title: Danbury, Connecticut

text: Danbury High School carries a strong athletic tradition in wrestling, boys and girls track and field, boys cross country, baseball, tennis, basketball, and football. The wrestling, boys cross country, and boys track teams have all numerous state titles and New England championships. All three programs are considered to be nationally ranked annually.


title: Danbury, Connecticut

text: Western Connecticut State University is a member of the NCAA Division III, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and the Little East Conference. The university fields teams in baseball, basketball, lacrosse, football, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, and volleyball. WestConn also fields several nationally competitive club sports on campus including Men's Rugby, Women's Rugby, Dance Team, Cheerleading, and Men's Hockey.


title: Danbury, Connecticut

text: The Danbury Hatters Cricket Club formed in 2001 and has been playing cricket in Southern Connecticut along with other cities such as Norwalk, Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury and West Haven. Their home ground is Broadview Middle School.


title: Danbury, Connecticut

text: The Western Connecticut Militia is a semi-professional football team that played in the New England Football League from 2011 to 2016, winning the league championship the last year. The team played its home games in Danbury during that period. After taking 2017 off, the team joined Major League Football for the 2018 season, playing its home games in New Fairfield, CT.


title: Danbury, Connecticut

text: Danbury is home to Teixeira MMA & Fitness, a Mixed Martial Arts gym owned and operated by former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Glover Teixeira and his wife Ingrid. In addition to Glover Teixeira, the gym is also home to reigning UFC Middleweight champion Alex Peirera.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: A wallpaper or background (also known as a desktop background, desktop picture or desktop image on computers) is a digital image (photo, drawing etc.) used as a decorative background of a graphical user interface on the screen of a computer, smartphone or other electronic device. On a computer, wallpapers are generally used on the desktop, while on a mobile phone they serve as the background for the "home screen". Though most devices come with a default background image, modern devices usually allow users to manually change the background image.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: The term "wallpaper" was used in Microsoft Windows before Windows XP (where it is called the "desktop background"), while macOS refers to it as "desktop picture". On older systems which allowed small repeated patterns to be set as background images, the term desktop pattern was used.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: The X Window System was one of the earliest systems to include support for an arbitrary image as wallpaper via the xsetroot program, which at least as early as the X10R3 release in 1985 could tile the screen with any solid color or any binary-image X BitMap file. In 1989, a free software program called was released that allowed an arbitrary color GIF image to be used as wallpaper, and in the same year the free xloadimage program was released which could display a variety of image formats (including color images in Sun Rasterfile format) as the desktop background. Subsequently, a number of programs were released that added wallpaper support for additional image formats and other features, such as the xpmroot program (released in 1993 as part of fvwm) and the xv software (released in 1994).


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: The original Macintosh operating system only allowed a selection of 8×8-pixel binary-image tiled patterns; the ability to use small color patterns was added in System 5 in 1987. Mac OS 8 in 1997 was the first Macintosh version to include built-in support for using arbitrary images as desktop pictures, rather than small repeating patterns.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Windows 3.0 in 1990 was the first version of Microsoft Windows to come with support for wallpaper customization, and used the term "wallpaper" for this feature. Although Windows 3.0 only came with 7 small patterns (2 black-and-white and 5 16-color), the user could supply other images in the BMP file format with up to 8-bit color (although the system was theoretically capable of handling 24-bit color images, it did so by dithering them to an 8-bit palette) to provide similar wallpaper features otherwise lacking in those systems. A wallpaper feature was added in a beta release of OS/2 2.0 in 1991.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Due to the widespread use of personal computers, some wallpapers have become immensely recognizable and gained iconic cultural status. "Bliss", the default wallpaper of Microsoft Windows XP has become the most viewed photograph of the 2000s.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Animated backgrounds (sometimes referred to as "live backgrounds" or "dynamic backgrounds") refers to wallpapers which feature a moving image or a 2D / 3D scene as an operating system background rather than a static image, it may also refer to wallpapers being cycled in a playlist, often with certain transition effects. Some operating systems, such as Android, provide native support for animated wallpapers.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Since Windows 7, modern Windows systems can be configured to cycle through pictures from a folder at regular intervals. Windows does not natively support animated backgrounds, however, third-party software can be installed to have full support for placing animated images, video files, 2D or 3D scenes, and web pages as wallpapers. Similar functionality could be found in the Active Desktop feature of Internet Explorer versions 4 to 6, which is included in Windows 95 OSR 2.5 through Windows XP.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Live wallpapers have been introduced in Android Eclair to provide native support for animated wallpapers. From a technical point of view, live wallpapers are software applications that provide a moving background image and may allow for user interaction or utilize other hardware and software features within the device (accelerometer, GPS, network access, etc.).


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: macOS has built-in support, via the Desktop & Screen Saver panel in its System Preferences, for cycling through a folder collection of images on a timed interval or when logging in or waking from sleep. Since macOS Mojave, the user can also select a "Dynamic Desktop" that automatically updates to visually match the time of the day.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Additionally, macOS has the native ability to run a screen saver on the desktop; in this configuration, the screen saver appears beneath the desktop icons in place of the system wallpaper. However, macOS does not come with a built-in interface to do this; it must be done through Terminal commands or various third-party applications.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Dynamically animated backgrounds have also been introduced in iOS 7 and later versions, however they are restricted to the ones provided by Apple. Jailbroken iOS devices can download other dynamic backgrounds.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Linux distributions usually provides their own original backgrounds as well. For example, Debian put many alternative backgrounds under its system's /usr/share/backgrounds directory.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: GNOME 2 also can be set to cycle through pictures from a folder at regular intervals, similarly to Windows 7.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: KDE version 4 and later provide various dynamic wallpapers, including a slideshow, and other options provided by plugins, such as fractals and Earth map.


title: Wallpaper (computing)

text: Enlightenment v17 supports image sequences, animated and interactive desktop backgrounds in its default configuration.


title: Goatman (urban legend)

text: According to urban legend, Goatman is a creature resembling a goat-human hybrid often credited with canine deaths and purported to take refuge in the woods of Prince George's County, Maryland, United States.


title: Goatman (urban legend)

text: Goatman stories originated in the early 1970s, within Prince George's County, following the disappearances and/or deaths of multiple dogs, which were later attributed to the creature. However, given the condition of remains, the deaths may more likely have been the result of passing trains. Despite evidence to the contrary, stories of Goatman's existence continued to circulate, especially among local students. Graffiti reading, "Goatman was here," was not uncommon, and law enforcement would habitually receive calls of reported sightings, albeit with a number being pranks.


title: Goatman (urban legend)

text: The creature was commonly claimed to have a human face but with a body covered in hair. However, descriptions differed on whether Goatman greater resembled a hairy humanoid or a human with the lower portion of a goat similar to the fauns of Greek mythology.


title: Goatman (urban legend)

text: As well, Goatman was rumored to reside in a makeshift shelter in the wooded region of northwestern Prince George's County near the vicinity of Bowie. Occasionally, it was rumored that Goatman would venture out to kill a dog or rush up abruptly beating cars with an ax.


title: Goatman (urban legend)

text: According to some variations of the legend, Goatman is said to have once been a scientist who worked in the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. In this version, an experiment on goats backfires and the scientist mutates into a half man, half goat creature who begins aggressively attacking cars in the vicinity of Beltsville, Maryland. Another variation of the legend holds that Goatman himself was an old hermit who lived in the woods and often could be seen walking alone at night along Fletchertown Road.


title: Goatman (urban legend)

text: According to University of Maryland folklorist Barry Pearson, the Goatman legend began "long, long, long" ago and were further popularized in 1971 when the death of a dog was blamed on Goatman by local residents. Pearson relates that "bored teenagers" keep the Goatman legend alive by repeating the story and suggesting that the creature attacks couples, frequenting the local lover's lane, subsequently stirring interest in sites like Fletchertown Road.


title: Amy Poehler filmography

text: This is the complete filmography of Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award-winning actress, voice artist, comedian, writer, director, and producer Amy Poehler.


title: Rahman Ali

text: Rahaman Ali (born Rudolph Valentino Clay; July 18, 1944) is an American former heavyweight boxer. He is the younger brother of Muhammad Ali.


title: Rahman Ali

text: Ali was born to Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. and Odessa Clay on July 18, 1944, 30 months after his brother Cassius. Muhammad started boxing in a Louisville, Kentucky amateur boxing league. While he went to the 1960 Olympics, Rahaman was not selected and remained amateur until February 25, 1964, the night his brother won one of his heavyweight titles over Sonny Liston. As a professional boxer, Rahman won 14 bouts, lost 3, and had one draw. In his career he knocked out seven opponents and was himself knocked out once. After back to back losses ending with Rahaman being knocked out by Jack O'Halloran he retired from professional boxing. Rahaman released his autobiography on January 17, 2015 with a book titled, "That's Muhammad Ali's Brother! My Life on the Undercard", which is coauthored by H.Ron Brashear and the foreword written by Gene Kilroy - the longtime business manager of Muhammad Ali. In 2019, Rahaman released his 2nd book titled "My Brother, Muhammad Ali - The Definitive Biography". It is coauthored by Fiaz Rafiq, with the foreword written by NFL legend Jim Brown. The book is currently published in eight different languages around the world.


title: David Pasquesi

text: David Pasquesi (born December 22, 1960) is an American actor and comedian. His screen credits include "Groundhog Day", "Strangers with Candy", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Return to Me", "The Ice Harvest", "Veep", "At Home with Amy Sedaris", "Lodge 49", and "The Book of Boba Fett".


title: David Pasquesi

text: Pasquesi was born in Chicago and raised in Lake Bluff, Illinois. He graduated from Lake Forest High School.


