into battery after a round is fired. The design is closely related to those of breeches on other Soviet post–World War II guns and howitzers.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The non-reciprocating sights are standard Soviet pattern, designed for one-man laying. Included are a direct fire anti-tank telescope, a panoramic periscopic indirect-fire sight (dial sight) in a reciprocating mounting, an angle of sight scale, and a range drum for each charge engraved with the range (distance) scale. The elevation leveling bubble is mounted on the dial sight mount. The range drum enables the standard Soviet technique of semi-direct fire when the piece is laid visually on the target and the range set on the range drum.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: Soviet 122 mm howitzers used different ammunition to 122 mm guns, although there was some compatibility. In the case of ammunition for the D-30, the standard 122 mm howitzer shell weight of 21.8 kg was retained, with a metal cartridge case holding variable propelling charges. Cartridge and shell are loaded separately; this means that the shells have to be hand-rammed by a man to the right of the breech with a ramming rod. The D-30 could fire the older M-30 ammunition; however, new shells were also introduced, eventually including a rocket-assisted projectile with a range of 21.9 km. The M-30's range of propelling charges, comprising base and eight increments, was replaced by a new set comprising base and four increments; single base propellant was retained. A more effective High Explosive (HE) shell was developed, as well as smoke, illumination and chemical filled projectiles.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: In keeping with Soviet doctrine, the anti-tank role is important; there is a HEAT shell capable of penetrating 460 mm of steel armour plate.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The maximum rate of fire of the D-30 is 6–8 rounds per minute, and about 75 rounds per hour. There is disagreement as to whether this maximum rate of fire is achievable for indirect fire. Based on reloading speeds of similar guns using separate charges, solo re-laying, and given a stable emplacement, semi-automatic breech and no long lanyard, (examples are the 25-pdr. and 105mm L118), and assuming concurrent lay adjustment during reloads, then it probably is when in the hands of a competent detachment. However, 5-6 rounds per minute may be more realistic with a poorly trained gun crew.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The D-30 is noted for simplicity of maintenance by its users; reputedly there are no special tools, all jobs can be done with a wrench and large hammer. However, like any other gun, routine maintenance is essential, and western troops in Afghanistan have reported Afghan operated D-30s having problems with shells sticking in the barrel due to lack of cleaning.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: There is more self-propelled versions developed by other countries by mounting D-30 on some tracked or wheeled vehicles at disposal of their armed forces. Most of them do not have any complex fire control system and are manually loaded and elevated. Cuba, Sudan, Laos, Syria and Egypt have produced such simplified variants.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: A location chosen for emplacement of the D-30 should be as level as reasonably possible. Firstly, the carriage is raised via an internal hydraulic jack located under the cradle of the gun. Once the gun is at the required height, the wheels are raised via the wheel lifting lever; this allows the two split stabilizer legs to be separated from the mono stabiliser leg and brought rearward into firing configuration.


title: 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)

text: The legs are then locked in place with locking pins. The carriage is lowered via the hydraulic jack so that the legs touch the ground; integral stakes are then hammered into the ground. At this point, the gun is ready for direct fire using the OP4 direct fire sight, or can be orientated and have its position fixed via the aiming circles for subsequent indirect fire using the Pantel sight.


title: Ketosis

text: Ketosis is a metabolic state characterized by elevated levels of ketone bodies in the blood or urine. Physiological ketosis is a normal response to low glucose availability, such as low-carbohydrate diets or fasting, that provides an additional energy source for the brain in the form of ketones. In physiological ketosis, ketones in the blood are elevated above baseline levels, but the body's acid–base homeostasis is maintained. This contrasts with ketoacidosis, an uncontrolled production of ketones that occurs in pathologic states and causes a metabolic acidosis, which is a medical emergency. Ketoacidosis is most commonly the result of complete insulin deficiency in type 1 diabetes or late-stage type 2 diabetes. Ketone levels can be measured in blood, urine or breath and are generally between 0.5 and 3.0 millimolar (mM) in physiological ketosis, while ketoacidosis may cause blood concentrations greater than 10 mM.


title: Ketosis

text: Trace levels of ketones are always present in the blood and increase when blood glucose reserves are low and the liver shifts from primarily metabolizing carbohydrates to metabolizing fatty acids. This occurs during states of increased fatty acid oxidation such as fasting, starvation, carbohydrate restriction, or prolonged exercise. When the liver rapidly metabolizes fatty acids into acetyl-CoA, some acetyl-CoA molecules can then be converted into ketone bodies: acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone. These ketone bodies can function as an energy source as well as signalling molecules. The liver itself cannot utilize these molecules for energy, so the ketone bodies are released into the blood for use by peripheral tissues including the brain.


title: Ketosis

text: When ketosis is induced by carbohydrate restriction, it is sometimes referred to as nutritional ketosis. A low-carbohydrate, moderate protein diet that can lead to ketosis is called a ketogenic diet. Ketosis is well-established as a treatment for epilepsy and is also effective in treating type 2 diabetes.


title: Ketosis

text: Normal serum levels of ketone bodies are less than 0.5 mM. "Hyperketonemia" is conventionally defined as levels in excess of 1 mM.


title: Ketosis

text: Physiological ketosis is the non-pathological (normal functioning) elevation of ketone bodies that can result from any state of increased fatty acid oxidation including fasting, prolonged exercise, or very low-carbohydrate diets such as the ketogenic diet. In physiological ketosis, serum ketone levels generally remain below 3 mM.


