Ecology.

It is thought that the cauliflorous species are pollinated by small bees, beetles or flies although there are no direct observations of this. Birds disperse the purple or black drupes, for example "Sayornis phoebe" (a Tyrant flycatcher) eats the fruit of "Cocculus". In "Tinospora cordifolia" a lapse of 6–8 weeks has been observed between fertilization and the first zygotic cell division.  The menispermaceae predominantly inhabit low altitude tropical forests (up to 2,100m), where they are climbers, but some genera and species have adapted to arid locations ("Antizoma" species have adapted to the South African deserts or "Cocculus balfouri" and its phylloclades have adapted to the climate on the island of Socotra) and other temperate climates. C3 photosynthesis has been recorded in "Menispermum".

Phytochemistry.

The family contains a wide range of benzylisoquinoline compounds (alkaloids) and lignans such as furofuran, flavones and flavonols and some proanthocyanidins. The most notable are the wide variety of alkaloids derived from benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline and aporphine, which accumulate as dimers, as well as the alkaloids derived from morphinan and from hasubanan and other diverse types of alkaloid such as derivative of aza-fluoranthene. Sesquiterpenes such as picrotoxin and diterpenes such as clerodane diterpene are also present, while the triterpenes are scarce and where present are similar to oleanane. Ecdysone steroids have also been found. Some species are cyanogenic.

Uses.

The Menispermaceae have been used in traditional pharmacopeia and drugs have been formulated from these plants that are of great use in modern medicine. These drugs are based on alkaloids and include tubocurarine from curare, a poison used by indigenous South American tribes on their poison darts, that is obtained from species of Curarea, Chondrodendron, Sciadotenia and Telitoxicum. A similar poison was used in Asia (ipos) that was obtained from species of Anamirta, Tinospora, Coscinium and Cocculus. Tubocurarine and its synthetic derivatives are used to relax muscles during surgical interventions. The roots of "kalumba" or "colombo" ("Jateorhiza palmata") are used in Africa for stomach problems and against dysentery. Species of "Tinospora" are used in Asia as antipyretics, the fruit of "Anamirta cocculus" is used to poison fish and birds and the stems of "Fibraurea" are used to dye fabric yellow. The South East Asian species "Coscinium fenestratum", a local Thai remedy for stomach ailments ( which contains berberine and related alkaloids ) was recently implicated in mass harvesting operations to prepare extracts usable as precursors in the manufacture of the drug MDMA.

Fossils.

The extinct genus "Callicrypta" from the Siberian Middle Cretaceous appears to be referable to Menispermaceae.

Systematic position.

The APG II system (2003; unchanged from the APG system of 1998) recognizes this family and places in the order Ranunculales, in the clade eudicots. Their trimerous flower structure is similar to the Lardizabalaceae and Berberidaceae, although they differ from them in other important characteristics. The APW (Angiosperm Phylogeny Website) considers that they form part of the Order Ranunculales, and that they are a sister group on the branch formed by the Lardizabalaceae and Berberidaceae families in a reasonably advanced clade of the order (cf. AP-website). Kinship with the Berberidaceae is further borne out by similarities in phytochemistry e.g. in the presence of berberine and related alkaloids. It is a medium-sized family of 70 genera totaling 420 extant species, mostly of climbing plants. The great majority of the genera are tropical, but with a few (notably "Menispermum" and "Cocculus") reaching temperate climates in eastern North America and eastern Asia.

Taxa included.

The genetic factors within this family are very narrow, as there are many genera with one or a few species. There is not currently enough data from genetic studies to evaluate either this situation or the traditional division into five tribes (see Kessler, 1993, in the References section). This division is fundamentally based on characteristics of the seed (endosperm and cotyledons) but there is doubt as to whether the tribes are monophyletic.

Menispermaceae ( Botanical Latin : 'Moonseed Family' from Greek "mene" 'crescent moon' and "sperma"'seed' ) is a family of flowering plants. The alkaloid Tubocurarine, a neuromuscular blocker and the active ingredient in the 'tube curare' form of the dart poison curare, is derived from the South American liana Chondrodendron tomentosum. Several other South American genera belonging to the family have been used to prepare the 'pot' and calabash' forms of curare. The family contains 68 genera with some 440 species, which are distributed throughout low-lying tropical areas with some species present in temperate and arid regions.

