title: Five Days at Memorial

text: Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital is a 2013 non-fiction book by the American journalist Sheri Fink. The book details the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in August 2005, and is an expansion of a Pulitzer Prize-winning article written by Fink and published in "The New York Times Magazine" in 2009. It describes the events that took place at Memorial Medical Center over five days as thousands of people were trapped in the hospital without power. The triage system put into effect deprioritized critically ill patients for evacuation, and it was later alleged that a number of these patients were euthanized by medical and nursing staff shortly before the entire hospital was evacuated on the fifth day of the crisis. Fink examines the legal and political consequences of the decision to euthanize patients and the ethical issues surrounding euthanasia and health care in disaster scenarios. The book was well received by most critics and won three awards, including a National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction.


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: The book was set to be the basis of the third season of the FX anthology true crime series "American Crime Story" before being scrapped. It has been adapted as a miniseries by John Ridley and Carlton Cuse for Apple TV+.


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: "Five Days at Memorial" originated as a 13,000-word magazine article titled "The Deadly Choices at Memorial", published by "The New York Times Magazine" in August 2009, the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The story focused on the events that unfolded in New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center (now Ochsner Baptist Medical Center) when the hospital was flooded and its generators failed in the aftermath of Katrina, drawing particular attention to the euthanasia of numerous patients by the medical and nursing staff. Fink was drawn to the subject matter because of her experience as a doctor working in areas of conflict and as a journalist reporting on hospitals in war zones. The article, which was a joint assignment for ProPublica and "The New York Times Magazine", drew on two years' worth of research and interviews with 140 people and won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: While she was writing "The Deadly Choices at Memorial", Fink decided to expand the article into a book. Since she "kept finding out new facts and trying to fit them into the story because they seemed essential", she was encouraged by her editor to save the extra material to publish in a book. Expanding on her original research, Fink conducted over 500 interviews with people who were at the hospital during the disaster, families of the dead patients, hospital executives, law enforcement officials and ethicists. She interviewed Dr. Anna Pou, one of the principal characters of the story, about her experiences at Memorial, but Pou declined to discuss details related to patient deaths based on her lawyer's advice. Fink said that while "some of the medical and nursing professionals were observing a code of silence", she was impressed by the openness of several staff members, including two doctors who talked freely of their decision to euthanize their patients. Fink also reviewed photographs, videos, emails and diary entries produced at the time, and consulted weather reports and the hospital's floor plans.


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: The book is divided into two parts. The first part, titled "Deadly Choices", focuses on the events that occurred at Memorial Medical Center over the "five days" referred to in the book's title: August 28 – September 1, 2005. During these five days, Memorial's emergency plans proved inadequate as the hospital lost power and its back-up generators had failed, leaving it without lights, air conditioning, sewer systems and essential medical equipment. Thousands of staff, patients and evacuees were trapped by floodwaters inside the building awaiting evacuation by boat or helicopter. Fink describes the unconventional method of triage adopted by the medical staff, whereby ambulatory patients were prioritized for evacuation and those with "do not resuscitate" orders were placed last in the list. Patient evacuation began on the third day and progressed slowly until the fifth day, when some medical staff decided to hasten the deaths of critically ill patients, believing they would not survive, with lethal injections of morphine. The story is described from the perspective of several participants, pieced together from interviews, emails and phone logs.


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: The second part, titled "Reckoning", discusses the legal and political ramifications of Memorial's response to the crisis and especially the decisions to euthanize patients. In total, 45 patients died before the hospital was evacuated and 23 were identified as having concentrations of morphine and other drugs in their tissues. Fink focuses largely on the investigation into the actions of Dr. Anna Pou and two intensive care nurses, Cheri Landry and Lori Budo, all three of whom were charged with second-degree murder following allegations that they had administered lethal doses of morphine to some patients. The public's sympathy lay largely with the three accused Memorial staff; the charges against Landry and Budo were eventually dropped, and a grand jury chose not to indict Pou in 2007. Fink discusses the ethical issues surrounding the events at Memorial, as well as those involved in disaster settings and euthanasia in general. A brief epilogue critiques health care protocols in disasters and uses the example of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to illustrate the lack of change undertaken by hospitals in response to the disaster caused by Katrina and a failure of the US government to enforce standards for "emergency preparedness".


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: Critical reviews of "Five Days at Memorial" were mostly positive. Jason Berry of "The New York Times" commended the "shimmering intelligence" of Fink's discussion of the events and their ethical issues, and summarized the book as "social reporting of the first rank". Another "New York Times" critic, bioethicist Sherwin B. Nuland, felt the book displayed "masterly reporting and the glow of fine writing" and offered particular praise for the tone and language of Fink's writing. "The Independent" Hirsh Sawhney admired the detail and variety of perspectives offered in the book and described the book as "soar[ing] to artistic and intellectual heights undreamed of in other realms of media". Peter Beaumont, writing for "The Guardian", found parts of the book awkward in structure, but felt that overall it was "tight, provocative and gripping" with a "fair and deeply sympathetic" approach to the involved parties. A review by John B. Saul in "The Seattle Times" commended Fink's ability to produce a "compelling and revealing account" of events despite limited access to evidence such as investigative reports and Pou's testimony, while the "Star Tribune" Curt Schleier described "Five Days at Memorial" as "an important book that will make your blood boil no matter which side of the issue you support".


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: A more negative review came from Julia M. Klein of "The Boston Globe", who found the book to be "overly long and detailed, sometimes hard to follow, and without a real narrative payoff" and felt that Fink's conclusions were presented more clearly in her original magazine article than in the book. "Salon" magazine's Laura Miller found the first half of the book lacking in "shape or coherence, the meaning of this or that detail unclear and the timeline occasionally muddled", but was more impressed with the discussion of the disaster aftermath in the second half. NPR critic Susan Jane Gilman faulted the book for "provok[ing] more debate than it answers" but praised Fink's "fair and balanced", "nuanced" writing.


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: "Five Days at Memorial" won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction, the 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Current Interest category, the 2014 Ridenhour Book Prize, and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award (2015). It was shortlisted for the 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. It was an ALA Notable Books for Adults (2014), YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound (2014; Science and Technology) and "Christian Science Monitor" "15 Best" (2013; Nonfiction).


title: Five Days at Memorial

text: On September 1, 2020, it was announced that Apple TV+ had given a series order to a television limited series adaptation of the book. John Ridley and Carlton Cuse will serve as showrunners, writers and executive producers. Ridley will direct the limited series and produced by ABC Signature, and Vera Farmiga, Adepero Oduye, Cornelius Smith Jr., Julie Ann Emery, Cherry Jones, Molly Hager, and Michael Gaston will star.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Framing, in construction, is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. The alternative to framed construction is generally called "mass wall" construction, where horizontal layers of stacked materials such as log building, masonry, rammed earth, adobe, etc. are used without framing.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Building framing is divided into two broad categories, heavy-frame construction (heavy framing) if the vertical supports are few and heavy such as in timber framing, pole building framing, or steel framing; or light-frame construction (light-framing) if the supports are more numerous and smaller, such as balloon, platform, or light-steel framing. Light-frame construction using standardized dimensional lumber has become the dominant construction method in North America and Australia due to the economy of the method; use of minimal structural material allows builders to enclose a large area at minimal cost while achieving a wide variety of architectural styles.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Modern light-frame structures usually gain strength from rigid panels (plywood and other plywood-like composites such as oriented strand board (OSB) used to form all or part of wall sections), but until recently carpenters employed various forms of diagonal bracing to stabilize walls. Diagonal bracing remains a vital interior part of many roof systems, and in-wall wind braces are required by building codes in many municipalities or by individual state laws in the United States. Special framed shear walls are becoming more common to help buildings meet the requirements of earthquake engineering and wind engineering.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Historically, people fitted naturally shaped wooden poles together as framework and then began using joints to connect the timbers, a method today called "traditional timber framing or log framing. In the United States, timber framing was superseded by balloon framing beginning in the 1830s. Balloon framing makes use of many lightweight wall members called studs rather than fewer, heavier supports called posts; balloon framing components are nailed together rather than fitted using joinery. The studs in a balloon frame extend two stories from sill to plate. Platform framing"' superseded balloon framing and is the standard wooden framing method today. The name comes from each floor level being framed as a separate unit or platform.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Framed construction was rarely used in Scandinavia before the 20th century because of the abundant availability of wood, an abundance of cheap labour, and the superiority of the thermal insulation of logs; hence timber framing did not take off there first for unheated buildings such as farm buildings, outbuildings and summer villas, and for houses until the development of wall insulation.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Wall framing in house construction includes the vertical and horizontal members of exterior walls and interior partitions, both of bearing walls and non-bearing walls. These "stick members", referred to as studs, wall plates and lintels (sometimes called "headers"), serve as a nailing base for all covering material and support the upper floor platforms, which provide the lateral strength along a wall. The platforms may be the boxed structure of a ceiling and roof, or the ceiling and floor joists of the story above. In the building trades, the technique is variously referred to as "stick framing", "stick and platform", or "stick and box", as the sticks (studs) give the structure its vertical support, and the box-shaped floor sections with joists contained within length-long post and lintels (more commonly called "headers"), support the weight of whatever is above, including the next wall up and the roof above the top story. The platform also provides lateral support against wind and holds the stick walls true and square. Any lower platform supports the weight of the platforms and walls above the level of its component headers and joists.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Framing lumber is subject to regulated standards that require a grade-stamp, and a moisture content not exceeding 19%.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Wall sheathing, usually a plywood or other laminate, is usually applied to the framing prior to erection, thus eliminating the need to scaffold, and again increasing speed and cutting manpower needs and expenses. Some types of exterior sheathing, such as asphalt-impregnated fiberboard, plywood, oriented strand board and waferboard, will provide adequate bracing to resist lateral loads and keep the wall square. (Construction codes in most jurisdictions require a stiff plywood sheathing.) Others, such as rigid glass-fiber, asphalt-coated fiberboard, polystyrene or polyurethane board, will not. In this latter case, the wall should be reinforced with a diagonal wood or metal bracing inset into the studs. In jurisdictions subject to strong wind storms (hurricane countries, tornado alleys) local codes or state law will generally require both the diagonal wind braces and the stiff exterior sheathing regardless of the type and kind of outer weather resistant coverings.


