title: Harmony

text: Descriptions and definitions of harmony and harmonic practice often show bias towards European (or Western) musical traditions, although many cultures practice vertical harmony. In addition, South Asian art music (Hindustani and Carnatic music) is frequently cited as placing little emphasis on what is perceived in western practice as conventional harmony; the underlying harmonic foundation for most South Asian music is the drone, a held open fifth interval (or fourth interval) that does not alter in pitch throughout the course of a composition. Pitch simultaneity in particular is rarely a major consideration. Nevertheless, many other considerations of pitch are relevant to the music, its theory and its structure, such as the complex system of Rāgas, which combines both melodic and modal considerations and codifications within it.


title: Harmony

text: So, intricate pitch combinations that sound simultaneously do occur in Indian classical music – but they are rarely studied as teleological harmonic or contrapuntal progressions – as with notated Western music. This contrasting emphasis (with regard to Indian music in particular) manifests itself in the different methods of performance adopted: in Indian Music improvisation takes a major role in the structural framework of a piece, whereas in Western Music improvisation has been uncommon since the end of the 19th century. Where it does occur in Western music (or has in the past), the improvisation either embellishes pre-notated music or draws from musical models previously established in notated compositions, and therefore uses familiar harmonic schemes.


title: Harmony

text: Emphasis on the precomposed in European art music and the written theory surrounding it shows considerable cultural bias. The "Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" (Oxford University Press) identifies this clearly:


title: Harmony

text: Yet the evolution of harmonic practice and language itself, in Western art music, is and was facilitated by this process of prior composition, which permitted the study and analysis by theorists and composers of individual pre-constructed works in which pitches (and to some extent rhythms) remained unchanged regardless of the nature of the performance.


title: Harmony

text: Early Western religious music often features parallel perfect intervals; these intervals would preserve the clarity of the original plainsong. These works were created and performed in cathedrals, and made use of the resonant modes of their respective cathedrals to create harmonies. As polyphony developed, however, the use of parallel intervals was slowly replaced by the English style of consonance that used thirds and sixths. The English style was considered to have a sweeter sound, and was better suited to polyphony in that it offered greater linear flexibility in part-writing.


title: Harmony

text: Carl Dahlhaus (1990) distinguishes between "coordinate" and "subordinate harmony". "Subordinate harmony" is the hierarchical tonality or tonal harmony well known today. "Coordinate harmony" is the older Medieval and Renaissance "tonalité ancienne", "The term is meant to signify that sonorities are linked one after the other without giving rise to the impression of a goal-directed development. A first chord forms a 'progression' with a second chord, and a second with a third. But the former chord progression is independent of the later one and vice versa." Coordinate harmony follows direct (adjacent) relationships rather than indirect as in subordinate. Interval cycles create symmetrical harmonies, which have been extensively used by the composers Alban Berg, George Perle, Arnold Schoenberg, Béla Bartók, and Edgard Varèse's "Density 21.5".


title: Harmony

text: Close harmony and open harmony use close position and open position chords, respectively. See: Voicing (music) and Close and open harmony.


title: Harmony

text: Other types of harmony are based upon the intervals of the chords used in that harmony. Most chords in western music are based on "tertian" harmony, or chords built with the interval of thirds. In the chord C Major7, C–E is a major third; E–G is a minor third; and G to B is a major third. Other types of harmony consist of quartal and quintal harmony.


title: Harmony

text: A unison is considered a harmonic interval, just like a fifth or a third, but is unique in that it is two identical notes produced together. The unison, as a component of harmony, is important, especially in orchestration. In pop music, unison singing is usually called "doubling", a technique The Beatles used in many of their earlier recordings. As a type of harmony, singing in unison or playing the same notes, often using different musical instruments, at the same time is commonly called monophonic harmonization.


title: Harmony

text: An interval is the relationship between two separate musical pitches. For example, in the melody "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", between the first two notes (the first "twinkle") and the second two notes (the second "twinkle") is the interval of a fifth. What this means is that if the first two notes were the pitch C, the second two notes would be the pitch G—four scale notes, or seven chromatic notes (a perfect fifth), above it.


title: Harmony

text: Therefore, the combination of notes with their specific intervals—a chord—creates harmony. For example, in a C chord, there are three notes: C, E, and G. The note C is the root. The notes E and G provide harmony, and in a G7 (G dominant 7th) chord, the root G with each subsequent note (in this case B, D and F) provide the harmony.


title: Harmony

text: In the musical scale, there are twelve pitches. Each pitch is referred to as a "degree" of the scale. The names A, B, C, D, E, F, and G are insignificant. The intervals, however, are not. Here is an example:


title: Harmony

text: As can be seen, no note will always be the same scale degree. The "tonic", or first-degree note, can be any of the 12 notes (pitch classes) of the chromatic scale. All the other notes fall into place. For example, when C is the tonic, the fourth degree or subdominant is F. When D is the tonic, the fourth degree is G. While the note names remain constant, they may refer to different scale degrees, implying different intervals with respect to the tonic. The great power of this fact is that any musical work can be played or sung in any key. It is the same piece of music, as long as the intervals are the same—thus transposing the melody into the corresponding key. When the intervals surpass the perfect Octave (12 semitones), these intervals are called "compound intervals", which include particularly the 9th, 11th, and 13th Intervals—widely used in jazz and blues Music.


title: Harmony

text: These numbers don't "add" together because intervals are numbered inclusive of the root note (e.g. one tone up is a 2nd), so the root is counted twice by adding them. Apart from this categorization, intervals can also be divided into consonant and dissonant. As explained in the following paragraphs, consonant intervals produce a sensation of relaxation and dissonant intervals a sensation of tension. In tonal music, the term consonant also means "brings resolution" (to some degree at least, whereas dissonance "requires resolution").


title: Harmony

text: The consonant intervals are considered the perfect unison, octave, fifth, fourth and major and minor third and sixth, and their compound forms. An interval is referred to as "perfect" when the harmonic relationship is found in the natural overtone series (namely, the unison 1:1, octave 2:1, fifth 3:2, and fourth 4:3). The other basic intervals (second, third, sixth, and seventh) are called "imperfect" because the harmonic relationships are not found mathematically exact in the overtone series. In classical music the perfect fourth above the bass may be considered dissonant when its function is contrapuntal. Other intervals, the second and the seventh (and their compound forms) are considered Dissonant and require resolution (of the produced tension) and usually preparation (depending on the music style).


title: Harmony

text: Note that the effect of dissonance is perceived relatively within musical context: for example, a major seventh interval alone (i.e., C up to B) may be perceived as dissonant, but the same interval as part of a major seventh chord may sound relatively consonant. A tritone (the interval of the fourth step to the seventh step of the major scale, i.e., F to B) sounds very dissonant alone, but less so within the context of a dominant seventh chord (G7 or D7 in that example).


title: Harmony

text: In the Western tradition, in music after the seventeenth century, harmony is manipulated using chords, which are combinations of pitch classes. In tertian harmony, so named after the interval of a third, the members of chords are found and named by stacking intervals of the third, starting with the "root", then the "third" above the root, and the "fifth" above the root (which is a third above the third), etc. (Note that chord members are named after their interval above the root.) Dyads, the simplest chords, contain only two members (see power chords).


title: Harmony

text: A chord with three members is called a triad because it has three members, not because it is necessarily built in thirds (see Quartal and quintal harmony for chords built with other intervals). Depending on the size of the intervals being stacked, different qualities of chords are formed. In popular and jazz harmony, chords are named by their root plus various terms and characters indicating their qualities. To keep the nomenclature as simple as possible, some defaults are accepted (not tabulated here). For example, the chord members C, E, and G, form a C Major triad, called by default simply a C chord. In an A chord (pronounced A-flat), the members are A, C, and E.


title: Harmony

text: In many types of music, notably baroque, romantic, modern and jazz, chords are often augmented with "tensions". A tension is an additional chord member that creates a relatively dissonant interval in relation to the bass. Following the tertian practice of building chords by stacking thirds, the simplest first tension is added to a triad by stacking, on top of the existing root, third, and fifth, another third above the fifth, adding a new, potentially dissonant member a seventh away from the root (called the "seventh" of the chord) producing a four-note chord called a "seventh chord".


title: Harmony

text: Depending on the widths of the individual thirds stacked to build the chord, the interval between the root and the seventh of the chord may be major, minor, or diminished. (The interval of an augmented seventh reproduces the root, and is therefore left out of the chordal nomenclature.) The nomenclature allows that, by default, "C7" indicates a chord with a root, third, fifth, and seventh spelled C, E, G, and B. Other types of seventh chords must be named more explicitly, such as "C Major 7" (spelled C, E, G, B), "C augmented 7" (here the word augmented applies to the fifth, not the seventh, spelled C, E, G, B), etc. (For a more complete exposition of nomenclature see Chord (music).)


title: Harmony

text: Continuing to stack thirds on top of a seventh chord produces extensions, and brings in the "extended tensions" or "upper tensions" (those more than an octave above the root when stacked in thirds), the ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. This creates the chords named after them. (Note that except for dyads and triads, tertian chord types are named for the interval of the largest size and magnitude in use in the stack, not for the number of chord members : thus a ninth chord has five members "[tonic, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th]", not nine.) Extensions beyond the thirteenth reproduce existing chord members and are (usually) left out of the nomenclature. Complex harmonies based on extended chords are found in abundance in jazz, late-romantic music, modern orchestral works, film music, etc.


