title: Pamela Mason

text: Later films in which she appeared without James Mason included "The Child" (1954) (a short film directed by James Mason, in which their daughter Portland also appeared), "Sex Kittens Go to College" (1960), "Five Minutes to Live" (1961) and "The Sandpiper" (1965).


title: Pamela Mason

text: In the mid-1950s, the Masons appeared together on a short-lived variety show, "The James Mason Show". Pamela Mason was a contestant on many episodes of the TV quiz show "You Bet Your Life", hosted by Groucho Marx. She changed her name, dialect, and style look every time she appeared on that show, except that her allure always captivated Groucho. In the 1960s, she hosted two talk shows: "The Pamela Mason Show", from 1965 to 1966, and "The Weaker (?) Sex", which featured female guests, from 1968 to 1969.


title: Pamela Mason

text: From the late 1950s through the 1970s, she made occasional appearances as a guest star on various TV series, including "Playhouse 90", "Love, American Style", and "Wonder Woman". Her last acting appearance was in a made-for-television biographical film of Errol Flynn in 1985.


title: Pamela Mason

text: Before her marriage to James Mason and subsequent move to Hollywood, Pamela Mason (as Pamela Kellino) appeared in a number of London stage productions, including several that she co-financed, co-wrote or appeared in with James Mason. In 1947, she made her American stage debut in the title role of the Broadway show "Bathsheba", in which James Mason co-starred as "David"; it closed after only 29 performances.


title: Pamela Mason

text: In addition to her screenwriting work, Mason authored a number of books, both fiction and non-fiction, some of which were published under the name "Pamela Kellino". Her novel "Del Palma" (1948), dismissed by Kirkus Reviews as "trash", became the basis for the film "Lady Possessed", which the Masons co-produced.


title: Pamela Mason

text: Other titles by Mason include the novel "Ignoramus, Ignoramus" (1950) (illustrated by James Mason); "The Cats in Our Lives" (1949), about the cats and other animals owned by the Masons (co-written and illustrated by James Mason); "Marriage Is the First Step Toward Divorce" (1968); and "The Female Pleasure Hunt" (1972).


title: Pamela Mason

text: Mason was the controlling stockholder of Illingworth, Morris, a textile firm previously controlled by her father and uncle. She also ran a mail-order vitamin company and managed property in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Los Angeles.


title: Pamela Mason

text: On 29 June 1996, Mason died of heart failure at her home in Beverly Hills, California. She was survived by her daughter and her son. She is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.


title: Ryan Key

text: William Ryan Key (born December 17, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the pop punk band Yellowcard. He is the owner/operator of a recording studio in Jacksonville, Florida, called The Lone Tree Recordings. He is currently writing music under his full name, William Ryan Key, as a solo acoustic act and electronic act. He is also one half of JEDHA, an electronic duo consisting of himself and lead guitarist of Yellowcard, Ryan Mendez. He has recently toured as guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist for New Found Glory. In late 2018, he played as a supporting act on Mayday Parade's "Sunnyland" tour along with This Wild Life. During 2021, he live-streamed his songwriting process on Twitch full-time.


title: Ryan Key

text: Key was born William Ryan Key on December 17, 1979, in Jacksonville, Florida. He first used a piano at the age of 7 and a guitar at age 13. He attended Episcopal High School of Jacksonville before transferring to Douglas Anderson School of the Arts from which he graduated. Ryan then attended Florida State University together with fellow musician Dan McLintock from the local pop punk band Inspection 12, inviting Ryan to perform guest vocals on their 1999 album "Step into the Fire" for the song "Nothing to Lose". They majored in theater for a short while before dropping out to go to Santa Cruz, California and audition together for the Tooth & Nail punk rock band Craig's Brother, which was looking for two guitarists and backup vocalists. They were successful, but after touring for a while, at one time representing the band as an acoustic duo at the Cornerstone Festival, the band's van broke down and with the tour abruptly cancelled, Ryan moved back to Jacksonville and took a shift at Chili's with bandmate and friend Sean Mackin.


title: Ryan Key

text: Key contributed to Yellowcard, although he was not yet a member at the time due to performing with Craig's Brother, by providing backing vocals for their first album. Key came back and replaced Ben Dobson as Yellowcard's lead singer in 2000 after being asked by guitarist Ben Harper. The band then released the "Still Standing EP" in early 2000. Shortly after the release of their EP, Todd Clary left the band. Key then became rhythm guitarist as well. The band then moved to Camarillo, CA after being signed to Lobster Records. They then began working on their next album.


title: Ryan Key

text: The group released their third album, "One for the Kids", in 2001 and followed up with "The Underdog EP" in 2002. After the release of The Underdog EP, Warren Cooke left the band due to personal reasons. The band later asked close friend Peter Mosely from Inspection 12 to become the band's new bass guitarist. After Yellowcard released The Underdog EP the band signed with Capitol Records, who were looking to sign pop punk bands at the time. Yellowcard then began the recording of their major-label debut album "Ocean Avenue" in late 2002, gaining the band major success. Mosely left during recording of the album due to personal problems. The band then asked Alex Lewis to join as the bass guitarist. Yellowcard released their album "Ocean Avenue" on July 22, 2003, reached No. 23 on U.S. "Billboard" 200, the album was a commercial success in the United States with the hit singles Way Away, Ocean Avenue, and Only One.


title: Ryan Key

text: In late 2004, Lewis left the band after Peter Mosely rejoined as the band's bassist. In 2005, Parsons went with the other band members to Los Angeles while Key and Mosely moved to New York City to create new material for their next album. Lead guitarist Ben Harper left the band in April after finishing guitar tracks for the album. The band then asked Ryan Mendez from the band Staring Back to become the new lead guitarist.


title: Ryan Key

text: The album "Lights and Sounds" was released in January 2006, unlike their last album "Ocean Avenue", Lights and Sounds broke away from the band's pop punk sound to a more alternative rock album. The album peaked at No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The title track, "Lights and Sounds", was the first single, released a week before the album. It peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks. Lights and Sounds did well on the charts and reviews, but failed to match the 2 million sales of the band's previous album.


title: Ryan Key

text: "Paper Walls" was released in the U.S. on July 17, 2007, the album debuted at No. 13 on the U.S. Billboard 200 selling about 40,000 copies in its first week. The band spent the rest of the year promoting their new album nonstop since its release while touring with Linkin Park and Blue October. Yellowcard released their live album "Live from Las Vegas at the Palms" on January 22, 2008.


title: Ryan Key

text: In April 2008, Yellowcard officially announced an "indefinite hiatus" canceling their European and acoustic tours. The band stated the reason why they went on hiatus was to focus on their personal lives for the time.


title: Ryan Key

text: On August 1, 2010, it was confirmed that Yellowcard had ended their hiatus and was working on a new record, titled "When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes" to be released on Hopeless Records in early 2011. The band toured Europe in March 2011 alongside All Time Low.


title: Ryan Key

text: Yellowcard released three more albums, "Southern Air" (2012), "Lift a Sail" (2014) and the eponymous "Yellowcard" (2016), before officially disbanding in 2017.


title: Ryan Key

text: Yellowcard announced their return, with the same line up that they had during their breakup, on May 11, 2022 with their first show back being planned for Saturday, September 17 at Riot Fest 2022.


title: Ryan Key

text: During the Yellowcard hiatus that began in 2008, Ryan also started singing in a side project entitled "Big If" with singer Sean O'Donnell of Reeve Oliver in February 2009. Big If has released several songs on their MySpace page, but have not yet released a record. They are not currently signed to a record deal. Although they have never officially announced their break-up, all members of the band are now in Yellowcard and the band's Twitter and MySpace pages have been removed.


title: Ryan Key

text: Ryan Key recorded a song entitled "Stop Right There" with Hollywood-based pop-punk band Assemble the Skyline. The track was released on January 7, 2011, with Assemble the Skyline's new EP "Right Here. Right Now". Ryan also collaborated with the Michigan pop-punk band Every Avenue. He has co-written their songs "Girl Like That" from their album "Picture Perfect," and "Tie Me Down" from their album "Bad Habits".


title: Ryan Key

text: He also worked with Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, contributing vocals on his song "Gotta Get it Now".


title: Ryan Key

text: Key also contributed guest vocals on a new Silverstein song, entitled "Stay Posi", released in early 2011.


title: Ryan Key

text: Key and fellow Yellowcard member, Ryan Mendez, spent May 2012 producing and recording the Like Torches album "Keep Your Head High".


title: Ryan Key

text: In January and February 2015, Key stayed in Stockholm, Sweden where he produced a new album for Like Torches.


title: Ryan Key

text: In August 2015, Key started a Kickstarter campaign for his new project The Lone Tree Recordings. The goal was to reach $75,000 by September 20 so that Key could start his record label, and he ultimately raised $106,372 to make that happen. One of the first bands to record was his side music projects Will & The Whiskeymen. He stated on the Kickstater page that the band's EP would be a Kickstarter-backer exclusive.


title: Ryan Key

text: In September 2017, it was announced that Key would perform with Linkin Park in the Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington, to celebrate late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington. He was featured in the songs "Shadow of the Day" and the U2 song "With or Without You".


title: Ryan Key

text: In October 2017, Key announced that he would produce a new Like Torches record in his newly built Lone Tree Recordings Studio.


title: Ryan Key

text: On January 16, 2018, it was announced that he will be touring with New Found Glory on their "SICK TOUR" beginning in May 2018, as their second guitarist, keyboardist and "whatever other tricks songs call for", according to the band.


