Using translation memories.

The program breaks the source text (the text to be translated) into segments, looks for matches between segments and the source half of previously translated source-target pairs stored in a translation memory, and presents such matching pairs as translation candidates. The translator can accept a candidate, replace it with a fresh translation, or modify it to match the source. In the last two cases, the new or modified translation goes into the database.  Some translation memory systems search for 100% matches only, that is to say that they can only retrieve segments of text that match entries in the database exactly, while others employ fuzzy matching algorithms to retrieve similar segments, which are presented to the translator with differences flagged. It is important to note that typical translation memory systems only search for text in the source segment.  The flexibility and robustness of the matching algorithm largely determine the performance of the translation memory, although for some applications the recall rate of exact matches can be high enough to justify the 100%-match approach.  Segments where no match is found will have to be translated by the translator manually. These newly translated segments are stored in the database where they can be used for future translations as well as repetitions of that segment in the current text.  Translation memories work best on texts which are highly repetitive, such as technical manuals. They are also helpful for translating incremental changes in a previously translated document, corresponding, for example, to minor changes in a new version of a user manual. Traditionally, translation memories have not been considered appropriate for literary or creative texts, for the simple reason that there is so little repetition in the language used. However, others find them of value even for non-repetitive texts, because the database resources created have value for concordance searches to determine appropriate usage of terms, for quality assurance (no empty segments), and the simplification of the review process (source and target segment are always displayed together while translators have to work with two documents in a traditional review environment).

Main benefits.

Translation memory managers are most suitable for translating technical documentation and documents containing specialized vocabularies. Their benefits include:

Main obstacles.

The main problems hindering wider use of translation memory managers include:

Effects on quality.

The use of TM systems might have an effect on the quality of the texts translated. Its main effect is clearly related to the so-called "error propagation": if the translation for a particular segment is incorrect, it is in fact more likely that the incorrect translation will be reused the next time the same source text, or a similar source text, is translated, thereby perpetuating the error. Traditionally, two main effects on the quality of translated texts have been described: the "sentence-salad" effect (Bédard 2000; cited in O’Hagan 2009: 50) and the "peep-hole" effect (Heyn 1998). The first refers to a lack of coherence at the text level when a text is translated using sentences from a TM which have been translated by different translators with different styles. According to the latter, translators may adapt their style to the use of TM system in order for these not to contain intratextual references, so that the segments can be better reused in future texts, thus affecting cohesion and readability (O'Hagan 2009).  There is a potential, and, if present, probably an unconscious effect on the translated text. Different languages use different sequences for the logical elements within a sentence and a translator presented with a multiple clause sentence that is half translated is less likely to completely rebuild a sentence. Consistent empirical evidences (Martín-Mor 2011) show that translators will most likely modify the structure of a multiple clause sentence when working with a text processor rather than with a TM system.  There is also a potential for the translator to deal with the text mechanically sentence-by-sentence, instead of focusing on how each sentence relates to those around it and to the text as a whole. Researchers (Dragsted 2004) have identified this effect, which relates to the automatic segmentation feature of these programs, but it does not necessarily have a negative effect on the quality of translations.  Note that these effects are closely related to training rather than inherent to the tool. According to Martín-Mor (2011), the use of TM systems does have an effect on the quality of the translated texts, especially on novices, but experienced translators are able to avoid it. Pym (2013) reminds that "translators using TM/MT tend to revise each segment as they go along, allowing little time for a final revision of the whole text at the end", which might in fact be the ultimate cause of some of the effects described here.

Functions.

The following is a summary of the main functions of a translation memory.

Off-line functions.

Import.

This function is used to transfer a text and its translation from a text file to the TM. Import can be done from a "raw format", in which an external source text is available for importing into a TM along with its translation. Sometimes the texts have to be reprocessed by the user. There is another format that can be used to import: the "native format". This format is the one that uses the TM to save translation memories in a file.

Analysis.

The process of analysis involves the following steps:

Export.

Export transfers the text from the TM into an external text file. Import and export should be inverses.

Online functions.

When translating, one of the main purposes of the TM is to retrieve the most useful matches in the memory so that the translator can choose the best one. The TM must show both the source and target text pointing out the identities and differences.

Retrieval.

Several different types of matches can be retrieved from a TM.

Updating.

A TM is updated with a new translation when it has been accepted by the translator. As always in updating a database, there is the question what to do with the previous contents of the database. A TM can be modified by changing or deleting entries in the TM. Some systems allow translators to save multiple translations of the same source segment.

Automatic translation.

Translation memory tools often provide automatic retrieval and substitution.

Networking.

Networking enables a group of translators to translate a text together faster than if each was working in isolation, because sentences and phrases translated by one translator are available to the others. Moreover, if translation memories are shared before the final translation, there is an opportunity for mistakes by one translator to be corrected by other team members.

Text memory.

"Text memory" is the basis of the proposed Lisa OSCAR xml:tm standard. Text memory comprises author memory and translation memory.

Translation memory.

The unique identifiers are remembered during translation so that the target language document is 'exactly' aligned at the text unit level. If the source document is subsequently modified, then those text units that have not changed can be directly transferred to the new target version of the document without the need for any translator interaction. This is the concept of 'exact' or 'perfect' matching to the translation memory. xml:tm can also provide mechanisms for in-document leveraged and fuzzy matching.

History.

1970s is the infancy stage for TM systems in which scholars carried on a preliminary round of exploratory discussions. The original idea for TM systems is often attributed to Martin Kay's "Proper Place" paper, but the details of it are not fully given. In this paper, it has shown the basic concept of the storing system: "The translator might start by issuing a command causing the system to display anything in the store that might be relevant to... Before going on, he can examine past and future fragments of text that contain similar material". This observation from Kay was actually influenced by the suggestion of Peter Arthern that translators can use similar, already translated documents online. In his 1978 article he gave fully demonstration of what we call TM systems today: Any new text would be typed into a word processing station, and as it was being typed, the system would check this text against the earlier texts stored in its memory, together with its translation into all the other official languages [of the European Community].... One advantage over machine translation proper would be that all the passages so retrieved would be grammatically correct. In effect, we should be operating an electronic 'cut and stick' process which would, according to my calculations, save at least 15 per cent of the time which translators now employ in effectively producing translations.  The idea was incorporated from ALPS(Automated Language Processing Systems) Tools first developed by researcher from Brigham Young University, and at that time the idea of TM systems was mixed with a tool call "Repetitions Processing" which only aimed to find matched strings. Only after a long time, did the concept of so-called translation memory come into being.  The real exploratory stage of TM systems would be 1980s. One of the first implementation of TM system appeared in Sadler and Vendelmans' Bilingual Knowledge Bank. A Bilingual Knowledge Bank is a syntactically and referentially structured pair of corpora, one being a translation of the other, in which translation units are cross-coded between the corpora. The aim of Bilingual Knowledge Bank is to develop a corpus-based general-purpose knowledge source for applications in machine translation and computer-aided translation (Sadler & Vendelman, 1987). Another important step was made by Brian Harris with his "Bi-text". He has defined the bi-text as "a single text in two dimensions" (1988), the source and target texts related by the activity of the translator through translation units which made a similar echoes with Sadler's Bilingual Knowledge Bank. And in Harris's work he proposed something like TM system without using this name: a database of paired translations, searchable either by individual word, or by "whole translation unit", in the latter case the search being allowed to retrieve similar rather than identical units.  TM technology only became commercially available on a wide scale in the late 1990s, so the efforts made by several engineers and translators. Of note is the first TM tool called Trados (SDL Trados nowadays). In this tool, when opening the source file and applying the translation memory so that any "100% matches" (identical matches) or "fuzzy matches" (similar, but not identical matches) within the text are instantly extracted and placed within the target file. Then, the "matches" suggested by the translation memory can be either accepted or overridden with new alternatives. If a translation unit is manually updated, then it is stored within the translation memory for future use as well as for repetition in the current text. In a similar way, all segments in the target file without a "match" would be translated manually and then automatically added to the translation memory.  In the 2000s, online translation services began incorporating TM. Machine translation services like Google Translate, as well as professional and "hybrid" translation services provided by sites like Gengo and Ackuna, incorporate databases of TM data supplied by translators and volunteers to make more efficient connections between languages provide faster translation services to end-users.

Recent trends.

One recent development is the concept of 'text memory' in contrast to translation memory. This is also the basis of the proposed LISA OSCAR standard. Text memory within xml:tm comprises 'author memory' and 'translation memory'. Author memory is used to keep track of changes during the authoring cycle. Translation memory uses the information from author memory to implement translation memory matching. Although primarily targeted at XML documents, xml:tm can be used on any document that can be converted to XLIFF format.

Second-generation translation memories.

Much more powerful than first-generation TM systems, they include a linguistic analysis engine, use chunk technology to break down segments into intelligent terminological groups, and automatically generate specific glossaries.

Related standards.

TMX.

Translation Memory eXchange (TMX) is a standard that enables the interchange of translation memories between translation suppliers. TMX has been adopted by the translation community as the best way of importing and exporting translation memories. The current version is 1.4b - it allows for the recreation of the original source and target documents from the TMX data.

TBX.

TermBase eXchange. This LISA standard, which was revised and republished as ISO 30042, allows for the interchange of terminology data including detailed lexical information. The framework for TBX is provided by three ISO standards: ISO 12620, ISO 12200 and ISO 16642. ISO 12620 provides an inventory of well-defined “data categories” with standardized names that function as data element types or as predefined values. ISO 12200 (also known as MARTIF) provides the basis for the core structure of TBX. ISO 16642 (also known as Terminological Markup Framework) includes a structural meta-model for Terminology Markup Languages in general.

UTX.

Universal Terminology eXchange (UTX) format is a standard specifically designed to be used for user dictionaries of machine translation, but it can be used for general, human-readable glossaries. The purpose of UTX is to accelerate dictionary sharing and reuse by its extremely simple and practical specification.