title: Ketosis

text: Ketoacidosis is a pathological state of uncontrolled production of ketones that results in a metabolic acidosis, with serum ketone levels typically in excess of 3 mM. Ketoacidosis is most commonly caused by a deficiency of insulin in type 1 diabetes or late stage type 2 diabetes but can also be the result of chronic heavy alcohol use, salicylate poisoning, or isopropyl alcohol ingestion. Ketoacidosis causes significant metabolic derangements and is a life-threatening medical emergency. Ketoacidosis is distinct from physiological ketosis as it requires failure of the normal regulation of ketone body production.


title: Ketosis

text: Elevated blood ketone levels are most often caused by accelerated ketone production but may also be caused by consumption of exogenous ketones or precursors.


title: Ketosis

text: When glycogen and blood glucose reserves are low, a metabolic shift occurs in order to save glucose for the brain which is unable to use fatty acids for energy. This shift involves increasing fatty acid oxidation and production of ketones in the liver as an alternate energy source for the brain as well as the skeletal muscles, heart, and kidney. Low levels of ketones are always present in the blood and increase under circumstances of low glucose availability. For example, after an overnight fast, 2–6% of energy comes from ketones and this increases to 30–40% after a 3-day fast.


title: Ketosis

text: The amount of carbohydrate restriction required to induce a state of ketosis is variable and depends on activity level, insulin sensitivity, genetics, age and other factors, but ketosis will usually occur when consuming less than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day for at least three days.


title: Ketosis

text: Neonates, pregnant women and lactating women are populations that develop physiological ketosis especially rapidly in response to energetic challenges such as fasting or illness. This can progress to ketoacidosis in the setting of illness, although it occurs rarely. Propensity for ketone production in neonates is caused by their high-fat breast milk diet, disproportionately large central nervous system and limited liver glycogen.


title: Ketosis

text: The precursors of ketone bodies include fatty acids from adipose tissue or the diet and ketogenic amino acids. The formation of ketone bodies occurs via ketogenesis in the mitochondrial matrix of liver cells.


title: Ketosis

text: Fatty acids can be released from adipose tissue by adipokine signaling of high glucagon and epinephrine levels and low insulin levels. High glucagon and low insulin correspond to times of low glucose availability such as fasting. Fatty acids bound to coenzyme A allow penetration into mitochondria. Once inside the mitochondrion, the bound fatty acids are used as fuel in cells predominantly through beta oxidation, which cleaves two carbons from the acyl-CoA molecule in every cycle to form acetyl-CoA. Acetyl-CoA enters the citric acid cycle, where it undergoes an aldol condensation with oxaloacetate to form citric acid; citric acid then enters the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA), which harvests a very high energy yield per carbon in the original fatty acid.


title: Ketosis

text: Acetyl-CoA can be metabolized through the TCA cycle in any cell, but it can also undergo ketogenesis in the mitochondria of liver cells. When glucose availability is low, oxaloacetate is diverted away from the TCA cycle and is instead used to produce glucose via gluconeogenesis. This utilization of oxaloacetate in gluconeogenesis can make it unavailable to condense with acetyl-CoA, preventing entrance into the TCA cycle. In this scenario, energy can be harvested from acetyl-CoA through ketone production.


title: Ketosis

text: In ketogenesis, two acetyl-CoA molecules condense to form acetoacetyl-CoA via thiolase. Acetoacetyl-CoA briefly combines with another acetyl-CoA via HMG-CoA synthase to form hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl-CoA. Hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl-CoA form the ketone body acetoacetate via HMG-CoA lyase. Acetoacetate can then reversibly convert to another ketone body—D-β-hydroxybutyrate—via D-β-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase. Alternatively, acetoacetate can spontaneously degrade to a third ketone body (acetone) and carbon dioxide, which generates much greater concentrations of acetoacetate and D-β-hydroxybutyrate. The resulting ketone bodies cannot be used for energy by the liver so are exported from the liver to supply energy to the brain and peripheral tissues.


title: Ketosis

text: In addition to fatty acids, deaminated ketogenic amino acids can also be converted into intermediates in the citric acid cycle and produce ketone bodies.


title: Ketosis

text: Ketone levels can be measured by testing urine, blood or breath. There are limitations in directly comparing these methods as they measure different ketone bodies.


title: Ketosis

text: Urine testing is the most common method of testing for ketones. Urine test strips utilize a nitroprusside reaction with acetoacetate to give a semi-quantitative measure based on color change of the strip. Although beta-hydroxybutyrate is the predominant circulating ketone, urine test strips only measure acetoacetate. Urinary ketones often correlate poorly with serum levels because of variability in excretion of ketones by the kidney, influence of hydration status, and renal function.


title: Ketosis

text: Finger-stick ketone meters allow instant testing of beta-hydroxybutyrate levels in the blood, similar to glucometers. Beta-hydroxybutrate levels in blood can also be measured in a laboratory.


title: Ketosis

text: Ketosis can improve markers of metabolic syndrome through reduction in serum triglycerides, elevation in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) as well as increased size and volume of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles. These changes are consistent with an improved lipid profile despite potential increases in total cholesterol level.


title: Ketosis

text: The safety of ketosis from low-carbohydrate diets is often called into question by clinicians, researchers and the media. A common safety concern stems from the misunderstanding of the difference between physiological ketosis and pathologic ketoacidosis. There is also continued debate whether chronic ketosis is a healthy state or a stressor to be avoided. Some argue that humans evolved to avoid ketosis and should not be in ketosis long-term. The counter-argument is that there is no physiological requirement for dietary carbohydrate as adequate energy can be made via gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis indefinitely. Alternatively, the switching between a ketotic and fed state has been proposed to have beneficial effects on metabolic and neurologic health. The effects of sustaining ketosis for up to two years are known from studies of people following a strict ketogenic diet for epilepsy or type 2 diabetes; these include short-term adverse effects leading to potential long-term ones. However, literature on longer term effects of intermittent ketosis is lacking.