title: Ryan Key

text: In December 2020, Key announced that he was working on an album of reimagined Yellowcard songs in his new musical style. The first of these songs released exclusively for his Patreon subscribers was "Ocean Avenue." He later revealed that he was working with Post-Rock Band Hammock on remixed versions of his reimagined tracks. He has since allowed his Twitch viewers to vote on which songs he works on for the project live on stream.


title: Ryan Key

text: On May 31, 2021, Key announced, alongside Mendez, their new electronic project named JEDHA"," with new music slated to release that same year. On June 7, 2021, the duo released the first song from the project, titled "Dividing Pair""."


title: Ryan Key

text: On December 15, 2021, Key signed to record labels Equal Vision and Rude and announced his new EP, "Everything Except Desire", which was released on February 11, 2022.


title: Ryan Key

text: In 2008, Key worked with Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy in a film called "Moustachette". He has appeared as a Made coach on the MTV series "MADE" and featured in "MTV Cribs". He also had an appearance as a partygoer in the 2008 film "Cloverfield", and appeared in the film "How to Make Love to a Woman" while recording the song "Light Up The Sky" from Yellowcard's "Paper Walls" album in 2010.


title: Ryan Key

text: In 2012, Key became engaged to Alyona Alekhina. They married in 2013 in a hospital intensive care unit after Alekhina injured her spinal cord. The couple later separated.


title: Ryan Key

text: On May 14, 2022, Key announced to his Discord community that he became engaged to Laura Gillway while on a trip to Walt Disney World.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: Soumya Swaminathan (born 2 May 1959) is an Indian paediatrician and clinical scientist known for her research on tuberculosis and HIV. From 2019 to 2022, she served as the chief scientist at the World Health Organization under the leadership of Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Previously, from October 2017 to March 2019, she was the Deputy Director General of Programmes (DDP) at the World Health Organization.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan was born in Chennai, India. Swaminathan is the daughter of "Father of Green Revolution of India", M. S. Swaminathan and Indian educationalist Mina Swaminathan. Swaminathan has two siblings, Madhura Swaminathan, a professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore, and Nithya Swaminathan, a senior lecturer in gender analysis in international development at the University of East Anglia.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan received an M.B.B.S. from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune. She has an M.D. in pediatrics from All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. She is a Diplomate of National Board from National Board of Examinations. As part of her training, from 1987 to 1989 Swaminathan completed a post-doctoral medical fellowship in neonatology and pediatric pulmonology at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: From 1989 to 1990, Swaminathan was a research fellow (registrar) in the Department of Pediatric Respiratory Diseases at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: She then worked as a senior research officer (Supernumerary Research Cadre), Cardiopulmonary Medicine Unit, as well as an adjunct associate clinical professor at the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in New Jersey.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: In 1992, Swaminathan joined the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis a/k/a Tuberculosis Research Centre, where she was Coordinator, Neglected Tropical Diseases. She later became the director of the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: From 2009 to 2011, Swaminathan was coordinator of the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases in Geneva.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: From August 2015 to November 2017, Swaminathan was director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and secretary of the Department of Health Research (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) for the Government of India.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: From October 2017 to March 2019, Swaminathan was Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: In March 2019, Swaminathan became chief scientist of the World Health Organization, where she notably participated in regular twice weekly press briefings on the COVID-19 pandemic. She has urged countries to conduct whole genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus more frequently and to upload sequences to the GISAID project.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: In the preparations for the Global Health Summit hosted by the European Commission and the G20 in May 2021, Swaminathan was a member of the event's High Level Scientific Panel.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan's areas of interest are pediatric and adult tuberculosis (TB), epidemiology and pathogenesis, and the role of nutrition in HIV-associated TB.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: While at the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis in Chennai, Swaminathan started a multi-disciplinary group of clinical, laboratory and behavioural scientists studying various aspects of TB and TB/HIV. Swaminathan along with her colleagues were among the first to scale up the use of molecular diagnostics for TB surveillance and care, to undertake large field trials of community-randomised strategies to deliver TB treatment to underserved populations. She was part of the TB Zero City Project which aimed to create "Islands of elimination" working with local governments, institutions and grassroots associations.


title: Soumya Swaminathan

text: In 2021, Swanminathan was also appointed to the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership (PPP), an expert group chaired by Patrick Vallance to advise the G7 presidency held by the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.


title: Antigonid dynasty

text: The Antigonid dynasty (; ) was a Hellenistic dynasty of Dorian Greek provenance, descended from Alexander the Great's general Antigonus I Monophthalmus ("the One-Eyed") that ruled mainly in Macedonia.


title: Antigonid dynasty

text: Succeeding the Antipatrid dynasty in much of Macedonia, Antigonus ruled mostly over Asia Minor and northern Syria. His attempts to take control of the whole of Alexander's empire led to his defeat and death at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. Antigonus's son Demetrius I Poliorcetes survived the battle, and managed to seize control of Macedon itself a few years later, but eventually lost his throne, dying as a prisoner of Seleucus I Nicator. After a period of confusion, Demetrius's son Antigonus II Gonatas was able to establish the family's control over the old Kingdom of Macedon, as well as over most of the Greek city-states, by 276 BC.


title: Antigonid dynasty

text: It was one of four dynasties established by Alexander's successors, the others being the Seleucid dynasty, Ptolemaic dynasty and Attalid dynasty. The last scion of the dynasty, Perseus of Macedon, who reigned between 179 and 168 BC, proved unable to stop the advancing Roman legions and Macedon's defeat at the Battle of Pydna signaled the end of the dynasty.


title: Antigonid dynasty

text: The Greek rebel against Rome and last King of Macedonia, Andriscus, claimed to be the son of Perseus.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: Charlestown is the capital of the island of Nevis, in the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Leeward Islands, West Indies. Charlestown is situated on the leeward side of the island of Nevis, near the southern end of Pinneys Beach.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: Charlestown Harbor was originally called Bath Bay, in reference to Bath Stream. This stream was noted for its curative waters.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: It became the chief town after Jamestown, Nevis’s first settlement, was inundated by a tidal wave in 1680. In the late 18th century Charlestown was both a naval base and a resort known for mineral waters. The town was almost destroyed by fire in 1873. The main industry is sugar milling. Notable buildings include Hamilton House, where Alexander Hamilton, a framer of the U.S. Constitution, was born, and the nearby ruins of Montpelier Estate, where the British naval hero Horatio Nelson was married. Pop. (2006 est.) 1,500.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: Historically, in colonial times, the town of Charlestown was protected by Fort Charles to the south and Fort Black Rocks to the north. Many of the oldest two-story stone buildings were severely damaged over time by earthquakes, which tended to cause the upper story to collapse into the lower story. This unfortunate design flaw led to the common practice of building a wooden upper floor above a stone ground floor.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: Charlestown was the birthplace and childhood home of Alexander Hamilton. The restored stone building which was his place of birth now houses the Museum of Nevis History on the ground floor, and the Nevis Island Administration Assembly Room on the upper floor. There are two other museums in Charlestown: the "Nelson Museum", and the "Nevis Sport Museum", as well as the Philatelic Bureau.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: There are many other important buildings in the town, some historical and some recent, such as the Post Office, the old Treasury Building which is now the Nevis Tourism Authority, the Court House and Public Library, the new Police Station and the Alexandra Hospital. At the northern end of town is the Bath Hotel and Spring House, which was a famous tourist hotel and spa during the 18th century. The main building of the Bath Hotel was for a while occupied by government offices.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: Charlestown has a population of 1,500. It is the main administrative and commercial center for the island of Nevis, and is also the most concentrated residential area on the island. It is the hub for much of the transportation in Nevis. There is a modern port area with a dock where the ferries from St. Kitts load and unload passengers. However, Charlestown lacks a commercial airport.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: Memorial Square commemorates all the Nevisian soldiers who died during World Wars I and II. Nearby is the "Cotton Ginnery Mall" which supplies some of Nevis' residents' recreational shopping needs.


title: Charlestown, Nevis

text: The education system on Nevis is similar to the British system. There are five pre-schools and seven primary schools (grades K–6). Primary schools are government-provided. In addition there are three private primary schools. After primary school, children attend one of three secondary schools. Please also see the article: List of schools in Saint Kitts and Nevis.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: Life Is Good is the eleventh studio album by American rapper Nas, released on July 13, 2012, by Def Jam Recordings. The album was recorded at various studios in New York and California, with guest appearances from rappers Large Professor and Rick Ross, and singers Mary J. Blige, Miguel, and, posthumously, Amy Winehouse, among others.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: Producers No I.D. and Salaam Remi incorporated orchestral elements and musical references to both contemporary and golden age hip hop, including boom bap beats and old school samples. Nas wanted to draw on 1980s hip hop influences in order to complement the nostalgic tone of his lyrics, which he used to vent personal feelings and address moments in his life and rapping career, lending it themes of nostalgia and adulthood. "Life Is Good" was written after his divorce from singer Kelis, whose original green wedding dress was featured in the cover photo, and Nas has compared the album to Marvin Gaye's 1978 divorce-inspired album "Here, My Dear".