SRX.

Segmentation Rules eXchange (SRX) is intended to enhance the TMX standard so that translation memory data that is exchanged between applications can be used more effectively. The ability to specify the segmentation rules that were used in the previous translation may increase the leveraging that can be achieved.

GMX.

GILT Metrics. GILT stands for (Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, and Translation). The GILT Metrics standard comprises three parts: GMX-V for volume metrics, GMX-C for complexity metrics and GMX-Q for quality metrics. The proposed GILT Metrics standard is tasked with quantifying the workload and quality requirements for any given GILT task.

OLIF.

Open Lexicon Interchange Format. OLIF is an open, XML-compliant standard for the exchange of terminological and lexical data. Although originally intended as a means for the exchange of lexical data between proprietary machine translation lexicons, it has evolved into a more general standard for terminology exchange.

XLIFF.

XML Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF) is intended to provide a single interchange file format that can be understood by any localization provider. XLIFF is the preferred way of exchanging data in XML format in the translation industry.

TransWS.

Translation Web Services. TransWS specifies the calls needed to use Web services for the submission and retrieval of files and messages relating to localization projects. It is intended as a detailed framework for the automation of much of the current localization process by the use of Web Services.

xml:tm.

The xml:tm (XML-based Text Memory) approach to translation memory is based on the concept of text memory which comprises author and translation memory. xml:tm has been donated to Lisa OSCAR by XML-INTL.

PO.

Gettext Portable Object format. Though often not regarded as a translation memory format, Gettext PO files are bilingual files that are also used in translation memory processes in the same way translation memories are used. Typically, a PO translation memory system will consist of various separate files in a directory tree structure. Common tools that work with PO files include the GNU Gettext Tools and the Translate Toolkit. Several tools and programs also exist that edit PO files as if they are mere source text files.

A translation memory (TM) is a database that stores "segments", which can be sentences, paragraphs or sentence-like units (headings, titles or elements in a list) that have previously been translated, in order to aid human translators. The translation memory stores the source text and its corresponding translation in language pairs called “translation units”. Individual words are handled by terminology bases and are not within the domain of TM.

翻译记忆(,缩写为TM),又称翻译内存、翻译记忆库,是计算机程序软件的数据库,用来辅助人工翻译。


Ideology.

The party's core ideology is based on Serbian nationalism and the goal of creating a Greater Serbia. The party is also strongly opposed to European integration (euroscepticism) and globalization, advocating for closer ties with Russia instead. The SRS is extremely critical of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where Šešelj was incarcerated from 2003 to 2014. The party regards former general Ratko Mladić and former Republika Srpska president Radovan Karadžić as "Serbian heroes".  In 2007, the party advocated the use of military force to prevent the independence of Kosovo.  Due to Tomislav Nikolić's support for the accession of Serbia to the European Union conflicting with the party's original hardline policy, Nikolić was expelled in 2008. With his supporters breaking apart from the SRS, he founded the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) which succeeded the SRS as the country's leading party.

History.

Foundation and early years.

The Serbian Radical Party (SRS) was formed on 23 February 1991 by the merger of Vojislav Šešelj's Serbian Chetnik Movement (SČP) and the National Radical Party (NRS). The SČP had been formed in 1990, although it was denied official registration due to its overt identification with the historical Chetniks. Formation of the new party followed Šešelj's breakaway from the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) due to internal quarrels with Vuk Drašković; the SPO having been founded by the merger of Šešelj's former Serbian Freedom Movement and Drašković's faction from the Serbian National Renewal. Šešelj was chosen as the first president of the SRS while Tomislav Nikolić, a member of the NRS, became deputy president. Led by Milošević, the Socialist Party (SPS) contributed greatly to the rise of the SRS through its use of the media. With the SRS allowed to promulgate its ultranationalist views on state television, the SPS could present itself as a comparatively moderate, yet still patriotic party. Šešelj promoted popular notions of an "international conspiracy against the Serbs," the foremost of which involved Germany, the Vatican, the CIA, Italy, Turkey, as well as the centrist Serbian political parties. Such conspiracy theories were also promoted by Milošević-controlled media. In 1991, Šešelj became a Member of Parliament as an independent candidate, and created a belligerent image by engaging in physical fights with opponents of the government.  The 22.6% of the vote won by the SRS in the 1992 parliamentary election confirmed the party's rapid rise and made it the second largest parliamentary party. Šešelj campaigned for the election on issues such as driving Albanians out of Kosovo to Albania, expelling Muslims from Sandžak, and forcing the Croats out of Vojvodina. Having helped engineer the party's election to parliament, the SPS formed an informal coalition with the SRS, and collaborated on ousting moderate politicians from public office. However, by late 1993 the parties had turned against each other. Milošević saw it necessary to change his policies and distance himself from the SRS in order for his new peacemaking orientation to be taken seriously by the West, as well as to counter the effects of United Nations sanctions against the country. Many socialists also feared competition from the party based on its strong growth record. As discord erupted among the opposition including the SRS, Milošević called new elections in 1993. These cut SRS support almost in half, while the SPS increased its share of the vote from 28% to 38%. Although most people had grown tired of the wars, UN sanctions and the catastrophic economic situation, the SRS had also been subjected to powerful state propaganda and exclusion by the media. Following Milošević's agreement to the Dayton accords in 1995 to bring peace to Bosnia, Šešelj denounced Milošević as "the worst traitor in Serbian history", and likened the event to Serbia's greatest defeat since the Battle of Kosovo fought against the Ottoman Empire in 1389.  In 1995, Šešelj and the SRS joined in a technical coalition with the centrist Democratic Party (DS) and the conservative Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). This gave Šešelj a degree of democratic legitimacy, although the coalition withered away by the end of the same year. When Šešelj beat the SPS candidate for the 1997 presidential election, despite the contest being declared invalid due to low turnout, he was again brought into the Serbian government. In 1998 the SRS and SPO entered the so-called "war" government, and as Deputy Prime Minister, Šešelj passed new information laws and helped launch propaganda offensives against Kosovo Albanians. U.S. officials in turn branded him a "fascist", while the U.S. Department of State declared that they would never deal with him. Following the 1999 NATO occupation of Kosovo, Šešelj resigned from government until his party was enticed to re-enter the administration by the SPS. As the party had held posts under Milošević's regime, it was excluded from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), and suffered a major defeat in the 2000 parliamentary election when Milošević was ousted.  During the Yugoslav Wars some SRS supporters including Šešelj were active in paramilitary units loyal to the federal government, serving as his "iron fist" during military campaigns. Milošević's regime at times supported Šešelj and provided him with arms, whilst at others it accused him of war crimes. The SRS was also provided with resources to establish paramilitary volunteer forces such as the White Eagles. As the SRS protested against Milošević's extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2001, Milošević urged his supporters to vote for the SRS rather than his own SPS. The ICTY also indicted Šešelj, who has been on trial since 2007 following his surrender in 2003. Deputy President Nikolić became the new "de facto" SRS leader and presented a more moderate face, with a new approach to international cooperation and a vision of Serbia acting as a "link between the West and the East."

Nikolić leadership.

During the 2003 parliamentary election, the SRS condemned cooperation with the war crimes tribunal, corruption scandals in government, poor living standards, and slightly moderated its formerly aggressive rhetoric. While it won a clear plurality with 28% of the vote and 82 seats, the party was still viewed as a pariah by its democratic rivals and was thus left in opposition. In the 2007 parliamentary election it won 29% of the vote and 81 seats. The SRS caucus in parliament elected Nikolić as its president and Aleksandar Vučić vice-president. Nikolić was later chosen as parliamentary speaker, supported by the DSS amidst a deadlock in coalition talks. He stepped down just five days later, as the DS and DSS agreed to form a coalition government.  At the National Assembly's first session on 14 February 2007, politicians voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposal by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari on the preliminary resolution of the status of Kosovo. New elections were called in 2008 as the DS-DSS coalition collapsed due to EU recognition of Kosovo's declaration of independence. In the 2008 parliamentary election the SRS again won 29% of the vote, and 78 seats, leading to the formation of a DS-SPS-led government coalition. The party also won 17 seats in the Kosovska Mitrovica-based Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija consisting of Kosovan Serb municipalities who defied Kosovo's declaration of independence.

2008 split.

After disagreements with Šešelj, on 8 September 2008, Nikolić formed the new parliamentary group "Napred Srbijo!" ("Forward Serbia!") along with a number of other SRS members. Šešelj responded with a letter on 11 September addressed to SRS members, in which he condemned the Nikolić group as "traitors" and "Western puppets", while calling on SRS members to remain loyal to the ideologies of "Serbian nationalism, anti-globalism, and Russophilia." Nikolić and his group were officially expelled from the SRS the next day, in response to which Nikolić announced that he would form his own party. On 14 September, SRS general secretary Aleksandar Vučić also resigned from the SRS. Nikolić and Vučić then launched the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on 21 October of the same year.  Following their departure, Dragan Todorović took over as the party's acting leader from Nikolić; however the office of deputy chairman was officially abolished. By April 2011 the SRS had about 7% of support in opinion polls, while the SNS and its coalition partners held about 40%. In the 2012 parliamentary election the Radical Party received only 4.63% of the popular vote, thus failing to cross the 5% threshold to enter parliament for the first time in the party's history.

Šešelj's return.

With their leader back in Serbia in 2014, the party campaigned for the Parliamentary election of 2016 aiming to restore its presence prior to 2008.

International relations.

