Signs and symptoms.

Hives, or urticaria, is a form of skin rash with red, raised, itchy bumps. They may also burn or sting. Welts (raised areas surrounded by a red base) from hives can appear anywhere on the surface of the skin. Whether the trigger is allergic or not, a complex release of inflammatory mediators, including histamine from cutaneous mast cells, results in fluid leakage from superficial blood vessels. Welts may be pinpoint in size or several inches in diameter. Often the patches of rash move around.  About 20% of people are affected. Cases of short duration occur equally in males and females, lasting a few days and without leaving any long-lasting skin changes. Cases of long duration are more common in females. Cases of short duration are more common among children while cases of long duration are more common among those who are middle aged. Fewer than 5% of cases last for more than six weeks. The condition frequently recurs. In half of cases of hives, the cause remains unknown.  Angioedema is a related condition (also from allergic and nonallergic causes), though fluid leakage is from much deeper blood vessels in the subcutaneous or submucosal layers. Individual hives that are painful, last more than 24 hours, or leave a bruise as they heal are more likely to be a more serious condition called urticarial vasculitis. Hives caused by stroking the skin (often linear in appearance) are due to a benign condition called dermatographic urticaria.

Cause.

Hives can also be classified by the purported causative agent. Many different substances in the environment may cause hives, including medications, food and physical agents. In perhaps more than 50% of people with chronic hives of unknown cause, it is due to an autoimmune reaction. Risk factors include having conditions such as hay fever or asthma.

Medications.

Drugs that have caused allergic reactions evidenced as hives include codeine, sulphate of morphia, dextroamphetamine, aspirin, ibuprofen, penicillin, clotrimazole, trichazole, sulfonamides, anticonvulsants, cefaclor, piracetam, vaccines, and antidiabetic drugs. The antidiabetic sulphonylurea glimepiride, in particular, has been documented to induce allergic reactions manifesting as hives.

Food.

The most common food allergies in adults are shellfish and nuts. The most common food allergies in children are shellfish, nuts, eggs, wheat, and soy. One study showed Balsam of Peru, which is in many processed foods, to be the most common cause of immediate contact urticaria. A less common cause is exposure to certain bacteria, such as "Streptococcus" species or possibly "Helicobacter pylori".

Infection or environmental agent.

Hives including chronic spontaneous hives can be a complication and symptom of a parasitic infection, such as blastocystosis and strongyloidiasis among others.  The rash that develops from poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac contact is commonly mistaken for urticaria. This rash is caused by contact with urushiol and results in a form of contact dermatitis called urushiol-induced contact dermatitis. Urushiol is spread by contact but can be washed off with a strong grease- or oil-dissolving detergent and cool water and rubbing ointments.

Dermatographic urticaria.

Dermatographic urticaria (also known as dermatographism or "skin writing") is marked by the appearance of weals or welts on the skin as a result of scratching or firm stroking of the skin. Seen in 4–5% of the population, it is one of the most common types of urticaria, in which the skin becomes raised and inflamed when stroked, scratched, rubbed, and sometimes even slapped.  The skin reaction usually becomes evident soon after the scratching and disappears within 30 minutes. Dermatographism is the most common form of a subset of chronic hives, acknowledged as "physical hives".  It stands in contrast to the linear reddening that does not itch seen in healthy people who are scratched. In most cases, the cause is unknown, although it may be preceded by a viral infection, antibiotic therapy, or emotional upset. Dermographism is diagnosed by taking a tongue blade and drawing it over the skin of the arm or back. The hives should develop within a few minutes. Unless the skin is highly sensitive and reacts continually, treatment is not needed. Taking antihistamines can reduce the response in cases that are annoying to the person.

Pressure or delayed pressure.

This type of hives can occur right away, precisely after a pressure stimulus or as a deferred response to sustained pressure being enforced to the skin. In the deferred form, the hives only appear after about six hours from the initial application of pressure to the skin. Under normal circumstances, these hives are not the same as those witnessed with most urticariae. Instead, the protrusion in the affected areas is typically more spread out. The hives may last from eight hours to three days. The source of the pressure on the skin can happen from tight fitted clothing, belts, clothing with tough straps, walking, leaning against an object, standing, sitting on a hard surface, etc. The areas of the body most commonly affected are the hands, feet, trunk, abdomen, buttocks, legs and face. Although this appears to be very similar to dermatographism, the cardinal difference is that the swelled skin areas do not become visible quickly and tend to last much longer. This form of the skin disease is, however, rare.

Cholinergic or stress.

Cholinergic urticaria (CU) is one of the physical urticaria which is provoked during sweating events such as exercise, bathing, staying in a heated environment, or emotional stress. The hives produced are typically smaller than classic hives and are generally shorter-lasting.  Multiple subtypes have been elucidated, each of which require distinct treatment.

Cold-induced.

The cold type of urticaria is caused by exposure of the skin to extreme cold, damp and windy conditions; it occurs in two forms. The rare form is hereditary and becomes evident as hives all over the body 9 to 18 hours after cold exposure. The common form of cold urticaria demonstrates itself with the rapid onset of hives on the face, neck, or hands after exposure to cold. Cold urticaria is common and lasts for an average of five to six years. The population most affected is young adults, between 18 and 25 years old. Many people with the condition also suffer from dermographism and cholinergic hives.  Severe reactions can be seen with exposure to cold water; swimming in cold water is the most common cause of a severe reaction. This can cause a massive discharge of histamine, resulting in low blood pressure, fainting, shock and even loss of life. Cold urticaria is diagnosed by dabbing an ice cube against the skin of the forearm for 1 to 5 minutes. A distinct hive should develop if a person suffers cold urticaria. This is different from the normal redness that can be seen in people without cold urticaria. People with cold urticaria need to learn to protect themselves from a hasty drop in body temperature. Regular antihistamines are not generally efficacious. One particular antihistamine, cyproheptadine (Periactin), has been found to be useful. The tricyclic antidepressant doxepin has been found to be effective blocking agents of histamine. Finally, a medication named ketotifen, which keeps mast cells from discharging histamine, has also been employed with widespread success.

Solar urticaria.

This form of the disease occurs on areas of the skin exposed to the sun; the condition becomes evident within minutes of exposure.

Water-induced.

This type of urticaria is also termed rare and occurs upon contact with water. The response is not temperature-dependent and the skin appears similar to cholinergic form of the disease. The appearance of hives is within one to 15 minutes of contact with the water and can last from 10 minutes to two hours. This kind of hives does not seem to be stimulated by histamine discharge like the other physical hives. Most researchers believe this condition is actually skin sensitivity to additives in the water, such as chlorine. Water urticaria is diagnosed by dabbing tap water and distilled water to the skin and observing the gradual response. Aquagenic urticaria is treated with capsaicin (Zostrix) administered to the chafed skin. This is the same treatment used for shingles. Antihistamines are of questionable benefit in this instance since histamine is not the causative factor.

Exercise.

The condition was first distinguished in 1980. People with exercise urticaria (EU) experience hives, itchiness, shortness of breath and low blood pressure five to 30 minutes after beginning exercise. These symptoms can progress to shock and even sudden death. Jogging is the most common exercise to cause EU, but it is not induced by a hot shower, fever, or with fretfulness. This differentiates EU from cholinergic urticaria.  EU sometimes occurs only when someone exercises within 30 minutes of eating particular foods, such as wheat or shellfish. For these individuals, exercising alone or eating the injuring food without exercising produces no symptoms. EU can be diagnosed by having the person exercise and then observing the symptoms. This method must be used with caution and only with the appropriate resuscitative measures at hand. EU can be differentiated from cholinergic urticaria by the hot water immersion test. In this test, the person is immersed in water at 43 °C (109.4 °F). Someone with EU will not develop hives, while a person with cholinergic urticaria will develop the characteristic small hives, especially on the neck and chest.  The immediate symptoms of this type are treated with antihistamines, epinephrine and airway support. Taking antihistamines prior to exercise may be effective. Ketotifen is acknowledged to stabilise mast cells and prevent histamine release, and has been effective in treating this hives disorder. Avoiding exercise or foods that cause the mentioned symptoms is very important. In particular circumstances, tolerance can be brought on by regular exercise, but this must be under medical supervision.

Pathophysiology.

The skin lesions of urticarial disease are caused by an inflammatory reaction in the skin, causing leakage of capillaries in the dermis, and resulting in an edema which persists until the interstitial fluid is absorbed into the surrounding cells.  Hives are caused by the release of histamine and other mediators of inflammation (cytokines) from cells in the skin. This process can be the result of an allergic or nonallergic reaction, differing in the eliciting mechanism of histamine release.

Allergic hives.

Histamine and other proinflammatory substances are released from mast cells in the skin and tissues in response to the binding of allergen-bound IgE antibodies to high-affinity cell surface receptors. Basophils and other inflammatory cells are also seen to release histamine and other mediators, and are thought to play an important role, especially in chronic urticarial diseases.

Autoimmune hives.

Over half of all cases of chronic idiopathic hives are the result of an autoimmune trigger. Roughly 50% of people with chronic urticaria spontaneously develop autoantibodies directed at the receptor FcεRI located on skin mast cells. Chronic stimulation of this receptor leads to chronic hives. People with hives often have other autoimmune conditions, such as autoimmune thyroiditis, celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome or systemic lupus erythematosus.

Infections.

Hive-like rashes commonly accompany viral illnesses, such as the common cold. They usually appear three to five days after the cold has started, and may even appear a few days after the cold has resolved.

Nonallergic hives.

Mechanisms other than allergen-antibody interactions are known to cause histamine release from mast cells. Many drugs, for example morphine, can induce direct histamine release not involving any immunoglobulin molecule. Also, a diverse group of signaling substances called neuropeptides, have been found to be involved in emotionally induced hives. Dominantly inherited cutaneous and neurocutaneous porphyrias (porphyria cutanea tarda, hereditary coproporphyria, variegate porphyria and erythropoietic protoporphyria) have been associated with solar urticaria. The occurrence of drug-induced solar urticaria may be associated with porphyrias. This may be caused by IgG binding, not IgE.

Dietary histamine poisoning.

