title: Traci Lords filmography

text: Traci Lords is an American actress, singer, writer, producer and director. After having appeared in dozens of pornographic films between 1984 and 1986 while she was underage, Lords made a transition to mainstream films. She made her mainstream screen debut in "Not of This Earth" (1988), a remake of Roger Corman's 1957 film of the same name, playing the leading role of Nadine Story. She followed with "Fast Food" (1989) and the John Waters' teen comedy, "Cry-Baby" (1990), where she appeared alongside Johnny Depp. The film received positive reviews and the part of Wanda Woodward remains Lords' most notable role. Around the same time, she also appeared in many television series, including "Wiseguy", "MacGyver", "Married... with Children", "" and "Tales from the Crypt".


title: Traci Lords filmography

text: In the early 1990s, Lords starred in various independent and B movies, such as "Shock 'Em Dead", "Raw Nerve", "A Time to Die" (1991), "Intent to Kill" (1992) and "Skinner" (1993). She also appeared in the television adaptation of Stephen King's novel "The Tommyknockers". In 1995, while promoting her debut studio album "1000 Fires", Lords landed the role of Rikki Abbott on the television series "Melrose Place" and also appeared in three episodes of "Roseanne". Lords was a recurring cast member on the crime series "Profiler" and had a small part in the vampire action film "Blade" (1998). She kept on making more films and appeared in more television series, including "First Wave", "Gilmore Girls" and "Will & Grace". Her role in the 2000 comedy "Chump Change" earned her the Film Discovery Jury Award for Best Actress at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.


title: Traci Lords filmography

text: In 2008, Lords appeared as Bubbles in the Kevin Smith comedy "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". She also had supporting roles in horror films, "Excision" (2012) and "Devil May Call" (2013). Her portrayal of Phyllis, a hyperreligious and controlling mother, in "Excision" earned her several awards including the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as Fright Meter Award and CinEuphoria Award.


title: Sarcomere

text: A sarcomere (Greek σάρξ "sarx" "flesh", μέρος "meros" "part") is the smallest functional unit of striated muscle tissue. It is the repeating unit between two Z-lines. Skeletal muscles are composed of tubular muscle cells (called muscle fibers or myofibers) which are formed during embryonic myogenesis. Muscle fibers contain numerous tubular myofibrils. Myofibrils are composed of repeating sections of sarcomeres, which appear under the microscope as alternating dark and light bands. Sarcomeres are composed of long, fibrous proteins as filaments that slide past each other when a muscle contracts or relaxes. The costamere is a different component that connects the sarcomere to the sarcolemma.


title: Sarcomere

text: Two of the important proteins are myosin, which forms the thick filament, and actin, which forms the thin filament. Myosin has a long, fibrous tail and a globular head, which binds to actin. The myosin head also binds to ATP, which is the source of energy for muscle movement. Myosin can only bind to actin when the binding sites on actin are exposed by calcium ions.


title: Sarcomere

text: Actin molecules are bound to the Z-line, which forms the borders of the sarcomere. Other bands appear when the sarcomere is relaxed.


title: Sarcomere

text: The sarcomeres give skeletal and cardiac muscle their striated appearance, which was first described by Van Leeuwenhoek.


title: Sarcomere

text: The protein tropomyosin covers the myosin-binding sites of the actin molecules in the muscle cell. For a muscle cell to contract, tropomyosin must be moved to uncover the binding sites on the actin. Calcium ions bind with troponin C molecules (which are dispersed throughout the tropomyosin protein) and alter the structure of the tropomyosin, forcing it to reveal the cross-bridge binding site on the actin.


title: Sarcomere

text: The concentration of calcium within muscle cells is controlled by the sarcoplasmic reticulum, a unique form of endoplasmic reticulum in the sarcoplasm.


title: Sarcomere

text: Muscle cells are stimulated when a motor neuron releases the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which travels across the neuromuscular junction (the synapse between the terminal button of the neuron and the muscle cell). Acetylcholine binds to a post-synaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. A change in the receptor conformation allows an influx of sodium ions and initiation of a post-synaptic action potential. The action potential then travels along T-tubules (transverse tubules) until it reaches the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Here, the depolarized membrane activates voltage-gated L-type calcium channels, present in the plasma membrane. The L-type calcium channels are in close association with ryanodine receptors present on the sarcoplasmic reticulum. The inward flow of calcium from the L-type calcium channels activates ryanodine receptors to release calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. This mechanism is called calcium-induced calcium release (CICR). It is not understood whether the physical opening of the L-type calcium channels or the presence of calcium causes the ryanodine receptors to open. The outflow of calcium allows the myosin heads access to the actin cross-bridge binding sites, permitting muscle contraction.


title: Sarcomere

text: Muscle contraction ends when calcium ions are pumped back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum, allowing the contractile apparatus and, thus, muscle cell to relax.


title: Sarcomere

text: Upon muscle contraction, the A-bands do not change their length (1.85 micrometer in mammalian skeletal muscle), whereas the I-bands and the H-zone shorten. This causes the Z lines to come closer together.


title: Sarcomere

text: At rest, the myosin head is bound to an ATP molecule in a low-energy configuration and is unable to access the cross-bridge binding sites on the actin. However, the myosin head can hydrolyze ATP into adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and an inorganic phosphate ion. A portion of the energy released in this reaction changes the shape of the myosin head and promotes it to a high-energy configuration. Through the process of binding to the actin, the myosin head releases ADP and an inorganic phosphate ion, changing its configuration back to one of low energy. The myosin remains attached to actin in a state known as "rigor", until a new ATP binds the myosin head. This binding of ATP to myosin releases the actin by cross-bridge dissociation. The ATP-associated myosin is ready for another cycle, beginning with hydrolysis of the ATP.


title: Sarcomere

text: The A-band is visible as dark transverse lines across myofibers; the I-band is visible as lightly staining transverse lines, and the Z-line is visible as dark lines separating sarcomeres at the light-microscope level.


title: Sarcomere

text: Most muscle cells can only store enough ATP for a small number of muscle contractions. While muscle cells also store glycogen, most of the energy required for contraction is derived from phosphagens. One such phosphagen, creatine phosphate, is used to provide ADP with a phosphate group for ATP synthesis in vertebrates.


title: Sarcomere

text: The structure of the sarcomere affects its function in several ways. The overlap of actin and myosin gives rise to the length-tension curve, which shows how sarcomere force output decreases if the muscle is stretched so that fewer cross-bridges can form or compressed until actin filaments interfere with each other. Length of the actin and myosin filaments (taken together as sarcomere length) affects force and velocity – longer sarcomeres have more cross-bridges and thus more force, but have a reduced range of shortening. Vertebrates display a very limited range of sarcomere lengths, with roughly the same optimal length (length at peak length-tension) in all muscles of an individual as well as between species. Arthropods, however, show tremendous variation (over seven-fold) in sarcomere length, both between species and between muscles in a single individual. The reasons for the lack of substantial sarcomere variability in vertebrates is not fully known.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: Breakdown is a 1997 American action thriller film directed and co-written by Jonathan Mostow. It stars Kurt Russell, J. T. Walsh, and Kathleen Quinlan. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris. The film was produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Martha De Laurentiis, and released on May 2, 1997 by Paramount Pictures. It is the final film featuring Walsh to be released in his lifetime.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: Jeff Taylor and his wife Amy drive cross-country from Boston to San Diego in their new Jeep Grand Cherokee. They narrowly avoid colliding with a beat-up pickup truck. At a gas station, Earl, the driver of the truck, confronts Jeff and they exchange hostile words. Shortly after the couple resume their trip, their car breaks down on a vacant road. Leaving Jeff with the Jeep, Amy accepts a ride from a passing trailer truck driver to get to a nearby diner and call for help. Jeff eventually discovers that someone has tampered with the Jeep's battery connections. After reconnecting them, he drives to the diner, only to discover that no one has seen Amy. Jeff sees the trucker on the road and forces him to stop, but the trucker claims he has never seen Jeff or Amy. Jeff then hails a passing sheriff named Boyd, but a brief search of the truck yields no sign of Amy. The trucker, Red Barr, is allowed to leave and Boyd tells Jeff to see the deputy in the town of Brackett.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: After speaking with the deputy, Jeff goes back to the diner. Billy, a mentally-impaired mechanic, informs Jeff that Amy left with some men, but refuses to speak with the police, claiming they are involved. Jeff rushes to the location Billy mentioned, but is ambushed on a back road by Earl. He escapes by driving his Jeep into a river and swimming away. Jeff circles back to watch Earl and another accomplice, Al, pull his Jeep out of the water. He is then discovered and knocked out by Billy.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: When Jeff awakens, he is confronted by Billy (who feigned mental impairment earlier) and Earl. Their leader is Red Barr, who informs Jeff that he wants the $90,000 in Jeff's bank account in exchange for Amy's life, ordering him to withdraw the money in the nearby town of Brackett. Realizing he only has $5,000, Jeff attempts to alert the bank manager of his situation. However, paranoid that Red's group is keeping an eye on him, Jeff abandons the idea and steals marked money ribbons and a letter opener. He uses the money ribbons to pack stacks of $1 bills between two $100 bills.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: Jeff is then instructed to leave town, where Earl picks him up and binds him with duct tape. Earl begins gloating about how Jeff and his wife were easy targets, how he tampered with their Jeep, and that his group intends to kill them anyway. Jeff frees himself with the letter opener and stabs Earl. Jeff takes over the vehicle, binds Earl, and tortures him to reveal his rendezvous with Red at a local truck stop. They pass Boyd, who sees the speeding, swerving pickup and stops the vehicle. When Jeff exits the truck with Earl's gun, Boyd mistakes the situation and forces him to lie down. Earl frees himself and shoots Boyd with a concealed gun. Before Earl can shoot Jeff, a wounded Boyd shoots and kills him. Jeff uses Boyd's radio to call for an ambulance and rushes to the truck stop.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: At the stop, Jeff stows away under the trailer of Red's truck. Early the next morning, Red arrives at his farm. Jeff sneaks into the barn, discovering evidence that Red has a history of robbing and killing people and that his real name is Warren. Al and Billy arrive with a bound and gagged Amy, whom they lock in a freezer in the barn's cellar. Unable to open the cellar door, Jeff finds a gun and demands the cellar key from Red. When he is distracted by Red's young son Deke, Billy escapes. Jeff forces Red to release Amy, exposing him in the process, and then locks him and his family in the cellar.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: Jeff and Amy steal a pickup truck and flee, while Billy returns to free his accomplices, who each pursue the Taylors in their own vehicles. During the pursuit, Billy is killed in an explosion when Jeff forces his car off the road. Shortly after, the trailer from Red's truck detaches, causing Al to fatally crash into it. Undeterred, Red attempts to push Jeff and Amy's vehicle off a bridge with his truck, trapping Amy's leg underneath the dashboard. Jeff rushes out of the vehicle and into Red's tractor unit, where a struggle over the steering wheel forces Red's truck over the edge, leaving it dangling on a steel bridge support. Red attacks Jeff with a chain, until Jeff abruptly catches the chain and hurls Red to the rocks below. Jeff frees Amy from the dashboard. Seeing that Red survived the fall, Amy pulls the automatic shifter on their pickup truck, causing the suspended tractor unit to fall and crush him. Sitting on the edge of the bridge, Jeff and Amy embrace each other, waiting for the police to arrive.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: "Breakdown" was filmed on location in Sacramento, California; Victorville, California; Pyramid Lake; Moab, Utah; Sedona, Arizona; and the Tasmanian Midlands Highway.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: The score was written by Basil Poledouris, with contributions from Steve Forman, Judd Miller, Eric Colvin and Richard Marvin.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: It was released as a limited edition of 3,000 units by LaLaLand Records in June 2011. The release comprises a 3-CD set: the first CD contains the score as heard in the film, which contains material from additional composers. This is not 100% complete, omitting a few extremely low-key passages from the early scenes, nor is it chronological – some cues have been combined and re-ordered to maintain a listening experience.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: The second CD contains an alternative early version of many cues by Poledouris that represent a different, far more orchestral approach to scoring the film (the score in the film stripped away many layers, and left mostly percussive and sound design elements for many cues.)