The Serbian Radical Party maintains ties with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and had ties with the French National Front party in the 1990s. The SRS also has minimal ties with the far-right Golden Dawn party in Greece, focusing on religious similarities, and the Forza Nuova party in Italy.  The party counted Iraq's Saddam Hussein and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party as one of its political and financial backers until the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as the parties found common cause in defiance of the United States. Similar sentiment led the party to back Libya's Muammar Gaddafi following the 2011 military intervention in Libya by NATO. Serbia and Libya had maintained good relations since Gaddafi vocally opposed NATO intervention in Serbia in the 1990s, while he also backed Serbia's opposition to Kosovo's independence. The SRS has also expressed support for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad following the Syrian Civil War.  On 9 March 2016 Šešelj and Zmago Jelinčič, president of the Slovenian National Party, signed an agreement with the intention of bringing their parties closer in terms of partnership and political alliance.

Presidents of the Serbian Radical Party (1991–present).

Acting leaders during the incarceration of Šešelj.

Šešelj was incarcerated at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 2003 to 2014. Ref:

Positions held.

Major positions held by Serbian Radical Party members:

The Serbian Radical Party (; abbr. CPC or SRS) is a right-wing to far-right Serbian nationalist political party in Serbia. The party was founded in 1991 by paramilitary leader Vojislav Šešelj.

塞尔维亚激进党(塞尔维亚语:'或',SRS)是塞尔维亚右翼民族主义政党。


Early life.

Danson was born in San Diego to Edward "Ned" Bridge Danson, Jr. (March 22, 1916 – November 30, 2000), an archaeologist and director of the Museum of Northern Arizona 1959–1975, and Jessica MacMaster (November 2, 1916 – January 11, 2006), and has an older sister, Jan Ann Haury (born January 11, 1944). Danson was raised in Flagstaff, Arizona. His ancestry includes English and Scottish.  In 1961, Danson enrolled in the Kent School, a prep school in Connecticut, where he was a star player on the basketball team. He became interested in drama while attending Stanford University and, seeking a better acting program, transferred to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama in 1972.

Career.

Television.

Early career.

Danson began his television career as a contract player on the daytime soap opera "Somerset". He played the role of "Tom Conway" from 1975 to 1976. In 1977 he played Dr. Mitchell Pierson on the daytime soap opera "The Doctors", having also appeared earlier in 1975 as another character, Dr. Chuck Weldon. He was also in a number of commercials, most recognizably as the "Aramis man".  He made a number of guest appearances in episodic television in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including spots on "Laverne and Shirley", "B.J. and the Bear", "Family", "Benson", "Taxi", "Magnum P.I.", "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Tucker's Witch".

Career breakthrough: "Cheers".

In 1982 Danson was cast as the womanizing former baseball player and bartender Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom "Cheers", in which he has an on-and-off relationship with college-educated, sophisticated Diane Chambers. Though the show finished last in the ratings in the first season, it was well received by critics. Ratings gradually improved in 1983 and by 1986 "Cheers" was one of the top ten shows on TV. The show had a run of 11 seasons and its finale (May 20, 1993) was watched by 80 million people, becoming the second most watched finale in television history at that time. It won four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and a Golden Globe for Best Series – Musical or Comedy. The show ran from 1982 to 1993, with Danson receiving eleven consecutive Emmy nominations and nine Golden Globe nominations, ultimately winning two Emmys and two Golden Globes. In 2002, "TV Guide" named "Cheers" the 18th Greatest Show of All Time. It was also included in "Time" Magazine's 100 Greatest Shows of All Time.  Danson also appeared as Sam Malone in guest-starring roles on other sitcoms, such as "Cheers" spin-off "Frasier", "The Jim Henson Hour" and "The Simpsons".

Later career.

Although he was best known for his work in comedy, he also appeared in a drama, "Something About Amelia", about a family devastated by the repercussions of incest, which co-starred his later co-star on "Damages", Glenn Close. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie and was nominated for an Emmy Award. In 1996, three years after "Cheers" concluded, Danson starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom "Ink" with his real-life wife Mary Steenburgen. In the same year, they starred as Lemuel Gulliver and his wife in an acclaimed television miniseries of "Gulliver's Travels".  Danson went on to star in the successful CBS sitcom "Becker" (produced by Paramount Television, which also produced "Cheers"), which ran from 1998 to 2004. Danson also plays a fictionalized version of himself on "Curb Your Enthusiasm". He reprised his role of Sam Malone in a second-season episode of "Frasier" and voiced him in "The Simpsons" episode "Fear of Flying".  In 1999 Danson was presented with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.  Danson returned to series television in the fall of 2006, playing a psychiatrist in the ABC sitcom "Help Me Help You", which was canceled at midseason due to low ratings.  In 2006 Danson received a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries for his role in "Knights of the South Bronx".  In 2007 Danson starred in the FX Network drama "Damages" as a corrupt billionaire, Arthur Frobisher. The role earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series but he lost to co-star Željko Ivanek. In the second season Danson became a recurring character instead of one of the principal cast. Nevertheless, Danson received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series but lost to Michael J. Fox for his guest appearance in "Rescue Me".  In 2011 Danson appeared in the music video for "Make Some Noise" by the Beastie Boys. He is also mentioned in the song's lyrics.  Danson starred in the HBO sitcom "Bored to Death" as George Christopher, the laconic, salubrious and sometime downright infantile editor of "Edition" magazine. Critics often praised Danson as being the highlight of the program, calling his character a "scene stealer".  In July 2011 it was announced that Danson would star in the CBS police drama "". He played D.B. Russell, a new graveyard shift supervisor who previously headed a crime lab in Seattle, Washington. Tony Shalhoub, Robin Williams and John Lithgow were also considered for the role.  In March 2013 it was confirmed that Danson had signed a deal extending his stay on "CSI" for two more years.  Following the cancellation of "CSI", it was announced that his character would make a move over to the third spinoff show "" in the second season. The show was cancelled after two seasons.  In 2015 Danson appeared in the second season of the TV show "Fargo". He portrays sheriff Hank Larsson. From September 2016 to January 2020, Danson has appeared opposite Kristen Bell as the character Michael in the NBC sitcom "The Good Place". He has both been nominated for and won numerous awards for his performance as Michael.  In July 2019, Danson was cast as one of the main lead role for the situation comedy "Mr. Mayor", in which he plays as a wealthy businessman who runs for mayor of Los Angeles for all the wrong reasons and the series was green lighted by NBC as a entry in the 2020-2021 television season.

Film.

Danson has also been featured in numerous films. His most notable film appearances were in "Three Men and a Baby" with Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg, its sequel "Three Men and a Little Lady" and "Cousins" with Isabella Rossellini. He also appeared in "The Onion Field" (his first film, as the bagpipe playing Officer Ian Campbell), "Creepshow", "Body Heat", "Little Treasure", "Just Between Friends" (with Mary Tyler Moore), "A Fine Mess", "Dad", "Made in America", "Getting Even with Dad", "Loch Ness", and "Saving Private Ryan".

Personal life.

Danson and his first wife, actress Randall "Randy" Gosch (now professionally known as Randy Danson), were married in 1970 and divorced in 1975. Danson's second wife was producer Cassandra "Casey" Coates; they were married in 1977. On December 24, 1979, while giving birth to their first daughter Kate, Coates suffered a stroke. Danson spent several years caring for her and helping her recuperate. They later adopted a second daughter, Alexis.  Danson's affair with actress Whoopi Goldberg contributed to their divorce in 1993. It is known as one of Hollywood's costliest divorces, reportedly costing Danson $30 million.  On October 7, 1995, Danson married actress Mary Steenburgen, whom he met on the set of the movie "Pontiac Moon" in 1993, and became the stepfather to Steenburgen's children, Lilly and Charlie, from her previous marriage to actor Malcolm McDowell.  Danson has been on a vegan diet multiple times, but he currently adheres to a pescetarian diet.

Relationship with Whoopi Goldberg.

While a guest on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in late 1988, he met actress Whoopi Goldberg, whom he described as "a sexy, funny woman". The two became friends, co-hosting "Help Save Planet Earth" in 1990, a video guide to saving the environment (Danson played himself, Goldberg played the role of Mother Earth). However while making "Made in America" in April 1992, the two became romantically involved—a pairing which was heavily featured in gossip tabloids such as the "National Enquirer". The couple also appeared on the Rock the Vote TV special that same year, as well as being set to star in a Paramount-produced version of Neal Barrett Jr.'s "Pink Vodka Blues", written by Marshall Brickman.  Danson experienced substantial negative press attention on October 8, 1993, after his appearance in blackface at a Friars Club comedy roast in honor of Goldberg. In his monologue, Danson made extensive use of racial stereotypes, used the word "nigger" more than a dozen times, and ate a watermelon, angering such guests as Montel Williams and Mayor David Dinkins. Goldberg defended the sketch, explaining that she had helped write much of the material and referred Danson to the makeup artist who painted his face. Danson and Goldberg issued statements emphasizing "the Friars Club tradition of raucous and over the top humor" and describing those offended as newcomers who "were uncomfortable with what to expect". Substantial excerpts from the performance were later printed in "Spy". On November 5, 1993, Danson and Goldberg issued a statement signalling the end of their relationship.

Environmentalism.

Danson's interest in environmental concerns was ignited when he was twelve years old and Bill Breed, then curator of geology at the Museum of Northern Arizona, introduced Danson and friend Marc Gaede to a game he referred to as "billboarding". Armed with an axe and saw, Breed, Gaede, and Danson ended up destroying over 500 outdoor advertising signs.  Danson's interest in environmentalism continued over the years, and he began to be concerned with the state of the world's oceans. In the 1980s, he was a contributing founder of the "American Oceans Campaigns", which merged with Oceana in 2001, where Danson is a board member. Danson's commitment to the environment led him to host the A&E television series "Challenge of the Seas" in 1991, filming 26 one hour episodes.  In March 2011 Danson published his first book, "Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans And What We Can Do To Save Them", written with journalist Michael D'Orso.  On October 25, 2019, Danson was arrested and charged with actress Jane Fonda at a climate change protest outside the United States Capitol at Washington, D.C.