title: Harmony

text: Typically, in the classical Common practice period a dissonant chord (chord with tension) "resolves" to a consonant chord. Harmonization usually sounds pleasant to the ear when there is a balance between the consonant and dissonant sounds. In simple words, that occurs when there is a balance between "tense" and "relaxed" moments. For this reason, usually tension is 'prepared' and then 'resolved', where preparing tension means to place a series of consonant chords that lead smoothly to the dissonant chord. In this way the composer ensures introducing tension smoothly, without disturbing the listener. Once the piece reaches its sub-climax, the listener needs a moment of relaxation to clear up the tension, which is obtained by playing a consonant chord that resolves the tension of the previous chords. The clearing of this tension usually sounds pleasant to the listener, though this is not always the case in late-nineteenth century music, such as Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner.


title: Harmony

text: Tonal fusion contributes to the perceived consonance of a chord, describing the degree to which multiple pitches are heard as a single, unitary tone. Chords which have more coinciding partials (frequency components) are perceived as more consonant, such as the octave and perfect fifth. The spectra of these intervals resemble that of a uniform tone. According to this definition, a major triad fuses better than a minor triad and a major-minor seventh chord fuses better than a major-major seventh or minor-minor seventh. These differences may not be readily apparent in tempered contexts but can explain why major triads are generally more prevalent than minor triads and major-minor sevenths are generally more prevalent than other sevenths (in spite of the dissonance of the tritone interval) in mainstream tonal music.


title: Harmony

text: In organ registers, certain harmonic interval combinations and chords are activated by a single key. The sounds produced fuse into one tone with a new timbre. This tonal fusion effect is also used in synthesizers and orchestral arrangements; for instance, in Ravel’s Bolero #5 the parallel parts of flutes, horn and celesta resemble the sound of an electric organ.


title: Harmony

text: When adjacent harmonics in complex tones interfere with one another, they create the perception of what is known as "beating" or "roughness". These precepts are closely related to the perceived dissonance of chords. To interfere, partials must lie within a critical bandwidth, which is a measure of the ear's ability to separate different frequencies. Critical bandwidth lies between 2 and 3 semitones at high frequencies and becomes larger at lower frequencies. The roughest interval in the chromatic scale is the minor second and its inversion, the major seventh. For typical spectral envelopes in the central range, the second roughest interval is the major second and minor seventh, followed by the tritone, the minor third (major sixth), the major third (minor sixth) and the perfect fourth (fifth).


title: Harmony

text: Familiarity also contributes to the perceived harmony of an interval. Chords that have often been heard in musical contexts tend to sound more consonant. This principle explains the gradual historical increase in harmonic complexity of Western music. For example, around 1600 unprepared seventh chords gradually became familiar and were therefore gradually perceived as more consonant.


title: Harmony

text: Individual characteristics such as age and musical experience also have an effect on harmony perception.


title: Harmony

text: The inferior colliculus is a mid-brain structure which is the first site of binaural auditory integration, processing auditory information from the left and right ears. Frequency following responses (FFRs) recorded from the mid-brain exhibit peaks in activity which correspond to the frequency components of a tonal stimulus. The extent to which FFRs accurately represent the harmonic information of a chord is called neural salience, and this value is correlated with behavioral ratings of the perceived pleasantness of chords.


title: Harmony

text: In response to harmonic intervals, cortical activity also distinguishes chords by their consonance, responding more robustly to chords with greater consonance.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World

text: RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World is a spin-off series of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK". The series premiered on 1 February 2022. RuPaul acts as both the host and main judge, with Michelle Visage, Graham Norton and Alan Carr returning as supporting judges.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World

text: The winner of the first series of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs the World" was Blu Hydrangea, with Mo Heart as the runner-up.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World

text: On 21 December 2021, World of Wonder announced that "RuPaul's Drag Race: UK Versus the World" would premiere in February 2022, with the BBC adding that the series would coincide with the relaunch of BBC Three as a television channel. The series features nine international queens who have competed in the "Drag Race" franchise around the world. The series was filmed in March 2021, in Manchester at the same location as the third series of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK".


title: RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World

text: This series the two best performing queens of the challenge "Lip Sync for the World", with the winner of the lip sync earning a gold "RuPeter Badge" and choosing which one of the bottom queens to eliminate.


title: Gina Bellman

text: Gina Bellman (born 1966) is a New Zealand-born British actress best known for her performances as grifter Sophie Devereaux on the 2008-12 TNT television series "Leverage" and in the revival "" when the series moved to Amazon Freevee in 2021 and Jane Christie on the 2000–04 BBC hit comedy show "Coupling".


title: Gina Bellman

text: Bellman was born in Auckland, New Zealand, to Jewish parents of Russian and Polish descent who emigrated to New Zealand from England in the 1950s. Her family returned to the United Kingdom when she was 11 years old. She was educated at Rosh Pinah Primary School and JFS in London.


title: Gina Bellman

text: After making her debut in an episode of "Into the Labyrinth" in 1982, and a two-episode stint in "Grange Hill" in 1984, she became a household name for her performance in the title role in Dennis Potter's drama "Blackeyes". She is also well known for playing Jane in the sitcom


title: Gina Bellman

text: "Coupling". Her other TV roles include "Waking the Dead", "Jonathan Creek", "Little Napoleons", and one-off appearances in "Only Fools and Horses" and "Hotel Babylon".


title: Gina Bellman

text: She has also appeared in several feature films including "King David" (1985), which starred Richard Gere and Edward Woodward, "Secret Friends" (1991), "Leon the Pig Farmer" (1992), and "Silent Trigger" (1996) opposite Dolph Lundgren.


title: Gina Bellman

text: She co-starred alongside James Nesbitt in the 2007 BBC One drama serial "Jekyll", a modern-day sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", written by "Coupling" author Steven Moffat.


title: Gina Bellman

text: In 2008, she began appearing on the TNT channel's serial drama "Leverage", starring Timothy Hutton, for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in Television, but lost to fellow New Zealand alumna Lucy Lawless.


title: Gina Bellman

text: In 2013, Bellman narrated poetry for "The Love Book App", an interactive anthology of love literature developed by Allie Byrne Esiri. In late 2013, she played the role of "The Italian Woman" in the National Theatre's production of the Georg Kaiser play "From Morning to Midnight".


title: Gina Bellman

text: In 2015, Bellman appeared as Vivien Leigh in the European premiere of the Austin Pendleton play "Orson's Shadow", at the Southwark Playhouse in London.


title: Gina Bellman

text: In 2009, she had a daughter, Romy, with Zaab Sethna, whom she met just after shooting the "Leverage" pilot. She and Sethna married in 2013.


title: Model–view–viewmodel

text: Model–view–viewmodel (MVVM) is an architectural pattern in computer software that facilitates the separation of the development of the graphical user interface (GUI; the "view")—be it via a markup language or GUI code—from the development of the business logic or back-end logic (the "model") such that the view is not dependent upon any specific model platform.


title: Model–view–viewmodel

text: The "viewmodel" of MVVM is a value converter, meaning it is responsible for exposing (converting) the data objects from the model in such a way they can be easily managed and presented. In this respect, the viewmodel is more "model" than "view", and handles most (if not all) of the view's display logic. The viewmodel may implement a mediator pattern, organizing access to the back-end logic around the set of use cases supported by the view.


title: Model–view–viewmodel

text: MVVM is a variation of Martin Fowler's Presentation Model design pattern. It was invented by Microsoft architects Ken Cooper and Ted Peters specifically to simplify event-driven programming of user interfaces. The pattern was incorporated into the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (Microsoft's .NET graphics system) and Silverlight, WPF's Internet application derivative. John Gossman, a Microsoft WPF and Silverlight architect, announced MVVM on his blog in 2005.


title: Model–view–viewmodel

text: Model–view–viewmodel is also referred to as model–view–binder, especially in implementations not involving the .NET platform. ZK, a web application framework written in Java, and the JavaScript library KnockoutJS use model–view–binder.


title: Model–view–viewmodel

text: MVVM was designed to remove virtually all GUI code ("code-behind") from the view layer, by using data binding functions in WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) to better facilitate the separation of view layer development from the rest of the pattern. Instead of requiring user experience (UX) developers to write GUI code, they can use the framework markup language (e.g. XAML) and create data bindings to the view model, which is written and maintained by application developers. The separation of roles allows interactive designers to focus on UX needs rather than programming of business logic. The layers of an application can thus be developed in multiple work streams for higher productivity. Even when a single developer works on the entire code base, a proper separation of the view from the model is more productive, as the user interface typically changes frequently and late in the development cycle based on end-user feedback.


title: Model–view–viewmodel

text: The MVVM pattern attempts to gain both advantages of separation of functional development provided by MVC, while leveraging the advantages of data bindings and the framework by binding data as close to the pure application model as possible. It uses the binder, view model, and any business layers' data-checking features to validate incoming data. The result is that the model and framework drive as much of the operations as possible, eliminating or minimizing application logic which directly manipulates the view (e.g., code-behind).