Lunoplodovité ("Menispermaceae") je čeleď dvouděložných rostlin z řádu pryskyřníkotvaré ("Ranunculales"). Jsou to keře a liány s jednoduchými listy a nenápadnými květy. Vyskytují se v tropech celého světa a některé druhy zasahují i do mírného pásu. V Evropě čeleď není zastoupena. Většina druhů lunoplodovitých obsahuje účinné alkaloidy a mnohdy jsou silně jedovaté. Nacházejí využití v západní i domorodé medicíně, na výrobu jedu kurare a podobně. Některé druhy mají také jedlé plody.


Nomenclature.

The source of the word "badger" is uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary states it probably derives from "badge" + "-ard", referring to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead, and may date to the early sixteenth century. The French word "bêcheur" (digger) has also been suggested as a source. A male badger is a boar, a female is a sow, and a young badger is a cub. A badger's home is called a sett. Badger colonies are often called clans.  The far older name "brock" (Old English: "brocc"), (Scots: "brock") is a Celtic loanword (cf. Gaelic "broc" and Welsh "broch", from Proto-Celtic "*brokko")

Taxonomy.

"Ursus meles" was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, who described the badger in his work "Systema Naturae".

Evolution.

The species likely evolved from the Chinese "Meles thorali" of the early Pleistocene. The modern species originated during the early Middle Pleistocene, with fossil sites occurring in Episcopia, Grombasek, Süssenborn, Hundsheim, Erpfingen, Koneprusy,

Subspecies.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, several badger type specimens

Description.

European badgers are powerfully built animals with small heads, thick, short necks, stocky, wedge-shaped bodies and short tails. Their feet are plantigrade or semidigitigrade and short, with five toes on each foot. The limbs are short and massive, with naked lower surfaces on the feet. The claws are strong, elongated and have an obtuse end, which assists in digging. The claws are not retractable, and the hind claws wear with age. Old badgers sometimes have their hind claws almost completely worn away from constant use. Their snouts, which are used for digging and probing, are muscular and flexible. The eyes are small and the ears short and tipped with white. Whiskers are present on the snout and above the eyes.  Boars typically have broader heads, thicker necks and narrower tails than sows, which are sleeker, have narrower, less domed heads and fluffier tails. The guts of badgers are longer than those of red foxes, reflecting their omnivorous diet. The small intestine has a mean length of and lacks a cecum. Both sexes have three pairs of nipples but these are more developed in females. European badgers cannot flex their backs as martens, polecats and wolverines can, nor can they stand fully erect like honey badgers, though they can move quickly at full gallop.  Adults measure in shoulder height, in body length, in tail length, in hind foot length and in ear height. Males (or boars) slightly exceed females (or sows) in measurements, but can weigh considerably more. Their weights vary seasonally, growing from spring to autumn and reaching a peak just before the winter. During the summer, European badgers commonly weigh and in autumn.  The average weight of adults in Białowieża Forest, Poland were in spring but weighed up to in autumn, 46% higher than their spring low mass. In Woodchester Park, England, adults in spring weighed on average and in fall average. In Doñana National Park, average weight of adult badgers is reported as, perhaps in accordance with Bergmann's rule, that its size decreases in relatively warmer climates closer to the equator. Sows can attain a top autumn weight of around, while exceptionally large boars have been reported in autumn. The heaviest verified was, though unverified specimens have been reported to and even (if so, the heaviest weight for any terrestrial mustelid). If average weights are used, the European badger ranks as the second largest terrestrial mustelid, behind only the wolverine. Although their sense of smell is acute, their eyesight is monochromatic as has been shown by their lack of reaction to red lanterns. Only moving objects attract their attention. Their hearing is no better than that of humans.  European badger skulls are quite massive, heavy and elongated. Their braincases are oval in outline, while the facial part of their skulls is elongated and narrow. Adults have prominent sagittal crests which can reach 15 mm tall in old males, and are more strongly developed than those of honey badgers. Aside from anchoring the jaw muscles, the thickness of the crests protect their skulls from hard blows. Similar to martens, the dentition of European badgers is well-suited for their omnivorous diets. Their incisors are small and chisel-shaped, their canine teeth are prominent and their carnassials are not overly specialized. Their molars are flattened and adapted for grinding. Their jaws are powerful enough to crush most bones; a provoked badger was once reported as biting down on a man's wrist so severely that his hand had to be amputated. The dental formula is.  Scent glands are present below the base of the tail and on the anus. The subcaudal gland secretes a musky-smelling, cream-coloured fatty substance, while the anal glands secrete a stronger-smelling, yellowish-brown fluid.