title: Ketosis

text: Some medications require attention when in a state of ketosis, especially several classes of diabetes medication. SGLT2 inhibitor medications have been associated with cases of euglycemic ketoacidosis- a rare state of high ketones causing a metabolic acidosis with normal blood glucose levels. This usually occurs with missed insulin doses, illness, dehydration or adherence to a low-carbohydrate diet while taking the medication. Additionally, medications used to directly lower blood glucose including insulin and sulfonylureas may cause hypoglycemia if they are not titrated prior to starting a diet that results in ketosis.


title: Ketosis

text: There may be side effects when changing over from glucose metabolism to fat metabolism. These may include headache, fatigue, dizziness, insomnia, difficulty in exercise tolerance, constipation, and nausea, especially in the first days and weeks after starting a ketogenic diet. Breath may develop a sweet, fruity flavor via production of acetone that is exhaled because of its high volatility.


title: Ketosis

text: Most adverse effects of long-term ketosis reported are in children because of its longstanding acceptance as a treatment for pediatric epilepsy. These include compromised bone health, stunted growth, hyperlipidemia, and kidney stones.


title: Ketosis

text: Ketosis induced by a ketogenic diet should not be pursued by people with pancreatitis because of the high dietary fat content. Ketosis is also contraindicated in pyruvate carboxylase deficiency, porphyria, and other rare genetic disorders of fat metabolism.


title: Ketosis

text: In dairy cattle, ketosis commonly occurs during the first weeks after giving birth to a calf and is sometimes referred to as "acetonemia". This is the result of an energy deficit when intake is inadequate to compensate for the increased metabolic demand of lactating. The elevated β-hydroxybutyrate concentrations can depress gluconeogenesis, feed intake and the immune system, as well as have an impact on milk composition. Point of care diagnostic tests can be useful to screen for ketosis in cattle.


title: Ketosis

text: In sheep, ketosis, evidenced by hyperketonemia with beta-hydroxybutyrate in blood over 0.7 mmol/L, is referred to as "pregnancy toxemia". This may develop in late pregnancy in ewes bearing multiple fetuses and is associated with the considerable metabolic demands of the pregnancy. In ruminants, because most glucose in the digestive tract is metabolized by rumen organisms, glucose must be supplied by gluconeogenesis. Pregnancy toxemia is most likely to occur in late pregnancy due to metabolic demand from rapid fetal growth and may be triggered by insufficient feed energy intake due to weather conditions, stress or other causes. Prompt recovery may occur with natural parturition, Caesarean section or induced abortion. Prevention through appropriate feeding and other management is more effective than treatment of advanced stages of pregnancy toxemia.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous stomatitis, or recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS), is a common condition characterized by the repeated formation of benign and non-contagious mouth ulcers (aphthae) in otherwise healthy individuals. The informal term canker sore is also used, mainly in North America, although it may also refer to other types of mouth ulcers. The cause is not completely understood but involves a T cell-mediated immune response triggered by a variety of factors which may include nutritional deficiencies, local trauma, stress, hormonal influences, allergies, genetic predisposition, certain foods, dehydration, some food additives, or some hygienic chemical additives like SDS (common in toothpaste).


