title: Hot yoga

text: Tribalance Hot Yoga, created in Schaumburg, Illinois by Corey Kelly and Shawnda Falvo in 2007, is based on Bikram and Yin Yoga; it does not have a fixed series of asanas, and emphasises the meditational aspect of yoga.


title: Hot yoga

text: There are also different types of hot yoga classes. There are hot yoga sculpt classes, hot yoga barre, hot yin yoga, hot 26 & 2 yoga, and hot yoga fushion. There have been studies that have found that yoga can be an effective way to treat symptoms of depression.


title: Hot yoga

text: The travel writer Elizabeth Gowing, sampling a hot yoga class, found some poses familiar, such as Dancer (Natarajasana) and Eagle (Garudasana), and some new, such as Elephant and Cactus. She was surprised that the Corpse pose was adopted very briefly but repeatedly, rather than just as relaxation at the end of the class. She found the class tiring but stated that the elasticity of her legs had increased.


title: Hot yoga

text: Exercise in high heat and humidity is a contraindication for pregnant women, as there is an increased risk of exhaustion, and hence muscle injury and cartilage and tissue damage. Hormones and fetal development affect blood pressure, making the mother also more susceptible to fainting and lightheadedness if exercising in a hot environment.


title: Hot yoga

text: There has been an 8 week, uncontrolled trial that assessed the efficacy of hot yoga on 51 healthy participants ages 20-54 years old. The participants varied in physical activity levels. At the end of the trial, they found that many of the participants saw a reduction in perceived stress levels.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: EaseMyTrip is an Indian online travel company, founded in 2008 by Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti, and Prashant Pitti. Headquartered in New Delhi, the company provides hotel bookings, air tickets, holiday packages, bus bookings, and white-label services. EaseMyTrip has overseas offices in Singapore, UAE, Maldives, and Thailand.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: The idea for EaseMyTrip came when the brothers, Nishant Pitti and Rikant Pitti used to book air tickets for their father's frequent business trips, and saved money in the booking process. Initially based out of their home garage as a travel agency, the duo lost all of the initial investment within the first three months.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: Later on, references from family and friends helped and a major turnaround came when an airline noticed multiple bookings coming from a single email account and contacted the Pitti brothers to become its travel partner.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: In 2019, EaseMyTrip had a network of more than 42,000 travel agents, 1,200 franchise outlets, 640 white-label solutions, and around 1,600 distributors.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: In January 2020, EaseMyTrip announced it will allow users to book flight tickets via WhatsApp. Users can activate the autonomous interactive program by sending a message and the booking bot will guide users through the end-to-end process.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: In June 2021, EaseMyTrip collaborated with Oyo Rooms, Airbnb, and Yatra to form the Confederation of Hospitality, Technology and Tourism Industry (CHATT), an industry body for the tourism sector of India.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: In September 2021, it became an unicorn after its market capitalization crossed $1 billion. In December 2021, the organization hired Vijay Raaz and Varun Sharma as their brand ambassadors.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: EaseMyTrip has acquired Spree Hospital, a hospital management company established in 2011 by Keshab Baljee for an undisclosed amount. Spree Hospitality was the company's second acquisition. The officials of the EaseMyTrip stated that the acquisition will not only increase the company's revenue but will also enhance the company's portfolio.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: In the year 2019, EaseMyTrip expanded its operations to international markets such as UAE, UK, US, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand and reported a consolidated revenue of ₹59.78 crore. In 2022, the company had a 23% drop in net profit by the end of financial year in 2022 to ₹23 crore, as compared to ₹30 crore in 2021.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: The company announced the acquisition of travel marketplace Traviate in October 2021. In the same year, the company launched another feature where if a person can show a waiting ticket in a train, they would get a discount from Easemytrip on flights.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: Recently, a consumer technology firm from Pune called udChalo filed a trademark infringement case against EaseMyTrip. Previously, MakeMyTrip also moved to Delhi High Court against the company and Google both for Trademark violation.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: In 2019, it filed for a ₹510 crore ($72.13 million) initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), making them the first online travel agency to be listed on the Indian share market. The issue was managed by Axis Bank and JM Financial. It opened for subscription on 8 March 2021 and was listed on the stock market on 19 March 2021. The IPO was subscribed over 159 times.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: HSBC Global Investment Funds, Tata Trustee Company, Aditya Birla Sunlife Insurance Company, Nomura, Sundaram Mutual Fund, Nippon Life India Trustee Company, and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company were its anchor investors. After the company's IPO launched, the company observed a profit of 86% in 2020-2021 with a loss of booking revenue of 50% because of COVID-19.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: In 2018, the employees of the company contributed a day's salary for the relief measures of Kerala floods.


title: EaseMyTrip

text: During the second wave of the COVID-19 oxygen crisis in India, the company donated 550 oxygen concentrators and launched a refund policy that promised full refund for ticket cancellations, including the costs deducted by the airlines.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Charlotte Anne Laws (born May 11, 1960) is an American author, talk show host, animal rights advocate, anti-revenge porn activist, former Los Angeles politician, and actress (under the stage name Missy Laws). Laws is a former BBC News contributor and was a weekly commentator on KNBC-TV's "The Filter with Fred Roggin" from 2009 to 2013. She was also a co-host on the Internet show "Every Way Woman" from 2008 - 2013 and hosted a local television show called "Uncommon Sense" from October 2007 to September 2010.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws is a former member of the Greater Valley Glen Council in Valley Glen, California. She was termed out of office in 2012, after serving four two-year terms. In May 2006, Laws was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to serve on the city's 912 Commission, also known as the Neighborhood Council Review Commission.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws is the founder and president of two organizations: the Directors of Animal Welfare (DAW) and the League for Earth and Animal Protection (LEAP). In 2006, Laws was the recipient of the Los Angeles Animal Humanitarian Award. Laws is a vegan and an advocate of the diet.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: After completing high school at The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia, Laws attended the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and completed bachelor's degrees in Theatre (1985) and Philosophy (1996) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She earned two master's degrees from the University of Southern California (USC) in Professional Writing (1986) and in Social Ethics (1997), as well as a Ph.D. in Social Ethics (2000) from the University of Southern California. In 2003, she completed post-doctoral coursework at Oxford University, England.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws studied acting at the Academy Theatre of Atlanta, Joe Bernard's Acting Studio in Las Vegas and the Estelle Harman Actors Workshop in Los Angeles. She worked as a model and actress in movies and television until her late 20s. She has performed as a stand-up comic at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: In 1988, Laws authored the book "Meet the Stars", which details how the average person can succeed in the entertainment industry. She promoted the book on "Larry King Live", "Oprah Winfrey", "The Late Show".


title: Charlotte Laws

text: From 1997 to 2000, Laws wrote for the British magazine "Mad Dogs and Englishmen." Her articles on news, current events, philosophy and social issues have been published in the "Los Angeles Daily News", "E the Environmental Magazine", "Philosophy Now","The Huffington Post", "Opinion Editorials", "Los Angeles Times", "Jezebel", "Gawker", "Newsweek", "Salon", the "New York Daily News", and "The Washington Post".


title: Charlotte Laws

text: On April 11, 2015, Laws' memoir titled "Rebel in High Heels" was released. The book details her fight against revenge porn and the first 22 years of her life. Her book "Devil in the Basement" was released on March 14, 2018. This nonfiction novel is about Laws' grandfather, who devil worshipper Ernie Yost murdered in 1948. The book also spotlights the rampant prejudice directed at Italian-Americans in the early twentieth century and delves into the real-life romance between Laws’ great aunt Rose and Vito Giacalone, a former Detroit mobster and prime suspect in the death of labor union leader, Jimmy Hoffa.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: On August 15, 2019, Laws's second memoir, ""Undercover Debutante: The Search for My Birth Parents and a Bald Husband,"" was published. The book won a Publishers Weekly book award and covers Laws' life from age 22 until 39. The book explains how the author tracked down her birth family and found a husband after a number of disastrous boyfriends. It also includes some of the author's celebrity escapades.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws plays Human #46 on the 2020 Netflix series "100 Humans" and stars in the Netflix documentary The Most Hated Man on the Internet