title: Framing (construction)

text: A multiple-stud post made up of at least three studs, or the equivalent, is generally used at exterior corners and intersections to secure a good tie between adjoining walls, and to provide nailing support for interior finishes and exterior sheathing. Corners and intersections, however, must be framed with at least two studs.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Nailing support for the edges of the ceiling is required at the junction of the wall and ceiling where partitions run parallel to the ceiling joists. This material is commonly referred to as "dead wood" or backing.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Wall framing in house construction includes the vertical and horizontal members of exterior walls and interior partitions. These members, referred to as studs, wall plates and lintels, serve as a nailing base for all covering material and support the upper floors, ceiling and roof.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Exterior wall studs are the vertical members to which the wall sheathing and cladding are attached. They are supported on a bottom plate or foundation sill and in turn support the top plate. Studs usually consist of or lumber and are commonly spaced at on center. This spacing may be changed to on center depending on the load and the limitations imposed by the type and thickness of the wall covering used. Wider studs may be used to provide space for more insulation. Insulation beyond that which can be accommodated within a stud space can also be provided by other means, such as rigid or semi-rigid insulation or batts between horizontal furring strips, or rigid or semi-rigid insulation sheathing to the outside of the studs. The studs are attached to horizontal top and bottom wall plates of lumber that are the same width as the studs.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Interior partitions supporting floor, ceiling or roof loads are called loadbearing walls; others are called non-loadbearing or simply partitions. Interior loadbearing walls are framed in the same way as exterior walls. Studs are usually lumber spaced at on center. This spacing may be changed to depending on the loads supported and the type and thickness of the wall finish used.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Partitions can be built with or studs spaced at on center depending on the type and thickness of the wall finish used. Where a partition does not contain a swinging door, studs at on center are sometimes used with the wide face of the stud parallel to the wall. This is usually done only for partitions enclosing clothes closets or cupboards to save space. Since there is no vertical load to be supported by partitions, single studs may be used at door openings. The top of the opening may be bridged with a single piece of lumber the same width as the studs. These members provide a nailing support for wall finish, door frames and trim.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Lintels (or, headers) are the horizontal members placed over window, door and other openings to carry loads to the adjoining studs. Lintels are usually constructed of two pieces of 2 in (nominal) (38 mm) lumber separated with spacers to the width of the studs and nailed together to form a single unit. Lintels are predominately nailed together without spacers to form a solid beam and allow the remaining cavity to be filled with insulation from the inside. The preferable spacer material is rigid insulation. The depth of a lintel is determined by the width of the opening and vertical loads supported.


title: Framing (construction)

text: The complete wall sections are then raised and put in place, temporary braces added and the bottom plates nailed through the subfloor to the floor framing members. The braces should have their larger dimension on the vertical and should permit adjustment of the vertical position of the wall.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Once the assembled sections are plumbed, they are nailed together at the corners and intersections. A strip of polyethylene is often placed between the interior walls and the exterior wall, and above the first top plate of interior walls before the second top plate is applied to attain continuity of the air barrier when polyethylene is serving this function.


title: Framing (construction)

text: A second top plate, with joints offset at least one stud space away from the joints in the plate beneath, is then added. This second top plate usually laps the first plate at the corners and partition intersections and, when nailed in place, provides an additional tie to the framed walls. Where the second top plate does not lap the plate immediately underneath at corner and partition intersections, these may be tied with galvanized steel plates at least wide and long, nailed with at least three nails to each wall.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Braced Frame Construction, also known as Full Frame, Half Frame, New England Braced Frame, Combination Frame an early form of light framing developed from the heavier timber framing which preceded it. It is defined by the contintued use of girts, corner posts, and braces. The pieces are mortised, tenoned, and pegged with the studs nailed to the girts and sills. Due to the early introduction of sawmills (as early as 1635 in New Hampshire), as early as 1637 timber frames in the Northeast made use of light studs between the heavier corners. Norman Isham writes in, "sometimes the frame was covered with vertical boarding applied to the sills, plates, and girts without any intermediate framing, but in a greater number of houses the spaces between the heavier timbers are filled with lighter vertical sticks called studs.” The growth of a nail making industry in the early 19th century made the frame even faster to assemble with some of the first machines developed in the late 1700s in Massachusetts. Jacob Perkins of Newburyport, Massachusetts invented a machine which could produce 10,000 nails a day.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Three decker buildings in New England were commonly constructed with this form, which is noted on period building permits as "mortised frame."


title: Framing (construction)

text: Its use survived into the 1940s in the Northeast, US, when it was gradually replaced by the platform frame.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Balloon framing is a method of wood construction also known as "Chicago construction" in the 19th century used primarily in areas rich in softwood forests: Scandinavia, Canada, the United States up until the mid-1950s, and around Thetford Forest in Norfolk, England. The name comes from a French Missouri type of construction, "maison en ", "boulin" being a French term for a horizontal scaffolding support.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Balloon framing uses long continuous framing members (wall studs) that run from the sill plate to the top plate, with intermediate floor structures let into and nailed to them. Here the heights of window sills, headers and next floor height would be marked out on the studs with a story pole. Once popular when long lumber was plentiful, balloon framing has been largely replaced by "platform framing".


title: Framing (construction)

text: It is not certain who introduced balloon framing in the United States. However, the first building using balloon framing was possibly a warehouse constructed in 1832 in Chicago, Illinois, by George Washington Snow or Augustine Deodat Taylor. Both men arrived in Chicago from New England, where the use of light framing timber was already common. Architectural critic Sigfried Giedion cited Chicago architect John M. Van Osdel's 1880s attribution, as well as A. T. Andreas' 1885 "History of Chicago," to credit Snow as 'inventor of the balloon frame method'. In 1833, Augustine Taylor (1796–1891) constructed St. Mary's Catholic Church in Chicago using the balloon framing method.


title: Framing (construction)

text: In the 1830s, Hoosier Solon Robinson published articles about a revolutionary new framing system, called "balloon framing" by later builders. Robinson's system called for standard 2x4 lumber, nailed together to form a sturdy, light skeleton. Builders were reluctant to adopt the new technology, however, by the 1880s, some form of 2x4 framing was standard.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Alternatively, a precursor to the balloon frame may have been used by the French in Missouri as much as thirty-one years earlier.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Although lumber was plentiful in 19th-century America, skilled labor was not. The advent of cheap machine-made nails, along with water-powered sawmills in the early 19th century made balloon framing highly attractive, because it did not require highly skilled carpenters, as did the dovetail joints, mortises and tenons required by post-and-beam construction. For the first time, any farmer could build his own buildings without a time-consuming learning curve.


title: Framing (construction)

text: It has been said that balloon framing populated the western United States and the western provinces of Canada. Without it, western boomtowns certainly could not have blossomed overnight. It is also likely that, by radically reducing construction costs, balloon framing improved the shelter options of poorer North Americans. However, balloon framing did require very long studs and as tall trees were exhausted in the 1920s, platform framing became prevalent.


title: Framing (construction)

text: The main difference between platform and balloon framing is at the floor lines. The balloon wall studs extend from the sill of the first story all the way to the top plate or end rafter of the second story. The platform-framed wall, on the other hand, is independent for each floor.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Light-frame materials are most often wood or rectangular steel, tubes or C-channels. Wood pieces are typically connected with nail fasteners, nails, or screws; steel pieces are connected with pan-head framing screws, or nuts and bolts. Preferred species for linear structural members are softwoods such as spruce, pine and fir. Light frame material dimensions range from ; i.e., a Dimensional number two-by-four to 5 cm by 30 cm (two-by-twelve inches) at the cross-section, and lengths ranging from for walls to or more for joists and rafters. Recently, architects have begun experimenting with pre-cut modular aluminum framing to reduce on-site construction costs.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Wall panels built of studs are interrupted by sections that provide rough openings for doors and windows. Openings are typically spanned by a header or lintel that bears the weight of the structure above the opening. Headers are usually built to rest on trimmers, also called jacks. Areas around windows are defined by a sill beneath the window, and cripples, which are shorter studs that span the area from the bottom plate to the sill and sometimes from the top of the window to a header, or from a header to a top plate. Diagonal bracings made of wood or steel provide shear (horizontal strength) as do panels of sheeting nailed to studs, sills and headers.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Wall sections usually include a bottom plate which is secured to the structure of a floor, and one, or more often two top plates that tie walls together and provide a bearing for structures above the wall. Wood or steel floor frames usually include a rim joist around the perimeter of a system of floor joists, and often include bridging material near the center of a span to prevent lateral buckling of the spanning members. In two-story construction, openings are left in the floor system for a stairwell, in which stair risers and treads are most often attached to squared faces cut into sloping stair stringers.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Interior wall coverings in light-frame construction typically include wallboard, lath and plaster or decorative wood paneling.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Exterior finishes for walls and ceilings often include plywood or composite sheathing, brick or stone veneers, and various stucco finishes. Cavities between studs, usually placed apart, are usually filled with insulation materials, such as fiberglass batting, or cellulose filling sometimes made of recycled newsprint treated with boron additives for fire prevention and vermin control.