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: These ulcers occur periodically and heal completely between attacks. In the majority of cases, the individual ulcers last about 7–10 days, and ulceration episodes occur 3–6 times per year. Most appear on the non-keratinizing epithelial surfaces in the mouth – i.e. anywhere except the attached gingiva, the hard palate and the dorsum of the tongue – although the more severe forms, which are less common, may also involve keratinizing epithelial surfaces. Symptoms range from a minor nuisance to interfering with eating and drinking. The severe forms may be debilitating, even causing weight loss due to malnutrition.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: The condition is very common, affecting about 20% of the general population to some degree. The onset is often during childhood or adolescence, and the condition usually lasts for several years before gradually disappearing. There is no cure, and treatments such as corticosteroids aim to manage pain, reduce healing time and reduce the frequency of episodes of ulceration.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Persons with aphthous stomatitis have no detectable systemic symptoms or signs (i.e., outside the mouth). Generally, symptoms may include prodromal sensations such as burning, itching, or stinging, which may precede the appearance of any lesion by some hours; and pain, which is often out of proportion to the extent of the ulceration and is worsened by physical contact, especially with certain foods and drinks (e.g., if they are acidic or abrasive). Pain is worst in the days immediately following the initial formation of the ulcer, and then recedes as healing progresses. If there are lesions on the tongue, speaking and chewing can be uncomfortable, and ulcers on the soft palate, back of the throat, or esophagus can cause painful swallowing. Signs are limited to the lesions themselves.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Ulceration episodes usually occur about 3–6 times per year. However, severe disease is characterized by virtually constant ulceration (new lesions developing before old ones have healed) and may cause debilitating chronic pain and interfere with comfortable eating. In severe cases, this prevents adequate nutrient intake leading to malnutrition and weight loss.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous ulcers typically begin as erythematous macules (reddened, flat area of mucosa) which develop into ulcers that are covered with a yellow-grey fibrinous membrane that can be scraped away. A reddish "halo" surrounds the ulcer. The size, number, location, healing time, and periodicity between episodes of ulcer formation are all dependent upon the subtype of aphthous stomatitis.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: The cause is not entirely clear, but is thought to be multifactorial. It has been suggested that aphthous stomatitis is not a single entity, but rather a group of conditions with different causes. Multiple research studies have attempted to identify a causative organism, but aphthous stomatitis appears to be non-contagious, non-infectious, and not sexually transmissible. The mucosal destruction is thought to be the result of a T cell (T lymphocyte) mediated immune response which involves the generation of interleukins and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Mast cells and macrophages are also involved, secreting TNF-α along with the T cells. When early aphthous ulcers are biopsied, the histologic appearance shows a dense inflammatory infiltrate, 80% of which is made up of T cells. Persons with aphthous stomatitis also have circulating lymphocytes which react with peptides 91–105 of heat shock protein 65–60, and the ratio of CD4+ T cells to CD8+ T cells in the peripheral blood of individuals with aphthous stomatitis is decreased.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous stomatitis has been associated with other autoimmune diseases, namely systemic lupus erythematosus, Behçet's disease and inflammatory bowel diseases. However, common autoantibodies are not detected in most patients, and the condition tends to resolve spontaneously with advancing age rather than worsen.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Evidence for the T cell-mediated mechanism of mucosal destruction is strong, but the exact triggers for this process are unknown and are thought to be multiple and varied from one person to the next. This suggests that there are a number of possible triggers, each of which is capable of producing the disease in different subgroups. In other words, different subgroups appear to have different causes for the condition. These can be considered in three general groups, namely primary immuno-dysregulation, decrease of the mucosal barrier and states of heightened antigenic sensitivity (see below). Risk factors in aphthous stomatitis are also sometimes considered as either host-related or environmental.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: At least 40% of people with aphthous stomatitis have a positive family history, suggesting that some people are genetically predisposed to developing oral ulceration. HLA-B12, HLA-B51, HLA-Cw7, HLA-A2, HLA-A11, and HLA-DR2 are examples of human leukocyte antigen types associated with aphthous stomatitis. However, these HLA types are inconsistently associated with the condition, and also vary according to ethnicity. People who have a positive family history of aphthous stomatitis tend to develop a more severe form of the condition, and at an earlier age than is typical.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Stress has effects on the immune system, which may explain why some cases directly correlate with stress. It is often stated that in studies of students with the condition, ulceration is exacerbated during examination periods and lessened during periods of vacation. Alternatively, it has been suggested that oral parafunctional activities such as lip or cheek chewing become more pronounced during periods of stress, and hence the mucosa is subjected to more minor trauma.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous-like ulceration also occurs in conditions involving systemic immuno-dysregulation, e.g. cyclic neutropenia and human immunodeficiency virus infection. In cyclic neutropenia, more severe oral ulceration occurs during periods of severe immuno-dysregulation, and resolution of the underlying neutropenia is associated with healing of the ulcers. The relative increase in percentage of CD8+ T cells, caused by a reduction in numbers of CD4+ T cells may be implicated in RAS-type ulceration in HIV infection.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: The thickness of the mucosa may be an important factor in aphthous stomatitis. Usually, ulcers form on the thinner, non-keratinizing mucosal surfaces in the mouth. Factors which decrease the thickness of the mucosa increase the frequency of occurrence, and factors which increase the thickness of the mucosa correlate with decreased ulceration.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: The nutritional deficiencies associated with aphthous stomatitis (vitamin B12, folate, and iron) can all cause a decrease in the thickness of the oral mucosa (atrophy).


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Local trauma is also associated with aphthous stomatitis, and it is known that trauma can decrease the mucosal barrier. Trauma could occur during injections of local anesthetic in the mouth, or otherwise during dental treatments, frictional trauma from a sharp surface in the mouth such as broken tooth, or from tooth brushing.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Hormonal factors are capable of altering the mucosal barrier. In one study, a small group of females with aphthous stomatitis had fewer occurrences of aphthous ulcers during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle or with use of the contraceptive pill. This phase is associated with a fall in progestogen levels, mucosal proliferation and keratinization. This subgroup often experiences remission during pregnancy. However, other studies report no correlation between aphthous stomatitis and menstrual period, pregnancy or menopause.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous stomatitis is more common in people who smoke, and there is also a correlation between habit duration and severity of the condition. Tobacco use is associated with an increase in keratinization of the oral mucosa. In extreme forms, this may manifest as leukoplakia or stomatitis nicotina (smoker's keratosis). This increased keratinization may mechanically reinforce the mucosa and reduce the tendency of ulcers to form after minor trauma, or present a more substantial barrier to microbes and antigens, but this is unclear. Nicotine is also known to stimulate production of adrenal steroids and reduce production of TNF-α, interleukin-1 and interleukin-6. Smokeless tobacco products also seem to protect against aphthous stomatitis. Cessation of smoking is known to sometimes precede the onset of aphthous stomatitis in people previously unaffected, or exacerbate the condition in those who were already experiencing aphthous ulceration. Despite this correlation, starting smoking again does not usually lessen the condition.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Various antigenic triggers have been implicated as a trigger, including L forms of streptococci, herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus, adenovirus, and cytomegalovirus. Some people with aphthous stomatitis may show herpes virus within the epithelium of the mucosa, but without any productive infection. In some persons, attacks of ulceration occur at the same time as asymptomatic viral shedding and elevated viral titres.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: In some instances, recurrent mouth ulcers may be a manifestation of an allergic reaction. Possible allergens include certain foods (e.g., chocolate, coffee, strawberries, eggs, nuts, tomatoes, cheese, citrus fruits, benzoates, cinnamaldehyde, and highly acidic foods), toothpastes, and mouthwashes. Where dietary allergens are responsible, mouth ulcers usually develop within about 12–24 hours of exposure.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), a detergent present in some brands of toothpaste and other oral healthcare products, may produce oral ulceration in some individuals. It has been shown that aphthous stomatitis is more common in people using toothpastes containing SLS, and that some reduction in ulceration occurs when a SLS-free toothpaste is used. Some have argued that since SLS is almost ubiquitously used in oral hygiene products, there is unlikely to be a true predisposition for aphthous stomatitis caused by SLS.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous-like ulceration may occur in association with several systemic disorders (see table). These ulcers are clinically and histopathologically identical to the lesions of aphthous stomatitis, but this type of oral ulceration is not considered to be true aphthous stomatitis by some sources. Some of these conditions may cause ulceration on other mucosal surfaces in addition to the mouth such as the conjunctiva or the genital mucous membranes. Resolution of the systemic condition often leads to decreased frequency and severity of the oral ulceration.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Behçet's disease is a triad of mouth ulcers, genital ulcers and anterior uveitis. The main feature of Behçet's disease is aphthous-like ulceration, but this is usually more severe than seen in aphthous stomatitis without a systemic cause, and typically resembles major or herpetiforme ulceration or both. Aphthous-like ulceration is the first sign of the disease in 25–75% of cases. Behçet's is more common in individuals whose ethnic origin is from regions along the Silk Road (between the Mediterranean and the Far East). It tends to be rare in other countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. MAGIC syndrome is a possible variant of Behçet's disease, and is associated with aphthous-like ulceration. The name stands for "mouth and genital ulcers with inflamed cartilage" (relapsing polychondritis).