title: Charlotte Laws

text: In January 2012, after an unreleased topless photo of Laws' daughter, Kayla, was posted on the revenge porn website Is Anyone Up?, Laws began an investigation of Hunter Moore, who ran the site. She contacted the FBI who launched their own investigation of Moore and his website. Laws determined a large number of the photos on the site had been hacked. She contacted dozens of victims and became known as the "Erin Brockovich of revenge porn." Laws detailed her revenge porn battle in an article published on Jezebel. Her experiences were further detailed in her book, "Rebel in High Heels", which was released in April 2015.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Moore removed his website in the midst of the FBI investigation, but announced on November 28, 2012, that he would start a new site that would include address information. This prompted Laws to make Moore's home address public on Twitter and Moore threatened to ruin her life. She soon received death threats, computer viruses, and a stalker appearing at her home. Internet hackers professing to be affiliated with Anonymous came to her aid, hacking into his servers and posting his personal information on the Internet. The FBI arrested Hunter Moore and his hacker, Charles Evens of Studio City, California, who went under the alias of "Gary Jones", on January 23, 2014. On February 18, 2015, it was announced that Moore would plead guilty to federal computer hacking and identity theft charges. He faced up to 7 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. He received two and a half years in federal prison. With no plea deal in place and facing 42 years in prison, Moore's hacker, Charlie Evens, confessed his crimes to CNN on tape at Laws' house during an interview that CNN was filming with Laws. The taped confession aired on April 27, 2015. Evens received 26 months in federal prison.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: On June 4, 2013, Laws gave testimony before the California State Senate in favor of SB 255, a law designed to protect victims from revenge porn or "cyber rape," a term Laws coined. The bill was sponsored by State Senator Anthony Cannella of Modesto, CA and was signed into law on October 1, 2013, making California the second state to pass a law designed to help victims of non-consensual pornography. Until 2018, Laws was a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), an organization dedicated to helping victims of online harassment. Since 2012, Laws has been meeting with state and federal legislators, urging them to pass laws to protect victims.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: In 2017, Speier and several other legislators, introduced the Ending Non-consensual Online User Graphic Harassment (ENOUGH) Act., A federal bill called The SHIELD Act (Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution) was later introduced in 2019. In addition to pushing for a federal anti-revenge porn law, Laws has recently been tackling the problem of deep fake pornography and sextortion. She claims to have assisted over 500 victims of non-consensual pornography, morphed porn (or deep fakes), and sextortion since the inception of her activism in 2012.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws stars in the Netflix docuseries, "The Most Hated Man on the Internet", produced by Raw TV. It began streaming on July 27, 2022.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws has discussed her battle against revenge porn on various television shows and podcasts including Tamron Hall, The Adam Carolla Show, Ask Dr. Drew, Good Day LA, Inside Edition, Access Hollywood, Banfield, Lorraine and News Desk with Tom Newton Dunn.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Charlotte Laws is a political analyst and has worked as a BBC News contributor since 2015. She has also made appearances on the Al Jazeera network, and participated in a Reddit AMA in September 2015 with Rick Wilson (political consultant). Laws was the first person to publicly discuss “hidden Trump supporters” and to call Trump a feminist and a pacifist. Some of her controversial articles about Trump and politics have appeared in The Huffington Post and The Daily Caller. In 2019, she stated she was supporting Cory Booker and Tulsi Gabbard for the 2020 election.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: On November 30, 2014, Laws spoke out about her "34-year-old Bill Cosby secret." In a Salon article, she detailed her experiences with Mr. Cosby and a friend she calls "Sandy." Laws claims that Mr. Cosby drugged "Sandy" in 1981 and had sex with her. Laws was interviewed on the Dr. Drew Show on December 1, 2014 about this issue. In a Fox News interview, Laws pondered whether Cosby has somnophilia.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: In March 2015, Laws came to defend the LGBTQ communities when a Southern California attorney proposed a statewide ballot initiative that permitted the execution of gays by "bullets to the head or any other convenient method." The initiative was called the Sodomite Suppression Act. In response to what was seen as a vicious and repugnant attack on LGBTQ people, Laws registered a rebuttal initiative with the Attorney General's office, titled "The Intolerant Jackass Act". Laws’ proposal called for sensitivity training and a steep fine for anyone submitting a state initiative related to the killing of gays. In June 2015, the initiative was cleared to move forward, but Laws said that she did not plan to gather signatures, adding "I'm glad my proposal made an impact. My intent was to send a message and support gay rights. [The proposal] has served its purpose."


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws was voted the fourth most notorious party crasher in the world, beating Bill Murray, Queen Elizabeth II, Serena Williams, Lady Gaga, and the Salahis. She says gate crashing began as a hobby when she was a teenager but later became a creative way to get face time with business leaders, politicians, and A-list celebrities in order to lobby for legislation, get exclusive interviews, and obtain business partners. She has crashed the Secret Service four times. Laws’ 1988 how-to book, "Meet the Stars", is believed to be the first party crashing book ever written. Laws also includes some of her gatecrashing techniques in her memoirs "Rebel in High Heels" (2015) and "Undercover Debutante" (2019).


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws, a former Atlanta debutante, was adopted at birth. Her adoptive father was abusive, her adoptive mother committed suicide and her little brother died in a car accident. She tracked down her birthparents in her late twenties. Laws has said that she has never had a glass of alcohol or tried illegal drugs or a cigarette.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Prior to acting and writing, Laws was employed in a number of other jobs. She was a cab driver, private investigator, bodyguard, backup singer for an Elvis imitator, nurse, fashion designer, aerobics instructor, antiques shop owner, and president of a mid-size legal corporation. Laws was a lecturer for the FBI in Quantico, Virginia in 2006 and has also been a licensed realtor since 1987.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: In April 2015, Laws went public about her three-year romance with singer Tom Jones in her memoir, "Rebel in High Heels." She says he was her first boyfriend and that she dated him from age 18 until age 21. She married English barrister and California attorney Charles Parselle in the 1990s and has a daughter named Kayla Laws, who is an actress. She also has three rescue dogs and six rescue chickens and calls herself a Jewish Jain. Laws’ father-in-law, Thomas Parselle, was captured by the Nazis during World War II, transported to a German POW camp and witness to the notorious break-out attempt as depicted in the movie, "The Great Escape".


title: Charlotte Laws

text: In 2012, Laws' chicken, Mae Poulet, was a write-in vice presidential candidate. A dog selected her from Tennessee to be his running mate on the Bully ticket. Mae Poulet was also involved in a 2011 fundraiser with actress Natalie Portman and actor Jason Alexander to raise money for poultry in need. In March 2013, Mae Poulet was inducted into the National Museum of Animals and Society.


title: Charlotte Laws

text: Laws' grandfather, Tucker Moroose (a lawyer and aspiring U.S. Senator), was murdered by a devil worshipper in Fairmont, West Virginia in 1948. The story is detailed in Laws' book, "Devil in the Basement".


title: Charlotte Laws

text: In July 2019, Laws admitted in an article that she committed a crime which may have violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act when she conspired to rescue pigeons.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The ventral tegmental area (VTA) (tegmentum is Latin for "covering"), also known as the ventral tegmental area of Tsai, or simply ventral tegmentum, is a group of neurons located close to the midline on the floor of the midbrain. The VTA is the origin of the dopaminergic cell bodies of the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system and other dopamine pathways; it is widely implicated in the drug and natural reward circuitry of the brain. The VTA plays an important role in a number of processes, including reward cognition (motivational salience, associative learning, and positively-valenced emotions) and orgasm, among others, as well as several psychiatric disorders. Neurons in the VTA project to numerous areas of the brain, ranging from the prefrontal cortex to the caudal brainstem and several regions in between.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: Neurobiologists have often had great difficulty distinguishing the VTA in humans and other primate brains from the substantia nigra (SN) and surrounding nuclei. Originally, the ventral tegmental area was designated as a ‘nucleus’, but over time ‘area’ became the more appropriate term used because of the heterogeneous cytoarchitectonic features of the region and the lack of clear borders that separate it from adjacent regions. Because of the selective limbic-related afferents to the VTA, the cells of the VTA are given the designation A10 to differentiate them from surrounding cells.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The ventral tegmental area is in the midbrain between several other major areas, some of which are described here. The mammillary bodies and the posterior hypothalamus, both included in the diencephalon, extend rostrally from the VTA. The red nucleus is situated laterally and oculomotor fibers are situated ventromedially to the VTA. The pons and the hindbrain lie caudally to the VTA. Finally, the substantia nigra is located laterally to the VTA.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: In 1987, Oades identified four primary nuclei in the VTA A10 group of cells: the nucleus paranigralis (Npn), the nucleus parabrachialis pigmentosus (Npbp), the nucleus interfascicularis (Nif), and the nucleus linearis (Nln) caudalis and rostralis. Presently, scientists divide the VTA up into four similar zones that are called the paranigral nucleus (PN), the parabrachial pigmented area (PBP), the parafasciculus retroflexus area (PFR), and the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg), which approximately adhere to the previous divisions. Some definitions of the VTA also include the midline nuclei (i.e. the interfascicular nucleus, rostral linear nucleus, and central linear nucleus).