Political activities.

Danson is a friend of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who attended Danson and Mary Steenburgen's wedding. Danson has donated more than $85,000 to Democratic candidates, including Al Gore, John Edwards, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Al Franken and John Kerry. He has also donated to the Democratic Party of Arkansas and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Danson and Steenburgen campaigned for Senator Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign. He attended the wedding of their daughter Chelsea on July 31, 2010. He appeared with Steenburgen at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. On October 3, 2016, he helped open the new headquarters in Lancaster at the old Queen Pharmacy on King Street for Hillary Clinton.

Edward Bridge Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor and producer who played the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom "Cheers", Jack Holden in the films "Three Men and a Baby" and "Three Men and a Little Lady", and Dr. John Becker on the CBS sitcom "Becker". He also starred in the CBS dramas "" and "" as D.B. Russell. Additionally, he plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom "Curb Your Enthusiasm", starred alongside Glenn Close in legal drama "Damages", and was a regular on the HBO comedy series "Bored to Death". In 2015 he starred as Hank Larsson in the second season of FX's black comedy-crime drama anthology "Fargo". From 2016 to 2020, he played the afterlife architect Michael in the NBC sitcom "The Good Place".

泰德·丹森(英语:Ted Danson,1947年-12月29日)是美国的一位演员、作家和制作人。他最著名的作品是在NBC长寿情景喜剧《欢乐酒店》中饰演男主角山姆·马龙(Sam Malone)。在电影演出较具代表性的作品,则有《三个奶爸一个娃》(Three Men and a Baby)等。近年并参与电视系列剧《CSI犯罪现场》的演出。他15次获得黄金时段艾美奖提名,并两次获奖。


Language.

Alexander Vovin (2007) identifies the Tuoba language as a Mongolic language. On the other hand, Juha Janhunen proposed that Tuoba might have spoken an Oghur Turkic language. According to Peter Boodberg, Tuoba language was essentially Turkic with Mongolic admixture. Chen Sanping observed that Tuoba language contains both Turkic and Mongolic elements.

History.

The distribution of the Xianbei people ranged from present day Northeast China to Mongolia, and the Tuoba were one of the largest clans among the western Xianbei, ranging from present day Shanxi province and westward and northwestward. They established the state of Dai from 310-376 AD and ruled as the Northern Wei from 386-536. The Tuoba states of Dai and Northern Wei also claimed to possess the quality of earth in the Chinese Wu Xing theory. All the chieftains of the Tuoba were revered as emperors in the "Book of Wei" and the "History of the Northern Dynasties".  Tuoba and their Rouran enemies descended from common ancestors. Weishu stated that the Rourans were of Donghu origins and Tuoba originated from Xianbei, who were also Donghu's descendants. The Donghu ancestors of Tuoba and Rouran were most likely proto-Mongols.  Some scholars suggest that the Tuoba were a Mongolic people and spoke a Mongolic language Alexander Vovin and Edwin G. Pulleyblank identified the Tuoba language as a Mongolic language.  Other scholars suggested that Tuoba were ethnically and linguistically Turkic. Peter Boodberg, much of the Tuoba vocabulary was "essentially Turkish with a certain admixture of Mongolian elements".<ref name= "https://books.google.com/books?id=XT5pvPZ4vroC&pg=PA132&dq=Peter+Boodberg+Turkish+with+a+certain+admixture+of+Mongolian+elements&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFhpi-_MrPAhWoZpoKHTNsAP4Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=Peter%20Boodberg%20Turkish%20with%20a%20certain%20admixture%20of%20Mongolian%20elements&f=false"></ref> Juha Janhunen proposes that Tuoba spoke an Oghur Turkic language. Chen Sanping observes that the Tuoba language "had both" elements.  Last but not least, Liu Xueyao stated that Tuobas may have had their own language which should not be assumed to be identical with any other known languages.

Marriage policies.

The Northern Wei started to arrange for Chinese elites to marry daughters of the Xianbei Tuoba royal family in the 480s. More than fifty percent of Tuoba Xianbei princesses of the Northern Wei were married to southern Chinese men from the imperial families and aristocrats from southern China of the Southern dynasties who defected and moved north to join the Northern Wei. Some Chinese exiled royalty fled from southern China and defected to the Xianbei. Several daughters of the Xianbei Tuoba Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei were married to Chinese elites, the Han Chinese Liu Song royal Liu Hui 刘辉, married Princess Lanling 蘭陵公主 of the Northern Wei, Princess Huayang 華陽公主 to Sima Fei 司馬<unk>, a descendant of Jin dynasty (265–420) royalty, Princess Jinan 濟南公主 to Lu Daoqian 盧道虔, Princess Nanyang 南阳长公主 to Xiao Baoyin 萧宝夤, a member of Southern Qi royalty. Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei's sister the Shouyang Princess was wedded to the Liang dynasty ruler Emperor Wu of Liang's son Xiao Zong 蕭綜.  When the Eastern Jin dynasty ended Northern Wei received the Han Chinese Jin prince Sima Chuzhi 司馬楚之 as a refugee. A Northern Wei Princess married Sima Chuzhi, giving birth to Sima Jinlong 司馬金龍. Northern Liang Xiongnu King Juqu Mujian's daughter married Sima Jinlong.

Legacy of the Tuoba/Tabgach name.

As a consequence of the Northern Wei's extensive contacts with Central Asia, Turkic sources identified Tabgach, also transcribed as Tawjach, Tawġač, Tamghaj, Tamghach, Tafgaj, and Tabghaj, as the ruler or country of China until the 13th century.  The Orkhon inscriptions in the Orkhon Valley of Mongolia from the 8th century identifies Tabgach as China.  In the 11th century text, the "Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk" ("Compendium of the languages of the Turks"), Turkic scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari writing in Baghdad for an Arabic audience, describes Tawjach as one of the three components comprising China.  At the time of his writing, China’s northern fringe was ruled by Khitan Liao dynasty while the remainder of China Proper was ruled by the Northern Song dynasty. Arab sources used Sīn (Persian: Chīn) to refer to northern China and Māsīn (Persian: Machīn) to represent southern China. In his account, al-Kashgari refers to his homeland, around Kashgar, then part of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, as lower China. The rulers of the Karakanids adopted "Temahaj Khan" (Turkic: the Khan of China) in their title, and minted coins bearing this title. Much of the realm of the Karakhanids including Transoxania and the western Tarim Basin had been under the suzerainty of the Tang dynasty prior to the Battle of Talas in 751 and the Karakhanids continued identify with China, several centuries later.

The Tuoba (Middle Chinese: *"thak-bɛt") also known as the Taugast or Tabgach ( "Tabγač"), was a Xianbei clan in ancient China.

拓跋氏,又作拓拔、托跋、秃发,古代鲜卑氏族之一,为拓跋部的族长,拓跋部单于的家系多属于此氏族。拓跋部建立了包括北魏在内的许多拓跋国家。在北魏时,采取汉化政策,改姓元,唐朝之后拓跋氏族逐渐汉化,被融入汉人之中。


History.

Due to its location on a slight rise above the flood-prone Elbe River, the Neumarkt was one of the first areas of Dresden's old city to be settled, with a small village arising around the old Frauenkirche. However, it was not actually located within the city walls until the city was expanded in 1530, from which point on, the old town contained two market squares. The square located around the Kreuzkirche was renamed "Altmarkt" (German for "Old Market"), and the square surrounding the Frauenkirche was named the "Neumarkt" ("New Market").  During the reign of August II the Strong, a great number of structures in Dresden were built in Baroque style, including the present-day Frauenkirche, and numerous other houses surrounding the Neumarkt. After damage sustained to buildings through artillery fire in the Seven Years' War, a number of structures on the Neumarkt were rebuilt in the Rococo/Late Baroque style.  During the 19th century and into the early 20th century, the Neumarkt remained largely unchanged, except for renovations to the Johanneum completed in 1873 and the construction of the Albertinum and Academy of Fine Arts completed at the end of the 1800s.

Bombing of Dresden and communist era.

During the bomb attack on Dresden in February 1945, the area around the Neumarkt was almost entirely destroyed in the resulting firestorm. The main structure of the Frauenkirche survived the initial bombing and firestorm, before collapsing a few days later. During the 1950s and 60s under rule of the German Democratic Republic, the Neumarkt and Altmarkt formed a mostly vacant area through the middle of the old city, save for the ruins of the Frauenkirche standing as a memorial to the horrors of war. The two squares were separated by the widened Wilsdruffer Strasse, then from 1969 by the Palace of Culture, and then later by new apartment blocks.

Reconstruction.

The completion of the reconstructed Dresden Frauenkirche in 2005 marked the first step in rebuilding the Neumarkt. Organisations such as the Dresden Historical Neumarkt Society (GHND) actively encourage an historically-faithful reconstruction of the structures around the Neumarkt, giving an outward appearance as close as possible to that from before 1945.  The areas around the square have been divided into 8 "quarters", with each being rebuilt as a separate project, the majority of buildings to be rebuilt either to the original structure or at least with a facade similar to the original.  Quarter III and quarter VII/1 are currently (2020) under construction. All other quarters have been completed.

Controversy and criticism.

The reconstruction of the structures surrounding the Neumarkt has created some controversy, with architecture critic Andreas Ruby criticising the attempt to reconstruct the historic character of the city as inauthentic, likening it to the recreation of Venice to be found at the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas.  There has also been extensive debate as to what extent contemporary architecture should be present on the rebuilt Neumarkt.

The Neumarkt in Dresden is a central and culturally significant section of the Dresden inner city. The historic area was almost completely wiped out during the Allied bomb attack during the Second World War. After the war Dresden fell under Soviet occupation and later the communist German Democratic Republic which rebuilt the Neumarkt area in socialist realist style and partially with historic buildings. However huge areas and parcels of the place remained untilled. After the fall of Communism and German reunification the decision was made to restore the Neumarkt to its pre-war look.