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: PFAPA syndrome is a rare condition that tends to occur in children. The name stands for "periodic fever, aphthae, pharyngitis (sore throat) and cervical adenitis" (inflammation of the lymph nodes in the neck). The fevers occur periodically about every 3–5 weeks. The condition appears to improve with tonsillectomy or immunosuppression, suggesting an immunologic cause.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: In cyclic neutropenia, there is a reduction in the level of circulating neutrophils in the blood that occurs about every 21 days. Opportunistic infections commonly occur and aphthous-like ulceration is worst during this time.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Hematinic deficiencies (vitamin B12, folic acid and iron), occurring singly or in combination, and with or without any underlying gastrointestinal disease, may be twice as common in people with RAS. However, iron and vitamin supplements only infrequently improve the ulceration. The relationship to vitamin B12 deficiency has been the subject of many studies. Although these studies found that 0–42% of those with recurrent ulcers have a vitamin B12 deficiency, an association with deficiency is rare. Even in the absence of deficiency, vitamin B12 supplementation may be helpful due to unclear mechanisms. Hematinic deficiencies can cause anemia, which is also associated with aphthous-like ulceration.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Gastrointestinal disorders are sometimes associated with aphthous-like stomatitis, e.g. most commonly celiac disease, but also inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. The link between gastrointestinal disorders and aphthous stomatitis is probably related to nutritional deficiencies caused by malabsorption. Less than 5% of people with RAS have celiac disease, which usually presents with severe malnutrition, anemia, abdominal pain, diarrhea and glossitis (inflammation of the tongue). Sometimes aphthous-like ulcerations can be the only sign of celiac disease. Despite this association, a gluten-free diet does not usually improve the oral ulceration.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Other examples of systemic conditions associated with aphthous-like ulceration include reactive arthritis, and recurrent erythema multiforme.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Diagnosis is mostly based on the clinical appearance and the medical history. The most important diagnostic feature is a history of recurrent, self healing ulcers at fairly regular intervals. Although there are many causes of oral ulceration, "recurrent" oral ulceration has relatively few causes, most commonly aphthous stomatitis, but rarely Behçet's disease, erythema multiforme, ulceration associated with gastrointestinal disease, and recurrent intra-oral herpes simplex infection. A systemic cause is more likely in adults who suddenly develop recurrent oral ulceration with no prior history.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Special investigations may be indicated to rule out other causes of oral ulceration. These include blood tests to exclude anemia, deficiencies of iron, folate or vitamin B12, or celiac disease. However, the nutritional deficiencies may be latent and the peripheral blood picture may appear relatively normal. Some suggest that screening for celiac disease should form part of the routine work up for individuals complaining of recurrent oral ulceration. Many of the systemic diseases cause other symptoms apart from oral ulceration, which is in contrast to aphthous stomatitis where there is isolated oral ulceration. Patch testing may be indicated if allergies are suspected (e.g. a strong relationship between certain foods and episodes of ulceration). Several drugs can cause oral ulceration (e.g. nicorandil), and a trial substitution to an alternative drug may highlight a causal relationship.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Tissue biopsy is not usually required, unless to rule out other suspected conditions such as oral squamous cell carcinoma. The histopathologic appearance is not pathognomonic (the microscopic appearance is not specific to the condition). Early lesions have a central zone of ulceration covered by a fibrinous membrane. In the connective tissue deep to the ulcer there is increased vascularity and a mixed inflammatory infiltrate composed of lymphocytes, histiocytes and polymorphonuclear leukocytes. The epithelium on the margins of the ulcer shows spongiosis and there are many mononuclear cells in the basal third. There are also lymphocytes and histiocytes in the connective tissue surrounding deeper blood vessels near to the ulcer, described histologically as "perivascular cuffing".


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous stomatitis has been classified as a type of non-infectious stomatitis (inflammation of the mouth). One classification distinguishes "common simple aphthae", accounting for 95% of cases, with 3–6 attacks per year, rapid healing, minimal pain and restriction of ulceration to the mouth; and "complex aphthae", accounting for 5% of cases, where ulcers may be present on the genital mucosa in addition to mouth, healing is slower and pain is more severe. A more common method of classifying aphthous stomatitis is into three variants, distinguished by the size, number and location of the lesions, the healing time of individual ulcers and whether a scar is left after healing (see below).