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The PN and PBP are rich in dopaminergic cells, whereas the other two regions have low densities of these neurons. The PFR and RMTg contain a low density of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive cell bodies that are small in size and lightly stain; the RMTg is composed mostly of GABAergic cells. On the other hand, the PN and PBP consist mainly of medium to large sized TH-positive cell bodies that stain moderately.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: Almost all areas receiving projections from the VTA project back to it. Thus, the ventral tegmental area is reciprocally connected with a wide range of structures throughout the brain suggesting that it has a role in the control of function in the phylogenetically newer and highly developed neocortex, as well as that of the phylogenetically older limbic areas.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The VTA is a heterogeneous region consisting of a variety of neurons that are characterized by different neurochemical and neurophysiological properties. Therefore, glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs are not exclusively inhibitory nor exclusively excitatory. The VTA receives glutamatergic afferents from the prefrontal cortex, pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg), laterodorsal tegmental nucleus, subthalamic nucleus, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, superior colliculus, periaqueductal gray, lateral habenula, dorsal raphe nucleus, and lateral hypothalamic and preoptic areas. These glutamatergic afferents play a key role in regulating VTA cell firing. When the glutamatergic neurons are activated, the firing rates of the dopamine neurons increase in the VTA and induce burst firing. Studies have shown that these glutamatergic actions in the VTA are critical to the effects of drugs of abuse. In contrast, the tail of the ventral tegmental area (tVTA, the RMTg) projects to the VTA with GABAergic afferents, functioning as a "master brake" for the VTA dopamine pathways.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: GABAergic inputs to the VTA also include the nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, dorsal raphe nucleus, lateral hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg). The lateral habenula can also exert an inhibitory effect on dopaminergic neurons in the VTA by exciting RMTg GABAergic neurons, which is thought to play an important role in reward prediction errors. Subpallidal afferents into the VTA are mainly GABAergic and, thus, inhibitory. There is a substantial pathway from the subpallidal area to the VTA. When this pathway is disinhibited, an increase in the dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway amplifies locomotor activity.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: There are also cholinergic inputs to the VTA, although less studied than the glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs. Optogenetic studies in mice looking at cholinergic inputs from the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) and the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus demonstrate that these circuits reinforce the discharge properties of VTA neurons, suggesting a modulatory influence on reward circuits.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The two primary efferent fiber projections of the VTA are the mesocortical and the mesolimbic pathways, which correspond to the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens respectively. In addition, experiments in rodents have identified a mesohabenular pathway consisting of VTA neurons that do not release dopamine, but glutamate and GABA. Other VTA projections, which utilize dopamine as their primary neurotransmitter, are listed below.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: Because they develop from common embryonic tissue and partly overlap in their projection fields, Dopaminergic cell groups lack clear anatomical boundaries. During the development of the mammalian brain, both substantia nigra (SN) and VTA neurons initially project to the dorsolateral and ventromedial striatum. However, at birth the SN dopaminergic neurons project exclusively into the dorsolateral striatum, and the VTA dopaminergic neurons project solely into the ventromedial striatum. This pruning of connections occurs through the elimination of the unnecessary collaterals.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: As stated above, the VTA, in particular the VTA dopamine neurons, serve several functions in the reward system, motivation, cognition, and drug addiction, and may be the focus of several psychiatric disorders. The VTA has also been shown to process various types of emotion output from the amygdala, where it may also play a role in avoidance and fear-conditioning. Electrophysiological recordings have demonstrated that VTA neurons respond to novel stimuli, unexpected rewards, and reward-predictive sensory cues. The firing pattern of these cells is consistent with the encoding of a reward expectancy error.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: In 2006, MRI studies by Helen Fisher and her research team found and documented various emotional states relating to intense love correlated with activity in the VTA, which may help explain obsessive behaviors of rejected partners, since this is shared by the reward system. Nest sharing behavior is associated with increased V1aR expression in the VTA of newly paired zebra finches. However, V1aR expression was not related to female directed song rates, which may indicate a selective role of vasotocin in the VTA on pair maintenance versus courtship behavior.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The VTA has been shown to have a large network of GABAergic neurons that are interconnected via gap junctions. This network allows for electrical conduction, which is considerably faster than the chemical conduction of signals between synapses, though less spatially precise.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The VTA, like the substantia nigra, is populated with melanin-pigmented dopaminergic neurons. Recent studies have suggested that dopaminergic neurons comprise 50-60% of all neurons in the VTA, which is contrary to previous evidence that noted 77% of neurons within the VTA to be dopaminergic. In addition, there is a sizable population of GABAergic neurons in the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg), a functionally distinct brain structure. These GABAergic neurons regulate the firing of their dopaminergic counterparts that send projections throughout the brain to, but not limited to, the following regions: the prefrontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens, and the locus coeruleus. The VTA also contains a small percentage of excitatory glutamatergic neurons.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The “limbic loop” is very similar to the direct pathway motor loop of the basal ganglia. In both systems, there are major excitatory inputs from the cortex to the striatum (accumbens nucleus), the midbrain projects neuromodulatory dopamine neurons to the striatum, the striatum makes internuclear connections to the pallidum, and the pallidum has outputs to the thalamus, which projects to the cortex, thus completing the loop. The limbic loop is distinguished from the motor loop by the source and nature of the cortical input, the division of the striatum and pallidum that process the input, the source of the dopaminergic neurons from the midbrain, and the thalamic target of the pallidal output.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: Linking context to reward is important for reward seeking. In 2011, a group of researchers documented a CA3-VTA connection that uses the lateral septum as an intermediary. They used a pseudo-rabies virus (PRV) as a transsynaptic tracer, and injected it into the VTA. They found that unilateral injection into the VTA resulted in bilateral PRV labeling in CA3 beginning 48 hours after injection. Lesions of the caudodorsal lateral septum (cd-LS) before VTA PRV injection resulted in significantly less PRV labeled neurons in CA3. Theta wave stimulation of CA3 resulted in increased firing rates for dopamine cells in the VTA, and decreased firing rates for GABA neurons in the VTA. The identity of VTA neurons was confirmed by neurobiotin™ labeling of the recording neuron, and then histological staining for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). Temporary inactivation of CA3 via GABA agonists prevented context induced reinstatement of lever pressing for intravenous cocaine.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The authors propose a functional circuit loop where activation of glutamatergic cells in CA3 causes activation of GABAergic cells in cd-LS, which inhibits GABA interneurons in the VTA, releasing the dopamine cells from the tonic inhibition, and leading to an increased firing rate for the dopamine cells.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The dopamine reward circuitry in the human brain involves two projection systems from the ventral midbrain to the nucleus accumbens-olfactory tubercle complex. First, the posteromedial VTA and central linear raphe cells selectively project to the ventromedial striatum, which includes the medial olfactory tubercle and the medial NAC shell. Second, the lateral VTA projects largely to the ventrolateral striatum, which includes the NAC core, the medial NAC shell, and the lateral olfactory tubercle. These pathways are called the meso-ventromedial and the meso-ventrolateral striatal dopamine systems, respectively. The medial projection system is important in the regulation of arousal characterized by affect and drive and plays a different role in goal-directed behavior than the lateral projection system. Unlike the lateral part, the medial one is activated not by rewarding but by noxious stimuli. Therefore, the NAC shell and the posterior VTA are the primary areas involved in the reward system.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain project to the dorsolateral caudate/putamen and to the ventromedially located nucleus accumbens, respectively, establishing the mesostriatal and the mesolimbic pathways. The close proximity of these two pathways causes them to be grouped together under dopaminergic projections. Several disorders result from the disruption of these two pathways: schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Current research is examining the subtle difference between the neurons that are involved in these conditions and trying to find a way to selectively treat a specific dopamine projection.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area are the primary sites where addictive drugs act. The following are commonly considered to be addictive: cocaine, alcohol, opioids, nicotine, cannabinoids, amphetamine, and their analogs. These drugs alter the neuromodulatory influence of dopamine on the processing of reinforcement signals by prolonging the action of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens or by stimulating the activation of neurons there and also in the VTA. The most common drugs of abuse stimulate the release of dopamine, which creates both their rewarding and the psychomotor effects. Compulsive drug-taking behaviors are a result of the permanent functional changes in the mesolimbic dopamine system arising from repetitive dopamine stimulation. Molecular and cellular adaptations are responsible for a sensitized dopamine activity in the VTA and along the mesolimbic dopamine projection in response to drug abuse. In the VTA of addicted individuals, the activity of the dopamine-synthesizing enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase increases, as does the ability of these neurons to respond to excitatory inputs. The latter effect is secondary to increases in the activity of the transcription factor CREB and the up regulation of GluR1, an important subunit of AMPA receptors for glutamate. These alterations in neural processing could account for the waning influence of adaptive emotional signals in the operation of decision making faculties as drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviors become habitual and compulsive.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: Experiments in rats have shown that they learn to press a lever for the administration of stimulant drugs into the posterior VTA more readily than into the anterior VTA. Other studies have shown that microinjections of dopaminergic drugs into the nucleus accumbens shell increase locomotor activity and exploratory behaviors, conditioned approach responses, and anticipatory sexual behaviors.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: The withdrawal phenomenon occurs because the deficit in reward functioning initiates a distress cycle wherein the drugs become necessary to restore the normal homeostatic state. Recent research has shown that even after the final stages of withdrawal have been passed, drug-seeking behavior can be restored if exposed to the drug or drug-related stimuli.