title: Framing (construction)

text: The part of a structural building that goes diagonally across a wall is called a T-bar. It stops the walls from collapsing in gusty winds.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Roofs are usually built to provide a sloping surface intended to shed rain or snow, with slopes ranging from 1:15 (less than an inch per linear foot of horizontal span), to steep slopes of more than 2:1. A light-frame structure built mostly inside sloping walls which also serve as a roof is called an A-frame.


title: Framing (construction)

text: In North America, roofs are often covered with shingles made of asphalt, fiberglass and small gravel coating, but a wide range of materials are used. Molten tar is often used to waterproof flatter roofs, but newer materials include rubber and synthetic materials. Steel panels are popular roof coverings in some areas, preferred for their durability. Slate or tile roofs offer more historic coverings for light-frame roofs.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Light-frame methods allow easy construction of unique roof designs; hip roofs, for example, slope toward walls on all sides and are joined at hip rafters that span from corners to a ridge. Valleys are formed when two sloping roof sections drain toward each other. Dormers are small areas in which vertical walls interrupt a roof line, and which are topped off by slopes at usually right angles to a main roof section. Gables are formed when a length-wise section of sloping roof ends to form a triangular wall section. Clerestories are formed by an interruption along the slope of a roof where a short vertical wall connects it to another roof section. Flat roofs, which usually include at least a nominal slope to shed water, are often surrounded by parapet walls with openings (called scuppers) to allow water to drain out. Sloping crickets are built into roofs to direct water away from areas of poor drainage, such as behind a chimney at the bottom of a sloping section.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Light-frame buildings in areas with shallow or nonexistent frost depths are often erected on monolithic concrete-slab foundations that serve both as a floor and as a support for the structure. Other light-frame buildings are built over a crawlspace or a basement, with wood or steel joists used to span between foundation walls, usually constructed of poured concrete or concrete blocks.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Engineered components are commonly used to form floor, ceiling and roof structures in place of solid wood. I-joists (closed-web trusses) are often made from laminated woods, most often chipped poplar wood, in panels as thin as , glued between horizontally laminated members of less than 4 cm by 4 cm ("two-by-twos"), to span distances of as much as . Open web trussed joists and rafters are often formed of 4 cm by 9 cm ("two-by-four") wood members to provide support for floors, roofing systems and ceiling finishes.


title: Framing (construction)

text: Platform framing was traditionally limited to four floors but some jurisdictions have modified their building codes to allow up to six floors with added fire protection.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Beta-lactamases, (β-lactamases) are enzymes () produced by bacteria that provide multi-resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillins, cephalosporins, cephamycins, monobactams and carbapenems (ertapenem), although carbapenems are relatively resistant to beta-lactamase. Beta-lactamase provides antibiotic resistance by breaking the antibiotics' structure. These antibiotics all have a common element in their molecular structure: a four-atom ring known as a beta-lactam (β-lactam) ring. Through hydrolysis, the enzyme lactamase breaks the β-lactam ring open, deactivating the molecule's antibacterial properties.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Beta-lactam antibiotics are typically used to target a broad spectrum of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Beta-lactamases produced by gram-negative bacteria are usually secreted, especially when antibiotics are present in the environment.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The structure of a "Streptomyces" serine β-lactamase (SBLs) is given by . The alpha-beta fold () resembles that of a DD-transpeptidase, from which the enzyme is thought to have evolved from. β-lactam antibiotics bind to DD-transpeptidases to inhibit bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. Serine β-lactamases are grouped by sequence similarity into types A, C, and D.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The other type of beta-lactamase is of the metallo type ("type B"). Metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs) need metal ion(s) (1 or 2 Zn ions) on their active site for their catalytic activities. The structure of the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 is given by . It resembles a RNase Z, from which it is thought to have evolved.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The two types of beta-lactamases work on the basis of the two basic mechanisms of opening the β-lactam ring.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The SBLs are similar in structure and mechanistically to the β-lactam target penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) which are necessary for cell wall building and modifying. SBLs and PBPs both covalently change an active site Serine residue. The difference between the PBPs and SBLs is that the latter generates free enzyme and inactive antibiotic by the very quick hydrolysis of the acyl-enzyme intermediate.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The MBLs use the Zn ions to activate a binding site water molecule for the hydrolysis of the β-lactam ring.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Penicillinase is a specific type of β-lactamase, showing specificity for penicillins, again by hydrolysing the β-lactam ring. Molecular weights of the various penicillinases tend to cluster near 50 kiloDaltons.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Penicillinase was the first β-lactamase to be identified. It was first isolated by Abraham and Chain in 1940 from Gram-negative "E. coli" even before penicillin entered clinical use, but penicillinase production quickly spread to bacteria that previously did not produce it or produced it only rarely. Penicillinase-resistant beta-lactams such as methicillin were developed, but there is now widespread resistance to even these.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Among Gram-negative bacteria, the emergence of resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins has been a major concern. It appeared initially in a limited number of bacterial species ("E. cloacae", "C. freundii", "S. marcescens", and "P. aeruginosa") that could mutate to hyperproduce their chromosomal class C β-lactamase. A few years later, resistance appeared in bacterial species not naturally producing AmpC enzymes ("K. pneumoniae", "Salmonella" spp., "P. mirabilis") due to the production of TEM- or SHV-type ESBLs (extended spectrum beta lactamases). Characteristically, such resistance has included oxyimino- (for example ceftizoxime, cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, and ceftazidime, as well as the oxyimino-monobactam aztreonam), but not 7-alpha-methoxy-cephalosporins (cephamycins; in other words, cefoxitin and cefotetan); has been blocked by inhibitors such as clavulanate, sulbactam or tazobactam and did not involve carbapenems and temocillin. Chromosomal-mediated AmpC β-lactamases represent a new threat, since they confer resistance to 7-alpha-methoxy-cephalosporins (cephamycins) such as cefoxitin or cefotetan but are not affected by commercially available β-lactamase inhibitors, and can, in strains with loss of outer membrane porins, provide resistance to carbapenems.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Members of this family commonly express β-lactamases (e.g., TEM-3, TEM-4, and SHV-2 ) which confer resistance to expanded-spectrum (extended-spectrum) cephalosporins. In the mid-1980s, this new group of enzymes, the extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), was detected (first detected in 1979). The prevalence of ESBL-producing bacteria have been gradually increasing in acute care hospitals. The prevalence in the general population varies between countries, e.g. approximately 6% in Germany and France, 13% in Saudi Arabia, and 63% in Egypt. ESBLs are beta-lactamases that hydrolyze extended-spectrum cephalosporins with an oxyimino side chain. These cephalosporins include cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, and ceftazidime, as well as the oxyimino-monobactam aztreonam. Thus ESBLs confer multi-resistance to these antibiotics and related oxyimino-beta lactams. In typical circumstances, they derive from genes for TEM-1, TEM-2, or SHV-1 by mutations that alter the amino acid configuration around the active site of these β-lactamases. A broader set of β-lactam antibiotics are susceptible to hydrolysis by these enzymes. An increasing number of ESBLs not of TEM or SHV lineage have recently been described. The ESBLs are frequently plasmid encoded. Plasmids responsible for ESBL production frequently carry genes encoding resistance to other drug classes (for example, aminoglycosides). Therefore, antibiotic options in the treatment of ESBL-producing organisms are extremely limited. Carbapenems are the treatment of choice for serious infections due to ESBL-producing organisms, yet carbapenem-resistant (primarily ertapenem-resistant) isolates have recently been reported. ESBL-producing organisms may appear susceptible to some extended-spectrum cephalosporins. However, treatment with such antibiotics has been associated with high failure rates.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: TEM-1 is the most commonly encountered beta-lactamase in Gram-negative bacteria. Up to 90% of ampicillin resistance in "E. coli" is due to the production of TEM-1. Also responsible for the ampicillin and penicillin resistance that is seen in "H. influenzae" and "N. gonorrhoeae" in increasing numbers. Although TEM-type beta-lactamases are most often found in "E. coli" and "K. pneumoniae", they are also found in other species of Gram-negative bacteria with increasing frequency. The amino acid substitutions responsible for the extended-spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) phenotype cluster around the active site of the enzyme and change its configuration, allowing access to oxyimino-beta-lactam substrates. Opening the active site to beta-lactam substrates also typically enhances the susceptibility of the enzyme to β-lactamase inhibitors, such as clavulanic acid. Single amino acid substitutions at positions 104, 164, 238, and 240 produce the ESBL phenotype, but ESBLs with the broadest spectrum usually have more than a single amino acid substitution. Based upon different combinations of changes, currently 140 TEM-type enzymes have been described. TEM-10, TEM-12, and TEM-26 are among the most common in the United States. The term TEM comes from the name of the Athenian patient (Temoniera) from which the isolate was recovered in 1963.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: SHV-1 shares 68 percent of its amino acids with TEM-1 and has a similar overall structure. The SHV-1 beta-lactamase is most commonly found in "K. pneumoniae" and is responsible for up to 20% of the plasmid-mediated ampicillin resistance in this species. ESBLs in this family also have amino acid changes around the active site, most commonly at positions 238 or 238 and 240. More than 60 SHV varieties are known. SHV-5 and SHV-12 are among the most common. The initials stand for "sulfhydryl reagent variable".