title: Model–view–viewmodel

text: John Gossman has criticized the MVVM pattern and its application in specific uses, stating that MVVM can be "overkill" when creating simple user interfaces. For larger applications, he believes that generalizing the viewmodel upfront can be difficult, and that large-scale data binding can lead to lower performance.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (3 February 1478 – 17 May 1521) was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine Woodville, and nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. Thus, Edward Stafford was a first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII. He was convicted of treason and executed on 17 May 1521.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: Edward Stafford, born 3 February 1478 at Brecon Castle in Wales, was the eldest son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Catherine Woodville (the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, by Jacquetta of Luxembourg, daughter of Pierre de Luxembourg, Count of St. Pol) and was thus a nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: By his father's marriage to Catherine Woodville, Stafford had a younger brother, Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and two sisters: Elizabeth, who married Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, and Anne, who married firstly Sir Walter Herbert (d. 16 September 1507), an illegitimate son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and secondly George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: After the execution of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, his widow, Catherine Woodville, married Jasper Tudor, second son of Owen Tudor and King Henry V's widow, Catherine of Valois. After Jasper Tudor's death on 21 December 1495, Catherine Woodville married Sir Richard Wingfield (d. 22 July 1525). Catherine Woodville died 18 May 1497. After her death, Sir Richard Wingfield married Bridget Wiltshire, daughter and heiress of Sir John Wiltshire of Stone, Kent.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: In October 1483 Stafford's father was central in Buckingham's rebellion against King Richard III. He was beheaded without trial on 2 November 1483, whereby all his honours were forfeited. Stafford is said to have been hidden in various houses in Herefordshire at the time of the rebellion, and perhaps for the remainder of Richard III's reign. After Richard III's defeat at Bosworth on 22 August 1485, and King Henry VII's accession to the crown, Stafford was made a Knight of the Order of the Bath on 29 October 1485 as Duke of Buckingham, and attended Henry VII's coronation the following day, although his father's attainder was not formally reversed by Parliament until November. The young Duke's wardship and lands were granted, on 3 August 1486, along with the wardship of his younger brother, Henry Stafford, to the King's mother, Margaret Beaufort, and according to Davies it is likely Buckingham was educated in her various households.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: Buckingham was in attendance at court at the elevation of Henry VII's second son, the future King Henry VIII, as Duke of York, on 9 November 1494, and was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1495. In September 1497 he was a captain in the forces sent to quell a rebellion in Cornwall.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: As a young man, Buckingham played a conspicuous part in royal weddings and the reception of ambassadors and foreign princes, 'dazzling observers by his sartorial splendour'. At the wedding of Henry VII's eldest son and heir Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon in 1501, he is said to have worn a gown worth £1500. He was the chief challenger at the jousting tournament held the following day.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: At the accession of King Henry VIII, Buckingham was appointed on 23 June 1509, for the day of the coronation only, Lord High Constable, an office which he claimed by hereditary right. He also served as Lord High Steward at the coronation and bearer of the crown. In 1509 he was made a member of the King's Privy Council. On 9 July 1510 he had licence to crenellate his manor of Thornbury, Gloucestershire, and according to Davies rebuilt the manor house as 'an impressively towered castle' with 'huge oriel windows in the living-quarters in the inner court'.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: In 1510 Buckingham was involved in a scandal concerning his sister, Anne, who was the wife of George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon. After hearing rumours concerning her and Sir William Compton, Buckingham found Compton in Anne's room. Compton was forced to take the sacrament to prove that he and Anne had not committed adultery, and Anne's husband sent her away to a convent from the court. There is no extant evidence establishing that Anne and Sir William Compton were guilty of adultery. In 1523 Compton took the unusual step of bequeathing land to Anne in his will, and directing his executors to include her in the prayers for his kin for which he had made provision in his will. There are some suggestions that the affair continued until 1513. He returned to the King's graces, being present at the marriage of Henry's sister, served in Parliament and was present at negotiations with Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: From June to October 1513 Buckingham served as a captain during Henry VIII's invasion of France, commanding 500 men in the 'middle ward'. About 1517 he was one of 12 challengers chosen to joust against the King and his companions but excused himself on the ground that he feared to run against the King's person. He and his wife, Eleanor, attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: Although Buckingham was appointed to commissions of the peace in 1514 and charged—together with other Marcher lords—with responsibility for keeping order in south Wales, particularly along the borderland Welsh Marches, he was rebuked by the King in 1518 for failing to achieve the desired results. Buckingham exercised little direct political influence and was never a member of the King's inner circle.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: Buckingham was one of few peers with substantial Plantagenet blood and maintained numerous connections, often among his extended family, with the rest of the upper aristocracy, activities which attracted Henry's suspicion. During 1520, Buckingham became suspected of potentially treasonous actions and Henry authorised an investigation. The King personally examined witnesses against him, gathering enough evidence for a trial. The Duke was finally summoned to Court in April 1521 and arrested and placed in the Tower. He was tried before a panel of 17 peers, being accused of listening to prophecies of the King's death and intending to kill the King. Buckingham was executed on Tower Hill on 17 May 1521 and posthumously attainted by Act of Parliament on 31 July 1523, disinheriting most of his wealth from his children.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: Some conclude this was one of the few executions of high personages under Henry VIII in which the accused was "almost certainly guilty". However, Sir Thomas More complained that the key evidence was hearsay from servants who, as commoners, were threatened and tortured to extract false confessions.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: Buckingham's literary patronage included two translations, a printed translation of "Helyas, Knyghte of the Swanne" (on the Knight of the Swan), which he commissioned in 1512, and "A Lytell Cronicle", a translation of an account of the Near East which he may have commissioned in 1520 in connection with his proposed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.


title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

text: In 1488, Henry VII had suggested a marriage between Buckingham and Anne of Brittany, but in December 1489 the executors of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, paid the King £4,000 for Buckingham's marriage to Percy's eldest daughter Eleanor (d. 1530). They had a son and three daughters:


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine (AZA), sold under the brand name Imuran, among others, is an immunosuppressive medication. It is used in rheumatoid arthritis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and systemic lupus erythematosus, and in kidney transplants to prevent rejection. It is listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a group 1 carcinogen (carcinogenic to humans). It is taken by mouth or injected into a vein.


title: Azathioprine

text: Common side effects include bone-marrow suppression and vomiting. Bone-marrow suppression is especially common in people with a genetic deficiency of the enzyme thiopurine S-methyltransferase. Other serious risk factors include an increased risk of certain cancers. Use during pregnancy may result in harm to the baby. Azathioprine is in the purine analogue and antimetabolite family of medications. It works via 6-thioguanine to disrupt the making of RNA and DNA by cells.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine was first made in 1957. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. In 2018, it was the 358th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 800thousand prescriptions.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is used alone or in combination with other immunosuppressive therapy to prevent rejection following organ transplantation, and to treat an array of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, pemphigus, systemic lupus erythematosus, Behçet's disease, and other forms of vasculitis, autoimmune hepatitis, atopic dermatitis, myasthenia gravis, neuromyelitis optica (Devic's disease), restrictive lung disease, and others. It is also an important therapy and steroid-sparing agent for inflammatory bowel disease (such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis) and for multiple sclerosis.


title: Azathioprine

text: In the United States, it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in kidney transplantation from human donors, and for rheumatoid arthritis.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is used to prevent rejections of kidney or liver allografts, usually in conjunction with other therapies including corticosteroids, other immunosuppressants, and local radiation therapy. The administration protocol starts either at the time of transplantation or within the following two days.


title: Azathioprine

text: Being a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD), azathioprine has been used for the management of the signs and symptoms of adult rheumatoid arthritis. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and corticosteroids may be combined or continued (if they were already in use) with azathioprine, but the combination with other DMARDs is not recommended.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine has been used in the management of moderate to severe chronically active Crohn's disease, to maintain clinical remission (absence of disease activity) in corticosteroid-dependent patients, and to provide benefit in people with fistulizing Crohn's disease. The onset of action is slow, and it may require several months to achieve clinical response.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine treatment is associated with an increased risk of lymphoma, but if this is due to the drug or a predisposition related to Crohn's disease is unclear. Lower doses of azathioprine are used as a therapy in children with refractory or corticosteroid-dependent Crohn's disease, without causing many side effects. It may also be used to prevent flares in those with ulcerative colitis.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is sometimes used in systemic lupus erythematosus, requiring a maintenance dose of 15 mg or higher of prednisone in those who experience recurrent flares.


title: Azathioprine

text: It is used as an add-on therapy when steroid therapy is given by mouth for pemphigus and myasthenia gravis, as a "steroid-sparing" agent. Azathioprine is also used to maintain remission in people who have granulomatosis with polyangiitis.


title: Azathioprine

text: It can be very effective in eczema and atopic dermatitis, though it is not commonly used. The British National Eczema Society lists it as a third-line treatment for severe to moderate cases of these skin diseases.


title: Azathioprine

text: It was widely used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis until the first half of the 1990s. Concerns about increased risk of malignancy has led to a decreased use, yet it is still used in maintenance treatment for people who frequently relapse. A 2007 Cochrane review found that azathioprine reduced the number of relapses in the first year of treatment and disease progression in the first two to three years and did not find an increase in cancer, and noted the need for direct comparison of azathioprine and interferon beta, conflicting conclusions regarding cancer, and the potential for long-term risks.


title: Azathioprine

text: A widely used therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was azathioprine in combination with prednisone and "N"-acetylcysteine. A 2012 study showed that outcomes were worse with this combination than with placebo.


title: Azathioprine

text: Nausea and vomiting are common adverse effects, especially at the beginning of a treatment. Such cases are met with taking azathioprine after meals or transient intravenous administration. Side effects that are probably hypersensitivity reactions include dizziness, diarrhea, fatigue, and rashes. Hair loss is often seen in transplant patients receiving the drug, but rarely occurs under other indications. Because azathioprine suppresses the bone marrow, patients can develop anaemia and be more susceptible to infection; regular monitoring of the blood count is recommended during treatment. Acute pancreatitis can also occur, especially in patients with Crohn's disease. Treatment is discontinued in up to 30% of patients due these effects but therapeutic drug monitoring of the biologically active metabolites, "i.e." thiopurine nucleotides can help to optimize the efficacy and safety. Clinically, most hospitals resort to on-exchange LC-MS (liquid chromotography - mass spectrometry) but the newly developed approach of porous graphitic carbon based chromatography hyphenated with mass spectrometry appears superior with respect to patient care in this respect.


title: Azathioprine

text: Under FDA rules, like many other immunosuppressants, the use of this drug excludes eligibility for blood donation.