This is termed scombroid food poisoning. Ingestion of free histamine released by bacterial decay in fish flesh may result in a rapid-onset, allergic-type symptom complex which includes hives. However, the hives produced by scombroid is reported not to include wheals.

Stress and chronic idiopathic hives.

Chronic idiopathic hives has been anecdotally linked to stress since the 1940s. A large body of evidence demonstrates an association between this condition and both poor emotional well-being and reduced health-related quality of life. A link between stress and this condition has also been shown. A recent study has demonstrated an association between stressful life events (e.g. bereavement, divorce, etc.) and chronic idiopathic urticaria and also an association between post-traumatic stress and chronic idiopathic hives.

Diagnosis.

Diagnosis is typically based on the appearance. The cause of chronic hives can rarely be determined. Patch testing may be useful to determine the allergy. In some cases regular extensive allergy testing over a long period of time is requested in hopes of getting new insight. No evidence shows regular allergy testing results in identification of a problem or relief for people with chronic hives. Regular allergy testing for people with chronic hives is not recommended.

Acute versus chronic.

Acute and chronic hives are visually indistinguishable.

Related conditions.

Angioedema.

Angioedema is similar to hives, but in angioedema, the swelling occurs in a lower layer of the dermis than in hives, as well as in the subcutis. This swelling can occur around the mouth, eyes, in the throat, in the abdomen, or in other locations. Hives and angioedema sometimes occur together in response to an allergen, and is a concern in severe cases, as angioedema of the throat can be fatal.

Vibratory angioedema.

This very rare form of angioedema develops in response to contact with vibration. In vibratory angioedema, symptoms develop within two to five minutes after contact with a vibrating object and abate after about an hour. People with this disorder do not suffer from dermographism or pressure urticaria. Vibratory angioedema is diagnosed by holding a vibrating device such as a laboratory vortex machine against the forearm for four minutes. Speedy swelling of the whole forearm extending into the upper arm is also noted later. The principal treatment is avoidance of vibratory stimulants. Antihistamines have also been proven helpful.

Management.

The mainstay of therapy for both acute and chronic hives is education, avoiding triggers and using antihistamines.  Chronic hives can be difficult to treat and lead to significant disability. Unlike the acute form, 50–80% of people with chronic hives have no identifiable triggers. But 50% of people with chronic hives will experience remission within 1 year. Overall, treatment is geared towards symptomatic management. Individuals with chronic hives may need other medications in addition to antihistamines to control symptoms. People who experience hives with angioedema require emergency treatment as this is a life-threatening condition.  Treatment guidelines for the management of chronic hives have been published. According to the 2014 American practice parameters, treatment involves a stepwise approach. Step 1 consists of second generation, H1 receptor blocking antihistamines. Systemic glucocorticoids can also be used for episodes of severe disease but should not be used for long term due to their long list of side effects. Step 2 consists of increasing the dose of the current antihistamine, adding other antihistamines, or adding a leukotriene receptor antagonist such as montelukast. Step 3 consists of adding or replacing the current treatment with hydroxyzine or doxepin. If the individual doesn't respond to steps 1–3 then they are considered to have refractory symptoms. At this point, anti-inflammatory medications (dapsone, sulfasalazine), immunosuppressants (cyclosporin, sirolimus) or other medications like omalizumab can be used. These options are explained in more detail below.

Antihistamines.

Non-sedating antihistamines that block histamine H1 receptors are the first line of therapy. First-generation antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine or hydroxyzine, block both brain and peripheral H1 receptors, and cause sedation. Second-generation antihistamines, such as loratadine, cetirizine or desloratadine, selectively antagonize peripheral H1 receptors, and are less sedating, less anticholinergic, and generally preferred over the first-generation antihistamines. Fexofenadine, a new-generation antihistamine that blocks histamine H1 receptors, may be less sedating than some second-generation antihistamines.  People who do not respond to the maximum dose of H1 antihistamines may benefit from increasing the dose, then to switching to another non-sedating antihistamine, then to adding a leukotriene antagonist, then to using an older antihistamine, then to using systemic steroids and finally to using ciclosporin or omalizumab.  H2-receptor antagonists are sometimes used in addition to H1-antagonists to treat urticaria, but there is limited evidence for their efficacy.

Systemic steroids.

Oral glucocorticoids are effective in controlling symptoms of chronic hives however they have an extensive list of adverse effects such as adrenal suppression, weight gain, osteoporosis, hyperglycemia, etc. Therefore, their use should be limited to a couple of weeks. In addition, one study found that systemic glucocorticoids combined with antihistamines did not hasten the time to symptom control compared with antihistamines alone.

Leukotriene-receptor antagonists.

Leukotrienes are released from mast cells along with histamine. The medications, montelukast and zafirlukast block leukotriene receptors and can be used as add on treatment or in isolation for people with CU. It is important to note that these medications may be more beneficial for people with NSAID induced CU.

Other.

Other options for refractory symptoms of chronic hives include anti-inflammatory medications, omalizumab, and immunosuppressants. Potential anti-inflammatory agents include dapsone, sulfasalazine, and hydroxychloroquine. Dapsone is a sulfone antimicrobial agent and is thought to suppress prostaglandin and leukotriene activity. It is helpful in therapy-refractory cases and is contraindicated in people with G6PD deficiency. Sulfasalazine, a 5-ASA derivative, is thought to alter adenosine release and inhibit IgE mediated mast cell degranulation, Sulfasalazine is a good option for people with anemia who cannot take dapsone. Hydroxychloroquine is an antimalarial agent that suppresses T lymphocytes. It has a low cost however it takes longer than dapsone or sulfasalazine to work.  Omalizumab was approved by the FDA in 2014 for people with hives 12 years old and above with chronic hives. It is a monoclonal antibody directed against IgE. Significant improvement in pruritus and quality of life was observed in a phase III, multicenter, randomized control trial. Immunosuppressants used for CU include cyclosporine, tacrolimus, sirolimus, and mycophenolate. Calcineurin inhibitors, such as cyclosporine and tacrolimus, inhibit cell responsiveness to mast cell products and inhibit T cell activity. They are preferred by some experts to treat severe symptoms. Sirolimus and mycophenolate have less evidence for their use in the treatment of chronic hives but reports have shown them to be efficacious. Immunosuppressants are generally reserved as the last line of therapy for severe cases due to their potential for serious adverse effects.

Research.

Afamelanotide is being studied as a hives treatment.  Opioid antagonists such as naltrexone have tentative evidence to support their use.

History.

The term "urticaria" was first used by the Scottish physician William Cullen in 1769. It originates from the Latin word "urtica", meaning stinging hair or nettle, as the classical presentation follows the contact with a perennial flowering plant "Urtica dioica". The history of urticaria dates back to 1000–2000 BC with its reference as a wind-type concealed rash in the book "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic" from "Huangdi Neijing". Hippocrates in the 4th century first described urticaria as "knidosis" after the Greek word "knido" for nettle. The discovery of mast cells by Paul Ehrlich in 1879 brought urticaria and similar conditions under a comprehensive idea of allergic conditions.

Hives, also known as urticaria, is a kind of skin rash with red, raised, itchy bumps. They may also burn or sting. Often the patches of rash move around. Typically they last a few days and do not leave any long-lasting skin changes. Fewer than 5% of cases last for more than six weeks. The condition frequently recurs. Hives frequently occur following an infection or as a result of an allergic reaction such as to medication, insect bites, or food. Psychological stress, cold temperature, or vibration may also be a trigger. In half of cases the cause remains unknown. Risk factors include having conditions such as hay fever or asthma. Diagnosis is typically based on the appearance. Patch testing may be useful to determine the allergy. Prevention is by avoiding whatever it is that causes the condition. Treatment is typically with antihistamines such as diphenhydramine and ranitidine. In severe cases, corticosteroids or leukotriene inhibitors may also be used. Keeping the environmental temperature cool is also useful. For cases that last more than six weeks immunosuppressants such as ciclosporin may be used. About 20% of people are affected. Cases of short duration occur equally in males and females while cases of long duration are more common in females. Cases of short duration are more common among children while cases of long duration are more common among those who are middle aged. Hives have been described at least since the time of Hippocrates. The term urticaria is from the Latin "urtica" meaning "nettle".

荨麻疹(hives、urticaria)是一种很常见的皮肤病,俗称风团或风疹块,有的地区叫鬼风疙瘩,中医称瘾疹,客语称冷<unk>,是一种皮肤过敏。症状是局部皮肤忽然成块地红肿,发痒或刺痒。病灶时常会在身上其他区域轮流出现。一般来说,荨麻疹会持续数日,且不会留下任何疤痕。只有小于百分之五的案例会持续六周以上,荨麻疹的症状常会复发。 荨麻疹常在患者罹患感染症时,或是对于药物、蚊虫叮咬,或食物过敏后出现。心理压力、失温、或震动都有可能诱发。半数以上的荨麻疹病因都不明。过敏性鼻炎或气喘的病史,是重要危险因子。皮肤外观是主要的诊断依据。贴布试验有时候对诊断过敏会有所帮助。 避免接触过敏原是最重要的方式。主要的方式为使用苯海拉明、雷尼替丁等抗组织胺药。较为严重的案例可能会使用皮质类固醇或白三烯素剂。环境气温保持凉爽,也会有所帮助。对于持续六周以上的症状,像是环孢灵等的免疫剂也许会有所帮助。 约有五分之一的人都曾罹患过荨麻疹。对于短期的症状,性别并未造成差异,大多发生在小孩身上;但症状持续较久的案例,则大多为女性,发生在中年人身上。荨麻疹在两千多年前的中医典籍—「内经」一书中即有相关的记载,因症状来的快去得快疾如风故又俗称风疹块,后世用发作的感觉类比接触荨麻而得名。西方在希波克拉底时代也已有记载。荨麻疹的英文「urticaria」源自拉丁文,"urtica"原意为"荨麻"。


History.