title: Beta-lactamase

text: These enzymes were named for their greater activity against cefotaxime than other oxyimino-beta-lactam substrates (e.g., ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, or cefepime). Rather than arising by mutation, they represent examples of plasmid acquisition of beta-lactamase genes normally found on the chromosome of "Kluyvera" species, a group of rarely pathogenic commensal organisms. These enzymes are not very closely related to TEM or SHV beta-lactamases in that they show only approximately 40% identity with these two commonly isolated beta-lactamases. More than 172 CTX-M enzymes are currently known. Despite their name, a few are more active on ceftazidime than cefotaxime. They have mainly been found in strains of "Salmonella enterica" serovar "Typhimurium" and "E. coli", but have also been described in other species of Enterobacteriaceae and are the predominant ESBL type in parts of South America. (They are also seen in eastern Europe) CTX-M-14, CTX-M-3, and CTX-M-2 are the most widespread. CTX-M-15 is currently (2006) the most widespread type in "E. coli" the UK and is widely prevalent in the community. An example of beta-lactamase CTX-M-15, along with IS"Ecp1", has been found to have recently transposed onto the chromosome of "Klebsiella pneumoniae" ATCC BAA-2146. The initials stand for "Cefotaxime-Munich".


title: Beta-lactamase

text: OXA beta-lactamases were long recognized as a less common but also plasmid-mediated beta-lactamase variety that could hydrolyze oxacillin and related anti-staphylococcal penicillins. These beta-lactamases differ from the TEM and SHV enzymes in that they belong to molecular class D and functional group 2d . The OXA-type beta-lactamases confer resistance to ampicillin and cephalothin and are characterized by their high hydrolytic activity against oxacillin and cloxacillin and the fact that they are poorly inhibited by clavulanic acid. Amino acid substitutions in OXA enzymes can also give the ESBL phenotype. While most ESBLs have been found in "E. coli", "K. pneumoniae", and other Enterobacteriaceae, the OXA-type ESBLs have been found mainly in "P. aeruginosa". OXA-type ESBLs have been found mainly in "Pseudomonas aeruginosa" isolates from Turkey and France. The OXA beta-lactamase family was originally created as a phenotypic rather than a genotypic group for a few beta-lactamases that had a specific hydrolysis profile. Therefore, there is as little as 20% sequence homology among some of the members of this family. However, recent additions to this family show some degree of homology to one or more of the existing members of the OXA beta-lactamase family. Some confer resistance predominantly to ceftazidime, but OXA-17 confers greater resistance to cefotaxime and cefepime than it does resistance to ceftazidime.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Other plasmid-mediated ESBLs, such as PER, VEB, GES, and IBC beta-lactamases, have been described but are uncommon and have been found mainly in "P. aeruginosa" and at a limited number of geographic sites. PER-1 in isolates in Turkey, France, and Italy; VEB-1 and VEB-2 in strains from Southeast Asia; and GES-1, GES-2, and IBC-2 in isolates from South Africa, France, and Greece. PER-1 is also common in multiresistant acinetobacter species in Korea and Turkey. Some of these enzymes are found in Enterobacteriaceae as well, whereas other uncommon ESBLs (such as BES-1, IBC-1, SFO-1, and TLA-1) have been found only in Enterobacteriaceae.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: While ESBL-producing organisms were previously associated with hospitals and institutional care, these organisms are now increasingly found in the community. CTX-M-15-positive E. coli are a cause of community-acquired urinary infections in the UK, and tend to be resistant to all oral β-lactam antibiotics, as well as quinolones and sulfonamides. Treatment options may include nitrofurantoin, fosfomycin, mecillinam and chloramphenicol. In desperation, once-daily ertapenem or gentamicin injections may also be used.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Although the inhibitor-resistant β-lactamases are not ESBLs, they are often discussed with ESBLs because they are also derivatives of the classical TEM- or SHV-type enzymes. These enzymes were at first given the designation IRT for inhibitor-resistant TEM β-lactamase; however, all have subsequently been renamed with numerical TEM designations. There are at least 19 distinct inhibitor-resistant TEM β-lactamases. Inhibitor-resistant TEM β-lactamases have been found mainly in clinical isolates of "E. coli", but also some strains of "K. pneumoniae", "Klebsiella oxytoca", "P. mirabilis", and "Citrobacter freundii". Although the inhibitor-resistant TEM variants are resistant to inhibition by clavulanic acid and sulbactam, thereby showing clinical resistance to the beta-lactam—lactamase inhibitor combinations of amoxicillin-clavulanate (co-amoxiclav), ticarcillin-clavulanate (co-ticarclav), and ampicillin/sulbactam, they normally remain susceptible to inhibition by tazobactam and subsequently the combination of piperacillin/tazobactam, although resistance has been described. This is no longer a primarily European epidemiology, it is found in northern parts of America often and should be tested for with complex UTI's.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: AmpC type β-lactamases are commonly isolated from extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. AmpC β-lactamases (also termed class C or group 1) are typically encoded on the chromosome of many Gram-negative bacteria including "Citrobacter", "Serratia" and "Enterobacter" species where its expression is usually inducible; it may also occur on "Escherichia coli" but is not usually inducible, although it can be hyperexpressed. AmpC type β-lactamases may also be carried on plasmids. AmpC β-lactamases, in contrast to ESBLs, hydrolyse broad and extended-spectrum cephalosporins (cephamycins as well as to oxyimino-β-lactams) but are not inhibited by β-lactamase inhibitors such as clavulanic acid. AmpC-type β-lactamase organisms are often clinically grouped through the acronym, "SPACE": "Serratia, Pseudomonas" or "Proteus, Acinetobacter, Citrobacter", and "Enterobacter".


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Carbapenems are famously stable to AmpC β-lactamases and extended-spectrum-β-lactamases. Carbapenemases are a diverse group of β-lactamases that are active not only against the oxyimino-cephalosporins and cephamycins but also against the carbapenems. Aztreonam is stable to the metallo-β-lactamases,


title: Beta-lactamase

text: but many IMP and VIM producers are resistant, owing to other mechanisms. Carbapenemases were formerly believed to derive only from classes A, B, and D, but a class C carbapenemase has been described.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Plasmid-mediated IMP-type carbapenemases (IMP stands for active-on-imipenem), 19 varieties of which are currently known, became established in Japan in the 1990s both in enteric Gram-negative organisms and in "Pseudomonas" and "Acinetobacter" species. IMP enzymes spread slowly to other countries in the Far East, were reported from Europe in 1997, and have been found in Canada and Brazil.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: A second growing family of carbapenemases, the VIM family, was reported from Italy in 1999 and now includes 10 members, which have a wide geographic distribution in Europe, South America, and the Far East and have been found in the United States. VIM-1 was discovered in "P. aeruginosa" in Italy in 1996; since then, VIM-2 - now the predominant variant - was found repeatedly in Europe and the Far East; VIM-3 and -4 are minor variants of VIM-2 and -1, respectively.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Amino acid sequence diversity is up to 10% in the VIM family, 15% in the IMP family, and 70% between VIM and IMP. Enzymes of both the families, nevertheless, are similar. Both are integron-associated, sometimes within plasmids. Both hydrolyse all β-lactams except monobactams, and evade all β-lactam inhibitors. The VIM enzymes are among the most widely distributed MBLs, with >40 VIM variants having been reported. Biochemical and biophysical studies revealed that VIM variants have only small variations in their kinetic parameters but substantial differences in their thermal stabilities and inhibition profiles.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The OXA group of β-lactamases occur mainly in Acinetobacter species and are divided into two clusters. OXA carbapenemases hydrolyse carbapenems very slowly "in vitro", and the high MICs seen for some Acinetobacter hosts (>64 mg/L) may reflect secondary mechanisms. They are sometimes augmented in clinical isolates by additional resistance mechanisms, such as impermeability or efflux. OXA carbapenemases also tend to have a reduced hydrolytic efficiency towards penicillins and cephalosporins.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: A few class A enzymes, most noted the plasmid-mediated KPC enzymes, are effective carbapenemases as well. Ten variants, KPC-2 through KPC-11 are known, and they are distinguished by one or two amino acid substitutions (KPC-1 was re-sequenced in 2008 and found to be 100% homologous to published sequences of KPC-2). KPC-1 was found in North Carolina, KPC-2 in Baltimore and KPC-3 in New York. They have only 45% homology with SME and NMC/IMI enzymes and, unlike them, can be encoded by self-transmissible plasmids.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: , the class A "Klebsiella pneumoniae" carbapenemase (KPC) globally has been the most common carbapenemase, and was first detected in 1996 in North Carolina, USA. A 2010 publication indicated that KPC producing Enterobacteriaceae were becoming common in the United States.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The first class C carbapenemase was described in 2006 and was isolated from a virulent strain of "Enterobacter aerogenes". It is carried on a plasmid, pYMG-1, and is therefore transmissible to other bacterial strains.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: CcrA (CfiA). Its gene occurs in ca. 1–3% of "B. fragilis" isolates, but fewer produce the enzyme since expression demands appropriate migration of an insertion sequence. CcrA was known before imipenem was introduced, and producers have shown little subsequent increase.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Originally described from New Delhi in 2009, this gene is now widespread in "Escherichia coli" and "Klebsiella pneumoniae" from India and Pakistan. As of mid-2010, NDM-1 carrying bacteria have been introduced to other countries (including the United States and UK), most probably due to the large number of tourists travelling the globe, who may have picked up the strain from the environment, as strains containing the NDM-1 gene have been found in environmental samples in India. NDM have several variants which share different properties.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: In general, an isolate is suspected to be an ESBL producer when it shows "in vitro" susceptibility to the cephamycins (cefoxitin, cefotetan) but resistance to the third-generation cephalosporins and to aztreonam. Moreover, one should suspect these strains when treatment with these agents for Gram-negative infections fails despite reported "in vitro" susceptibility. Once an ESBL-producing strain is detected, the laboratory should report it as "resistant" to all penicillins, cephalosporins, and aztreonam, even if it is tested (in vitro) as susceptible. Associated resistance to aminoglycosides and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, as well as high frequency of co-existence of fluoroquinolone resistance, creates problems. Beta-lactamase inhibitors such as clavulanate, sulbactam, and tazobactam "in vitro" inhibit most ESBLs, but the clinical effectiveness of beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations cannot be relied on consistently for therapy. Cephamycins (cefoxitin and cefotetan) are not hydrolyzed by majority of ESBLs, but are hydrolyzed by associated AmpC-type β-lactamase. Also, β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations may not be effective against organisms that produce AmpC-type β-lactamase. Sometimes these strains decrease the expression of outer membrane proteins, rendering them resistant to cephamycins. "In vivo" studies have yielded mixed results against ESBL-producing "K. pneumoniae". (Cefepime, a fourth-generation cephalosporin, has demonstrated "in vitro" stability in the presence of many ESBL/AmpC strains.) Currently, carbapenems are, in general, regarded as the preferred agent for treatment of infections due to ESBL-producing organisms. Carbapenems are resistant to ESBL-mediated hydrolysis and exhibit excellent "in vitro" activity against strains of Enterobacteriaceae expressing ESBLs.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Strains producing only ESBLs are susceptible to cephamycins and carbapenems "in vitro" and show little if any inoculum effect with these agents.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: For organisms producing TEM and SHV type ESBLs, apparent "in vitro" sensitivity to cefepime and to piperacillin/tazobactam is common, but both drugs show an inoculum effect, with diminished susceptibility as the size of the inoculum is increased from 10 to 10 organisms.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Strains with some CTX-M–type and OXA-type ESBLs are resistant to cefepime on testing, despite the use of a standard inoculum.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Although the inhibitor-resistant TEM variants are resistant to inhibition by clavulanic acid and sulbactam, thereby showing clinical resistance to the beta-lactam—beta lactamase inhibitor combinations of amoxicillin-clavulanate (Co-amoxiclav), ticarcillin-clavulanate, and ampicillin/sulbactam, they remain susceptible to inhibition by tazobactam and subsequently the combination of piperacillin/tazobactam.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: AmpC-producing strains are typically resistant to oxyimino-beta lactams and to cephamycins and are susceptible to carbapenems; however, diminished porin expression can make such a strain carbapenem-resistant as well.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Strains with IMP-, VIM-, and OXA-type carbapenemases usually remain susceptible. Resistance to non-beta-lactam antibiotics is common in strains making any of these enzymes, such that alternative options for non-beta-lactam therapy need to be determined by direct susceptibility testing. Resistance to fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides is especially high.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: For infections caused by ESBL-producing "Escherichia coli" or "Klebsiella" species, treatment with imipenem or meropenem has been associated with the best outcomes in terms of survival and bacteriologic clearance. Cefepime and piperacillin/tazobactam have been less successful. Ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, and ceftazidime have failed even more often, despite the organism's susceptibility to the antibiotic "in vitro". Several reports have documented failure of cephamycin therapy as a result of resistance due to porin loss. Some patients have responded to aminoglycoside or quinolone therapy, but, in a recent comparison of ciprofloxacin and imipenem for bacteremia involving an ESBL-producing "K. pneumoniae", imipenem produced the better outcome