title: Azathioprine

text: It is listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a group 1 carcinogen (carcinogenic to humans).


title: Azathioprine

text: The enzyme thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) is responsible for various activation and deactivation steps in azathioprine's mechanism of action. The first metabolic step that azathioprine undergoes in the body is the conversion to 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP; see Pharmacokinetics), which is itself an immunosuppressant prodrug. The TPMT enzyme is responsible, in part, for the methylation of 6-MP into the inactive metabolite 6-methylmercaptopurine - this methylation prevents 6-MP from further conversion into active, cytotoxic thioguanine nucleotide (TGN) metabolites. Certain genetic variations within the TPMT gene can lead to decreased or absent TPMT enzyme activity, and individuals who are homozygous or heterozygous for these types of genetic variations may have increased levels of TGN metabolites and an increased risk of severe bone marrow suppression (myelosuppression) when receiving azathioprine. In many ethnicities, "TPMT" polymorphisms that result in decreased or absent TPMT activity occur with a frequency of approximately 5%, meaning that about 0.25% of patients are homozygous for these variants. However, an assay of TPMT activity in red blood cells or a TPMT genetic test can identify patients with reduced TPMT activity, allowing for the adjustment of azathioprine dose or avoidance of the drug entirely. The FDA-approved drug label for azathioprine recommends testing for TPMT activity to identify patients at risk for myelotoxicity. Indeed, testing for TPMT activity is one of the few examples of pharmacogenetics being translated into routine clinical care. Missense SNP in NUDT15 (e.g., rs116855232, inducing R139C)) has been identified to be a causal factor for AZA-induced leukopenia through a genome wide association study (GWAS) in East Asians.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is listed as a human carcinogen in the 12th Report on Carcinogens by the National Toxicology Program of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, asserting that it is "known to be a human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in humans." Since August 2009, the U.S. FDA has required warnings to be placed on packaging with respect to increased risks of certain cancers.


title: Azathioprine

text: The risks involved seem to be related both to the duration and the dosage used. People who have previously been treated with an alkylating agent may have an excessive risk of cancers if treated with azathioprine. Epidemiological studies by International Agency for Research on Cancer have provided "sufficient" evidence of azathioprine carcinogenicity in humans (group 1), although the methodology of past studies and the possible underlying mechanisms are questioned.


title: Azathioprine

text: The various diseases requiring transplantation may in themselves increase the risks of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, squamous cell carcinomas of the skin, hepatobiliary carcinomas, and mesenchymal tumours to which azathioprine may add additional risks. Those receiving azathioprine for rheumatoid arthritis may have a lower risk than those undergoing transplantation.


title: Azathioprine

text: Cases of hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma – a rare type of lymphoma – have been reported in patients treated with azathioprine. The majority occurred in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Adolescents and young adult males were the majority of cases. They presented with a very aggressive disease course, and with one exception, died of the lymphoma. The FDA has required changes to the labeling to inform users and clinicians of the issue.


title: Azathioprine

text: In transplant patients, skin cancer is 50 to 250 times more common than in the general population, and between 60 and 90% of patients are affected 20 years after transplantation. The use of immunosuppressive medication including azathioprine in organ transplantation has been linked to increased rates of developing skin cancer. Azathioprine causes the accumulation of 6-thioguanine (6-TG) in patients' DNA, which might trigger cancer when the patient is later exposed to ultraviolet light. Patients taking azathioprine were found to be abnormally sensitive to UVA light.


title: Azathioprine

text: Large single doses are generally well tolerated; a patient who took 7.5 g azathioprine (150 tablets) at once showed no relevant symptoms apart from vomiting, slightly decreased white blood cell count, and marginal changes in liver function parameters. Main symptoms of long-term overdosing are infections of unclear origin, mouth ulcers, and spontaneous bleeding, all of which are consequences of its bone-marrow suppression.


title: Azathioprine

text: Other purine analogues, such as allopurinol, inhibit xanthine oxidase, the enzyme that breaks down azathioprine, thus increasing the toxicity of azathioprine. Low doses of allopurinol, though, have been shown to safely enhance the efficacy of azathioprine, especially in inflammatory bowel disease nonresponders. This may still lead to lower lymphocyte counts and higher rates of infection, therefore the combination requires careful monitoring.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine decreases the effects of the anticoagulant warfarin and of nondepolarizing muscle relaxants, but increases the effect of depolarizing muscle relaxants. It can also interfere with niacin (vitamin B), resulting in at least one case to pellagra and fatal medullary aplasia.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine can cause birth defects. A 2003 population-based study in Denmark showed that the use of azathioprine and related mercaptopurine resulted in a seven-fold incidence of fetal abnormalities, as well as a 20-fold increase in miscarriage. Birth defects in a child whose father was taking azathioprine have also been reported. Although no adequate and well-controlled studies have taken place in humans, when given to animals in doses equivalent to human dosages, teratogenesis was observed. Transplant patients already on this drug should not discontinue on becoming pregnant. This contrasts with the later-developed drugs tacrolimus and mycophenolate, which are contraindicated during pregnancy.


title: Azathioprine

text: Traditionally, as for all cytotoxic drugs, the manufacturer advises not to breastfeed whilst taking azathioprine, but the "lactation risk category" reported by Thomas Hale in his book "Medications and Mothers' Milk" lists azathioprine as "L3", termed "moderately safe".


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is absorbed from the gut to about 88%. Bioavailability varies greatly between individual patients, between 30 and 90%, because the drug is partly inactivated in the liver. Highest blood plasma concentrations, counting not only the drug itself, but also its metabolites, are reached after 1–2 hours, and the average plasma half-life is 26 to 80 minutes for azathioprine and 3–5 hours for drug plus metabolites. 20 to 30% are bound to plasma proteins while circulating in the bloodstream.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is a prodrug, a substance that is not an active drug itself, but is activated in the body. This happens in several steps; at first, it is slowly and almost completely converted to 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) by reductive cleavage of the thioether (–S–). This is mediated by glutathione and similar compounds in the intestinal wall, the liver, and on red blood cells, without the aid of enzymes. 6-MP is metabolized analogously to natural purines, giving thioguanosine triphosphate (TGTP) and thiodeoxyguanosine triphosphate (TdGTP) via thioinosine monophosphate (TIMP) and several further intermediates. On a second path, the sulfur atom of 6-MP and TIMP is methylated. The end products of azathioprine metabolism are thiouric acid (38%) and various methylated and hydroxylated purines, which are excreted via the urine.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine inhibits purine synthesis. Purines are needed to produce DNA and RNA. By inhibiting purine synthesis, less DNA and RNA are produced for the synthesis of white blood cells, thus causing immunosuppression.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is converted within tissues to 6-MP, some of which is converted, in turn, to 6-thioguanine by the addition of an amino group. Both 6-MP and 6-thioguanine are conjugated with ribose, and then phosphorylated to form the nucleotides thioinosinic acid and thioguanylic acid, respectively. These nucleotides masquerade, respectively, as inosinic acid and guanylic acid; the former is the starting point for purine nucleotide biosynthesis, while the latter is one of the building blocks of DNA and RNA.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is a thiopurine linked to a second heterocycle (an imidazole derivative) via a thioether. It is a pale yellow solid with a slightly bitter taste and a melting point of 238–245 °C. It is practically insoluble in water and only slightly soluble in lipophilic solvents such as chloroform, ethanol, and diethylether. It dissolves in alkaline aqueous solutions, where it hydrolyzes to 6-mercaptopurine.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine is synthesized from 5-chloro-1-methyl-4-nitro-1"H"-imidazole and 6-mercaptopurine in dimethyl sulfoxide. The synthesis of the former starts with an amide from methylamine and diethyl oxalate, which is then cyclized and chlorinated with phosphorus pentachloride; the nitro group is introduced with nitric and sulfuric acid.


title: Azathioprine

text: Azathioprine was synthesized by George Herbert Hitchings and Gertrude Elion in 1957 (named BW 57-322) to produce 6-MP in a metabolically active, but masked form, and at first used as a chemotherapy drug.


title: Azathioprine

text: Robert Schwartz investigated the effect of 6-MP on the immune response in 1958 and discovered that it profoundly suppresses the formation of antibodies when given to rabbits together with antigens. Following the work done by Sir Peter Medawar and Gertrude Elion in discovering the immunological basis of rejection of transplanted tissues and organs, and Schwartz's researches on 6-MP, Sir Roy Calne, the British pioneer in transplantation, introduced 6-MP as an experimental immunosuppressant for kidney and heart transplants. When Calne asked Elion for related compounds to investigate, she suggested azathioprine, which was subsequently found out to be superior (as effective and less toxic to the bone marrow) by Calne.


title: Azathioprine

text: On 5 April 1962, with regimens consisting of azathioprine and prednisone, the transplantation of kidneys to unrelated recipients (allotransplantation) was successful for the first time. For many years, this kind of dual therapy with azathioprine and glucocorticoids was the standard antirejection regimen, until ciclosporin was introduced into clinical practice (by Calne as well) in 1978.


title: Azathioprine

text: Ciclosporin has now replaced some of the azathioprine use due to a longer survival time, especially in heart-related transplantations. Moreover, despite being considerably more expensive, mycophenolate mofetil is also increasingly being used in place of azathioprine in organ transplantation, as it is associated with less bone marrow suppression, fewer opportunistic infections, and a lower incidence of acute rejection.


title: General Dynamics Griffin

text: The General Dynamics Griffin is a series of armored fighting vehicles under development by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) for the United States Army. The Griffin is a derivative of ASCOD family of AFVs, which was also designed by GDLS.