After the occupation of Palermo by the Arabs (the Emirate of Sicily), the Bishop of Palermo was forced to move his seat outside the capital. The role of cathedral was assigned to a modest little church, "Aghia Kiriaki", in a nearby village later known as Monreale. After the Norman conquest in 1072, Christians took back the former Palermo cathedral. Probably the village's role as temporary ecclesiastical centre played a part in King William II's decision to build a cathedral here.  Monreale was a small village for a long time. When the Norman Kings of Sicily chose the area as their hunting resort, more people and commerce came to the area after the royalty built a palace (probably identifiable with the modern town hall).  Under King William II, a large monastery of Benedictines coming from Cava de' Tirreni, with its church, was founded and provided with large assets. The new construction also had an important defensive function. Monreale was the seat of the metropolitan archbishop of Sicily, which from then on exerted a significant influence over Sicily.  In the 19th century, underage marriages, or those performed without the blessing of the bride's parents, were known as "the marriages of Monreale", according to Eliza Lynn Linton. These referred to marriages performed in remote places, where the law was less observed. (see Gretna Green).

Main sights.

The Cathedral.

The cathedral of Monreale is one of the greatest extant examples of Norman architecture. It was begun in 1174 by William II and completed four years later. In 1182 the church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was, by a bull of Pope Lucius III, elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral.  The church is a national monument of Italy and one of the most important attractions of Sicily. Its size is 102 meters long and 40 meters wide. The façade is characterized by two large towers (one partially destroyed by a lightning in 1807) and a portal with Romanesque bronze doors decorated by Bonanno Pisano. The interior is on the Latin cross plan, divided by ogival arcades, and features fresco cycles executed during the reigns of William II and Tancred of Sicily (c. 1194). The cloister has 228 small columns, each with different decorations influenced by Provençal, Burgundian, Arab and Salerno medieval art.

International relations.

Monreale is twinned with:

Monreale (Sicilian: Murriali) is a town and "comune" in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily, southern Italy. It is located on the slope of Monte Caputo, overlooking the very fertile valley called ""La Conca d'oro"" (the Golden Shell), a production area of orange, olive and almond trees, the produce of which is exported in large quantities. The town, which has a population of approximately 39,000, is about inland (south) of Palermo, the regional capital.

蒙雷阿莱(;西西里语:Murriali,意为“王室山”)是意大利西西里岛巴勒莫省的一个市镇,位于巴勒莫市以南10公里Caputo山的山坡上,俯瞰着名为“金色贝壳”(La Conca d'oro)的肥沃山谷,出产柑橘、橄榄和杏树。总面积529平方公里,人口37757人,人口密度71.4人/平方公里(2009年)。ISTAT代码为082049。


奥克兰–阿拉米达郡竞技场

Stadium history.

Design.

The Coliseum features an underground design where the playing surface is not only below ground level, it is below sea level. Consequently, fans entering the stadium find themselves walking on to the main concourse of

Planning and construction.

Business and political leaders in Oakland had long been in competition with neighbor San Francisco, as well as other cities in the West, and worked for Oakland and its greater East Bay suburbs to be recognized nationally as a viable metropolitan area with its own identity and reputation, distinct and separate from that of San Francisco. Professional sports was seen as a primary way for the East Bay to gain such recognition. As a result, the desire for a major league stadium in the city of Oakland intensified during the 1950s and 1960s.  By 1960, a non-profit corporation was formed to oversee the financing

Configurations.

In its baseball configuration, the Coliseum has the most foul territory of any ballpark in Major League Baseball. Thus, many balls that would reach the seats in other ballparks can be caught for outs at the Coliseum. The distance to the backstop was initially, but was reduced to in 1969.  From 1968 through 1981 and in 1995, two football configurations were used at the stadium. During Raider preseason games and all regular season games played while the baseball season was still going on, the field was set up from home plate to center field (east/west). Seats that were down the foul lines for baseball games became the

Stadium name changes.

For more than its first three decades (1966–1998) the stadium was known as Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum.  In September 1997, UMAX Technologies agreed to acquire the naming rights to the stadium. However, following a dispute, a court decision reinstated the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum name. In 1998, Network Associates agreed to pay US$5.8 million over five years for the naming rights and the stadium became known as Network Associates Coliseum, or, alternately in marketing and media usage as, "the Net".  Network Associates renewed the contract in 2003 for an additional five years at a cost of $6 million. In mid-2004, Network Associates was renamed McAfee, restoring its name from before its 1997 merger with Network General, and the stadium was renamed McAfee Coliseum accordingly.  McAfee was offered a renewal of the naming contract in 2008, but it was declined. The name reverted to the pre-1997 name of Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum on September 19, 2008. The stadium retained its original name until April 27, 2011, when it was renamed Overstock.com Coliseum via a six-year, $7.2

Eventual replacements.

Athletics.

A's owner Lewis Wolff made the first official proposal for a new ballpark in Oakland to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority on August 12, 2005. The new stadium would have been located across 66th Avenue from the Coliseum in what is currently an industrial area north of the Coliseum. The park would have held 35,000 fans, making it the smallest park in the major leagues. Plans for the Oakland location fell through in early 2006 when several of the owners of the land proposed for the new ballpark decided not to sell. Throughout 2006, the

Athletics Coliseum Redevelopment plan.

The Athletics preliminary plans for the Coliseum redevelopment include a large park, surrounded by substantial new housing, including affordable housing, a skills center, community gathering space, office and retail space, and restaurants. The new park will be anchored by the two focal points of Oakland sports history: Oracle Arena, repurposed as a concert and cultural events center; and the original Coliseum baseball diamond,

Raiders.

Under any such replacement proposals, the Oakland Raiders would have presumably continued to play football in the Coliseum, although there were proposals for the Raiders to play at Levi's Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara as well as rumors regarding the Raiders' possible return to Los Angeles.  The Raiders proposed a 50,000-seat stadium in the same spot of the Coliseum in 2013. It would have cost $800 million, with $300 million coming from the Raiders, $200 million coming from the NFL's stadium loan program, and the final $300 million coming from the city.  After the failure of the stadium plan, Raiders owner Mark Davis met with officials with the city of San Antonio on July 29, 2014, to discuss moving the Raiders to the city in time for the 2015 season; they would have temporarily played home games at the Alamodome until a new permanent stadium was built.  On September 3, 2014, the city of Oakland claimed it had reached a tentative deal to build a new football stadium in Oakland, which would have resulted in the Coliseum being demolished. The claim was met with silence from the Raiders, who continued to explore San Antonio, and opposition from Alameda County.  On February 19, 2015, the Raiders and the San Diego Chargers announced plans for a privately financed $1.7

Notable events.

1960s.

In November 1969 the Rolling Stones performed two shows at the stadium. The bootleg recording of the show was titled "Live'r Than You'll Ever Be".

Raiders and A's move in.

The Raiders played their first game at the stadium on September 18, 1966. In 1968, the Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland and began play at the stadium. The Athletics' first game was played on April 17, 1968. The stadium complex cost $25.5 million ($ adjusted for inflation) to build and rests on of land. On April 17, 1968, Boog Powell hit the first major league home run in the history of the Coliseum. On May8 of that year, Catfish Hunter pitched the ninth perfect game in Major League history at the Coliseum. The Coliseum hosted the 1967 and 1969 AFL championship games. Additionally, the venue had hosted the second match of the NPSL Final 1967.

1970s.

From 1970 to 1972 the stadium hosted three college football benefit games featuring Bay Area schools versus historically black colleges.  The Coliseum hosted the 1971 East–West Shrine Game on January 2, 1971.  In 1972, the Athletics won their first of three straight World Series championships and their first since their years in Philadelphia.  The awkwardness of the baseball–football conversion, as well as the low seating capacity (around 54,000 for football) and that the prime seating on the east side consisted of temporary bleachers led the Raiders to explore other stadium options. One such option was Memorial Stadium on the UC Berkeley campus. Several preseason games were played there in the early 1970s along with one regular season game in 1973 (a 12–7 victory over the Miami Dolphins during September while the A's regular season was going on). However, in response to traffic and parking issues associated with these games (while Cal games

1980s.

In 1980, the Raiders won Super Bowl XV. Two years later, the Raiders moved to Los Angeles, leaving the A's as the only remaining tenants of Oakland Coliseum. Only days later, Finley agreed to sell the A's to Marvin Davis, who planned to move the A's to Denver. However, city and county officials were not about to lose Oakland's status as a major league city in its own right, and refused to let the A's out of their lease.

1990s.

In the 1990s, several major concerts were held, but these were not "Days on the Green", by definition, because they occurred at night.  In July 1995, the Raiders agreed to return to Oakland provided that Oakland Coliseum underwent renovations. In November 1995, those renovations commenced and continued through the next summer until the

2000s.

On April 2, 2006, the broadcast booth was renamed in honor of the late Bill King, a legendary Bay Area sportscaster who was the play-by-play voice of the A's, Raiders and Warriors for 44 years.  San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, announced in November 2007 that they would be playing their "big draw"

2010s.

On May 9, 2010, almost 42 years to the day of Catfish Hunter's perfect game, Dallas Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in Major League history at the Coliseum. A commemorative graphic was placed on the baseball outfield wall next to Rickey Henderson's retired number on May 17, their next home game.  With the Miami Marlins opening their own ballpark in 2012, the stadium became the last remaining venue in the United States that hosted both a Major League Baseball and a National Football League team.  As part of a new ten-year lease signed by the Athletics with the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Authority in 2014, the Oakland Coliseum had a new $10 million scoreboard system (two large outfield scoreboards, 36 feet tall and 145 feet wide, and two ribbon scoreboards) installed for the start of the 2015 MLB season. Also part of the new lease, the Coliseum Authority agreed to pay $1million a year, with five percent annual increases, into a fund to maintain the stadium.  For

Concerts.

Commencing in 1973, the stadium hosted an annual Day on the Green concert series, presented by Bill Graham and his company Bill Graham Presents, which continued on into the early 1990s.  In January 1974, singer Marvin Gaye used the stadium as the site for his comeback to the performance stage. His acclaimed performance was later recorded for the live album, "Marvin Gaye Live!".  Led Zeppelin played what turned out to be their final North American concerts with twin shows during their 1977 North American Tour. This was due to the brutal assault on Peter Grant's 11-year-old son Warren by a Bill Graham roadie, and the sudden death of Robert Plant's young son Karac in the UK.  Parliament-Funkadelic brought the P-Funk Earth Tour to the Coliseum on January 21, 1977. Their performance was recorded and released as a double LP set entitled.  The stadium played host

In popular culture.