title: Ventral tegmental area

text: All studies since 1964 have emphasized the impressive general similarity between the VTA of all mammals from rodents to humans. These studies have focused their efforts on rats, rabbits, dogs, cats, opossum, non-human primates, and humans. There have been slight differences noted, such as changes in the dorsal extent of the A10 cells. To be specific, the dorsal peak of A10 cells is more extensive in primates when compared to other mammals. Furthermore, the number of dopaminergic cells in the VTA increases with phylogenetic progression; for instance, the VTA of the mouse contains approximately 25,000 neurons, while the VTA of a 33-year-old man contains around 450,000 cell bodies.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Contemporary architecture is the architecture of the 21st century. No single style is dominant. Contemporary architects work in several different styles, from postmodernism, high-tech architecture and new interpretations of traditional architecture to highly conceptual forms and designs, resembling sculpture on an enormous scale. Some of these styles and approaches make use of very advanced technology and modern building materials, such as tube structures which allow construction of buildings that are taller, lighter and stronger than those in the 20th century, while others prioritize the use of natural and ecological materials like stone, wood and lime. One technology that is common to all forms of contemporary architecture is the use of new techniques of computer-aided design, which allow buildings to be designed and modeled on computers in three dimensions, and constructed with more precision and speed.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Contemporary buildings and styles vary greatly. Some feature concrete structures wrapped in glass or aluminium screens, very asymmetric facades, and cantilevered sections which hang over the street. Skyscrapers twist, or break into crystal-like facets. Facades are designed to shimmer or change color at different times of day.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Whereas the major monuments of modern architecture in the 20th century were mostly concentrated in the United States and western Europe, contemporary architecture is global; important new buildings have been built in China, Russia, Latin America, and particularly in Arab states of the Persian Gulf; the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was the tallest building in the world in 2019, and the Shanghai Tower in China was the second-tallest.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Parallel to this, a counterculture to the modernist and post-modernist architecture that dominated the second half of the 20th century developed during this period. The 21st century saw the emergence of multiple organizations dedicated to the promotion of local and/or traditional architecture. Examples include the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU), the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), the Driehaus Architecture Prize, and the Complementary architecture movement. Prominent architects of the new traditional wave include Michael Graves, Léon Krier, Yasmeen Lari, Robert Stern and Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil, among others.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Most of the landmarks of contemporary architecture are the works of a small group of architects who work on an international scale. Many were designed by architects already famous in the late 20th century, including Mario Botta, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Norman Foster, Ieoh Ming Pei and Renzo Piano, while others are the work of a new generation born during or after World War II, including Zaha Hadid, Santiago Calatrava, Daniel Libeskind, Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, and Shigeru Ban. Other projects are the work of collectives of several architects, such as UNStudio and SANAA, or giant multinational agencies such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with thirty associate architects and large teams of engineers and designers, and Gensler, with 5,000 employees in 16 countries.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Some of the most striking and innovative works of contemporary architecture are art museums, which are often examples of sculptural architecture, and are the signature works of major architects. The Quadracci Pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Its structure includes a movable, wing-like "brise soleil" that opens up for a wingspan of during the day, folding over the tall, arched structure at night or during bad weather.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2005), was designed by the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron, who designed the Tate Modern museum in London, and who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious award in architecture, in 2001. It updates and provides a contrast to the austere earlier Modernist structure designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes by adding a five-story tower clad in panels of delicately sculpted gray aluminum, which change color with the changing light, connecting by a wide glass gallery leading to the older building. It also harmonizes with two stone churches opposite.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Polish-born American architect Daniel Libeskind (born 1946) is one of the most prolific of contemporary museum architects; He was an academic before he began designing buildings and was one of the early proponents of the architectural theory of Deconstructivism. The exterior of his Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, England (2002), has an exterior which resembles, depending upon the light and time of day, huge and broken pieces of earth or armor plates, and is said to symbolize the destruction of war. In 2006 Libeskind finished the Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum in Denver Colorado, composed of twenty sloping planes, none of them parallel or perpendicular, covered with 230,000 square feet of titanium panels. Inside, the walls of the galleries are all different, sloping and asymmetric. Libeskind completed another striking museum, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2007), also known as "The Crystal," a building whose form, resembles a shattered crystal. Libeskind's museums have been both admired and attacked by critics. While admiring many features of the Denver Art Museum, "The New York Times" architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote that "In a building of canted walls and asymmetrical rooms—tortured geometries generated purely by formal considerations — it is virtually impossible to enjoy the art."


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The De Young Museum in San Francisco was designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. It opened in 2005, replacing an older structure that was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1989. The new museum was designed to blend with the park's natural landscape and resist strong earthquakes. The building can move up to three feet (91 centimeters) on ball-bearing sliding plates and viscous fluid dampers that absorb kinetic energy.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Zentrum Paul Klee by Renzo Piano is an art museum near Berne Switzerland located next to an autoroute in the Swiss countryside. The museum blends into the landscape by taking three rolling hills made of steel and glass. One building houses the gallery (which is almost entirely underground to preserve the fragile drawings of Klee from the effects of sunlight). At the same time, the other two "hills" contain an education center and administrative offices.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Centre Pompidou-Metz, in Metz, France, (2010), a branch of the Centre Pompidou museum of modern art in Paris, was designed by Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect who won the Pritzker Prize for Architecture in 2014. The roof is the most dramatic feature of the building; it is a wide hexagon with a surface area of , composed of sixteen kilometers of glued laminated timber, that intersect to form hexagonal wooden units resembling the cane-work pattern of a Chinese hat. The roof's geometry is irregular, featuring curves and counter-curves over the entire building, particularly the three exhibition galleries. The entire wooden structure is covered with a white fiberglass membrane, and a coating of teflon protects from direct sunlight and allows light to pass through.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Louis Vuitton Foundation by Frank Gehry (2014) is the gallery of contemporary art located adjacent to the Bois de Boulogne in Paris was opened in October 2014. Gehry described his architecture as inspired by the glass Grand Palais of the 1900 Paris Exposition and by the enormous glass greenhouses of the Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil near the park, built by Jean-Camille Formigé in 1894–95. Gehry had to work within strict height and volume restrictions, which required any part of the building over two stories to be made of glass. The building is low because of the height limits, sited in an artificial lake with water cascading beneath the building. The interior gallery structures are covered in a white fiber-reinforced concrete called Ductal. Similar in concept to Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, the building is wrapped in curving glass panels resembling sails inflated by the wind. The glass "Sails" are made of 3,584 laminated glass panels, each one a different shape, specially curved for its place in the design. Inside the sails is a cluster of two-story towers containing 11 galleries of different sizes, with flower garden terraces, and rooftop spaces for displays.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City by Renzo Piano (2015) took a very different approach from the sculptural museums of Frank Gehry. The Whitney has an industrial-looking facade and blends into the neighborhood. Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic of "The New York Times" called the building a "mishmash of styles" but noted its similarity to Piano's Centre Pompidou in Paris, in the way that it mixed with the public spaces around it. "Unlike so much big-name architecture," Kimmelman wrote, "it's not some weirdly shaped trophy building into which all the practical stuff of a working museum must be fitted."


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is actually two buildings by different architects fit together; an earlier (1995) five-story postmodernist structure by the Swiss architect Mario Botta, to which has been joined a much larger ten-story white gallery by the Norwegian-based firm of Snøhetta (2016). The expanded building includes a green living wall of native plants in San Francisco; a free ground-floor gallery with tall glass walls that will place art on view to passersby and glass skylights that flood the upper floors of offices (though not the galleries) with light. The facades clad are with lightweight panels made of Fibre-Reinforced Plastic. The critical reaction to the building was mixed. Roberta Smith of "The New York Times" said the building set a new standard for museums and wrote: "The new building’s rippling, sloping facade, rife with subtle curves and bulges, establishes a brilliant alternative to the straight-edged boxes of traditional modernism and the rebellion against them initiated by Frank Gehry, with his computer-inspired acrobatics." On the other hand, the critic of "The Guardian" of London compared the facade of the building to "a gigantic meringue with a hint of Ikea."