title: General Dynamics Griffin

text: At AUSA 2016 annual meeting, General Dynamics unveiled 120mm Griffin Technology Demonstrator (TD) as a "conversation starter" for the US Army Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program. MPF is a light tracked vehicle intended to provide support of large caliber direct fire for Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The chassis of Griffin I shown at AUSA is from British Scout SV program (now called Ajax), but it only has six road wheels. The welded aluminum turret is armed with 120mm XM360 lightweight gun which was developed by the Army Research, Development and Engineering Center. The XM360 gun was developed as part of the canceled Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.


title: General Dynamics Griffin

text: Griffin II is offered under Army's Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF). In accordance with the program's caliber requirements, it incorporated a 105mm caliber M35 gun and a redesigned chassis. The M35 was originally designed and developed by Benét Laboratories, Watervliet Arsenal in 1983 for the Marine Corps' Mobile Protected Gun Program. It was later incorporated in the Army's M8 Armored Gun System light tank, which was canceled in 1996. The M35 is about lighter than the M68 used on the M60 tank.


title: General Dynamics Griffin

text: In December 2018, GDLS was downselected, along with BAE Systems, to develop prototypes. GDLS presented its first prototype in April 2020. BAE's M8 AGS proposal was disqualified in March 2022.


title: General Dynamics Griffin

text: In June 2022, GDLS won Mobile Protected Firepower program competition and was awarded a contract worth up to $1.14 billion.


title: General Dynamics Griffin

text: Griffin III was first unveiled at the Association of the United States Army's 2018 Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama. It was being offered under Army's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program with six fully equipped infantry carrying option in the back. This version, while similar in weight to Griffin II, scaled down the main gun from 105mm caliber to the 50 mm XM913 gun system. It is equipped with the IMI Systems’ Iron Fist Active Protection System (APS) and AeroVironment’s Switchblade loitering munition system.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The Volkswagen Passat (B6 & B7) is a front-engine D-segment large family car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen from 2005 to 2010 (B6) and from 2010 to 2015 (B7, facelift). Respectively the six and seventh generation Passat, and internally designated "B6" and "B7", they were marketed in sedan and wagon bodystyles in front-wheel as well as all-wheel drive configurations, with a range of petrol and diesel engines.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The B6 debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2005, and launched in Europe in the summer of 2005, using a long-wheelbase version of the fifth-generation Golf and Jetta, along with a transverse engine layout. B6 Passats were marketed globally, and superseded in North America by a model exclusively manufactured at Volkswagen's Chattanooga Assembly Plant. VW debuted the B7 facelift at the Paris Motor Show in September 2010 and continued to market B7 models globally outside North America.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: Notable variations included the Passat CC, a sedan variant with revised styling, along with the "R36" variant, featuring the VR6 engine. The all-wheel drive version, marketed as 4motion, uses a Haldex Traction multi-plate clutch. A B7 all wheel drive wagon was marketed as the "Alltrack" and sedan and wagons were also marketed in China.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: At the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2007, Volkswagen launched the 'R line' R36, created by Volkswagen Individual GmbH.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The R36 uses a 3.6 litre VR6 engine rated and of torque, which pushes the saloon and Variant (estate/wagon) to in 5.6 and 5.8 seconds respectively. The name "R36" is derived from the engine displacement, 3.6-litres.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The R36 features redesigned front and rear spoilers, 4 wheel drive, DSG gearbox with paddleshift on the flat-bottom steering wheel, 18" Omanyt aluminium alloy wheels, lowered suspension, 'R' engraved stainless steel pedals, Recaro seats with R36 logo, heated front and rear seats, Bi-Xenon headlights with cornering function, and twin rear muffler tailpipes.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The CC ("Comfort Coupé") is a 4-door "coupé" version of the Passat. It debuted at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Originally aimed at competing with the similarly styled Mercedes CLS, the Passat CC intends to be more stylish and luxurious than the previously released Passat B6. In the U.S., the name "Passat" was dropped, and the car is being sold as "CC". Some options specific to the CC include hands-free parking, lane-departure prevention, intelligent cruise control, and adaptive suspension. Engines offered in the CC mirror those of the regular Passat, with options of the base 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, or the optional 3.6-liter V-6, which includes 4-motion all wheel drive. Although the CC is marketed as a more luxurious Passat B6, it comes in with a lower price tag. While the MSRP of a Passat B6 is $29,300, the CC comes with a base price of $27,100.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The Chinese-made CC was released by FAW-VW on July 15, 2010. Two engine options are provided: 1.8T and 2.0T.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: In October 2010, the Passat Alltrack debuted at the 2010 Tokyo Motor Show, straddling the company's passenger and UV ranges.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The Passat Alltrack has raised ground clearance from 135 to 165 mm which improves approach angle from 13.5 to 16 degrees, departure angle from 11.9 to 13.6 degrees and ramp angle from 9.5 to 12.8 degrees when compared to the standard Passat wagon.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: Passat Alltrack is the only VW in the passenger range to offer 4Motion with off-road driving programme, the off-road system works in conjunction with the ABS, electronic differential lock (EDL), DSG & hill descent assist system to control the vehicle in an off-road expedition.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The engine range of the Passat Alltrack consists of two 2.0 L TDI with outputs of 103 kW/140 hp & 125 kW/170 hp and two petrol engines, 1.8 L producing 118 kW/160 hp and 2.0 L TSI producing 155 kW/207 hp. The TDI models come standard with BlueMotion Technology packages with Stop/Start system and battery regeneration mode for recovering braking energy. The two lesser powered engine variants 2.0 L TDI and 1.8 L TSI are only available in front wheel drive format with a manual 6 speed transmission. The rest of the range with 4Motion has a 6 speed DSG automated manual transmission, except the 2.0 L TDI with 103 kW/140 hp has an option of 6 speed manual.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: In 2012 at the New York Auto Show, VW showed a Passat Alltrack with 2.0 L TDI 125 kW/170 hp under Alltrack Concept nameplate to gauge response for a future market in the offroad wagon segment.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The B6 Passat was facelifted by Klaus Bischoff and Walter de Silva, and was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in September 2010 for the 2011 model year. The B7 facelift revised all external body panels (except roof and glasshouse) and revised grille and headlights. Overall height and width dimensions remained unchanged, while length increased by 4 mm. New features included a fatigue detection system and an automatic "city emergency braking" system. It arrived at dealerships in December 2010. Interiors featured minor detail changes.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: In China, the PQ46 Passat was released by FAW-Volkswagen (Volkswagen Group China subsidiary FAW-Volkswagen (FAW-VW) as the Magotan since July 2007, after Volkswagen's other joint venture in China, Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive (SVW), had decided to use the B5 platform for the Passat and the Passat Lingyu (long-wheelbase Passat). Since August 2010 the wagon version of Passat B6 will be offered in China, which is a fully imported model. But this car is simply called Volkswagen Variant in China, in order not to refer the name "Passat" or "Magotan".


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: On December 21, 2010 an agreement to assemble Volkswagen vehicles in Malaysia was signed between DRB-Hicom and Volkswagen AG, which followed the MOU signed by both parties in August of that year aimed at investigating the possibility of local vehicle production. The first locally assembled VW model to be rolled out from DRB-Hicom's Pekan plant in Pahang state, Malaysia, was the Volkswagen Passat in 2012.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: Fuel Stratified Injection is used in nearly every petrol engined version of the Passat, ranging from 1.6 to 3.6 litres (the 1.6-litre DOHC can reach in 11.5 seconds, and for manual transmission versions), and the multi-valve 2.0-litre Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) I4 diesel is available in both and variants. In the U.S. market, a 2.0-litre turbocharged I4 was offered along with the 3.6-litre VR6 engine, with six-speed manual (only available on the base 2.0 T model) and automatic transmissions. As of the 2009 model year, the VR6 engine and 4motion option were discontinued on US Passats.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: In February 2008, the 2.0 FSI was replaced with the new Audi-developed 1.8 TSI engine and 6-speed automatic transmission. The 1.8 TSI is rated at , and reaches 0– in 8.6 seconds, reaching a top speed of . This engine is part of the wider Volkswagen Group policy for engine sharing.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: As at August 2008, the cars were advertised in the UK as Euro 4 emission class. By July 2009, this had changed to Euro 5 class. This coincides with the introduction of the EA189 engine family at the centre of the VW emissions violation situation that became public in September 2015.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The Passat B7 range features several petrol and diesel engines, all to Euro 5 standards. All diesel engines feature BlueMotion Technology and Diesel Particulate Filter as standard.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The BlueTDI engine is fitted with a Selective Catalytic Reduction system which makes it ready for Euro 6 standards.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: It is a concept vehicle capable of using natural gas or conventional petrol fuel. It includes a 1.4-litre TSI 150 PS engine featuring both a supercharger and a turbocharger operating sequentially, 22 kg capacity natural gas tank mounted beneath the boot floor and 31-litre petrol tank.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: Production version went on sale at the end of 2008 in mainland Europe, for saloon and estate versions of the Passat.


title: Volkswagen Passat (B6)

text: The Passat Estate won the overall winner of Practical Caravans "Towcar of the Year Awards 2008" for its array of towing features such as its Trailer Stability Programme.


title: KVM switch

text: A KVM switch (with KVM being an abbreviation for "keyboard, video, and mouse") is a hardware device that allows a user to control multiple computers from one or more sets of keyboards, video monitors, and mice.


title: KVM switch

text: The earliest name was Keyboard Video Switch (KVS). With the advent of the mouse, the Keyboard, Video and Mouse (KVM) switch became popular. The name was introduced by Remigius Shatas, the founder of Cybex, a peripheral switch manufacturer, in 1995. Some companies call their switches Keyboard, Video, Mouse and Peripheral (KVMP).


