title: Utah Beach

text: Once the four troop transports assigned to Force U reached their assigned position off the coast, 5,000 soldiers of 4th Division and other units assigned to Utah boarded their landing craft in rough seas for the three-hour journey to their designated landing point. The eighteen ships assigned to bombard Utah included the US Navy battleship , the Royal Navy monitor , the heavy cruisers (Royal Navy) and (US Navy), and the gunboat (Royal Netherlands Navy). Naval bombardment of areas behind the beach commenced at 05:45, while it was still dark, with the gunners switching to pre-assigned targets on the beach as soon as it was light enough to see, at 05:50. , a destroyer in the bombardment group, sank after it struck a mine while evading fire from the Marcouf battery under the command of "Oberleutnant zur See" Walter Ohmsen. Since troops were scheduled to land at Utah and Omaha starting at 06:30 (an hour earlier than the British beaches), these areas received only about 40 minutes of naval bombardment before the assault troops began to land on the shore. Coastal air bombardment was undertaken in the twenty minutes immediately prior to the landing by approximately 300 Martin B-26 Marauders of the IX Bomber Command. Due to cloud cover, the pilots decided to drop to low altitudes of . Much of the bombing was highly effective, with the loss of only two aircraft.


title: Utah Beach

text: The first troops to reach the shore were four companies from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry, arriving at 06:30 on 20 LCVPs. Companies B and C landed on the segment code-named Tare Green, and Companies E and F to their left on Uncle Red. Leonard T. Schroeder, leading Company F, was the first man to reach the beach. The landing craft were pushed to the south by strong currents, and they found themselves near Exit 2 at Grande Dune, about from their intended landing zones opposite Exit 3 at Les Dunes de Varreville. The first senior officer ashore, Assistant Division Commander Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. of the 4th Infantry Division, personally scouted the nearby terrain. He determined that this landing site was actually better, as there was only one strongpoint in the immediate vicinity rather than two, and it had been badly damaged by bombers of IX Bomber Command. In addition, the strong currents had washed ashore many of the underwater obstacles. Deciding to "start the war from right here", he ordered further landings to be re-routed.


title: Utah Beach

text: The second wave of assault troops arrived at 06:35 on 32 LCVPs. Companies A and D of 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry landed on Tare Green and G and H on Uncle Red. They were accompanied by engineers and demolition teams tasked with removing beach obstacles and clearing the area directly behind the beach of obstacles and mines.


title: Utah Beach

text: A contingent of the 70th Tank Battalion, comprising 32 amphibious DD tanks on eight LCTs, were supposed to arrive about 10 minutes before the infantry. However, a strong headwind caused them to be about 20 minutes late, even though they launched the tanks from shore rather than as planned. Four tanks of Company A and their personnel were lost when their LCT hit a mine about south of Iles St. Marcouf and was destroyed, but the remaining 28 arrived intact.


title: Utah Beach

text: The third wave, arriving at 06:45, included 16 conventional M4 Sherman tanks and 8 dozer tanks of the 70th Tank Battalion. They were followed at 06:37 by the fourth wave, which had eight LCMs and three LCVPs with detachments of the 237th and 299th Combat Engineer Battalions, assigned to clear the beach between the high and low water marks.


title: Utah Beach

text: Company B came under small arms fire from defenders positioned in houses along the road as they headed to the enemy strongpoint WN7 near La Madeleine, northwest of La Grande Dune and inland. They met little resistance at WN7, the headquarters of 3rd Battalion, 919th Grenadiers. Company C disabled the enemy strongpoint WN5 at La Grande Dune, which had been heavily damaged in the preliminary bombardment. Companies E and F (about 600 men) proceeded inland about to strongpoint WN4 at La Dune, which they captured after a short skirmish. They next travelled south on a farm road parallel to the beach towards Causeway 1. Companies G and H moved south along the beach toward enemy strongpoint WN3 at Beau Guillot. They encountered a minefield and came under enemy machine gun fire, but soon captured the position. 70th Tank Battalion was expecting to have to help neutralize beach fortifications in the immediate area, but since this job was quickly completed by the infantry, they had little to do initially. The landing area was almost totally secure by 08:30, at which point combat teams prepared to push further inland along the causeways. Meanwhile, additional waves of reinforcements continued to arrive on the beach.


title: Utah Beach

text: Removal of mines and obstacles from the beach, a job that had to be performed quickly before the tide came in at 10:30, was the assignment of 237th and 299th Combat Engineer Battalions and the eight dozer tanks. The teams used explosives to destroy beach obstacles and blow gaps in the sea wall to allow quicker access for troops and vehicles. The dozer tanks pushed the wreckage out of the way to create clear lanes for further landings.


title: Utah Beach

text: The next move for the 4th Division was to begin movement down the three causeways through the flooded farmland behind the beach to link up with the 101st Airborne, who had dropped behind enemy lines before dawn. 2nd Battalion and several tanks headed down Causeway 1 towards Pouppeville, which they discovered had already been captured by the 3/501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. A dozen German infantrymen, trapped between the two Allied forces, surrendered. Causeway 2, directly behind La Grande Dune, eventually became the main exit road off the beach. Securing this causeway required the capture of Ste. Marie du Mont, about inland. The Germans had blown a small bridge over a culvert, and movement was delayed while engineers made a repair and cleared two inoperable tanks from the road. Causeway 2 quickly became congested, so some units opted to walk through the flooded areas beside the road. Several hundred defenders were positioned in and around Ste. Marie du Mont, including 6th "Fallschirmjäger" Regiment of the 91st Infantry Division. Members of the 506th Parachute Infantry successfully attacked batteries at Holdy and Brécourt Manor and took Ste. Marie du Mont in house-to-house and street combat, clearing the way for 8th Infantry, 3rd Battalion to advance up Causeway 2 practically unopposed. 8th Infantry, 1st Battalion headed up Causeway 3 towards Audouville-la-Hubert, which had already been captured by the 502nd Parachute Infantry. As at Pouppeville, enemy soldiers (in this case several dozen) were caught between the two converging forces and had to surrender.


title: Utah Beach

text: Meanwhile, 22nd Infantry, 3rd Battalion and five tanks moved north along the beach, tasked with eliminating as many German strongpoints as possible. They discovered that tank fire could only destroy the concrete pillboxes via a direct hit on the embrasures, so they called for artillery fire from the naval vessels offshore. By evening they had combined with 12th Infantry, who had travelled directly across the flooded fields to a position far short of their target for the day, to form a defensive perimeter on the northern end of the beachhead. On the southern end of the beachhead, about 3,000 men of the 6th "Fallschirmjäger" Regiment moved into position near Saint-Côme-du-Mont, preventing the 501st Parachute Infantry from advancing any further on D-Day.


title: Utah Beach

text: In the center, the 82nd Airborne were able to consolidate their position at Sainte-Mère-Église in part due to the work of First Lieutenant Turner Turnbull and a squad of 43 men, who held off for more than two hours a far larger enemy force that was attempting to retake the crossroads from the north. A task force led by Colonel Edson Raff that included 16 Sherman tanks of the 746th Tank Battalion, four armored cars, and a squad of infantry worked their way up from the beach, but were stopped from reinforcing Sainte-Mère-Église by a line of German defenders south of the town. Reinforcements arrived by glider around 04:00 (Mission Chicago and Mission Detroit), and 21:00 (Mission Keokuk and Mission Elmira), bringing additional troops and heavy equipment. Like the paratroopers, many landed far from their drop zones. Even those that landed on target experienced difficulty, with heavy cargo such as Jeeps shifting during landing, crashing through the wooden fuselage, and in some cases crushing personnel on board. German defenders also took a toll on the glider units, with heavy losses inflicted in the area near Sainte-Mère-Église in particular. Members of the 82nd Airborne who had landed west of the Merderet were widely scattered and surrounded by enemy forces. They quickly realized that they would be unable to achieve their D-day objectives and would have to wait for reinforcements. It took several days for this to happen as the Germans set up defensive positions along the river. For 36 hours, 82nd Airborne were unable to establish radio contact with other units or with Collins aboard his command ship, .


title: Utah Beach

text: The 82nd Airborne were finally relieved by the 90th Infantry Division, who began disembarking at 16:00 on D-Day and were all ashore by June 8. The original plan for the 90th had been that they should push north toward the port of Cherbourg, but Collins changed their assignment: they were to cut across the Cotentin Peninsula, isolating the German forces therein and preventing reinforcements from entering the area. Their poor performance led to their being replaced by the more experienced 82nd Airborne and 9th Infantry Division, who reached the west coast of the Cotentin on June 17, cutting off Cherbourg. The 9th Division, joined by the 4th and 79th Infantry Divisions, took control of the peninsula in fierce fighting. Cherbourg fell during the Battle of Cherbourg on June 26, but by this time the Germans had destroyed the port facilities, which were not brought back into full operation until September.


title: Utah Beach

text: The 4th Infantry Division did not meet all their D-Day objectives at Utah, partly because they had arrived too far to the south. They suffered 197 casualties. Airborne troops arriving by parachute and glider numbered an additional 14,000 men, with 2,500 casualties. Around 700 men were lost in engineering units, 70th Tank Battalion, and LCTs and other vessels sunk by the enemy. German losses are unknown.


title: Utah Beach

text: Forces landing on Utah cleared the immediate area in less than an hour, and penetrated inland by the close of D-Day. Within two hours of landing, the 82nd Airborne captured the important crossroads at Sainte-Mère-Église, but they failed to neutralize the line of defenses along the Merderet on D-Day as planned. While many of the airborne forces landed far from their drop zones and were unable to meet all their D-Day objectives, this widespread scattering of forces had the unintended side effect of confusing the German defenders, who were slow to react.