新市场(Neumarkt)是德国城市德累斯顿旧城区中心的一个广场,在二战中几乎被大轰炸所彻底摧毁,战后,德累斯顿被苏联占领,接受共产党统治,风貌有所改变。两德统一后,新市场恢复战前风貌。2005年,德累斯顿圣母教堂重建完成,标志新市场重建的第一步。


History.

The WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established by a multilateral treaty of 23 countries in 1947 after World War II in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international economic cooperation—such as the World Bank (founded 1944) and the International Monetary Fund (founded 1944 or 1945). A comparable international institution for trade, named the International Trade Organization never started as the U.S. and other signatories did not ratify the establishment treaty, and so GATT slowly became a "de facto" international organization.

GATT negotiations before Uruguay.

Seven rounds of negotiations occurred under GATT (1949 to 1979). The first real GATT trade rounds (1947 to 1960) concentrated on further reducing tariffs. Then the Kennedy Round in the mid-sixties brought about a GATT anti-dumping agreement and a section on development. The Tokyo Round during the seventies represented the first major attempt to tackle trade barriers that do not take the form of tariffs, and to improve the system, adopting a series of agreements on non-tariff barriers, which in some cases interpreted existing GATT rules, and in others broke entirely new ground. Because not all GATT members accepted these plurilateral agreements, they were often informally called "codes". (The Uruguay Round amended several of these codes and turned them into multilateral commitments accepted by all WTO members. Only four remained plurilateral (those on government procurement, bovine meat, civil aircraft and dairy products), but in 1997 WTO members agreed to terminate the bovine meat and dairy agreements, leaving only two.) Despite attempts in the mid-1950s and 1960s to establish some form of institutional mechanism for international trade, the GATT continued to operate for almost half a century as a semi-institutionalized multilateral treaty régime on a provisional basis.

Uruguay Round: 1986–1994.

Well before GATT's 40th anniversary, its members concluded that the GATT system was straining to adapt to a new globalizing world economy. In response to the problems identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration (structural deficiencies, spill-over impacts of certain countries' policies on world trade GATT could not manage, etc.), the eighth GATT round—known as the Uruguay Round—was launched in September 1986, in Punta del Este, Uruguay.  It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed: the talks aimed to extend the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property, and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles; all the original GATT articles were up for review. The Final Act concluding the Uruguay Round and officially establishing the WTO regime was signed 15 April 1994, during the ministerial meeting at Marrakesh, Morocco, and hence is known as the Marrakesh Agreement.  The GATT still exists as the WTO's umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations (a distinction is made between "GATT 1994", the updated parts of GATT, and "GATT 1947", the original agreement which is still the heart of GATT 1994). GATT 1994 is not, however, the only legally binding agreement included via the Final Act at Marrakesh; a long list of about 60 agreements, annexes, decisions and understandings was adopted. The agreements fall into six main parts:  In terms of the WTO's principle relating to tariff "ceiling-binding" (No. 3), the Uruguay Round has been successful in increasing binding commitments by both developed and developing countries, as may be seen in the percentages of tariffs bound before and after the 1986–1994 talks.

Ministerial conferences.

The highest decision-making body of the WTO, the Ministerial Conference, usually meets every two years. It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions. The Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements. Some meetings, such as the inaugural ministerial conference in Singapore and the Cancun conference in 2003 involved arguments between developed and developing economies referred to as the "Singapore issues" such as agricultural subsidies; while others such as the Seattle conference in 1999 provoked large demonstrations. The fourth ministerial conference in Doha in 2001 approved China's entry to the WTO and launched the Doha Development Round which was supplemented by the sixth WTO ministerial conference (in Hong Kong) which agreed to phase out agricultural export subsidies and to adopt the European Union's Everything but Arms initiative to phase out tariffs for goods from the Least Developed Countries.  The Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) is set to be held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, in June 2020.

Doha Round (Doha Agenda): 2001–present.

The WTO launched the current round of negotiations, the Doha Development Round, at the fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. This was to be an ambitious effort to make globalization more inclusive and help the world's poor, particularly by slashing barriers and subsidies in farming. The initial agenda comprised both further trade liberalization and new rule-making, underpinned by commitments to strengthen substantial assistance to developing countries.  Progress stalled over differences between developed nations and the major developing countries on issues such as industrial tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade particularly against and between the EU and the US over their maintenance of agricultural subsidies—seen to operate effectively as trade barriers. Repeated attempts to revive the talks proved unsuccessful, though the adoption of the Bali Ministerial Declaration in 2013 addressed bureaucratic barriers to commerce. , the future of the Doha Round remained uncertain: the work programme lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed, and the round remains incomplete. The conflict between free trade on industrial goods and services but retention of protectionism on farm subsidies to domestic agricultural sectors (requested by developed countries) and the substantiation of fair trade on agricultural products (requested by developing countries) remain the major obstacles. This impasse has made it impossible to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the Doha Development Round. As a result, there have been an increasing number of bilateral free trade agreements between governments. there were various negotiation groups in the WTO system for the current stalemated agricultural trade negotiation.

Functions.

Among the various functions of the WTO, these are regarded by analysts as the most important: Additionally, it is WTO's duty to review and propagate the national trade policies, and to ensure the coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global economic policy-making. Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to WTO rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training.  The above five listings are the additional functions of the World Trade Organization. As globalization proceeds in today's society, the necessity of an International Organization to manage the trading systems has been of vital importance. As the trade volume increases, issues such as protectionism, trade barriers, subsidies, violation of intellectual property arise due to the differences in the trading rules of every nation. The World Trade Organization serves as the mediator between the nations when such problems arise. WTO could be referred to as the product of globalization and also as one of the most important organizations in today's globalized society.  The WTO is also a centre of economic research and analysis: regular assessments of the global trade picture in its annual publications and research reports on specific topics are produced by the organization. Finally, the WTO cooperates closely with the two other components of the Bretton Woods system, the IMF and the World Bank.

Principles of the trading system.

The WTO establishes a framework for trade policies; it does not define or specify outcomes. That is, it is concerned with setting the rules of the trade policy games. Five principles are of particular importance in understanding both the pre-1994 GATT and the WTO: There are three types of provision in this direction:  Exceptions to the MFN principle also allow for preferential treatment of developing countries, regional free trade areas and customs unions.

Organizational structure.

The General Council has the following subsidiary bodies which oversee committees in different areas:  The Service Council has three subsidiary bodies: financial services, domestic regulations, GATS rules and specific commitments. The council has several different committees, working groups, and working parties. There are committees on the following: Trade and Environment; Trade and Development (Subcommittee on Least-Developed Countries); Regional Trade Agreements; Balance of Payments Restrictions; and Budget, Finance and Administration. There are working parties on the following: Accession. There are working groups on the following: Trade, debt and finance; and Trade and technology transfer.

Decision-making.

The WTO describes itself as "a rules-based, member-driven organization—all decisions are made by the member governments, and the rules are the outcome of negotiations among members". The WTO Agreement foresees votes where consensus cannot be reached, but the practice of consensus dominates the process of decision-making.  Richard Harold Steinberg (2002) argues that although the WTO's consensus governance model provides law-based initial bargaining, trading rounds close through power-based bargaining favouring Europe and the U.S., and may not lead to Pareto improvement.

Dispute settlement.

The WTO's dispute-settlement system "is the result of the evolution of rules, procedures and practices developed over almost half a century under the GATT 1947". In 1994, the WTO members agreed on the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) annexed to the "Final Act" signed in Marrakesh in 1994. Dispute settlement is regarded by the WTO as the central pillar of the multilateral trading system, and as a "unique contribution to the stability of the global economy". WTO members have agreed that, if they believe fellow-members are violating trade rules, they will use the multilateral system of settling disputes instead of taking action unilaterally.  The operation of the WTO dispute settlement process involves case-specific panels appointed by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), the Appellate Body, The Director-General and the WTO Secretariat, arbitrators, and advisory experts.  The priority is to settle disputes, preferably through a mutually agreed solution, and provision has been made for the process to be conducted in an efficient and timely manner so that "If a case is adjudicated, it should normally take no more than one year for a panel ruling and no more than 16 months if the case is appealed... If the complainant deems the case urgent, consideration of the case should take even less time. WTO member nations are obliged to accept the process as exclusive and compulsory.  According to a 2018 study in the "Journal of Politics", states are less likely and slower to enforce WTO violations when the violations affect states in a diffuse manner. This is because states face collective action problems with pursuing litigation: they all expect other states to carry the costs of litigation. A 2016 study in "International Studies Quarterly" challenges that the WTO dispute settlement system leads to greater increases in trade.  However, the dispute settlement system cannot be used to resolve trade disputes that arise from political disagreements. When Qatar requested the establishment of a dispute panel concerning measures imposed by the UAE, other GCC countries and the US were quick to dismiss its request as a political matter, stating that national security issues were political and not appropriate for the WTO dispute system.

Accession and membership.

The process of becoming a WTO member is unique to each applicant country, and the terms of accession are dependent upon the country's stage of economic development and current trade regime. The process takes about five years, on average, but it can last longer if the country is less than fully committed to the process or if political issues interfere. The shortest accession negotiation was that of the Kyrgyz Republic, while the longest was that of Russia, which, having first applied to join GATT in 1993, was approved for membership in December 2011 and became a WTO member on 22 August 2012. Kazakhstan also had a long accession negotiation process. The Working Party on the Accession of Kazakhstan was established in 1996 and was approved for membership in 2015. The second longest was that of Vanuatu, whose Working Party on the Accession of Vanuatu was established on 11 July 1995. After a final meeting of the Working Party in October 2001, Vanuatu requested more time to consider its accession terms. In 2008, it indicated its interest to resume and conclude its WTO accession. The Working Party on the Accession of Vanuatu was reconvened informally on 4 April 2011 to discuss Vanuatu's future WTO membership. The re-convened Working Party completed its mandate on 2 May 2011. The General Council formally approved the Accession Package of Vanuatu on 26 October 2011. On 24 August 2012, the WTO welcomed Vanuatu as its 157th member. An offer of accession is only given once consensus is reached among interested parties.  A 2017 study argues that "political ties rather than issue-area functional gains determine who joins" and shows "how geopolitical alignment shapes the demand and supply sides of membership". The "findings challenge the view that states first liberalize trade to join the GATT/WTO. Instead, democracy and foreign policy similarity encourage states to join."