title: KVM switch

text: With the popularity of USB—USB keyboards, mice, and I/O devices are still the most common devices connected to a KVM switch. The classes of KVM switches that are reviewed, are based on different types of core technologies in terms of how the KVM switch handles USB I/O devices—including keyboards, mice, touchscreen displays, etc. (USB-HID = USB Human Interface Device)


title: KVM switch

text: A KVM Switch is a hardware device, used in data centers, that allows the control of multiple computers from a single keyboard, monitor and mouse (KVM). This switch then allows data center personnel to connect to any server in the rack. A common example of home use is to enable the use of the full-size keyboard, mouse and monitor of the home PC with a portable device such as a laptop, tablet PC or PDA, or a computer using a different operating system.


title: KVM switch

text: KVM switches offer different methods of connecting the computers. Depending on the product, the switch may present native connectors on the device where standard keyboard, monitor and mouse cables can be attached. Another method to have a single DB25 or similar connector that aggregated connections at the switch with three independent keyboard, monitor and mouse cables to the computers. Subsequently, these were replaced by a special KVM cable which combined the keyboard, video and mouse cables in a single wrapped extension cable. The advantage of the last approach is in the reduction of the number of cables between the KVM switch and connected computers. The disadvantage is the cost of these cables.


title: KVM switch

text: The method of switching from one computer to another depends on the switch. The original peripheral switches (Rose, circa 1988) used a rotary switch while active electronic switches (Cybex, circa 1990) used push buttons on the KVM device. In both cases, the KVM aligns operation between different computers and the users' keyboard, monitor and mouse (user console).


title: KVM switch

text: In 1992–1993, Cybex Corporation engineered keyboard hot-key commands. Today, most KVMs are controlled through non-invasive hot-key commands (e.g. Ctrl+Ctrl, Scroll Lock+Scroll Lock and the Print Screen keys). Hot-key switching is often complemented with an on-screen display system that displays a list of connected computers.


title: KVM switch

text: KVM switches differ in the number of computers that can be connected. Traditional switching configurations range from 2 to 64 possible computers attached to a single device. Enterprise-grade devices interconnected via daisy-chained and/or cascaded methods can support a total of 512 computers equally accessed by any given user console.


title: KVM switch

text: While HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI switches have been manufactured, VGA is still the most common video connector found with KVM switches, although many switches are now compatible with DVI connectors. Analogue switches can be built with varying capacities for video bandwidth, affecting the unit's overall cost and quality. A typical consumer-grade switch provides up to 200 MHz bandwidth, allowing for high-definition resolutions at 60 Hz.


title: KVM switch

text: For analog video, resolution and refresh rate are the primary factors in determining the amount of bandwidth needed for the signal. The method of converting these factors into bandwidth requirements is a point of ambiguity, in part because it is dependent on the analogue nature and state of the hardware. The same piece of equipment may require more bandwidth as it ages due to increased degradation of the source signal. Most conversion formulas attempt to approximate the amount of bandwidth needed, including a margin of safety. As a rule of thumb, switch circuitry should provide up to three times the bandwidth required by the original signal specification, as this allows most instances of signal loss to be contained outside the range of the signal that is pertinent to picture quality.


title: KVM switch

text: As CRT-based displays are dependent on refresh rate to prevent flickering, they generally require more bandwidth than comparable flat panel displays.


title: KVM switch

text: A monitor uses DDC and EDID, transmitted through specific pins, to identify itself to the system. KVM switches may have different ways of handling these data transmissions:


title: KVM switch

text: Microsoft guidelines recommend that KVM switches pass unaltered any IC traffic between the monitor and the PC hosts, and do not generate HPD events upon switching to a different port while maintaining stable non-noise signal on inactive ports.


title: KVM switch

text: KVM switches were originally passive, mechanical devices based on multi-pole switches and some of the cheapest devices on the market still use this technology. Mechanical switches usually have a rotary knob to select between computers. KVMs typically allow sharing of two or four computers, with a practical limit of about twelve machines imposed by limitations on available switch configurations. Modern hardware designs use active electronics rather than physical switch contacts with the potential to control many computers on a common system backbone.


title: KVM switch

text: One limitation of mechanical KVM switches is that any computer not currently selected by the KVM switch does not 'see' a keyboard or mouse connected to it. In normal operation this is not a problem, but while the machine is booting up it will attempt to detect its keyboard and mouse and either fail to boot or boot with an unwanted (e.g. mouseless) configuration. Likewise, a failure to detect the monitor may result in the computer falling back to a low resolution such as (typically) 640x480. Thus, mechanical KVM switches may be unsuitable for controlling machines which can reboot automatically (e.g. after a power failure).


title: KVM switch

text: Another problem encountered with mechanical devices is the failure of one or more switch contacts to make firm, low resistance electrical connections, often necessitating some wiggling or adjustment of the knob to correct patchy colors on screen or unreliable peripheral response. Gold-plated contacts improve that aspect of switch performance, but add cost to the device.


title: KVM switch

text: Most active (electronic rather than mechanical) KVM devices provide peripheral emulation, sending signals to the computers that are not currently selected to simulate a keyboard, mouse and monitor being connected. These are used to control machines which may reboot in unattended operation. Peripheral emulation services embedded in the hardware also provides continuous support where computers require constant communication with the peripherals.


title: KVM switch

text: Some types of active KVM switches do not emit signals that exactly match the physical keyboard, monitor, and mouse, which can result in unwanted behavior of the controlled machines. For example, the user of a multimedia keyboard connected to a KVM switch may find that the keyboard's multimedia keys have no effect on the controlled computers.


title: KVM switch

text: There are software alternatives to some of the functionality of a hardware KVM switch, such as Multiplicity, Synergy, and Barrier, which does the switching in software and forwards input over standard network connections. This has the advantage of reducing the number of wires needed. Screen-edge switching allows the mouse to function over both monitors of two computers.


title: KVM switch

text: Local remote KVM device design allows users to control computer equipment up to away from the user consoles (keyboard, monitor and mouse). They always need direct cable connection from the computer to the KVM switch to the console and include support for standard category 5 cabling between computers and users interconnected by the switch device. In contrast, USB powered KVM devices are able to control computer equipment using a combination of USB, keyboard, mouse and monitor cables of up to .


title: KVM switch

text: KVM switch over IP devices use a dedicated micro-controller and potentially specialized video capture hardware to capture the video, keyboard, and mouse signals, compress and convert them into packets, and send them over an Ethernet link to a remote console application that unpacks and reconstitutes the dynamic graphical image. KVM over IP subsystem is typically connected to a system's standby power plane so that it's available during the entire BIOS boot process.


title: KVM switch

text: These devices allow multiple computers to be controlled locally or globally with the use of an IP connection. There are performance issues related with LAN/WAN hardware, standard protocols and network latency so user management is commonly referred to as "near real time".


title: KVM switch

text: Access to most remote or "KVM" over IP devices today use a web browser, although many of the stand-alone viewer software applications provided by many manufacturers are also reliant on ActiveX or Java.


title: KVM switch

text: Some KVM chipsets or manufacturers require the "whitelisting" or authority to connect to be implicitly enabled. Without the whitelist addition, the device will not work. This is by design and required to connect non-standard USB devices to KVMs. This is completed by noting the device's ID (usually copied from the Device manager in Windows), or documentation from the manufacturer of the USB device.


title: KVM switch

text: Generally all HID or consumer grade USB peripherals are exempt, but more exotic devices like tablets, or digitisers or USB toggles require manual addition to the white list table of the KVM.


title: KVM switch

text: In comparison to conventional methods of remote administration (for example in-band Virtual Network Computing or Terminal Services), a KVM switch has the advantage that it doesn't depend on a software component running on the remote computer, thus allowing remote interaction with base level BIOS settings and monitoring of the entire booting process before, during, and after the operating system loads. Modern KVM over IP appliances or switches typically use at least 128-bit data encryption securing the KVM configuration over a WAN or LAN (using SSL).


title: KVM switch

text: KVM over IP devices can be implemented in different ways. With regards to video, PCI KVM over IP cards use a form of screen scraping where the PCI bus master KVM over IP card would access and copy out the screen directly from the graphics memory buffer, and as a result it must know which graphics chip it is working with, and what graphics mode this chip is currently in so that the contents of the buffer can be interpreted correctly as picture data. Newer techniques in OPMA management subsystem cards and other implementations get the video data directly using the DVI bus. Implementations can emulate either PS/2 or USB based keyboards and mice. An embedded VNC server is typically used for the video protocol in IPMI and Intel AMT implementations.


title: KVM switch

text: KVM switches are called KVM sharing devices because two or more computers can share a single set of KVM peripherals. Computer sharing devices function in reverse compared to KVM switches; that is, a single PC can be shared by multiple monitors, keyboards, and mice. A computer sharing device is sometimes referred to as a KVM Splitter or reverse KVM switch. While not as common, this configuration is useful when the operator wants to access a single computer from two or more (usually close) locations - for example, a public kiosk machine that also has a staff maintenance interface behind the counter, or a home office computer that doubles as a home theater PC.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Diverticulosis is the condition of having multiple pouches (diverticula) in the colon that are not inflamed. These are outpockets of the colonic mucosa and submucosa through weaknesses of muscle layers in the colon wall. Diverticula do not cause symptoms in most people.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Diverticular disease occurs when diverticula become clinically inflamed, a condition known as diverticulitis.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Diverticula typically occur in the sigmoid colon, which is commonplace for increased pressure. The left side of the colon is more commonly affected in the United States while the right side is more commonly affected in Asia. Diagnosis is often during routine colonoscopy or as an incidental finding during CT scan.