title: Utah Beach

text: The highly trained 4th Division faced a mediocre German unit composed of conscripts; all the best troops of the 709th Division had been sent to the Eastern Front. The Allies achieved and maintained air superiority, which meant that the Germans were unable to make observations of preparations underway in Britain prior to the invasion and were unable to launch airborne counterassaults on D-Day. Extensive Allied reconnaissance provided the attackers with detailed maps of the defenses and terrain. Unlike neighboring Omaha, the preliminary aerial bombardment was highly effective at Utah. Indecisiveness and an overcomplicated command structure on the part of the German high command was also a factor in the Allied success at Utah and throughout the Normandy campaign.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: Elizabeth (also spelled Elisabeth; Hebrew: אֱלִישֶׁבַע / אֱלִישָׁבַע "My God has sworn", Standard Hebrew: "Elišévaʿ" / "Elišávaʿ", Tiberian Hebrew: "ʾĔlîšéḇaʿ" / "ʾĔlîšāḇaʿ"; Greek: Ἐλισάβετ "Elisabet" / "Elisavet") was the mother of John the Baptist and the wife of Zechariah, according to the Gospel of Luke. She was past normal child-bearing age when she conceived and gave birth to John.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: According to the Gospel of Luke chapter 1, Elizabeth was "of the daughters of Aaron". She and her husband Zechariah/Zachariah were "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless" (), but childless. While he was in the temple of the Lord (), Zachariah was visited by the angel Gabriel:


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: Zachariah doubted whereby he could know this since both he and his wife were old. The angel identified himself as Gabriel and told Zachariah that he would be "dumb, and not able to speak" until the words were fulfilled, because he did not believe. When the days of his ministry were complete, he returned to his house ().


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: According to the account, the angel Gabriel was then sent to Nazareth in Galilee to her relative Mary, a virgin, betrothed to a man called Joseph, and informed her that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit and bring forth a son to be called Jesus. Mary was also informed that her "relative Elizabeth" had begun her sixth month of pregnancy, and Mary traveled to "a town in the hill "country" of Judah", to visit Elizabeth ().


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: Matthew Henry comments, "Mary knew that Elizabeth was with child, but it does not appear that Elizabeth had been told any thing of her relative Mary's being designed for the mother of the Messiah; and therefore what knowledge she appears to have had of it must have come by a revelation, which would be a great encouragement to Mary." After Mary heard Elizabeth's blessing, she spoke the words now known as the Magnificat ().


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: That is the last mention of Elizabeth, who is not mentioned in any other chapter in the Bible. The chapter continues with the prophecy of Zachariah (known as the Benedictus,) and ends with the note that John "grew, and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts" until his ministry to Israel began; so it is unknown how long Elizabeth and her husband lived after that ().


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: Since the Medieval era, Elizabeth's greeting, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb," has formed the second part of the Hail Mary prayer.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: A traditional "tomb of Elizabeth" is shown in the Franciscan Monastery of Saint John in the Wilderness near Jerusalem.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: Elizabeth is mentioned in several books of the Apocrypha, most prominently in the Protevangelion of James, in which the birth of her son, the subsequent murder of her husband, as well as her and John's miraculous escape during the Massacre of the Innocents are chronicled.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: Elizabeth is revered as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church on 5 November, and in the Orthodox and Anglican traditions on 5 September, on the same day with her husband Zacharias/Zechariah. She is commemorated as a matriarch in the Calendar of Saints (5 September) of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and Zacharias is commemorated as a prophet.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: Elizabeth (Arabic: , daughter of ), the wife of Zakaria, the mother of Yahya, is an honored woman in Islam. Although Zachariah himself is frequently mentioned by name in the Qur'an, Elizabeth, while not mentioned by name, is referenced. She is revered by Muslims as a wise, pious and believing person who, like her relative Mary, was exalted by God to a high station. She lived in the household of Imran, and is said to have been a descendant of the prophet and priest Harun.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: Zachariah and his wife were both devout and steadfast in their duties. They were, however, both very old and they had no son. Therefore, Zachariah would frequently pray to God for a son. This was not only out of the desire to have a son but also because the great Jesus wanted someone to carry on the services of the Temple of prayer and to continue the preaching of the Lord's message before his death.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: God cured Elizabeth's barrenness and granted Zachariah a son, Yahya (John the Baptist), who became a prophet. God thus granted the wishes of the couple because of their faith, trust and love for God. In the Qur'an, God speaks of Zachariah, his wife, and John, and describes the three as being humble servants of the :


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: In Sunni Islamic reports of al-Tabari and al-Masudi, Elizabeth is said to have been a daughter of Imran, and thus, a sister of Mary. Therefore, their children Jesus ("Isa") and John ("Yahya") are believed to have been cousins. In other accounts, Elizabeth is said to be a daughter of Fakudh, and a sister of Imran's wife Hannah.


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: In Shia hadith she is named Hananah, and is identified as a sister of Mary's mother Hannah. Abu Basir recorded that Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, the great grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, had stated: "Hannah, the wife of Imran, and Hananah, the wife of Zechariah, were sisters. He goes on to say that Mary was born from Hannah and John was born from Hananah. Mary gave birth to Jesus and he was the son of the daughter of John's aunt. John was the son of the aunt of Mary, and the aunt of one's mother is like one's aunt."


title: Elizabeth (biblical figure)

text: In Mandaeism, Enišbai () is the Mandaic name for Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Enišbai is mentioned in chapters 18, 21, and 32 of the Mandaean Book of John.


title: Green Monster

text: The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. The wall is from home plate and is a popular target for right-handed hitters.


title: Green Monster

text: The wall was part of the original ballpark construction of 1912, along Fenway's north side facing Lansdowne Street. It is made of wood and was covered in tin and concrete in 1934. It was then covered with hard plastic in 1976. A manual scoreboard is set into the wall, which has been there, in one form or another, at least as far back as 1914 (see photo at right). Despite the name, the Green Monster was not painted green until 1947; before that, it was covered with advertisements. The "Monster" designation is relatively new. For most of its history it was simply called "The Wall".


title: Green Monster

text: The Green Monster is the highest among the walls in current Major League Baseball fields; it is the second highest among all professional baseball fields (including minor leagues), as in 2007 it was surpassed by the left field wall of PeoplesBank Park in York, Pennsylvania, which is approximately taller.


title: Green Monster

text: Ballparks occupied by professional baseball teams have often featured high fences to hide the field from external viewers, particularly behind open areas of the outfield where bleacher seating is low-lying or non-existent. The wall might also reduce the number of "cheap" home runs due to the barrier's relatively tall height above the playing surface. Fenway's wall serves both purposes. Past ballparks of Fenway's era or even later which featured high fences in-play included Baker Bowl, Washington Park, Ebbets Field, League Park, Griffith Stadium, Shibe Park, and more recently, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Fenway is the last of the exceptionally high-walled major league ballparks. Relatively high walls in modern ballparks have been constructed for their novelty rather than by necessity, as Fenway's wall had been.


title: Green Monster

text: The Green Monster is famous for preventing home runs on many line drives that would clear the walls of other ballparks. A side effect of this is to increase the prevalence of doubles, since this is the most common result when the ball is hit off the wall (often referred to as a "wallball double"). Some left fielders, predominantly those with vast Fenway experience, have become adept at fielding caroms off the wall to throw runners out at second base or hold the batter to a single. Compared with other current major league parks, the wall's placement creates a comparatively shallow left field; the wall falls approximately from the plate along the left-field foul line. With this short distance, many deep fly balls that could be caught by the fielder in a deeper park rebound off the wall for base hits. And while the wall turns many would-be line-drive homers into doubles it also allows some high yet shallow fly balls to clear the field of play for a home run.


title: Green Monster

text: During 2001 and 2002, the Green Monster's height record was temporarily beaten by the center field wall at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the construction of Great American Ball Park, located right next to Riverfront Stadium, a large section of seats was removed from the center field area to make room and a black wall was erected as a temporary batter's eye. The entire wall was in play. This new wall was often called "The Black Monster". When Riverfront Stadium was demolished in 2002, the Green Monster reclaimed the record. In honor of the famed wall, the Red Sox mascot is a furry green monster named Wally the Green Monster, joined in 2016 by his younger sister Tessie.


title: Green Monster

text: From 1912 to 1933, a mound formed an incline in front of the Green Monster, extending from the left-field foul pole to the center field flag pole. This earthwork formed a "terrace", a common feature of ballparks of the day (where a dirt-surfaced warning track would normally be today), whose purpose was to make up the difference in grade between street level and field level, as with Cincinnati's Crosley Field. It also served to double as a seating area to handle overflow crowds, another common practice of that era.


title: Green Monster

text: As a result of the terrace, when overflow crowds were not seated atop it, a left fielder in Fenway Park had to play the territory running uphill. Boston's first star left fielder, Duffy Lewis, mastered the skill so well that the area became known as "Duffy's Cliff". In contrast, rotund outfielder Bob Fothergill, known by the indelicate nicknames of "Fats" or "Fatty", reportedly once chased a ball up the terrace, slipped and fell, and rolled downhill.


title: Green Monster

text: In 1934, Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey arranged to flatten the ground in left field so that Duffy's Cliff no longer existed, and it became part of the lore of Fenway Park.


title: Green Monster

text: Long after the much-higher location manual scoreboard from "c."1914 existed (as seen in the 1914 photo), the placement of the modern "ground-level" manual scoreboard occurred in 1934. It forms the lower half of the Green Monster and is still updated by hand from behind the wall throughout the game. The American League scores are also updated from behind the wall. The National League scores need to be updated from the front of the wall between innings. There is also a board which shows the current American League East standings. There are 127 slots in the wall and a team of three score keepers move around , plates to represent the score. Yellow numbers are used to represent in-inning scores and white numbers are used to represent final inning tallies. The numbers of the current pitchers weigh and measure .