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: This is the most common type of aphthous stomatitis, accounting for about 80–85% of all cases. This subtype is termed minor aphthous ulceration (MiAU), or minor recurrent aphthous stomatitis (MiRAS). The lesions themselves may be referred to as minor aphthae or minor aphthous ulcers. These lesions are generally less than 10 mm in diameter (usually about 2–3 mm), and affect non-keratinized mucosal surfaces (i.e. the labial and buccal mucosa, lateral borders of the tongue and the floor of the mouth). Usually several ulcers appear at the same time, but single ulcers are possible. Healing usually takes seven to ten days and leaves no scar. Between episodes of ulceration, there is usually an ulcer-free period of variable length.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: This subtype makes up about 10% of all cases of aphthous stomatitis. It is termed major aphthous ulceration (MaAU) or major recurrent aphthous stomatitis (MaRAS). Major aphthous ulcers (major aphthae) are similar to minor aphthous ulcers, but are more than 10 mm in diameter and the ulceration is deeper. Because the lesions are larger, healing takes longer (about twenty to thirty days), and may leave scars. Each episode of ulceration usually produces a greater number of ulcers, and the time between attacks is less than seen in minor aphthous stomatitis. Major aphthous ulceration usually affects non-keratinized mucosal surfaces, but less commonly keratinized mucosa may also be involved, such as the dorsum (top surface) of the tongue or the gingiva (gums). The soft palate or the fauces (back of the throat) may also be involved, the latter being part of the oropharynx rather than the oral cavity. Compared to minor aphthous ulceration, major aphthae tend to have an irregular outline.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Herpetiform ulcers, (also termed stomatitis herpetiformis, or herpes-like ulcerations) is a subtype of aphthous stomatitis so named because the lesions resemble a primary infection with herpes simplex virus (primary herpetic gingivostomatitis). However, herpetiform ulceration is not caused by herpes viruses. As with all types of aphthous stomatitis, it is not contagious. Unlike true herpetic ulcers, herpetiforme ulcers are not preceded by vesicles (small, fluid-filled blisters). Herpetiforme ulcers are less than 1 mm in diameter and occur in variably sized crops up to one hundred at a time. Adjacent ulcers may merge to form larger, continuous areas of ulceration. Healing occurs within fifteen days without scarring. The ulceration may affect keratinized mucosal surfaces in addition to non keratinized. Herpetiform ulceration is often extremely painful, and the lesions recur more frequently than minor or major aphthous ulcers. Recurrence may be so frequent that ulceration is virtually continuous. It generally occurs in a slightly older age group than the other subtypes, and females are affected slightly more frequently than males.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Recurrent oral ulceration associated with systemic conditions is termed "RAS-type ulceration", "RAS-like ulceration", or "aphthous-like ulcers". Aphthous stomatitis occurs in individuals with no associated systemic disease. Persons with certain systemic diseases may be prone to oral ulceration, but this is secondary to the underlying medical condition (see the systemic disease section). This kind of ulceration is considered by some to be separate from true aphthous stomatitis. However, this definition is not strictly applied. For example, many sources refer to oral ulceration caused by anemia and/or nutritional deficiencies as aphthous stomatitis, and some also consider Behçet's disease to be a variant.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: The vast majority of people with aphthous stomatitis have minor symptoms and do not require any specific therapy. The pain is often tolerable with simple dietary modification during an episode of ulceration such as avoiding spicy and acidic foods and beverages. Many different topical and systemic medications have been proposed (see table), sometimes showing little or no evidence of usefulness when formally investigated. Some of the results of interventions for RAS may in truth represent a placebo effect. No therapy is curative, with treatment aiming to relieve pain, promote healing and reduce the frequency of episodes of ulceration.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: The first line of therapy for aphthous stomatitis are topical agents rather than systemic medication, with topical corticosteroids being the mainstay treatment. Systemic treatment is usually reserved for severe disease due to the risk of adverse side effects associated with many of these agents. A systematic review found that no single systemic intervention was found to be effective. Good oral hygiene is important to prevent secondary infection of the ulcers.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Occasionally, in females where ulceration is correlated to the menstrual cycle or to birth control pills, progestogen or a change in birth control may be beneficial. Use of nicotine replacement therapy for people who have developed oral ulceration after stopping smoking has also been reported. Starting smoking again does not usually lessen the condition. Trauma can be reduced by avoiding rough or sharp foodstuffs and by brushing teeth with care. If sodium lauryl sulfate is suspected to be the cause, avoidance of products containing this chemical may be useful and prevent recurrence in some individuals. Similarly patch testing may indicate that food allergy is responsible, and the diet modified accordingly. If investigations reveal deficiency states, correction of the deficiency may result in resolution of the ulceration. For example, there is some evidence that vitamin B12 supplementation may prevent recurrence in some individuals.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Surgical excision of aphthous ulcers has been described, but it is an ineffective and inappropriate treatment. Silver nitrate has also been used as a chemical cauterant. Apart from the mainstream approaches detailed above, there are numerous treatments of unproven effectiveness, ranging from herbal remedies to otherwise alternative treatments, including "Aloe vera", "Myrtus communis", "Rosa damascena", potassium alum, zinc sulfate, nicotine, polio virus vaccine and prostaglandin E2.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: By definition, there is no serious underlying medical condition, and most importantly, the ulcers do not represent oral cancer nor are they infectious. However, aphthae are capable of causing significant discomfort. There is a spectrum of severity, with symptoms ranging from a minor nuisance to disabling. Due to pain during eating, weight loss may develop as a result of not eating in severe cases of aphthous stomatitis. Usually, the condition lasts for several years before spontaneously disappearing in later life.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous stomatitis affects between 5% and 66% of people, with about 20% of individuals in most populations having the condition to some degree. This makes it the most common disease of the oral mucosa. Aphthous stomatitis occurs worldwide, but is more common in developed countries.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Within nations, it is more common in higher socioeconomic groups. Males and females are affected in an equal ratio, and the peak age of onset between 10 and 19 years. About 80% of people with aphthous stomatitis first developed the condition before the age of 30. There have been reports of ethnic variation. For example, in the United States, aphthous stomatitis may be three times more common in white-skinned people than black-skinned people.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: "Aphthous affectations" and "aphthous ulcerations" of the mouth are mentioned several times in the treatise "Of the Epidemics" (part of the Hippocratic corpus, in the 4th century BCE), although it seems likely that this was oral ulceration as a manifestation of some infectious disease, since they are described as occurring in epidemic-like patterns, with concurrent symptoms such as fever.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Aphthous stomatitis was once thought to be a form of recurrent herpes simplex virus infection, and some clinicians still refer to the condition as "herpes" despite this cause having been disproven.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: The informal term "canker sore" is sometimes used, mainly in North America, either to describe this condition generally, or to refer to the individual ulcers of this condition, or mouth ulcers of any cause unrelated to this condition. The origin of the word "canker" is thought to have been influenced by Latin, Old English, Middle English and Old North French. In Latin, "cancer" translates to "malignant tumor" or literally "crab" (related to the likening of sectioned tumors to the limbs of a crab). The closely related word in Middle English and Old North French, "chancre", now more usually applied to syphilis, is also thought to be involved. Despite this etymology, aphthous stomatitis is not a form of cancer but rather entirely benign.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: An aphtha (plural "aphthae") is a non specific term that refers to an ulcer of the mouth. The word is derived from the Greek word "aphtha" meaning "eruption" or "ulcer". The lesions of several other oral conditions are sometimes described as aphthae, including Bednar's aphthae (infected, traumatic ulcers on the hard palate in infants), oral candidiasis, and foot-and-mouth disease. When used without qualification, "aphthae" commonly refers to lesions of recurrent aphthous stomatitis. Since the word aphtha is often taken to be synonymous with ulcer, it has been suggested that the term "aphthous ulcer" is redundant, but it remains in common use. Stomatitis is also a non-specific term referring to any inflammatory process in the mouth, with or without oral ulceration. It may describe many different conditions apart from aphthous stomatitis such as angular stomatitis.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: The current most widely used medical term is "recurrent aphthous stomatitis" or simply "aphthous stomatitis". Historically, many different terms have been used to refer to recurrent aphthous stomatitis or its sub-types, and some are still in use. Mikulicz's aphthae is a synonym of minor RAS, named after Jan Mikulicz-Radecki. Synonyms for major RAS include Sutton's ulcers (named after Richard Lightburn Sutton), Sutton's disease, Sutton's syndrome and periadenitis mucosa necrotica recurrens. Synonyms for aphthous stomatitis as a whole include (recurrent) oral aphthae, (recurrent) aphthous ulceration and (oral) aphthosis.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: In traditional Chinese medicine, claimed treatments for aphthae focus on clearing heat and nourishing Yin.