Richard Marx shot the video for "Take This Heart" on the baseball field of the Coliseum.  The stadium was the location for the 1994 Disney movie "Angels in the Outfield". Although Angel Stadium of Anaheim (known as Anaheim Stadium at the time)

Other events.

The stadium has hosted

Criticism.

Baseball.

In recent years, the Coliseum has been criticized as being one of the "worst stadiums in baseball". For instance, in 2011, "Bleacher Report" named it the fifth-worst stadium in the majors, partly due to its expansive foul territory. In 2017 "The New York Times" called the Coliseum "a bland, charmless concrete monstrosity" that "isn't worthy of preservation... perhaps America's most hated sports stadium".  Two years later, in another "Times" article, writer Jack Nicas not only defended the Coliseum against criticism, he argued that its perceived failings were actually strengths. "Yes, the Coliseum is ugly, but it is cheap, gritty and fun," he said. To his surprise, on moving to Oakland

Public Debt.

A 1996 expansion of the stadium was funded by a controversial issuance—critics said that "(Oakland) Raiders' late owner, Al Davis, fleeced local officials at the expense of taxpayers"—of some $220 million of public debt by both Alameda County and the City of Oakland, resulting in substantial debt service payments for both governments. As of spring of 2018, the City of Oakland still owed $135 million for

Mount Davis.

One feature of the 1996 expansion was the addition of more than 10,000 seats in the upper deck that now spans the outfield in the baseball configuration, enclosing the stadium. Due to the stands' height and the loss of the Oakland hills view, A's fans have derisively nicknamed the structure "Mount Davis", after late Raiders owner Al Davis. It has been criticized as an area which has made the Oakland Coliseum look ever more like a football stadium, and not at all one for baseball. From 1997 to 2005, while the A's opened part of the upper deck for baseball, they did not count it as part of listed capacity; while the "official" capacity was 43,962, the "actual" capacity was 55,945.  In 2006, the Athletics covered the entire third deck with a tarpaulin (tarp), reducing capacity to 34,077—the smallest capacity in MLB at the time. Even if a

Sewage.

On June 16, 2013, following the game against the Seattle Mariners, the Coliseum experienced a severe sewage backup. This led to pipes leaking out puddles of sewage into the showers, offices, visitor training room and storage areas on the clubhouse level of the stadium, all of which are below sea level. After the game, the A's and Mariners were forced to share the Oakland Raiders locker room, located on the stadium's second floor. According

The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, or Oakland Coliseum for short, is a multi-purpose stadium in Oakland, California, United States, which is home to the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). The stadium opened in 1966 and was the last remaining stadium in the United States shared by professional football and baseball teams having done so from 1968 until 2019. From 1966 until 1981 and again from 1995 until 2019, the stadium was home of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. It was also the home of the Oakland Invaders of the United States Football League from 1983 to 1985. The Coliseum was also home to some games of the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer in 2008–2009 and hosted games of the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum complex consists of the stadium and the neighboring Oakland Arena.

奥克兰–阿拉米达郡竞技场(Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum),在旧金山湾区当地多使用简称「奥克兰竞技场」(Oakland Coliseum),或仅称为「竞技场」(The Coliseum),是一座位于美国加利福尼亚州奥克兰南部的多用途运动场,可供棒球、足球、和美式足球比赛等使用。它和邻接的甲骨文体育馆共同组成旧金山湾区最大的体育园区。在Overstock.com以该公司的短网址命名的「O.co Coliseum」冠名合约于2016年到期后恢复为原名。在这之前曾经使用过的名称为1998至2004年间的「Network Associates Coliseum」和2004至2008年间的「McAfee Coliseum」。


History.

In ancient Greece, secret ballots were used in several situations, like ostracism, and also to remain hidden from people seeking favors.  In ancient Rome, the laws regulating elections were collectively known as "Tabellariae Leges", the first of which was introduced in 139 BC ("lex Gabinia tabellaria").  Today, the practice of casting secret ballots is so commonplace that most voters would not consider that any other method might be used. Other methods which had been used and which are still used in some places and contexts include "oral votes" as well as open ballot systems involving the public display of votes or roll calls. Other public voting methods include raising a hand to indicate a vote, or the use of coloured marbles or cards to indicate a voting choice.

France.

Article 31 of the Constitution of the Year III of the Revolution (1795) states that "All elections are to be held by secret ballot". The same goes with the constitution of 1848: voters could hand-write the name of their preferred candidate on their ballot at home (the only condition was to write on white paper) or receive one distributed on the street. The ballot was folded in order to prevent other people from reading its contents.  Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte attempted to abolish the secret ballot for the 1851 plebiscite with an electoral decree requesting electors to write down "yes" or "no" (in French: "oui" or "non") under the eyes of everyone. But he faced strong opposition and finally changed his mind, allowing secret ballot to take place.  According to the official web site of the "Assemblée nationale" (the lower house of the French parliament), the voting booth was permanently adopted only in 1913.

United Kingdom.

The demand for a secret ballot was one of the six points of Chartism. The British parliament of the time refused even to consider the Chartist demands, but it is notable that Lord Macaulay, in his speech of 1842, while rejecting Chartism's six points as a whole, admitted that the secret ballot was one of the two points he could support.  The London School Board election of 1870 was the first large-scale election by secret ballot in Britain.  After several failed attempts (several of them spearheaded by George Grote), the secret ballot was eventually extended generally in the Ballot Act 1872, substantially reducing the cost of campaigning (as treating was no longer realistically possible) and was first used on 15 August 1872 to re-elect Hugh Childers as MP for Pontefract in a ministerial by-election following his appointment as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The original ballot box, sealed in wax with a liquorice stamp, is held at Pontefract museum.  However, the UK uses numbered ballots in order to allow courts to intervene, under rare circumstances, to identify which candidate voters voted for.

Australia and New Zealand.

In Australia, secret balloting appears to have been first implemented in Tasmania on 7 February 1856.  Until the original Tasmanian "Electoral Act 1856" was "re-discovered" recently, credit for the first implementation of the secret ballot often went to Victoria, where it was pioneered by the former mayor of Melbourne, William Nicholson, and simultaneously South Australia. Victoria enacted legislation for secret ballots on 19 March 1856, and South Australian Electoral Commissioner William Boothby generally gets credit for creating the system finally enacted into law in South Australia on 2 April of that same year (a fortnight later). The other Australian colonies followed: New South Wales (1858), Queensland (1859), and Western Australia (1877). New Zealand implemented secret voting in 1870.  State electoral laws, including the secret ballot, applied for the first election of the Australian Parliament in 1901, and the system has continued to be a feature of federal elections and referenda. The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 does not explicitly set out the secret ballot but a reading of sections 206, 207, 325, 327 of the Act would imply its assumption. Sections 323 and 226(4) do however, apply the principle of a secret ballot to polling staff and would also support the assumption.

United States.

Before 1890, partisan newspapers printed filled-out ballots which party workers distributed on election day so voters could drop them directly into the boxes. All of the states replaced these with secret ballots around 1890, popularly called "Australian ballots." They were printed by the local government and listed all the candidates impartially.  The "Australian ballot" is defined as having four parts:  In the United States, most states had moved to secret ballots soon after the presidential election of 1884. Kentucky was the last state to do so in 1891, when it quit using an oral ballot. But seven states did not have government-printed ballots until the 20th century; South Carolina created them in 1950 and Georgia in 1922.  The first city to start using the Australian ballot in the United States was Louisville, Kentucky, using a ballot drafted by Lewis Naphtali Dembitz, the uncle of and inspiration for future Supreme Court associate justice Louis Brandeis, and the first state to adopt the Australian ballot was Massachusetts. For this reason it is also known as the "Massachusetts ballot". In the U.S., voting by secret ballot was universal by 1892 but criminal prohibitions against paying people to vote were only instituted in 1925.  Elections in the United States are mostly held by secret ballot, although some states use mail ballots instead, which violate requirements 3 and 4 of the "Australian ballot", as it is distributed to the home, and potentially marked in the presence of other people. The states of Colorado, Oregon, and Washington conduct all elections by mailed ballots. The Constitution for the state of West Virginia still allows voters to cast "open ballots".

International law.

The right to hold elections by secret ballot is included in numerous treaties and international agreements that obligate their signatory states:

Disabled people.

Ballot design and polling place architecture often denies the disabled the possibility to cast a vote in secret. In many democracies disabled persons may vote by appointing another person who is allowed to join them in the voting booth and fill the ballot in their name. This does not assure secrecy of the ballot.  The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which entered into force in 2008 assures secret ballot for disabled voters. Article 29 of the Convention requires that all Contracting States protect "the right of the person with disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums". According to this provision, each Contracting State should provide for voting equipment which would enable disabled voters to vote independently and secretly. Some democracies, e.g. the United States, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Albania or India allow disabled voters to use electronic voting machines. In others, among them Azerbaijan, Canada, Ghana, the United Kingdom, and most African and Asian countries, visually impaired voters can use ballots in Braille or paper ballot templates. Article 29 also requires that Contracting States ensure "that voting procedures, facilities and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use." In some democracies, e.g. United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States, all the polling places already are fully accessible for disabled voters.

Secrecy exceptions.

The United Kingdom secret ballot arrangements are sometimes criticised because it is possible to link a ballot paper to the voter who cast it. Each ballot paper is individually numbered and each elector also has a number. When an elector is given a ballot paper, their number is noted down on the counterfoil of the ballot paper (which also carries the ballot paper number). This means, of course, that the secrecy of the ballot is not guaranteed, if anyone can gain access to the counterfoils, which are locked away securely before the ballot boxes are opened at the count. Polling station officials colluding with election scrutineers may therefore determine how individual electors have voted.  This measure is thought to be justified as a security arrangement so that if there was an allegation of fraud, false ballot papers could be identified. The process of matching ballot papers to voters is formally permissible only if an Election Court requires it; in fact the Election Court has rarely made such an order since the secret ballot was introduced in 1872. One example was in a close local election contest in Richmond-upon-Thames in the late 1970s with three disputed ballots and a declared majority of two votes. Reportedly prisoners in a UK prison were observed identifying voters' ballot votes on a list in 2008. The legal authority for this system is set out in the Parliamentary Elections Rules in Schedule 1 of the Representation of the People Act 1983.  In the United States, most states guarantee a secret ballot. But some states, including Indiana and North Carolina, require the ability to link some ballots to voters. This may for example be used with absentee voting to retain the ability to cancel a vote if the voter dies before election day. Sometimes the number on the ballot is printed on a perforated stub which is torn off and placed on a ring (like a shower curtain ring) before the ballot is cast into the ballot box. The stubs prove that an elector has voted and ensure that they can only vote once, but the ballots themselves are both secret and anonymous. At the end of voting day, the number of ballots inside the box should match the number of stubs on the ring, certifying that every ballot was cast by a registered elector, and that none of them were lost or fabricated. Sometimes the ballots themselves are numbered, making the vote trackable. In 2012 in Colorado, this procedure was ruled legal by Federal District Judge Christine Arguello, who determined that the U.S. Constitution does not grant a right to a secret ballot.