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Santiago Calatrava designed the Auditorio de Tenerife he concert hall of Tenerife, the major city of the Canary Islands. with a shell-like wing of reinforced concrete.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003) is one of the major works by California architect Frank Gehry The exterior is stainless steel, formed like the sails of sailboats. The interior is in the Vineyard style, with the audience surrounding the stage. Gehry designed the dramatic array of pipes of the organ to complement the exterior style of the building.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal, by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas (2005) is unique among concert halls in having two walls made entirely of glass. Nicolai Ouroussoff, architecture critic from "The New York Times", wrote "The building's chiseled concrete form, resting on a carpet of polished stone, suggests a bomb about to explode. He declared that in its originality it was one of the most important concert halls built in the last 100 years". ranking with the Walt Disney Concert Hall, in Los Angeles, and the Berliner Philharmonie.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The interior of the Copenhagen Opera House by Henning Larsen (2005) has an oak floor and maple walls to enhance hat acoustics. The royal box of the Queen, usually placed in the back, is next to stage.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee, by David M. Schwarz & Earl Swensson (2006), is an example of Neo-Classical architecture, borrowed literally from Roman and Greek models. It complements another Nashville landmark, a full-scale replica of the Parthenon.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Philharmonie de Paris by French architect Jean Nouvel opened in 2015. The concert hall is at La Villette, in a park at the edge of Paris devoted to museums, a music school and other cultural institutions, where its unusual shape blends with the late 20th-century modern architecture. The exterior of the building takes the form of glittering irregular cliff cut by horizontal fins which reveal ar amp leading upwards The exterior is clad in thousands of small pieces of aluminum in three different colors, from white to gray to black. A path leads up the ramp to the top of building to a terrace with a dramatic view of the peripheric highway around the city. view of the neighborhood. The hall, like the Disney Hall in Los Angeles, has Vineyard style seating, with the audience surrounding the main stage. The seating can be re-arranged in different styles depending upon the type of music performed. When it opened, the architectural critic of the London Guardian compared it to a space ship that had crash-landed on the outskirts of the city.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany, by Herzog & de Meuron, which was inaugurated in January 2017, is the tallest inhabited building in the city, with a height of 110 meters (360 ft). The glass concert hall, which has 2100 seats in Vineyard style, is perched atop a former warehouse. One side of the concert hall building contains a hotel, while the structure on the other side above the concert hall contains forty five apartments. The concert hall in the middle is isolated from the sound of the other parts of the building by an "eggshell" of plaster and paper panels and insulation resembling feather pillows.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The skyscraper (usually defined as a building over 40 stories high) first appeared in Chicago in the 1890s, and was largely an American style in the mid 20th century, but in the 21st century skyscrapers were found in almost every large city on every continent. A new construction technology, the framed tube structure, was first developed in the United States in 1963 by structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skimore, Owings and Merrill, which permitted the construction of super-tall buildings, which needed fewer interior walls, had more window space, and could better resist lateral forces, such as strong winds.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is the tallest structure in the world, standing at . Construction of the Burj Khalifa began in 2004, with the exterior completed 5 years later in 2009. The primary structure is reinforced concrete. Burj Khalifa was designed by Adrian Smith, then of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). He also was lead architect on the Jin Mao Tower, Pearl River Tower, and Trump International Hotel & Tower.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Adrian Smith and his own firm are the architects for the building which, in 2020, meant to replace the Burj-Khalifa as the tallest building in the world. The Jeddah Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is planned to be 1,008 meters, or (3,307 ft) tall, which will make it the tallest building in the world, and the first building to be more than one kilometer in height. Construction began in 2013, and the project is scheduled to be completed in 2020.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: After the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in the September 11 terrorist attacks, a new trade center was designed, with the main tower designed by David Childs of SOM. One World Trade Center, opened in 2015, is 1,776 feet (541 m). tall, making it the tallest building in the western hemisphere.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: In London, one of the most notable contemporary landmarks is 30 St Mary Axe, popularly known as "The Gherkin", designed by Norman Foster (2004). It replaced the London Millennium Tower – a much taller project that Foster earlier had proposed for the same site, which would have been the tallest building in Europe, but was so tall that it interfered with the flight pattern for Heathrow Airport. The steel framework of the Gherkin is integrated into the glass facade.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The tallest building in Moscow is the Federation Tower, designed by the Russian architect Sergei Tchoban with Peter Schweger. Completed in 2017, with a height 373 meters, it surpassed Mercury City Tower, another skyscraper in Moscow, when it was built as the tallest building in Europe.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The tallest building in China as of 2015 is the Shanghai Tower by the U.S. architectural and design firm of Gensler. It is 632-meters (2,073 ft) tall, with 127 floors, making it in 2016 the second-tallest building in the world. It also features the fastest elevators, which reach a speed of 20.5 meters (40 feet) per second or 74 kilometers an hour.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Most skyscrapers are designed to express modernity; the most notable exception is the Abraj Al Bait, a complex of seven skyscraper hotels build by the government of Saudi Arabia to house pilgrims coming the holy shrine of Mecca. The centerpiece of the group is the Makkah Palace Clock Tower Hotel, with a gothic revival tower; it was the fourth-tallest building in the world in 2016, 581.1 meters (1,906 feet) high.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: A tendency in contemporary residential architecture, particularly in the rebuilding of older neighborhoods in large cities, is the luxury condominium tower, with very expensive apartments for sale designed by "starchitects", that is, internationally famous architects. These buildings frequently have little relationship with the architecture of their neighborhood, but stand like signature works of their architects.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Daniel Libeskind (born 1946), was born in Poland and studied, taught and practiced architecture in the United States. In 2016 he was professor of architecture at UCLA in Los Angeles, He is known as much for his writings as his architecture; he was a founder of the movement called Deconstructivism. Best known for his museums, he also constructed a notable complex of residential apartment buildings in Singapore (2011) and The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge a 22-story apartment building in Covington, Kentucky (2008). The name of the latter is taken from the Roebling Suspension Bridge nearby on the Ohio River, but the structure of the building of luxury condominiums is extremely contemporary, sloping upward like the bridge cables to a peak, with a sharp edge and leaning slightly outward as the building rises.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: One cheerful feature of contemporary residential architecture is color; Bernard Tschumi uses colored ceramic tiles on facades as well as unusual forms to make his buildings stand out. One example is the Blue Condominium in New York City (2007).


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Another contemporary tendency is the conversion of industrial buildings into mixed residential communities. An example is the Gasometer in Vienna, a group of four massive brick gas production towers constructed at the end of the 19th century. They have been transformed into a mixed residential, office and commercial complex, completed between 1999 and 2001. Some residences are located inside the towers, and others are in new buildings attached to them. The upper floors are devoted to housing units the middle floors to offices, and the ground floors to entertainment and shopping malls. with sky bridges connecting the shopping mall levels. Each tower was built by a prominent architect the participants were Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelblau, Manfred Wehldorn and Wilhelm Holzbauer. The historic exterior walls of the towers were preserved.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Isbjerget, Danish for "iceberg", in Aarhus, Denmark (2013), is a group of four buildings with 210 apartments, both rented and owned, for residents with a range of incomes, located on the waterfront of a former industrial port in Denmark. The complex was designed by the Danish firms CEBRA and JDS Architects, French architect Louis Paillard and the Dutch firm SeARCH, and was financed by the Danish pension fund. The buildings are designed so that all the units, even those in the back, have a view of sea. The design and color of the buildings is inspired by icebergs. The buildings are clad in white terrazzo and have balconies made of blue glass.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Surprisingly few contemporary churches were built between 2000 and 2017. Church architects, with a few exceptions, rarely showed the same freedom of expression as architects of museums, concert halls and other large buildings. The new cathedral for the City of Los Angeles California, was designed in a postmodern style by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. The previous cathedral had been serious damaged by an earthquake in 1995; the new building was specially designed to resist similar shocks.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Northern Lights Cathedral, by the Denmark-based international firm of Schmidt, Hammer and Lassen, is located in Alta, Norway, one of northernmost cities in the world. Their other important works include the National Library of Denmark in Copenhagen.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir is a Hindu Temple in Vrindivan, in Uttar Pradesh state in India, which was under construction at the end of 2016. The architects are InGenious Studio Pvt. Ltd. of Gurgaon and Quintessence Design Studio of Noida, in India. The entrance is in the traditional Nagara style of Indian architecture, while the tower is contemporary, with a glass facade up to the 70th floor. It is scheduled for completion in 2019. When completed, at 700 feet (213 meters or 70 floors) it will be the tallest religious structure in the world.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: One of the most unusual contemporary churches is St. Jude's Anglican Cathedral in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, the northernmost and least populous region of Canada. The church is built in the shape of an igloo, and serves the Inuktitut-speaking population of the region.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Another unusual contemporary church is the Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. It replaced the city's main cathedral, damaged by the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The cathedral, which seats seven hundred persons, rises above the altar. Materials used include -diameter cardboard tubes, timber and steel. The roof is of polycarbon, with eight shipping containers forming the walls. "coated with waterproof polyurethane and flame retardants" with two-inch gaps between them so that light can filter inside.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron designed the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, completed in 2005. It seats 75,000 spectators. The structure is wrapped in 2,874 ETFE-foil air panels that are kept inflated with dry air; each panel can be independently illuminated red, white, or blue. When illuminated, the stadium is visible from the Austrian Alps, fifty miles (80 kilometers) away.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Among the most prestigious projects and best-known projects in contemporary architecture are the stadiums for the Olympic Games, whose architects are chosen by highly publicized international competitions. The Beijing National Stadium, built for the 2008 Games and popularly known as the Bird's Nest because of its intricate exterior framework, was designed by the Swiss firm of Herzog & de Meuron, with Chinese architect Li Xinggang. It was designed to seat 91,000 spectators, and when constructed had a retractable roof, since removed. Like many contemporary buildings, it is actually two structures; a concrete bowl in which the spectators sit, surrounded at distance of fifty feet by a glass and steel framework. The exterior "Bird's nest" design was inspired by the pattern of Chinese ceramics. The stadium when completed was the largest enclosed space in the world, and was also the largest steel structure, with 26 kilometers of unwrapped steel.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The National Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan by Japanese architect Toyo Ito (2009), is the form of a dragon. Its other distinctive feature is the array of solar panels that cover almost all of the exterior, providing most of the energy needed by the complex.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Government buildings, once almost universally serious and sober looking, usually in variations of the school of neoclassical architecture, began to appear in more sculptural and even whimsical forms. One of the most dramatic examples was the London City Hall by Norman Foster (2002), the headquarters of the Greater London Authority. The unusual egg-like building design was intended to reduce the amount of exposed wall and to save energy, though the results have not entirely met expectations. One unusual feature is a helical stairway that spirals from the lobby up to the top of the building.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Some new government buildings, such as the Parliament House, Valletta, Malta by Renzo Piano (2015) created controversy because of the contrast between their style and the historic architecture around them.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Most new government buildings attempt to express solidity and seriousness; an exception is the Port Authority ("Havenhuis") in Antwerp, Belgium by Zaha Hadid (2016), where a ship-like structure of glass and steel on a white concrete perch seems to have landed atop the old port building constructed in 1922. The faceted glass structure also resembles a diamond, a symbol of Antwerp's role as the major market of diamonds in Europe. It was one of the last works of Hadid, who died in 2016.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building is a Business School building of the University of Technology Sydney in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 2015. It is the first building in Australia designed by Gehry. The building's façade, made of 320,000 custom designed bricks, was described by one critic as the "squashed brown paper bag". Frank Gehry responded, "Maybe it's a brown paper bag, but it's flexible on the inside, there's a lot of room for changes or movement."