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: "Life Is Good" received widespread critical acclaim and debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200, reaching 354,000 copies sold by 2013. It also reached the top 10 of record charts in Canada, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Three singles were released in its promotion – "Nasty", "The Don", and "Daughters" – along with five music videos, while Nas toured in further support of the album from June to December 2012. In 2020, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded "Life Is Good" a Gold certification.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: In 2010, Nas released his studio album "Distant Relatives", a collaboration with Damian Marley that reinvigorated the rapper creatively. He soon became distracted by tax problems and an expensive, highly publicized divorce from his wife Kelis months before their son's birth, events that influenced his direction for "Life Is Good". His songwriting on the album was also influenced by adjusting back to life as a single man. Nas also wanted to write more original subject matter rather than another album "about how you came up in the hood and how you had to make it out of the hood". Although he did not find his album "quite so much about the marriage or the divorce", Nas likened "Life Is Good" to Marvin Gaye's 1978 album "Here, My Dear", which was written by Gaye in response to his own deteriorating marriage and released as a financial settlement. For "Life Is Good"s album cover, a photo was taken of Nas in a polished white suit, sitting in a night club's VIP lounge, appearing forlorn, and holding over his knee Kelis' actual green wedding dress, which he said was the only item she left him.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: When writing the album, Nas also reflected on aging and maturation, fatherhood, and his 20-year experience in hip hop music. Nas discussed the album's personal subject matter in an interview for "Billboard":


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: Recording sessions for the album took place at the following recording studios—4220 Studios, Conway Recording Studios, and EastWest Studios in Hollywood, Instrument Zoo Studios in Miami, Jungle City Studios and Oven Studios in New York City, Record One in Sherman Oaks, and Westlake Studios in Los Angeles. Nas worked with several musicians, including Amy Winehouse, Mary J. Blige, James Poyser, Anthony Hamilton, Miguel, Large Professor, and Hal Ritson, among others. For the album, Nas wanted the production to complement his lyrics' nostalgic themes with 1980s hip hop influences. He primarily worked with hip hop producers No I.D. and Salaam Remi, a frequent collaborator of Nas. Remi said that he wanted his production "to be something that a mumble-mouth rapper can't rap on. You better have something to say and be speaking up." Along with producer Swizz Beatz, No I.D. and Nas related to the latter's lyrics concerning divorce during the recording sessions.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: During the sessions, Nas recorded the song "No Such Thing as White Jesus" with singer Frank Ocean and producer Hit-Boy, who misplaced the track while sorting through music he had produced for Jay-Z and Kanye West's album "Watch the Throne" (2011). Although he later recovered it, the song was not included on "Life Is Good".


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: The album incorporates musical references to both older and contemporary hip hop. Its production features live instrumentation, orchestral music, R&B, and boom bap elements. Music journalist Evan Rytlewski denotes "boom-bap drums, lush keyboards, smooth saxophones, and the occasional Run-D.M.C. and MC Shan sample" to be "tasteful accents" from golden age hip hop. Ryan Hamm of "Under the Radar" views that Remi and No I.D.'s production "lean[s] toward opulent and epic", while "Pitchfork"s Jayson Greene writes that the latter's produced songs "exude the warm TV-fireplace crackle of ... throwback production." Anupa Mistry of "Now" writes that "boom bap classicists Salaam Remi and No I.D. weave a raw, funky, orchestral lattice customized for Nas's age-appropriate raps".


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: "Life Is Good" features nostalgic and adult themes, including aging and maturity. Nas' rapping is characterized by internal rhymes, a relaxed, plainspoken flow, and transparent lyrics addressing moments in his life, including his youth and the personal events leading up to the album. Erika Ramirez of "Billboard" observes "stories of internal and external battles, some of which he won and some he lost." David Dennis of "The Village Voice" writes that his lyrics address hip hop's "golden era" and "the trials and tribulations of adult relationships". Brandon Soderberg from "Spin" asserts that his lyrics "constantly remind nostalgics that the good ol' days were often chaotic and desperate".


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: Nas' comparison of this album to Gaye's "Here, My Dear" is appropriate, according to "Slant Magazine"s Manan Desai: "Like Nas, Gaye was pushing 40 when he recorded his album", Desai wrote. "He'd cemented his position as one of R&B's greatest, and yet, he never sounded more anguished about where all that fame was leading him. There's something similar going on throughout "Life Is Good"; the more we hear Nas repeat that titular refrain, the less convincing he sounds." AllMusic's David Jeffries said the lyrics about his divorce were "unfiltered carpet bombing of love and marriage"; both Jeffries and Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic characterize the content as "venomous". Conversely, Jon Dolan of "Rolling Stone" views that Nas "cuts his rhymes with midlife realism and daring empathy". Ken Capobianco of "The Boston Globe" writes that the songs "mix anger, nostalgia, and insight."


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: On the opening track "No Introduction", Nas reflects on his impoverished upbringing and maturation into a "graphic, classic song composer". The song's subject matter ranges from lifestyle boats to revolutionary ideals: "Hood forever, I just act like I’m civilized / Really what’s in my mind is organizing a billion Black muthafuckas / To take over JP and Morgan Goldman and Sachs / And teach the world facts and give Saudi they oil back". "Loco-Motive" has an underground vibe and keyboards similar to Nas' 1994 song "N.Y. State of Mind". "A Queens Story" has boom bap and classical elements in its production, including classical piano, orchestral strings and funky drums. Its lyrics pay homage to Nas' native Queens and his creative influences. "Accident Murderers" incorporates pipe organ in its production, and its lyrics addresses senseless violence with a rags to riches narrative by Rick Ross.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: On "Daughters", Nas is bewildered at the responsibilities of fatherhood, as he addresses his daughter's social networking activity and worries about his past undermining his parental authority. Killian Fox of "The Observer" writes that Nas' observations on his ex-wife's "hefty childcare payments" and his 18-year-old daughter "dating unsuitable men" are resonated by his "recollections of his early years as a Queensbridge hustler – just the kind of unsuitable young man he's warning his daughter about these days". "Reach Out" features Mary J. Blige and incorporates the piano loop from Isaac Hayes' 1970 song "Ike's Mood". Its lyrics address Nas' feeling displaced "when you're too hood to be in the Hollywood circles, you're too rich to be in the hood that birthed you". "You Wouldn't Understand" addresses life struggles and features a mellow production and neo soul influences. "Back When" has flickering production and mytholigizing lyrics by Nas: "check out the oracle bred by city housing".


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: The up-tempo "The Don" samples Super Cat's 1982 song "Dance inna New York" and has a 1990s hip hop sound. Its lyrics extol both Nas' rapping prowess and New York City. According to No Ripcord's James McKenna, "Stay" mixes soul and jazz elements, "bringing to mind "Low End Theory" era A Tribe Called Quest and Tupac's "Me Against the World", and lyrics "questioning the line between love and hate". "Cherry Wine" features vocals by Amy Winehouse and a narrative between ill-fated lovers. The song was titled after Winehouse's guitar, which she called "cherry". Jesal Padania of "RapReviews" cites it as "quite possibly the best 'ladies number' that Nas has ever delivered, though it is infinitely classier than that label." On "Bye Baby", Nas' lyrics address his ex-wife and recount their marriage in a narrative that follows the wedding, counseling sessions, marriage counseling, and the legal process of their divorce.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: The album was promoted by Nas' concert performances and television appearances on "The Colbert Report", "Late Show with David Letterman", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", and "106 & Park". He headlined the Rock the Bells music festival and embarked on a three-week European tour during June and July 2012. With singer Lauryn Hill, the rapper co-headlined the "Life Is Good/Black Rage" tour from October 29 to December 31. The tour finale was an exclusive show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City with Elle Varner as the supporting act.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: Three singles were also released in promotion of the album—"Nasty" on August 9, 2011, "The Don" on April 3, 2012, and "Daughters" on July 17. A music video for "Nasty" was filmed by director Jason Goldwatch in Queensbridge, Nas' hometown in New York, and released virally on October 11, 2011. A video for "Daughters" was directed by Chris Robinson and premiered May 27 on MTV Jams. Its storyline chronicles the relationship between Nas and his daughter through her point of view. On April 27, Nas released the Aristotle-directed video for "The Don", which featured lavish images of Nas' lifestyle. A video promoting "Bye Baby" was released on August 20, 2012, featuring scenes of Nas in an empty home, at his divorce proceedings, and in a setting that revisits the cover image of "Life Is Good". It also featured singer Aaron Hall of Guy, whose 1988 song "Goodbye Love" is sampled on "Bye Baby". A video for "Cherry Wine" was also released on October 2. The video was dedicated to guest vocalist Amy Winehouse, who is featured as a projection on a wall in the video's scenes. On September 19, "Cherry Wine" was sent to radio in the United Kingdom.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: "Life Is Good" was released by Def Jam Recordings, first on July 13, 2012, in Germany, where it reached number 24 on the Media Control Charts. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number eight on the Official Albums Chart, the album also debuted at number two in Canada and sold 5,000 copies in its first week there. In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 and sold 149,000 copies in its first week. It was his sixth number-one album in the United States. In its second week on the "Billboard" 200, the album sold 45,000 copies. By February 10, 2013, the album had sold 354,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album charted for 15 weeks on the "Billboard" 200. On April 21, 2020, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping at least 500,000 units to retailers in the US.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: "Life is Good" was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 81, based on 30 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album 7.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: Reviewing the album in "NME", Kevin EG Perry called it "a grimy, back-to-basics return to form", while "Pitchfork"s Jayson Greene said Nas had "settled gracefully into strengths". Evan Rytlewski of "The A.V. Club" deemed Nas' lyrics "beautifully expressed" and the music just "as thoughtful", while "Slant Magazine"s Manan Desai believed the rapper sounded "inspired" and praised the album's "narrative unity" as "a wide-angle look of the artist as a grown man." Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, arts critic for the "Financial Times", said Nas draws on his "insider-outsider perspective" as a successful rapper to create "a richly varied album that goes from old-fashioned East Coast bangers to boldly worked orchestral and jazz samples, all held together by Nas's fluent rap technique." In the opinion of Randall Roberts from the "Los Angeles Times", the "thoughtful, fierce, honest and – most important – heavy-duty work" showed "Nas has gotten better at rolling with the punches – and you can hear it in every verse". Carl Chery from "XXL" hailed it as "arguably Nas' best LP since "Stillmatic"" and proof that "at this juncture—21 years and 10 solo albums in—no other MC has ever rhymed at such a high level this deep into their career."