Behaviour.

Social and territorial behaviour.

European badgers are the most social of badgers, forming groups of six adults on average, though larger associations of up to 23 individuals have been recorded. Group size may be related to habitat composition. Under optimal conditions, badger territories can be as small as 30 ha, but may be as large as 150 ha in marginal areas. Badger territories can be identified by the presence of communal latrines and well-worn paths. It is mainly males that are involved in territorial aggression. A hierarchical social system is thought to exist among badgers and large powerful boars seem to assert dominance over smaller males. Large boars sometimes intrude into neighboring territories during the main mating season in early

Reproduction and development.

Estrus in European badgers lasts four to six days and may occur throughout the year, though there is a peak in spring. Sexual maturity in boars is usually attained at the age of twelve to fifteen months but this can range from nine months to two years. Males are normally fecund during January–May, with spermatogenesis declining in summer. Sows usually begin ovulating in their second year, though some exceptionally begin at nine months. They can mate at any time of the year, though the main peak occurs in February–May, when mature sows are in postpartal estrus and young animals experience their first estrus. Matings occurring outside this period typically occur in sows which either failed to mate earlier in the year or matured slowly. Badgers are usually monogamous; boars typically mate with one female for life, whereas sows have been known to mate with more than one male. Mating lasts for fifteen to sixty minutes, though the pair may briefly copulate for a minute or two when the sow is not in estrus. A delay of

Denning behaviour.

Like other badger species, European badgers are burrowing animals. However, the dens they construct (called setts) are the most complex, and are passed on from generation to generation. The number of exits in one sett can vary from a few to fifty. These setts can be vast, and can sometimes accommodate multiple families. When this happens, each family occupies its own passages and nesting chambers. Some setts may have exits which are only used in times of danger or play. A typical passage has a wide base and a height. Three sleeping chambers occur in a family unit, some of which are open at both ends. The nesting chamber is located from the opening, and is situated more than a underground, in some cases. Generally, the passages are long. The nesting chamber is on average, and are high.  Badgers dig and collect bedding throughout the year, particularly in autumn and spring. Sett maintenance

Winter sleep.

Badgers begin to prepare for winter sleep during late summer by accumulating fat reserves, which reach a peak in October. During this period, the sett is cleaned and the nesting chamber is filled with bedding. Upon retiring to sleep, badgers block their sett entrances

Ecology.

Distribution and habitat.

The European badger is native to most of Europe and parts of western Asia. In Europe its range includes Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Crete, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine. In Asia it occurs in Afghanistan, China (Xinjiang), Iran, Iraq and Israel.  The distributional boundary between the ranges of European and Asian badgers is the Volga River, the

Diet.

European badgers are among the least carnivorous members of the Carnivora; they are highly adaptable and opportunistic omnivores, whose diet encompasses a wide range of animals and plants. Earthworms are their most important food source, followed by large insects, carrion, cereals, fruit and small mammals including rabbits, mice, shrews, moles and hedgehogs. Insect prey includes chafers, dung and ground beetles, caterpillars, leatherjackets, and the nests of wasps and bumblebees. They are able to destroy wasp nests, consuming the occupants, combs, and envelope, such as that of "Vespula rufa" nests, since thick skin and body hair protect the badgers from stings. Cereal food includes wheat, oats, maize and occasionally barley. Fruits include windfall apples, pears, plums, blackberries, bilberries, raspberries, strawberries, acorns, beechmast, pignuts and wild arum corms.  Occasionally, they feed on medium to large birds, amphibians, small reptiles, including tortoises, snails, slugs, fungi, and green food such as clover and grass, particularly in winter and during droughts. Badgers characteristically capture large numbers of one food type in each hunt. Generally, they do not eat more than of food per day, with young specimens yet to attain one year

Relationships with other non-human predators.

European badgers have few natural enemies. While normally docile, Badgers can become extremely aggressive and ferocious when cornered, making it dangerous for predators to target them. Grey wolves ("Canis lupus"), Eurasian lynxes ("Lynx lynx") and brown bears ("Ursus arctos"), Europe's three largest remaining land predators, and large domestic dogs ("C. l. familiaris") can pose a threat to adult badgers, though deaths caused by them are quantitatively rare as these predators are often limited in population due to human persecution and usually prefer easier, larger prey like ungulates, while badgers may fight viciously if aware of a predator and cornered without an escape route. They may live alongside red foxes ("Vulpes vulpes") in isolated sections of large burrows. The two species possibly tolerate each other out of commensalism; foxes provide badgers

Status.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature rates the European badger as being of least concern. This is because it is a relatively common species with a wide range and populations are generally stable. In Central Europe it has become

Diseases and parasites.

Bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) caused by "Mycobacterium bovis" is a major mortality factor in badgers, though infected badgers can live and successfully breed for years before succumbing. The disease was first observed in badgers in 1951 in Switzerland where they were believed to have contracted it from chamois ("Rupicapra rupicapra") or roe deer ("Capreolus capreolus"). It was detected in the United Kingdom in 1971 where it was linked to an outbreak of bovine TB in cows. The evidence appears to indicate that the badger is the primary reservoir of infection for cattle in the south west of England, Wales and Ireland. Since then there has been considerable controversy as to whether culling badgers will effectively reduce

Relationships with humans.

In folklore and literature.

Badgers play a part in European folklore and are featured in modern literature. In Irish mythology, badgers are portrayed as shape-shifters and kinsmen to Tadg, the king of Tara and foster father of Cormac mac Airt. In one story, Tadg berates his adopted son for having killed and prepared some badgers for dinner. In German folklore, the badger is portrayed as a cautious, peace-loving Philistine, who loves more than anything his home, family and comfort, though he can become aggressive if surprised. He is a cousin of Reynard the Fox, whom he uselessly tries to convince to return to the path of righteousness.  In Kenneth Graham's "The Wind in the Willows", Mr. Badger is depicted as a gruff, solitary figure who "simply hates society", yet is a good friend to Mole and Ratty. As a friend of Toad's now-deceased father, he is often firm and serious with Toad, but at the same time generally patient and well-meaning towards him. He can be seen as a wise hermit, a good leader and gentleman, embodying common sense. He is also brave and a skilled fighter, and helps rid Toad Hall of invaders from the wild wood.  The "Frances" series of children's books by Russell and Lillian Hoban depicts an anthropomorphic badger family.

Hunting.

European badgers are of little significance to hunting economies, though they may be actively hunted locally. Methods used for hunting badgers include catching them in jaw traps, ambushing them at their setts with guns, smoking them out of

Badger-baiting.

Badger-baiting was once a popular blood sport, in which badgers were captured alive, placed in boxes, and attacked with dogs. In the UK, this was outlawed by the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835 and again by the Protection of Animals Act of 1911. Moreover, the cruelty towards and death of the badger constitute

Culling.

Many badgers in Europe were gassed during the 1960s and 1970s to control rabies. Until the 1980s, badger culling in the United Kingdom was undertaken in the form of gassing, to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). Limited culling resumed in 1998 as part of a 10-year randomized trial cull which was considered by John Krebs and others to show that culling was ineffective. Some groups called for a selective cull, while others favoured a programme of vaccination, and vets support the cull on compassionate grounds as they say that the illness causes much suffering in badgers. In 2012, the government authorized a limited

Tameability.

There are several accounts of European badgers being tamed. Tame badgers can be affectionate pets, and can be trained to come to their owners when their names are called. They are easily fed, as

Uses.

Badger meat is eaten in some districts of the former Soviet Union, though in most cases it is discarded. Smoked hams made from badgers were once highly esteemed in England, Wales and Ireland.  Some badger products have been used for medical purposes; badger expert Ernest

The European badger ("Meles meles") also known as the Eurasian badger, is a badger species in the family Mustelidae native to almost all of Europe and some parts of Western Asia. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List as it has a wide range and a large stable population size, and is thought to be increasing in some regions. Several subspecies are recognized with the nominate subspecies ("M. meles meles") predominating in most of Europe.

Jezevec lesní ("Meles meles") je šelma z čeledi lasicovití. Obývá kromě severní Skandinávie celou Evropu, Krétu, Blízký východ a odtud až na Dálný východ. Na lovení jezevců byla vyšlechtěna speciální psí plemena – jezevčíci.


Early life and education.

Walker was born in Houston, where she attended Westbury High School until graduating in 1983.  She then went on to study physics at Rice University in Texas, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics in 1987. From 1990 to 1993, Walker took a leave of absence from her job at the Johnson Space Center to attend graduate school, where her area of study was the solar wind interaction with the Venusian atmosphere.

Career.