Accession process.

A country wishing to accede to the WTO submits an application to the General Council, and has to describe all aspects of its trade and economic policies that have a bearing on WTO agreements. The application is submitted to the WTO in a memorandum which is examined by a working party open to all interested WTO Members.  After all necessary background information has been acquired, the working party focuses on issues of discrepancy between the WTO rules and the applicant's international and domestic trade policies and laws. The working party determines the terms and conditions of entry into the WTO for the applicant nation, and may consider transitional periods to allow countries some leeway in complying with the WTO rules.  The final phase of accession involves bilateral negotiations between the applicant nation and other working party members regarding the concessions and commitments on tariff levels and market access for goods and services. The new member's commitments are to apply equally to all WTO members under normal non-discrimination rules, even though they are negotiated bilaterally. For instance, as a result of joining the WTO, Armenia offered a 15 per cent ceiling bound tariff rate on accessing its market for goods. Together with the tariff bindings being ad valorem there are no specific or compound rates. Moreover, there are no tariff-rate quotas on both industrial and agricultural products. Armenia's economic and trade performance growth was noted since its first review in 2010, especially its revival from the 2008 global financial crisis, with an average annual 4% GDP growth rate, despite of some fluctuations. Armenia's economy was marked by low inflation, diminishing poverty and essential progress in enhancing its macroeconomic steadiness in which trade in goods and services, which is the equivalent of 87% of GDP, played a growing role.  When the bilateral talks conclude, the working party sends to the general council or ministerial conference an accession package, which includes a summary of all the working party meetings, the Protocol of Accession (a draft membership treaty), and lists ("schedules") of the member-to-be's commitments. Once the general council or ministerial conference approves of the terms of accession, the applicant's parliament must ratify the Protocol of Accession before it can become a member. Some countries may have faced tougher and a much longer accession process due to challenges during negotiations with other WTO members, such as Vietnam, whose negotiations took more than 11 years before it became official member in January 2007.

Members and observers.

The WTO has 164 members and 24 observer governments. Liberia became the 163rd member on 14 July 2016, and Afghanistan became the 164th member on 29 July 2016. In addition to states, the European Union, and each EU country in its own right, is a member. WTO members do not have to be fully independent states; they need only be a customs territory with full autonomy in the conduct of their external commercial relations. Thus Hong Kong has been a member since 1995 (as "Hong Kong, China" since 1997) predating the People's Republic of China, which joined in 2001 after 15 years of negotiations. The Republic of China (Taiwan) acceded to the WTO in 2002 as "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" (Chinese Taipei) despite its disputed status. The WTO Secretariat omits the official titles (such as Counsellor, First Secretary, Second Secretary and Third Secretary) of the members of Chinese Taipei's Permanent Mission to the WTO, except for the titles of the Permanent Representative and the Deputy Permanent Representative.  As of 2007, WTO member states represented 96.4% of global trade and 96.7% of global GDP. Iran, followed by Algeria, are the economies with the largest GDP and trade outside the WTO, using 2005 data. With the exception of the Holy See, observers must start accession negotiations within five years of becoming observers. A number of international intergovernmental organizations have also been granted observer status to WTO bodies. 12 UN member states have no official affiliation with the WTO.

Agreements.

The WTO oversees about 60 different agreements which have the status of international legal texts. Member countries must sign and ratify all WTO agreements on accession. A discussion of some of the most important agreements follows.  The Agreement on Agriculture came into effect with the establishment of the WTO at the beginning of 1995. The AoA has three central concepts, or "pillars": domestic support, market access and export subsidies.  The General Agreement on Trade in Services was created to extend the multilateral trading system to service sector, in the same way as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided such a system for merchandise trade. The agreement entered into force in January 1995.  The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation. It was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994.  The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures—also known as the SPS Agreement—was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of GATT, and entered into force with the establishment of the WTO at the beginning of 1995. Under the SPS agreement, the WTO sets constraints on members' policies relating to food safety (bacterial contaminants, pesticides, inspection and labelling) as well as animal and plant health (imported pests and diseases).  The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade is an international treaty of the World Trade Organization. It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and entered into force with the establishment of the WTO at the end of 1994. The object ensures that technical negotiations and standards, as well as testing and certification procedures, do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade".  The Agreement on Customs Valuation, formally known as the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of GATT, prescribes methods of customs valuation that Members are to follow. Chiefly, it adopts the "transaction value" approach.  In December 2013, the biggest agreement within the WTO was signed and known as the Bali Package.

Office of director-general.

The procedures for the appointment of the WTO director-general were published in January 2003. Additionally, there are four deputy directors-general., under director-general Roberto Azevêdo, the four deputy directors-general are:

List of directors-general.

Source: Official website  (Heads of the precursor organization, GATT):

Criticism.

Although, thanks to the GATT and WTO, tariffs and other trade barriers have been significantly reduced. However, the promise that free trade will accelerate economic growth, reduce poverty, and increase people's incomes has been questioned by many critics. Some prominent sceptics site the example of El Salvador. In the early 1990s they removed all quantitative barriers to imports and also cut tariffs. However, the country's economic growth remained weak. On the other hand, Vietnam which only began reforming its economy in the late 1980s, saw a great deal of success by deciding to follow the China's economic model and liberalizing slowly along with putting safeguards for domestic commerce. Vietnam has largely succeeded in accelerating economic growth and reducing poverty without immediately removing substantial trade barriers. Although there were other factors that affected the economic performance of these two countries and some might say that it is essentially because of the ultimate opening up of the markets that contributed to the growth story that is attributed with Vietnam's economy.  Economist Ha-Joon Chang himself argues that there is a "paradox" in neoliberal beliefs regarding free trade, because the economic growth of developing countries was higher in the 1960-1980 period compared to the 1980-2000 period even though its trade policies are now far more liberal than before. In addition, there are also results of research that show that new countries actively reduce trade barriers only after becoming significantly rich. From the results of the study, WTO critics argue that trade liberalization does not guarantee economic growth and certainly not poverty alleviation.  WTO critics also put forward the view that the benefits derived from free trade are not shared equally. This criticism is usually supported by data showing that the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen, especially in China and India, where economic inequality is growing even though economic growth is very high. In addition, the WTO approach which wants to reduce trade barriers can harm developing countries. Trade liberalization that is too early without any prominent domestic barriers is feared to trap the developing economies in the primary sector, which often does not require skilled labor. And when these developing countries decides to advance their economy by means of industrialization, the premature domestic industry cannot immediately skyrocket as expected, making it difficult to compete with other countries whose industries are more advanced.  It is said that leading economist Adam Smithonce gave advice to the newly independent United States government at that time to focus on the domestic agricultural sector rather than trying to compete with Europe whose industry was more advanced. The United States eventually set high tariffs to protect American producers. Only then the United States became one of the countries with a strongest domestic industry, in the world. The same is said about the East Asian economies. Some even predict that if South Korea had abolished its tariffs before, then it was more likely that the country would have still been a semi-industrialized rice-producing country.  WTO law has also been severely criticized because of the Agreement on Agriculture, which essentially allows developed countries to maintain agricultural subsidies (an example being the Common Agricultural Policy in the European Union) while not favoring the developing countries as much. As a result of these subsidies, these countries often sell excess produce to world markets at much lower prices, and dumping them in poorer countries. Even though WTO members have agreed to eliminate agricultural export subsidies, but some say that the developed countries still maintain subsidies and protect their agricultural sector with trade barriers, and this practice impedes the development of the agricultural industry in developing countries.  On the other hand, if all agricultural subsidies to be immediately abolished, food prices could potentially skyrocket, and this could also harm the people and threaten food security in some of the countries. Therefore, legal experts who criticize the WTO from a human rights perspective, Sarah Joseph, suggest that this subsidy should be phased out gradually, so that the market can adjust to the changes that occur.

Impact.

Studies show that the WTO boosted trade. Research shows that in the absence of the WTO, the average country would face an increase in tariffs on their exports by 32 percentage points. The dispute settlement mechanism in the WTO is one way in which trade is increased.  According to a 2017 study in the "Journal of International Economic Law", "nearly all recent [preferential trade agreements (PTAs) reference the WTO explicitly, often dozens of times across multiple chapters. Likewise, in many of these same PTAs we find that substantial portions of treaty language—sometime the majority of a chapter—is copied verbatim from a WTO agreement... the presence of the WTO in PTAs has increased over time."

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that is concerned with the regulation of international trade between nations. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. It is the largest international economic organization in the world.

世界贸易组织(简称世贸组织或世贸;英语:World Trade Organization,缩写为 WTO;,缩写为 OMC;,缩写为 OMC)是负责监督成员经济体之间的各种贸易协议得到执行的一个国际组织,前身是1948年起实施的关税及贸易总协定的秘书处。


Operation.