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: Some reviewers were less enthusiastic. Robert Christgau gave "Life Is Good" a three-star honorable mention () in his "Consumer Guide" column for "MSN Music", citing "Daughters" and "Accident Murderers" as highlights while deeming the record "reflections of a bigshot who, as he mentions several times, is damn big". AllMusic's David Jeffries regarded the album as an inevitably "puff-chested bitch session", "acting as a clearing house for all venom and bile, plus some gloss that doesn't fit but needed to go as well." According to "New York Times" critic Jon Caramanica, the narratives were "sometimes distractingly fanciful" and Nas' lyrics occasionally "overstuffed", even though the record possessed "a simulacrum of the sound that made him legendary". Matthew Fiander from "PopMatters" was more critical, finding the production "uneven" and calculated "as product", with "half-done ideas".


title: Life Is Good (Nas album)

text: At the end of 2012, "Life Is Good" appeared on several critics' top album lists. It was named the best album of 2012 by "The Source" and Okayplayer. The album was also ranked number 18 by "Rolling Stone", number 12 by "Complex", number 16 by James Montgomery of MTV, number six by Martin Caballero of "The Boston Globe", and number seven by Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times". "Life Is Good" received a Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Rap Album for the 2013 Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Album of the Year at the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards, while "Daughters" won the Impact Track award at the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards.


title: Hopfield network

text: A Hopfield network (or Ising model of a neural network or Ising–Lenz–Little model) is a form of recurrent artificial neural network and a type of spin glass system popularised by John Hopfield in 1982 as described earlier by Little in 1974 based on Ernst Ising's work with Wilhelm Lenz on the Ising model. Hopfield networks serve as content-addressable ("associative") memory systems with binary threshold nodes, or with continuous variables. Hopfield networks also provide a model for understanding human memory.


title: Hopfield network

text: The Ising model of a neural network as a memory model was first proposed by William A. Little in 1974, which was acknowledged by Hopfield in his 1982 paper. Networks with continuous dynamics were developed by Hopfield in his 1984 paper. A major advance in memory storage capacity was developed by Krotov and Hopfield in 2016 through a change in network dynamics and energy function. This idea was further extended by Demircigil and collaborators in 2017. The continuous dynamics of large memory capacity models was developed in a series of papers between 2016 and 2020. Large memory storage capacity Hopfield Networks are now called Dense Associative Memories or modern Hopfield networks.


title: Hopfield network

text: The units in Hopfield nets are binary threshold units, i.e. the units only take on two different values for their states, and the value is determined by whether or not the unit's input exceeds its threshold formula_1. Discrete Hopfield nets describe relationships between binary (firing or not-firing) neurons formula_2. At a certain time, the state of the neural net is described by a vector formula_3, which records which neurons are firing in a binary word of formula_4 bits.


title: Hopfield network

text: The interactions formula_5 between neurons have units that usually take on values of 1 or −1, and this convention will be used throughout this article. However, other literature might use units that take values of 0 and 1. These interactions are "learned" via Hebb's law of association, such that, for a certain state formula_6


title: Hopfield network

text: Once the network is trained, formula_5 no longer evolve. If a new state of neurons formula_12 is introduced to the neural network, the net acts on neurons such that


title: Hopfield network

text: where formula_17 is the threshold value of the i'th neuron (often taken to be 0). In this way, Hopfield networks have the ability to "remember" states stored in the interaction matrix, because if a new state formula_18 is subjected to the interaction matrix, each neuron will change until it matches the original state formula_19 (see the Updates section below).


title: Hopfield network

text: The constraint that weights are symmetric guarantees that the energy function decreases monotonically while following the activation rules. A network with asymmetric weights may exhibit some periodic or chaotic behaviour; however, Hopfield found that this behavior is confined to relatively small parts of the phase space and does not impair the network's ability to act as a content-addressable associative memory system.


title: Hopfield network

text: Hopfield also modeled neural nets for continuous values, in which the electric output of each neuron is not binary but some value between 0 and 1. He found that this type of network was also able to store and reproduce memorized states.


title: Hopfield network

text: Notice that every pair of units "i" and "j" in a Hopfield network has a connection that is described by the connectivity weight formula_5. In this sense, the Hopfield network can be formally described as a complete undirected graph formula_23, where formula_24 is a set of McCulloch–Pitts neurons and formula_25 is a function that links pairs of units to a real value, the connectivity weight.


title: Hopfield network

text: Updating one unit (node in the graph simulating the artificial neuron) in the Hopfield network is performed using the following rule:


title: Hopfield network

text: The weight between two units has a powerful impact upon the values of the neurons. Consider the connection weight formula_27 between two neurons i and j. If formula_31, the updating rule implies that:


title: Hopfield network

text: Thus, the values of neurons "i" and "j" will converge if the weight between them is positive. Similarly, they will diverge if the weight is negative.


title: Hopfield network

text: Bruck shed light on the behavior of a neuron in the discrete Hopfield network when proving its convergence in his paper in 1990.  A subsequent paper further investigated the behavior of any neuron in both discrete-time and continuous-time Hopfield networks when the corresponding energy function is minimized during an optimization process. Bruck shows that neuron "j" changes its state "if and only if" it further decreases the following biased pseudo-cut. The discrete Hopfield network minimizes the following biased pseudo-cut for the synaptic weight matrix of the Hopfield net.


title: Hopfield network

text: where formula_39 and formula_40 represents the set of neurons which are −1 and +1, respectively, at time formula_41. For further details, see the recent paper.


title: Hopfield network

text: The complex Hopfield network, on the other hand, generally tends to minimize the so-called shadow-cut of the complex weight matrix of the net.


title: Hopfield network

text: Hopfield nets have a scalar value associated with each state of the network, referred to as the "energy", "E", of the network, where:


title: Hopfield network

text: This quantity is called "energy" because it either decreases or stays the same upon network units being updated. Furthermore, under repeated updating the network will eventually converge to a state which is a local minimum in the energy function (which is considered to be a Lyapunov function). Thus, if a state is a local minimum in the energy function it is a stable state for the network. Note that this energy function belongs to a general class of models in physics under the name of Ising models; these in turn are a special case of Markov networks, since the associated probability measure, the Gibbs measure, has the Markov property.


title: Hopfield network

text: Hopfield and Tank presented the Hopfield network application in solving the classical traveling-salesman problem in 1985. Since then, the Hopfield network has been widely used for optimization. The idea of using the Hopfield network in optimization problems is straightforward: If a constrained/unconstrained cost function can be written in the form of the Hopfield energy function E, then there exists a Hopfield network whose equilibrium points represent solutions to the constrained/unconstrained optimization problem.  Minimizing the Hopfield energy function both minimizes the objective function and satisfies the constraints also as the constraints are “embedded” into the synaptic weights of the network. Although including the optimization constraints into the synaptic weights in the best possible way is a challenging task, many difficult optimization problems with constraints in different disciplines have been converted to the Hopfield energy function: Associative memory systems, Analog-to-Digital conversion, job-shop scheduling problem, quadratic assignment and other related NP-complete problems, channel allocation problem in wireless networks, mobile ad-hoc network routing problem, image restoration, system identification, combinatorial optimization, etc, just to name a few. Further details can be found in e.g. the paper.


title: Hopfield network

text: Initialization of the Hopfield networks is done by setting the values of the units to the desired start pattern. Repeated updates are then performed until the network converges to an attractor pattern. Convergence is generally assured, as Hopfield proved that the attractors of this nonlinear dynamical system are stable, not periodic or chaotic as in some other systems. Therefore, in the context of Hopfield networks, an attractor pattern is a final stable state, a pattern that cannot change any value within it under updating.


title: Hopfield network

text: Training a Hopfield net involves lowering the energy of states that the net should "remember". This allows the net to serve as a content addressable memory system, that is to say, the network will converge to a "remembered" state if it is given only part of the state. The net can be used to recover from a distorted input to the trained state that is most similar to that input. This is called associative memory because it recovers memories on the basis of similarity. For example, if we train a Hopfield net with five units so that the state (1, −1, 1, −1, 1) is an energy minimum, and we give the network the state (1, −1, −1, −1, 1) it will converge to (1, −1, 1, −1, 1). Thus, the network is properly trained when the energy of states which the network should remember are local minima. Note that, in contrast to Perceptron training, the thresholds of the neurons are never updated.


title: Hopfield network

text: There are various different learning rules that can be used to store information in the memory of the Hopfield network. It is desirable for a learning rule to have both of the following two properties:


title: Hopfield network

text: These properties are desirable, since a learning rule satisfying them is more biologically plausible. For example, since the human brain is always learning new concepts, one can reason that human learning is incremental. A learning system that was not incremental would generally be trained only once, with a huge batch of training data.


title: Hopfield network

text: The Hebbian Theory was introduced by Donald Hebb in 1949, in order to explain "associative learning", in which simultaneous activation of neuron cells leads to pronounced increases in synaptic strength between those cells. It is often summarized as "Neurons that fire together, wire together. Neurons that fire out of sync, fail to link".