title: David Pasquesi

text: Pasquesi starred in the short film "Regrets" that premiered "An Event Apart", and co-starred in "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With". He wrote for "Exit 57" and "Strangers with Candy", co-wrote and appeared in the Spike TV series "Factory", and co-wrote and co-starred in "Cop Show". In 2009, he was in the cast of "Angels & Demons", where he played the character Claudio Vincenzi. He co-created and co-wrote the new show "Merkin Penal". Similarly to his role of "Meat Man Stew" in "Strangers With Candy", Pasquesi plays "Knife Man" in "At Home with Amy Sedaris".


title: David Pasquesi

text: Pasquesi has performed at The Second City, iO Theater, Improv Institute, and Annoyance Theatre, and studied under Del Close in the early 80s and became part of the first iO Harold team "Baron's Barracudas". He appeared in four mainstage revues at Second City as well as in plays at the Steppenwolf Theatre and the Goodman Theatre.


title: David Pasquesi

text: In 2009, he played a supporting role in the Harold Ramis film "Year One" as the Prime Minister of Sodom. Pasquesi was a cast member in the Chicago premiere of Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage" at the Goodman Theatre.


title: David Pasquesi

text: Since 2002, he has been performing with T. J. Jagodowski in the all improvised show "TJ and Dave". In 2006 they began an Off Broadway run, performing monthly at The Barrow Street Theatre in New York City. The Chicago Reader has described the show as "an hour of subtle character development, verbal facility, and pantomimic agility that anticipates and plays off the audience's reactions." Guests of the show include "'s" Tracy Letts, Academy Award Nominee Michael Shannon, SNL's Mike O'Brien, and Absinthe's Jet Eveleth. The 2009 South by Southwest Film festival included the documentary "Trust Us, This is All Made Up" directed by Alex Karpovsky, which chronicles a "T.J. and Dave" performance.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Nicholas Nickleby or The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (or also The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the Nickleby Family) is a novel by Charles Dickens originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839. It was Dickens's third novel. The story centres on the life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father dies.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: "Nicholas Nickleby" is Charles Dickens's third novel. He returned to his favourite publishers and to the format that was considered so successful with "The Pickwick Papers". The story first appeared in monthly parts, after which it was issued in one volume. Dickens began writing "Nickleby" while still working on "Oliver Twist".


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Nicholas Nickleby's father dies unexpectedly after losing all of his money in a poor investment. Nicholas, his mother and his younger sister, Kate, are forced to give up their comfortable lifestyle in Devonshire and travel to London to seek the aid of their only relative, Nicholas's uncle, Ralph Nickleby. Ralph, a cold and ruthless businessman, has no desire to help his destitute relations and hates Nicholas at first sight because he reminds him of his dead brother. He gets Nicholas a very low-paying job as an assistant to Wackford Squeers, who runs the school Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire. Nicholas is initially wary of Squeers (a very unpleasant man with one eye) because he is gruff and violent towards his young charges, but he tries to quell his suspicions. As Nicholas boards the stagecoach for Greta Bridge, he is handed a letter by Ralph's clerk, Newman Noggs. A once-wealthy businessman, Noggs lost his fortune, became a drunk, and had no other recourse but to seek employment with Ralph, whom he loathes. The letter expresses concern for him as an innocent young man and offers assistance if Nicholas ever requires it. Once he arrives in Yorkshire, Nicholas comes to realise that Squeers is running a scam: he takes in unwanted children (most of whom are illegitimate, crippled or deformed) for a high fee, and starves and mistreats them while using the money sent by their parents, who only want to get them out of their way, to pad his own pockets. Squeers and his monstrous wife whip and beat the children regularly while spoiling their own son. Lessons are no better; they show how poorly educated Squeers himself is and he uses the lessons as excuses to send the boys off on chores. While he is there, Nicholas befriends a "simple" boy named Smike, who is older than the other "students" and now acts as an unpaid servant. Nicholas attracts the attention of Fanny Squeers, his employer's plain and shrewish daughter, who deludes herself into thinking that Nicholas is in love with her. She attempts to disclose her affections during a game of cards, but Nicholas doesn't catch her meaning. Instead, he ends up flirting with her friend Tilda Price, to the consternation of both Fanny and Tilda's friendly but crude-mannered fiancé John Browdie. After being accosted by Fanny again, Nicholas bluntly tells her he does not return her affections and wishes to be free of the horrible atmosphere of Dotheboys Hall, earning her enmity.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Fanny uses her new-found loathing of Nicholas to make life difficult for the only friend he has at the school: Smike, whom Squeers takes to beating more and more frequently. One day Smike runs away but is caught and brought back to Dotheboys. Squeers begins to beat him, but Nicholas intervenes. Squeers strikes him across the face and Nicholas snaps, beating the schoolmaster violently. During the fight, Fanny steps in and attacks Nicholas, hating him for rejecting her love. Nicholas ignores her and goes on to beat Squeers bloody. Quickly packing his belongings and leaving Dotheboys Hall, he meets John Browdie on the way. Browdie finds the idea that Squeers himself has been beaten uproariously funny, and gives Nicholas money and a walking staff to aid him on his trip back to London. At dawn, he is found by Smike, who begs to come with him. Nicholas and Smike set out towards London. Among other things, Nicholas wants to find out what Squeers is going to tell his uncle.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Meanwhile, Kate and her mother are forced by Ralph to move out of their lodgings in the house of the kindly portrait painter Miss LaCreevy and into a cold and draughty house Ralph owns in a London slum. Ralph finds employment for Kate working for a fashionable milliner, Madame Mantalini. Her husband, Mr Mantalini, is a gigolo who depends on his (significantly older) wife to supply his extravagant tastes, and offends Kate by leering at her. Kate proves initially clumsy at her job, which endears her to the head of the showroom, Miss Knag, a vain and foolish woman who uses Kate to make herself look better. This backfires when a client prefers to be served by the young and pretty Kate rather than the ageing Miss Knag. Kate is blamed for the insult, and as a result, Kate is ostracised by the other milliners and left friendless.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Nicholas seeks out the aid of Newman Noggs, who shows him a letter that Fanny Squeers has written to Ralph. It viciously exaggerates the events of the beating and slanders Nicholas. They suspect Ralph secretly knows the truth but is latching onto Fanny's account to further persecute Nicholas. Noggs tells Nicholas, who is intent on confronting his uncle, that Ralph is out of town and advises him to find a job. Nicholas goes to an employment office, where he encounters a strikingly beautiful girl. His search for employment fails, and he is about to give up when Noggs offers him the meagre position of French teacher to the children of his neighbours, the Kenwigs family, and Nicholas is hired under the assumed name of "Johnson" to teach the children French.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Ralph asks Kate to attend a dinner he is hosting for some business associates. When she arrives she discovers she is the only woman in attendance, and it becomes clear Ralph is using her as bait to entice the foolish nobleman Lord Frederick Verisopht to do business with him. The other guests include Verisopht's mentor and friend, the disreputable nobleman Sir Mulberry Hawk, who humiliates Kate at dinner by making her the subject of an offensive bet (i.e., that she cannot look him in the eye and say that she does not want him to make love to her--NOTE: "Make love" did not mean sex in the novel, but rather to be romanced). She flees the table but is later accosted by Hawk. He attempts to force himself on her but is stopped by Ralph. Ralph shows some unexpected tenderness towards Kate but insinuates that he will withdraw his financial help if she tells her mother about what happened.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: The next day, Nicholas discovers that his uncle has returned. He visits his mother and sister just as Ralph is reading them Fanny Squeers' letter and slandering Nicholas. He confronts his uncle, who vows to give no financial assistance to the Nicklebys as long as Nicholas stays with them. His hand forced, Nicholas agrees to leave London but warns Ralph that a day of reckoning will one day come between them.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: The next morning, Nicholas and Smike travel towards Portsmouth with the intention of becoming sailors. At an inn, they encounter the theatrical manager Vincent Crummles, who hires Nicholas (still going under the name of Johnson) on sight. Nicholas is the new juvenile lead, and also playwright, with the task of adapting French tragedies into English and then modifying them for the troupe's minimal dramatic abilities. Nicholas and Smike join the acting company and are warmly received by the troupe, which includes Crummles's formidable wife, their daughter, "The Infant Phenomenon", and many other eccentric and melodramatic thespians. Nicholas and Smike make their debuts in "Romeo and Juliet", as Romeo and the Apothecary respectively, and are met with great acclaim from the provincial audiences. Nicholas enjoys a flirtation with his Juliet, the lovely Miss Snevellici.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Back in London, Mr Mantalini's reckless spending has bankrupted his wife. Madame Mantalini is forced to sell her business to Miss Knag, whose first order of business is to fire Kate. She finds employment as the companion of the social-climbing Mrs Wittiterly. Meanwhile, Sir Mulberry Hawk begins a plot to humiliate Kate for refusing his advances. He uses Lord Frederick, who is infatuated with her, to discover where she lives from Ralph. He is about to succeed in this plot when Mrs. Nickleby enters Ralph's office, and the two rakes switch their attentions from Kate's uncle to her mother, successfully worming their way into Mrs Nickleby's company and gaining access to the Wittiterly house. Mrs. Wittiterly grows jealous and admonishes Kate for flirting with the noblemen. The unfairness of this accusation makes Kate so angry that she rebukes her employer, who flies into a fit of hysterics. With no other recourse, Kate goes to her uncle for assistance, but he refuses to help her, citing his business relationships with Hawk and Verisopht. It is left to Newman Noggs to come to her aid, and he writes to Nicholas, telling him in vague terms of his sister's urgent need of him. Nicholas immediately quits the Crummles troupe and returns to London.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Noggs and Miss LaCreevy confer and decide to delay telling Nicholas of Kate's plight until it is too late at night for him to seek out Hawk and take violent action. So, when Nicholas arrives, both Noggs and Miss La Creevy are out. Nicholas is about to search the city for them when he accidentally overhears Hawk and Lord Frederick rudely toasting Kate in a coffeehouse. He is able to glean from their conversation what has happened and confronts them. Hawk refuses to give Nicholas his name or respond to his accusations. When he attempts to leave, Nicholas follows him out, and leaps onto the running board of his carriage, demanding his name. Hawk strikes him with a riding crop, and Nicholas loses his temper, returning the blow and spooking the horses, causing the carriage to crash. Hawk is injured in the crash and vows revenge, but Lord Verisopht, remorseful for his treatment of Kate, tells him that he will attempt to stop him. Later, after Hawk has recovered, they quarrel over Hawk's insistence on revenging himself against Nicholas. Verisopht strikes Hawk, resulting in a duel. Verisopht is killed, and Hawk flees to France. As a result, Ralph loses a large sum of money owed to him by the deceased lord.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Nicholas collects Kate from the Wittiterlys, and with their mother and Smike, they move back into Miss LaCreevy's house. Nicholas pens a letter to Ralph, refusing, on behalf of his family, a penny of his uncle's money or influence. Returning to the employment office, Nicholas meets Charles Cheeryble, a wealthy and extremely benevolent merchant who runs a business with his twin brother Ned. Hearing Nicholas's story, the brothers take him into their employ at a generous salary and provide his family with a small house in a London suburb.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Ralph encounters a beggar, who recognises him and reveals himself as Brooker, Ralph's former employee. He attempts to blackmail Ralph with a piece of unknown information but is driven off. Returning to his office, Ralph receives Nicholas's letter and begins plotting against his nephew in earnest. Wackford Squeers returns to London and joins Ralph in his plots.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Smike, on a London street, has the misfortune to run into Squeers, who kidnaps him. Luckily for Smike, John Browdie is honeymooning in London with his new wife Tilda and discovers his predicament. When they have dinner with Squeers, Browdie fakes an illness and takes the opportunity to rescue Smike and send him back to Nicholas. In gratitude, Nicholas invites the Browdies to dinner. At the party, also attended by the Cheerybles' nephew Frank and their elderly clerk Tim Linkinwater, Ralph and Squeers attempt to reclaim Smike by presenting forged documents to the effect that he is the long-lost son of a man named Snawley (who, in actuality, is a friend of Squeers with children at Dotheboys Hall). Smike refuses to go, but the threat of legal action remains.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: While at work, Nicholas encounters the beautiful young woman he had seen in the employment office and realises he is in love with her. The brothers tell him that her name is Madeline Bray, the penniless daughter of a debtor, Walter Bray, and enlist his help in obtaining small sums of money for her by commissioning her artwork, the only way they can help her due to her tyrannical father.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Arthur Gride, an elderly miser, offers to pay a debt Ralph is owed by Walter Bray in exchange for the moneylender's help. Gride has illegally gained possession of the will of Madeline's grandfather, and she will become an heiress upon the event of her marriage. The two moneylenders persuade Bray to bully his daughter into accepting the disgusting Gride as a husband, with the promise of paying off his debts. Ralph is not aware of Nicholas's involvement with the Brays, and Nicholas does not discover Ralph's scheme until the eve of the wedding. He appeals to Madeline to cancel the wedding, but despite her feelings for Nicholas, she is too devoted to her dying father to go against his wishes. On the day of the wedding, Nicholas attempts to stop it once more but his efforts prove academic when Bray, guilt-ridden at the sacrifice his daughter has made for him, dies unexpectedly. Madeline thus has no reason to marry Gride and Nicholas and Kate take her to their house to recover.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Smike has contracted tuberculosis and become dangerously ill. In a last attempt to save his friend's health, Nicholas takes him to his childhood home in Devonshire, but Smike's health rapidly deteriorates. On his deathbed, Smike is startled to see the man who brought him to Squeers's school. Nicholas dismisses it as an illusion but it is later revealed that Smike was right. After confessing his love for Kate, Smike dies peacefully in Nicholas's arms.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: When they return to Gride's home after the aborted wedding, Ralph and Gride discover that Peg Sliderskew, Gride's aged housekeeper, has robbed Gride, taking, amongst other things, the will. To get it back, Ralph enlists Wackford Squeers's services to track down Peg. Noggs discovers this plot, and with the help of Frank Cheeryble, he is able to recover the will and have Squeers arrested.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: The Cheeryble brothers confront Ralph, informing him that his various schemes against Nicholas have failed. They advise him to retire from London before charges are brought up against him, as Squeers is determined to confess all and implicate Ralph. He refuses their help but is summoned back to their offices that evening and told that Smike is dead. When he reacts to the news with vicious glee, the brothers reveal their final card. The beggar Brooker emerges and tells Ralph that Smike was his son. As a young man, Ralph had married a woman for her fortune but kept it secret so she would not forfeit her inheritance for marrying without her brother's consent, and wait for the brother to die. She eventually left him after bearing him a son, whom he entrusted to Brooker, who was then his clerk. Brooker, taking the opportunity for vengeance, took the boy to Squeers' school and told Ralph the boy had died. Brooker now repents his action, but a transportation sentence kept him from putting the matter right. Devastated at the thought that his only son died as the best friend of his greatest enemy, Ralph commits suicide. His ill-gotten fortune ends up in the state coffers because he died intestate and his estranged relatives decline to claim it.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: Squeers is sentenced to transportation to Australia, and, upon hearing this, the boys at Dotheboys Hall rebel against the Squeers family and escape with the assistance of John Browdie. Nicholas becomes a partner in the Cheerybles' firm and marries Madeline. Kate and Frank Cheeryble also marry, as do Tim Linkinwater and Miss LaCreevy. Brooker dies penitent. Noggs recovers his respectability. The Nicklebys and their now extended family return to Devonshire, where they live in peace and contentment and grieve over Smike's grave.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: As in most of Dickens's works, there is a sprawling number of characters in the book. The major characters in "Nicholas Nickleby" include:


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: The novel has been adapted for stage, film or television at least seven times. The earliest theatrical version actually appeared before publication of the serialised novel was finished, with the resolution of the stage play wildly different from that of the eventual finished novel. Dickens's offence at this plagiarism prompted him to have Nicholas encounter a "literary gentleman" in chapter forty-eight of the novel. The gentleman brags that he has dramatised two hundred and forty-seven novels "as fast as they had come out – in some cases faster than they had come out", and claims to have thus bestowed fame on their authors. In response Nicholas delivers a lengthy and heated condemnation of the practice of adapting still-unfinished books without the author's permission, going so far as to say:


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: The 1838 play "Nicholas Nickleby; or, Doings at Do-The-Boys Hall" premièred at the Adelphi Theatre and City of London Theatre, and featured Mary Anne Keeley as Smike.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: An 1850s American version featured Joseph Jefferson as Newman Noggs; another in the late 19th century featured Nellie Farren as Smike.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: The 1973 musical "Smike" is an adaptation focusing on the character Smike, written by Simon May, Clive Barnett and Roger Holman.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: A large-scale theatrical production, "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby", by playwright David Edgar, premiered in 1980 in the West End by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was a theatrical experience which lasted more than ten hours (counting intermissions and a dinner break – the actual playing time was approximately eight-and-a-half hours). The production received both critical and popular acclaim. All of the actors played multiple roles because of the huge number of characters, except for Roger Rees, who played Nicholas, and David Threlfall, who played Smike (due to the large amount of time they were on stage). The play moved to Broadway in 1981.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: In 2006 Edgar prepared a shorter version for a production at the Chichester Festival, which transferred in December 2007 and January 2008 to the Gielgud Theatre in the West End. This version has been produced in the US by the California Shakespeare Festival.


title: Nicholas Nickleby

text: "Nicholas Nickleby" was originally issued in 19 monthly numbers; the last was a double-number and cost two shillings instead of one. Each number comprised 32 pages of text and two illustrations by Phiz:


title: Pony Verma

text: Rashmi Verma, known professionally as Pony Verma, is an Indian dance choreographer, who began her career in the year 2000. She has also done a dance reality show, "Chak Dhoom Dhoom" for Colors channel. Pony Verma married actor Prakash Raj on 24 August 2010. They have one child together: a boy born in February 2016.


title: Wavelet

text: A wavelet is a wave-like oscillation with an amplitude that begins at zero, increases or decreases, and then returns to zero one or more times. Wavelets are termed a "brief oscillation". A taxonomy of wavelets has been established, based on the number and direction of its pulses. Wavelets are imbued with specific properties that make them useful for signal processing.


title: Wavelet

text: For example, a wavelet could be created to have a frequency of Middle C and a short duration of roughly one tenth of a second. If this wavelet were to be convolved with a signal created from the recording of a melody, then the resulting signal would be useful for determining when the Middle C note appeared in the song. Mathematically, a wavelet correlates with a signal if a portion of the signal is similar. Correlation is at the core of many practical wavelet applications.


title: Wavelet

text: As a mathematical tool, wavelets can be used to extract information from many different kinds of data, including but not limited to audio signals and images. Sets of wavelets are needed to analyze data fully. "Complementary" wavelets decompose a signal without gaps or overlaps so that the decomposition process is mathematically reversible. Thus, sets of complementary wavelets are useful in wavelet-based compression/decompression algorithms, where it is desirable to recover the original information with minimal loss.


title: Wavelet

text: In formal terms, this representation is a wavelet series representation of a square-integrable function with respect to either a complete, orthonormal set of basis functions, or an overcomplete set or frame of a vector space, for the Hilbert space of square integrable functions. This is accomplished through coherent states.


title: Wavelet

text: In classical physics, the diffraction phenomenon is described by the Huygens–Fresnel principle that treats each point in a propagating wavefront as a collection of individual spherical wavelets. The characteristic bending pattern is most pronounced when a wave from a coherent source (such as a laser) encounters a slit/aperture that is comparable in size to its wavelength. This is due to the addition, or interference, of different points on the wavefront (or, equivalently, each wavelet) that travel by paths of different lengths to the registering surface. Multiple, closely spaced openings (e.g., a diffraction grating), can result in a complex pattern of varying intensity.


title: Wavelet

text: The word "wavelet" has been used for decades in digital signal processing and exploration geophysics. The equivalent French word "ondelette" meaning "small wave" was used by Morlet and Grossmann in the early 1980s.