title: Green Monster

text: Carlton Fisk's "body English" when he hit his game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, "waving" the ball fair, was captured on a TV camera stationed in the scoreboard.


title: Green Monster

text: The Morse Code that appears from top to bottom in the white lines of the American League scoreboard are the initials of former owners Thomas A. Yawkey and Jean R. Yawkey.


title: Green Monster

text: Fenway's left-field distortion is offset by the odd shape and generous size of right field, which is (although its actual distance has been disputed over the years) along the line (almost the same as in left), but at its deepest. The bullpen was added along the right field wall in 1940 to shorten the distance for left-handed slugger Ted Williams' home runs to clear the fence. For years afterward, the bullpens were known as "Williamsburg".


title: Green Monster

text: In 1936, the Red Sox installed a net above the Monster in order to protect the storefronts on adjoining Lansdowne Street from home run balls. The net remained until the 2002–03 offseason, when the team's new ownership constructed a new seating section atop the wall to accommodate 274 fans. Wildly popular, these "Monster seats" were part of a larger expansion plan for Fenway Park seating. The Red Sox later added a smaller seating section in 2005, dubbed the "Nation's Nest," located between the main seating section and the center field scoreboard.


title: Green Monster

text: Comprising yet another quirk, a ladder is attached to the Green Monster, extending from near the upper-left portion of the scoreboard, above ground, to the top of the wall. Previously, members of the grounds crew would use the ladder to retrieve home run balls from the netting hung above the wall. After the net was removed for the addition of the Monster seats, the ladder ceased to have any real function, yet it remains in place as a historic relic.


title: Green Monster

text: The placement of the ladder is noteworthy given the fact that it is in fair territory; it is the only such ladder in the major leagues. On many occasions, a batted ball has struck the ladder during game play, at least twice leading to an inside-the-park home run. During a 1950s game, Red Sox outfielders Ted Williams and Jimmy Piersall both tracked a fly ball in left center, but the ball struck the ladder and caromed into center field, giving batter Jim Lemon enough time to round the bases. Later, in 1963, the slow-footed Dick Stuart hit a high fly that ricocheted first off the ladder, and then the head of outfielder Vic Davalillo, before rolling far enough away to allow Stuart to score.


title: Green Monster

text: After the wall was painted green in 1947, advertisements did not appear on the wall until 1999, when the All-Star Game at Fenway was being promoted. Various ads have appeared above the scoreboard since then, such as the Jimmy Fund, W.B. Mason, and Granite City Electric. The Coke Bottles on the left light tower were a target for power-hitters when they were placed in 1997. These 3D advertisements were taken down before the 2008 season, when an LED sign was built above the new left-field upper deck seats. As a lead up to his 500th career home run, Manny Ramirez's home run count was tallied on the bottom of the light tower. Ads beside the manual scoreboard were added when the scoreboard was expanded. Above the manual scoreboard, where a Jimmy Fund advertisement had remained for many years, the logo for Foxwoods Resort Casino is now a prominent aspect of Fenway Park. Outside of Fenway in Kenmore Square, but able to be seen in the view above the left-field wall, is the Boston Citgo sign.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Mirabilis jalapa, the marvel of Peru or four o'clock flower, is the most commonly grown ornamental species of "Mirabilis" plant, and is available in a range of colors. "Mirabilis" in Latin means wonderful and Jalapa (or Xalapa) is the state capital of Veracruz in México. "Mirabilis jalapa" was cultivated by the Aztecs for medicinal and ornamental purposes.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: The flowers usually open from late afternoon or at dusk (namely between 4 and 8 o'clock), giving rise to one of its common names. Flowers then produce a strong, sweet-smelling fragrance throughout the night, then close for good in the morning. New flowers open the following day. It arrived in Europe in 1525. Today, it is common in many tropical regions and is also valued in Europe as a (not hardy) ornamental plant. It is the children's state flower of Connecticut under the name of Michaela Petit's Four O'Clocks.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: The name of "Mirabilis jalapa" given by Carl Von Linne in 1753 is formed from the scientific Latin Mirabilis meaning "admirable" by allusion to the remarkable colors of its flowers and the specific name jalapa that would refer to its origin in the Jalapa in Guatemala. But the epithet of jalapa could also refer to the city of Xalapa (Jalapa) in Mexico from which came a former purgative drug, named jalap, taken from the tubers of the tuberous jalap.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Linnaeus refers to all species of Jalapa described by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort who in 1694 wrote: "The Jalap, or Belle de Nuit is a kind of plant whose flower is a funnel-shaped flared pipe with a crenellated pavilion ... Father Plumier assured me that the Jalap, which is brought to us with the root of America, was a true species of Belle de nuit. We have also received the seed, which has produced in the Jardin Royal de Paris a plant quite like the common Belle de nuit; but this seed is more wrinkled, and the leaves of the plant are less smooth."


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: It is a perennial, herbaceous, bushy plant that reaches stature heights of mostly 1 meter, rarely up to 2 meters, in height. It may also be grown as an annual, especially in the temperate zone. The single-seeded fruits are spherical, wrinkled and black upon maturity, having started out greenish-yellow. The stems are thick, full, quadrangular with many ramifications and rooting at the nodes. The posture is often prostrate.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: A curious aspect of "M. jalapa" is that flowers with different colors grow simultaneously on the same plant. Additionally, an individual flower can be splashed with different colors. Flower patterns are referred to as sectors (whole sections of flower), flakes (stripes of varying length), and spots. A single flower can be plain yellow, red, magenta, pink, or white, or have a combination of sectors, flakes, and spots. Furthermore, different combinations of flowers and patterns can occur on different flowers of the same plant.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Usually, the flowers are yellow, pink and white, but a different combination of flowers growing on the same single four o’clock plant can be found. Another interesting point is a color-changing phenomenon. For example, in the yellow variety, as the plant matures, it can display flowers that gradually change to a dark pink colour. Similarly, white flowers can change to light violet. Despite their appearance, the flowers are not formed from petals – rather they are a pigmented modification of the calyx. Similarly, the 'calyx' is an involucre of bracts. The flowers are funnel-shaped and pentalobed, they have no cup (replaced by bracteal leaves) but are made of a corolla.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: The inflorescences contain three to seven unpopped flowers. Earning the name "four o'clock flower", the fragrant flowers open in the late afternoon or early evening, and also in overcast weather, and exhale a scent reminiscent of the tobacco flower, and attract moths for pollination. The anthesis lasts from 16 to 20 hours and thus remains visible part of the day. The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued moths of the family Sphingidae, such as the sphinx moths or hawk moths and other nocturnal pollinators attracted by the fragrance.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: The plant does best in full sun. Often in the sun the leaves wither, then return vigorously in the evening, when temperatures start to fall and the sun sets. It cannot stand the cold as the aerial part, with the first frosts, deteriorates and can die, but the underground part that can return to vegetate in spring remains vital. The plant will self-seed, often spreading rapidly if left unchecked in a garden. Some gardeners recommend that the seeds should be soaked before planting, but this is not totally necessary. In North America, the plant perennializes in warm, coastal environments, particularly in USDA zones 7–10. The plant is easy to grow, as long as it is sunny or partially shaded. Under these conditions, it grows very quickly.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: It grows preferably in light soil, rich in humus and well draining, it is neutral side acidity (pH). Pot cultivation is always possible with a mixture of 80% soil and 20% garden soil and a very deep container with the tubers being put at a depth of 10 cm. It is usually sown from mid-February to May. The seeds germinate rapidly at a temperature of 18 °C.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: "Mirabilis jalapa" is native to the dry tropical regions of North, Central and South America: Mexico, Guatemala, Chile and Peru. This plant has been introduced for ornamental purposes and has become naturalized throughout tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of the world. It is currently present in many countries in Asia, Africa, United States, Middle East and Europe. In Réunion, "Mirabilis jalapa" was initially an ornamental species; however it became naturalized on the west coast, between 400 and 700 m altitude, and on the south coast between 0 and 700 m. It occurs in a ruderal debris area, and is relatively common in weedy sugarcane fields on the west and south coasts. Its high seed production and rapid growth allow it to cover up to 30% to 50% in cane plots. In cooler subtropical and temperate regions, it will die back with the first frosts or as the weather starts to cool down (especially after it fully matures and finished self-seeding), regrowing in the following spring from the tuberous roots.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Around 1900, Carl Correns used "Mirabilis" as a model organism for his studies on cytoplasmic inheritance. He used the plant's variegated leaves to prove that certain factors outside the nucleus affected phenotype in a way not explained by Mendel's theories. Correns proposed that leaf colour in "Mirabilis" was passed on via a uni-parental mode of inheritance.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Also when plants with dark-pink flowers are crossed with white-flowered plants, light-pink-flowered offspring are produced. This is seen as an exception to Mendel's Law of Dominance because in this case, the dark-pink and white genes seem to be of equal strength, so neither completely dominates the other. The phenomenon is known as incomplete dominance. However the Mendelian principle of uniformity in the F-generation and the principle of segregation in the F-generation of genes do apply, which confirms the importance of Mendel's discoveries.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Eight betaxanthins (indicaxanthin, vulgaxanthin-I, miraxanthin-I, II, III, IV, V and VI) can be isolated from "M. jalapa" flowers.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Rotenoids (mirabijalone A, B, C and D, 9-O-methyl-4-hydroxyboeravinone B, boeravinone C and boeravinone F, and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1-methylisoquinoline-7,8-diol) can be isolated from the roots.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: A fatty acid (8-hydroxyoctadeca-cis-11,14-dienoic acid) is found as a minor component in the seed oil.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Analysis of the methanolic extract of the aerial parts yields β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, ursolic acid, oleanolic acid and brassicasterol.