title: Hopfield network

text: The Hebbian rule is both local and incremental. For the Hopfield networks, it is implemented in the following manner, when learning formula_46


title: Hopfield network

text: If the bits corresponding to neurons i and j are equal in pattern formula_49, then the product formula_51 will be positive. This would, in turn, have a positive effect on the weight formula_52 and the values of i and j will tend to become equal. The opposite happens if the bits corresponding to neurons i and j are different.


title: Hopfield network

text: This rule was introduced by Amos Storkey in 1997 and is both local and incremental. Storkey also showed that a Hopfield network trained using this rule has a greater capacity than a corresponding network trained using the Hebbian rule. The weight matrix of an attractor neural network is said to follow the Storkey learning rule if it obeys:


title: Hopfield network

text: This learning rule is local, since the synapses take into account only neurons at their sides. The rule makes use of more information from the patterns and weights than the generalized Hebbian rule, due to the effect of the local field.


title: Hopfield network

text: Patterns that the network uses for training (called "retrieval states") become attractors of the system. Repeated updates would eventually lead to convergence to one of the retrieval states. However, sometimes the network will converge to spurious patterns (different from the training patterns). The energy in these spurious patterns is also a local minimum. For each stored pattern x, the negation -x is also a spurious pattern.


title: Hopfield network

text: A spurious state can also be a linear combination of an odd number of retrieval states. For example, when using 3 patterns formula_55, one can get the following spurious state:


title: Hopfield network

text: The Network capacity of the Hopfield network model is determined by neuron amounts and connections within a given network. Therefore, the number of memories that are able to be stored is dependent on neurons and connections. Furthermore, it was shown that the recall accuracy between vectors and nodes was 0.138 (approximately 138 vectors can be recalled from storage for every 1000 nodes) (Hertz et al., 1991). Therefore, it is evident that many mistakes will occur if one tries to store a large number of vectors. When the Hopfield model does not recall the right pattern, it is possible that an intrusion has taken place, since semantically related items tend to confuse the individual, and recollection of the wrong pattern occurs. Therefore, the Hopfield network model is shown to confuse one stored item with that of another upon retrieval. Perfect recalls and high capacity, >0.14, can be loaded in the network by Storkey learning method; ETAM, ETAM experiments also in. Ulterior models inspired by the Hopfield network were later devised to raise the storage limit and reduce the retrieval error rate, with some being capable of one-shot learning.


title: Hopfield network

text: The storage capacity can be given as formula_57 where formula_46 is the number of neurons in the net.


title: Hopfield network

text: The Hopfield model accounts for associative memory through the incorporation of memory vectors. Memory vectors can be slightly used, and this would spark the retrieval of the most similar vector in the network. However, we will find out that due to this process, intrusions can occur. In associative memory for the Hopfield network, there are two types of operations: auto-association and hetero-association. The first being when a vector is associated with itself, and the latter being when two different vectors are associated in storage. Furthermore, both types of operations are possible to store within a single memory matrix, but only if that given representation matrix is not one or the other of the operations, but rather the combination (auto-associative and hetero-associative) of the two. It is important to note that Hopfield's network model utilizes the same learning rule as Hebb's (1949) learning rule, which basically tried to show that learning occurs as a result of the strengthening of the weights by when activity is occurring.


title: Hopfield network

text: Rizzuto and Kahana (2001) were able to show that the neural network model can account for repetition on recall accuracy by incorporating a probabilistic-learning algorithm. During the retrieval process, no learning occurs. As a result, the weights of the network remain fixed, showing that the model is able to switch from a learning stage to a recall stage. By adding contextual drift they were able to show the rapid forgetting that occurs in a Hopfield model during a cued-recall task. The entire network contributes to the change in the activation of any single node.


title: Hopfield network

text: McCulloch and Pitts' (1943) dynamical rule, which describes the behavior of neurons, does so in a way that shows how the activations of multiple neurons map onto the activation of a new neuron's firing rate, and how the weights of the neurons strengthen the synaptic connections between the new activated neuron (and those that activated it). Hopfield would use McCulloch–Pitts's dynamical rule in order to show how retrieval is possible in the Hopfield network. However, it is important to note that Hopfield would do so in a repetitious fashion. Hopfield would use a nonlinear activation function, instead of using a linear function. This would therefore create the Hopfield dynamical rule and with this, Hopfield was able to show that with the nonlinear activation function, the dynamical rule will always modify the values of the state vector in the direction of one of the stored patterns.


title: Hopfield network

text: Hopfield networks are recurrent neural networks with dynamical trajectories converging to fixed point attractor states and described by an energy function. The state of each model neuron formula_59 is defined by a time-dependent variable formula_60, which can be chosen to be either discrete or continuous. A complete model describes the mathematics of how the future state of activity of each neuron depends on the known present or previous activity of all the neurons.


title: Hopfield network

text: In the original Hopfield model of associative memory, the variables were binary, and the dynamics were described by a one-at-a-time update of the state of the neurons. An energy function quadratic in the formula_60 was defined, and the dynamics consisted of changing the activity of each single neuron formula_62 only if doing so would lower the total energy of the system. This same idea was extended to the case of formula_60 being a continuous variable representing the output of neuron formula_62, and formula_60 being a monotonic function of an input current. The dynamics became expressed as a set of first-order differential equations for which the "energy" of the system always decreased.  The energy in the continuous case has one term  which is quadratic in the formula_60 (as in the binary model), and a second term which depends on the gain function (neuron's activation function). While having many desirable properties of associative memory, both of  these classical systems suffer from a small memory storage capacity, which scales linearly with the number of input features.


title: Hopfield network

text: Dense Associative Memories (also known as the modern Hopfield networks) are generalizations of the classical Hopfield Networks that break the linear scaling relationship between the number of input features and the number of stored memories. This is achieved by introducing stronger non-linearities (either in the energy function or neurons’ activation functions) leading to super-linear (even an exponential) memory storage capacity as a function of the number of feature neurons. The network still requires a sufficient number of hidden neurons.


title: Hopfield network

text: The key theoretical idea behind the modern Hopfield networks is to use an energy function and an update rule that is more sharply peaked around the stored memories in the space of neuron’s configurations compared to the classical Hopfield Network.


title: Hopfield network

text: A simple example of the modern Hopfield network can be written in terms of binary variables formula_60 that represent the active formula_68 and inactive formula_69 state of the model neuron formula_62.formula_71In this formula the weights formula_72 represent the matrix of memory vectors (index formula_73 enumerates different memories, and index formula_74 enumerates the content of each memory corresponding to the formula_62-th feature neuron), and the function formula_76 is a rapidly growing non-linear function. The update rule for individual neurons (in the asynchronous case) can be written in the following form formula_77which states that in order to calculate the updated state of the formula_78-th neuron the network compares two energies: the energy of the network with the formula_62-th neuron in the ON state and the energy of the network with the formula_62-th neuron in the OFF state, given the states of the remaining neuron. The updated state of the formula_62-th neuron selects the state that has the lowest of the two energies.


title: Hopfield network

text: In the limiting case when the non-linear energy function is quadratic formula_82 these equations reduce to the familiar energy function and the update rule for the classical binary Hopfield Network.


title: Hopfield network

text: The memory storage capacity of these networks can be calculated for random binary patterns. For the power energy function formula_83 the maximal number of memories that can be stored and retrieved from this network without errors is given byformula_84For an exponential energy function formula_85 the memory storage capacity is exponential in the number of feature neuronsformula_86


title: Hopfield network

text: Modern Hopfield networks or dense associative memories can be best understood in continuous variables and continuous time. Consider the network architecture, shown in Fig.1, and the equations for neuron's states evolutionwhere the currents of the feature neurons are denoted by formula_87, and the currents of the memory neurons are denoted by formula_88 (formula_89 stands for hidden neurons). There are no synaptic connections among the feature neurons or the memory neurons. A matrix formula_90 denotes the strength of synapses from a feature neuron formula_62 to the memory neuron formula_49. The synapses are assumed to be symmetric, so that the same value characterizes a different physical synapse from the memory neuron formula_49 to the feature neuron formula_62. The outputs of the memory neurons and the feature neurons are denoted by formula_95 and formula_96, which are non-linear functions of the corresponding currents. In general these outputs can depend on the currents of all the neurons in that layer so that formula_97 and formula_98. It is convenient to define these activation functions as derivatives of the Lagrangian functions for the two groups of neuronsThis way the specific form of the equations for neuron's states is completely defined once the Lagrangian functions are specified. Finally, the time constants for the two groups of neurons are denoted by formula_99 and formula_100, formula_101 is the input current to the network that can be driven by the presented data.


title: Hopfield network

text: General systems of non-linear differential equations can have many complicated behaviors that can depend on the choice of the non-linearities and the initial conditions. For Hopfield Networks, however, this is not the case - the dynamical trajectories always converge to a fixed point attractor state. This property is achieved because these equations are specifically engineered so that they have an underlying energy function The terms grouped into square brackets represent a Legendre transform of the Lagrangian function with respect to the states of the neurons. If the Hessian matrices of the Lagrangian functions are positive semi-definite, the energy function is guaranteed to decrease on the dynamical trajectory This property makes it possible to prove that the system of dynamical equations describing temporal evolution of neurons' activities will eventually reach a fixed point attractor state.