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: The third CD contains further alternates that demonstrate the changing nature of the music as scenes were re-scored.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: The film was first released on Blu-ray disc in Australia by Imprint on February 24, 2021. It is scheduled to be released by Paramount Pictures on 4K remastered Blu-ray on the “Paramount Presents” line in the United States on September 21, 2021 with new extra features including audio commentary by director Jonathan Mostow and Kurt Russell, an isolated score and an alternate opening of the film.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: "Breakdown" debuted at first place at the box office with $12.3 million. After initially opening to 2,108 theaters, the film later expanded to 2,348 theaters and grossed a total of $50,159,144 in the United States and Canada.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 83% of critics gave the film positive reviews based upon a sample of 58, with an average score of 7.2/10. The site's consensus describes it as "A brainy and suspenseful – if somewhat uneven – thriller". At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 73 based on 19 reviews.


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: David Harkin at Taste of Cinema points out that 'Kurt Russell turns into his own version of John McClane but in cool shades and dusty chinos'


title: Breakdown (1997 film)

text: Peter Stack of the "San Francisco Chronicle" praised the film, ""Breakdown" use[s] old-fashioned ingenuity – plus a compelling star, a fast-paced mystery and a deadpan villain – to come up with a sizzler." Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review, calling it "taut, skillful and surgically effective". Stephen Hunter of "The Washington Post" criticized Russell for not conveying a desperate husband willing to fight for his missing wife, writing "He does a lot of running around while making desperate faces, but he never projects a sense of deep rage. He never gets dangerous. Thus the movie is shorn of its one primitive gratification: the image of the civilized man who finds the Peruvian commando inside himself and lays waste to louts who have underestimated him."


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The Battle of Amiens, also known as the Third Battle of Picardy (), was the opening phase of the Allied offensive which began on 8 August 1918, later known as the Hundred Days Offensive, that ultimately led to the end of the First World War. Allied forces advanced over on the first day, one of the greatest advances of the war, with Gen Henry Rawlinson's British Fourth Army (with 9 of its 19 divisions supplied by the fast moving Australian Corps of Lt Gen John Monash and Canadian Corps of Lt Gen Arthur Currie) playing the decisive role. The battle is also notable for its effects on both sides' morale and the large number of surrendering German forces. This led Erich Ludendorff to later describe the first day of the battle as "the black day of the German Army". Amiens was one of the first major battles involving armoured warfare.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: On 21 March 1918, the German Army had launched Operation Michael, the first in a series of attacks planned to drive the Allies back along the length of the Western Front. After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with revolutionary-controlled Russia, the Germans were able to transfer hundreds of thousands of men to the Western Front, giving them a significant, if temporary, advantage in manpower and material. These offensives were intended to translate this advantage into victory. Operation Michael was intended to defeat the right wing of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), but a lack of success around Arras ensured the ultimate failure of the offensive. A final effort was aimed at the town of Amiens, a vital railway junction, but the advance had been halted at Villers-Bretonneux by British and Australian troops on 4 April.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: Subsequent German offensivesOperation Georgette (9–11 April), Operation Blücher-Yorck (27 May), Operation Gneisenau (9 June) and Operation Marne-Rheims (15–17 July)all made advances elsewhere on the Western Front, but failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: By the end of the Marne-Rheims offensive, the German manpower advantage had been spent and their supplies and troops were exhausted. The Allied general, General Ferdinand Foch, ordered a counteroffensive which led to victory at the Second Battle of the Marne, following which he was promoted to Marshal of France. The Germans, recognising their untenable position, withdrew from the Marne to the north. Foch now tried to move the Allies back onto the offensive.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: Foch disclosed his plan on 23 July, following the allied victory at the Battle of Soissons. The plan called for reducing the Saint-Mihiel salient (which would later see combat in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel) and freeing the railway lines that ran through Amiens from German shellfire.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, already had plans in place for an attack near Amiens. When the British retreat had ended in April, the headquarters of the British Fourth Army under General Sir Henry Rawlinson had taken over the front astride the Somme. Its left hand corps was the British III Corps under Lieutenant General Richard Butler, while the Australian Corps under Lieutenant General John Monash held the right flank and linked up with French armies to the south. On 30 May, all the Australian infantry divisions were united under the corps HQ, for the first time on the Western Front. The Australians had mounted a number of local counter-attacks which both revealed the suitability of the open and firm terrain south of the Somme for a larger offensive, and established and refined the methods which were to be used.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: Rawlinson had submitted Monash's proposals to Haig in July and Haig had forwarded them to Foch. At a meeting on 24 July, Foch agreed to the plan but insisted that the French First Army, which held the front to the south of the British Fourth Army, should participate. Rawlinson opposed this as his and Monash's plans depended on the large-scale use of tanks (now finally available in large numbers) to achieve surprise, by avoiding a preliminary bombardment. The French First Army lacked tanks and would be forced to bombard the German positions before the infantry advance began, thus removing the element of surprise. Eventually, it was agreed that the French would participate, but not launch their attack until 45 minutes after the Fourth Army. It was also agreed to advance the proposed date of the attack from 10 to 8 August, to strike the Germans before they had completed their withdrawal from the Marne salient.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: Rawlinson had already finalised his plans in discussion with his Corps commanders (Butler, Monash, Sir Arthur Currie of the Canadian Corps and Lieutenant General Charles Kavanagh of the Cavalry Corps) on 21 July. For the first time, the Australians would attack side by side with the Canadian Corps. Both had a reputation for aggressive and innovative tactics and a strong record of success over the past two years.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The tactical methods had been tested by the Australians in a local counter-attack at the Battle of Hamel on 4 July. The German defenders of Hamel were deeply dug in, and their position commanded a very wide field of fire. Similar positions had resisted capture for two months in the Battle of the Somme. The Australians had used surprise rather than weight at Hamel. The artillery had opened fire only at the moment the infantry and tanks advanced, and the Germans were rapidly overrun.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: A key factor in the final plan was secrecy. There was to be no artillery bombardment a significant time before the attack, as was the usual practice, only fire immediately prior to the advance of Australian, Canadian, and British forces. The final plan for the Fourth Army involved 1,386 field guns and howitzers and 684 heavy guns, making up 27 medium artillery brigades and thirteen heavy batteries, in addition to the infantry divisions' artillery. The fire plan for the Fourth Army's artillery was devised by Monash's senior artillery officer, Major General C. E. D. Budworth. British sound ranging advances in artillery techniques and aerial photographic reconnaissance made it possible to dispense with "ranging shots" to ensure accurate fire. Budworth had produced a timetable which allowed 504 out of 530 German guns to be hit at "zero hour", while a creeping barrage preceded the infantry. This method was similar to the "Feuerwalze" which the Germans themselves had used in their Spring Offensive, but its effectiveness was increased by the surprise achieved.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: There were also to be 580 tanks. The Canadian and Australian Corps were each allocated a brigade of four battalions, with 108 Mark V fighting tanks, 36 Mark V "Star", and 24 unarmed tanks intended to carry supplies and ammunition forward. A single battalion of Mark V tanks was allocated to III Corps. The Cavalry Corps were allocated two battalions each of 48 Medium Mark A Whippet tanks.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The Allies had successfully moved the Canadian Corps of four infantry divisions to Amiens without them being detected by the Germans. This was a noteworthy achievement and reflected well on the increasingly efficient staff work of the British armies. A detachment from the Corps of two infantry battalions, a wireless unit and a casualty clearing station had been sent to the front near Ypres to bluff the Germans that the entire Corps was moving north to Flanders. The Canadian Corps was not fully in position until 7 August. To maintain secrecy, the Allied commanders pasted the notice "Keep Your Mouth Shut" into orders issued to the men, and referred to the action as a "raid" rather than an "offensive".