title: Beta-lactamase

text: There have been few clinical studies to define the optimal therapy for infections caused by ESBL producing "Pseudomonas aeruginosa" strains.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: In 1957, amid concern about allergic reactions to penicillin-containing antibiotics, a beta-lactamase was sold as an antidote under the brand name neutrapen. It was theorized that the breakdown of penicillin by the enzyme would treat the allergic reaction. While it was not useful in acute anaphylactic shock, it showed positive results in cases of urticaria and joint pain suspected to be caused by penicillin allergy. Its use was proposed in pediatric cases where penicillin allergy was discovered upon administration of the polio vaccine, which used penicillin as a preservative. However, some patients developed allergies to neutrapen. The Albany Hospital removed it from its formulary in 1960, only two years after adding it, citing lack of use. Some researchers continued to use it in experiments on penicillin resistance as late as 1972. It was voluntarily withdrawn from the American market by 3M Pharmaceuticals in 1997.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Beta-lactamase enzymatic activity can be detected using nitrocefin, a chromogenic cephalosporin substrate which changes color from yellow to red upon beta-lactamase mediated hydrolysis.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Beta-lactamases are ancient bacterial enzymes. Metallo β-lactamases ("class B") are all structurally similar to RNase Z and may have evolved from it. Of the three subclasses B1, B2, and B3, B1 and B2 are theorized to have evolved about one billion years ago, while B3 seems to have arisen independently, possibly before the divergence of the Gram-positive and Gram-negative eubacteria about two billion years ago. PNGM-1 (Papua New Guinea Metallo-β-lactamase-1) has both metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) and tRNase Z activities, suggesting that PNGM-1 is thought to have evolved from a tRNase Z, and that the B3 MBL activity of PNGM-1 is a promiscuous activity and subclass B3 MBLs are thought to have evolved through PNGM-1 activity. Subclasses B1 and B3 has been further subdivided.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: Serine beta-lactamases (classes A, C, and D) appear to have evolved from DD-transpeptidases, which are penicillin-binding proteins involved in cell wall biosynthesis, and as such are one of the main targets of beta-lactam antibiotics. These three classes show undetectable sequence similarity with each other, but can still be compared using structural homology. Groups A and D are sister taxa and group C diverged before A and D. These serine-based enzymes, like the group B betalactamases, are of ancient origin and are theorized to have evolved about two billion years ago.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The OXA group (in class D) in particular is theorized to have evolved on chromosomes and moved to plasmids on at least two separate occasions.


title: Beta-lactamase

text: The "β" (beta) refers to the nitrogen's position on the second carbon in the ring. "Lactam" is a blend of "lactone" (from the Latin "lactis", "milk", since lactic acid was isolated from soured milk) and "amide". The suffix "-ase", indicating an enzyme, is derived from "diastase" (from the Greek "diastasis", "separation"), the first enzyme discovered in 1833 by Payen and Persoz.


title: Row and column spaces

text: In linear algebra, the column space (also called the range or image) of a matrix "A" is the span (set of all possible linear combinations) of its column vectors. The column space of a matrix is the image or range of the corresponding matrix transformation.


title: Row and column spaces

text: Let formula_1 be a field. The column space of an matrix with components from formula_1 is a linear subspace of the "m"-space formula_3. The dimension of the column space is called the rank of the matrix and is at most . A definition for matrices over a ring formula_4 is also possible.


title: Row and column spaces

text: This article considers matrices of real numbers. The row and column spaces are subspaces of the real spaces formula_5 and formula_6 respectively.


title: Row and column spaces

text: If one considers the matrix as a linear transformation from formula_7 to formula_8, then the column space of the matrix equals the image of this linear transformation.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The concept of row space generalizes to matrices over the field of complex numbers, or over any field.


title: Row and column spaces

text: Intuitively, given a matrix , the action of the matrix on a vector will return a linear combination of the columns of weighted by the coordinates of as coefficients. Another way to look at this is that it will (1) first project into the row space of , (2) perform an invertible transformation, and (3) place the resulting vector in the column space of . Thus the result must reside in the column space of . See singular value decomposition for more details on this second interpretation.


title: Row and column spaces

text: Since these four row vectors are linearly independent, the row space is 4-dimensional. Moreover, in this case it can be seen that they are all orthogonal to the vector , so it can be deduced that the row space consists of all vectors in formula_14 that are orthogonal to .


title: Row and column spaces

text: Let be a field of scalars. Let be an matrix, with column vectors . A linear combination of these vectors is any vector of the form


title: Row and column spaces

text: where are scalars. The set of all possible linear combinations of is called the column space of . That is, the column space of is the span of the vectors .


title: Row and column spaces

text: Any linear combination of the column vectors of a matrix can be written as the product of with a column vector:


title: Row and column spaces

text: Therefore, the column space of consists of all possible products , for . This is the same as the image (or range) of the corresponding matrix transformation.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The set of all such vectors is the column space of . In this case, the column space is precisely the set of vectors satisfying the equation (using Cartesian coordinates, this set is a plane through the origin in three-dimensional space).


title: Row and column spaces

text: The columns of span the column space, but they may not form a basis if the column vectors are not linearly independent. Fortunately, elementary row operations do not affect the dependence relations between the column vectors. This makes it possible to use row reduction to find a basis for the column space.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The columns of this matrix span the column space, but they may not be linearly independent, in which case some subset of them will form a basis. To find this basis, we reduce to reduced row echelon form:


title: Row and column spaces

text: At this point, it is clear that the first, second, and fourth columns are linearly independent, while the third column is a linear combination of the first two. (Specifically, .) Therefore, the first, second, and fourth columns of the original matrix are a basis for the column space:


title: Row and column spaces

text: Note that the independent columns of the reduced row echelon form are precisely the columns with pivots. This makes it possible to determine which columns are linearly independent by reducing only to echelon form.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The above algorithm can be used in general to find the dependence relations between any set of vectors, and to pick out a basis from any spanning set. Also finding a basis for the column space of is equivalent to finding a basis for the row space of the transpose matrix .