title: Aphthous stomatitis

text: Rembrandt Gentle White toothpaste did not contain sodium lauryl sulfate, and was specifically marketed as being for the benefit of "canker sore sufferers". When the manufacturer Johnson & Johnson discontinued the product in 2014, it caused a backlash of anger from long-term customers, and the toothpaste began to sell for many times the original price on the auction website eBay.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 2020, the population was 5,275,541. Its county seat is Chicago, the most populous city in Illinois and the third-most-populous city in the United States.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Cook County was incorporated in 1831 and named for Daniel Pope Cook, an early Illinois statesman. It achieved its present boundaries in 1839. Within one hundred years, the county recorded explosive population growth going from a trading post village with a little over 600 residents to four million citizens, rivalling Paris by the Great Depression. During the first half of the 20th century it had the absolute majority of Illinois's population.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: There are more than 800 local governmental units and nearly 130 municipalities located wholly or partially within Cook County, the largest of which is Chicago. The city is home to approximately 54% of the entire county's population. The part of the county outside of the Chicago and Evanston city limits is divided into 29 townships; these often divide or share governmental services with local municipalities. Townships within Chicago were abolished in 1902 but are retained for real estate assessment purposes. Evanston Township was formerly coterminous with the City of Evanston but was abolished in 2014. County government is overseen by the Cook County Board, and countywide state government offices include the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Cook County State's Attorney, the Cook County Sheriff, and the Cook County Assessor.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Geographically, the county is the sixth-largest in Illinois by land area and the largest by total area. It shares the state's Lake Michigan shoreline with Lake County. Including its lake area, Cook County has a total area of , the largest county in Illinois, of which is land and (42.16%) is water. Land-use in Cook County is mostly urban and densely populated. Within Cook County, the State of Illinois took advantage of its Lake Michigan access and the Chicago Portage, beginning with the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848. This helped make the region a central transit hub for the nation. Chicago, with its location on the Great Lakes and via the St. Lawrence Seaway, is a global port city, giving Cook County an international shipping port.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Cook County's population is larger than that of 28 different U.S. states and territories, and larger than the population of 11 of the 13 Canadian provinces and territories. Cook County is included in the Chicago metropolitan Combined Statistical Area (CSA), which has a population of approximately 10 million people.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Cook County was created on January 15, 1831, out of Putnam County by an act of the Illinois General Assembly. It was the 54th county established in Illinois and was named after Daniel Cook, one of the earliest and youngest statesmen in Illinois history. He served as the second U.S. Representative from Illinois and the state's first Attorney General. In 1839, DuPage County was carved out of Cook County.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: The shape of Cook County and the neighboring counties has remained the same since DuPage County was formed. The population in each county and the split of agriculture compared to residential and industrial activity has changed dramatically over the intervening decades to 2020. The county began with 10,201 people in the Census of 1840, growing rapidly to 5,150,233 people estimated for 2019 by the US Census. Growth was rapid in the 19th century, with the County reaching 2.4 million people by 1910. In the 20th century, the County reached 5.1 million population.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Cook County is nearly completely developed, with little agricultural land remaining near the outer county boundaries.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: According to the 2000 Census there were 1,974,181 households, out of which 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.0% were married couples living together, 15.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.7% were non-families. 29.4% of all households were someone living alone including 9.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.38.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: In the county, the population age distribution was: 26.0% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 31.7% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.5 males.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: The median income for a household in the county was $45,922, and the median income for a family was $53,784. Males had a median income of $40,690 versus $31,298 for females. The per capita income for the county was $23,227. About 10.6% of families and 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.9% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the median home value in Cook County was $299,571, an increase of 11.7% from the prior year.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: According to Census Bureau estimates, the county's population had decreased by 3.4% between the 2000 census and the 2010 census (5,194,675). The county's population had grown slightly again by 2017 (5,211,263).