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Bioassay-guided fractionation of an organic extract of the cell mass from a manipulated plant cell culture of "M. jalapa" led to the isolation and subsequent identification of an isoflavone, a roteinoid and a dehydrorotenoid. Two of these compounds are responsible for the antimicrobial activity against "Candida albicans".


title: Mirabilis jalapa

text: Bioassay-guided fractionation of the methanolic extract of "M. jalapa" also led to the isolation of an active polyphenolic amide: N-trans-feruloyl 4′-O-methyldopamine. This compound shows moderate activity as an efflux pump inhibitor against multidrug-resistant "Staphylococcus aureus".


title: Ishari K. Ganesh

text: Dr. Ishari K Ganesh (pronounced as Ai-sari) is the founder, chairman and Chancellor of Vels University in Chennai, India.


title: Ishari K. Ganesh

text: He founded the Vael's Educational Trust in 1992 in the memory of his late father Isari Velan, a former Member of Legislative Assembly in the state government of M. G. Ramachandran.


title: Ishari K. Ganesh

text: He was the secretary of the consortium of colleges affiliated to The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University(2007-2009).


title: Ishari K. Ganesh

text: Ganesh is also the founder and chairman of Vels Film International, which produces films in Tamil cinema. Ganesh has acted in 5 movies from (1992-2018) in supporting role and did a role in S. Shankar’s "2.0" (2018).


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Last Comic Standing was an American reality television talent competition show on NBC that aired from June 1, 2003, to August 9, 2010, then again in 2014 and 2015. The goal of the program was to select a comedian from an initially large group of hopefuls. For the first seven seasons, the winner received a cash prize and a television special; for season eight in 2014, the winner won a cash prize, a talent deal with NBC, and a half-hour scripted project developed by Universal Television.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The show varied its format season by season. For seasons 1–2 and 4–7, NBC talent scouts Ross Mark and Bob Read held open casting calls in various locations around the United States. At each casting call, Mark and Read identified comics to participate in callback auditions in front of live audiences. Mark and Read then selected a predetermined number of comics from each callback, who were invited to participate in a semifinal qualifying round.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The comics who advanced to the semifinal qualifying round were divided into two groups. In Season Four, 40 comics were divided into two groups of 20; these comics performed and competed against each other at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. During the semifinal qualifying rounds, a panel of celebrity judges, and the show's producers, selected the finalists who would move forward to the final qualifying round, and live together in a group residence.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Once the residence finalists were selected, the comics participated in some type of comedic challenge each television week. Challenges have included performing stand-up at a local laundromat, working as a tour guide in Los Angeles, participating in a roast at the Friars Club of Beverly Hills and performing comedy on a specific subject with little preparation time on a radio show. The winner of each challenge is usually rewarded with immunity from being eliminated from the competition for that week, while the remaining comics are vulnerable to elimination through a "head-to-head" standup challenge.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: As the conclusion of each television week drew near, each comic selected one other comic whom they believed they could defeat in a head-to-head challenge. The comics were sent off individually to a secluded booth, and named the person selected using the phrase "I know I'm funnier than _____." The comic who received the most nominations participated in that evening's head-to-head competition, and selected their opponent from any of the comics who had challenged them.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The head-to-head competition occurs in front of a live studio audience. For the first seven seasons, the studio audience voted electronically for their preferred performer, while in the eighth season the judges always selected the winner. The winning comic remains "in the house", while the losing comic is eliminated from the competition.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: For the first seven seasons, when only five comics remained, the format changed again. All remaining comics performed for a large theatre audience as before, but now the decision-making power shifted from the studio audience to the television audience. Viewers cast their votes for their favorite comic by phoning a specific number, by voting online at the network's website, or both. Unlike some other "audience-vote reality" programs, the producers imposed a maximum number of eligible votes per originating phone number and email address. The comic who received the lowest number of votes each week was eliminated from the competition, until there was only the "Last Comic Standing".