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: Although the Germans were still on the offensive in late July, the Allied armies were growing in strength, as more American units arrived in France, and British reinforcements were transferred from the Home Army in Britain and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. The German commanders realised in early August that their forces might be forced onto the defensive, though Amiens was not considered to be a likely front. The Germans believed the French would probably attack the Saint-Mihiel front east of Rheims, or in Flanders near Mount Kemmel, while they believed the British would attack along either the Lys or near Albert. The Allies had indeed mounted a number of local counter-offensives in these sectors, both to gain local objectives to improve their defensive positions and to distract attention from the Amiens sector. German forces began to withdraw from the Lys and other fronts in response to these theories. The Allies maintained equal artillery and air fire along their various fronts, moving troops only at night, and feigning movements during the day to mask their actual intent.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The German front east of Amiens was held by their Second Army under General Georg von der Marwitz, with six divisions in line (and two facing the French 1st Army). There were only two divisions in immediate reserve. There was some concern among the Allies on 6 August when the German 27th Division actually attacked north of the Somme on part of the front on which the Allies planned to attack two days later. The German division (a specially selected and trained "Stosstruppen" formation) penetrated roughly into the one-and-a-half-mile front. This attack was made in retaliation for a trench raid by the 5th Australian Division north of the Somme on the night of 31 July, which had taken many prisoners, before the Australian Corps was concentrated south of the river. The German division moved back towards its original position on the morning of 7 August, but the movement still required changes to the Allied plan.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: To increase the level of surprise still further, the rumble of the approaching tanks was to be masked by bombers flying up and down the German lines. The bombers were twin engine Handley Page O-400's whose engines were similar to the tanks. However the 2 RAF squadrons detailed to take part decided it was too hazardous to order planes into the air in the unseasonably dense fog, and asked for volunteers. Two volunteered from 207 Squadron, Captains Gordon Flavelle and William Peace, and both were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The battle began in dense fog at 4:20 am on 8 August. Under Rawlinson's Fourth Army, the British III Corps attacked north of the Somme, the Australian Corps to the south of the river in the centre of Fourth Army's front, and the Canadian Corps to the south of the Australians. The French 1st Army under General Debeney opened its preliminary bombardment at the same time, and began its advance 45 minutes later, supported by a battalion of 72 Whippet tanks. Although German forces were on the alert, this was largely in anticipation of possible retaliation for their incursion on the sixth and not because they had learned of the preplanned Allied attack. Although the two forces were within of one another, gas bombardment was very low, as the bulk of the Allied presence was unknown to the Germans. The attack was so unexpected that German forces only began to return fire after five minutes, and even then at the positions where the Allied forces had assembled at the start of the battle and had long since left.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: In the first phase, seven divisions attacked: the British 18th (Eastern) and 58th (2/1st London), the Australian 2nd and 3rd, and the Canadian 1st, 2nd and 3rd Divisions. Troops of the 33rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army National Guard supported the British attackers north of the Somme.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The attackers captured the first German position, advancing about by about 7:30 am. In the centre, supporting units following the leading divisions attacked the second objective a further distant. Australian units reached their first objectives by 7:10 am, and by 8:20 am, the Australian 4th and 5th Divisions and the Canadian 4th Division passed through the initial breach in the German lines. The third phase of the attack was assigned to infantry-carrying Mark V* tanks; however, the infantry was able to carry out this final step unaided. The Allies penetrated well to the rear of the German defences and cavalry now continued the advance, one brigade in the Australian sector and two cavalry divisions in the Canadian sector. Aircraft fire by the new RAF and armoured car fire kept the retreating Germans from rallying.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The Canadian and Australian forces in the centre advanced quickly, pushing the line forward from its starting point by 11:00 am. The speed of their advance was such that a party of German officers and some divisional staff were captured while eating breakfast. A gap long was punched in the German line south of the Somme by the end of the day. There was less success north of the river, where the British III Corps had only a single tank battalion in support, the terrain was rougher and the German incursion of 6 August had disrupted some of the preparations. The corps gained its first objectives but was held up short of the Chipilly spur, "a bare seventy-five-foot-high ridge" in an oxbow bend of the Somme near the village of Chipilly.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The British Fourth Army took 13,000 prisoners, and the French captured a further 3,000. Total German losses were estimated to be 30,000 on 8 August. The British, Australian and Canadian infantry of the Fourth Army sustained about 8,000 casualties, with further losses by tank and air personnel, and French forces.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: German Army Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg noted the Allies' use of surprise and that Allied destruction of German lines of communication had hampered potential German counter-attacks by isolating command positions. The German General Erich Ludendorff described the first day of Amiens as the "Schwarzer Tag des deutschen Heeres" (""), not because of the ground lost to the advancing Allies, but because the morale of the German troops had sunk to the point where large numbers of troops began to capitulate. He recounted instances of retreating troops shouting "You're prolonging the war!" at officers who tried to rally them, and "Blackleg!" at reserves moving up. Five German divisions had effectively been engulfed. Allied forces had pushed, on average, into enemy territory by the end of the day. The Canadians gained , Australians , the French , and the British .


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The advance continued on 9 August, though without the spectacular results of the first day. The battle was widened on the north and the south of the initial attack, with the southern part of the battle (involving French forces) called Battle of Montdidier ().


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The infantry had outrun the supporting artillery, and the initial force of more than 500 tanks that played a large role in the Allied success was reduced to six battle-ready tanks within four days.<ref name="kearsey4/">Tanks from the National Archives of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 15 July 2006.</ref> On the Canadian front, congested roads and communication problems prevented the British 32nd Division being pushed forward rapidly enough to maintain the momentum of the advance.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The Chipilly Spur was still in German hands. The Germans on the ridge commanded a wide field of fire to the south of the Somme, and poured devastating machine gun and artillery fire that kept the Australian Corps pinned down across the river at Hamel. The job of taking Chipilly Ridge was ultimately assigned to 3 battalions of American Doughboys from the 33rd U.S. Infantry Division. According to B.J. Omanson, "Their attack took place at 5:30 p.m.and, despite heavy machine gun and artillery fire pouring down on them from Chipilly Ridge, the Americans could not be driven back. They repeatedly pressed the assault until the northern half of the ridge and southern end of nearby Gressaire Wood were taken. Continuing the assault the following day, they took the rest of Gressaire Wood and by day's end were in possession of seven hundred German prisoners, thirty artillery pieces, one aircraft, and more than one hundred machine guns."


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: During the 33rd U.S. Division's assault on Chipilly Ridge, Corporal Jake Allex, a Serbian immigrant from Kosovo, took command of his platoon after all the other officers had been killed. Corporal Allex led them in an attack against a German machine gun nest, during which he personally killed five enemy soldiers and captured fifteen prisoners. For his actions at Chipilly Ridge, Corporal Allex became the second American soldier to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during World War I.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: On 10 August, there were signs that the Germans were pulling out of the salient from Operation Michael. According to official reports, the Allies had captured nearly 50,000 prisoners and 500 guns by 27 August. Even with the lessened armour the British drove into German positions by 13 August.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: Field Marshal Haig refused the request of Marshal Foch to continue the offensive, preferring instead to launch a fresh offensive by Byng's Third Army between the Ancre and Scarpe. This offensive, the Second Battle of the Somme, took place 21 August – 3 September 1918.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The Battle of Amiens was a major turning point in the tempo of the war. The Germans had started the war with the Schlieffen Plan before the Race to the Sea slowed movement on the Western Front and the war devolved into trench warfare. The German spring offensive earlier in 1918 had once again given Germany the offensive edge on the Western Front. Armoured support helped the Allies tear a hole through trench lines, weakening once impregnable trench positions: the British Third Army, with no armoured support, had almost no effect on the line, while the Fourth, with fewer than a thousand tanks, broke deep into German territory.


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: The British war correspondent Philip Gibbs noted Amiens' effect on the war's tempo, saying on 27 August that, "the enemy...is on the defensive" and, "the initiative of attack is so completely in our hands that we are able to strike him at many different places." Gibbs also credits Amiens with a shift in troop morale, saying, "the change has been greater in the minds of men than in the taking of territory. On our side the army seems to be buoyed up with the enormous hope of getting on with this business quickly" and that, "there is a change also in the enemy's mind. They no longer have even a dim hope of victory on this western front. All they hope for now is to defend themselves long enough to gain peace by negotiation."


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: On the night of August 8–9, 1918, as Doughboys from the 33rd U.S. Division were beginning their assault on Chipilly Ridge, American war poet Lt. John Allan Wyeth and Lieut. Thomas J. Cochrane were assigned to deliver sealed orders from Division HQ at Molliens-au-Bois to the Field Headquarters of all three battalions engaged in the attack. The location of each battalion was unknown, but they were believed to be along the northern bank of the Somme, near the village of Sailly-le-Sec. In his 1928 sonnet sequence "This Man's Army", Wyeth described the mission in detail in his six interlinked "Chipilly Ridge sonnets."


title: Battle of Amiens (1918)

text: According to Bradley J. Omanson, "Lt. Wyeth, as it happened, was a cultured man, a recent Princeton graduate in languages and literature, and he rendered his experiences of that night into an accomplished, highly original cycle of six linked sonnets – part of a much longer cycle of over fifty sonnets which covered the entirety of his service in the war. But it is this self-contained six-sonnet sequence in particular – describing one soldier's stumblings through the metaphoric valley of death – which selves most memorably into the nature of war."