title: Wavelet

text: Wavelet theory is applicable to several subjects. All wavelet transforms may be considered forms of time-frequency representation for continuous-time (analog) signals and so are related to harmonic analysis. Discrete wavelet transform (continuous in time) of a discrete-time (sampled) signal by using discrete-time filterbanks of dyadic (octave band) configuration is a wavelet approximation to that signal. The coefficients of such a filter bank are called the shift and scaling coefficients in wavelets nomenclature. These filterbanks may contain either finite impulse response (FIR) or infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. The wavelets forming a continuous wavelet transform (CWT) are subject to the uncertainty principle of Fourier analysis respective sampling theory: Given a signal with some event in it, one cannot assign simultaneously an exact time and frequency response scale to that event. The product of the uncertainties of time and frequency response scale has a lower bound. Thus, in the scaleogram of a continuous wavelet transform of this signal, such an event marks an entire region in the time-scale plane, instead of just one point. Also, discrete wavelet bases may be considered in the context of other forms of the uncertainty principle.


title: Wavelet

text: Wavelet transforms are broadly divided into three classes: continuous, discrete and multiresolution-based.


title: Wavelet

text: In continuous wavelet transforms, a given signal of finite energy is projected on a continuous family of frequency bands (or similar subspaces of the "L" function space "L"(R) ). For instance the signal may be represented on every frequency band of the form ["f", 2"f"] for all positive frequencies "f" > 0. Then, the original signal can be reconstructed by a suitable integration over all the resulting frequency components.


title: Wavelet

text: The frequency bands or subspaces (sub-bands) are scaled versions of a subspace at scale 1. This subspace in turn is in most situations generated by the shifts of one generating function ψ in "L"(R), the "mother wavelet". For the example of the scale one frequency band [1, 2] this function is


title: Wavelet

text: The subspace of scale "a" or frequency band [1/"a", 2/"a"] is generated by the functions (sometimes called "child wavelets")


title: Wavelet

text: where "a" is positive and defines the scale and "b" is any real number and defines the shift. The pair ("a", "b") defines a point in the right halfplane R × R.


title: Wavelet

text: For the analysis of the signal "x", one can assemble the wavelet coefficients into a scaleogram of the signal.


title: Wavelet

text: It is computationally impossible to analyze a signal using all wavelet coefficients, so one may wonder if it is sufficient to pick a discrete subset of the upper halfplane to be able to reconstruct a signal from the corresponding wavelet coefficients. One such system is the affine system for some real parameters "a" > 1, "b" > 0. The corresponding discrete subset of the halfplane consists of all the points ("a", "nb a") with "m", "n" in Z. The corresponding "child wavelets" are now given as


title: Wavelet

text: In any discretised wavelet transform, there are only a finite number of wavelet coefficients for each bounded rectangular region in the upper halfplane. Still, each coefficient requires the evaluation of an integral. In special situations this numerical complexity can be avoided if the scaled and shifted wavelets form a multiresolution analysis. This means that there has to exist an auxiliary function, the "father wavelet" φ in "L"(R), and that "a" is an integer. A typical choice is "a" = 2 and "b" = 1. The most famous pair of father and mother wavelets is the Daubechies 4-tap wavelet. Note that not every orthonormal discrete wavelet basis can be associated to a multiresolution analysis; for example, the Journe wavelet admits no multiresolution analysis.


title: Wavelet

text: The father wavelet formula_10 keeps the time domain properties, while the mother wavelets formula_11 keeps the frequency domain properties.


title: Wavelet

text: forms a multiresolution analysis of "L" and that the subspaces formula_13 are the orthogonal "differences" of the above sequence, that is, "W" is the orthogonal complement of "V" inside the subspace "V",


title: Wavelet

text: In analogy to the sampling theorem one may conclude that the space "V" with sampling distance 2 more or less covers the frequency baseband from 0 to 1/2. As orthogonal complement, "W" roughly covers the band [1/2, 1/2].


title: Wavelet

text: From those inclusions and orthogonality relations, especially formula_15, follows the existence of sequences formula_16 and formula_17 that satisfy the identities


title: Wavelet

text: The second identity of the first pair is a refinement equation for the father wavelet φ. Both pairs of identities form the basis for the algorithm of the fast wavelet transform.


title: Wavelet

text: For any signal or function formula_23 this gives a representation in basis functions of the corresponding subspaces as


title: Wavelet

text: For practical applications, and for efficiency reasons, one prefers continuously differentiable functions with compact support as mother (prototype) wavelet (functions). However, to satisfy analytical requirements (in the continuous WT) and in general for theoretical reasons, one chooses the wavelet functions from a subspace of the space formula_27 This is the space of Lebesgue measurable functions that are both absolutely integrable and square integrable in the sense that


title: Wavelet

text: For "ψ" to be a wavelet for the continuous wavelet transform (see there for exact statement), the mother wavelet must satisfy an admissibility criterion (loosely speaking, a kind of half-differentiability) in order to get a stably invertible transform.


title: Wavelet

text: For the discrete wavelet transform, one needs at least the condition that the wavelet series is a representation of the identity in the space "L"(R). Most constructions of discrete WT make use of the multiresolution analysis, which defines the wavelet by a scaling function. This scaling function itself is a solution to a functional equation.


title: Wavelet

text: In most situations it is useful to restrict ψ to be a continuous function with a higher number "M" of vanishing moments, i.e. for all integer "m" < "M"


title: Wavelet

text: The mother wavelet is scaled (or dilated) by a factor of "a" and translated (or shifted) by a factor of "b" to give (under Morlet's original formulation):


title: Wavelet

text: For the continuous WT, the pair ("a","b") varies over the full half-plane R × R; for the discrete WT this pair varies over a discrete subset of it, which is also called "affine group".


title: Wavelet

text: These functions are often incorrectly referred to as the basis functions of the (continuous) transform. In fact, as in the continuous Fourier transform, there is no basis in the continuous wavelet transform. Time-frequency interpretation uses a subtly different formulation (after Delprat).


title: Wavelet

text: The wavelet transform is often compared with the Fourier transform, in which signals are represented as a sum of sinusoids. In fact, the Fourier transform can be viewed as a special case of the continuous wavelet transform with the choice of the mother wavelet


title: Wavelet

text: The main difference in general is that wavelets are localized in both time and frequency whereas the standard Fourier transform is only localized in frequency. The Short-time Fourier transform (STFT) is similar to the wavelet transform, in that it is also time and frequency localized, but there are issues with the frequency/time resolution trade-off.


title: Wavelet

text: In particular, assuming a rectangular window region, one may think of the STFT as a transform with a slightly different kernel


title: Wavelet

text: where formula_38 can often be written as formula_39, where formula_40 and "u" respectively denote the length and temporal offset of the windowing function. Using Parseval's theorem, one may define the wavelet's energy as


title: Wavelet

text: Multiplication with a rectangular window in the time domain corresponds to convolution with a formula_45 function in the frequency domain, resulting in spurious ringing artifacts for short/localized temporal windows. With the continuous-time Fourier Transform, formula_46 and this convolution is with a delta function in Fourier space, resulting in the true Fourier transform of the signal formula_47. The window function may be some other apodizing filter, such as a Gaussian. The choice of windowing function will affect the approximation error relative to the true Fourier transform.


title: Wavelet

text: A given resolution cell's time-bandwidth product may not be exceeded with the STFT. All STFT basis elements maintain a uniform spectral and temporal support for all temporal shifts or offsets, thereby attaining an equal resolution in time for lower and higher frequencies. The resolution is purely determined by the sampling width.


title: Wavelet

text: In contrast, the wavelet transform's multiresolutional properties enables large temporal supports for lower frequencies while maintaining short temporal widths for higher frequencies by the scaling properties of the wavelet transform. This property extends conventional time-frequency analysis into time-scale analysis.


title: Wavelet

text: The discrete wavelet transform is less computationally complex, taking O("N") time as compared to O("N" log "N") for the fast Fourier transform. This computational advantage is not inherent to the transform, but reflects the choice of a logarithmic division of frequency, in contrast to the equally spaced frequency divisions of the FFT (fast Fourier transform) which uses the same basis functions as DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform). It is also important to note that this complexity only applies when the filter size has no relation to the signal size. A wavelet without compact support such as the Shannon wavelet would require O("N"). (For instance, a logarithmic Fourier Transform also exists with O("N") complexity, but the original signal must be sampled logarithmically in time, which is only useful for certain types of signals.)


title: Wavelet

text: An orthogonal wavelet is entirely defined by the scaling filter – a low-pass finite impulse response (FIR) filter of length 2"N" and sum 1. In biorthogonal wavelets, separate decomposition and reconstruction filters are defined.


title: Wavelet

text: For analysis with orthogonal wavelets the high pass filter is calculated as the quadrature mirror filter of the low pass, and reconstruction filters are the time reverse of the decomposition filters.


title: Wavelet

text: Wavelets are defined by the wavelet function ψ("t") (i.e. the mother wavelet) and scaling function φ("t") (also called father wavelet) in the time domain.


title: Wavelet

text: The wavelet function is in effect a band-pass filter and scaling that for each level halves its bandwidth. This creates the problem that in order to cover the entire spectrum, an infinite number of levels would be required. The scaling function filters the lowest level of the transform and ensures all the spectrum is covered. See for a detailed explanation.


title: Wavelet

text: For a wavelet with compact support, φ("t") can be considered finite in length and is equivalent to the scaling filter "g".


title: Wavelet

text: For instance, Mexican hat wavelets can be defined by a wavelet function. See a list of a few Continuous wavelets.


title: Wavelet

text: The development of wavelets can be linked to several separate trains of thought, starting with Haar's work in the early 20th century. Later work by Dennis Gabor yielded Gabor atoms (1946), which are constructed similarly to wavelets, and applied to similar purposes.