title: Row and column spaces

text: To find the basis in a practical setting (e.g., for large matrices), the singular-value decomposition is typically used.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The dimension of the column space is called the rank of the matrix. The rank is equal to the number of pivots in the reduced row echelon form, and is the maximum number of linearly independent columns that can be chosen from the matrix. For example, the 4 × 4 matrix in the example above has rank three.


title: Row and column spaces

text: Because the column space is the image of the corresponding matrix transformation, the rank of a matrix is the same as the dimension of the image. For example, the transformation formula_23 described by the matrix above maps all of formula_24 to some three-dimensional subspace.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The nullity of a matrix is the dimension of the null space, and is equal to the number of columns in the reduced row echelon form that do not have pivots. The rank and nullity of a matrix with columns are related by the equation:


title: Row and column spaces

text: The left null space of is the set of all vectors such that . It is the same as the null space of the transpose of . The product of the matrix and the vector can be written in terms of the dot product of vectors:


title: Row and column spaces

text: because row vectors of are transposes of column vectors of . Thus if and only if is orthogonal (perpendicular) to each of the column vectors of .


title: Row and column spaces

text: It follows that the left null space (the null space of ) is the orthogonal complement to the column space of .


title: Row and column spaces

text: For a matrix , the column space, row space, null space, and left null space are sometimes referred to as the "four fundamental subspaces".


title: Row and column spaces

text: Similarly the column space (sometimes disambiguated as "right" column space) can be defined for matrices over a ring as


title: Row and column spaces

text: for any , with replacement of the vector -space with "right free module", which changes the order of scalar multiplication of the vector to the scalar such that it is written in an unusual order "vector"–"scalar".


title: Row and column spaces

text: Let be a field of scalars. Let be an matrix, with row vectors . A linear combination of these vectors is any vector of the form


title: Row and column spaces

text: where are scalars. The set of all possible linear combinations of is called the row space of . That is, the row space of is the span of the vectors .


title: Row and column spaces

text: The set of all such vectors is the row space of . In this case, the row space is precisely the set of vectors satisfying the equation (using Cartesian coordinates, this set is a plane through the origin in three-dimensional space).


title: Row and column spaces

text: For a matrix that represents a homogeneous system of linear equations, the row space consists of all linear equations that follow from those in the system.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The row space is not affected by elementary row operations. This makes it possible to use row reduction to find a basis for the row space.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The rows of this matrix span the row space, but they may not be linearly independent, in which case the rows will not be a basis. To find a basis, we reduce to row echelon form:


title: Row and column spaces

text: Once the matrix is in echelon form, the nonzero rows are a basis for the row space. In this case, the basis is . Another possible basis comes from a further reduction.


title: Row and column spaces

text: This algorithm can be used in general to find a basis for the span of a set of vectors. If the matrix is further simplified to reduced row echelon form, then the resulting basis is uniquely determined by the row space.


title: Row and column spaces

text: It is sometimes convenient to find a basis for the row space from among the rows of the original matrix instead (for example, this result is useful in giving an elementary proof that the determinantal rank of a matrix is equal to its rank). Since row operations can affect linear dependence relations of the row vectors, such a basis is instead found indirectly using the fact that the column space of is equal to the row space of . Using the example matrix above, find and reduce it to row echelon form:


title: Row and column spaces

text: The pivots indicate that the first two columns of form a basis of the column space of . Therefore, the first two rows of (before any row reductions) also form a basis of the row space of .


title: Row and column spaces

text: The dimension of the row space is called the rank of the matrix. This is the same as the maximum number of linearly independent rows that can be chosen from the matrix, or equivalently the number of pivots. For example, the 3 × 3 matrix in the example above has rank two.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The rank of a matrix is also equal to the dimension of the column space. The dimension of the null space is called the nullity of the matrix, and is related to the rank by the following equation:


title: Row and column spaces

text: where is the number of columns of the matrix . The equation above is known as the rank–nullity theorem.


title: Row and column spaces

text: The null space of matrix is the set of all vectors for which . The product of the matrix and the vector can be written in terms of the dot product of vectors:


title: Row and column spaces

text: where are the row vectors of . Thus if and only if is orthogonal (perpendicular) to each of the row vectors of .


title: Row and column spaces

text: It follows that the null space of is the orthogonal complement to the row space. For example, if the row space is a plane through the origin in three dimensions, then the null space will be the perpendicular line through the origin. This provides a proof of the rank–nullity theorem (see dimension above).


title: Row and column spaces

text: The row space and null space are two of the four fundamental subspaces associated with a matrix (the other two being the column space and left null space).


title: Row and column spaces

text: If and are vector spaces, then the kernel of a linear transformation is the set of vectors for which . The kernel of a linear transformation is analogous to the null space of a matrix.


title: Row and column spaces

text: If is an inner product space, then the orthogonal complement to the kernel can be thought of as a generalization of the row space. This is sometimes called the coimage of . The transformation is one-to-one on its coimage, and the coimage maps isomorphically onto the image of .


title: Game (hunting)

text: Game or quarry is any wild animal hunted for animal products (primarily meat), for recreation ("sporting"), or for trophies. The species of animals hunted as game varies in different parts of the world and by different local jurisdictions, though most are terrestrial mammals and birds. Fish caught non-commercially (recreational fishing) are also referred to as game fish.


title: Game (hunting)

text: The range of animal species hunted by humans varies in different parts of the world. This is influenced by climate, faunal diversity, popular taste and locally accepted views about what can or cannot be legitimately hunted. Sometimes a distinction is also made between varieties and breeds of a particular animal, such as wild turkey and domestic turkey. The flesh of the animal, when butchered for consumption, is often described as having a "gamey" flavour. This difference in taste can be attributed to the natural diet of the animal, which usually results in a lower fat content compared to domestic farm-raised animals.


title: Game (hunting)

text: In some countries, game is classified, including legal classifications with respect to licenses required, as either "small game" or "large game". A single small game licence may cover all small game species and be subject to yearly bag limits. Large game are often subject to individual licensing where a separate permit is required for each individual animal taken (tags).


title: Game (hunting)

text: In some parts of Africa, wild animals hunted for their meat are called bushmeat; see that article for more detailed information on how this operates within the economy (for personal consumption and for money) and the law (including overexploitation and illegal imports). Animals hunted for bushmeat include, but are not limited to:


title: Game (hunting)

text: South Africa is a famous destination for game hunting, with its large biodiversity and therefore impressive variety of game species. Many creatures have returned to former areas from which they were once taken as a result of being killed for big-game hunting. Commonly hunted species include:


title: Game (hunting)

text: South Africa also has 62 species of gamebirds, including guineafowl, francolin, partridge, quail, sandgrouse, duck, geese, snipe, bustard and korhaan. Some of these species are no longer hunted, and of the 44 indigenous gamebirds that can potentially be utilised in South Africa, only three, namely the yellow-throated sandgrouse, Delegorgue's pigeon and the African pygmy goose warrant special protection. Of the remaining 41 species, 24 have shown an increase in numbers and distribution range in the last 25 years or so. The status of 14 species appears unchanged, with insufficient information being available for the remaining three species. The gamebirds of South Africa where the population status in 2005 was secure or growing are listed below:


title: Game (hunting)

text: In the United States and Canada, white-tailed deer are the most commonly hunted big game. Other game species include:


title: Game (hunting)

text: In the UK game is defined in law by the Game Act 1831. It is illegal to shoot game on Sundays or at night. Other non-game birds that are hunted for food in the UK are specified under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. UK law defines game as including:


title: Game (hunting)

text: Deer are not included in the definition, but similar controls provided to those in the Game Act apply to deer (from the Deer Act 1991). Deer hunted in the UK are:


title: Game (hunting)

text: Capercaillie are not currently hunted in the UK because of a recent decline in numbers and conservation projects towards their recovery. The ban is generally considered voluntary on private lands, and few birds live away from RSPB or Forestry Commission land allegedly.


title: Game (hunting)

text: Game meat is typically taken from a wild animal that has been shot with a gun or bow. Hunters must be absolutely certain of their target before shooting and should make every effort to get the animal down as quickly and painlessly as possible. Once obtained, game meat must be processed to avoid spoiling. The method of processing varies by game species and size. Small game and fowl may simply be carried home to be butchered. Large game such as deer is quickly field-dressed by removing the viscera in the field, while very large animals like moose may be partially butchered in the field because of the difficulty of removing them intact from their habitat. Commercial processors often handle deer taken during deer seasons, sometimes even at supermarket meat counters. Otherwise the hunter handles butchering. The carcass is kept cool to minimize spoilage.


title: Game (hunting)

text: Traditionally, game meat was hung until "high" or "gamey", that is, approaching a state of decomposition. However, this adds to the risk of contamination. Small game can be processed essentially intact, after gutting and skinning or defeathering (by species). Small animals are ready for cooking, although they may be disjointed first. Large game must be processed by techniques commonly practiced by commercial butchers.


title: Game (hunting)

text: Generally game is cooked in the same ways as farmed meat. Because some game meat is leaner than store-bought beef, overcooking is a common mishap which can be avoided if properly prepared. It is sometimes grilled or cooked longer or by slow cooking or moist-heat methods to make it more tender, since some game tends to be tougher than farm-raised meat. Other methods of tenderizing include marinating as in the dish Hasenpfeffer, cooking in a game pie or as a stew such as burgoo.