The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal was an "ad hoc" court located in The Hague, Netherlands.


title: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

text: It was established by Resolution 827 of the United Nations Security Council, which was passed on 25 May 1993. It had jurisdiction over four clusters of crimes committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991: grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, violations of the laws or customs of war, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The maximum sentence that it could impose was life imprisonment. Various countries signed agreements with the UN to carry out custodial sentences.


text: A total of 161 persons were indicted; the final indictments were issued in December 2004, the last of which were confirmed and unsealed in the spring of 2005. The final fugitive, Goran Hadžić, was arrested on 20 July 2011. The final judgment was issued on 29 November 2017 and the institution formally ceased to exist on 31 December 2017.


text: Residual functions of the ICTY, including oversight of sentences and consideration of any appeal proceedings initiated since 1 July 2013, are under the jurisdiction of a successor body, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).


text: United Nations Security Council Resolution 808 of 22 February 1993 decided that "an international tribunal shall be established for the prosecution of persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991", and called on the Secretary-General to "submit for consideration by the Council ... a report on all aspects of this matter, including specific proposals and where appropriate options ... taking into account suggestions put forward in this regard by Member States".


text: Resolution 827 of 25 May 1993 approved the S/25704 report of the Secretary-General and adopted the Statute of the International Tribunal annexed to it, formally creating the ICTY. It was to have jurisdiction over four clusters of crimes committed on the territory of the former SFR Yugoslavia since 1991:


text: In 1993, the ICTY built its internal infrastructure. 17 states had signed an agreement with the ICTY to carry out custodial sentences.


text: 1993–1994: In the first year of its existence, the Tribunal laid foundations for its existence as a judicial organ. It established the legal framework for its operations by adopting the rules of procedure and evidence, as well as its rules of detention and directive for the assignment of defense counsel. Together, these rules established a legal aid system for the Tribunal. As the ICTY was a part of the United Nations and was the first "international" court for "criminal" justice, the development of a juridical infrastructure was considered quite a challenge. However, after the first year, the first ICTY judges had drafted and adopted all the rules for court proceedings.


text: 1994–1995: The ICTY established its offices within the Aegon Insurance Building in The Hague (which was, at the time, still partially in use by Aegon) and detention facilities in Scheveningen in The Hague (the Netherlands). The ICTY hired many staff members and by July 1994, the Office of the Prosecutor had sufficient staff to begin field investigations. By November 1994, first indictments were presented and confirmed, and in 1995, the staff numbered over 200 persons from all over the world.


text: In 1994 the first indictment was issued against the Bosnian-Serb concentration camp commander Dragan Nikolić. This was followed on 13 February 1995 by two indictments comprising 21 individuals which were issued against a group of 21 Bosnian-Serbs charged with committing atrocities against Muslim and Croat civilian prisoners. While the war in the former Yugoslavia was still raging, the ICTY prosecutors showed that an international court was viable. However, no accused was arrested.


text: The court confirmed eight indictments against 46 individuals and issued arrest warrants. Bosnian Serb indictee Duško Tadić became the subject of the Tribunal's first trial. Tadić was arrested by German police in Munich in 1994 for his alleged actions in the Prijedor region in Bosnia-Herzegovina (especially his actions in the Omarska, Trnopolje and Keraterm detention camps). He made his first appearance before the ICTY Trial Chamber on 26 April 1995, and pleaded not guilty to all of the charges in the indictment.


text: 1995–1996: Between June 1995 and June 1996, 10 public indictments had been confirmed against a total of 33 individuals. Six of the newly indicted persons were transferred in the Tribunal's detention unit. In addition to Duško Tadic, by June 1996 the tribunal had Tihomir Blaškić, Dražen Erdemović, Zejnil Delalić, Zdravko Mucić, Esad Landžo and Hazim Delić in custody. Erdemović became the first person to enter a guilty plea before the tribunal's court. Between 1995 and 1996, the ICTY dealt with miscellaneous cases involving several detainees, which never reached the trial stage.


text: The United Nations Security Council passed resolutions 1503 in August 2003 and 1534 in March 2004, which both called for the completion of all cases at both the ICTY and its sister tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) by 2010.


text: In December 2010, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1966, which established the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), a body intended to gradually assume residual functions from both the ICTY and the ICTR as they wound down their mandate. Resolution 1966 called upon the Tribunal to finish its work by 31 December 2014 to prepare for its closure and the transfer of its responsibilities.


text: In a "Completion Strategy Report" issued in May 2011, the ICTY indicated that it aimed to complete all trials by the end of 2012 and complete all appeals by 2015, with the exception of Radovan Karadžić whose trial was expected to end in 2014 and Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić, who were still at large at that time and were not arrested until later that year.


text: The IRMCT's ICTY branch began functioning on 1 July 2013. Per the Transitional Arrangements adopted by the UN Security Council, the ICTY was to conduct and complete all outstanding first instance trials, including those of Karadžić, Mladić and Hadžić. The ICTY would also conduct and complete all appeal proceedings for which the notice of appeal against the judgement or sentence was filed before 1 July 2013. The IRMCT will handle any appeals for which notice is filed after that date.


text: The final ICTY trial to be completed in the first instance was that of Ratko Mladić, who was convicted on 22 November 2017. The final case to be considered by the ICTY was an appeal proceeding encompassing six individuals, whose sentences were upheld on 29 November 2017.


text: While operating, the Tribunal employed around 900 staff. Its organisational components were Chambers, Registry and the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP).


text: The Prosecutor was responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence and prosecutions and was head of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP). The Prosecutor was appointed by the UN Security Council upon nomination by the UN Secretary-General.


text: The last prosecutor was Serge Brammertz. Previous Prosecutors have been Ramón Escovar Salom of Venezuela (1993–1994), however, he never took up that office, Richard Goldstone of South Africa (1994–1996), Louise Arbour of Canada (1996–1999), and Carla Del Ponte of Switzerland (1999–2007). Richard Goldstone, Louise Arbour and Carla Del Ponte also simultaneously served as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda until 2003. Graham Blewitt of Australia served as the Deputy Prosecutor from 1994 until 2004. David Tolbert, the President of the International Center for Transitional Justice, was also appointed Deputy Prosecutor of the ICTY in 2004.


text: Chambers encompassed the judges and their aides. The Tribunal operated three Trial Chambers and one Appeals Chamber. The President of the Tribunal was also the presiding Judge of the Appeals Chamber.


text: At the time of the court's dissolution, there were seven permanent judges and one "ad hoc" judge who served on the Tribunal. A total of 86 judges have been appointed to the Tribunal from 52 United Nations member states. Of those judges, 51 were permanent judges, 36 were "ad litem" judges, and one was an "ad hoc" judge. Note that one judge served as both a permanent and "ad litem" judge, and another served as both a permanent and "ad hoc" judge.


text: UN member and observer states could each submit up to two nominees of different nationalities to the UN Secretary-General. The UN Secretary-General submitted this list to the UN Security Council which selected from 28 to 42 nominees and submitted these nominees to the UN General Assembly. The UN General Assembly then elected 14 judges from that list. Judges served for four years and were eligible for re-election. The UN Secretary-General appointed replacements in case of vacancy for the remainder of the term of office concerned.


text: On 21 October 2015, Judge Carmel Agius of Malta was elected President of the ICTY and Liu Daqun of China was elected Vice-President; they have assumed their positions on 17 November 2015. His predecessors were Antonio Cassese of Italy (1993–1997), Gabrielle Kirk McDonald of the United States (1997–1999), Claude Jorda of France (1999–2002), Theodor Meron of the United States (2002–2005), Fausto Pocar of Italy (2005–2008), Patrick Robinson of Jamaica (2008–2011), and Theodor Meron (2011–2015).


text: The Registry was responsible for handling the administration of the Tribunal; activities included keeping court records, translating court documents, transporting and accommodating those who appear to testify, operating the Public Information Section, and such general duties as payroll administration, personnel management and procurement. It was also responsible for the Detention Unit for indictees being held during their trial and the Legal Aid program for indictees who cannot pay for their own defence. It was headed by the Registrar, a position occupied over the years by Theo van Boven of the Netherlands (February 1994 to December 1994), Dorothée de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh of the Netherlands (1995–2000), Hans Holthuis of the Netherlands (2001–2009), and John Hocking of Australia (May 2009 to December 2017).


text: Those defendants on trial and those who were denied a provisional release were detained at the United Nations Detention Unit on the premises of the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden, location Scheveningen in Belgisch Park, a suburb of The Hague, located some 3 km by road from the courthouse. The indicted were housed in private cells which had a toilet, shower, radio, satellite TV, personal computer (without internet access) and other luxuries. They were allowed to phone family and friends daily and could have conjugal visits. There was also a library, a gym and various rooms used for religious observances. The inmates were allowed to cook for themselves. All of the inmates mixed freely and were not segregated on the basis of nationality. As the cells were more akin to a university residence instead of a jail, some had derisively referred to the ICT as the "Hague Hilton". The reason for this luxury relative to other prisons is that the first president of the court wanted to emphasise that the indictees were innocent until proven guilty.


text: The Tribunal indicted 161 individuals between 1997 and 2004 and completed proceedings with them as follows:


text: The indictees ranged from common soldiers to generals and police commanders all the way to prime ministers. Slobodan Milošević was the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes. Other "high level" indictees included Milan Babić, former President of the Republika Srpska Krajina; Ramush Haradinaj, former Prime Minister of Kosovo; Radovan Karadžić, former President of the Republika Srpska; Ratko Mladić, former Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army; and Ante Gotovina, former General of the Croatian Army.