A PIN diode operates under what is known as high-level injection. In other words, the intrinsic "i" region is flooded with charge carriers from the "p" and "n" regions. Its function can be likened to filling up a water bucket with a hole on the side. Once the water reaches the hole's level it will begin to pour out. Similarly, the diode will conduct current once the flooded electrons and holes reach an equilibrium point, where the number of electrons is equal to the number of holes in the intrinsic region. When the diode is forward biased, the injected carrier concentration is typically several orders of magnitude higher than the intrinsic carrier concentration. Due to this high level injection, which in turn is due to the depletion process, the electric field extends deeply (almost the entire length) into the region. This electric field helps in speeding up of the transport of charge carriers from the P to the N region, which results in faster operation of the diode, making it a suitable device for high frequency operations.

Characteristics.

The PIN diode obeys the standard diode equation for low frequency signals. At higher frequencies, the diode looks like an almost perfect (very linear, even for large signals) resistor. The P-I-N diode has a relatively large stored charge adrift in a thick intrinsic region. At a low enough frequency, the stored charge can be fully swept and the diode turns off. At higher frequencies, there is not enough time to sweep the charge from the drift region, so the diode never turns off. The time required to sweep the stored charge from a diode junction is its reverse recovery time, and it is relatively long in a PIN diode. For a given semiconductor material, on state impedance, and minimum usable RF frequency, the reverse recovery time is fixed. This property can be exploited; one variety of P-I-N diode, the step recovery diode, exploits the abrupt impedance change at the end of the reverse recovery to create a narrow impulse waveform useful for frequency multiplication with high multiples.  The high-frequency resistance is inversely proportional to the DC bias current through the diode. A PIN diode, suitably biased, therefore acts as a variable resistor. This high-frequency resistance may vary over a wide range (from to in some cases; the useful range is smaller, though).  The wide intrinsic region also means the diode will have a low capacitance when reverse-biased.  In a PIN diode the depletion region exists almost completely within the intrinsic region. This depletion region is much larger than in a PN diode and almost constant-size, independent of the reverse bias applied to the diode. This increases the volume where electron-hole pairs can be generated by an incident photon. Some photodetector devices, such as PIN photodiodes and phototransistors (in which the base-collector junction is a PIN diode), use a PIN junction in their construction.  The diode design has some design trade-offs. Increasing the area of the intrinsic region increases its stored charge reducing its RF on-state resistance while also increasing reverse bias capacitance and increasing the drive current required to remove the charge during a fixed switching time, with no effect on the minimum time required to sweep the charge from the I region. Increasing the thickness of the intrinsic region increases the total stored charge, decreases the minimum RF frequency, decreases the reverse bias capacitance, but doesn't decrease the forward bias RF resistance and increases the minimum time required to sweep the drift charge and transition from low to high RF resistance. Diodes are sold commercially in a variety of geometries for specific RF bands and uses.

Applications.

PIN diodes are useful as RF switches, attenuators, photodetectors, and phase shifters.

RF and microwave switches.

Under zero- or reverse-bias (the "off" state), a PIN diode has a low capacitance. The low capacitance will not pass much of an RF signal. Under a forward bias of 1 mA (the "on" state), a typical PIN diode will have an RF resistance of about, making it a good RF conductor. Consequently, the PIN diode makes a good RF switch.  Although RF relays can be used as switches, they switch relatively slowly (on the order of ). A PIN diode switch can switch much more quickly (e.g., ), although at lower RF frequencies it isn't reasonable to expect switching times in the same order of magnitude as the RF period.  For example, the capacitance of an "off"-state discrete PIN diode might be. At, the capacitive reactance of is :  As a series element in a system, the off-state attenuation in dB is:  This attenuation may not be adequate. In applications where higher isolation is needed, both shunt and series elements may be used, with the shunt diodes biased in complementary fashion to the series elements. Adding shunt elements effectively reduces the source and load impedances, reducing the impedance ratio and increasing the off-state attenuation. However, in addition to the added complexity, the on-state attenuation is increased due to the series resistance of the on-state blocking element and the capacitance of the off-state shunt elements.  PIN diode switches are used not only for signal selection, but also component selection. For example, some low phase noise oscillators use them to range-switch inductors.

RF and microwave variable attenuators.

By changing the bias current through a PIN diode, it is possible to quickly change the RF resistance.  At high frequencies, the PIN diode appears as a resistor whose resistance is an inverse function of its forward current. Consequently, PIN diode can be used in some variable attenuator designs as amplitude modulators or output leveling circuits.  PIN diodes might be used, for example, as the bridge and shunt resistors in a bridged-T attenuator. Another common approach is to use PIN diodes as terminations connected to the 0 degree and -90 degree ports of a quadrature hybrid. The signal to be attenuated is applied to the input port, and the attenuated result is taken from the isolation port. The advantages of this approach over the bridged-T and pi approaches are (1) complementary PIN diode bias drives are not needed—the same bias is applied to both diodes—and (2) the loss in the attenuator equals the return loss of the terminations, which can be varied over a very wide range.

Limiters.

PIN diodes are sometimes designed for use as input protection devices for high frequency test probes and other circuits. If the input signal is small, the PIN diode has negligible impact, presenting only a small parasitic capacitance. Unlike a rectifier diode it does not present a nonlinear resistance at RF frequencies which would give rise to harmonics and intermodulation products. If the signal is large, then when the PIN diode starts to rectify the signal, the forward current charges the drift region and the device RF impedance is a resistance inversely proportional to the signal amplitude. That signal amplitude varying resistance can be used to terminate some predetermined portion the signal in a resistive network dissipating the energy or to create an impedance mismatch that reflects the incident signal back toward the source. The latter may be combined with an isolator, a device containing a circulator which uses a permanent magnetic field to break reciprocity and a resistive load to separate and terminate the backward traveling wave. When used as a shunt limiter the PIN diode is a low impedance over the entire RF cycle, unlike paired rectifier diodes that would swing from a high resistance to a low resistance during each RF cycle clamping the waveform and not reflecting it as completely. The ionization recovery time of gas molecules that permits the creation of the higher power spark gap input protection device ultimately relies on similar physics in a gas.

Photodetector and photovoltaic cell.

The PIN photodiode was invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa and his colleagues in 1950.  PIN photodiodes are used in fibre optic network cards and switches. As a photodetector, the PIN diode is reverse-biased. Under reverse bias, the diode ordinarily does not conduct (save a small dark current or I leakage). When a photon of sufficient energy enters the depletion region of the diode, it creates an electron-hole pair. The reverse bias field sweeps the carriers out of the region, creating current. Some detectors can use avalanche multiplication.  The same mechanism applies to the PIN structure, or p-i-n junction, of a solar cell. In this case, the advantage of using a PIN structure over conventional semiconductor p–n junction is better long-wavelength response of the former. In case of long wavelength irradiation, photons penetrate deep into the cell. But only those electron-hole pairs generated in and near the depletion region contribute to current generation. The depletion region of a PIN structure extends across the intrinsic region, deep into the device. This wider depletion width enables electron-hole pair generation deep within the device, which increases the quantum efficiency of the cell.  Commercially available PIN photodiodes have quantum efficiencies above 80-90% in the telecom wavelength range (~1500 nm), and are typically made of germanium or InGaAs. They feature fast response times (higher than their p-n counterparts), running into several tens of gigahertz, making them ideal for high speed optical telecommunication applications. Similarly, silicon p-i-n photodiodes have even higher quantum efficiencies, but can only detect wavelengths below the bandgap of silicon, i.e. ~1100 nm.  Typically, amorphous silicon thin-film cells use PIN structures. On the other hand, CdTe cells use NIP structure, a variation of the PIN structure. In a NIP structure, an intrinsic CdTe layer is sandwiched by n-doped CdS and p-doped ZnTe; the photons are incident on the n-doped layer, unlike in a PIN diode.  A PIN photodiode can also detect X-ray and gamma ray photons.  In modern fiber-optical communications, the speed of optical transmitters and receivers is one of the most important parameters. Pin photodiodes are constructed to have very small size (few micrometers diamater or surface area, e.g. 16um*16um), thus compatible to the core of monomode fiber optical cables. Due to the small surface of the photodiode, its parasitic (unwanted) capacity is reduced. The bandwidth of modern pin photodiodes is reaching the microwave and millimeter waves range. A systematic microwave measurement of a pin photodiode is given in [7.]. Please note, that at these very high GHz range frequencies, the bonding wire or ribbon that connects the pin diode semiconductor to the external electrical circuit, has a parasitic inductance that may also reduce the overall bandwidth of the photoreceiver. [7.]

Example PIN photodiodes.

SFH203 and BPW43 are cheap general purpose PIN diodes in 5 mm clear plastic cases with bandwidths over 100 MHz. RONJA telecommunication systems are an example application.

References.

7.^ Attila Hilt, Gábor Járó, Attila Zólomy, Béatrice Cabon, Tibor Berceli, Tamás Marozsák: “Microwave Characterization of High-Speed pin Photodiodes”, Proc. of the 9th Conference on Microwave Techniques COMITE’97, pp.21-24, Pardubice, Czech Republic, 16-17 Oct. 1997.

A PIN diode is a diode with a wide, undoped intrinsic semiconductor region between a p-type semiconductor and an n-type semiconductor region. The p-type and n-type regions are typically heavily doped because they are used for ohmic contacts.

PIN型二极管,又称移相开关二极管,和普通的二层结构的PN结二极管相比,PIN型二极管引入了I层:即在普通PN结二极管的由P型半导体材料组成的P层和由N型半导体材料组成的N层中间,插入一层低掺杂的纯度接近于本征半导体材料组成的I层。如果I层材料为低掺杂的P型半导体,则该二极管可称为π型PIN二极管;如果I层材料为低掺杂的N型半导体,则该二极管可称为ν型PIN二极管。在PIN型二极管中,P层和N层通常由高掺杂的半导体材料组成。由于I层的存在,PIN型二极管通常比普通的二极管拥有更宽的耗尽层,更大的接面电阻和更小的接面电容。在射频与微波级别的电路中,PIN型二极管经常被用作微波开关、移相器和衰减器。


Name.