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Siamese Twins Towers" at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, Chile are by the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena (born 1967), completed in 2013. Aravena was the winner of the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, by the Norwegian firm of Snøhetta (2002), attempts to recreate, in modern form, the famous Alexandria Library of antiquity. The building, by the edge of the Mediterranean, has shelf space for eight million books, and a main reading room covering on eleven cascading levels. plus galleries for expositions and a planetarium. The main reading room is covered by a 32-meter-high glass-panelled roof, tilted out toward the sea like a sundial, and measuring some 160 m in diameter. The walls are of gray Aswan granite, carved with characters from 120 different human scripts.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The Seattle Central Library by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas (2006) features a glass and steel wrapping around a stack of platforms. One unusual feature is a ramp with continuous bookshelves spiraling upward four floors.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The shopping malls are the elephants of commercial architecture, massive structures which combine retail stores, food outlets, and entertainment under a single roof. The largest in area (though not in retail space, since much of the mall is devoted to entertainment and public space) and perhaps most extravagant is the Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates, designed by DP Architects of Singapore and opened in (2008), which features, in addition to shops and restaurants, a gigantic walk-through aquarium and underwater zoo, plus a huge ice skating rink, and, just outside, the highest fountain and tallest building in the world.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: In competition with shopping malls are downtown department stores and shops of individual designer brands. These buildings are traditionally designed to attract attention and to express the modernity of the products they sell. A notable example is the Selfridge's Department Store in Birmingham, England, a department store designed by the firm of Future Systems, founded in 1979 by Jan Kaplicky (1937–2009). The department store exterior is composed of undulating concrete in convex and concave forms, entirely covered with gleaming blue and white ceramic tiles.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Designer brand shops try make their logo visible and to set themselves apart from department stores. One notable example is the Louis Vuitton store in the Ginza district of Tokyo, with a new facade designed by Japanese studio of Jun Aoki and Associates with a patterned and perforated shell based on the brand's logo.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Beijing Capital International Airport has been one of the fast-growing airports in the world. The new Terminal Three was designed by Norman Foster to handle the increased number of passengers coming for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The terminal is the second largest in the world, after the Dulles Airport terminal near Washington, DC, and in 2008 was the sixth largest building in the world. The flat-roofed building looks like part of the runway from above.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The World Trade Center Transportation Hub is a station constructed beneath fountain and plaza honoring the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks in 2001 in New York City, It was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and opened in 2016. The above-ground structure, called the Oculus, has been compared to a bird about to take flight, and leads passengers down to the train station below the plaza. Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic of "The New York Times" praised the soaring upward view inside the Oculus, but condemned what he called the buildings cost (the most expensive railroad station ever built) "scale, monotony of materials and color, preening formalism and disregard for the gritty urban fabric."


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Several of the most prominent contemporary architects, including Norman Foster, Santiago Calatrava, Zaha Hadid, have turned their attention to designing bridges. One of the most remarkable examples of contemporary architecture and engineering is the Millau Viaduct in southern France, designed by architect Norman Foster and structural engineer Michel Virlogeux. The Millau Viaduct crosses the valley of the River Tarn and is part of the A75-A71 autoroute axis from Paris to Béziers and Montpellier. It was formally inaugurated on 14 December 2004. It is the tallest bridge in the world with one mast's summit at above the base of the structure.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid constructed the Bridge Pavilion in Zaragoza. Spain for an international exposition there in 2008. The bridge, which also served as an exposition hall, is constructed of concrete reinforced with an external layer of fiberglass in different shades of gray. Since the event closed, the bridge has been used to host expositions and shows.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Some smaller new bridges also offer simple but very innovative designs. The Gateshead Millennium Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, (2004) designed by Michel Virlogeux, to enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross the Tyne River, tilts to one side to permit boats to pass beneath.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: A growing tendency in the 21st century is eco-architecture, also termed sustainable architecture; buildings with features which conserve heat and energy, and sometimes produce their own energy through solar cells and windmills, and use solar heat to generate solar hot water. They also may be built with their own wastewater treatment and sometimes rainwater harvesting Some buildings integrate gardens green walls and green roofs into their structures. Other features of eco-architecture include the use of wood and recycled materials. There are several green building certification programs, the best-known of which is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED rating, which measure the environmental impact of buildings.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Many urban skyscrapers such as 30 Saint Mary Axe in London use a double skin of glass to conserve energy. The double skin and curved shape of the building creates differences in air pressure which help keep the building cooler in summer and warmer in winter, reducing the need for air conditioning.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: BedZED, designed by British architect Bill Dunster, is an entire community of eighty-two homes in Hackbridge, near London, built according to eco-architecture principles. Houses face south to take advantage of sunlight and have triple-glazed windows for insulation, a significant portion of the energy comes from solar panels, rainwater is collected and reused, and automobiles are discouraged. BedZED successfully reduced electricity usage by 45 percent and hot water usage by 81 percent of the borough average in 2010, though a successful system for producing heat by burning wood chips proved elusive and difficult.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: The CaixaForum Madrid is a museum and cultural center in Paseo del Prado 36, Madrid, by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, built between 2001 and 2007, is an example of both green architecture and recycling. The main structure is an abandoned brick electric power station, with new floors constructed on top. The new floors are encased in oxidized cast iron, which has a rusty red color as the brick of the old power station below it. The building next to it features a green wall designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc. The red of the top floors contrast with the plants on the wall, while the green wall harmonizes with the botanical garden next door to the cultural center.


title: Contemporary architecture

text: Unusual materials are sometimes recycled for use in eco-architecture; they include denim from old blue jeans for insulation, and panels made from paper flakes, baked earth, flax, sisal, or coconut, and particularly fast-growing bamboo. Lumber and stone from demolished buildings are often reclaimed and reused for flooring, while hardware, windows and other details from older buildings are reused.


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: The Cessna 210 Centurion is a six-seat, high-performance, retractable-gear, single-engined, high-wing general-aviation aircraft. First flown in January 1957, it was produced by Cessna until 1986.


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: The early Cessna 210 (210 and 210A) had four seats with a Continental IO-470 engine of . It was essentially a Cessna 182B to which was added a retractable landing gear, swept tail, and a new wing. In 1961, the fuselage and wing were completely redesigned: The fuselage was made wider and deeper, and a third side window was added. The wing planform remained the same; constant chord from centerline to out, then straight taper to chord at from centerline, but the semi-Fowler flaps (slotted, rear-moving) were extended outboard, from wing station 100 to Wing station 122, which allowed a lower landing speed. FAA certification regulations state that a single-engined aircraft must have a flaps-down, power-off stall speed no greater than . To compensate for the reduced aileron span, the aileron profile was changed and its chord enlarged. The 1964 model 210D introduced a engine and two small child seats, set into the cavity that contained the mainwheels aft of the passengers.


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: In 1967, the model 210G introduced a cantilever wing replacing the strut-braced wing. Its planform changed to a constant taper from root chord to tip chord. In 1970, the 210K became the first full six-seat model. This was achieved by replacing the flat leaf springs used for the retractable main landing gear struts (undercarriage) with tapered tubular steel struts of greater length. This allowed the tires to be nested farther to the rear of the fuselage, making room for the full-sized rear seats. In 1979, the 210N model eliminated the folding doors, which previously covered the two retracted main wheels. The tubular spring struts retract into shallow channels along the bottom of the fuselage and the wheels fit snugly in closed depressions on the underside of the fuselage. Some models featured deicing boots as an option.


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: The aircraft was offered in a normally aspirated version, designated the model 210, as well as the turbocharged T210 and the pressurized P210 versions. The Centurion II was an option introduced in 1970 with improved avionics, and was available in both normally aspirated and turbocharged versions (Turbo Centurion II)


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: On 21 May 2012, the airworthiness authority responsible for the design, the US Federal Aviation Administration, issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive requiring 3,665 of the cantilever-wing Cessna 210s to be inspected for cracks in the spar cap, wing spar, and wing. Aircraft with more than 10,000 hours of airframe time were grounded immediately pending a visual inspection.


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: On 16 May 2019, a Cessna Model T210M airplane suffered an in-flight separation of the right wing. Preliminary investigations found cracking of the wing-spar carry-through where fatigue began from a small corrosion pit on the lower surface of the carry-through. Textron published a mandatory service letter (SEL-57-06) on June 24, 2019, to provide instructions for a detailed visual inspection of the wing carry-through spar. The FAA issued an Airworthiness Directive on 21 February 2020 mandating eddy current inspections of the carry-through spar lower cap, corrective action if necessary, application of a protective coating and corrosion inhibiting compound, and reporting the inspection results to the FAA. Since it shared a common carry-through design, the Cessna 177 Cardinal also received a similar mandatory service letter (SELF-57-07) and an airworthiness concern from the FAA.