text: The very first hearing at the ICTY was referral request in the Tadić case on 8 November 1994. Croat Serb General and former President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina Goran Hadžić was the last fugitive wanted by the Tribunal to be arrested on 20 July 2011.


title: Ulrich Thomsen

text: Ulrich Thomsen (born 6 December 1963) is a Danish actor and filmmaker, known for his role of Kai Proctor in the Cinemax original series "Banshee" (2013-2016).


title: Ulrich Thomsen

text: Ulrich Thomsen was born in (Næsby) Odense, Denmark and graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance in 1993, after which he performed in several theatres in Copenhagen, such as Dr. Dantes Aveny, Mungo Park and Østre Gasværks Teater.


title: Ulrich Thomsen

text: His film debut was in 1994 in "Nightwatch", directed by Ole Bornedal. Since then, he has starred in a number of roles including, among others, Thomas Vinterberg's "The Biggest Heroes" (1996), Susanne Bier's "Sekten" (1997) and Anders Thomas Jensen's "Flickering Lights" (2000). The major breakthrough in his career came in the 1998 film "Festen" followed by an important role in the James Bond film "The World Is Not Enough" (1999) portraying the part of henchman Sasha Davidov.


title: Ulrich Thomsen

text: This established Thomsen as an international actor, famous outside his native Denmark. He played a part in the 2002 English film "Killing Me Softly". In 2009, he played Jonas Skarssen, the lead villain in Tom Tykwer's "The International". From 2013 to 2016 he stars as series regular in "Banshee" playing the role of primary antagonist, Kai Proctor. Aside from his native language Danish, Thomsen is fluent in German and English. He is vegan.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mariners were founded in 2004 and are one of the eight original A-League teams. It is the first professional sports club from the Gosford region to compete in a national competition. Despite being considered one of the smallest-market clubs in the league, the Central Coast Mariners have claimed one A-League Championship from four Grand Final appearances and topped the table to win the A-League Premiership twice. The club has also appeared in the AFC Champions League five times.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The club plays matches at Central Coast Stadium, a 20,059-seat stadium in Gosford; its purpose-built training facility, Mariners Centre of Excellence, is located in the suburb of Tuggerah. The facility is also home to a youth team that competes in the A-League Youth.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The Mariners' main supporters' group is known as the Yellow Army, for the colour of the club's home kit. The club shares a rivalry with Newcastle Jets, known as the F3 Derby, after the previous name of the highway that connects the cities of the teams. Matt Simon is the Mariners' all-time leading goalscorer as of May 2022, with 66 goals in all competitions. The team record for matches played is held by John Hutchinson, who has appeared in 263 games for the Mariners.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Central Coast Mariners' bid for a franchise in the Football Federation Australia's new A-League competition was aimed at filling the one spot for a regional team that was designated by the FFA. Media speculation prior to the announcement of the franchises in the new league suggested that the Mariners' bid may be favourable due to its new blood. Backing from former Australian international player and club technical director Alex Tobin, as well as Clean Up Australia personality Ian Kiernan—who would act as inaugural club chairman—also strengthened its proposal. As the only regional bidder, Central Coast was expected to make it into the league by default. Following a reported signed deal with the FFA, the club signed former Northern Spirit coach Lawrie McKinna as manager and Ian Ferguson, a former Rangers and Northern Spirit player, as coach. To aid the FFA's goals of building the profile of the sport, the Mariners created formal links with local state league team Central Coast United. On 1 November 2004, after much expectation, the club was announced as one of eight teams to become part of FFA's domestic competition, the A-League. The decision made Central Coast Mariners the first Gosford-based professional sports team to play in a national competition.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: At the time of the formation of the new league in 2004, the club was owned by Spirits Sports and Leisure Group. The club announced its search for a star player under the league's allowance for one star player outside of the $1.5 million salary cap, insisting that the player should not look at the position as a retirement fund. Coach Lawrie McKinna sought interest from Australia national football team players Ante Milicic and Simon Colosimo, and announced that he may sign more than the three under-20 players required by league rules. Early concerns for the club focussed on concerns over financial stability, but after forming a partnership with technology company Toshiba and a cash injection from local businessman John Singleton, the club's financial worries were eased. McKinna was keen to sign local player Damien Brown of Bateau Bay, formerly of the Newcastle Jets. In a decision which prompted the player to declare that he was "over the moon", Brown became the first player to sign with the club. Club chairman Lyall Gorman was pleased that a local had become a "foundation player" and part of Brown's role would be to assist with selection of younger players from the local area. By early December 2004, the club had created a steady foundation of player signings and began negotiations with former Perth Glory striker Nik Mrdja, signing him later in the month as its star attacker. Mrjda was one of the most prominent players in the last season of the National Soccer League, scoring the final goal to secure Perth Glory's finals win. The club's management was reluctant to sign a star player outside of the $1.5 million salary cap, stipulating that they "would have to contribute on the pitch and get people to come to the ground."