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: As of the 2010 Census, the population of the county was 5,194,675, White Americans made up 55.4% of Cook County's population; non-Hispanic whites represented 43.9% of the population. African Americans made up 24.8% of the population. Native Americans made up 0.4% of Cook County's population. Asian Americans made up 6.2% of the population (1.8% Indian, 1.2% Filipino, 1.2% Chinese, 0.7% Korean, 0.3% Vietnamese, 0.2% Japanese, 0.8% Other). Pacific Islander Americans made up less than 0.1% of the population. People from other races made up 10.6% of the population; people from two or more races made up 2.5% of the county's population. Hispanics and Latinos (of any race) made up 24.0% of Cook County's population.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: As of the 2000 Census, there were 5,376,741 people, 1,974,181 households, and 1,269,398 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 2,096,121 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 56.27% white, 26.14% Black or African American, 0.29% Native American, 4.84% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islanders, 9.88% from other races, and 2.53% from two or more races. 19.93% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 9.1% were of Polish, 8.1% German, 7.9% Irish and 5.7% Italian ancestry. 17.63% reported speaking Spanish at home; 3.13% speak Polish.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Whites (Hispanic and non-Hispanic) number roughly 2,793,500. There are about 2,372,500 non-Hispanic whites residing in Cook County. Sizeable non-Hispanic white populations are those of German (11.4%), Irish (10.3%), Polish (9.7%), Italian (6.1%), and British (4.1%) descent. There are also significant groups of Swedish (1.5%), Russian (1.5%), French (1.3%), Greek (1.2%), Czech (1.0%), Dutch (1.0%), Lithuanian (0.9%), and Norwegian (0.8%) descent.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Black Americans are the second largest racial group. Black Americans form over one-quarter (25.4%) of Cook County's population. Blacks of non-Hispanic origin form 25.2% of the population; black Hispanics make up the remaining 0.2% of the populace. There are roughly 1,341,000 African Americans of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic origin living in Cook County; 1,328,000 are non-Hispanic blacks. Roughly 52,500 people were of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, making up 1.0% of the total population.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Approximately 10,300 residents of Cook County are of Native American ancestry. They consist of Cherokee, Chippewa, Navajo, and Sioux. Native Americans of Hispanic origin represent a sizeable portion of the Native American population. Nearly 6,000 Native Americans are of non-Hispanic origin, and some 4,300 are of Hispanic origin. Over 40% of the Native American racial group is of Hispanic descent.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Asian Americans are a very sizeable racial group in the county, numbering about 301,000. The Asian population is ethnically diverse, and includes roughly 87,900 Indians, 61,700 Filipinos, 60,700 Chinese, 35,000 Koreans, 13,700 Vietnamese, and 11,100 Japanese. Roughly 30,800 are of other Asian ethnic groups, such as Thai, Cambodian, and Hmong.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Approximately 3,000 residents are of Pacific Islander heritage. This group includes roughly Native Hawaiians, Guamanians, Samoans, and various people of other Pacific Islander groups.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: Hispanic and Latino Americans make up over one-fifth (22.8%) of Cook County's population. Roughly 1,204,000 Latinos live in the county. Mexicans are the most common Latino group. Cook County's 925,000 Mexican Americans make up 17.5% of its population. Roughly 127,000 Puerto Ricans live in the county, while over 12,200 Cubans reside in the county. There are some 140,000 Hispanics and Latinos of other nationalities living in Cook County (i.e. Colombian, Bolivian, etc.), and they collectively make up 2.6% of the county's population.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: In 2010 statistics, the largest religious group in Cook County was the Archdiocese of Chicago, with 1,947,223 Catholics worshipping at 371 parishes, followed by 209,195 non-denominational adherents with 486 congregations, an estimated 201,152 Muslims with 62 congregations, 68,865 NBC Baptists with 99 congregations, 49,925 ELCA Lutherans with 145 congregations, 49,909 SBC Baptists with 181 congregations, 45,979 LCMS Lutherans with 120 congregations, 39,866 UCC Christians with 101 congregations, 33,584 UMC Methodists with 121 congregations, and 32,646 AG Pentecostals with 64 congregations. Altogether, 59.6% of the population was claimed as members by religious congregations, although members of historically African-American denominations were underrepresented due to incomplete information. In 2014, Cook County had 2,001 religious organizations, second only to Los Angeles County out of all US counties.


title: Cook County, Illinois

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (42.2%) is water. It is the sixth largest county in Illinois by land area, and the largest in total area. Most of the water is in Lake Michigan. The highest point is more than , and is in northwest Barrington Township, in the northwest corner of the county. The lowest point is less than , along the Lake Michigan shoreline.