Criticism.

Some people believe that the secret ballot enables election fraud and so should be eliminated or supplemented with other ways of verifying voting, such as cryptographically secure receipts.

The secret ballot, also known as Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous, forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote buying. The system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy.

不记名投票,又称无记名投票、匿名投票、秘密投票、暗票,是一种在选举中的投票形式,相反为记名投票。投票者于投票时,选票不用写下自己的名字及身份识别,避免非自愿让人知道自己的投票意向。由于这种投票方法不能追查投票者的投票意向,可确保投票者所投的票出于个人意愿、而非受人指使或强迫,所以是一个世界普遍公认的选举方法。


Total book value vs tangible book value.

Technically, P/B can be calculated either including or excluding intangible assets and goodwill. When intangible assets and goodwill are excluded, the ratio is often specified to be "price to tangible book value" or "price to tangible book".

Value and limitations.

Except in the case of a small minority of companies like property companies and investment trusts that are asset based, book values bear little or no relationship to true values of the companies. The items on the balance sheet are the result of various transactions, recorded using double entry at a particular point in time, to the extent that they do not form part of the profit and loss account to that point in time. The assets and liabilities comprising the book value are mainly stated at historic cost though a few items therein may be stated at valuations.  In many of today's companies, their most valuable assets are not shown on the balances sheet and are therefore not included in the book value. Book values are meaningless in companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, GlaxoSmithKline, etc. where their intellectual capital, internally generated goodwill, brand awareness, etc. are much more valuable than the assets per their balance sheets but are not included therein. This generally leads the company's market value to be higher than its book value.  In Benjamin Graham's days, book values were more relevant as most companies then had significant investments in tangible assets and such assets comprised the bulk of the value of the company. The value of today's companies, other than asset based companies like investment trusts and property companies, is very different from the book values and there is no relationship between their intrinsic values and their book values. That is why Warren Buffett said "In all cases, what is clear is that book value is meaningless as an indicator of value" in his 2000 annual report.  Despite the theoretical limitations of the price-book ratio, academic research has persistently shown that stocks with low price-book ratios persistently outperform stocks with high price-book ratios. Fama and French incorporated a price-book term in their influential three factor model. Penman Richardson and Tuna (2013) show how the ratio can be decomposed into financing and operating components. Foye and Mramor (2016) show that while stocks with low price-book ratios normally outperform, the ratios decomposed elements exhibit a different relationship with returns in different countries, implying that the price-book ratio may have a country-specific interpretation.

The price-to-book ratio, or P/B ratio, is a financial ratio used to compare a company's current market price to its book value. The calculation can be performed in two ways, but the result should be the same each way. In the first way, the company's market capitalization can be divided by the company's total book value from its balance sheet. The second way, using per-share values, is to divide the company's current share price by the book value per share (i.e. its book value divided by the number of outstanding shares).

股票的市净率(Price-to-Book Ratio, PBR, P/B),又名-{zh-hans:市账率、股价净值比; zh-hant:市账率、股价净值比; zh-tw:市净率、股价净值比;}-,指每股市价除以每股净资产,通常作为股票孰贱孰贵的指标之一。


General MIDI 1 Requirements.

To be GM 1 compatible, sound generating devices (keyboards, hardware or software synthesizers, sound cards) are required to meet the General MIDI System Level 1 performance specification:

Parameter interpretations.

GM Instruments must also obey the following conventions for program and controller events:

Program change events.

In MIDI, the instrument sound or "program" for each of the 16 possible MIDI channels is selected with the Program Change message, which has a Program Number parameter. The following table shows which instrument sound corresponds to each of the 128 possible Program Numbers for GM only. There are 128 program numbers. The numbers can be displayed as values 1 to 128, or, alternatively, as 0 to 127. The 0 to 127 numbering is usually only used internally by the synthesizer; the vast majority of MIDI devices, digital audio workstations and professional MIDI sequencers display these Program Numbers as shown in the table (1–128).

Percussion.

In GM standard MIDI files, channel 10 is reserved for percussion instruments only. Notes recorded on channel 10 always produce percussion sounds when transmitted to a keyboard or synth module which uses the GM standard. Each of the 128 different possible note numbers correlate to a unique percussive instrument, but the sound's pitch is not relative to the note number.  If a MIDI file is programmed to the General MIDI protocol, then the results are predictable, but timbre and sound fidelity may vary depending on the quality of the GM synthesizer:

Controller events.

In MIDI, adjustable parameters for each of the 16 possible MIDI channels may be set with the Control Change (CC) message, which has a Control Number parameter and a Control Value parameter (expressed in a range from 0 to 127). GM also specifies which operations should be performed by multiple Control Numbers.

RPN.

GM defines several Registered Parameters, which act like Controllers but are addressed in a different way. In MIDI, every Registered Parameter is assigned a Registered Parameter Number or RPN. Registered Parameters are usually called RPNs for short.  Setting Registered Parameters requires sending (numbers are decimal):  The following global Registered Parameter Numbers (RPNs) are standardised (the parameter is specified by RPN LSB/MSB pair and the value is set by Data Entry LSB/MSB pair): An example of an RPN control sequence to set coarse tuning to A440 (parm 2, value 64) is codice_1, codice_2, codice_3, codice_4, codice_5.

System Exclusive messages.

Two GM System Exclusive ("SysEx") messages are defined: one to enable and disable General MIDI compatibility mode (for synthesizers that also have non-GM modes); and the other to set the synthesizer's master volume.

GS extensions.

A superset of the General MIDI standard which added several proprietary extensions. The most notable addition was the ability to address multiple banks of programs (instrument sounds) by using an additional pair of Bank Select controllers to specify up to 16384 "variation" sounds (cc#0 is Bank Select MSB, and cc#32 is Bank Select LSB). Other most notable features were 9 Drum kits with 14 additional drum sounds each, simultaneous Percussion Kits - up to 2 (Channels 10/11), Control Change messages for controlling the send level of sound effect blocks (cc#91-94), entering additional parameters (cc#98-101), portamento, sostenuto, soft pedal (cc#65-67), and model-specific SysEx messages for setting various parameters of the synth engine.  GS was introduced in 1991 with the Roland Sound Canvas line, which was also Roland's first General MIDI synth module.

XG extensions.

A superset of the General MIDI standard which added several proprietary extensions. The most notable additions were the 600 instruments and 32 notes polyphony.  XG was introduced in 1994 with the Yamaha MU-series line of sound modules.

General MIDI Level 2.

In 1999, the official GM standard was updated to include more controllers, patches, RPNs and SysEx messages, in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting and proprietary Roland GS and Yamaha XG additions. Here's a quick overview of the GM2 changes in comparison to GM/GS:  Additional melodic instruments can be accessed by setting CC#0 to 121 and then using CC#32 to select the bank before a Program Change.

General MIDI (also known as GM or GM 1) is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the American MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee (JMSC) and first published in 1991. The official specification is available in English from the MMA, bound together with the MIDI 1.0 specification, and in Japanese from the Association of Musical Electronic Industry (AMEI).

General MIDI,简称GM,是MIDI的统一规格。虽然MIDI自己本身提供了使不同仪器能够在基础水平上互用的协定,但General MIDI提供了更进一步的规范:它要求所有的GM相容仪器达到一些共同的特点,像是能够同时演奏至少24个音符(复音),而且它包含了许多未在MIDI中规范,关于参数和控制讯息的解释,像是定义仪器可以拥有128个发声数。


History.

Though used earlier in papers and discussions, the term 4GL was first used formally by James Martin in his 1981 book "Applications Development Without Programmers" to refer to non-procedural, high-level specification languages. In some primitive way, early 4GLs were included in the Informatics MARK-IV (1967) product and Sperry's MAPPER (1969 internal use, 1979 release).  The motivations for the '4GL' inception and continued interest are several. The term can apply to a large set of software products. It can also apply to an approach that looks for greater semantic properties and implementation power. Just as the 3GL offered greater power to the programmer, so too did the 4GL open up the development environment to a wider population.  The early input scheme for the 4GL supported entry of data within the 72-character limit of the punched card (8 bytes used for sequencing) where a card's tag would identify the type or function. With judicious use of a few cards, the 4GL deck could offer a wide variety of processing and reporting capability whereas the equivalent functionality coded in a 3GL could subsume, perhaps, a whole box or more of cards.  The 72-character metaphor continued for a while as hardware progressed to larger memory and terminal interfaces. Even with its limitations, this approach supported highly sophisticated applications.  As interfaces improved and allowed longer statement lengths and grammar-driven input handling, greater power ensued. An example of this is described on the Nomad page.  The development of the 4GL was influenced by several factors, with the hardware and operating system constraints having a large weight. When the 4GL was first introduced, a disparate mix of hardware and operating systems mandated custom application development support that was specific to the system in order to ensure sales. One example is the MAPPER system developed by Sperry. Though it has roots back to the beginning, the system has proven successful in many applications and has been ported to modern platforms. The latest variant is embedded in the BIS offering of Unisys. MARK-IV is now known as VISION:BUILDER and is offered by Computer Associates.  Santa Fe railroad used MAPPER to develop a system, in a project that was an early example of 4GL, rapid prototyping, and programming by users. The idea was that it was easier to teach railroad experts to use MAPPER than to teach programmers the "intricacies of railroad operations".  One of the early (and portable) languages that had 4GL properties was Ramis developed by Gerald C. Cohen at Mathematica, a mathematical software company. Cohen left Mathematica and founded Information Builders to create a similar reporting-oriented 4GL, called FOCUS.  Later 4GL types are tied to a database system and are far different from the earlier types in their use of techniques and resources that have resulted from the general improvement of computing with time.  An interesting twist to the 4GL scene is realization that graphical interfaces and the related reasoning done by the user form a 'language' that is poorly understood.