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The Mariners' inaugural season was considered a resounding success by most; the team reached the 2006 A-League Grand Final after finishing third during the regular season. Central Coast was defeated by Sydney FC 1–0 in front of a crowd of 41,689—a competition record at the time. The Mariners also won the 2005 Pre-Season Cup, defeating Perth Glory in the final 1–0. Before the 2006–07 A-League season, the Mariners secured the services of then-Australian international Tony Vidmar from NAC Breda for two years. This was the club's first marquee signing, following the lead of Sydney FC (Dwight Yorke) and Adelaide United (Qu Shengqing). Central Coast again reached the grand final in the 2006 Pre-Season Cup, losing to Adelaide United 5–4 on penalties after the score was tied 1–1 after extra time. The Mariners then participated in the 2006–07 A-League season, but was unable to gain a spot in the final series, finishing sixth after the regular season.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Club captain Noel Spencer was released by the Mariners, then signed to participate in the Asian Champions League by Sydney FC after the 2006–07 season, and Alex Wilkinson was appointed the new captain. Only 22 years of age at the time, Wilkinson had played every possible competitive match for the Mariners up to his appointment. In February 2008, Central Coast Mariners signed an arrangement with English Football League Championship side Sheffield United. The partnership was one of several connections the Mariners made with foreign clubs; other partner clubs included Ferencváros of Hungary, Chengdu Blades of China and São Paulo of Brazil. The agreement benefits the club by providing an opportunity for the youth programme and senior side to draw from the roster of Sheffield United through transfers. The teams also formed a property development joint venture, in the hopes that Central Coast could use its share of income to expand and bolster their Mariners Youth Academy.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The 2007–08 season saw Central Coast win its first premiership on goal difference ahead of Newcastle, following a final round that began with Central Coast and three other clubs level on 31 points. The final series began with a 2–0 loss to Newcastle in the first leg of its major semi-final, but the Mariners forced the tie to extra time by holding a 2–0 lead in the second leg after 90 minutes. A 94th-minute goal by Sasho Petrovski, who had scored earlier to level the tie, gave Central Coast a 3–2 win on aggregate, putting the Mariners through to the 2008 A-League Grand Final. In a rematch with Newcastle, the Jets defeated Central Coast 1–0 in the Grand Final, which ended in controversy due to an uncalled handball against Newcastle in Central Coast Mariners penalty box during the closing seconds of the match. If called, the foul would have given Central Coast a penalty kick and a chance to equalise. As Mariners players disputed referee Mark Shield's decision, goalkeeper Danny Vuković struck Shield on the arm, resulting in an immediate sending off and later suspension. Vuković was suspended from both domestic and international competition for nine months, with an additional six-months' suspended ban; the latter period was reduced to three months on appeal. Despite further appeals, the ban was eventually confirmed by FIFA in June, to include banning the young keeper from competing at the 2008 Olympic Games. The ban lasted into October; in response, Central Coast signed former Manchester United and Australian international keeper Mark Bosnich on a seven-week contract.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Before the 2008–09 season, Central Coast was predicted to be among the A-League leaders, but had a run of three losses in a row to end the regular season. Even with the losing streak, the club narrowly qualified for the finals, finishing in fourth, two points ahead of Sydney F.C. and Wellington Phoenix. Central Coast lost 4–1 on aggregate in their minor semi-final against Queensland Roar, ending the team's season.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: In February 2010, following the club's 2009–10 season, McKinna chose to move into a new role, becoming Central Coast's Football and Commercial Operations Manager. Socceroos assistant manager Graham Arnold was appointed as the club's new manager, becoming its second manager. In the lead-up to the 2010–11 season, numerous transfers resulted in changes to the club's squad. The Mariners announced the signing of 2005 Under 20s World Cup winner Patricio Pérez of Argentina in June 2010, followed by Dutch defender Patrick Zwaanswijk. In July 2010, it was announced that the Mariners' women's team would not compete in the 2010–11 W-League competition. The club stated that financial reasons were behind the decision, after Football NSW withdrew its funding.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: In spite of relatively low expectations in the lead up to the season, the 2010–11 season was more successful for the club than 2009–10; the A-League and youth league teams both finished second in their respective leagues in the regular season. The senior team was then defeated by the premiers, Brisbane Roar, 4–2 on aggregate over two legs in the major semi-final, before defeating Gold Coast United 1–0 in the Preliminary Final to qualify for the 2011 A-League Grand Final against Brisbane. By reaching the Grand Final, the club also qualified for the 2012 AFC Champions League. In a championship match that the A-League's website called "classic", Central Coast was defeated 4–2 in a penalty shootout after leading 2–0 with three minutes remaining in extra time to finish runners-up for the third time.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The 2011–12 season was similarly successful, as the club won the premiership for the second time in its history with 51 points, two more than second-place Brisbane. The club failed to qualify for a second successive Grand Final, though, losing 5–2 on aggregate to Brisbane in the major semi-final and 5–3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw with Perth Glory in the Grand Final Qualifier.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: On 21 April 2013, after three losses in Grand Finals, Central Coast won its first A-League title, defeating first-year side Western Sydney Wanderers 2–0 in the Grand Final at Allianz Stadium. Arnold re-signed with the club for a further two seasons on 30 August 2013, but on 14 November it was confirmed that he had signed a two-year contract to become manager of J. League Division 1 side Vegalta Sendai, starting in January 2014. Former assistant manager Phil Moss was named the new head coach. Mariners general manager Peter Turnbull left the club as well, and New Zealand international Michael McGlinchey moved to the J. League to play for Arnold's new side. Central Coast finished the 2013–14 A-League regular season in third place, behind runner-up Western Sydney on goal difference. In the semi-final, the Mariners' championship hopes ended with a 2–0 loss to Western Sydney; the game came three days after the team was eliminated from the 2014 AFC Champions League after losing to Japanese club Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1–0 to finish last in their group.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: In what was Moss's first pre-season as coach, he did little to change what Arnold had built at the club. The only major changes in the side were with the addition of Senegalese international Malick Mané and Hungarian Richárd Vernes, and Marcos Flores leaving the club, with Mile Sterjovski retiring. Mariners began the season on a high, progressing to the semi-finals of the 2014 FFA Cup and defeating local rivals Newcastle Jets 1–0 at home in the opening round of the A-League. However the season soon turned with the team failing to secure a win for the remainder of the year. After their elimination from the 2015 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off by Chinese side Guangzhou R&F and a continued poor league record after a short mid-season break, the club stood down Moss as head coach. The decision was made on 6 March 2015, with Mariners appointing technical director Tony Walmsley in an interim capacity and captain John Hutchinson in a dual player-coach role, until the end of the season. Portuguese player Fábio Ferreira also joined the team at the tail end of the season. On 15 April Walmsley was announced as Mariners' permanent technical director and head coach for the 2015–16 season. The announcement came despite an end to the season in which the club finished the league in eighth position.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The Mariners had their equal-worst A-League performance to date in the 2015–16 season. Their 13 points, the fewest in club history, resulted in a last-place finish, and they set a league record by losing 20 games while winning only 3, a record low for the Mariners. Central Coast allowed 70 goals, the most in league history, and had a goal difference of −37, the worst by an A-League team. The Mariners' totals of goals conceded at home and away (32 and 38 respectively) were also A-League records, and they went the entire season without a clean sheet.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: In the 2016 FFA Cup, the Mariners suffered a 2–1 loss to Green Gully SC at Green Gully Reserve, becoming just the second A-League team to be eliminated by a state league team in the FFA Cup. Following this loss the club sacked Walmsley on 8 August 2016, with coaching duties in the leadup to the 2016–17 season taken up by assistant coach John Hutchinson in a caretaker role.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: On 29 August 2016, Paul Okon was hired as Central Coast's full-time coach, succeeding the sacked Tony Walmsley. In Okon's debut as Central Coast manager, the Mariners drew 3–3 with Perth Glory at Nib Stadium, after coming back from 3–0 down at half time.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Okon achieved his first win as Central Coast manager in his fifth game in charge: a 2–1 win over defending champions Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium on 6 November 2016. However, the Mariners ended the season in eighth.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: On 2 August 2017, for the second consecutive year, the Mariners were knocked out of the FFA Cup by a state league team in the first round, after losing 3–2 to Blacktown City. During the 2017–18 A-League season, the Mariners were in the top four at one stage, but after a run of 11 games without a win the club dropped down the table. Okon resigned as manager with Central Coast in ninth entering the last four rounds of the regular season; Wayne O'Sullivan served as an interim manager following Okon's departure. With a six-game losing streak at the end of the season, the team finished last for the second time in three years. Former Brisbane manager Mike Mulvey was hired by Central Coast in 2018. In the first 21 matches of the 2018–19 A-League season, the Mariners won only once. Mulvey was replaced as manager by Alen Stajcic, the former head coach of the Australia women's national team. Despite two wins in his six games as a caretaker manager, the Mariners were unable to avoid finishing at the bottom of the table again. Stajcic was given a three-year contract after the season.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: On August 4, 2020, after playing their last game of the 2019-20 season, the Mariners were put up for sale by owner Michael Charlesworth, putting the club at risk of leaving the Central Coast. If no buyer is found, the Mariners' A-League license will be handed back to the FFA.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: In his second full season at the club, Stajcic made some large signings, re-acquiring the services of former player Oliver Bozanic on October 21, 2020 after he had left Scottish club Hearts and signing Costa Rican international Marco Urena on December 22, 2020 after he had left South Korean club Gwangju FC.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The season had begun well with the Mariners beating local rivals Sydney FC in Sydney for the first time in 7 years. In somewhat of a fairy-tale story, the Mariners sat in first place after 16 rounds but would drop points during the later rounds to finish in third place. This qualified the club for their first finals appearance in 7 years. They would then lose to Macarthur FC 2–0 in the elimination finals on 12 June, 2021.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: On 17 June 2021, Stajcic decided to resign from the club. His replacement, Nick Montgomery, was announced on July 7, 2021.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Montgomery's first season continued on the success of last season. He brought the club to its first ever FFA Cup Final where they lost 2–1 to Melbourne Victory on 5 February, 2022. The Mariners also finished fifth in the A-League which qualified the club for a second consecutive finals series. They were again knocked out in the elimination finals, this time by Adelaide United, losing 3–1 on 15 May, 2022.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: On 10 June, 2022, the club announced that it had retained the services of Montgomery and assistant coach Sergio Raimundo until at least 2025.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The home jersey worn by the Mariners is mostly yellow with sleeves that are navy blue. The away uniform is a mostly plain navy blue jersey with yellow as a secondary colour. In the 2011–12 season, the club had its kits manufactured by Hummel, as the A-League's Reebok deal had expired at the conclusion of the 2010–11 season. In September 2012, it was announced that the Mariners had signed a two-year deal with Kappa for them to be the official apparel supplier. The team logo is a yellow football at the centre of a blue curling wave, which symbolises the beaches of the Central Coast.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Since 2012, the Mariners have worn special pink kits for one match in October to raise money and awareness for Pink Ribbon Day, part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Mariners club collected donations at the ground, as well as auctioning the match-worn kits on online auction site eBay with proceeds going to the charity.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Central Coast Mariners plays home games at Central Coast Stadium, Gosford. It is located in Grahame Park, between the Gosford Central Business District and the Brisbane Water foreshore. It is constructed to make the most of its location, being open at the southern end, giving filtered views of Brisbane Water through a row of large palm trees. It is within walking distance of Gosford railway station and is adjacent to the Central Coast Leagues Club.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: While the stadium has a capacity of 20,059, the highest attendance for a Mariners game is 19,238 against Newcastle Jets in round 19 of the 2007–08 season. Difficulties in drawing spectators led the Mariners to schedule matches in the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons away from Central Coast Stadium, at North Sydney Oval and Brookvale Oval. The club's goal was to play closer to its fan base in north Sydney, which majority owner Michael Charlesworth estimated to be about 20% of its total supporters. Following attendances at North Sydney Oval that were similar to those at Central Coast Stadium, Football Federation Australia CEO David Gallop suggested in December 2014 that it would be unlikely that the club would be permitted to continue playing in north Sydney.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The active supporters' group for the Mariners is called the Yellow Army, who sit in bay 16 of Central Coast Stadium during home games. In addition to the Yellow Army, there is a Central Coast Mariners Official Supporters Club, which was established during 2013. The Central Coast region has about 300,000 residents, which gives the Mariners the A-League's smallest local fan base. Accordingly, the Mariners acquired a small-market image among commentators.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: The Mariners developed a strong rivalry with Newcastle Jets throughout their first season, often referred to as the F3 Derby. The naming is a title previously used for the Sydney–Newcastle Freeway, the major motorway which joins the two clubs' cities. The rivalry's origins date back to before the teams played against each other in the A-League. A May 2005 Oceania Club Championship qualification match, which went to a penalty shootout that the Mariners won, helped create hostility between the sides. In the game, a tackle by Central Coast's Mrdja broke one of Newcastle player Andrew Durante's legs, causing him to miss the following A-League season; Mrdja offered no apology for the tackle, upsetting Jets players. Fans of the clubs battled verbally before and after one 2011 derby match, leading the "Newcastle Herald"'s Josh Leeson to call their actions "immature and laughable." In more recent seasons, the F3 Derby has gained less attention in the press than the derbies in Melbourne and Sydney, but Central Coast player Nicholas Fitzgerald maintains that "the players and fans still take it very seriously."


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Central Coast also have a rivalry with Sydney FC. Like Newcastle, Sydney FC is close in proximity to Central Coast. In 2006, the "Central Coast Express Advocate"'s Richard Noone called the Central Coast–Sydney rivalry "Arguably A-League's fiercest".