title: Game (hunting)

text: The Norwegian Food Safety Authority considers that children, pregnant women, fertile-aged women, and people with high blood pressure should not consume game shot with lead-based ammunition more than once a month. Children who often eat such game might develop a slightly lower IQ, as lead influences the development of the central nervous system.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The Nymphenburg Palace () is a Baroque palace situated in Munich's western district Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, in Bavaria, southern Germany. Combined with the adjacent Nymphenburg Palace Park it constitutes one of the premier royal palaces of Europe. Its frontal width of (north–south axis) even surpasses Versailles Palace. The Nymphenburg served as the main summer residence for the former rulers of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The palace was commissioned by the electoral couple Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy to the designs of the Italian architect Agostino Barelli in 1664 after the birth of their son Maximilian II Emanuel. The central pavilion was completed in 1675. As a building material, it utilised limestone from Kelheim. The palace was gradually expanded and transformed over the years. It then quickly replaced the nearby Blutenburg Castle as major hunting lodge of the court and competed to Schleissheim Palace.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: Starting in 1701, Maximilian Emanuel, the heir to Bavaria, a sovereign electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, undertook a systematic extension of the palace. Two pavilions were added each in the south and north of Barelli's palace by Enrico Zucalli and Giovanni Antonio Viscardi and were connected with the centre pavilion by two gallery wings. In 1716, Joseph Effner redesigned the facade of the centre pavilion in French Baroque style with pilasters. Later, the south section of the palace was further extended to build the court stables (1719). For the sake of balance, the orangery building was added to the north which was only completed in 1758. Finally, Nymphenburg Palace was completed with a grand circle (the "Schlossrondell") of Baroque mansions (the so-called Kavaliershäuschen – cavalier's lodges) erected under Maximilian Emanuel's son Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII Albert.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: In 1795, Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria ordered the widening of the galleries on the park side. In 1826, under King Ludwig I of Bavaria, his architect Leo von Klenze removed the gables of the main pavilion with the Electoral coat of arms and created an attic style decoration directly under the roof instead.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: With the Treaty of Nymphenburg signed in July 1741, Charles Albert allied with France and Spain against Austria. Two of his children were born here: Maria Antonia (future Electress of Saxony) in 1724 and Maria Anna Josepha (future Margravine of Baden-Baden) in 1734. Charles Albert lived during his time in Munich as Holy Roman Emperor at Nymphenburg Palace and died there in 1745.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: In 1747, Elector Max III. Joseph founded the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory. In 1792, Elector Charles Theodor opened the park for the public.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: For a long time, the palace was the favourite summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria. King Max I Joseph died there in 1825 and his great-grandson King Ludwig II was born there in 1845. In 1863, the only meeting between Ludwig and Otto von Bismarck was held in Nymphenburg, although they remained connected in a lifelong friendship.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: Today, Nymphenburg is open to the public but also continues to be a home and chancery for the head of the House of Wittelsbach, currently Franz, Duke of Bavaria.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The palace, together with its park, is now one of the most famous sights of Munich. The baroque facades comprise an overall width of about 700 metres. Some rooms still show their original baroque decoration while others were later redesigned in rococo or neoclassical style.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The "Steinerner Saal" (Stone Hall) in the "central pavilion", with ceiling frescoes by Johann Baptist Zimmermann and F. Zimmermann and decorations by François de Cuvilliés, is an impressive sight. Acting as a grand hall, it occupies over three floors of the central pavilion of the palace. The central ceiling fresco is Helios in his chariot, accompanied by other gods.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: North of the Stone Hall, there is the wood-panelled antechamber, the audience chamber decorated with Brussels tapestries and the former bedroom with the so-called "Little Beauty Gallery" with the ladies of Versailles, all rooms were remodelled under Maximilian II Emanuel in the style of the Régence but retain their original Baroque ceilings. Here are on display portraits of the elector and his wife Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska. The bedroom closes the park side, next to it is the "Drechsel Cabinet" (turnery cabinet) of Maximilian III Joseph, designed by François de Cuvilliés. Three rooms further to the north were created under Charles Theodore with the widening of the gallery wing. In the first room there are now more portraits of ladies from the "Great Gallery of Beauties" of Max Emanuel, the second one is decorated with a pile rug with the coats of arms of Bavaria and the Palatinate (known as "coat of arms room"), while the third room contains portraits of Charles Theodore and both his consorts Elisabeth Auguste and Maria Leopoldine.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: South of the Stone Hall are inversely to the northern rooms of the main building, the hall with the portrait of Charles Albert, the audience room with the portrait of the founding couple Ferdinand Maria and his consort Henriette Adelaide and the Former Bedroom with portraits of Max Emanuel and his consort Theresa Kunegunda. Here too, the original Baroque ceilings have survived. The walls of the so-called "lacquer cabinet" that adjoins the bedroom are almost completely covered with Chinese panels showing scenes from a Chinese novel. The stucco was done by Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer the Younger.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: Behind the south gallery are the "Writing Cabinet" and "Antechamber" of Elector Charles Theodore, which were created with the widening of the gallery wings.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: In both the North and South Galleries next to the "Central Pavilion" are vedutes of Bavarian castles. These galleries connect the central pavilion with the southern and northern pavilions.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The Inner southern Pavilion housed the apartments of the Electress during the period of its origin. The former small dining room of the Inner Southern Pavilion today houses the famous attraction "Gallery of Beauties" of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. On behalf of the king the court painter Joseph Karl Stieler has portrayed 36 beautiful women from all social classes of Munich, the best known of these are the shoemaker's daughter Helene Sedlmayr and Ludwig's infamous mistress Lola Montez. In the nearby "Queen's bedroom" one can see where King Ludwig II of Bavaria was born on 25 August 1845. Its mahogany furniture was made in 1815 in Munich, unlike the mahogany furniture for Queen Caroline's "audience room" which was made in Paris, as was the furniture in the "Queen's Study". The Outer Southern Pavilion is generally inaccessible. It served as a kitchen building at Max Emanuel's time and was then reconstructed like the inner pavilion in neo-classical times. Further south, the third pavilion was built as a "comedihaus" and then served from 1750 as a new kitchen house. The "southern corridor" built in 1747 connects this building with the stables in the south wing.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: In the former royal stables in the South Wing is the Carriage Museum ("Marstallmuseum"), with one of the greatest coach collections in Europe. They also played a part in historical events - the Paris Coronation Coach for example was used for the coronation of Emperor Charles VII in 1742. Among the main attractions of the museum are the magnificent carriages and sleighs of King Ludwig II.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The first floor of the former court stables houses a collection of Nymphenburg porcelain, the factory which, also located in the palace complex, was founded by Maximilian III Joseph. Its handcrafted products are of legendary kind and quality, nowadays said to be comparable only to Augarten and Sèvres.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory itself is located in one of the houses of the northern roundabouts and can be visited only by written appointment. In the adjoining Outer South Wing of the castle is a restaurant with beer garden.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The Inner Northern Pavilion is generally inaccessible, here was Max Emanuel's "appartement de parade". The Outer Northern Pavilion houses the chapel, whose ceiling painting deals with the life of St. Mary Magdalene. It was already begun in 1702 by Antonio Viscardi from the design by Enrico Zuccalli.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: Further north is the third pavilion, the "Gardemeublebau" from 1723, which served for the Cue sports and the Jeu de Passe during the period of its origin. It is connected to the north wing by the "northern corridor" of 1739.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: Since 1990, the "Museum of Man and Nature" has been housed in the North Wing. The "Hubertus Hall" upstairs served for concerts. Today the Hubertus Hall, the Orangery Hall, and the Johannis Hall in the North Wing as well as the Iron House in the park can be booked for parties, concerts, conferences and other functions. From 1835 the Mary Ward Elementary School was in the adjoining Outer North Wing of the castle. Founded by Mary Ward, it paved the way for a better education for girls. Mary Ward came after travelling from Rome to Munich in 1627 and was sponsored by Elector Maximilian I. King Ludwig I finally invited the girls' school to the Nymphenburg Palace in 1835.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The park, once an Italian garden (1671), which was enlarged and rearranged in French style by Dominique Girard, a pupil of Le Notre, was finally redone in the English manner during the early 19th century by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, on behalf of prince-elector Charles Theodore. Von Sckell was also the creator of the English Garden in Munich. He preserved the main elements of the Baroque garden (such as the "Grand Parterre"). The park is bisected by the long western canal along the principal axis which leads from the palace to the marble cascade (decorated with stone figures of Greek and Roman gods) in the west. The iron greenhouse north of the Grand Parterre was completed in 1807, the adjacent geranium house in 1816.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The garden parterre is still a visible feature of the French garden. As part of the transformation of the entire castle grounds by Sckell it was simplified, but retained its original size. The "Grand Cascade" was built by Joseph Effner in 1717. He was referring to a concept of François Roëttiers. The water falls in the middle of a two-part water staircase, the first stage being half round to the west, the second, deeper, is formed to the east. The cascade consists of symmetry which continues through the centre channel. The right side of the cataract was covered with pink marble in 1770. Originally a supporting architecture was to be provided, which was never executed. Instead, from 1775 to 1785, sculptures were added. Many were the work of Dominik Auliczek and Roman Anton Boos, who later added twelve decorative marble vases with mythological themes.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The fountains in front of the palace and in the garden "parterre" continue to be operated by the water powered Pumping Stations built between 1803 and 1808.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The Northern Cabinet Garden is small garden that borders directly the garden side of the north wing of the main palace. It is also called "Kaisergarten", because it is in the immediate vicinity of the rooms where Charles Albert lived during his time in Munich as Emperor Charles VII. It has its counterpart in the Southern Cabinet Garden where François de Cuvilliés built an octagonal bird house in 1757.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: Two lakes are situated on both sides of the canal. The "Dörfchen" was created under Maximilian III Joseph as Petit hameau. The "Salettl" (1799), a cottage with its little garden nearby close to the former menagerie served as attraction for the children of Maximilian IV Joseph.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The garden wall (1730–1735) preserves several Ha-ha effects. A passage close to the old arboretum in the north of the Grand Parterre leads to the large "Botanical Garden" of Munich. Originally there was also a visual axis, the "Durchblick", to the north-west-located Blutenburg Castle.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The canals of Nymphenburg are part of the northern Munich channel system, a system of waterways that connected also to the complex of Schleissheim Palace. The endpoint of the eastern canal leading from the city to the palace forms the Cour d'honneur, the centre was designed by Effner as a water parterre with a fountain, cascade and branching canals on both sides. The driveway ("Auffahrtsallee") from the city on both sides of the eastern canal is framed by a semicircle of smaller baroque buildings ("Kavalierhäuser") at the Cour d'honneur. The eastern endpoint of the canal is the "Hubertusbrunnen" (1903, a fountain building by Adolf von Hildebrand).