Types.

A number of different types of 4GLs exist:  Some 4GLs have integrated tools that allow for the easy specification of all the required information:

Low code environments.

In the twenty-first century, 4GL systems have emerged as "low code" environments or platforms for the problem of rapid application development in short periods of time. Vendors often provide sample systems such as CRM, contract management, bug tracking from which development can occur with little programming.  Extract data from files or database to create reports in a wide range of formats is done by the report generator tools.

A fourth-generation programming language (4GL) is any computer programming language that belongs to a class of languages envisioned as an advancement upon third-generation programming languages (3GL). Each of the programming language generations aims to provide a higher level of abstraction of the internal computer hardware details, making the language more programmer-friendly, powerful, and versatile. While the definition of 4GL has changed over time, it can be typified by operating more with large collections of information at once rather than focusing on just bits and bytes. Languages claimed to be 4GL may include support for database management, report generation, mathematical optimization, GUI development, or web development. Some researchers state that 4GLs are a subset of domain-specific languages.


Etymology and nomenclature.

"Rāma" is a Vedic Sanskrit word with two contextual meanings. In one context as found in "Atharva Veda", as stated by Monier Monier-Williams, means "dark, dark-colored, black" and is related to the term "ratri" which means night. In another context as found in other Vedic texts, the word means "pleasing, delightful, charming, beautiful, lovely". The word is sometimes used as a suffix in different Indian languages and religions, such as Pali in Buddhist texts, where "-rama" adds the sense of "pleasing to the mind, lovely" to the composite word.  "Rama" as a first name appears in the Vedic literature, associated with two patronymic names – Margaveya and Aupatasvini – representing different individuals. A third individual named "Rama Jamadagnya" is the purported author of hymn 10.110 of the "Rigveda" in the Hindu tradition. The word "Rama" appears in ancient literature in reverential terms for three individuals:  The

Legends.

This summary is a traditional legendary account, based on literary details from the "Ramayana" and other historic mythology-containing texts of Buddhism and Jainism. According to Sheldon Pollock, the figure of Rama incorporates more ancient "morphemes of Indian myths", such as the mythical legends of "Bali" and "Namuci". The ancient sage Valmiki used these morphemes in his "Ramayana" similes as in sections 3.27, 3.59, 3.73, 5.19 and 29.28.

Birth.

Rama was born on the ninth day of the lunar month Chaitra (March–April), a day celebrated across India as "Ram Navami". This coincides with one of the four Navratri on the Hindu calendar, in the spring season, namely the "Vasantha Navratri".  The ancient epic "Ramayana" states in the "Balakhanda" that Rama and his brothers were born to Kaushalya and Dasharatha in Ayodhya, a city on the banks of Sarayu River. The Jain versions of the "Ramayana", such as the "Paumacariya" (literally deeds of Padma) by Vimalasuri, also mention the details of the early life of Rama. The Jain texts are dated

Youth, family and friends.

Rama had three brothers, according to the "Balakhanda" section of the "Ramayana". These were Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna. The extant manuscripts of the text describes their education and training as young princes, but this is brief. Rama is portrayed as a polite, self-controlled, virtuous youth always ready to help others. His education included the Vedas, the Vedangas as well as the martial arts.  The years when Rama grew up are described in much greater detail by later Hindu texts, such as the "Ramavali" by Tulsidas. The template is similar to those found for Krishna, but in the poems of Tulsidas, Rama is milder and reserved introvert, rather than the prank-playing extrovert personality of Krishna.  The "Ramayana" mentions an archery contest organised

Exile and war.

Rama heads outside the Kosala kingdom, crosses Yamuna river and initially stays at Chitrakuta, on the banks of river Mandakini, in the hermitage of sage Vasishtha. This place is believed in the Hindu tradition to be the same as Chitrakoot on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The region has numerous Rama temples and is an important Vaishnava pilgrimage site. The texts describe nearby hermitages of Vedic rishis (sages) such as Atri, and that Rama roamed through forests, lived a humble simple life, provided protection and relief to ascetics in the forest being harassed and persecuted by demons, as they stayed at different ashrams.  After ten years of wandering and struggles, Rama arrives at Panchavati, on the banks of river Godavari. This region had numerous demons ("rakshashas").

Post-war rule and death.

The return of Rama to Ayodhya is celebrated with his coronation. It is called "Rama pattabhisheka", and his rule itself as "Rama rajya" described to be a just and fair rule. It is believed by many that when Rama returned people celebrated their happiness with fireworks, and the festival of Diwali is connected with Rama's return.  Upon Rama's accession as king, rumours emerge that Sita may have gone willingly when she was with Ravana; Sita protests that her capture

Inconsistencies.

Rama's legends vary significantly by the region and across manuscripts. While there is a common foundation, plot, grammar and an essential core of values associated with a battle between good and evil, there is neither a correct version nor a single verifiable ancient one. According to Paula Richman, there are hundreds of versions of "the story of Rama in India, southeast Asia and beyond". The versions vary by region reflecting local preoccupations and histories, and these cannot be called "divergences or different tellings" from the "real" version, rather all the versions of Rama story are real and true in their own meanings to the local cultural tradition, according to scholars such as Richman and Ramanujan.  The stories vary in details, particularly where the moral question

Dating.

In some Hindu texts, Rama is stated to have lived in the "Treta yuga" or "Dvapar yuga" that their authors estimate existed before about 5,000 BCE. A few other researchers place Rama to have more plausibly lived around 1250 BCE, based on regnal lists of Kuru and Vrishni leaders which if given more realistic reign lengths would place Bharat and Satwata, contemporaries of Rama, around that period. According to Hasmukh Dhirajlal

Appearance.

Valmiki in Ramayana describes Rama as a charming, well built person of a dark complexion ("varnam shyaamam") and long arms (Aajana bahu).

Iconography.

Rama iconography shares elements of Vishnu avatars, but has several distinctive elements. It never has more than two hands, he holds (or has nearby) a "bana" (arrow) in his right hand, while he holds the "dhanus" (bow) in his left.

Philosophy and symbolism.

Rama's life story is imbued with symbolism. According to Sheldon Pollock, the life of Rama as told in the Indian texts is a masterpiece that offers a framework to represent, conceptualise and comprehend the world and the nature of life. Like major epics and religious stories around the world, it has been of vital relevance because it "tells the culture what it is". Rama's life is more complex than the Western template for the battle between the good and the evil, where there is a clear distinction between immortal powerful gods or heroes and mortal struggling humans. In the Indian traditions, particularly Rama, the story is about a divine human, a mortal god, incorporating both into the exemplar who transcends both humans and gods. As a person, Rama personifies the characteristics of an ideal person

Literary sources.

Ramayana.

The primary source of the life of Rama is the Sanskrit epic "Ramayana" composed by Rishi Valmiki. The epic had many versions across India's regions. The followers of Madhvacharya believe that an older version of the "Ramayana", the "Mula-Ramayana", previously existed. The

Adhyatma Ramayana.

"Adhyatma Ramayana" is a late medieval Sanskrit text extolling the spiritualism in the story of Ramayana. It is embedded in the latter portion of "Brahmānda Purana", and constitutes about a third of it. The text philosophically attempts to reconcile Bhakti in god Rama and Shaktism with Advaita Vedanta, over 65 chapters and 4,500 verses.

Ramacharitmanas.

The "Ramayana" is a Sanskrit text, while "Ramacharitamanasa" retells the "Ramayana" in a vernacular dialect of Hindi language, commonly understood in northern India. "Ramacharitamanasa" was composed in the 16th century by Tulsidas. The popular text is notable for synthesising the epic story in a Bhakti movement framework, wherein the original legends and ideas morph in an expression of spiritual bhakti (devotional love) for a personal god.  Tulsidas was inspired by "Adhyatma Ramayana", where Rama and other characters of the "Valmiki Ramayana" along with their attributes ("saguna" narrative) were transposed into spiritual terms

Yoga Vasistha.

"Yoga Vasistha" is a Sanskrit text structured as a conversation between young Prince Rama and sage Vasistha who was called as the first sage of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy by Adi Shankara. The complete text contains over 29,000 verses. The short version of the text is called "Laghu Yogavasistha" and contains 6,000 verses. The exact century of its completion is unknown, but has been estimated to be somewhere between the 6th century to as late as the 14th century, but it is likely that a version of the text existed in the 1st millennium.  The "Yoga Vasistha" text consists of six books. The first

Other texts.

Other important historic Hindu texts on Rama include "Bhusundi Ramanaya", "Prasanna raghava", and "Ramavali" by Tulsidas. The Sanskrit poem "Bhaṭṭikāvya" of Bhatti, who lived in Gujarat in the seventh century CE, is a retelling of the epic that simultaneously illustrates the grammatical examples for Pāṇini's "Aṣṭādhyāyī" as well as the major figures of speech and the Prakrit language.  Another historically and chronologically important text is "Raghuvamsa" authored by Kalidasa. Its story confirms many details of the "Ramayana", but has novel and different elements. It mentions that Ayodhya was not the capital in the time of Rama's son named Kusha, but that he later returned to it and made it the capital again. This text is notable because the poetry in

Influence.

Rama's story has had a major socio-cultural and inspirational influence across South Asia and Southeast Asia. Few works of literature produced in any place at any time have been as popular, influential, imitated and successful as the great and ancient Sanskrit epic poem, the "Valmiki Ramayana".  According to Arthur Anthony Macdonell, a professor at Oxford and Boden scholar of Sanskrit, Rama's ideas as told in the Indian texts are secular in origin, their influence on the life and thought of people having been profound over at least two and a half millennia. Their influence has ranged from being a framework for personal introspection to cultural festivals and community entertainment. His life stories, states Goldman, have inspired "painting, film, sculpture, puppet shows, shadow plays, novels, poems, TV serials and plays".