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: Through an investment in the Mariners by Sheffield United the club has the following international affiliations:


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: John Hutchinson currently holds the team record for number of total games played with 271 matches in all competitions. Former captain Matt Simon has the second most appearances for the club with 238 matches. Alex Wilkinson is the third most capped player with 206 appearances. As of 2020, Central Coast's all-time highest goalscorers in all competitions is Matt Simon with 66 goals, twenty-three more than Adam Kwasnik. Daniel McBreen has scored the third most goals for the club with 30. Central Coast's highest attendance at its home stadium, Central Coast Stadium, is 19,238 against Newcastle Jets in their round 19 match of the 2007–08 season. This was the second highest crowd at the ground for any sport since the first match at Central Coast Stadium in February 2000.


title: Central Coast Mariners FC

text: "The following is a list of Central Coast Mariners FC players who have achieved at least two of the following criteria:"


title: Craig Mack

text: Craig Jamieson Mack (May 10, 1971 – March 12, 2018) was an American rapper and record producer, and was famous during his tenure under Bad Boy Records.


title: Craig Mack

text: Craig Jamieson Mack was born in The Bronx, New York, and raised on Long Island. He began rapping as a teenager under the name MC EZ. His first single, "Get Retarded", was released in 1988 via Fresh Records. The single was backed with and credited as MC EZ & Troup.


title: Craig Mack

text: Mack became friends with fellow Long Island hip hop act EPMD and eventually went on tour with the duo, doing jobs as a roadie. After a few years without forward movement in his recording career and EPMD's breakup, Mack took advantage of an opportunity that Alvin Toney made possible for him to rap for Sean Combs. Mack then secured a record deal with Combs's newly founded label, Bad Boy Records.


title: Craig Mack

text: Mack is best known for his 1994 hit single "Flava in Ya Ear", which was released under his real name. The remix of the single was the breakout appearance of The Notorious B.I.G., as well as one of the first solo appearances by Busta Rhymes. While Mack was technically the first rapper to release music on Bad Boy Records, the success of The Notorious B.I.G.'s debut album "Ready to Die", which released exactly seven days before Mack's debut album "", overshadowed Mack's early success on the label.


title: Craig Mack

text: Although Sean Combs mentioned in a 1994 interview on MTV's "Yo! MTV Raps" that he was working with Mack on his second album, which was to be released sometime in January 1995, this proved to not be the case. Present at that interview (which also included The Notorious B.I.G.), Mack himself appeared puzzled by the statement. Mack did release a second album in 1997 without Bad Boy, but none of the singles charted and Mack was unable to repeat his success. In an interview, The Notorious B.I.G. says he appeared on the remix of "Flava in Ya Ear" for political reasons for Combs. In 2002, Mack would appear in the music video for Puffy's single "I Need a Girl (Part One)".


title: Craig Mack

text: After a few attempts to return to success in the early-2000s, it was said that Mack was working on his third studio album in 2002, which was set to be released in 2007. The single "Mack Tonight" was released for the album in 2006.


title: Craig Mack

text: Mack was absent from the hip hop industry until in 2012, when a video was leaked on YouTube saying he had joined a Christian ministry, surprising family members and fans. From 2012 until his death, Mack resided in the Overcomer Ministry located in Walterboro, South Carolina. The Overcomer Ministry is a secluded Christian commune that has been described as a cult, and whose leader Brother Stair has been charged with various crimes including assault and sexual conduct with a minor. The Overcomer Ministry's YouTube channel released a video, "Craig Mack Testimony" on May 22, 2016, in which Mack appears in the middle of the church to rap about Christianity through a remix of "When God Comes". The last part of the video entails a full version of the song with better production quality and a beat. The song expresses his personal beliefs. Mack planned to stay in the ministry and said that he had no intentions to come back to mainstream rap. The song also mentions that he "moved [his] family to South Carolina", which did not align with other reports expressing the family's concerns for his choices. According to the video, Mack felt he was doing "wickedness" in New York, and "righteousness" in South Carolina.


title: Craig Mack

text: On November 26, 2012, Beazylife Distribution released a new Craig Mack mixtape, "Operation Why2K? – Hosted by B-Eazy", through DatPiff.com. In 2017, "The Mack World Sessions" was released, containing 18 previously unreleased tracks. Dutch record label, MECSMI, released the 'That's My Word' mixtape, hosted by DJ Tape Deck King, via DatPiff and YouTube on August 20, 2018. On November 25, 2018, 'That's My Word' posthumously won Mixtape of the Year at Bout Dat Online's Audio Dope Awards. This marked the first time Mack had won an award since "Flava In Ya Ear" won Single of the Year at the 1995 Source Awards.


title: Craig Mack

text: Mack died on March 12, 2018, from heart failure at a hospital near his home at Walterboro, South Carolina. According to DJ Scratch, he was ill for some time before his death and was prepared for a grim outcome. Mack was apparently suffering from heart failure, having developed shortness of breath from around six months before his death when, according to rapper Erick Sermon, he called his friends to bid farewell.


title: Elyse Knox

text: Elyse Knox (born Elsie M. Kornbrath, December 14, 1917 – February 16, 2012) was an American actress, model, and fashion designer.


title: Elyse Knox

text: Knox was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Austrian immigrants Hermine Sophie (née Muck) and Frederick Kornbrath. She had a brother, Fred.


title: Elyse Knox

text: She attended Hartford Public High School, graduating in 1936, and studied at the Traphagen School of Fashion in Manhattan, New York.


title: Elyse Knox

text: Knox performed mainly in minor or secondary roles until 1942, when she had a leading role with Lon Chaney Jr. in "The Mummy's Tomb", one of the series of "Mummy" horror films made by Universal Studios. She appeared as herself in the Universal Studios 1944 production "Follow the Boys", one of the World War II morale-booster films made both for the soldiers serving overseas and civilians at home. Knox also was a pin-up girl during the war, appearing in such magazines as "Yank", a weekly published and distributed by the United States military.


title: Elyse Knox

text: In late 1945, Knox was signed by Monogram Pictures to portray Anne Howe, the love interest of fictional boxer Joe Palooka in "Joe Palooka, Champ". Based on the very popular comic strip, the instant success of the May 1946 film led to Knox appearing in another five "Joe Palooka" productions. After acting in 39 films, Knox retired in 1949 following her performance in the musical film "There's a Girl in My Heart".


title: Elyse Knox

text: While appearing on the Bing Crosby radio show, she met football star Tom Harmon, winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1940. They were engaged to be married, but ended the relationship when Harmon entered the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942. On February 21, 1942, Knox married commercial photographer Paul Hesse in Coronado, California.


title: Elyse Knox

text: Following her divorce and Harmon's return from World War II (during which he survived two plane crashes and being lost in the jungle), she and Harmon married in 1944. Her wedding dress was made of silk from the parachute Harmon used when bailing out of his plane. After Harmon's demobilization, they settled in the Los Angeles area.


title: Elyse Knox

text: The couple had three children: Kristin, Kelly, and Mark. Kristin became an actress and painter, who at 17 married recording artist Ricky Nelson and gave birth to four children: Tracy, twins Gunnar and Matthew, and Sam. Kelly, a model turned interior designer, was once married to automaker John DeLorean, and has two daughters and a son and two other stepchildren. Mark played quarterback at UCLA, became an actor, and has two sons with wife Pam Dawber.


title: Infertility

text: Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal state of a human child or other young offspring, because they have not undergone puberty, which is the body's start of reproductive capacity.


title: Infertility

text: In humans, infertility is the inability to become pregnant after one year of unprotected and regular sexual intercourse involving a male and female partner. There are many causes of infertility, including some that medical intervention can treat. Estimates from 1997 suggest that worldwide about five percent of all heterosexual couples have an unresolved problem with infertility. Many more couples, however, experience involuntary childlessness for at least one year: estimates range from 12% to 28%.


title: Infertility

text: Male infertility is responsible for 20–30% of infertility cases, while 20–35% are due to female infertility, and 25–40% are due to combined problems in both parts. In 10–20% of cases, no cause is found. The most common cause of female infertility is ovulatory problems, which generally manifest themselves by sparse or absent menstrual periods. Male infertility is most commonly due to deficiencies in the semen, and semen quality is used as a surrogate measure of male fecundity.


title: Infertility

text: Women who are fertile experience a period of fertility before and during ovulation, and are infertile for the rest of the menstrual cycle. Fertility awareness methods are used to discern when these changes occur by tracking changes in cervical mucus or basal body temperature.


title: Infertility

text: "Demographers tend to define infertility as childlessness in a population of women of reproductive age," whereas the epidemiological definition refers to "trying for" or "time to" a pregnancy, generally in a population of women exposed to a probability of conception. Currently, female fertility normally peaks at age 24 and diminishes after 30, with pregnancy occurring rarely after age 50. A female is most fertile within 24 hours of ovulation. Male fertility peaks usually at age 25 and declines after age 40.


title: Infertility

text: The time needed to pass (during which the couple tries to conceive) for that couple to be diagnosed with infertility differs between different jurisdictions. Existing definitions of infertility lack uniformity, rendering comparisons in prevalence between countries or over time problematic. Therefore, data estimating the prevalence of infertility cited by various sources differ significantly. A couple that tries unsuccessfully to have a child after a certain period of time (often a short period, but definitions vary) is sometimes said to be subfertile, meaning less fertile than a typical couple. Both infertility and subfertility are defined as the inability to conceive after a certain period of time (the length of which vary), so often the two terms overlap.


title: Infertility

text: One definition of infertility that is frequently used in the United States by reproductive endocrinologists, doctors who specialize in infertility, to consider a couple eligible for treatment is:


title: Infertility

text: These time intervals would seem to be reversed; this is an area where public policy trumps science. The idea is that for women beyond age 35, every month counts and if made to wait another six months to prove the necessity of medical intervention, the problem could become worse. The corollary to this is that, by definition, failure to conceive in women under 35 is not regarded with the same urgency as it is in those over 35.