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The architecture of the garden pavilions was influential for other architecture in Germany. So the Wittelsbach Falkenlust Palace was built in the style of the Amalienburg while the Pagodenburg served as prototype for the building of the same name in Rastatt.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The main building alone has more than 300,000 visitors per year. Nymphenburg Palace is running dead even with the Munich Residence and lies ahead of Schleissheim Palace, but clearly behind the castles of King Ludwig II, especially Neuschwanstein.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: Schloss Nymphenburg is accessible by Munich public transport's tram number 17. This line passes through the city centre, including Stachus and the main train station.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: Between 1936 and 1939 open air events called "Nacht der Amazonen" (Night of the Amazons) were performed. These shows in the park comprised 2000 players with international stars, bare-breasted girls and included also members of the SS Cavalry under Hermann Fegelein.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The palace and its park were some of the main filming locations of Alain Resnais's 1961 movie "Last Year at Marienbad". Also "Ludwig", a 1972 film directed by Italian director Luchino Visconti about the life and death of King Ludwig II, was partly filmed in Nymphenburg. The Dressage Facility for the equestrian events of the 1972 Summer Olympics was created in the Nymphenburg park.


title: Nymphenburg Palace

text: The palace serves also as headquarters of the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes.


title: History of education in the United States

text: The history of education in the United States covers the trends in educational formal and informal learning in America from the 17th century to the early 21st century.


text: The first American schools in the thirteen original colonies opened in the 17th century. Boston Latin School was founded in 1635 and is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States. The first free taxpayer-supported public school in North America, the Mather School, was opened in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1639. Cremin (1970) stresses that colonists tried at first to educate by the traditional English methods of family, church, community, and apprenticeship, with schools later becoming the key agent in "socialization." At first, the rudiments of literacy and arithmetic were taught inside the family, assuming the parents had those skills. Literacy rates were much higher in New England because much of the population had been deeply involved in the Protestant Reformation and learned to read in order to read the Scriptures. Literacy was much lower in the South, where the Anglican Church was the established church. Single working-class people formed a large part of the population in the early years, arriving as indentured servants. The planter class did not support public education but arranged for private tutors for their children, and sent some to England at appropriate ages for further education.


text: By the mid-19th century, the role of the schools in New England had expanded to such an extent that they took over many of the educational tasks traditionally handled by parents.


text: All the New England colonies required towns to set up schools, and many did so. In 1642 the Massachusetts Bay Colony made "proper" education compulsory; other New England colonies followed this example. Similar statutes were adopted in other colonies in the 1640s and 1650s. In the 18th century, "common schools" were established; students of all ages were under the control of one teacher in one room. Although they were publicly supplied at the local (town) level, they were not free. Students' families were charged tuition or "rate bills." Literacy rates are disputed, but one estimate is that at the end of the Colonial era about 80% of males and 50% of females were "fully literate," i.e., able to both read and sign their names.


text: The larger towns in New England opened grammar schools, the forerunner of the modern high school. The most famous was the Boston Latin School, which is still in operation as a public high school. As its name implies, the purpose of Boston Latin, and similar later schools, was to teach Latin and the classics, which were required for admission to Harvard College and other Colonial colleges. Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut, was another. By the 1780s, most had been replaced by private academies. By the early 19th century New England operated a network of private high schools, now called "prep schools," typified by Phillips Andover Academy (1778), Phillips Exeter Academy (1781), Hopkins School 1660, and Deerfield Academy (1797). They became the major feeders for Ivy League colleges in the mid-19th century. These prep schools became coeducational in the 1970s, and remain highly prestigious in the 21st century.


text: Residents of the Upper South, centered on the Chesapeake Bay, created some basic schools early in the colonial period. In late 17th century Maryland, the Catholic Jesuits operated some schools for Catholic students. Generally the planter class hired tutors for the education of their children or sent them to private schools. During the colonial years, some sent their sons to England or Scotland for schooling.


text: In March 1620, George Thorpe sailed from Bristol for Virginia. He became a deputy in charge of of land to be set aside for a university and Indian school. The plans for the school for Native Americans ended when George Thorpe was killed in the Indian Massacre of 1622. In Virginia, rudimentary schooling for the poor and paupers was provided by the local parish. Most elite parents either home schooled their children using peripatetic tutors or sent them to small local private schools.


text: In the deep south (Georgia and South Carolina), schooling was carried out primarily by private venture teachers, in "old field schools, and in a hodgepodge of publicly funded projects. In the colony of Georgia, at least ten grammar schools were in operation by 1770, many taught by ministers. The Bethesda Orphan House educated children. Dozens of private tutors and teachers advertised their service in newspapers. A study of women's signatures indicates a high degree of literacy in areas with schools. In South Carolina, scores of school projects were advertised in the "South Carolina Gazette" beginning in 1732. Although it is difficult to know how many ads yielded successful schools, many of the ventures advertised repeatedly over years, suggesting continuity. Generally, however, literacy rates were lower in the South than in New England.


text: In the decades immediately following the American Revolution, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina started small public universities. However, many wealthy families continued to send their sons North to college. In Georgia public county academies for white students became more common, and after 1811 South Carolina opened a state-wide system of "free schools" where white children could learn reading, writing, and arithmetic at public expense. Other Southern states imitated this system. Before the Civil War it became a primary mode of organizing what became known as basic "poor schools." In the 1850 census, South Carolina had a literacy rate that rivaled Rhode Island.


text: Republican governments during the Reconstruction era rebuilt the South's public school systems--establishing the first such schools in some places--and supported them with general taxes. For the first time, both whites and blacks would be educated at the expense of the state, but legislators agreed on racially segregated schools. (The few integrated schools were located in New Orleans).


text: Particularly after white Democrats regained control of the state legislatures in former Confederate states, they consistently underfunded public schools for blacks which continued until 1954 when the United States Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.


text: Generally public schooling in rural areas did not extend beyond the elementary grades for either whites or blacks. This was known as "eighth grade school" After 1900, some cities began to establish high schools, primarily for middle class whites. In the 1930s roughly one fourth of the US population still lived and worked on farms and few rural Southerners of either race went beyond the 8th grade until after 1945.


text: The earliest continually operating school for girls in the United States is the Catholic Ursuline Academy in New Orleans. It was founded in 1727 by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Ursula. The academy graduated the first female pharmacist. The first convent established in the United States supported the academy. This was the first free school and first retreat center for young women. It was the first school to teach free women of color, Native Americans, and enslaved women. In the region, Ursuline provided the first center of social welfare in the Mississippi Valley; and it was the first boarding school for girls in Louisiana, and the first school of music in New Orleans.


text: Tax-supported schooling for girls began as early as 1767 in New England. It was optional and some towns proved reluctant to support this innovation. Moreover, statutes creating town schools for "children" often were interpreted in practice as encompassing only boys. Northampton, Massachusetts, for example, was a late adopter because it had many rich families who dominated the political and social structures. They did not want to pay taxes to aid poor families. Northampton assessed taxes on all households, rather than only on those with children, and used the funds to support a grammar school to prepare boys for college. Not until after 1800 did Northampton educate girls with public money. In contrast, the town of Sutton, Massachusetts, was diverse in terms of social leadership and religion at an early point in its history. Sutton paid for its schools by means of taxes on households with children only, thereby creating an active constituency in favor of universal education for both boys and girls.


text: Historians note that reading and writing were different skills in the colonial era. Schools taught both, but in places without schools, writing was taught mainly to boys and a few privileged girls. Men handled worldly affairs and needed to both read and write. It was believed that girls needed only to read (especially religious materials). This educational disparity between reading and writing explains why the colonial women often could read, but could not write and could not sign their names—they used an "X".


text: The education of elite women in Philadelphia after 1740 followed the British model developed by the gentry classes during the early 18th century. Rather than emphasizing ornamental aspects of women's roles, this new model encouraged women to engage in more substantive education, reaching into the classical arts and sciences to improve their reasoning skills. The education of girls in the Colonial era differed among the various colonies according to the religious and cultural practices the colonists brought with them from their countries of origin. The Central colonies (N.Y., Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey), for instance, more often offered elementary education to girls than did those of New England and the South. The Dutch Protestants of the New Netherlands even operated coeducational schools at the elementary level. Education had the capacity to help colonial women secure their elite status by giving them traits that their 'inferiors' could not easily mimic. Fatherly (2004) examines British and American writings that influenced Philadelphia during the 1740s–1770s and the ways in which Philadelphia women gained education and demonstrated their status.