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The "in the house" concept was dropped for season 7, and each week consisted of all remaining comics performing in front of a theater audience and being voted on by the television viewers to determine who leaves and who remains. It was essentially identical to the "final five" format used previously.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The 3rd season was also unique in that it pitted the contestants of the first two seasons against one another.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Season one aired in the summer of 2003 and was hosted by Jay Mohr. The winner of the audience-participation final vote in season one was Dat Phan, with 35% of the vote. Other finalists included Ralphie May (28%), Rich Vos (18%), Cory Kahaney (12%), and Tess (7%). Contestants "in the house" who did not make the final five were Geoff Brown, Tere Joyce, Sean Kent, Dave Mordal, and Rob Cantrell.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Season two aired in the summer of 2004, hosted by Jay Mohr. The Last Comic Standing was John Heffron. Alonzo Bodden was the first runner-up, while third place went to Gary Gulman. The other finalists were Ant, Tammy Pescatelli, Bonnie McFarlane, Jay London, Kathleen Madigan, Todd Glass, Chris Voth, and Corey Holcomb.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Buck Star, who became infamous for appearing at every "LCS" audition, first appeared in season two. After being repeatedly rejected by talent scouts Mark and Read, Mark finally acquiesced and allowed Buck to perform in the callback auditions in Tampa (the final audition site of the season). Buck failed to impress the live audience, however, and did not advance further in the competition.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: After five head-to-head eliminations, a wildcard competition was set up among the five eliminated comics the top voter-getting returning to the competition. Jay London won this competition, but was ultimately eliminated again in the next vote.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: While "Last Comic Standing Season Two" was airing, NBC agreed to produce a third season, which would air during the fall of 2004. Season three, dubbed the "Battle of the Best", consisted of a competition between the final ten comedians from seasons one and two. The grand prize awarded this season was a flat $250,000 (unlike previous seasons' prizes, which included a talent contract and a television special). Alonzo Bodden, the runner-up from Season 2, was the winner and Dave Mordal, the seventh place man from Season 1, was the runner-up. The third place men were John Heffron, the Season 2 winner and Rich Vos, the third place man from Season 1 and Bonnie McFarlane's husband. Season 2's first-eliminated Bonnie McFarlane chose not to participate in this season for unspecified reasons. She was replaced by a finalists judge competition of four comics who made it to the Hawaii round; the winner of that competition was Jessica Kirson, who was eliminated first from season 2. Celebrities appearing in the season were Jeffrey Ross, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Louie Anderson and Carrot Top. Episodes would be shown as 1 hour and the finale was a half-hour long.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Due to lackluster ratings in the third season (falling as low as 74th in the primetime Nielsen ratings), NBC canceled the show before the last episode aired; it aired on Comedy Central instead.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Josh Blue, a St. Paul, Minnesota native who has cerebral palsy, was the Last Comic Standing on the August 9, 2006, conclusion of the contest. Ty Barnett was the runner-up, while third place went to Chris Porter. Other finalists were (in order of placement) Michele Balan, Roz, Kristin Key, Rebecca Corry, Gabriel Iglesias, Joey Gay, Bil Dwyer, April Macie, and Stella Stolper. Additionally, Theo Von won the separate online contest to be the "Last Comic Downloaded". Iglesias was disqualified for multiple violations of his contract including using a BlackBerry and became the first in the history of the show to be thrown out of the competition.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: "Last Comic Standing" returned for a fifth season in the summer of 2007. Comedian Bill Bellamy hosted the show. The winner got $250,000 along with an NBC Universal contract and a Bravo special. Unlike previous versions, this season featured comics from around the world competing alongside Americans. Auditions were held in London, Montreal, Sydney, Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis, San Antonio and Tempe. The fifth season began June 13. This series premiered on British music channel TMF on July 4, 2007.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The final ten comics were Lavell Crawford, Jon Reep, Gerry Dee, Amy Schumer, Ralph Harris, Doug Benson, Matt Kirshen, Debra DiGiovanni, Dante, and Gina Yashere.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The season finale aired on September 19, 2007 in which Jon Reep was revealed as the winner. Lavell Crawford was the season 5 runner-up.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Season 6 semi-final rounds were held and filmed in Las Vegas at the Paris Hotel & Casino. The season finale also aired from Las Vegas. The season premiered on May 22, 2008, and was being shown in Britain on Paramount Comedy.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The season finale aired on August 7, 2008 during which Iliza Shlesinger was revealed as the winner, the first and only woman to win the title. Marcus was the season 6 runner-up.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The seventh season premiered on June 7, 2010, hosted by Craig Robinson. The show was again reworked following a format similar to the one used for Season 3, without a House or Challenges, with voting beginning right after the Semi-Finals. The judges for season 7 were Greg Giraldo, Natasha Leggero, and Andy Kindler. Comedians that have appeared this season include James Adomian, Paula Bel, Claudia Cogan, Alycia Cooper, Ed Bedard, Jim David, Jimmy Dore, Felipe Esparza, Rachel Feinstein, David Feldman, Kirk Fox, Nikki Glaser, Kyle Grooms, Tiffany Haddish, Ryan Hamilton, Michael J. Herbert, Rik Sansone, Adrienne Iapalucci, Jesse Joyce, Myq Kaplan, Cathy Ladman, Jamie Lee, Jared Logan, Shane Mauss, Amanda Melson, Kurt Metzger, Brian McKim, Jason Nash, Christina Pazsitzky, Chip Pope, Jeff Ragsdale, Jerry Rocha, Rajiv Satyal, Jonathan Thymius, Guy Torry, Jason Weems, and Taylor Williamson. The winner was Felipe Esparza.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Season 8 premiered on May 22, 2014, and consisted of 13 episodes. Roseanne Barr, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Russell Peters served as the judges with JB Smoove as the host. The winner received $250,000 and an NBC comedy development deal. Eliminated contestants faced off in an online head-to-head competition called the "Comic Comeback", with fans voting via Twitter to bring back a comic to perform on the season finale.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Rather than holding open "live" auditions as in previous seasons, the eighth season started with 100 comedians who were invited by an NBC panel, based on reviews of emailed audition submissions. The first four nights of the season were called "Invitationals" featuring 25 comics, with the winning comics from these rounds advancing to the semifinals.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Night one and night two both aired in a two-hour block on May 22, 2014. The following comics advanced to the semi-finals on night one: Tracey Ashley, Mark Normand, Dave Landau, Aida Rodriguez, Joe Machi, and Rod Man. On night two, comics advancing to the semi-final round included: Dana Eagle, Nick Guerra, Erin Jackson, Mike Vecchione, Jasper Redd, Lachlan Patterson, Tyree Elaine, and Jimmy Shubert. Night three aired on May 29, during which the following comics advanced to the next round of the competition: Chloe Hilliard, Alingon Mitra, Gerald Kelly, Zainab Johnson, DC Benny, Emily Galati, and Rocky LaPorte. Airing on June 5, the fourth night saw the advancement of Karlous Miller, DeAnne Smith, Nikki Carr, Tommy Ryman, Yamaneika Saunders, Mike Gaffney, and Monroe Martin. In all, 28 of the initial 100 comics advanced to the semi-finals.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The semi-finals consisted of two shows of 14 contestants each, with five comics from each episode advancing to the Top Ten. In these rounds, Amy Schumer and executive producer Wanda Sykes appeared in segments where they gave advice to the contestants. Comics advancing through the semi-finals into the Challenge Rounds are shown in the table below.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: In the Challenge Rounds, the comics attempted to gain immunity from the head-to-head showdown that closed each episode. They participated in challenges that tested their skills in various comic situations. In the sketch comedy challenge (Episode 7), teams of five received advice from comic actress Cheryl Hines, with one entire team being granted immunity. Jay Leno provided advice for the talk show guest challenge (Episode 8), while Ellen DeGeneres hosted the challenge on the set of her show to determine the one comic granted immunity. For the improvisation challenge (Episode 9), Howie Mandel provided advice and one comic was granted immunity. Jeff Ross helped the comics prepare for a roast of Gilbert Gottfried (Episode 10), which determined immunity from the final head-to-head showdown. In all, the Challenge Rounds eliminated five contestants.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: After the Challenge Rounds, the five finalists competed in the Title Rounds. Here, they would perform a set for the judges, who would then eliminate whoever they felt had the weakest performance. They narrowed down the contestants over three episodes (11, 12 and 13) until they decided on the winner. The finale also included performances by judges Roseanne Barr, Russell Peters, and the winner of the online Comic Comeback poll, Alingon Mitra.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Starting with this season, the public did not vote for the Last Comic Standing at any time. The judges decided every elimination, and the final winner. This was done because Sykes decided that the judges would make a better decision than the potential voting public.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The eighth season winner was Rod Man. He beat out Nikki Carr and Lachlan Patterson in what turned out to be a double-elimination final set. The judges were supposed to narrow the field down to two contestants following the first sets of the two-hour finale, but could not agree on a weakest performance. Therefore, all three finalists performed another set to determine the winner.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Following the semi-finals, viewers were asked to vote for the "Comic Comeback", in which a dismissed comic can earn the chance to return and perform a set in the final episode of Season 8. Alingon Mitra beat out the 5 other dismissed contestants to become the Comic Comeback winner. He performed a set in the season finale on August 14.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: NBC renewed "Last Comic Standing" for a ninth season, which premiered on July 22, 2015. Season 9 was hosted by Anthony Jeselnik; the judges were Keenen Ivory Wayans and Roseanne Barr, returning from the previous season, as well as new judge Norm Macdonald. The top prize, as in the previous season, was $250,000 and an NBC development deal. Season 9 was shorter than any previous season, with only 8 episodes. It eliminated much of the structure of previous seasons, including contestants competing against one another in a variety of challenges, and unstructured interactions between contestants, in favor of a simple series of stand-up performances.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: As in the previous season, 100 comics were selected by an NBC panel to compete in the Invitationals. There were five rounds of Invitationals, with 20 comics starting each round. Invitationals Part 1 aired in a two-hour block on July 22, and consisted of the first two rounds. The following comics from Round 1 moved on to the semifinals: Taylor Tomlinson, Ian Bagg, Ryan Conner, Ms. Pat, Mehran Khaghani, Moses Storm, DC Ervin and K-Von. Moving on from Round 2 were: Ambrose Jones III, Esther Povitsky, Crystian Ramirez, Bryan Kellen, Kevin Bozeman and Amy Miller. Invitationals Part 2 (Round 3) aired on July 29 and saw the following comics make it to the semifinals: Andy Erikson, Greg Warren, Dominique, Tony Baker, Francisco Ramos, Cyrus McQueen, KT Tatara, Alycia Cooper and Sammy Obeid. Advancing from Invitationals Part 3 (Round 4) that aired August 5 were: Sheng Wang, Joe List, Mike Siegel, Drew Thomas, Andi Smith, Amir Gollan, Brad Loekle and Shakir Standley. The final round of invitationals (Part 4) aired on August 12 and sent the following to the semifinals: Clayton English, Noah Gardenschwarz, Ricarlo Flanagan, Melanie Barchow, Amir K, Lavar Walker, Angelo Tsarukas, Harrison Greenbaum, Mia Jackson and Michael Palascak.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Part 1 of the two-part semifinals aired August 19 and saw Taylor Tomlinson, Andy Erikson, Francisco Ramos, Sheng Wang and Clayton English advance the Top 10 finals. In Part 2 of the semifinals, aired on August 26, Ian Bagg, Ryan Conner, Dominique, Joe List and Michael Palascak moved on to the Top 10 finals.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: On September 2, 2015, the Top 10 comics were paired in head-to-head duels, as follows, and trimmed to five finalists (winners in bold):


title: Last Comic Standing

text: The finale aired on September 9, 2015. All five remaining finalists performed one set, after which Clayton English was declared the Season 9 winner.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: During season two, a panel of four celebrity judges was used to shrink the field of 40 semifinalists to ten finalists. The celebrity judges rated each of the semifinalists as they performed, and cast votes for the 10 top comedians. When the ten finalists were announced they did not seem to correspond with the judges' votes, which the judges noticed. Two celebrity judges, comedians Drew Carey and Brett Butler, left the judges' table visibly angry after the finalists were announced. The two were shown backstage arguing with producers. Carey and Butler did not understand how the finalists who were announced could have advanced, given the way the judges had voted. It was revealed that a panel of four producers were also casting votes in the process, assuring that unless all four celebrity judges cast exactly the same ten votes, their voting power could be usurped by the four unanimously agreeing producers. If for some reason all four celebrity judges did cast exactly the same votes, the worst the producers would be faced with was a tie.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Upon learning of this, Carey became angry that the producers made it seem he had a deciding vote in the outcome of the show, calling the situation "crooked and dishonest." It was also revealed that some of the finalists who advanced were clients or employees of the producers or directors of the show.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: According to a March 2004 "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" article by Gene Collier, some of the competitors in opening rounds were plants hired by the producers to give bad performances on purpose, in order to liven up the auditions on television.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: Top local agents are usually given a number of specific call times for their clients. The first round of auditions were for a producer early in the morning, and those that were chosen came back for the celebrity judges in the afternoon. Mark Breslin, owner of Yuk Yuk's comedy clubs which hosted the Toronto audition for season 6, also confirmed that while only two were shown advancing in the final broadcast, four comics had been initially chosen to advance to the finals. Brian Lazanik, one of the two finalists who did not end up at the Vegas finals, has said that he was also chosen as a finalist in season 5's Toronto auditions, but was similarly cut. Producers for the show called his agent, urging him to try out again for season 6.


title: Last Comic Standing

text: In season 9 Esther Povitsky had an argument with judge Norm MacDonald causing her stand-up section to be cut from the show.


title: J-XX

text: J-XX J-X, and XXJ are names applied by Western intelligence agencies to describe programs by the People's Republic of China to develop one or more fifth-generation fighter aircraft. General He Weirong, Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), stated that China had several such programs underway and that an undesignated fifth-generation fighter developed jointly by Chengdu Aerospace Corporation and Shenyang Aerospace Corporation would be in service by 2018.


title: J-XX

text: The PLAAF unveiled the program in late 2002. A December 2002 "Jane's Defence Weekly" reported that Shenyang Aerospace Corporation had been selected to head research and development of the new fighter, which was also stated in the "New Scientist" the same week. Also, a 2006 article in "Military Technology" referred to three designs; two by Shenyang Aerospace Corporation and one by Chengdu Aerospace Corporation.


title: J-XX

text: According to "Jane's", development of the subsystems, including an engine with thrust vectoring capability, and weapon suite for the next generation fighter had been under development. A photograph of a wind tunnel model published with the article showed a twin-engine aircraft with twin vertical tail fins. The aircraft would carry its weapons internally like the F-22 Raptor. "New Scientist" called attention to the angular, faceted features of the design, comparing them to the F-117 Nighthawk.


title: J-XX

text: The article in "Military Technology" featured a picture of a completely different design, speculatively called J-14 and said to be a Shenyang project, with the designations J-12 and J-13 being applied to competing designs by Shenyang and Chengdu respectively. Since 2009, comments on the Chinese internet have indicated to a merging of the two efforts, to be named J-14. Chengdu was rumored to be responsible for the airframe, while Shenyang would be responsible for the engines and avionics.