Hinduism.

Rama Navami.

Rama Navami is a spring festival that celebrates the birthday of Rama. The festival is a part of the spring Navratri, and falls on the ninth day of the bright half of Chaitra month in the traditional Hindu calendar. This typically occurs in the Gregorian months of March or April every year.  The day is marked by recital of Rama legends in temples, or reading of Rama stories at home. Some Vaishnava Hindus visit a temple, others pray within their home, and some participate in a bhajan or kirtan with music as a part of puja and aarti. The community organises charitable events and volunteer meals. The

Ramlila and Dussehra.

Rama's life is remembered and celebrated every year with dramatic plays and fireworks in autumn. This is called Ramlila, and the play follows "Ramayana" or more commonly the "Ramcharitmanas". It is observed through thousands of Rama-related performance arts and dance events, that are staged during the festival of Navratri in India. After the enactment of the legendary war between Good and Evil, the Ramlila celebrations climax in the Dussehra (Dasara,

Diwali.

In some parts of India, Rama's return to Ayodhya and his coronation is the main reason for celebrating Diwali, also known as the "Festival of Lights".  In Guyana, Diwali is marked as a special occasion and celebrated with a lot of fanfare. It

Hindu arts in Southeast Asia.

Rama's life story, both in the written form of Sanskrit "Ramayana" and the oral tradition arrived in southeast Asia in the 1st millennium CE. Rama was one of many ideas and cultural themes adopted, others being the Buddha, the Shiva and host of other Brahmanic and Buddhist ideas and stories. In particular, the influence of Rama and other cultural ideas grew in Java, Bali, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.  The "Ramayana" was translated from Sanskrit into old Javanese around 860 CE, while the performance arts culture most likely developed from the oral tradition inspired by the Tamil and Bengali versions of Rama-based

Jainism.

In Jainism, the earliest known version of Rama story is variously dated from the 1st to 5th century CE. This Jaina text credited to Vimalasuri shows no signs of distinction between Digambara-Svetambara (sects of Jainism), and is in a combination of Marathi and Sauraseni languages. These features suggest that this text has ancient roots.  In Jain cosmology, characters continue to be reborn as they evolve in their spiritual qualities, until they reach the Jina state and complete enlightenment. This idea is explained as cyclically reborn triads in its Puranas, called the Baladeva, Vasudeva and evil Prati-vasudeva. Rama, Lakshmana and evil Ravana are the eighth triad, with Rama being the reborn Baladeva, and Lakshmana as the reborn Vasudeva. Rama is

Buddhism.

The "Dasaratha-Jataka" (Tale no. 461) provides a version of the Rama story. It calls "Rama" as "Rama-pandita".  At the end of this "Dasaratha-Jataka" discourse, the Buddhist text declares that the Buddha in his prior rebirth was Rama:  While the Buddhist Jataka texts co-opt Rama and make him an incarnation of

Sikhism.

Rama is mentioned as one of twenty four divine incarnations of Vishnu in the Chaubis Avtar, a composition in

Among people.

In Assam, Boro people call

Worship and temples.

Rama is a revered Vaishanava deity, one who is worshipped privately at home or in temples. He was a part of the Bhakti movement focus, particularly because of efforts of 14th century North Indian poet-saint Ramananda who created the Ramanandi Sampradaya, a "sannyasi" community. This community has grown to become the largest Hindu monastic community in modern times. This Rama-inspired movement has championed social reforms, accepting members without discriminating anyone by gender, class, caste or religion since the time of Ramananda who accepted Muslims wishing to leave Islam. Traditional scholarship holds that his disciples included later Bhakti movement "poet-saints" such as Kabir, Ravidas, Bhagat Pipa and others.

Temples.

Temples dedicated to Rama are found all over India and in places where Indian migrant communities have resided. In most temples, the iconography of Rama is accompanied by that of his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In some instances, Hanuman is also included either near them or in the temple premises.  Hindu temples dedicated to Rama were built

Rama or Ram (; Sanskrit: राम, IAST: "Rāma" ), also known as Ramachandra, is a major deity of Hinduism. He is 7th avatar of the God Vishnu, one of his most popular incarnations along with Krishna, Parshurama, and Gautama Buddha. Jain Texts also mentioned Rama as eighth balabhadra among the 63 salakapurusas. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Being.

罗摩(Rāma),阿逾陀国的王子,是印度古代传说的伟大英雄,为印度教所信奉的重要神祇之一。祂是大史诗《罗摩衍那》主角,也是主神毗湿奴的化身之一。现存在南亚一带的不少宗教画像也可看到其踪迹。


Early life.

Carradine was born on December 8, 1936, as John Arthur Carradine, in Hollywood, California, the eldest child of actor John Carradine (1906–1988) and his wife Ardanelle Abigail ("née" McCool) Carradine (1911–1989). He was a half-brother of Bruce, Keith, Christopher, and Robert Carradine, and an uncle of Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton, most of whom are also actors. Primarily of Irish descent, he was a great-grandson of Methodist evangelical author Beverly Carradine and a grandnephew of artist Will Foster.  Called "Jack" by his family, Carradine had a turbulent childhood. His parents divorced and repeatedly remarried; he was born to his mother's second marriage of three, and his father's first of four. At the time of Carradine's parents' marriage, his mother already had a son by her first husband, whom John adopted. John Carradine planned a large family, but after his wife had a series of miscarriages, he discovered she had gotten numerous abortions without his knowledge, which had rendered her unable to carry a baby to full term.  Against this backdrop of marital discord, David almost succeeded in committing suicide by hanging at the age of five. He said the incident followed his discovery that he and his elder half-brother, Bruce, who had been adopted by John, had different biological fathers. Carradine added, "My father saved me, and then confiscated my comic book collection and burned it – which was scarcely the point."  After three years of marriage, Ardenelle filed for divorce from John, but the couple remained married for another five years. Divorce finally came in 1944, when Carradine was seven years old. His father left California to avoid court action in the alimony settlement. After the couple engaged in a series of court battles over child custody and alimony, which at one point landed John in jail, Jack joined his father in New York City. By this time, his father had remarried.  For the next few years David was shuffled between boarding schools, foster homes, and reform school. He also would often accompany his father while the elder Carradine performed summer theater throughout the Northeast. Carradine spent time in Massachusetts and even one miserable winter milking cows on a farm in Vermont.

Oakland.

Eventually, David Carradine returned to California, where he graduated from Oakland High School. He attended Oakland Junior College (currently Laney College) for a year before transferring to San Francisco State College, where he studied drama and music theory, and wrote music

Army service.

Despite an attempt to dodge the draft, in 1960 Carradine was inducted into the United States Army, where he drew pictures for training aids. That Christmas he married his high school sweetheart, Donna Lee Becht. While stationed at Fort Eustis,

Film and television career.

Early TV and film appearances.

Upon leaving the Army, Carradine became serious about his acting pursuits. It was at that time that he was advised to change his name to avoid confusion with his famous father.  In 1963, he made his television debut on an episode of "Armstrong Circle Theatre", "Secret Document X256". Several other television roles were to follow, including appearances on "Wagon Train", "East Side/West Side", "Arrest and Trial", "The Virginian", "Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour." In 1964 Carradine appeared as

"The Royal Hunt of the Sun".

Carradine's first big break came with his second Broadway part in "The Royal Hunt of the Sun", a play by Peter Shaffer about the destruction of the Inca empire by conquistador Francisco Pizarro. Carradine played Atahuallpa opposite Christopher Plummer as Pizarro. The play premiered in October 1965 and was a solid hit, running for

"Shane" and Supporting Actor.

Carradine left the production of "Royal Hunt of the Sun" in May 1966 in order to take up an offer to star in the TV series "Shane", a 1966 western based upon a 1949 novel of the same name, previously filmed in 1953. Carradine played the title role opposite Jill Ireland. "I know I have some kind of vision that most actors and directors don't have", he said, "so it becomes a duty to exercise that vision. It's a responsibility, a mission."  The show only lasted 17 episodes, despite good reviews.  He said his career was "rescued" when cast in "Johnny Belinda" (1967). He

"Boxcar Bertha".

In 1972, he co-starred as "Big" Bill Shelly in one of Martin Scorsese's earliest films, "Boxcar Bertha", which starred Barbara Hershey, his domestic partner at the time (see Personal life). This was one of several Roger Corman productions in which he was to

"Kung Fu".

For three seasons, Carradine starred as a half-Chinese, half-caucasian Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the ABC hit TV series "Kung Fu" (1972–1975). The role was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award. Along with Bruce Lee movies, "Kung Fu" helped to popularize the martial arts and Eastern philosophy in the west. Carradine's character also brought the term "Grasshopper" (referring to an apprentice) into popular culture.  Although the choice of a non-Asian to play the role of Kwai Chang Caine stirred controversy, the show provided steady employment for a number of Asian-American actors. In addition to Keye Luke and

Film stardom.

Immediately following the "Kung Fu" series, Carradine accepted the role as the race car driver Frankenstein in "Death Race 2000" (1975), he said, to "kill the image of Caine and launch a movie career." The role had originally been offered to Peter Fonda who was not available.  The film, directed by Paul Bartel and produced by Roger Corman, became a cult classic for New World Pictures. Carradine got 10% of the profits and made significant money from the film.  Carradine was tapped to play Duke Leto Atreides in Alejandro Jodorowsky's aborted "Dune" adaptation in

"Americana" and decline as star.

Carradine returned to the director's chair with "Americana" (1981) which he also starred in, produced and edited. The film took ten years to complete due to difficulty in financing. It featured Carradine in the starring role and several of his friends and family members in supporting roles. The film won the People's Choice Award at the Director's Fortnight at Cannes, but failed to achieve critical support or adequate distribution.  He would also

"North and South".

Carradine attracted notice in 1985 when he appeared in a major supporting role in "North and South", a miniseries about the American Civil War, as the evil and abusive Justin LaMotte. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best

Straight-to-video action films.