title: Diverticulosis

text: It is common in Western countries with about half of those over the age of 60 affected in Canada and the United States. Diverticula are uncommon before the age of 40, and increase in incidence beyond that age. Rates are lower in Africa; the reasons for this remain unclear but may involve the greater prevalence of a high fiber diet in contrast with the lower-fiber diet characteristic of many Western populations.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Some people with diverticulosis complain of symptoms such as cramping, bloating, flatulence, and irregular defecation. However, it is unclear if these symptoms are attributable to the underlying diverticulosis or to coexistent irritable bowel syndrome.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Diverticular disease can present with painless rectal bleeding as bright red blood per rectum. Diverticular bleeding is the most common cause of acute lower gastrointestinal bleeding. However, it is estimated that 80% of these cases are self-limiting and require no specific therapy.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Infection of a diverticulum can result in diverticulitis. A recent study found that it happens only about 4% of the time. That contradicts the prevailing thinking that 10% to 25% of people with diverticulosis go on to develop diverticulitis. Tears in the colon leading to bleeding or perforations may occur; intestinal obstruction may occur (constipation or diarrhea does not rule this possibility out); and peritonitis, abscess formation, retroperitoneal fibrosis, sepsis, and fistula formation are also possible occurrences. Rarely, an enterolith may form. Infection of a diverticulum often occurs as a result of stool collecting in a diverticulum.


title: Diverticulosis

text: It is defined as diverticular disease with signs and symptoms of diverticular inflammation. Clinical features of acute diverticulitis include constant abdominal pain, localized abdominal tenderness in the left lower quadrant of the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, constipation or diarrhea, fever and leukocytosis.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Most people with colonic diverticulosis are unaware of this structural change. When symptoms do appear in a person over 40 years of age it is important to obtain medical advice and exclude more dangerous conditions such as cancer of the colon or rectum.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Segmental colitis associated with diverticulosis (SCAD) is a condition characterized by localized inflammation of the colon between diverticula (interdiverticular mucosa) while sparing the diverticular orifices. SCAD may lead to abdominal pain, especially in the left lower quadrant, intermittent rectal bleeding, and chronic diarrhea.


title: Diverticulosis

text: The U.S. National Institutes of Health notes that, although the low-fiber theory of the cause of diverticulosis is the leading theory, it has not yet been proven.


title: Diverticulosis

text: The predisposition to diverticulosis for specific individuals is likely explained by a genetic component, a theory that is supported by studies examining the rates of diverticulosis among twins. The heritability of diverticulosis is estimated to be approximately 40%.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Another theory suggests the degeneration of glial neurons in the myenteric plexus and the interstitial cells of Cajal lead to slowed intestinal movement and consequently fecal content exerts increased pressure on the colon wall resulting in the formation of diverticula.


title: Diverticulosis

text: The precise mechanisms by which diverticula are formed are unknown. Multiple theories have been proposed including genetic susceptibility, diet, intestinal motility, changes in the microbiome, and inflammation. One leading theory suggests that diverticula form in weakened areas of the colon wall that are subjected to increased pressure. The strength of the colon wall is known to decrease with age. Previous theories proposed that impacted fecal matter and certain foods would get stuck in diverticula (thereby causing trauma), which caused poor blood flow, death of the affected intestinal wall cells, and intestinal perforation. Newer theories have called this paradigm into question.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Diverticulosis is defined by the presence of multiple pouches (diverticula) in the colon. In people without symptoms, these are usually found incidentally during other investigations.


title: Diverticulosis

text: While a good history is often sufficient to form a diagnosis of diverticulosis or diverticulitis, it is important to confirm the diagnosis and rule out other pathology (notably colorectal cancer) and complications.


title: Diverticulosis

text: It is important to note that both barium enema and colonoscopy are contraindicated during acute episodes of diverticulitis, as the barium may leak out into the abdominal cavity, and colonoscopy can cause perforations of the bowel wall.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Many people with diverticulosis have minimal to no symptoms and do not require any specific treatment. Colonic stimulants should be avoided. Treatments, like some colon cleansers, that cause hard stools, constipation, and straining, are not recommended.


title: Diverticulosis

text: A high-fiber diet and fiber supplements are advisable to prevent constipation. The American Dietetic Association recommends 20–35 grams each day. Wheat bran has been shown to reduce intra colonic pressure.


title: Diverticulosis

text: The US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) says foods such as nuts, popcorn hulls, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, caraway seeds, and sesame seeds have traditionally been labeled as problem foods for people with this condition; however, no scientific data exists to prove this hypothesis. The seeds in tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries, and poppy seeds, are not considered harmful by the NIDDK.


title: Diverticulosis

text: One study found that nuts and popcorn do not contribute positively or negatively to patients with diverticulosis or diverticular complications.


title: Diverticulosis

text: Complicated diverticulosis requires treatment of the complication. These complications are often grouped under a single diagnosis of diverticulitis and require skilled medical care of the infection, bleeding and perforation which may include intensive antibiotic treatment, intravenous fluids, and surgery. Complications are more common in patients who are taking NSAIDs or aspirin. As diverticulosis occurs in an older population such complications are serious events.


title: Diverticulosis

text: The prevalence of diverticulosis progressively increases with age. Approximately 50% of people over the age of 60 and 70% of people over the age of 80 have diverticulosis. This disease is common in the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, and is uncommon in Asia and Africa. Large-mouth diverticula are associated with scleroderma. Diverticular disease is more common in collagen disorders such as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.


title: Diverticulosis

text: The modern emphasis on the value of fiber in the diet began with Thomas L. Cleave. A strong case was made by Neil Painter and Adam Smith that a deficiency of dietary fiber is the cause of diverticular disease. They argued that the colonic muscles needed to contract strongly in order to transmit and expel the small stool associated with a fiber deficient diet. The increased pressure within the segmented section of the bowel over years gave rise to herniation at the vulnerable point where blood vessels enter the colonic wall.


title: Diverticulosis

text: "The complications of diverticulosis cause considerable morbidity in the United States; health care expenditures for this disorder are estimated to be $2.5 billion per year."


title: Drew Dober

text: Andrew Martin Dober (born October 19, 1988) is an American mixed martial artist currently competing in the lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A professional competitor since 2009, he has also formerly competed for Bellator MMA, and Titan Fighting Championship. As of December 19, 2022, he is #14 in the UFC lightweight rankings.


title: Drew Dober

text: Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Dober grew up with a single mother and a half-sibling, and didn't meet his father until 18. Dober began training in Muay Thai at the age of 14 and was highly successful, going on to become a two-time Amateur National Champion. He also wrestled his junior and senior years at Millard North High School. Dober is also a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, having achieved that rank under Ed Shobe of Mid-America Martial Arts before he moved to train in Colorado.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Nick Nolte at Bellator 16 on April 29, 2010. He won the fight via arm-triangle choke submission in the first round.


title: Drew Dober

text: In the next three years, Dober would compile a 12–2 record in various promotions including Victory Fighting Championship and Titan Fighting Championship. He then appeared on The Ultimate Fighter.


title: Drew Dober

text: In February 2012, it was revealed that Dober would be a participant on . He was defeated in the entry round by Daron Cruickshank via unanimous decision.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober stepped in for an injured Sérgio Moraes to face Sean Spencer at The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale on November 30, 2013. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced former WEC Lightweight Champion Jamie Varner at . He secured his biggest win to date, defeating Varner via rear-naked choke submission in the first round.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Leandro Silva on March 21, 2015 at UFC Fight Night 62. Dober lost the fight via technical submission in the second round. Silva was attempting to secure a guillotine choke after dropping to the mat with Dober's neck secured in his arm. Dober defended and moved his body to the side to stave off being caught in the choke. Silva appeared to be losing his grip on the submission as Dober continued to work free. However, the referee stepped in and touched the fighters as if to motion that he was standing them up. In reality, he was stopping the fight due to submission despite the fact that Dober never tapped and was in no significant danger of being choked out from the hold. Despite the loss, UFC awarded Dober his win money with president Dana White stating that he would have liked to see the result overturned and the match declared a no contest. The fight was later overturned to a "No Contest" by the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) after the referee Eduardo Herdy admitted his mistake.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober then faced Efrain Escudero at UFC 188 on June 13, 2015. He lost the fight by guillotine choke submission in the first round.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober was expected to face Erik Koch on January 2, 2016 at UFC 195. However, Koch pulled out of the bout in early December citing injury and was replaced by Scott Holtzman. He won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober was expected to face Islam Makhachev on April 16, 2016 at UFC on Fox 19. After the weigh ins, the UFC announced that Makhachev had failed an out-of-competition drug screening, testing positive for the banned anti-ischemic meldonium. The match was cancelled.


title: Drew Dober

text: A rescheduled bout with Erik Koch was expected to take place on September 10, 2016 at UFC 203. However on August 11, Koch pulled out again due to injury and was replaced by promotional newcomer Jason Gonzalez. He won the fight via TKO in the first round.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober next faced Olivier Aubin-Mercier on December 10, 2016 at UFC 206. He lost the fight via submission in the second round.