title: Wavelet

text: Notable contributions to wavelet theory since then can be attributed to Zweig’s discovery of the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) in 1975 (originally called the cochlear transform and discovered while studying the reaction of the ear to sound), Pierre Goupillaud, Grossmann and Morlet's formulation of what is now known as the CWT (1982), Jan-Olov Strömberg's early work on discrete wavelets (1983), the Le Gall–Tabatabai (LGT) 5/3-taps non-orthogonal filter bank with linear phase (1988), Ingrid Daubechies' orthogonal wavelets with compact support (1988), Mallat's non-orthogonal multiresolution framework (1989), Ali Akansu's Binomial QMF (1990), Nathalie Delprat's time-frequency interpretation of the CWT (1991), Newland's harmonic wavelet transform (1993), and set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) developed by Amir Said with William A. Pearlman in 1996.


title: Wavelet

text: The JPEG 2000 standard was developed from 1997 to 2000 by a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) committee chaired by Touradj Ebrahimi (later the JPEG president). In contrast to the DCT algorithm used by the original JPEG format, JPEG 2000 instead uses discrete wavelet transform (DWT) algorithms. It uses the CDF 9/7 wavelet transform (developed by Ingrid Daubechies in 1992) for its lossy compression algorithm, and the Le Gall–Tabatabai (LGT) 5/3 wavelet transform (developed by Didier Le Gall and Ali J. Tabatabai in 1988) for its lossless compression algorithm. JPEG 2000 technology, which includes the Motion JPEG 2000 extension, was selected as the video coding standard for digital cinema in 2004.


title: Wavelet

text: A wavelet is a mathematical function used to divide a given function or continuous-time signal into different scale components. Usually one can assign a frequency range to each scale component. Each scale component can then be studied with a resolution that matches its scale. A wavelet transform is the representation of a function by wavelets. The wavelets are scaled and translated copies (known as "daughter wavelets") of a finite-length or fast-decaying oscillating waveform (known as the "mother wavelet"). Wavelet transforms have advantages over traditional Fourier transforms for representing functions that have discontinuities and sharp peaks, and for accurately deconstructing and reconstructing finite, non-periodic and/or non-stationary signals.


title: Wavelet

text: Wavelet transforms are classified into discrete wavelet transforms (DWTs) and continuous wavelet transforms (CWTs). Note that both DWT and CWT are continuous-time (analog) transforms. They can be used to represent continuous-time (analog) signals. CWTs operate over every possible scale and translation whereas DWTs use a specific subset of scale and translation values or representation grid.


title: Wavelet

text: There are a large number of wavelet transforms each suitable for different applications. For a full list see list of wavelet-related transforms but the common ones are listed below:


title: Wavelet

text: There are a number of generalized transforms of which the wavelet transform is a special case. For example, Yosef Joseph introduced scale into the Heisenberg group, giving rise to a continuous transform space that is a function of time, scale, and frequency. The CWT is a two-dimensional slice through the resulting 3d time-scale-frequency volume.


title: Wavelet

text: Another example of a generalized transform is the chirplet transform in which the CWT is also a two dimensional slice through the chirplet transform.


title: Wavelet

text: An important application area for generalized transforms involves systems in which high frequency resolution is crucial. For example, darkfield electron optical transforms intermediate between direct and reciprocal space have been widely used in the harmonic analysis of atom clustering, i.e. in the study of crystals and crystal defects. Now that transmission electron microscopes are capable of providing digital images with picometer-scale information on atomic periodicity in nanostructure of all sorts, the range of pattern recognition and strain/metrology applications for intermediate transforms with high frequency resolution (like brushlets and ridgelets) is growing rapidly.


title: Wavelet

text: Fractional wavelet transform (FRWT) is a generalization of the classical wavelet transform in the fractional Fourier transform domains. This transform is capable of providing the time- and fractional-domain information simultaneously and representing signals in the time-fractional-frequency plane.


title: Wavelet

text: Generally, an approximation to DWT is used for data compression if a signal is already sampled, and the CWT for signal analysis. Thus, DWT approximation is commonly used in engineering and computer science, and the CWT in scientific research.


title: Wavelet

text: Like some other transforms, wavelet transforms can be used to transform data, then encode the transformed data, resulting in effective compression. For example, JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard that uses biorthogonal wavelets. This means that although the frame is overcomplete, it is a "tight frame" (see types of frames of a vector space), and the same frame functions (except for conjugation in the case of complex wavelets) are used for both analysis and synthesis, i.e., in both the forward and inverse transform. For details see wavelet compression.


title: Wavelet

text: A related use is for smoothing/denoising data based on wavelet coefficient thresholding, also called wavelet shrinkage. By adaptively thresholding the wavelet coefficients that correspond to undesired frequency components smoothing and/or denoising operations can be performed.


title: Wavelet

text: Wavelet transforms are also starting to be used for communication applications. Wavelet OFDM is the basic modulation scheme used in HD-PLC (a power line communications technology developed by Panasonic), and in one of the optional modes included in the IEEE 1901 standard. Wavelet OFDM can achieve deeper notches than traditional FFT OFDM, and wavelet OFDM does not require a guard interval (which usually represents significant overhead in FFT OFDM systems).


title: Wavelet

text: Often, signals can be represented well as a sum of sinusoids. However, consider a non-continuous signal with an abrupt discontinuity; this signal can still be represented as a sum of sinusoids, but requires an infinite number, which is an observation known as Gibbs phenomenon. This, then, requires an infinite number of Fourier coefficients, which is not practical for many applications, such as compression. Wavelets are more useful for describing these signals with discontinuities because of their time-localized behavior (both Fourier and wavelet transforms are frequency-localized, but wavelets have an additional time-localization property). Because of this, many types of signals in practice may be non-sparse in the Fourier domain, but very sparse in the wavelet domain. This is particularly useful in signal reconstruction, especially in the recently popular field of compressed sensing. (Note that the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) is also localized in time and frequency, but there are often problems with the frequency-time resolution trade-off. Wavelets are better signal representations because of multiresolution analysis.)


title: Wavelet

text: This motivates why wavelet transforms are now being adopted for a vast number of applications, often replacing the conventional Fourier transform. Many areas of physics have seen this paradigm shift, including molecular dynamics, chaos theory, ab initio calculations, astrophysics, gravitational wave transient data analysis, density-matrix localisation, seismology, optics, turbulence and quantum mechanics. This change has also occurred in image processing, EEG, EMG, ECG analyses, brain rhythms, DNA analysis, protein analysis, climatology, human sexual response analysis, general signal processing, speech recognition, acoustics, vibration signals, computer graphics, multifractal analysis, and sparse coding. In computer vision and image processing, the notion of scale space representation and Gaussian derivative operators is regarded as a canonical multi-scale representation.


title: Wavelet

text: Suppose we measure a noisy signal formula_48, where formula_49 represents the signal and formula_50 represents the noise. Assume formula_49 has a sparse representation in a certain wavelet basis, and formula_52


title: Wavelet

text: Let the wavelet transform of formula_53 be formula_54, where formula_55 is the wavelet transform of the signal component and formula_56 is the wavelet transform of the noise component.


title: Wavelet

text: Since formula_59 is orthogonal, the estimation problem amounts to recovery of a signal in iid Gaussian noise. As formula_57 is sparse, one method is to apply a Gaussian mixture model for formula_57.


title: Wavelet

text: Assume a prior formula_62, where formula_63 is the variance of "significant" coefficients and formula_64 is the variance of "insignificant" coefficients.


title: Wavelet

text: Then formula_65, formula_66 is called the shrinkage factor, which depends on the prior variances formula_63 and formula_64. By setting coefficients that fall below a shrinkage threshold to zero, once the inverse transform is applied, an expectedly small amount of signal is lost due to the sparsity assumption. The larger coefficients are expected to primarily represent signal due to sparsity, and statistically very little of the signal, albeit the majority of the noise, is expected to be represented in such lower magnitude coefficients... therefore the zeroing-out operation is expected to remove most of the noise and not much signal. Typically, the above-threshold coefficients are not modified during this process. Some algorithms for wavelet-based denoising may attenuate larger coefficients as well, based on a statistical estimate of the amount of noise expected to be removed by such an attenuation.


title: Wavelet

text: Agarwal et al. proposed wavelet based advanced linear and nonlinear methods to construct and investigate Climate as complex networks at different timescales. Climate networks constructed using SST datasets at different timescale averred that wavelet based multi-scale analysis of climatic processes holds the promise of better understanding the system dynamics that may be missed when processes are analyzed at one timescale only


title: Chance Perdomo

text: Chance Perdomo is an American-born English actor. He appeared in "Killed by My Debt" (2018) and played Ambrose Spellman on the Netflix series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina".


title: Chance Perdomo

text: Perdomo was born in Los Angeles, California and moved to Southampton in the county of Hampshire, England with his mother as a child. He holds both British and American citizenship. He attended Redbridge Community School in Southampton before going to Peter Symonds College in Winchester, where he was elected president of the sixth form's student union.


title: Chance Perdomo

text: In February 2018, it was announced that Perdomo was cast in the series regular role of Ambrose Spellman on the Netflix series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina". Reports revealed that Perdomo previously auditioned for the role of Jughead Jones on "Riverdale", but the role was given to Cole Sprouse. Perdomo, however, impressed Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the creator of the series, with his audition so much so, that Aquirre-Sacasa wrote the role of "Sabrina"'s Ambrose with the actor in mind.


Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor is a 2013 American romantic drama film produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry. The film is adapted from Perry's play "The Marriage Counselor", with several changes. It was released on March 29, 2013.


title: Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor

text: The film starts in a rundown office with a marriage counselor counseling a young married couple, Bradley and Lisa. After the husband walks out of the room, unwilling to participate, the marriage counselor notices a change within the wife's demeanor. The marriage counselor can tell that she has met someone else and decides to tell her a story about her sister, Judith.


text: We then go back in time, where Judith and her childhood sweetheart Brice are growing up through the years together, as soulmates. The two later get married and move to Washington, D.C. to start their own life together.


text: Judith becomes a therapist, working at a matchmaking agency owned by Janice while Brice works as a pharmacist. At work, Brice meets another employee, Melinda. Melinda reveals she is on the run from an abusive ex-boyfriend.


text: Judith is dissatisfied with her job and anxious to start her own marriage counseling business, but Brice tells her to wait until they are more financially stable. Brice decides to take Judith out for dinner at a "$5.99 buffet". Judith becomes upset with Brice when he refuses to confront a group of men who catcall her on their way home from dinner.


text: Judith meets Harley at work. Harley, a wealthy Internet entrepreneur who wants to invest in Janice's business, attempts to seduce Judith as they work late on matchmaking surveys. When Harley questions the absence of sex in the surveys, Judith says she does not believe in premarital sex. Harley says Judith's sex life is boring. Judith, now questioning her sex life with Brice, tries to improve it, but fails.


text: Judith changes her hair and makeup for her birthday and Brice fails to notice the change or remember her birthday. At work, Judith receives flowers that she believes are from Brice. Harley appears and notes her change in appearance—the flowers are actually from him. Harley claims he is willing to do anything to be near her and wants a sexual relationship. At home, Judith leaves a cupcake with a candle in it on the counter. Realizing his mistake, Brice dances and sings in a cowboy outfit for her. The two make up.


text: Janice sends Judith to New Orleans with Harley to finalize a deal with shareholders, telling her to flirt with Harley, but also to be careful. Judith's co-worker, Ava, gives Judith a makeover. In New Orleans, Judith and Harley complete the business deal and go dancing and sightseeing. On the way home, Harley seduces Judith and they have sex in his private jet. He takes her home and meets Judith's Christian mother, Miss Sarah.


text: Unhappy with Brice's inattentiveness, Judith sneaks out to meet Harley and they have sex again and Harley introduces Judith to cocaine. He demands that she leave Brice and offers to help with her business. When she feels like she shouldn't, Harley tells her to leave and she becomes upset and starts throwing drinks and food at him. Back at home, Judith and her mother Sarah get into an argument over Harley, and about Sarah having abandoned Judith's father for the Lord years ago, which leads to Sarah slapping Judith and leaving. Judith refuses to discuss the argument with Brice and goes to take a shower. She later leaves him to be with Harley.


text: Janice fires Judith immediately after finding out about her plans to quit in a week to start a new business with Harley. Brice discovers Judith is having an affair and heads to Harley's party. Brice drags Judith outside and begs her to return to him, but Judith chooses to stay with Harley. Brice goes over to Melinda's place where she comforts him and encourages him that things will get better. Judith returns to the apartment she shared with Brice to pick up a laptop and is surrounded by her mother and church members in a prayer circle. Sarah grabs Judith, trying to prevent her from leaving, but Harley knocks Sarah down and forces Judith to leave. At Harley's, Judith is outraged by his treatment of her mother and after a heated argument, Harley begins to beat her after she attempts to leave.


text: Melinda comes over to cook for Brice. She says she contracted HIV from her ex, who is revealed to be Harley. Brice breaks into Harley's place with Melinda and finds Judith in the bathroom bloody and bruised. After taking Judith to his truck, Brice goes back into the house and begins to beat Harley until he is stopped by Melinda. As Harley regains consciousness, he calls out to Melinda, whose real name is Karen. Brice threatens him to stay away from both Karen and Judith and they leave him, lying on the floor beaten and still semi-conscious.


text: Cut back to present day, the marriage counselor has finished the story and Lisa wonders how the story ends. The marriage counselor tells her that Judith contracted HIV as well, but not Brice. Lisa thanks the marriage counselor and decides to stay with her husband.


text: The marriage counselor (revealed to be the older Judith) then goes to the pharmacy to get her HIV medicine for her T cell count from Brice. After they speak, a woman and a little boy walk into the pharmacy, revealed to be Brice's new wife and child, making it clear that they have divorced. Judith then walks slowly out of the pharmacy with regret.


text: Principal photography commenced on in Atlanta at Tyler Perry Studios. Tyler Perry, Ozzie Areu and Paul Hall produced the film. The film was originally scheduled for release in 2012, but was pushed back for a March 2013 release. In initial reports regarding the film's cast, it was stated that veteran actor Jerry Stiller was going to have an unspecified role in the film, but it was ultimately proven to be false.


text: "Temptation" grossed $21,641,679 on its opening weekend and debuted at number 3 at the box office behind "" and "The Croods". Its box office total was $53,125,354. It is the highest-grossing Tyler Perry film which the writer-director did not star in and the highest-grossing Tyler Perry drama.


text: "Temptation" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 9, 2013, with two featurettes and includes a digital copy. Tyler Perry's play "The Haves and the Have Nots" was also released on DVD on the same date.


text: The film was not screened for critics, but has received predominantly negative reviews. , the film holds a 17% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 36 reviews with an average rating of 3.90 out of 10. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an weighted score of 26 from 14 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale. Many point to the fact that the main character was "punished" with HIV for cheating on her husband, further miseducating and stigmatizing the disease.


text: Kim Kardashian won the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, while Tyler Perry was nominated for Worst Director (where he lost to the 13 people who directed "Movie 43").


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: Just Cause is an action-adventure video game series created by Avalanche Studios, which was formerly owned by Eidos Interactive and after 2009 by Square Enix Europe. The series consists of "Just Cause", "Just Cause 2", "Just Cause 3", and "Just Cause 4". The games are open world and primarily take place in islands and archipelagos. Each game in the series tasks the player to overthrow the governing body of the game's setting. By June 2018, the series had shipped over 15 million copies worldwide.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: The series directly draws its name from the real-life United States invasion of Panama, code-named "Operation Just Cause".


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: Each installment in the series takes place on a different fictional island nation, where the player plays the character Rico Rodriguez, a secret agent who originally hails from the fictional nation of Medici (featured in the third game). On foot, Rico can walk, swim, jump, and operate weapons. Players can also take control of vehicles found in the world and perform stunts while driving them. From the third game onwards, players can also utilize Rico's parachute, grappling hook and wingsuit to travel around the map.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: During the game, the player is given a main storyline as well as several side missions. Side missions may include liberating a village or taking over a drug cartel's villa. In "Just Cause," these side missions are repetitive but necessary to gain points with certain factions. In "Just Cause 2," the side missions became unique and more complex.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: When not playing story or side missions, the player can free-roam in the open world. However, committing certain aggressive acts will attract a "heat" level (similar to Grand Theft Auto's Wanted Level), which will then increase the strength and number of enemy NPCs spawned seeking to kill the player.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: The core gameplay consists of elements of a third-person shooter and a driving game, with a large open environment to move around in. On foot, the player's character is capable of walking, swimming and jumping, as well as utilizing weapons and basic hand-to-hand combat. Players can take control of a variety of vehicles, including cars, boats, airplanes, helicopters and motorcycles. Players can also perform stunts with their cars. Other key features of the game include parasailing (grappling onto a moving vehicle while utilizing a parachute) and skydiving. "Just Cause" is set on the island nation of San Esperito (inspired by the Caribbean).


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: "Just Cause 2" is an action-adventure game with a large open-world sandbox map. The game is set on the fictional country of Panau (which is off of Southeast Asia), an archipelago ruled by Pandak 'Baby' Panay.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: Originally set to be released in 2008, it was pushed back multiple times until it was released in North America on March 23, 2010, and in Europe on March 26, 2010.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: "Just Cause 3" was released worldwide on December 1, 2015. The game is set on the fictional Mediterranean island of Medici, where it is run by dictator Di Ravello. Along with a larger map than "Just Cause 2", there is the added feature of a wingsuit to be used by the main character, Rico Rodriguez.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: The main storyline is longer than that of "Just Cause 2", but the game does not feature faction side-missions, replacing them with 'random encounters' and a greater variety of races and other challenges. The game also allows players to shoot their way through walls, and expands destruction features.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: "Just Cause 4" is the latest PC and console game in the "Just Cause" series, released on December 4, 2018. The game is set in the fictional South American country of Solís. The new dynamic weather systems expand upon the function of the wingsuit introduced in "Just Cause 3" and are the focus of the storyline.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: In comparison to "Just Cause 3", the map is much larger and more diverse, however, the removal of its liberation mechanic does reduce the need to visit large portions of the map.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: "Just Cause Mobile" was officially announced by Square Enix during The Game Awards for iOS and Android mobile devices. It is a free-to-play action shooter game set in the "Just Cause" universe featuring single-player and multiplayer four player co-op and PvP gameplay for up to thirty players. While the console and PC games are third-person affairs, the mobile take on the franchise will feature a top-down isometric perspective. The game is scheduled to globally release in 2022.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: The "Just Cause" series has received a mixed reception from critics, but audiences generally have given the series a positive reception. Critics and audiences alike praise the series for its innovative gameplay, open-world design, set-pieces and non-linear approach to mission structure, however it is generally criticised for its generic storyline and cliché characters.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: In 2010, it was reported that a movie adaptation of "Just Cause", titled "Just Cause: Scorpion Rising", was in production, written by comic book writer Bryan Edward Hill. Nothing came of these plans, and Hill's "Just Cause: Scorpion Rising" was never produced.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: In 2015, Adrian Askarieh, producer of the "Hitman" films, stated that he hoped to oversee a shared universe of Square Enix films with "Just Cause", "Hitman", "Tomb Raider", "Deus Ex", and "Thief", but admitted that he does not have the rights to "Tomb Raider". He also stated, at that time, that the latest outlook for the "Just Cause" film was that it would be based on the third release of the video game series. In May 2017, the Game Central reporters at Metro UK suggested that the shared universe was unlikely, pointing out that no progress had been made on any "Just Cause", "Deus Ex" nor "Thief" films.