title: Hopfield network

text: In certain situations one can assume that the dynamics of hidden neurons equilibrates at a much faster time scale compared to the feature neurons, formula_102. In this case the steady state solution of the second equation in the system () can be used to express the currents of the hidden units through the outputs of the feature neurons. This makes it possible to reduce the general theory () to an effective theory for feature neurons only. The resulting effective update rules and the energies for various common choices of the Lagrangian functions are shown in Fig.2. In the case of log-sum-exponential Lagrangian function the update rule (if applied once) for the states of the feature neurons is the attention mechanism commonly used in many modern AI systems (see Ref. for the derivation of this result from the continuous time formulation).


title: Hopfield network

text: Classical formulation of continuous Hopfield Networks can be understood as a special limiting case of the modern Hopfield networks with one hidden layer. Continuous Hopfield  Networks for neurons with graded response are typically described by the dynamical equations and the energy function where formula_103, and formula_104 is the inverse of the activation function formula_105. This model is a special limit of the class of models that is called models A, with the following choice of the Lagrangian functions that, according to the definition (), leads to the activation functions If we integrate out the hidden neurons the system of equations () reduces to the equations on the feature neurons () with formula_106, and the general expression for the energy () reduces to the effective energy While the first two terms in equation () are the same as those in equation (), the third terms look superficially different. In equation () it is a Legendre transform of the Lagrangian for the feature neurons, while in () the third term is an integral of the inverse activation function. Nevertheless, these two expressions are in fact equivalent, since the derivatives of a function and its Legendre transform are inverse functions of each other. The easiest way to see that these two terms are equal explicitly is to differentiate each one with respect to formula_107. The results of these differentiations for both expressions are equal to formula_108. Thus, the two expressions are equal up to an additive constant. This completes the proof that the classical Hopfield Network with continuous states is a special limiting case of the modern Hopfield network () with energy ().


title: Hopfield network

text: Biological neural networks have a large degree of heterogeneity in terms of different cell types. This section describes a mathematical model of a fully connected modern Hopfield network assuming the extreme degree of heterogeneity: every single neuron is different. Specifically, an energy function and the corresponding dynamical equations are described assuming that each neuron has its own activation function and kinetic time scale.  The network is assumed to be fully connected, so that every neuron is connected to every other neuron using a symmetric matrix of weights formula_109, indices formula_110 and formula_111 enumerate different neurons in the network, see Fig.3. The easiest way to mathematically formulate this problem is to define the architecture through a Lagrangian function formula_112 that depends on the activities of all the neurons in the network. The activation function for each neuron is defined as a partial derivative of the Lagrangian  with respect to that neuron's activity From the biological perspective one can think about formula_113 as an axonal output of the neuron formula_110. In the simplest case, when the Lagrangian is additive for different neurons, this definition results in the activation that is a non-linear function of that neuron's activity. For non-additive Lagrangians this activation function can depend on the activities of a group of neurons. For instance, it can contain contrastive (softmax) or divisive normalization. The dynamical equations describing temporal evolution of a given neuron are given by This equation belongs to the class of models called firing rate models in neuroscience. Each neuron formula_110 collects the axonal outputs formula_116 from all the neurons, weights them with the synaptic coefficients formula_109 and produces its own time-dependent activity formula_118. The temporal evolution has a time constant formula_119, which in general can be different for every neuron. This network has a global energy function where the first two terms represent the Legendre transform of the Lagrangian function with respect to the neurons' currents formula_118. The temporal derivative of this energy function can be computed on the dynamical trajectories leading to (see for details) The last inequality sign holds provided that the matrix formula_121 (or its symmetric part) is positive semi-definite. If, in addition to this, the energy function is bounded from below the non-linear dynamical equations are guaranteed to converge to a fixed point attractor state. The advantage of formulating this network in terms of the Lagrangian functions is that it makes it possible to easily experiment with different choices of the activation functions and different architectural arrangements of neurons. For all those flexible choices the conditions of convergence are determined by the properties of the matrix formula_122 and the existence of the lower bound on the energy function.


title: Hopfield network

text: The neurons can be organized in layers so that every neuron in a given layer has the same activation function and the same dynamic time scale. If we assume that there are no horizontal connections between the neurons within the layer (lateral connections) and there are no skip-layer connections, the general fully connected network (), () reduces to the architecture shown in Fig.4. It has formula_123 layers of recurrently connected neurons with the states described by continuous variables formula_124 and the activation functions formula_125, index formula_126 enumerates the layers of the network, and index formula_62 enumerates individual neurons in that layer. The activation functions can depend on the activities of all the neurons in the layer. Every layer can have a different number of neurons formula_128. These neurons are recurrently connected with the neurons in the preceding and the subsequent layers. The matrices of weights that connect neurons in layers formula_126 and formula_130 are denoted by formula_131 (the order of the upper indices for weights is the same as the order of the lower indices, in the example above this means that the index formula_62 enumerates neurons in the layer formula_126, and index formula_134 enumerates neurons in the layer formula_130). The feedforward weights and the feedback weights are equal. The dynamical equations for the neurons' states can be written as \xi^{(A, A-1)}_{ij} g_j^{A-1} + \sum\limits_{j=1}^{N_{A+1}} \xi^{(A, A+1)}_{ij} g_j^{A+1} - x_i^A</math>|}} with boundary conditions The main difference of these equations from the conventional feedforward networks is the presence of the second term, which is responsible for the feedback from higher layers. These top-down signals help neurons in lower layers to decide on their response to the presented stimuli. Following the general recipe it is convenient to introduce a Lagrangian function formula_136 for the formula_126-th hidden layer, which depends on the activities of all the neurons in that layer. The activation functions in that layer can be defined as partial derivatives of the Lagrangian With these definitions the energy (Lyapunov) function is given by \Big[ \sum\limits_{i=1}^{N_A} x_i^A g_i^A - L^{A}\Big] - \sum\limits_{A=1}^{N_\text{layer}-1} \sum\limits_{i=1}^{N_{A+1}} \sum\limits_{j=1}^{N_A} g_i^{A+1} \xi^{(A+1,A)}_{ij} g_j^A</math>|}} If the Lagrangian functions, or equivalently the activation functions, are chosen in such a way that the Hessians for each layer are positive semi-definite and the overall energy is bounded from below, this system is guaranteed to converge to a fixed point attractor state. The temporal derivative of this energy function is given by \tau_A \sum\limits_{i,j=1}^{N_A} \frac{dx_j^A}{dt} \frac{\partial^2 L^{A}}{\partial x_j^{A} \partial x_i^{A}} \frac{dx_i^A}{dt} \leq 0</math>|}} Thus, the hierarchical layered network is indeed an attractor network with the global energy function. This network is described by a hierarchical set of synaptic weights that can be learned for each specific problem.


title: Sexual orientation in the United States military

text: The United States military formerly excluded gay men, bisexuals, and lesbians from service. In 1993, the United States Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed a law instituting the policy commonly referred to as "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) which allowed gay, lesbian, and bisexual people to serve as long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation. Although there were isolated instances in which service personnel were met with limited success through lawsuits, efforts to end the ban on openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people serving either legislatively, or through the courts initially proved unsuccessful.


text: In 2010, two federal courts ruled the ban on openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual service personnel unconstitutional, and on July 6, 2011, a federal appeals court suspended the DADT policy. In December 2010, the House and Senate passed and President Barack Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and under its provisions, restrictions on service by gay, lesbian, and bisexual personnel ended as of September 20, 2011.


text: According to a RAND Corporation report, a 2015 survey of over 16,000 service members found that 5.8% of the respondents identified as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. When separated by gender, 1.9% of males identified as gay and 2.0% as bisexual, while 7.0% of females identified as lesbian and 9.1% as bisexual.


text: To train the new American Army in the latest military drills and tactics, General George Washington brought in Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730–94), who had been an officer on the Prussian General staff. Von Steuben escaped Germany where he was threatened with prosecution for homosexuality. He joined Washington's army at Valley Forge in February 1778 accompanied by two young aides. Steuben became an American general, and a senior advisor to Washington. Despite rumors about his parties, there never was an investigation of Steuben and he received a Congressional pension after the war.


text: The first evidence of antipathy to homosexuals serving in the United States military dates from March 11, 1778, when Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin was drummed out of the Continental Army following his conviction at court-martial on charges of sodomy and perjury.


text: The U.S. military discharged soldiers for homosexual acts throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century even in the absence of any explicit prohibition of sodomy. The Articles of War of the United States of 1916, implemented on March 1, 1917, included Article 93 stating that any person subject to military law who committed "assault with intent to commit sodomy" shall be punished as a court-martial may direct. That was modified on June 4, 1920, to make the act of sodomy itself a crime. The change went into effect on February 4, 1921. It was the first express prohibition of homosexuality or homosexual conduct in the armed forces of the United States.


text: The several branches of the U.S. lacked a unified policy on service by homosexuals for most of their history. Before 1949, each tended to charge personnel caught engaging in homosexual conduct with sodomy, court-martial them, and issue them a dishonorable discharge. In 1940, psychiatrists Harry Stack Sullivan and Winfred Overholser formulated guidelines for psychiatric screening for military inductees. Both believed homosexuals should not be inducted, and neither proposed excluding all homosexuals from military service. Despite their recommendations, other psychiatrists and military officials made homosexuality a key component of the screening apparatus they recommended. The United States Army Surgeon General's office issued a circular in 1941 that for the first time classified "homosexual proclivities" as disqualifying inductees from military service. The United States Navy and the Selective Service adopted similar exclusionary policies. The Women's Army Corps adopted a similar policy in 1944. The Women's Army Corps instituted harsh screening policies for recruits, often based on physical appearance and gender conformity, in order to exclude lesbians from service. WAC policies also condoned heterosexual relationships with servicemen in order to discourage homosexual conduct.