title: Drew Dober

text: Drew faced Frank Camacho in a welterweight bout on January 27, 2018 at . He won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Jon Tuck in a lightweight bout on August 25, 2018 at UFC Fight Night 135. He won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Beneil Dariush on March 9, 2019 at UFC Fight Night 146. He lost the fight via submission in the second round.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Polo Reyes on June 29, 2019 at UFC on ESPN 3. He won the fight via knockout in the first round.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Nasrat Haqparast on January 18, 2020 at UFC 246. He won the fight via knockout in the first round. This win earned him a Performance of the Night award.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober was expected to face Carlos Diego Ferreira on May 2, 2020 at . However, on April 9, Dana White, the president of UFC announced that this event was postponed to a future date. Dober instead faced Alexander Hernandez on May 13, 2020 at . He won the fight via technical knockout in round two. The bout with Ferreira was rescheduled for November 7, 2020 at . However, Ferreira pulled out on October 22 due to an illness and the bout was scrapped.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Islam Makhachev March 6, 2021 at UFC 259. He lost the fight via submission in round three.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Brad Riddell on June 12, 2021 at UFC 263. He lost the fight via unanimous decision. This fight earned him the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober was next expected to face Ricky Glenn at UFC Fight Night 204 on March 12, 2022. However, a week before the event, Glenn withdrew due to a torn groin and was replaced by Terrance McKinney. After being knocked down twice within the opening minute, Dober rallied and won the fight via technical knockout in round one.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Rafael Alves on July 30, 2022, at UFC 277. He won the fight in the third round after knocking out Alves with a punch to the body. The win also earned Dober his third "Performance of the Night" award.


title: Drew Dober

text: Dober faced Bobby Green on December 17, 2022, at UFC Fight Night 216. He won the fight via knockout in round two. This fight earned him the Fight of the Night award.


title: David H. Berger

text: David Hilberry Berger (born December 21, 1959) is a United States Marine Corps four-star general currently serving as the 38th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps.


title: David H. Berger

text: Since his commissioning in 1981, he has served in a variety of command and staff billets, including his participation in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.


title: David H. Berger

text: Berger holds a BSc in engineering from Tulane University, and two Master's degrees, one in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, and the other in Military Studies.


title: David H. Berger

text: Berger's formal military education includes the United States Army Infantry Officer Advanced Course, United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and United States Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting. He is a graduate of the United States Army Ranger School, United States Army Jumpmaster School, United States Navy Dive School, and United States Marine Corps Amphibious Reconnaissance School.


title: David H. Berger

text: Berger was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1981 via NROTC following graduation from Tulane University with a degree in engineering. As a lieutenant and captain, he served as rifle platoon commander in India Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division and later as a company commander and battalion operations officer in 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion during Operation Desert Storm. He also served as officer selection officer in Roanoke, Virginia.


title: David H. Berger

text: As a field grade officer, Berger was an instructor at Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) in Yuma, Arizona; instructor at III Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) Special Operations Training Group; and served on the Joint Staff as a policy planner in the Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate, J-5.


title: David H. Berger

text: Berger commanded 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines from 2002 to 2004, deploying the battalion first to Okinawa, and later to Haiti in support of Operation Secure Tomorrow. As a colonel, Berger commanded Regimental Combat Team 8 in Fallujah, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom.


title: David H. Berger

text: While serving as assistant division commander of 2nd Marine Division, Berger was appointed to the rank of brigadier general. He then deployed to Kosovo, where he served for one year as chief of staff for KFOR Headquarters in Pristina. From 2009 to 2011 he served at Headquarters Marine Corps as the director of operations in plans, policies, and operations. In 2012 he deployed to Afghanistan as the commanding general of 1st Marine Division (forward) in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.


title: David H. Berger

text: Berger served as commanding general of Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center from 2013 to 2014. In July 2014, Berger was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and assumed command of I Marine Expeditionary Force. He subsequently assumed command of United States Marine Corps Forces, Pacific. On August 28, 2018, Berger assumed the billets of Commanding General of Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration.


title: David H. Berger

text: On March 26, 2019, he was nominated by President Donald Trump to succeed General Robert B. Neller and become the 38th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 5, and took command in a ceremony held July 11 at the Marine Barracks in Washington D.C.


title: David H. Berger

text: "The Commandant’s Planning Guidance (CPG) provides the 38th Commandant’s strategic direction for the Marine Corps and mirrors the function of the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Planning Guidance (DPG). It serves as the authoritative document for Service-level planning and provides a common direction to the Marine Corps Total Force." Highlights include refocusing the Marine Corps on high-end combat, shifting away from legacy platforms like tanks and artillery in favor of long-range missiles and drones.


title: David H. Berger

text: In February 2022, Berger was the keynote speaker for the 67th MSC Student Conference on National Affairs at Texas A&M University.


title: Hebei

text: Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0.3% Mongol. Three Mandarin dialects are spoken: Jilu Mandarin, Beijing Mandarin and Jin.


title: Hebei

text: Hebei borders the provinces of Shanxi to the west, Henan to the south, Shandong to the southeast, Liaoning to the northeast, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the north. Its economy is based on agriculture and manufacturing. The province is China's premier steel producer, although the steel industry creates serious air pollution.


title: Hebei

text: Five UNESCO World Heritage Sites can be found in the province, the: Great Wall of China, Chengde Mountain Resort, Grand Canal, Eastern Qing tombs, and Western Qing tombs. It is also home to five National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities: Handan, Baoding, Chengde, Zhengding and Shanhaiguan.


title: Hebei

text: Historically, during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the region was ruled by the Chinese Yan and Zhao states. During the Yuan dynasty, the region was called the Zhongshu Province. It was called North Zhili during the Ming dynasty, and Zhili Province during the Qing dynasty. The modern-day province of Hebei was created in 1928.


title: Hebei

text: Hebei Province received its name from its location in the North China Plain, north of the Yellow River. Hebei means "north of the river". Since the province is recorded in Yu Gong as Ji Province, or Jizhou, it is abbreviated as Ji ().


title: Hebei

text: The province's nickname is Yanzhao (), which is the collective name of the Yan and Zhao states that controlled the region during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. In 1421, the Yongle Emperor moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and the province started to be called North Zhili () or Zhili (), which means "Directly Ruled (by the Imperial Court)". When Nanjing became the capital of the Republic of China in 1928, the Zhili province was abolished and given its present name, Hebei.


title: Hebei

text: Peking man, an early pre-historic Homo erectus, lived on the plains of Hebei around 200,000 to 700,000 years ago. Neolithic findings at the prehistoric Beifudi site date to 7000 and 8000 BC.


title: Hebei

text: Many early Chinese myths are set in the province. Fuxi, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, is said to have lived in present-day Xingtai. The mythical Battle of Zhuolu, won by the Yellow Emperor, Yan Emperor, and their Yanhuang tribes against the Chiyou-led Jiuli tribes, took place in Zhangjiakou and started the Huaxia civilization.


title: Hebei

text: During the Spring and Autumn period (722 BC–476 BC), Hebei was under the rule of Yan in the north and Jin in the south. Also during this period, a nomadic people known as Dí invaded the plains of northern China and established Zhongshan in central Hebei. In the Warring States period (403 BC–221 BC), Jin was partitioned and much of its territory in Hebei went to Zhao.


title: Hebei

text: The Qin dynasty unified China in 221 BC. The Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) ruled the area under two provinces, You Prefecture in the north and Ji Province in the south. At the end of the Han dynasty, most of Hebei was under the control of warlords Gongsun Zan in the north and Yuan Shao further south. Yuan Shao emerged as the victor of the two, but he was defeated by Cao Cao in the Battle of Guandu in 200. Hebei came under the rule of the Kingdom of Wei, established by the descendants of Cao Cao.


title: Hebei

text: After the invasions of northern nomadic peoples at the end of the Western Jin dynasty, chaos ensued in the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties. Because of its location on the northern frontier, Hebei changed hands many times and was controlled at various times by Later Zhao, Former Yan, Former Qin, and Later Yan. The Northern Wei reunified northern China in 440 but split in 534, with Hebei coming under Eastern Wei; then the Northern Qi, with its capital at Ye near modern Linzhang, Hebei. The Sui dynasty again unified China in 589.


title: Hebei

text: During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the area was officially called Hebei for the first time. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Hebei was fragmented among several regimes. It was eventually unified by Li Cunxu, who established the Later Tang (923–936). Emperor Gaozu of the Later Jin dynasty ceded much of northern Hebei to the Khitan Liao dynasty. This territory, called the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, became a weakness in the Chinese defense against the Khitans for the next century because it lay within the Great Wall.


title: Hebei

text: During the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an area of contention between Song China and the Liao dynasty. Later, the Southern Song dynasty abandoned all of North China, including Hebei, to the Jurchen Jin dynasty after the 1127 Jingkang Incident of the Jin–Song wars. Hebei was heavily affected by the flooding of the Yellow River; between 1048 and 1128, the river ran directly through the province rather than to its south.


title: Hebei

text: The Mongol Yuan dynasty divided China into provinces but did not establish Hebei as a province. Instead, the area was directly administrated by the Secretariat at the capital Dadu.


title: Hebei

text: The Ming dynasty ruled Hebei as Beizhili, meaning Northern Directly Ruled because the area contained and was directly ruled by the imperial capital in Beijing. The "Northern" designation was used because there was a southern counterpart covering present-day Jiangsu and Anhui. When the Manchu Qing dynasty came to power in 1644, they abolished the southern counterpart, and Hebei became known as Zhili or Directly Ruled. During the Qing dynasty, the northern borders of Zhili extended deep into Inner Mongolia and overlapped in jurisdiction with the leagues of Inner Mongolia.


title: Hebei

text: The Qing dynasty collapsed in 1912 and was replaced by the Republic of China. In a few years, China descended into a civil war, with regional warlords vying for power. Since Zhili was so close to the capital of Peking (Beijing), it was the site of the Zhiwan War, the First Zhifeng War, and the Second Zhifeng War. With the success of the Northern Expedition in 1926 and 1927 by the Kuomintang, the capital was moved from Peking to Nanking (Nanjing). As a result, the provence's name was changed to Hebei, reflecting the relocation of the capital and its standard provincial administration.