title: Just Cause (video game series)

text: In March 2017, it was announced that Jason Momoa would play Rico Rodriguez and Brad Peyton would direct the film. , Peyton admitted that no script existed yet, and that he and Momoa already had full schedules well into 2019. On May 21, 2019, it was announced that Derek Kolstad would write the film. On July 15, 2020, it was announced that Michael Dowse would direct the film, which is produced by Constantin Film and Askarieh's Prime Universe and distributed by Universal Pictures.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Acute kidney injury (AKI), previously called acute renal failure (ARF), is a sudden decrease in kidney function that develops within 7 days, as shown by an increase in serum creatinine or a decrease in urine output, or both.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Causes of AKI are classified as either prerenal (due to decreased blood flow to the kidney), intrinsic renal (due to damage to the kidney itself), or postrenal (due to blockage of urine flow). Prerenal causes of AKI include sepsis, dehydration, excessive blood loss, cardiogenic shock, heart failure, cirrhosis, and certain medications like ACE inhibitors or NSAIDs. Intrinsic renal causes of AKI include glomerulonephritis, lupus nephritis, acute tubular necrosis, certain antibiotics, and chemotherapeutic agents. Postrenal causes of AKI include kidney stones, bladder cancer, neurogenic bladder, enlargement of the prostate, narrowing of the urethra, and certain medications like anticholinergics.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: The diagnosis of AKI is made based on a person's signs and symptoms, along with lab tests for serum creatinine and measurement of urine output. Other tests include urine microscopy and urine electrolytes. Renal ultrasound can be obtained when a postrenal cause is suspected. A kidney biopsy may be obtained when intrinsic renal AKI is suspected and the cause is unclear.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: AKI is seen in 10-15% of people admitted to the hospital and in more than 50% of people admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). AKI may lead to a number of complications, including metabolic acidosis, high potassium levels, uremia, changes in body fluid balance, effects on other organ systems, and death. People who have experienced AKI are at increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease in the future. Management includes treatment of the underlying cause and supportive care, such as renal replacement therapy.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: The clinical presentation is often dominated by the underlying cause. The various symptoms of acute kidney injury result from the various disturbances of kidney function that are associated with the disease. Accumulation of urea and other nitrogen-containing substances in the bloodstream lead to a number of symptoms, such as fatigue, loss of appetite, headache, nausea, and vomiting. Marked increases in the potassium level can lead to abnormal heart rhythms, which can be severe and life-threatening. Fluid balance is frequently affected, though blood pressure can be high, low, or normal.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Pain in the flanks may be encountered in some conditions (such as clotting of the kidneys' blood vessels or inflammation of the kidney). This is the result of stretching of the fibrous tissue capsule surrounding the kidney. If the kidney injury is the result of dehydration, there may be thirst as well as evidence of fluid depletion on physical examination. Physical examination may also provide other clues as to the underlying cause of the kidney problem, such as a rash in interstitial nephritis (or vasculitis) and a palpable bladder in obstructive nephropathy.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: "Prerenal" causes of AKI ("pre-renal azotemia") are those that decrease effective blood flow to the kidney and cause a decrease in the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Both kidneys need to be affected as one kidney is still more than adequate for normal kidney function. Notable causes of prerenal AKI include low blood volume (e.g., dehydration), low blood pressure, heart failure (leading to cardiorenal syndrome), hepatorenal syndrome in the context of liver cirrhosis, and local changes to the blood vessels supplying the kidney. The latter include renal artery stenosis, or the narrowing of the renal artery which supplies the kidney with blood, and renal vein thrombosis, which is the formation of a blood clot in the renal vein that drains blood from the kidney.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Intrinsic AKI refers to disease processes which directly damage the kidney itself. Intrinsic AKI can be due to one or more of the kidney's structures including the glomeruli, kidney tubules, or the interstitium. Common causes of each are glomerulonephritis, acute tubular necrosis (ATN), and acute interstitial nephritis (AIN), respectively. Other causes of intrinsic AKI are rhabdomyolysis and tumor lysis syndrome. Certain medication classes such as calcineurin inhibitors (e.g., tacrolimus) can also directly damage the tubular cells of the kidney and result in a form of intrinsic AKI.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: "Postrenal" AKI refers to acute kidney injury caused by disease states downstream of the kidney and most often occurs as a consequence of urinary tract obstruction. This may be related to benign prostatic hyperplasia, kidney stones, obstructed urinary catheter, bladder stones, or cancer of the bladder, ureters, or prostate.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: The "RIFLE criteria", proposed by the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative (ADQI) group, aid in assessment of the severity of a person's acute kidney injury. The acronym RIFLE is used to define the spectrum of progressive kidney injury seen in AKI:


title: Acute kidney injury

text: The deterioration of kidney function may be signaled by a measurable decrease in urine output. Often, it is diagnosed on the basis of blood tests for substances normally eliminated by the kidney: urea and creatinine. Additionally, the ratio of BUN to creatinine is used to evaluate kidney injury. Both tests have their disadvantages. For instance, it takes about 24 hours for the creatinine level to rise, even if both kidneys have ceased to function. A number of alternative markers have been proposed (such as NGAL, KIM-1, IL18 and cystatin C), but none of them are established enough as of 2018 to replace creatinine as a marker of kidney function.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Once the diagnosis of AKI is made, further testing is often required to determine the underlying cause. It is useful to perform a bladder scan or a post void residual to rule out urinary retention. In post void residual, a catheter is inserted into the urinary tract immediately after urinating to measure fluid still in the bladder. 50–100 mL suggests neurogenic bladder dysfunction.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: These may include urine sediment analysis, renal ultrasound and/or kidney biopsy. Indications for kidney biopsy in the setting of AKI include the following:


title: Acute kidney injury

text: In medical imaging, the acute changes in the kidney are often examined with renal ultrasonography as the first-line modality, where CT scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are used for the follow-up examinations and when US fails to demonstrate abnormalities. In evaluation of the acute changes in the kidney, the echogenicity of the renal structures, the delineation of the kidney, the renal vascularity, kidney size and focal abnormalities are observed. CT is preferred in renal traumas, but US is used for follow-up, especially in the patients suspected for the formation of urinomas. A CT scan of the abdomen will also demonstrate bladder distension or hydronephrosis.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Acute kidney injury is diagnosed on the basis of clinical history and laboratory data. A diagnosis is made when there is a rapid reduction in kidney function, as measured by serum creatinine, or based on a rapid reduction in urine output, termed oliguria (less than 400 mLs of urine per 24 hours).


title: Acute kidney injury

text: AKI can be caused by systemic disease (such as a manifestation of an autoimmune disease, e.g. lupus nephritis), crush injury, contrast agents, some antibiotics, and more. AKI often occurs due to multiple processes. The most common cause is dehydration and sepsis combined with nephrotoxic drugs, especially following surgery or contrast agents.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: The causes of acute kidney injury are commonly categorized into "prerenal", "intrinsic", and "postrenal".


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Acute kidney injury occurs in up to 30% of patients following cardiac surgery. Mortality increases by 60-80% in post-cardiopulmonary bypass patients who go on to require renal replacement therapy. Preoperative creatinine greater than 1.2 mg/dL, combined valve and bypass procedures, emergency surgery, and preoperative intra-aortic balloon pump are risk factors most strongly correlated with post-cardiopulmonary bypass acute kidney injury. Other well-known minor risk factors include female gender, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, insulin-requiring diabetes, and depressed left ventricular ejection fraction. Volatile anesthetic agents have been shown to increase renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA), which causes retention of salts and water, diminished renal blood flow (RBF) and an increase in serum renin levels, but not in antidiuretic hormone (ADH).


title: Acute kidney injury

text: The management of AKI hinges on identification and treatment of the underlying cause. The main objectives of initial management are to prevent cardiovascular collapse and death and to call for specialist advice from a nephrologist. In addition to treatment of the underlying disorder, management of AKI routinely includes the avoidance of substances that are toxic to the kidneys, called nephrotoxins. These include NSAIDs such as ibuprofen or naproxen, iodinated contrasts such as those used for CT scans, many antibiotics such as gentamicin, and a range of other substances.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Monitoring of kidney function, by serial serum creatinine measurements and monitoring of urine output, is routinely performed. In the hospital, insertion of a urinary catheter helps monitor urine output and relieves possible bladder outlet obstruction, such as with an enlarged prostate.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: In prerenal AKI without fluid overload, administration of intravenous fluids is typically the first step to improving kidney function. Volume status may be monitored with the use of a central venous catheter to avoid over- or under-replacement of fluid.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: If low blood pressure persists despite providing a person with adequate amounts of intravenous fluid, medications that increase blood pressure (vasopressors) such as norepinephrine, and in certain circumstances medications that improve the heart's ability to pump (known as inotropes) such as dobutamine may be given to improve blood flow to the kidney. While a useful vasopressor, there is no evidence to suggest that dopamine is of any specific benefit and may in fact be harmful.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: The myriad causes of intrinsic AKI require specific therapies. For example, intrinsic AKI due to vasculitis or glomerulonephritis may respond to steroid medication, cyclophosphamide, and (in some cases) plasma exchange. Toxin-induced prerenal AKI often responds to discontinuation of the offending agent, such as ACE inhibitors, ARB antagonists, aminoglycosides, penicillins, NSAIDs, or paracetamol.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: The use of diuretics such as furosemide, is widespread and sometimes convenient in improving fluid overload. It is not associated with higher mortality (risk of death), nor with any reduced mortality or length of intensive care unit or hospital stay.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: If the cause is obstruction of the urinary tract, relief of the obstruction (with a nephrostomy or urinary catheter) may be necessary.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Renal replacement therapy, such as with hemodialysis, may be instituted in some cases of AKI. Renal replacement therapy can be applied intermittently (IRRT) and continuously (CRRT). Study results regarding differences in outcomes between IRRT and CRRT are inconsistent. A systematic review of the literature in 2008 demonstrated no difference in outcomes between the use of intermittent hemodialysis and continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH) (a type of continuous hemodialysis). Among critically ill patients, intensive renal replacement therapy with CVVH does not appear to improve outcomes compared to less intensive intermittent hemodialysis. However, other clinical and health economic studies demonstrated that, initiation of CRRT is associated with a lower likelihood of chronic dialysis and was cost-effective compared with IRRT in patients with acute kidney injury.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Metabolic acidosis, hyperkalemia, and pulmonary edema may require medical treatment with sodium bicarbonate, antihyperkalemic measures, and diuretics.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Lack of improvement with fluid resuscitation, therapy-resistant hyperkalemia, metabolic acidosis, or fluid overload may necessitate artificial support in the form of dialysis or hemofiltration. However, oliguria during anesthesia may predict AKI, but the effect of a fluid load is highly variable. Striving toward a predefined urine output target to prevent AKI is futile.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: AKI recovery can be classified into three stages 1–3 on the basis of the inverse of the AKI KDIGO serum creatinine criteria.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Mortality after AKI remains high. AKI has a death rate as high as 20%, which may reach up to 50% in the intensive care unit (ICU). Each year, around two million people die of AKI worldwide.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: AKI develops in 5% to 30% of patients who undergo cardiothoracic surgery, depending on the definition used for AKI. If AKI develops after major abdominal surgery (13.4% of all people who have undergone major abdominal surgery) the risk of death is markedly increased (over 12-fold).