title: Infertility

text: In the UK, previous NICE guidelines defined infertility as failure to conceive after regular unprotected sexual intercourse for two years in the absence of known reproductive pathology. Updated NICE guidelines do not include a specific definition, but recommend that "A woman of reproductive age who has not conceived after 1 year of unprotected vaginal sexual intercourse, in the absence of any known cause of infertility, should be offered further clinical assessment and investigation along with her partner, with earlier referral to a specialist if the woman is over 36 years of age."


title: Infertility

text: Researchers commonly base demographic studies on infertility prevalence over a five-year period. Practical measurement problems, however, exist for any definition, because it is difficult to measure continuous exposure to the risk of pregnancy over a period of years.


title: Infertility

text: Primary infertility is defined as the absence of a live birth for women who desire a child and have been in a union for at least 12 months, during which they have not used any contraceptives. The World Health Organisation also adds that 'women whose pregnancy spontaneously miscarries, or whose pregnancy results in a still born child, without ever having had a live birth would present with primarily infertility'.


title: Infertility

text: Secondary infertility is defined as the absence of a live birth for women who desire a child and have been in a union for at least 12 months since their last live birth, during which they did not use any contraceptives.


title: Infertility

text: Thus the distinguishing feature is whether or not the couple have ever had a pregnancy that led to a live birth.


title: Infertility

text: The consequences of infertility are manifold and can include societal repercussions and personal suffering. Advances in assisted reproductive technologies, such as IVF, can offer hope to many couples where treatment is available, although barriers exist in terms of medical coverage and affordability. The medicalization of infertility has unwittingly led to a disregard for the emotional responses that couples experience, which include distress, loss of control, stigmatization, and a disruption in the developmental trajectory of adulthood. One of the main challenges in assessing the distress levels in women with infertility is the accuracy of self-report measures. It is possible that women "fake good" in order to appear mentally healthier than they are. It is also possible that women feel a sense of hopefulness/increased optimism prior to initiating infertility treatment, which is when most assessments of distress are collected. Some early studies concluded that infertile women did not report any significant differences in symptoms of anxiety and depression than fertile women. The further into treatment a patient goes, the more often they display symptoms of depression and anxiety. Patients with one treatment failure had significantly higher levels of anxiety, and patients with two failures experienced more depression when compared with those without a history of treatment. However, it has also been shown that the more depressed the infertile woman, the less likely she is to start infertility treatment and the more likely she is to drop out after only one cycle. Researchers have also shown that despite a good prognosis and having the finances available to pay for treatment, discontinuation is most often due to psychological reasons. Fertility does not seem to increase when the women takes antioxidants to reduce the oxidative stress brought by the situation.


title: Infertility

text: Infertility may have psychological effects. Parenthood is one of the major transitions in adult life for both men and women. The stress of the non-fulfilment of a wish for a child has been associated with emotional consequences such as anger, depression, anxiety, marital problems and feelings of worthlessness.


title: Infertility

text: Partners may become more anxious to conceive, increasing sexual dysfunction. Marital discord often develops, especially when they are under pressure to make medical decisions. Women trying to conceive often have depression rates similar to women who have heart disease or cancer. Emotional stress and marital difficulties are greater in couples where the infertility lies with the man.


title: Infertility

text: Male and female partner respond differently to infertility problems. In general, women show higher depression levels than their male partners when dealing with infertility. A possible explanation may be that women feel more responsible and guilty than men during the process of trying to conceive. On the other hand, infertile men experience a psychosomatic distress.


title: Infertility

text: Having a child is considered to be important in most societies. Infertile couples may experience social and family pressure leading to a feeling of social isolation. Factors of gender, age, religion, and socioeconomic status are important influences. Societal pressures may affect a couple's decision to approach, avoid, or experience an infertility treatment.


title: Infertility

text: Moreover, the socioeconomic status influences the psychology of the infertile couples: low socioeconomic status is associated with increased chances of developing depression.


title: Infertility

text: In many cultures, inability to conceive bears a stigma. In closed social groups, a degree of rejection (or a sense of being rejected by the couple) may cause considerable anxiety and disappointment. Some respond by actively avoiding the issue altogether; middle-class men are the most likely to respond in this way.


title: Infertility

text: In the United States some treatments for infertility, including diagnostic tests, surgery and therapy for depression, can qualify one for Family and Medical Leave Act leave. It has been suggested that infertility be classified as a form of disability.


title: Infertility

text: Male infertility is responsible for 20–30% of infertility cases, while 20–35% are due to female infertility, and 25–40% are due to combined problems in both parts. In 10–20% of cases, no cause is found. The most common cause of female infertility is ovulatory problems, which generally manifest themselves by sparse or absent menstrual periods. Male infertility is most commonly due to deficiencies in the semen, and semen quality is used as a surrogate measure of male fecundity.


title: Infertility

text: Before puberty, humans are naturally infertile; their gonads have not yet developed the gametes required to reproduce: boys' testicles have not developed the sperm cells required to impregnate a female; girls have not begun the process of ovulation which activates the fertility of their egg cells (ovulation is confirmed by the first menstrual cycle, known as menarche, which signals the biological possibility of pregnancy). Infertility in children is commonly referred to as "prepubescence" (or being "prepubescent", an adjective used to also refer to humans without secondary sex characteristics).


title: Infertility

text: The absence of fertility in children is considered a natural part of human growth and child development, as the hypothalamus in their brain is still underdeveloped and cannot release the hormones required to activate the gonads' gametes. Fertility in children before the ages of eight or nine is considered a disease known as "precocious puberty". This disease is usually triggered by a brain tumor or other related injury.


title: Infertility

text: Delayed puberty, puberty absent past or occurring later than the average onset (between the ages of ten and fourteen), may be a cause of infertility. In the United States, girls are considered to have delayed puberty if they have not started menstruating by age 16 (alongside lacking breast development by age 13). Boys are considered to have delayed puberty if they lack enlargement of the testicles by age 14. Delayed puberty affects about 2% of adolescents.


title: Infertility

text: Most commonly, puberty may be delayed for several years and still occur normally, in which case it is considered constitutional delay of growth and puberty, a common variation of healthy physical development. Delay of puberty may also occur due to various causes such as malnutrition, various systemic diseases, or defects of the reproductive system (hypogonadism) or the body's responsiveness to sex hormones.


title: Infertility

text: Antisperm antibodies (ASA) have been considered as infertility cause in around 10–30% of infertile couples. In both men and women, ASA production are directed against surface antigens on sperm, which can interfere with sperm motility and transport through the female reproductive tract, inhibiting capacitation and acrosome reaction, impaired fertilization, influence on the implantation process, and impaired growth and development of the embryo. The antibodies are classified into different groups: There are IgA, IgG and IgM antibodies. They also differ in the location of the spermatozoon they bind on (head, mid piece, tail). Factors contributing to the formation of antisperm antibodies in women are disturbance of normal immunoregulatory mechanisms, infection, violation of the integrity of the mucous membranes, rape and unprotected oral or anal sex. Risk factors for the formation of antisperm antibodies in men include the breakdown of the blood‑testis barrier, trauma and surgery, orchitis, varicocele, infections, prostatitis, testicular cancer, failure of immunosuppression and unprotected receptive anal or oral sex with men.


title: Infertility

text: Infections with the following sexually transmitted pathogens have a negative effect on fertility: "Chlamydia trachomatis" and "Neisseria gonorrhoeae". There is a consistent association of "Mycoplasma genitalium" infection and female reproductive tract syndromes. "M. genitalium" infection is associated with increased risk of infertility.


title: Infertility

text: Mutations to NR5A1 gene encoding steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) have been found in a small subset of men with non-obstructive male factor infertility where the cause is unknown. Results of one study investigating a cohort of 315 men revealed changes within the hinge region of SF-1 and no rare allelic variants in fertile control men. Affected individuals displayed more severe forms of infertility such as azoospermia and severe oligozoospermia.


title: Infertility

text: Small supernumerary marker chromosomes are abnormal extra chromosomes; they are three times more likely to occur in infertile individuals and account for 0.125% of all infertility cases. See Infertility associated with small supernumerary marker chromosomes and Genetics of infertility#Small supernumerary marker chromosomes and infertility.


title: Infertility

text: German scientists have reported that a virus called adeno-associated virus might have a role in male infertility, though it is otherwise not harmful. Other diseases such as chlamydia, and gonorrhea can also cause infertility, due to internal scarring (fallopian tube obstruction).


title: Infertility

text: For a woman to conceive, certain things have to happen: vaginal intercourse must take place around the time when an egg is released from her ovary; the system that produces eggs has to be working at optimum levels; and her hormones must be balanced.


title: Infertility

text: For women, problems with fertilization arise mainly from either structural problems in the Fallopian tube or uterus or problems releasing eggs. Infertility may be caused by blockage of the Fallopian tube due to malformations, infections such as chlamydia or scar tissue. For example, endometriosis can cause infertility with the growth of endometrial tissue in the Fallopian tubes or around the ovaries. Endometriosis is usually more common in women in their mid-twenties and older, especially when postponed childbirth has taken place.


title: Infertility

text: Another major cause of infertility in women may be the inability to ovulate. Ovulatory disorders make up 25% of the known causes of female infertility. Oligo-ovulation or anovulation results in infertility because no oocyte will be released monthly. In the absence of an oocyte, there is no opportunity for fertilization and pregnancy. World Health Organization subdivided ovulatory disorders into four classes:


title: Infertility

text: Malformation of the eggs themselves may complicate conception. For example, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is when the eggs only partially develop within the ovary and there is an excess of male hormones. Some women are infertile because their ovaries do not mature and release eggs. In this case, synthetic FSH by injection or Clomid (Clomiphene citrate) via a pill can be given to stimulate follicles to mature in the ovaries.


title: Infertility

text: Other factors that can affect a woman's chances of conceiving include being overweight or underweight, or her age as female fertility declines after the age of 30.