Carradine continued to be in demand for action films, either aimed at the video market or for TV: "Oceans of Fire" (1986), "Armed Response" (1986) for Fred Olen Ray, "The Misfit Brigade" (1987), and "Six Against the Rock" (1987) as Bernie Coy.  Carradine also guest starred on "Amazing Stories" and "Night Heat" and he was in "I Saw What You Did" (1988), "Run for Your Life" (1988), "Warlords" (1988) (again for Ray), "Tropical Snow" (1989), and "The Cover Girl and the Cop" (1989).  He received some good reviews for "Sonny Boy" (1989), on which he sang on the soundtrack.  He starred in three films for Corman: "Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II" (1989), directed by Charles B. Griffith; "Nowhere to Run" (1989), directed by Carl Franklin; and "Crime Zone" (1990) directed by Luis Llosa; Carradine co produced the latter.  He was also in "" (1989), directed

"Kung Fu: The Legend Continues".

Carradine returned to the part of Caine in "" (1992) which led to a new TV series that ran from 1993 to 1997, and consisted of 88 episodes. Carradine also worked as a producer and directed an episode.  He starred in "Kill Zone" (1993), "Dead Center" (1993) for Steve Carver, "" (1993), and "Bitter End" (1993).  He was featured in a Lipton Tea commercial, which first aired during the broadcast of Super Bowl XXVIII. The advertisement paid tribute to The Three Stooges while satirizing his role in "Kung Fu".  In 1997, Carradine was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The presenters played an April Fool's Day prank on him by first unveiling a star bearing the name of his brother, Robert.  When "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" ended, Carradine went into "Last Stand at Saber River" (1997), an episode of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", "Lost Treasure of Dos Santos" (1997), "The Rage" (1997), "The

"Kill Bill".

Carradine enjoyed a revival of his fame when he was cast in Quentin Tarantino's sequential "Kill Bill" movies, "" (2003) and "" (2004). Among those who thought his portrayal of Bill, the assassin extraordinaire, would earn him an Academy Award nomination was Scott Mantz of "The Mediadrome", who said, "Carradine practically steals every scene he's in with confident gusto, and he gives a soulful performance that should all but ensure a spot on next year's Oscar ballot." Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper each had "Kill Bill Vol. 2" on their top ten list for of Academy Awards predictions. Although the films received no notice from the Academy, Carradine did receive a Golden Globe nomination and a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Bill.  Carradine had a good part in "American Reel" (2003) but the overall quality of his roles did not improve: "Dead & Breakfast" (2004), "Last Goobye" (2004), "" (2004), "Brothers in Arms" (2005), "Miracle

Final years.

Carradine's last performances included "Camille" (2008), "Last Hour" (2008), "Break" (2008), "The Golden Boys" (2008), "Kandisha"

Posthumous releases.

The actor, who once received an award for being the hardest working member of his profession in Hollywood, still had approximately a dozen films in "post-production" at the time of his death in 2009. Most of these roles were cameos or small parts in independent, direct-to-DVD productions. Among them are a horror film, "Dark Fields" (2009); an action film, "Bad Cop" (2009); and a western, "All Hell Broke Loose" (2009); and "Detention" (2010), a thriller.  He made one last film for Corman, "Dinocroc vs. Supergator" (2010) directed by Jim Wynorski. Ken Tucker, writing for Entertainment Weekly, said the film was "impeccable" and "goofy fun all the way."  He was also in "Six Days in Paradise" (2010) with Madsen; "Money to Burn" (2010); "Stretch" (2011); "Highway to Hell" (2012); and "The Banksters, Madoff with America" (2013).  Carradine also appeared in a minor role in Yuen Woo-ping's Chinese kung fu epic "True Legend". Carradine and Yuen first met while filming "Kill Bill". Yuen eulogized Carradine on the

Martial artist.

Carradine knew nothing of the practice of kung fu at the time he was cast in the role of Kwai Chang Caine; instead, he relied on his experience as a dancer for the part. He also had experience in sword fighting, boxing, and street fighting on which to draw. For the first half of the original series, David Chow provided technical assistance with kung fu.

Music career.

In addition to his acting career, Carradine was a musician. He sang and played the piano, the guitar, and the flute, among other instruments. In 1970, Carradine played one half of a flower-power beatnik duo in the season 4 "Ironside" episode, "The Quincunx", performing the songs "I Stepped on a Flower", "Lonesome Stranger", and "Sorrow of the Singing Tree". He recorded an album titled "Grasshopper", which was released in 1975. His musical talents were often integrated into his screen performances. He performed several of Woody Guthrie's songs for the movie,

Personal life.

Shortly after being drafted into the Army in 1960, Carradine proposed marriage to Donna Lee Becht (born September 26, 1937), whom he had met while they were students at Oakland High School. They were married on Christmas Day that year. She lived with him off-base in Virginia while he was stationed at Fort Eustis. In April 1962, she gave birth to their daughter Calista. After Carradine's discharge, the family lived in New York while Carradine established his acting career, appearing on Broadway in "The Deputy" and "Royal Hunt of the Sun". The marriage dissolved in 1968, whereupon Carradine left New York and headed back to California to continue his television and film careers.  In 1969, Carradine met actress Barbara Hershey while the two of them were working on "Heaven with a Gun". The pair lived together until 1975. They appeared in other films together, including Martin Scorsese's "Boxcar Bertha". In 1972, they appeared together in a nude "Playboy" spread, recreating some sex scenes from "Boxcar Bertha". That year, Hershey gave birth to their son, Free (who when aged nine changed his name to Tom, much to his father's chagrin). The couple's relationship fell apart around the time of Carradine's 1974 burglary arrest, when Carradine began an affair with Season Hubley, who had guest-starred on "Kung Fu". Carradine was engaged to Hubley for a time, but they never married.  In February 1977, Carradine married, in a civil ceremony in Munich, Germany, his second wife, Linda ("née" Linda Anne Gilbert), immediately following the filming of "The Serpent's Egg". Gilbert was previously married to Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. Their daughter, Kansas, was born in 1978.  Carradine's second marriage ended in divorce, as did the two that followed. He was married to Gail Jensen from 1986 to 1997. She died in April 2010, at the age of 60, of an alcohol-related illness. He was married to Marina Anderson from 1998 to 2001. By this time Carradine had proclaimed himself to be a "serial monogamist."  On December 26, 2004, Carradine married the widowed Annie Bierman ("née" Anne Kirstie Fraser, December 21, 1960) at the seaside Malibu home of his friend Michael Madsen. Vicki Roberts, his attorney and a longtime friend of his wife's, performed the ceremony. With this marriage he acquired three stepdaughters, Amanda Eckelberry (born 1989), Madeleine Rose (born 1995), and Olivia Juliette (born 1998) as well as a stepson, actor Max Richard Carradine (born 1998).  In one of his final interviews, Carradine stated that at 71, he was still "in excellent shape", attributing it to a good diet and having a youthful circle of friends. "Everybody that I know is at least 10 or 20 years younger than I am. My wife Annie is 24 years younger than I am. My daughter asks why I don't hang with women my age and I say, 'Most of the women my age are a lot older than me!  In June 2010, Marina Anderson, Carradine's fourth ex-wife, published "David Carradine: The Eye of My Tornado", a memoir that discusses intimate details of their marriage.

Death.

On June 3, 2009, at the age of 72, Carradine was found dead in his room at the Swissôtel Nai Lert Park Hotel on Wireless Road, near Sukhumvit Road, in central Bangkok, Thailand. He was in Bangkok to shoot his latest film, titled "Stretch". A police official said that Carradine was found naked, hanging by a rope in the room's closet, causing immediate speculation that his death was suicide. However, reported evidence suggested that his death was accidental, the result of autoerotic asphyxiation. Two autopsies were conducted, one involving the celebrity pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunan, and both concluded that the death was not a suicide. The cause of death became widely accepted as "accidental asphyxiation".  Immediately following his death, two of Carradine's former wives, Gail Jensen and Marina Anderson, stated publicly that his sexual interests included the practice of self-bondage. Anderson, who had plans to publish a tell-all book about her marriage to Carradine, said in an interview with "Access Hollywood", "There was a dark side to David, there was a very intense side to David. People around him know that." Previously, in her divorce filing, she had claimed that "it was the continuation of abhorrent and deviant sexual behavior which was potentially deadly."  Photographs of Carradine at the death scene, as well as photographs of his autopsied body, were circulated in newspapers and on the Internet. His family, represented by his brothers, Keith and Robert, pleaded with the public and the press to let them mourn their loved one in peace.  Carradine's funeral was held on June 13, 2009, in Los Angeles. His bamboo casket was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Among the many stars and family members who attended his private memorial were Tom Selleck, Lucy Liu, Frances Fisher, James Cromwell, Steve Railsback, and Chris Potter. His grave was marked on December 3, 2009. The monument proclaimed him to be "The Barefoot Legend" and included a quote from "Paint", a song he wrote and performed as the theme to "Sonny Boy", as an epitaph. It reads, “I’m lookin’ for a place where the dogs don’t bite, and children don’t cry and everything always goes just right. And brothers don’t fight.”

Wrongful death suit.

On the first anniversary of his death, Carradine's widow, Annie, announced that she had filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against the company that produced the film Carradine was working on at the time of his death. The lawsuit claimed that the company failed to provide assistance to the actor that had been agreed upon in his contract.

David Carradine (born John Arthur Carradine; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor best known for playing martial arts roles. He is perhaps best known as the star of the 1970s television series "Kung Fu", playing Kwai Chang Caine, a peace-loving Shaolin monk travelling through the American Old West. He also portrayed the titular character of both of the "Kill Bill" films.

大卫·卡拉定(英语:David Carradine,1936年-12月8日-2009年-6月3日),原名约翰·亚瑟·卡拉定(John Arthur Carradine),美国演员,出生于加州洛杉矶市好莱坞,毕业于加州大学旧金山市分校音乐理论编曲系,出身于演员世家,父亲、兄弟、女儿都是影视演员;1966年在纽约演百老汇舞台剧,并参与名导演马丁·史柯西斯执导第一部电影演出;大卫·卡拉定于1972年电视演出少林寺木讷寡言却武功极好的武僧甘贵祥后又出演西部片影集《功夫》因而声名大噪。近年多演反派角色丝丝入扣,美国影迷还因此颁发土星奖(特颁赠给演反派演员最佳演技)给大卫,也是美国影坛长青树演员。