text: With the mass mobilization and deployment of troops for operations in World War II, it became impractical to convene court-martial boards for homosexual conduct offenses. Commanders instead issued blue discharges – a form of administrative military discharge – to homosexual personnel. However, blue discharge holders faced difficulties in civilian life because the blue discharge carried with it a negative association. The Veterans Administration denied blue-discharge veterans the benefits of the G.I. Bill as a general policy. In 1944, a policy directive ordered that homosexuals were to be committed to military hospitals, examined by psychiatrists and discharged under Regulation 615-360, section 8.


text: For example, staff sergeant Allen Irvin Bernstein, who was arrested in January 1944 by military police after a failed pickup attempt with another soldier, was confined in a psychiatric ward at Camp Lee, Virginia, and discharged within a month. He subsequently appealed the discharge decision, attaching a copy of his 140-page defense of homosexuality, "Millions of Queers (Our Homo America)", which, however, was ignored and remained forgotten and unpublished until rediscovered in 2010 by a researcher in the National Library of Medicine. Denied all veterans benefits, Bernstein continued to refile appeals with the Army until, 37 years later, the Army accepted his appeal and retroactively converted his blue discharge to an honorable discharge in 1981.


text: Blue discharges were discontinued in May 1947 and replaced with two new headings, "general" and "undesirable". A general discharge was considered to be under honorable conditions though distinct from an "honorable discharge." An undesirable discharge was under conditions other than honorable, yet distinct from a "dishonorable discharge". The Army also changed its regulations to ensure that homosexuals would not qualify for general discharges. Under this system, a servicemember found to be homosexual but who had not committed any homosexual acts while in service received an undesirable discharge. Those found guilty of engaging in homosexual conduct were dishonorably discharged.


text: In 1945, four honorably discharged gay veterans formed the Veterans Benevolent Association, the first such organization. It was primarily social in nature and its membership peaked at 100. The group disbanded in 1954, and several of its members later formed the New York chapter of homophile advocacy group One, Inc.


text: In October 1949, the newly consolidated Department of Defense standardized anti-homosexual regulations across all branches of the military: "Homosexual personnel, irrespective of sex, should not be permitted to serve in any branch of the Armed Forces in any capacity, and prompt separation of known homosexuals from the Armed Forces is mandatory."


text: President Harry S. Truman signed legislation on May 6, 1950, creating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which became effective on May 31, 1951. It established a single justice system for the armed forces. Its Article 125 forbids sodomy among all military personnel, defining an offender as "any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offence."


text: The success of the armed forces in pre-screening self-identified gay and bisexual people from the 1940s through 1981 remains in dispute; during the Vietnam War, some men pretended to be gay in order to avoid the draft. However, a significant number of gay and bisexual men and women did manage to pass through the screening process and serve in the military, some with special distinction.


text: For example, in the 1950s, the Navy medical doctor Tom Dooley received national fame for his anti-Communist and humanitarian efforts in Vietnam. He was forced to resign in March 1956 when found to have participated in homosexual activities. The Navy conducted the first official study on sexual orientation and the Navy regulations and rules. In 1957, the Crittenden Report found that gay-identified people were no more likely to be a security risk than heterosexual-identified people, but nevertheless recommended that homosexuals be excluded from service because "Homosexuality is wrong, it is evil, and it is to be branded as such."


text: San Francisco politician and gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk served in the United States Navy during the Korean War. He served aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) as a diving officer, later transferring to Naval Station, San Diego to serve as a diving instructor. In 1955, he was discharged from the Navy at the rank of lieutenant, junior grade, though whether his homosexuality was an issue in his discharge is doubted by researchers.


text: By the 1970s, a gay servicemember who had not committed any homosexual acts while in service generally received a general discharge, while those found to have engaged in homosexual conduct more often received undesirable discharges. Gay servicemembers received a disproportionate percentage of undesirable discharges issued.


text: During the 1970s, beginning with Leonard Matlovich, who was featured on the cover of "Time" magazine in 1975 (making him the first named openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. newsmagazine), several high-profile court challenges to the military's regulations on homosexuality occurred, with little success, and when such successes did occur it was when the plaintiff had been open about his homosexuality from the beginning or due to the existence of the "queen for a day" rule, which stated that if a service-member was caught having sex with a person of the same gender they could avoid being discharged if the "member did not have a propensity of intent to engage in homosexual acts."


text: In 1981, the Department of Defense issued a new regulation on homosexuality that was designed to ensure withstanding a court challenge by developing uniform and clearly defined regulations and justifications that made homosexual status, whether self-applied or by the military, and conduct grounds for discharge (DOD Directive 1332.14 (Enlisted Administrative Separations), January 1981):


text: The directive justified the policy and removed the "queen for a day" rule that had prompted some courts to rule against the armed forces. However, the intent of the policy had also been to treat homosexuality as being akin to a disability discharge and thus ensure that anyone found engaging in homosexual activity and/or identifying as gay, would be separated with an honorable discharge. The DOD policy has since withstood most court challenges, although the United States Supreme Court has refused to weigh in on the constitutionality of the policy, preferring to allow lower courts and the United States Congress to settle the matter.


text: In the 1980s, many of the Democratic Party presidential candidates expressed an interest in changing the regulations concerning homosexuality in the armed forces, and, as American social mores changed, public opinion began to express more sympathy with gay people in armed forces, at least to the extent that investigations into a serviceman or -woman's sexual behaviour and/or orientation were seen as a witch-hunt. "Gays in the military" became a political issue during the 1992 Presidential campaign, when Clinton, the Democratic candidate, promised to lift the military's ban on homosexual and bisexual people.


text: In 1992, the United States General Accounting Office published a report entitled "Defense Force Management: DOD's Policy on Homosexuality", that outlined the DOD policy on homosexuality and the reasons for it. The report also included excerpts from a previously unpublished 1988 Defense Personnel Security Research and Education Center study on homosexuality that made similar conclusions as the 1957 Crittenden Report.


text: Some LGBT military personnel sought to overturn the military's ban on service by homosexuals. Among the earliest were Leonard Matlovich, who fought to remain in the Air Force after coming out in 1975, and Perry Watkins, who was drafted in 1967 despite disclosing his homosexuality on his induction papers. District Court judge Gerhard Gesell ordered Matlovich's reinstatement in 1980. Rather than return Matlovich to duty, the Air Force offered him a cash settlement of $160,000, which Matlovich accepted. The Army tried to discharge Watkins several times, until the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered his reinstatement in 1989 and the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The appellate court, however, did not rule the military policy unconstitutional in Watkins's case. Rather, it decided that simple equity mandated that the Army could not discharge Watkins for homosexuality when it knew of his sexual orientation all along. Other high-profile discharges included those of Vernon Berg, III, Keith Meinhold, and Tracy Thorne from the Navy; Joseph Steffan from the Naval Academy; Margarethe Cammermeyer from the Washington National Guard; and Miriam Ben-Shalom from the Army Reserve.


text: At the height of the push to rescind the ban before DADT, Miriam Ben-Shalom joined with other discharged personnel to form the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Veterans of America.


text: Don't ask, don't tell (DADT) is the common term for the policy restricting the United States military from efforts to discover or reveal closeted gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members or applicants, while barring those that are openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual from military service.


text: Following the implementation of DADT, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network was formed to protect the rights of active duty personnel. Other organizations include Servicemembers United which formed in 2005 by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and groups associated with West Point (Knights Out) and the Naval Academy (USNA Out).


text: Service members discharged under DADT continued to seek redress through the courts without success. Courts often cited the Supreme Court's 1986 decision in "Bowers v. Hardwick", which upheld the constitutionality of state sodomy laws. After the Supreme Court reversed "Bowers" in "Lawrence v. Texas" (2003), the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled that the "Lawrence v. Texas" decision applies to Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which banned all acts of sodomy. In both "United States v. Stirewalt" and "United States v. Marcum", the court found Article 125 constitutional, but ruled that the "conduct falls within the liberty interest identified by the Supreme Court," but also said that despite the application of "Lawrence" to the military, Article 125 could still be upheld in cases where there are "factors unique to the military environment" that would place the conduct "outside any protected liberty interest recognized in "Lawrence"", such as fraternization, public sexual behavior, or anything that would adversely affect good order and discipline. Convictions for consensual sodomy have been overturned in military courts under the "Lawrence" in "United States v. Meno" and "United States v. Bullock". In the course of reviewing the end of DADT, the Department of Defense's Comprehensive Review Working Group recommended repealing or amending Article 125 to eliminate any ban on consensual sodomy between adults.


text: Major legal challenges to the DADT policy include "Witt v. Department of the Air Force" and "Log Cabin Republicans v. United States". The first ended in a negotiated settlement, but only after the lesbian plaintiff whom the Air Force tried to discharge won retirement with full benefits in 2011 as DADT neared its end. In the second, Federal Judge Virginia A. Phillips ordered the military on October 12, 2010, to suspend and discontinue any investigation or discharge, separation, or other proceeding that began under DADT. A series of appeals and stays of her ordered followed in the fall of 2010 just as Congressional attempts to repeal DADT took shape.


text: An attempt to repeal DADT began in May 2010 when the House approved an amendment to the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act. It failed in September, when Sen. John McCain led a successful filibuster against it. In December 2010, after a second Senate filibuster, Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins introduced the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. It passed the House of Representatives on December 15. and the Senate on December 18 by a vote of 65-31. President Barack Obama signed the bill on December 22.