title: J-XX

text: In November 2009, General He Weirong, the Deputy Commander of the People's Liberation Army Air Force confirmed research and development of the 5th generation stealth fighter, and gave a possible in-service date of 2017 to 2019.


title: J-XX

text: A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency official commenting on General He's statements indicated the DIA believes a first flight of the J-XX "will occur in the next few years". The U.S. Department of Defense expects China to have a handful of 5th generation fighters in service between 2020 and 2025, according to statements made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates in July 2009. However, a year later, in May 2010, United States intelligence stated that Chinese 5th generation fighter jets will be expected around 2018. In 2011, Gates changed his position to state that China may have 50 stealth fighters by 2020 and a couple of hundred by 2025.


title: J-XX

text: The general design concept of the J-XX is that of a fifth-generation fighter which incorporates stealth, supercruise, super-maneuverability and short take-off capabilities, abbreviated "4S". One or more of the proposed designs are believed to incorporate several design features for increasing stealth and maneuverability while decreasing weight and drag.


title: J-XX

text: A V-shaped pelikan tail could be implemented, replacing conventional vertical tail fins and horizontal stabiliser structures. This would be beneficial for reduction of radar signature, weight and aerodynamic drag, since control surface area and corresponding control mechanisms are reduced. Problems faced by this type of design are flight control system complexity and control surface loading. If the pelikan tail is adopted, use of engines with thrust vector control may alleviate these problems.


title: J-XX

text: The new fighter may have a significantly longer fuselage than other fifth generation fighter designs, such as the F-22, for reduction of transonic and supersonic drag. A trapezoidal wing may be implemented for reduction of drag and radar signature. Use of an 's'-shaped air inlet and boundary layer separation system would greatly reduce radar signature.


title: J-XX

text: A fifth generation fighter remains an ambitious goal for the PRC, because they are behind in the needed technologies such as aerospace-grade carbon fiber, advanced fighter engines, and AESA radar.


title: J-XX

text: The Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter conducted its first flight on January 11, 2011 and entered service in 2017.


title: J-XX

text: Shenyang Aircraft Corporation had a proposed J-XX aircraft that was larger than the J-20. In 2008, the PLAAF endorsed Chengdu Aerospace Corporation's proposal, Project 718 (J-20); Shenyang lost its bid, then chose to develop an export oriented fighter called FC-31. The Shenyang FC-31 Stealth fighter conducted its first flight in October 31, 2012.


title: J-XX

text: The JH-XX is a supersonic, stealth, tactical bomber/fighter-bomber aircraft under development. JH-XX is the second stealth bomber of China confirmed in existence by the U.S. intelligence community, and the Pentagon speculates the fighter-bomber is capable of long range strike and nuclear weapons delivery.


title: Conceptual model

text: A conceptual model is a representation of a system. It consists of concepts used to help people know, understand, or simulate a subject the model represents. In contrast, physical models are physical object such as a toy model that may be assembled and made to work like the object it represents.


title: Conceptual model

text: The term may refer to models that are formed after a conceptualization or generalization process. Conceptual models are often abstractions of things in the real world, whether physical or social. Semantic studies are relevant to various stages of concept formation. Semantics is basically about concepts, the meaning that thinking beings give to various elements of their experience.


title: Conceptual model

text: The term "conceptual model" is normal. It could mean "a model of concept" or it could mean "a model that is conceptual." A distinction can be made between "what models are" and "what models are made of". With the exception of iconic models, such as a scale model of Winchester Cathedral, most models are concepts. But they are, mostly, intended to be models of real world states of affairs. The value of a model is usually directly proportional to how well it corresponds to a past, present, future, actual or potential state of affairs. A model of a concept is quite different because in order to be a good model it need not have this real world correspondence. In artificial intelligence, conceptual models and conceptual graphs are used for building expert systems and knowledge-based systems; here the analysts are concerned to represent expert opinion on what is true not their own ideas on what is true.


title: Conceptual model

text: Conceptual models (models that are conceptual) range in type from the more concrete, such as the mental image of a familiar physical object, to the formal generality and abstractness of mathematical models which do not appear to the mind as an image. Conceptual models also range in terms of the scope of the subject matter that they are taken to represent. A model may, for instance, represent a single thing (e.g. the "Statue of Liberty"), whole classes of things (e.g. "the electron"), and even very vast domains of subject matter such as "the physical universe." The variety and scope of conceptual models is due to the variety of purposes had by the people using them.


title: Conceptual model

text: Conceptual modeling is the activity of formally describing some aspects of the physical and social world around us for the purposes of understanding and communication."


title: Conceptual model

text: A conceptual model's primary objective is to convey the fundamental principles and basic functionality of the system which it represents. Also, a conceptual model must be developed in such a way as to provide an easily understood system interpretation for the model's users. A conceptual model, when implemented properly, should satisfy four fundamental objectives.


title: Conceptual model

text: The conceptual model plays an important role in the overall system development life cycle. Figure 1 below, depicts the role of the conceptual model in a typical system development scheme. It is clear that if the conceptual model is not fully developed, the execution of fundamental system properties may not be implemented properly, giving way to future problems or system shortfalls. These failures do occur in the industry and have been linked to; lack of user input, incomplete or unclear requirements, and changing requirements. Those weak links in the system design and development process can be traced to improper execution of the fundamental objectives of conceptual modeling. The importance of conceptual modeling is evident when such systemic failures are mitigated by thorough system development and adherence to proven development objectives/techniques.


title: Conceptual model

text: As systems have become increasingly complex, the role of conceptual modelling has dramatically expanded. With that expanded presence, the effectiveness of conceptual modeling at capturing the fundamentals of a system is being realized. Building on that realization, numerous conceptual modeling techniques have been created. These techniques can be applied across multiple disciplines to increase the user's understanding of the system to be modeled. A few techniques are briefly described in the following text, however, many more exist or are being developed. Some commonly used conceptual modeling techniques and methods include: workflow modeling, workforce modeling, rapid application development, object-role modeling, and the Unified Modeling Language (UML).


title: Conceptual model

text: Data flow modeling (DFM) is a basic conceptual modeling technique that graphically represents elements of a system. DFM is a fairly simple technique, however, like many conceptual modeling techniques, it is possible to construct higher and lower level representative diagrams. The data flow diagram usually does not convey complex system details such as parallel development considerations or timing information, but rather works to bring the major system functions into context. Data flow modeling is a central technique used in systems development that utilizes the structured systems analysis and design method (SSADM).


title: Conceptual model

text: Entity–relationship modeling (ERM) is a conceptual modeling technique used primarily for software system representation. Entity-relationship diagrams, which are a product of executing the ERM technique, are normally used to represent database models and information systems. The main components of the diagram are the entities and relationships. The entities can represent independent functions, objects, or events. The relationships are responsible for relating the entities to one another. To form a system process, the relationships are combined with the entities and any attributes needed to further describe the process. Multiple diagramming conventions exist for this technique; IDEF1X, Bachman, and EXPRESS, to name a few. These conventions are just different ways of viewing and organizing the data to represent different system aspects.


title: Conceptual model

text: The event-driven process chain (EPC) is a conceptual modeling technique which is mainly used to systematically improve business process flows. Like most conceptual modeling techniques, the event driven process chain consists of entities/elements and functions that allow relationships to be developed and processed. More specifically, the EPC is made up of events which define what state a process is in or the rules by which it operates. In order to progress through events, a function/ active event must be executed. Depending on the process flow, the function has the ability to transform event states or link to other event driven process chains. Other elements exist within an EPC, all of which work together to define how and by what rules the system operates. The EPC technique can be applied to business practices such as resource planning, process improvement, and logistics.


title: Conceptual model

text: The dynamic systems development method uses a specific process called JEFFF to conceptually model a systems life cycle. JEFFF is intended to focus more on the higher level development planning that precedes a project's initialization. The JAD process calls for a series of workshops in which the participants work to identify, define, and generally map a successful project from conception to completion. This method has been found to not work well for large scale applications, however smaller applications usually report some net gain in efficiency.


title: Conceptual model

text: Also known as Petri nets, this conceptual modeling technique allows a system to be constructed with elements that can be described by direct mathematical means. The petri net, because of its nondeterministic execution properties and well defined mathematical theory, is a useful technique for modeling concurrent system behavior, i.e. simultaneous process executions.


title: Conceptual model

text: State transition modeling makes use of state transition diagrams to describe system behavior. These state transition diagrams use distinct states to define system behavior and changes. Most current modeling tools contain some kind of ability to represent state transition modeling. The use of state transition models can be most easily recognized as logic state diagrams and directed graphs for finite-state machines.


title: Conceptual model

text: Because the conceptual modeling method can sometimes be purposefully vague to account for a broad area of use, the actual application of concept modeling can become difficult. To alleviate this issue, and shed some light on what to consider when selecting an appropriate conceptual modeling technique, the framework proposed by Gemino and Wand will be discussed in the following text. However, before evaluating the effectiveness of a conceptual modeling technique for a particular application, an important concept must be understood; Comparing conceptual models by way of specifically focusing on their graphical or top level representations is shortsighted. Gemino and Wand make a good point when arguing that the emphasis should be placed on a conceptual modeling language when choosing an appropriate technique. In general, a conceptual model is developed using some form of conceptual modeling technique. That technique will utilize a conceptual modeling language that determines the rules for how the model is arrived at. Understanding the capabilities of the specific language used is inherent to properly evaluating a conceptual modeling technique, as the language reflects the techniques descriptive ability. Also, the conceptual modeling language will directly influence the depth at which the system is capable of being represented, whether it be complex or simple.