Like most of the Greek islands, Euboea was originally known under other names in Antiquity, such as "Macris" (Μάκρις) and "Doliche" (Δολίχη) from its elongated shape, or "Ellopia", "Aonia" and "Abantis" from the tribes inhabiting it. Its ancient and current name, Εὔβοια, derives from the words εὖ "good", and βοῦς "ox", meaning "(the land of) the well(-fed) oxen".  In the Middle Ages, the island was often referred to by Byzantine authors by the name of its capital, "Chalcis" (Χαλκίς) or "Euripos" (Εὔριπος, the name of the strait that separates the island from the Greek mainland), although the ancient name Euboea remained in use by classicizing authors until the 15th century.  The phrase στὸν Εὔριπον 'to Evripos', rebracketed as στὸ Νεὔριπον 'to Nevripos', became "Negroponte" ("Black Bridge") in Italian by folk etymology, the "ponte" 'bridge' being interpreted as the bridge of Chalcis. This name was most relevant when the island was under Venetian rule. That name entered common use in the West in the 13th century, with other variants being Egripons, Negripo, and Negropont.  Under Ottoman rule, the island and its capital were known as "Eğriboz" or "Ağriboz", again after the Euripos strait.

Geography.

Euboea was believed to have originally formed part of the mainland, and to have been separated from it by an earthquake. This is fairly probable, because it lies in the neighbourhood of a fault line, and both Thucydides and Strabo write that the northern part of the island had been shaken at different periods. In the neighbourhood of Chalcis, both to the north and the south, the bays are so confined as to make plausible the story of Agamemnon's fleet having been detained there by contrary winds. At Chalcis itself, where the strait is narrowest at only 40 m, it is called the Euripus Strait. The extraordinary changes of tide that take place in this passage have been a subject of note since classical times, and it was so feared by sailors that the principal line of traffic from the north of the Aegean to Athens used to pass by Chalcis and the Euboic Sea. At one moment the current runs like a river in one direction, and shortly afterwards with equal velocity in the other. A bridge was first constructed here in the twenty-first year of the Peloponnesian War (410 BC).  Geography and nature divide the island itself into three distinct parts: the fertile and forested north; the mountainous centre, with agriculture limited to the coastal valleys; and the barren south.  The main mountains include Dirfi (), Pyxaria () in the northeast and Ochi (). The neighboring gulfs are the Pagasetic Gulf in the north, Malian Gulf, North Euboean Gulf in the west, the Euboic Sea and the Petalion Gulf. At the 2001 census the island had a population of 198,130 and a total land area of.

History.

Antiquity.

The history of the island of Euboea is largely that of its two principal cities, Chalcis and Eretria, both mentioned in the Catalogue of Ships. Both cities were settled by Ionian Greeks from Attica, and would eventually settle numerous colonies in Magna Graecia and Sicily, such as Cumae and Rhegium, and on the coast of Macedonia. This opened new trade routes to the Greeks, and extended the reach of Western Civilization. The commercial influence of these city-states is evident in the fact that the Euboic scale of weights and measures was used among the Ionic cities generally, and in Athens until the end of the 7th century BC, during the time of Solon. The classicist Barry B. Powell has proposed that Euboea may have been where the Greek alphabet was first employed, c. 775-750 BC, and that Homer may have spent part of his life on the island.  Chalcis and Eretria were rival cities, and appear to have been equally powerful for a while. One of the earliest major military conflicts in Greek history took place between them, known as the Lelantine War, in which many other Greek city-states also took part. In 490 BC, Eretria was utterly ruined and its inhabitants were transported to Persia. Though it was restored nearby its original site after the Battle of Marathon, the city never regained its former eminence. Following the infamous battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium, Persian forces captured and sacked Athens, and also took Euboea, Boeotia, and Attica, allowing them to overrun almost all of Greece.  Both cities gradually lost influence to Athens, which saw Euboea as a strategic territory. Euboea was an important source of grain and cattle, and controlling the island meant Athens could prevent invasion and better protect its trade routes from piracy. Athens invaded Chalcis in 506 BC and settled 4,000 Attic Greeks on their lands. After this conflict, the whole of the island was gradually reduced to an Athenian dependency. Another struggle between Euboea and Athens broke out in 446. Led by Pericles, the Athenians subdued the revolt, and captured Histiaea in the north of the island for their own settlement.  By 410 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, the island succeeded in regaining its independence. Euboea participated in Greek affairs until falling under the control of Philip II of Macedon after the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, and eventually being incorporated into the Roman Republic in the second century BC. Aristotle died on the island in 322 BC soon after fleeing Athens for his mother's family estate in Chalcis. From the early Hellenistic period to well into the Roman Imperial period, the island was organized into the Euboean League.

Middle Ages.

Unlike much of Byzantine Greece, Euboea was spared the bulk of the barbarian raids during Late Antiquity and the early medieval period, due to its relatively isolated location. The Vandals raided its shores in 466 and in 475, but the island seems to have been left alone by the Avars and Slavs, and it was not until a failed Arab attack on Chalcis in the 870s that the island again came under threat. As a result, the island preserved a relative prosperity throughout the early medieval period, as attested by finds of mosaics, churches and sculpture throughout the 7th century, "even from remote areas of the island". In the 6th century, the "Synecdemus" listed four cities on the island, Aidipsos, Chalcis, Porthmos (modern Aliveri) and Karystos, and a number of other sites are known as bishoprics in the subsequent centuries (Oreoi and Avlon), although their urban character is unclear. In the 8th century, Euboea formed a distinct fiscal district ("dioikesis"), and then formed part of the theme of Hellas.  In 1157 all the coastal towns of Euboea were destroyed by a Sicilian force, while Chalcis was burned down by the Venetians in 1171.  Euboea came into prominence following the Fourth Crusade. In the partition of the Byzantine Empire by the crusaders after 1204, the island was occupied by a number of Lombard families, who divided it into three baronies, the Triarchy of Negroponte; each barony was split in 1216, giving six sestiere. The island's rulers came early on under the influence of the Venetian Republic, which secured control of the island's commerce in the War of the Euboeote Succession (1256–1258) and gradually expanded its control, until they acquired full sovereignty by 1390.  On 12 July 1470, during the Ottoman–Venetian War of 1463–1479 and after a protracted and bloody siege, the well-fortified city of Negroponte (Chalcis) was wrested from Venice by Mehmed II and the whole island fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The Doge Francesco Morosini besieged the city in 1688, but was forced to withdraw after three months. Although the name Negroponte remained current in European languages until the 19th century, the Turks themselves called the city and the island Eğriboz or Ağriboz after the Euripos Strait. Under Ottoman rule, Ağriboz was the seat of a sanjak encompassing much of Continental Greece as well.  At the conclusion of the Greek War of Independence in 1830, the island returned to Greece and constituted a part of the newly established independent Greek kingdom.

Modern period.

Euboea is linked to the mainland by two bridges, one that runs through Chalcis and is also accessible from Thebes, and another which bypasses Chalcis and is accessed from Athens. All of Euboea's modern bridges are suspended.  In the 1980s, the Dystos lake was filled with grass which was set on fire by farmers to make more farmland. This act caused devastation of much of the plants and the environment in that area. A part of the lake later regenerated. Also the municipalities of Anthidona and Avlida in the mid to late 20th century, which once were part of Boeotia, reverted to Chalcis. Since then, the postal codes corresponded with the rest of Euboea, including Skyros.

Mythology.

The promontory of Canaeum, which lies opposite the Malian Gulf, together with the neighbouring coast of Trachis, was the scene of the events connected with the death of Heracles, as described by Sophocles in the "Trachiniae".  Based on the records of the 2nd century AD geographer Pausanias, it is suspected that the Titan god Crius is an indigenous deity.

Demographics.

The population of the island according to the census of 2001 was 198,130, making it the second most populous island of Greece. As a whole the Euboeans share a cultural identity similar to that of the people in the rest of Central Greece and they speak a southern variety of Greek. In the southern part of the island there are Arvanite communities, with the area south of Aliveri being the northernmost limit of their presence in Euboea. Sarakatsani and Vlachs could be found mainly in the mountainous areas in central and northern Euboea respectively, but nowadays they have abandoned the nomadic way of life and live permanently in the towns and villages across the island.

Economics.

The mining areas include magnesite in Mantoudi and Limni, lignite in Aliveri and iron and nickel from Dirfys. Marble is mined north of Eretria which include "Marmor Chalcidicum" and asbestos in the northeastern part of Carystus in the Okhi mountain. The trees include chestnuts.

Local administration.

The island belongs to Euboea Prefecture which also includes two municipalities on the mainland, Anthidona and Avlida, as well as the island municipality of Skyros. At the 2001 census the prefecture had a population of 215,136 inhabitants, whereas the island itself had a population of 198,130. The prefecture's land area is 4, whereas the total land area of the municipalities actually on the island is 3, which includes that of numerous small offshore islets (Petalioi) near Euboea's southeastern tip.

Euboea or Evia (,, ;,, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest point). In general outline it is a long and narrow island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to. Its geographic orientation is from northwest to southeast, and it is traversed throughout its length by a mountain range, which forms part of the chain that bounds Thessaly on the east, and is continued south of Euboea in the lofty islands of Andros, Tinos and Mykonos.

埃维亚岛(),又译优卑亚岛,是仅次于克里特岛的希腊第二大岛,与东北方的斯基罗斯岛组成埃维亚州。此形状狭长的岛位于色萨利以东的爱琴海中,呈海马状,约长150公里(93英里),宽度由50公里(31英里)至6公里(3.7英里)不等。其东南方延伸至一系列岛屿如安德罗斯岛、蒂诺斯岛和米科诺斯岛。隔尤里普斯海峡与希腊大陆相望。该岛面积4167.449平方公里,首府为哈尔基斯。