text: On December 29, 2010, the Department of Justice asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend proceedings in the "Log Cabin" case. Instead, on July 6, 2011, that court, citing progress made by military officials in preparing for an end to DADT, ordered the government to cease enforcement of DADT while dismantling the policy.


text: Repeal was not immediate. The Department of Defense first reviewed its policies and guidelines and drafted implementation regulations. Then the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certified that new regulations had been drafted and that the new regulations would not damage military cohesion and readiness. That certification triggered a 60-day waiting period at the end of which, on September 20, 2011, DADT expired.


text: A research report that appeared in the journal "Armed Forces & Society" at the end of 2011 said that military academy cadets opposed allowing homosexuals to serve openly in greater percentages than participants in ROTC did, and that both groups opposed such service to a greater degree than their civilian counterparts. Some news outlets viewed this as a negative reaction to the repeal of DADT earlier in the year, but the authors of the study said it drew on survey data collected between 2002 and 2007 and believed their research provided no information about opinions following the end of DADT. They wrote that the strong degree of anti-gay sentiment found among entering cadets declined somewhat during their time at the service academies: "Surprisingly, military culture appears to have made cadets more tolerant of gays and lesbians, not less."


text: Despite the end of DADT on September 20, 2011, the same-sex spouses of gay and lesbian service members were not treated on a par with the different-sex spouses of military service members because of restrictions imposed by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and certain federal statutes that contain definitions of marriage that exclude same-sex couples. Same-sex spouses are denied death benefits, identification cards, base access, access to repatriation ceremonies, and other entitlements.


text: In December 2012, the Association of Bragg Officers Spouses (ABOS) denied membership to Ashley Broadway, the female spouse of a female Army officer. During the weeks of press coverage that ensued, Fort Bragg's commander said he lacked authority over the private organization while the U.S. Marines announced that clubs conducting business on base must admit same-sex spouses. ABOS offered Broadway a "special guest membership", which she declined. On January 26, "Military Spouse" magazine named Broadway Fort Bragg's 2013 "Military Spouse of the Year". That same day, ABOS invited Broadway to join and announced that its membership was open to "any Spouse of an active duty commissioned or warrant Officer with a valid marriage certificate from any state or district in the United States".


text: On February 11, 2013, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced the Department's extension of certain military "additional benefits" to same-sex spouses which are not explicitly prohibited under the Defense of Marriage Act, in addition to "member-designated benefits" which were already available to same-sex spouses. In June 2013, the Pentagon announced plans to begin issuing identification cards to the same-sex partners of servicemembers, which will allow them to access education, survivor, commissary, travel, counseling and transportation benefits, but not health care and housing allowances.


text: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought suit in 2010 on behalf of servicemembers discharged for homosexuality who received only half the standard separation pay upon discharge. All were discharged under the DADT policy, but the ACLU said that the practice ante-dated the adoption of DADT. On January 7, 2013, the ACLU reached a settlement with the federal government in "Collins v. United States" that provided for the payment of full separation pay to servicemembers discharged under "Don't ask, don't tell" since November 10, 2004. Some 181 were expected to receive about $13,000 each.


text: The American Military Partner Association (AMPA) was formed in 2009 to enable the LGBT partners of servicemembers and veterans to provide support in areas where the military fails to and to advocate on behalf of equal treatment of those in same-sex relationships.


text: Following the end of DADT, approximately 114,000 servicemembers who had been separated from military service since WW II under the categories "other than honorable discharge", "general discharge", or "dishonorable discharge" became eligible to have their discharges amended. Those without an honorable discharge are often excluded from veterans benefits like health care and tuition assistance, and the lack of an honorable discharge can create a hurdle to employment in the civilian sector as well. The Armed Forces established procedures for processing such requests through the Military Department Board for Correction of Military/Naval Records or the Military Department's Discharge Review Board. In June 2013, after advocates for gay and lesbian veterans complained about the process, Representatives Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) and Charles Rangel (D-New York) introduced the Restore Honor to Service Members Act in the House of Representatives to codify the process and reduce inconsistencies. Pocan said the legislation represented the same policies as those currently in place, but was needed because "without having it in law, it could change at some date in the future with a different administration." The American Bar Association endorsed the legislation on November 21, 2013. On January 30, 2014, Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced the same legislation in the Senate.


text: On June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court held in "United States v. Windsor" that the statute under which the U.S. military was withholding benefits from servicemembers in same-sex marriages, Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, was unconstitutional. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel stated: "The Department of Defense welcomes the Supreme Court's decision [and] will immediately begin the process of implementing the Supreme Court's decision in consultation with the Department of Justice and other executive branch agencies. The Department of Defense intends to make the same benefits available to all military spouses—regardless of sexual orientation—as soon as possible."


text: On August 14, 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced that it would provide spousal and family benefits to servicemembers in same-sex marriages on the same terms as it does to those in different-sex marriages. The benefits, which include health care coverage, housing allowances, military ID cards, and survivor benefits, can be claimed retroactive to June 26, the day of the "Windsor" decision. A same-sex marriage must be documented by a marriage certificate that establishes that the marriage was valid where it was celebrated. The DoD also announced that servicemembers who need to travel to a jurisdiction that allows them to marry will be afforded up to seven days leave to do so, up to ten days if they are stationed outside the U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said: "This will provide accelerated access to the full range of benefits offered to married military couples throughout the department, and help level the playing field between opposite-sex and same-sex couples seeking to be married". The DoD set September 3 as its target date for implementation. the servicemember's commander determines the amount of leave to be granted based on the servicemember's unit responsibilities and specific situation. Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, a longtime opponent of the end of "don't ask, don't tell", wrote that "It could well be argued that the new policy actively discriminates against opposite-sex couples, who receive no special leave for their weddings". DoD officials said the leave was for travel and cited Texas or South Korea as locations that pose problems for same-sex couples seeking to marry. The policy does not apply to those in same-sex legal relationships other than marriage, such as civil unions and domestic partnerships.


text: The Veterans Administration has cited other federal statutes that define "spouse" and 'surviving spouse' The status of benefits for veterans in same-sex relationships was the subject of ongoing lawsuits.


text: In 2015, Defense Secretary Ash Carter added sexual orientation to the list of nondiscrimination protections under the military's equal opportunity program. However, LGBT service members and veterans continue to face discrimination in the Veterans Health Administration. Often healthcare systems deny adequate services and visitation rights to same-sex couples. HIV-positive service members overseas frequently had their possessions thrown overboard when their fellow comrades found out they tested positive.


text: Several lawsuits on behalf of same-sex military spouses had challenged the constitutionality of DOMA and statutes that define "spouse" and "surviving spouse" as "a person of the opposite sex" when determining eligibility for veterans benefits.


text: On October 27, 2011, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) had brought suit in federal court in Massachusetts on behalf of several military servicemembers and veterans in same-sex marriages. The benefits at issue in that case, "McLaughlin v. Panetta", included medical and dental benefits, basic housing and transportation allowances, family separation benefits, visitation rights in military hospitals, and survivor benefit plans. On June 27, the federal judge hearing the case asked the parties to explain by July 18 why the logic that found "Windsor" unconstitutional did not apply to that definition as well. On July 18, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group BLAG, which had defended DOMA and the restrictive definitions of marriage acknowledged that "[t]he Supreme Court recently resolved the issue of DOMA Section 3's constitutionality" but took no position on the other statutes except to say that the constitutionality of those definitions "remains open". The Department of Justice told the court that it would not defend those statutes. BLAG asked to withdraw from a similar lawsuit in federal court in California, "Cooper-Harris v. United States", on July 22. On August 29, Judge Consuelo Marshall ruled that the provisions of Title 38 of the U.S. Code that define "spouse" so as to exclude those in same-sex marriages are unconstitutional.


text: A similar case involving only veterans benefits, "Cardona v. Shinseki", is awaiting resolution in the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, after being suspended while awaiting the resolution of "Windsor". On July 19, 2013, Veterans Administration (VA) Secretary Eric Shinseki noted in a letter about the case that the statutory definitions of "spouse" and "surviving spouse" had yet to be invalidated by a court. The VA is waiting for guidance from the Justice Department on how "Windsor" applies to those statutes. Even if that statutory limitation is invalidated, the VA's rules for establishing the validity of a marriage may restrict benefits to same-sex married couples residing in a jurisdiction that recognizes their marriage or who resided in the jurisdiction where they married. The Respect for Marriage Act sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Jerrold Nadler eliminates the question of residence by establishing a rule for federal purposes that a marriage is valid if it was valid where celebrated. They reintroduced the legislation the day "Windsor" was decided.


text: On September 4, Attorney General Eric Holder, as required by law, notified Speaker of the House John Boehner that the Obama administration had determined that it should not enforce the federal statutes that define "spouse" in a way that excludes same-sex spouses. He cited "Windsor" and the decision in "Cooper-Harris" the previous week as well as BLAG's withdrawal from litigation challenging the statutes in question. Advocates for same-sex spouses of veterans welcomed the announcement, but noted that the question of the rights of such spouses remained uncertain if they live in states that do not recognize their marriage.


text: On September 13, 2013, VA home loan benefits were extended to include service members in same-sex marriages.


text: In June 2014, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it would only provide benefits to the same-sex spouses of veterans who either (1) married in the state in which they resided or (2) live in a state that recognizes their marriage when they apply for benefits. On August 18, the American Military Partner Association filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit challenging the VA's interpretation of federal law. Their brief cited "Windsor" and many federal court decisions since "Windsor" that have held denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples unconstitutional. It said the VA's policy ruling "imports into federal law unconstitutional state definitions of marital status."