title: Conceptual model

text: Building on some of their earlier work, Gemino and Wand acknowledge some main points to consider when studying the affecting factors: the content that the conceptual model must represent, the method in which the model will be presented, the characteristics of the model's users, and the conceptual model languages specific task. The conceptual model's content should be considered in order to select a technique that would allow relevant information to be presented. The presentation method for selection purposes would focus on the technique's ability to represent the model at the intended level of depth and detail. The characteristics of the model's users or participants is an important aspect to consider. A participant's background and experience should coincide with the conceptual model's complexity, else misrepresentation of the system or misunderstanding of key system concepts could lead to problems in that system's realization. The conceptual model language task will further allow an appropriate technique to be chosen. The difference between creating a system conceptual model to convey system functionality and creating a system conceptual model to interpret that functionality could involve two completely different types of conceptual modeling languages.


title: Conceptual model

text: Gemino and Wand go on to expand the affected variable content of their proposed framework by considering the focus of observation and the criterion for comparison. The focus of observation considers whether the conceptual modeling technique will create a "new product", or whether the technique will only bring about a more intimate understanding of the system being modeled. The criterion for comparison would weigh the ability of the conceptual modeling technique to be efficient or effective. A conceptual modeling technique that allows for development of a system model which takes all system variables into account at a high level may make the process of understanding the system functionality more efficient, but the technique lacks the necessary information to explain the internal processes, rendering the model less effective.


title: Conceptual model

text: When deciding which conceptual technique to use, the recommendations of Gemino and Wand can be applied in order to properly evaluate the scope of the conceptual model in question. Understanding the conceptual models scope will lead to a more informed selection of a technique that properly addresses that particular model. In summary, when deciding between modeling techniques, answering the following questions would allow one to address some important conceptual modeling considerations.


title: Conceptual model

text: Another function of the simulation conceptual model is to provide a rational and factual basis for assessment of simulation application appropriateness.


title: Conceptual model

text: A model is a simplifying image of reality. The image can be either a sensorily, above all optically observable artefact or given purely theoretically. According to Herbert Stachowiak, a model is characterized by at least three properties:


title: Conceptual model

text: For example, a street map is a model of the actual streets in a city (mapping), showing the course of the streets while leaving out, say, traffic signs and road markings (reduction), made for pedestrians and vehicle drivers for the purpose of finding one's way in the city (pragmatism).


title: Conceptual model

text: Additional properties have been proposed, like "extension" and "distortion" as well as "validity". The American philosopher Michael Weisberg differentiates between concrete and mathematical models and proposes computer simulations (computational models) as their own class of models.


title: Conceptual model

text: In cognitive psychology and philosophy of mind, a mental model is a representation of something in the mind, but a mental model may also refer to a nonphysical external model of the mind itself.


title: Conceptual model

text: A metaphysical model is a type of conceptual model which is distinguished from other conceptual models by its proposed scope; a metaphysical model intends to represent reality in the broadest possible way. This is to say that it explains the answers to fundamental questions such as whether matter and mind are one or two substances; or whether or not humans have free will.


title: Conceptual model

text: Conceptual Models and semantic models have many similarities, however the way they are presented, the level of flexibility and the use are different.


title: Conceptual model

text: Conceptual models have a certain purpose in mind, hence the core semantic concepts are predefined in a so-called meta model. This enables a pragmatic modelling but reduces the flexibility, as only the predefined semantic concepts can be used. Samples are flow charts for process behaviour or organisational structure for tree behaviour.


title: Conceptual model

text: Semantic models are more flexible and open, and therefore more difficult to model. Potentially any semantic concept can be defined, hence the modelling support is very generic. Samples are terminologies, taxonomies or ontologies.


title: Conceptual model

text: In a concept model each concept has a unique and distinguishable graphical representation, whereas semantic concepts are by default the same.


title: Conceptual model

text: In a concept model each concept has predefined properties that can be populated, whereas semantic concepts are related to concepts that are interpreted as properties.


title: Conceptual model

text: In a concept model operational semantic can be built-in, like the processing of a sequence, whereas a semantic model needs explicit semantic definition of the sequence.


title: Conceptual model

text: The decision if a concept model or a semantic model is used, depends therefore on the "object under survey", the intended goal, the necessary flexibility as well as how the model is interpreted. In case of human-interpretation there may be a focus on graphical concept models, in case of machine interpretation there may be the focus on semantic models.


title: Conceptual model

text: An epistemological model is a type of conceptual model whose proposed scope is the known and the knowable, and the believed and the believable.


title: Conceptual model

text: In logic, a model is a type of interpretation under which a particular statement is true. Logical models can be broadly divided into ones which only attempt to represent concepts, such as mathematical models; and ones which attempt to represent physical objects, and factual relationships, among which are scientific models.


title: Conceptual model

text: Model theory is the study of (classes of) mathematical structures such as groups, fields, graphs, or even universes of set theory, using tools from mathematical logic. A system that gives meaning to the sentences of a formal language is called a model for the language. If a model for a language moreover satisfies a particular sentence or theory (set of sentences), it is called a model of the sentence or theory. Model theory has close ties to algebra and universal algebra.


title: Conceptual model

text: Mathematical models can take many forms, including but not limited to dynamical systems, statistical models, differential equations, or game theoretic models. These and other types of models can overlap, with a given model involving a variety of abstract structures.


title: Conceptual model

text: A more comprehensive type of mathematical model uses a linguistic version of category theory to model a given situation. Akin to entity-relationship models, custom categories or sketches can be directly translated into database schemas. The difference is that logic is replaced by category theory, which brings powerful theorems to bear on the subject of modeling, especially useful for translating between disparate models (as functors between categories).


title: Conceptual model

text: A scientific model is a simplified abstract view of a complex reality. A scientific model represents empirical objects, phenomena, and physical processes in a logical way. Attempts to formalize the principles of the empirical sciences use an interpretation to model reality, in the same way logicians axiomatize the principles of logic. The aim of these attempts is to construct a formal system that will not produce theoretical consequences that are contrary to what is found in reality. Predictions or other statements drawn from such a formal system mirror or map the real world only insofar as these scientific models are true.


title: Conceptual model

text: A statistical model is a probability distribution function proposed as generating data. In a parametric model, the probability distribution function has variable parameters, such as the mean and variance in a normal distribution, or the coefficients for the various exponents of the independent variable in linear regression. A nonparametric model has a distribution function without parameters, such as in bootstrapping, and is only loosely confined by assumptions. Model selection is a statistical method for selecting a distribution function within a class of them; e.g., in linear regression where the dependent variable is a polynomial of the independent variable with parametric coefficients, model selection is selecting the highest exponent, and may be done with nonparametric means, such as with cross validation.


title: Conceptual model

text: In statistics there can be models of mental events as well as models of physical events. For example, a statistical model of customer behavior is a model that is conceptual (because behavior is physical), but a statistical model of customer satisfaction is a model of a concept (because satisfaction is a mental not a physical event).


title: Conceptual model

text: In economics, a model is a theoretical construct that represents economic processes by a set of variables and a set of logical and/or quantitative relationships between them. The economic model is a simplified framework designed to illustrate complex processes, often but not always using mathematical techniques. Frequently, economic models use structural parameters. Structural parameters are underlying parameters in a model or class of models. A model may have various parameters and those parameters may change to create various properties.


title: Conceptual model

text: A system model is the conceptual model that describes and represents the structure, behavior, and more views of a system. A system model can represent multiple views of a system by using two different approaches. The first one is the non-architectural approach and the second one is the architectural approach. The non-architectural approach respectively picks a model for each view. The architectural approach, also known as system architecture, instead of picking many heterogeneous and unrelated models, will use only one integrated architectural model.


title: Conceptual model

text: In business process modelling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the "business process model". Process models are core concepts in the discipline of process engineering. Process models are:


title: Conceptual model

text: The same process model is used repeatedly for the development of many applications and thus, has many instantiations.


title: Conceptual model

text: One possible use of a process model is to prescribe how things must/should/could be done in contrast to the process itself which is really what happens. A process model is roughly an anticipation of what the process will look like. What the process shall be will be determined during actual system development.


title: Conceptual model

text: Conceptual models of human activity systems are used in soft systems methodology (SSM), which is a method of systems analysis concerned with the structuring of problems in management. These models are models of concepts; the authors specifically state that they are not intended to represent a state of affairs in the physical world. They are also used in information requirements analysis (IRA) which is a variant of SSM developed for information system design and software engineering.


title: Conceptual model

text: Logico-linguistic modeling is another variant of SSM that uses conceptual models. However, this method combines models of concepts with models of putative real world objects and events. It is a graphical representation of modal logic in which modal operators are used to distinguish statement about concepts from statements about real world objects and events.


title: Conceptual model

text: In software engineering, an entity–relationship model (ERM) is an abstract and conceptual representation of data. Entity–relationship modeling is a database modeling method, used to produce a type of conceptual schema or semantic data model of a system, often a relational database, and its requirements in a top-down fashion. Diagrams created by this process are called entity-relationship diagrams, ER diagrams, or ERDs.


title: Conceptual model

text: Entity–relationship models have had wide application in the building of information systems intended to support activities involving objects and events in the real world. In these cases they are models that are conceptual. However, this modeling method can be used to build computer games or a family tree of the Greek Gods, in these cases it would be used to model concepts.


title: Conceptual model

text: A domain model is a type of conceptual model used to depict the structural elements and their conceptual constraints within a domain of interest (sometimes called the "problem domain"). A domain model includes the various entities, their attributes and relationships, plus the constraints governing the conceptual integrity of the structural model elements comprising that problem domain. A domain model may also include a number of conceptual views, where each view is pertinent to a particular subject area of the domain or to a particular subset of the domain model which is of interest to a stakeholder of the domain model.