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: The Cessna 210 was manufactured in 26 model variants: C210, C210A-D, the Centurion C210E-H&J, Turbo Centurion T210F-H&J, the Centurion II C210K-N&R, the Turbo Centurion II T210K-N&R and the P210N&R. The 210N, T210N (turbocharged), and P210N (pressurized) versions were produced in the greatest quantity. The rarest and most expensive models were the T210R and P210R, which were produced only in small quantities in 1985-86. Several modifications and optional fittings are also available, including different engine installations, wingtip tanks, speed brakes, short-take-off-and-landing kits, and gear door modifications.


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: The early strut-winged Cessna 210B was developed into a fixed-gear aircraft known as the Cessna 205. This spawned an entirely new family of Cessna aircraft, including the 206 and the eight-seat 207.


title: Cessna 210 Centurion

text: The Cessna 210 is widely used by flight training schools, private operators, air-taxi and commercial charter, and private companies.


Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird ("Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas") is a 1940 self-portrait by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo which also includes.


title: Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

text: a black cat, a monkey, and two dragonflies. It was painted after Kahlo's divorce from Diego Rivera and the end of her affair with photographer Nickolas Muray.


text: Muray bought the portrait shortly after it was painted, and it is currently part of the Nickolas Muray collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.


text: Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter active between 1925 and 1954. She began painting while bedridden due to a bus accident that left her seriously injured. Most of her work consists of self-portraits, which deal directly with her struggle with medical issues, infertility, and her troubeparate Frida on which to project her anguish and pain. Scholars have interpreted her self-portraits as a way for Kahlo to reclaim her body from medical issues and gender conformity. In particular, scholars have interpreted her self-portraits in the context of the tradition of male European artists using the female body as the subject of their paintings and an object of desire. Kahlo, using her own image, reclaims this use from the patriarchal tradition. The autobiographical details of her life found in these works as well as her characteristic brows, elaborate hair, and vibrant Mexican clothing has made her a popular figure in Mexico and the United States.


text: Kahlo was a big supporter of the Mexican Revolution, so much so that she attempted to change her birth date to correspond with the beginning of the Revolution in 1910. At the onset of this movement, a so-called “cult of Mexican femininity” gained popularity, which Jolie Olcott describes as “selflessness, martyrdom, self-sacrifice, an erasure of self and the negation of one’s outward existence.” In rejection of this limited conception of femininity, Kahlo fashioned herself as a Mexican counterpart to the flappers of the United States and Europe in the 1920s. Later, inspired by Rivera's concept of Mexicanidad, a passionate identification with Mexican pre-Hispanic indigenous roots, she donned the identity of the Tehuana woman. The Tehuana had a great deal of equality with their male Zapotec counterparts and represented strength, sensuality, and exoticism.


text: This rather small painting (approximately 24” × 18”) shows Kahlo in a frontal position and directly confronting the viewer's gaze from the canvas with leaves behind her in the background. Her bold eyebrows hold the emphasis on her face, as a thorn necklace strangles her throat, trailing down her chest like the roots of a tree. A small black hummingbird with its wings outstretched hangs like a pendant from her throat. She is surrounded by insects and animals, setting the scene of a lush, but suffocatingly dense jungle. A monkey sits behind her right shoulder, its eyes focused on its hands, tugging at the thorn necklace, causing Kahlo to bleed. Above her head, two dragonflies float in mid-air, above two butterfly clips nesting in the elaborate hairstyle that crowns her head. A black cat with striking ice blue eyes peers up from the foliage over her left shoulder.


text: Kahlo's identification with indigenous Mexican culture affected her painting aesthetic. By using powerful iconography from indigenous Mexican culture, Kahlo situates herself in a tradition of rebellion against colonial forces and male rule. The dead hummingbird which hangs around her neck is considered a good luck charm for falling in love in Mexican folklore. An alternative interpretation is that the hummingbird pendant is a symbol of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. Meanwhile, the black panther is symbolic of bad luck and death and the monkey is a symbol of evil. The natural landscape, which normally symbolizes fertility, contrasts with the deathly imagery in the foreground. Rivera gave Kahlo a spider monkey as a gift, thus suggesting that it could be a symbol of Rivera, especially since he inflicts pain upon Kahlo by tugging the thorn necklace hard enough to make her bleed. Alternatively, the thorn necklace could allude to Christ's crown of thorns, thus likening herself to a Christian martyr, and representing the pain and anguish she felt after her failed romantic relationships. In line with this interpretation, the butterflies and dragonflies could symbolize her resurrection.


text: The University of Texas at Austin acquired the painting in 1966. Since 1990, it has appeared in several exhibitions internationally:


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: The 2012–13 La Liga season (known as the "Liga BBVA" for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd since its establishment. The campaign began on 18 August 2012, and ended on 1 June 2013. Barcelona won the league for a 22nd time, after leading the league the entire season and amassing 100 points, equalling Real Madrid's points record from the previous season.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: As in previous years, Nike provided the official ball for all matches, with a new Nike Maxim Liga BBVA model to be used throughout the season for all matches.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: A total of 20 teams contested the league, including 17 sides from the 2011–12 season and three promoted from the 2011–12 Segunda División. This included the two top teams from the Segunda División, and the victorious team of the play-offs.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: Villarreal CF, Sporting de Gijón and Racing de Santander were relegated to 2012–13 Segunda División the previous season: Villarreal were relegated after twelve years in La Liga, Sporting de Gijón returned to Segunda División after a four-year tenure in La Liga, while Racing de Santander ended ten consecutive seasons in La Liga, the longest period in its history.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: The three teams that were relegated were replaced by three 2011–12 Segunda División sides: Deportivo de La Coruña made an immediate return to the top level as Segunda División champion. The second-placing team Celta de Vigo was also promoted to La Liga after a five-year absence. The third promoted team was decided in the promotion play-offs where Real Valladolid returned to La Liga after two seasons in Segunda División.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: La Liga's governing body, the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, honoured the competition's best players and coach with LaLiga Awards.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: The Pichichi Trophy is awarded by newspaper "Marca" to the player who scores the most goals in a season.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: The Zamora Trophy is awarded by newspaper "Marca" to the goalkeeper with fewest goals-to-games ratio. Keepers must play at least 28 games of 60 or more minutes to be eligible for the trophy.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: This award is given annually since 1999 to the team with the best fair play during the season. This ranking takes into account aspects such as cards, suspension of matches, audience behaviour and other penalties. This section not only aims to determine the best fair play, but also serves to break the tie in teams that are tied in all the other rules: points, head-to-head, goal difference and goals scored.


title: 2012–13 La Liga

text: Sources of cards and penalties: Referee's reports, Competition Committee's Sanctions, Appeal Committee Resolutions and RFEF section about Fair Play