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Depending on the cause, a proportion of patients (5–10%) will never regain full kidney function, thus entering end-stage kidney failure and requiring lifelong dialysis or a kidney transplant. Patients with AKI are more likely to die prematurely after being discharged from hospital, even if their kidney function has recovered.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: New cases of AKI are unusual but not rare, affecting approximately 0.1% of the UK population per year (2000 ppm/year), 20x incidence of new ESKD (end-stage kidney disease). AKI requiring dialysis (10% of these) is rare (200 ppm/year), 2x incidence of new ESKD.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: There is an increased incidence of AKI in agricultural workers because of occupational hazards such as dehydration and heat illness. No other traditional risk factors, including age, BMI, diabetes, or hypertension, were associated with incident AKI.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Acute kidney injury is common among hospitalized patients. It affects some 3–7% of patients admitted to the hospital and approximately 25–30% of patients in the intensive care unit.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Acute kidney injury was one of the most expensive conditions seen in U.S. hospitals in 2011, with an aggregated cost of nearly $4.7 billion for approximately 498,000 hospital stays. This was a 346% increase in hospitalizations from 1997, when there were 98,000 acute kidney injury stays. According to a review article of 2015, there has been an increase in cases of acute kidney injury in the last 20 years which cannot be explained solely by changes to the manner of reporting.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Before the advancement of modern medicine, acute kidney injury was referred to as "uremic poisoning" while uremia was contamination of the blood with urine. Starting around 1847, "uremia" came to be used for reduced urine output, a condition now called oliguria, which was thought to be caused by the urine's mixing with the blood instead of being voided through the urethra.


title: Acute kidney injury

text: Acute kidney injury due to acute tubular necrosis (ATN) was recognized in the 1940s in the United Kingdom, where crush injury victims during the London Blitz developed patchy necrosis of kidney tubules, leading to a sudden decrease in kidney function. During the Korean and Vietnam wars, the incidence of AKI decreased due to better acute management and administration of intravenous fluids.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The Buick LaCrosse is a mid-size sedan manufactured and marketed by Buick since 2004. The LaCrosse is now in its third generation, slotted above the Buick Regal as the brand's flagship vehicle.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The first-generation LaCrosse replaced the Century and Regal in North America beginning in the 2005 model year, serving as the brand's mid-size car. The automobile was originally sold as the Buick Allure in Canada. For 2010, the LaCrosse was completely redesigned and moved upmarket as a larger premium sedan. The model was redesigned again for 2017.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Although production ended on February 15, 2019 for the North American market, the LaCrosse is still produced in China where it received a facelift for 2019.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: In 2000, Buick showcased a LaCrosse concept featuring styling features that harkened back to Buicks of the late 1940s, such as a long hood, swooping sidespear (featured on Buicks starting in 1940 and sporadically until the 1970s), front fender port holes, and a fastback roof line. Unique features included a removable rear roof and trunk panel (converting the trunk into a truck bed) and voice recognition instead of traditional switches for basic interior functions. The Buick LaCrosse Concept was based on the GM G body shared with the Buick Park Avenue.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The LaCrosse debuted in late 2004 as a 2005 model, replacing the Century and Regal. The name was borrowed from a Buick concept car shown in 2000 referencing the sport of lacrosse.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Riding on a revised version of the W-body known as MS2000, the LaCrosse was initially available with two powerplant choices in three trim levels: a 3.8 L "3800 Series III" V6 available in base CX and mid-level CXL forms, and a 3.6 L "HFV6" V6 in the top line CXS model. The CXS was replaced by the Super in the US market for the 2008 model year. However, sales of the CXS continued in Canada until January 1, 2008.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Power is routed to the front wheels via a 4T65-E automatic transmission (4T65-E HD on Supers). The LaCrosse, along with all other GM vehicles powered by the 3.8 L V6, became the first SULEV-compliant vehicles for 2006.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: This generation of LaCrosse was sold in Canada as the Buick Allure, as the verb "crosser" is a French Canadian vulgarity that can mean either "masturbation" or "scam".


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The LaCrosse received a facelift for 2008. The vehicle's front end design was based on the Buick Velite concept, which was later used by the Chinese LaCrosse.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: All trim levels received a chrome exterior appearance package, factory remote start feature, XM Satellite Radio, telescoping steering wheel column, redundant steering wheel controls and dual-zone climate control as added standard equipment. CX added a leather-wrapped steering wheel, theft deterrent system, illuminated vanity mirrors, driver information center personalization and more.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Ressurecting the model name from the original 1930s-1950s vehicle, a "Super" trim of the LaCrosse debuted for 2008. The LaCrosse Super was positioned as a higher-performance model of the sedan with revised front end styling, as well as a return of displaying four Ventiports under the hood, a rear spoiler, projector beam fog lights, Magnasteer, larger brakes, and revised suspension tuning with standard Stabilitrak.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Power came from the 5.3 L LS4 small-block V8 engine featuring Active Fuel Management technology, which is routed to the front wheels. The combination of a V8 and front-wheel drive are not often utilized due to torque steer which is present in any front-wheel-drive car. This powertrain was also found on the Grand Prix GXP, Impala SS, and Monte Carlo SS. The Super model was one of the fastest modern production Buicks ever built, with a factory top speed of , and 0–60 mph times of 5.7 seconds. Only the 1987 Buick GNX offered a similar level of performance. The LaCrosse Super was discontinued in 2009.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Interior changes included special Super badged cluster with blue face, a wood grain shift knob, and dream weave leather seating. Interior colors for the Super were Platinum and Mocha Brown, while exterior color choices were Mocha Brown Metallic, Black Onyx, Red Jewel Tincoat, and Platinum Metallic.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The LaCrosse received a "Good" overall score in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's frontal impact crash test and a "Marginal" overall rating in the side impact test. Injury measurements for the side-impact crash test include a "Poor" mark for the driver's torso and a "Marginal" score for the driver's pelvis and leg. Side airbags are limited to the curtain type for both front and rear rows; the torso-type side airbag is unavailable. 2007 models also earned one out of five stars in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration side-impact crash test. The IIHS also found that the 2006–08 model year LaCrosse had the second-highest fatality rate in the large four-door car class; only the Buick Lucerne fared worse.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Shanghai GM introduced the Buick LaCrosse in February 2006, as a more upscale companion to its Buick Regal sedan. Designed by Shanghai GM's Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), the Chinese LaCrosse is based on the same architecture as the North American model, but possesses different exterior and interior designs, and a different engine lineup. The car is also built in Taiwan by a joint Yulon-GM venture.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: In 2008, Shanghai GM introduced a mild hybrid system on the LaCrosse. Using the Belt Alternator Starter system, it is the first hybrid vehicle in the Chinese market as well as the first hybrid in its segment.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Launched at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, the second-generation Buick LaCrosse was redesigned from the ground-up and moved the nameplate upmarket, becoming Buick's flagship sedan.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The exterior features Buick's "VentiPorts" and the "Sweepspear", Buick styling features dating to 1949. The interior is defined by having "few straight lines and 90-degree joints, if any. Instead, surfaces and controls are rounded, coved, or arched." According to "The New York Times", the new LaCrosse combined design elements from classic Americans cars of the 1930s and 1950s with traditional Chinese aesthetic elements:


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Mechanically, the second-generation LaCrosse employed a long-wheelbase (LWB) variant of the Epsilon II platform, shared with the Opel Insignia and the 2010 Saab 9-5. The design was based on 2008 Buick Invicta concept, and replaces both the Chinese and North American models. The final design work was carried out at the GM design center in Warren, Michigan.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The 2.4 L Ecotec four-cylinder replaced the 3.0 V6 as the standard engine on the CX model in the first quarter of 2010. The 3.6 L V6 continues to be an option on the CX and front-wheel drive CXL and standard on the CXS and all-wheel drive CXL.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The receptions by car critics was generally positive, recognizing the LaCrosse as competitive to the Lexus ES, Hyundai Azera, and Toyota Avalon. By automotive journalists, comparisons to the Lexus ES 350 generally found both cars to be roughly comparable. According to "The New York Times", the new LaCrosse combined design elements from classic American cars of the 1930s and 1950s with traditional Chinese aesthetic elements:


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: "U.S. News & World Report" aggregated the following ratings based on numerous reviews of the models years, also for the 2016 model year. Results of the analysis were given on a scale of 1 to 10, where a higher number indicates positive reception. The overall result for the 2016 model year was 8.7, critics' rating 8.8, performance 8.1, interior 8.4, and safety 9.7.