title: Conceptual model

text: Like entity–relationship models, domain models can be used to model concepts or to model real world objects and events.


title: Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display

text: A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD) is a variant of a liquid-crystal display that uses thin-film-transistor technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in contrast to passive matrix LCDs or simple, direct-driven (i.e. with segments directly connected to electronics outside the LCD) LCDs with a few segments.


text: TFT LCDs are used in appliances including television sets, computer monitors, mobile phones, handheld devices, video game systems, personal digital assistants, navigation systems, projectors, and dashboards in automobiles.


text: In February 1957, John Wallmark of RCA filed a patent for a thin film MOSFET. Paul K. Weimer, also of RCA implemented Wallmark's ideas and developed the thin-film transistor (TFT) in 1962, a type of MOSFET distinct from the standard bulk MOSFET. It was made with thin films of cadmium selenide and cadmium sulfide. The idea of a TFT-based liquid-crystal display (LCD) was conceived by Bernard Lechner of RCA Laboratories in 1968. In 1971, Lechner, F. J. Marlowe, E. O. Nester and J. Tults demonstrated a 2-by-18 matrix display driven by a hybrid circuit using the dynamic scattering mode of LCDs. In 1973, T. Peter Brody, J. A. Asars and G. D. Dixon at Westinghouse Research Laboratories developed a CdSe (cadmium selenide) TFT, which they used to demonstrate the first CdSe thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD). Brody and Fang-Chen Luo demonstrated the first flat active-matrix liquid-crystal display (AM LCD) using CdSe TFTs in 1974, and then Brody coined the term "active matrix" in 1975. , all modern high-resolution and high-quality electronic visual display devices use TFT-based active matrix displays.


text: The liquid crystal displays used in calculators and other devices with similarly simple displays have direct-driven image elements, and therefore a voltage can be easily applied across just one segment of these types of displays without interfering with the other segments. This would be impractical for a large display, because it would have a large number of (color) picture elements (pixels), and thus it would require millions of connections, both top and bottom for each one of the three colors (red, green and blue) of every pixel. To avoid this issue, the pixels are addressed in rows and columns, reducing the connection count from millions down to thousands. The column and row wires attach to transistor switches, one for each pixel. The one-way current passing characteristic of the transistor prevents the charge that is being applied to each pixel from being drained between refreshes to a display's image. Each pixel is a small capacitor with a layer of insulating liquid crystal sandwiched between transparent conductive ITO layers.


text: The circuit layout process of a TFT-LCD is very similar to that of semiconductor products. However, rather than fabricating the transistors from silicon, that is formed into a crystalline silicon wafer, they are made from a thin film of amorphous silicon that is deposited on a glass panel. The silicon layer for TFT-LCDs is typically deposited using the PECVD process. Transistors take up only a small fraction of the area of each pixel and the rest of the silicon film is etched away to allow light to easily pass through it.


text: Polycrystalline silicon is sometimes used in displays requiring higher TFT performance. Examples include small high-resolution displays such as those found in projectors or viewfinders. Amorphous silicon-based TFTs are by far the most common, due to their lower production cost, whereas polycrystalline silicon TFTs are more costly and much more difficult to produce.


text: The twisted nematic display is one of the oldest and frequently cheapest kind of LCD display technologies available. TN displays benefit from fast pixel response times and less smearing than other LCD display technology, but suffer from poor color reproduction and limited viewing angles, especially in the vertical direction. Colors will shift, potentially to the point of completely inverting, when viewed at an angle that is not perpendicular to the display. Modern, high end consumer products have developed methods to overcome the technology's shortcomings, such as RTC (Response Time Compensation / Overdrive) technologies. Modern TN displays can look significantly better than older TN displays from decades earlier, but overall TN has inferior viewing angles and poor color in comparison to other technology.


text: Most TN panels can represent colors using only six bits per RGB channel, or 18 bit in total, and are unable to display the 16.7 million color shades (24-bit truecolor) that are available using 24-bit color. Instead, these panels display interpolated 24-bit color using a dithering method that combines adjacent pixels to simulate the desired shade. They can also use a form of temporal dithering called Frame Rate Control (FRC), which cycles between different shades with each new frame to simulate an intermediate shade. Such 18 bit panels with dithering are sometimes advertised as having "16.2 million colors". These color simulation methods are noticeable to many people and highly bothersome to some. FRC tends to be most noticeable in darker tones, while dithering appears to make the individual pixels of the LCD visible. Overall, color reproduction and linearity on TN panels is poor. Shortcomings in display color gamut (often referred to as a percentage of the NTSC 1953 color gamut) are also due to backlighting technology. It is not uncommon for older displays to range from 10% to 26% of the NTSC color gamut, whereas other kind of displays, utilizing more complicated CCFL or LED phosphor formulations or RGB LED backlights, may extend past 100% of the NTSC color gamut, a difference quite perceivable by the human eye.


text: The transmittance of a pixel of an LCD panel typically does not change linearly with the applied voltage, and the sRGB standard for computer monitors requires a specific nonlinear dependence of the amount of emitted light as a function of the RGB value.


text: In-plane switching was developed by Hitachi Ltd. in 1996 to improve on the poor viewing angle and the poor color reproduction of TN panels at that time. Its name comes from the main difference from TN panels, that the crystal molecules move parallel to the panel plane instead of perpendicular to it. This change reduces the amount of light scattering in the matrix, which gives IPS its characteristic wide viewing angles and good color reproduction.


text: Initial iterations of IPS technology were characterised by slow response time and a low contrast ratio but later revisions have made marked improvements to these shortcomings. Because of its wide viewing angle and accurate color reproduction (with almost no off-angle color shift), IPS is widely employed in high-end monitors aimed at professional graphic artists, although with the recent fall in price it has been seen in the mainstream market as well. IPS technology was sold to Panasonic by Hitachi.


text: This is an LCD technology derived from the IPS by Boe-Hydis of Korea. Known as fringe field switching (FFS) until 2003, advanced fringe field switching is a technology similar to IPS or S-IPS offering superior performance and color gamut with high luminosity. Color shift and deviation caused by light leakage is corrected by optimizing the white gamut, which also enhances white/grey reproduction. AFFS is developed by Hydis Technologies Co., Ltd, Korea (formally Hyundai Electronics, LCD Task Force).


text: In 2004, Hydis Technologies Co., Ltd licensed its AFFS patent to Japan's Hitachi Displays. Hitachi is using AFFS to manufacture high end panels in their product line. In 2006, Hydis also licensed its AFFS to Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corporation.


text: It achieved pixel response which was fast for its time, wide viewing angles, and high contrast at the cost of brightness and color reproduction. Modern MVA panels can offer wide viewing angles (second only to S-IPS technology), good black depth, good color reproduction and depth, and fast response times due to the use of RTC (Response Time Compensation) technologies. When MVA panels are viewed off-perpendicular, colors will shift, but much less than for TN panels.


text: There are several "next-generation" technologies based on MVA, including AU Optronics' P-MVA and AMVA, as well as Chi Mei Optoelectronics' S-MVA.


text: Less expensive PVA panels often use dithering and FRC, whereas super-PVA (S-PVA) panels all use at least 8 bits per color component and do not use color simulation methods.S-PVA also largely eliminated off-angle glowing of solid blacks and reduced the off-angle gamma shift. Some high-end Sony BRAVIA LCD TVs offer 10-bit and xvYCC color support, for example, the Bravia X4500 series. S-PVA also offers fast response times using modern RTC technologies.


text: Advanced super view, also called "axially symmetric vertical alignment" was developed by Sharp. It is a VA mode where liquid crystal molecules orient perpendicular to the substrates in the off state. The bottom sub-pixel has continuously covered electrodes, while the upper one has a smaller area electrode in the center of the subpixel.


text: When the field is on, the liquid crystal molecules start to tilt towards the center of the sub-pixels because of the electric field; as a result, a continuous pinwheel alignment (CPA) is formed; the azimuthal angle rotates 360 degrees continuously resulting in an excellent viewing angle. The ASV mode is also called CPA mode.


text: A technology developed by Samsung is Super PLS, which bears similarities to IPS panels, has wider viewing angles, better image quality, increased brightness, and lower production costs. PLS technology debuted in the PC display market with the release of the Samsung S27A850 and S24A850 monitors in September 2011.


text: TFT dual-transistor pixel or cell technology is a reflective-display technology for use in very-low-power-consumption applications such as electronic shelf labels (ESL), digital watches, or metering. DTP involves adding a secondary transistor gate in the single TFT cell to maintain the display of a pixel during a period of 1s without loss of image or without degrading the TFT transistors over time. By slowing the refresh rate of the standard frequency from 60 Hz to 1 Hz, DTP claims to increase the power efficiency by multiple orders of magnitude.


text: Due to the very high cost of building TFT factories, there are few major OEM panel vendors for large display panels. The glass panel suppliers are as follows:


text: External consumer display devices like a TFT LCD feature one or more analog VGA, DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort interface, with many featuring a selection of these interfaces. Inside external display devices there is a controller board that will convert the video signal using color mapping and image scaling usually employing the discrete cosine transform (DCT) in order to convert any video source like CVBS, VGA, DVI, HDMI, etc. into digital RGB at the native resolution of the display panel. In a laptop the graphics chip will directly produce a signal suitable for connection to the built-in TFT display. A control mechanism for the backlight is usually included on the same controller board.


text: The low level interface of STN, DSTN, or TFT display panels use either single ended TTL 5 V signal for older displays or TTL 3.3 V for slightly newer displays that transmits the pixel clock, horizontal sync, vertical sync, digital red, digital green, digital blue in parallel. Some models (for example the AT070TN92) also feature input/display enable, horizontal scan direction and vertical scan direction signals.