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The First Mexican Republic, known also as the First Federal Republic (), was a federated republic, under the Constitution of 1824. It was a nation-state officially designated the United Mexican States (, ). The First Mexican Republic lasted from 1824 to 1835, when conservatives under Antonio López de Santa Anna transformed it into a unitary state, the Centralist Republic of Mexico.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The republic was proclaimed on November 1, 1823 by the Constituent Congress, months after the fall of the Mexican Empire ruled emperor Agustin I, a former royalist military officer-turned-insurgent for independence. The federation was formally and legally established on October 4, 1824, when the Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States came into force.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The First Republic was plagued through its entire twelve-year existence by severe financial and political instability. Political controversies, ever since the drafting of the constitution tended to center around whether Mexico should be a federal or a centralist state, with wider liberal and conservative causes attaching themselves to each faction respectively. With the exception of the inaugural office holder, Guadalupe Victoria, every single administration during the First Republic was overthrown by military coup d'état.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The First Republic would finally collapse after the overthrow of the liberal president Valentín Gómez Farías, through a rebellion led by his former vice-president, General Antonio López de Santa Anna who had switched sides. Once in power, the conservatives, who had long been critical of the federal system and blamed it for the nation's instability, repealed the Constitution of 1824 on October 23, 1835, and the Federal Republic became a unitary state, the Centralist Republic. The unitary regime was formally established on December 30, 1836, with the enactment of the seven constitutional laws.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The Spanish Empire disintegrated in the wake of Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons in 1808. Throughout Spain and her colonies there was a widespread refusal to recognize Napoleon's brother Joseph II as the new French-backed king of Spain. The cleric Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, who had long been part of a circle of intellectuals who sought to reform the colonial system triggered the Mexican War of Independence in 1810 by accusing the Spanish ruling classes of seeking to recognize Joseph Bonaparte, while proclaiming loyalty to the imprisoned Ferdinand VII. The subsequent uprising would go on to seriously threaten the capital yet it was ultimately defeated within a year and Hidalgo was captured and executed.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The war would continue and be organized under Jose Maria Morelos who would gain control over much of southern New Spain. At the Congress of Chilpancingo in 1813 he renounced loyalty to Ferdinand and expounded a plan for an independent, Republican Mexico. The Constitution of Apatzingán was ratified on October 22, 1814, but it would never come into effect. The tide of war began to turn against the insurgents, and Morelos was captured and executed in 1815.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: Meanwhile, in Spain, the Spanish government in exile, the liberal dominated Cortes of Cádiz had included representatives from the colonies, and taken into account many of the colonial grievances which were leading to independence. The consequent liberal Constitution of 1812, was promulgated during the Morelos insurgency. It established a system of ‘provincial deputations’ which granted more autonomy to local governments in the colonies while also providing for freedom of speech. The newly liberated Mexican press however simply inflamed anti-Spanish sentiment, Morelos' rebellion continued, and on the pretext of necessity for subduing the rebels, the constitution was suspended in New Spain the same year it was proclaimed, making Mexican liberals lose hope of attaining reform within the colonial system, while not forgetting the local provincial autonomy that they had temporarily been granted.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: Independence was finally gained in 1821 under Agustín de Iturbide's Plan of Iguala which was a conservative reaction against the outbreak of the Trienio Liberal in Spain, but also a compromise with those Mexican liberals who sought equality before the law. Mexico was to have its independence under a commonwealth system with constitutional monarchy maintaining ties to Spain and commissioners were sent to Spain to offer the throne to a Spanish prince. The Spanish government refused the offer and a popular demonstration led to Iturbide himself assuming the throne. The Emperor immediately however began to clash with legislature and showed himself determined to have supreme authority over the government, even shutting congress down and replacing it with a body of loyalists. Iturbide struggled to pay the army, and eventually Santa Anna pronounced in favor of a Federal Republic in his Plan of Casa Mata. After being unable to suppress the rebellion Iturbide reconvened congress and offered his abdication after which he was exiled from the nation. He would attempt to return the following year while Mexico was under a provisional government only to be captured and executed.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The provisional government was led by a triumvirate consisting of Nicolas Bravo, Pedro Negrete, and Guadalupe Victoria, the latter who would eventually go on to become the first president of Mexico. Congress organized elections for a new Constituent Congress that was meant to draft a new constitution, and the newly elected body met on November 7, 1823.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: Controversy now raged over whether the new republic was going to be a federal system or a unitary system. The most prominent opponent of the federal system was Father Mier who had previously made a name for himself as a critic of Iturbide. He argued that the nation needed a strong centralized government to guard against Spanish attempts to reconquer her former colony, and that a federation rather suited a situation in which previously sovereign states were attempting to unite as had happened with the United States. New Spain had never been made up of autonomous provinces. Federation for Mexico, according to Mier would then be an act of separation rather than unification and only lead to internal conflict. The arguments for federation prevailed however, motivated by the long struggle during the independence war to seek as much autonomy as possible, and an eagerness to reap the salaries that would accompany local bureaucracies. For historian Timothy Anna, "the transition to a federal republic [as opposed to the initial triumph of independence] was the real 'revolution' because the old gave way to the new in Mexican history." Mexico decided upon federation as a practical compromise between the need for effective national government and the desire for granting the provinces a voice. Ramon Arizpe, former deputy to the Cortes of Leon and one of the champions of federalism was tasked with drafting the new constitution and he modeled the document on the Constitution of the United States. The completed constitution was published on October 4, 1824.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: In the new federated republican era, the transition from the colonial legal system was not easy. Crown edicts no longer had force and new legal codes had not yet come into being. No one knew which laws were valid, there were vacancies in the courts, and few trained lawyers. States were accorded the power over most civil and criminal legal matters. The separate court for merchants, the "consulado", was abolished, but the military and church courts retained jurisdiction over soldiers and clergy respectively as part of their "fuero". For members of indigenous communities, the removal of colonial-era protections of their community lands and their access to the special General Indian Court made them more vulnerable in the new federated republican order.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The first presidential elections were held the same week that the constitution was promulgated adn Guadalupe Victoria, war hero of independence, and one of the three members of the triumvirate was elected the first president of the First Mexican Republic.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: Fierce political controversy over federalism and centralism continued during the Victoria Administration, finding itself based in Mexico's Masonic lodges. Conservative supporters of centralism and surviving supporters of monarchy tended to belong to the Scottish Rite and were called "Esoceses" while liberal supporters of federalism tended to gather in the York Rite and were called "Yorkinos". Participants in political discussions at the lodges were bound by secrecy, and there was some effort in the government to ban such secret societies, but it came to nothing.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: In order to fund the government the Victoria administration had taken out a loan from a British banking house, but the bank failed in 1827, leading to a financial crisis in the Mexican government.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: Tensions against the Spaniards who remained in Mexico were also rising at this time and they sought to defend themselves by supporting the Escoceses. Calls to expel the Spaniards from the country challenged the tenets of the newly established liberal constitution, which stressed equality before the law. The leading liberal intellectual, José María Luis Mora, was opposed to Spaniards’ expulsion as a matter of principle, but also on practical grounds, since Spanish merchants had been vital to the flourishing of the colonial economy. Nonetheless, the Spaniards were expelled in December, 1827, under the pretext of suppressing sedition.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: On December 23, 1827, the conservatives proclaimed the Plan of Montaño, demanding the expulsion of Poinsett, the end to secret societies, and the dismissal of the current cabinet, the latter measure due to the belief that the Yorkino dominated government was about to take decisive measures to suppress the Escoceses. The insurrection was ironically led by Victoria's own vice-president, Nicholas Bravo, but it was suppressed and Bravo was exiled.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: More violence would follow the presidential elections of 1828. They were won by the conservative candidate Gomez Pedraza, but supporters of the liberal candidate Vicente Guerrero refused to recognize the results and petitioned congress to nullify them. The efforts were rejected, and the government took advantage of the electoral challenge to begin prosecuting the liberal opposition. This in turn only inflamed further violence which spread to the capital. As the tide seemed to be turning against him, Gomez Pedraza fled the country, and Guerrero was able to have his victory ratified by congress.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: For Guerrero's supporters, a visibly mixed-race man from Mexico's periphery becoming president of Mexico was a step toward in what one 1829 pamphleteer called "the reconquest of this land by its legitimate owners" and called Guerrero "that immortal hero, favorite son of Nezahualcoyotzin", the famous ruler of prehispanic Texcoco.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: In his inaugural address, he pointed to his long service to the nation fighting for independence, but also importantly to his holding of high office in independent Mexico. He said, "The representatives are to be found in all classes of the people, and the true titles of superiority, the only ones that cause distinction and preference, are discovered wherever talent and virtue appear." In his first address to congress, he pledged that "the administration is obliged to procure the widest possible benefits and apply them from the palace of the rich to the wooden shack of the humble laborer." He went on to extol liberal values of equality before the law and rewards for those with talent and virtue.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The first major crisis faced by the new government was an attempt by Spain to reconquer its former colony. Troops were landed at the tropical port of Tampico, upon which they began to succumb to yellow fever and were defeated by the Mexican military. Guerrero had been given emergency powers for the crisis and he was slow to relinquish them even after the crisis had subsided, which became a point of contention for his opponents.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: Slavery was abolished, there was an attempt to regulate the press, and the government attempted to alleviate the financial crisis by passing new federal taxes. The new taxes were then ignored by every single state.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: Vice President Bustamante and the opposition, under the pretext of opposing Guerrero's emergency powers, proclaimed against the government, and Guerrero left the capital to oppose the insurgents, but Bustamante's movement triumphed and he was installed as president in February 1830, with congress declaring Guerrero to be unfit for office.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: With President Bustamante, the escoceses or conservatives came into power for the first time. Lucas Alamán, the most prominent conservative intellectual of the time, would also be added to the cabinet and would play a notable role in guiding government policy.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: The administration managed to succeed in substantially alleviating the chronic financial instability and in his address to congress on January first, 1832, Bustamante could record surpluses in most of the states and in the federal government. Strong measures were taken in response to the emerging crisis in Texas. The amount of American settlers was making it difficult for Mexico to administer the area, and further colonization was prohibited in 1830. General Manuel de Mier y Terán was sent into the region to build a string of forts.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: Ex-president Guerrero remained at large but was captured and on February, 1831 was executed., causing an uproar amongst the opposition. The government was also accused of acting increasingly autocratically. The liberal opposition appealed to Santa Anna to pronounce against the government and he eventually began an uprising on January, 1832 which lasted until the end of the year and eventually proved to be successful. Gomez Pedraza was brought back to serve out the remaining three months of the term to which he had initially won against Guerrero in 1828. He was succeeded by Santa Anna with the liberal Valentín Gómez Farías as his vice president.


title: First Mexican Republic

text: During this time, Santa Anna and Gómez Farías shared power by alternating offices with Santa Anna repeatedly retiring to his estate at Manga del Clavo while Gómez Farías took care of official matters. Gómez Farías attempted to reduce the size of the army and also to pass a radical program of anti-clerical measures. The government closed all church schools including the university at Mexico City. It annulled monastic oaths and claimed for itself the right to pick officials in the church. It also suppressed monasteries in the north of the country. Members of congress wished to prosecute former members of the Bustamante administration, but Gomez Farias sought to moderate these measures. In response to the uprisings that were flaring up around the nation, a "Ley de Caso" expelled from the country many conservatives, including ex-president Bustamante. Many generals associated with the previous administration were removed from office leading to further opposition. The government around this time also had to deal with an epidemic of cholera.