Walker began her professional career with the Rockwell Space Operations Company at the Johnson Space Center in 1987 as a robotics flight controller for the Space Shuttle program. She worked several Space Shuttle missions as a flight controller in the Mission Control Center, including STS-27, STS-32, STS-51, STS-56, STS-60, STS-61, and STS-66.  In 1995 she joined the NASA civil service and began working in the International Space Station (ISS) Program at the Johnson Space Center.  Walker worked in the area of robotics integration, working with the ISS International Partners in the design and construction of the robotics hardware for the Space Station. In 1998 she joined the ISS Mission Evaluation Room (MER) as a manager for coordinating on-orbit problem resolution for the ISS.  In 1999, Walker moved to Moscow, Russia, to work with the Russian Space Agency and its contractors in the areas of avionics integration for the ISS as well as integrated problem solving for the ISS. She returned to Houston one year later in 2000 and became the technical lead for the ISS MER as well as the Deputy Manager of the On-Orbit Engineering Office. Most recently, prior to selection as an astronaut candidate, Walker was the Acting Manager of the On-Orbit Engineering Office.

Astronaut career.

Walker was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in May 2004, as part of the 19th class of astronauts. In February 2006 she completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. Completion of this initial training qualifies her for various technical assignments within the Astronaut Office and future flight assignment as a mission specialist.  In early September, she had visited Johnston Middle School, along with Parker and Westbury students. There, via TV, she spoke about dreams and education. She came back in early May.  On September 19, 2011, NASA announced that Walker would command the undersea exploration mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory from October 17–30, 2011. Delayed by stormy weather and high seas, the mission began on October 20, 2011. On the afternoon of October 21, Walker and her crew officially became aquanauts, having spent over 24 hours underwater. NEEMO 15 ended early on October 26 due to the approach of Hurricane Rina.

Expedition 24/25.

Walker was assigned as backup to NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams for ISS Expedition 21/22, directly serving as backup Commander for Expedition 22. Following the launch of Expedition 21/22 on Soyuz TMA-16 in September 2009, Walker was assigned to the prime crew of Expedition 24/25.  On June 15, 2010, Walker launched onboard Soyuz TMA-19, alongside fellow NASA astronaut Douglas Wheelock and Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin. Two days later the trio rendezvoused with the ISS and docked to the Zvezda module, officially becoming part Expedition 24 crew. During Expedition 24, Walker and her two Soyuz TMA-19 counterparts made a 30-minute excursion inside of their Soyuz to move from the Zvezda module to the new Rassvet module, which had been delivered onboard STS-132 during the previous Expedition. The three became the first crewmembers to dock with the new module.  Upon the departure of the crew of Soyuz TMA-18 on September 25, 2010, Walker and her two crewmates became part of Expedition 25. They were soon joined by the three crew members onboard Soyuz TMA-01M. On November 26, 2010, Walker, Wheelock and Yurchikin departed the ISS onboard Soyuz TMA-19 and began their return home. The three returned to Earth at 04:46 UTC on November 26, 2010, 78 kilometers from Arkalyk, Kazakhstan.

Expedition 64/65.

In 2017 Walker served as backup for NASA astronaut Joe Acaba for Expedition 53/54, and she herself was scheduled to launch onboard Soyuz MS-12 in early 2019 and serve on Expedition 59/60, although she was removed from the flight and replaced with Christina Koch well before launch. On March 31, 2020, NASA announced Walker would be returning to space for her second spaceflight onboard USCV-1, the first operational flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and the first operational flight of the Commercial Crew Program. She and her three crew mates are currently scheduled to spend up to 210 days aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 64/65.  Following launch, the crew will dock to the ISS and join the Expedition 64 crew as Flight Engineers, alongside Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, as well as NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins. When those three leave the station, currently scheduled for 18 April 2021, Walker and her three crew mates will transfer over to Expedition 65, with one of them taking command of the station for the remainder of their mission.

Awards and honors.

Goethe Institute Scholarship for Study Abroad, Rice Fellowship for Graduate Study, Rockwell Sustained Superior Performance Award; seven Group Achievement Awards for work in the International Space Station (ISS) Program; three Going the Extra Mile Awards for work in the ISS Program; a Space Flight Awareness Award for contributions to the ISS Program; and nine Performance Bonus Awards.  She is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and The Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots.

Personal life.

She is married to a fellow NASA astronaut, the Australian-born Andy Thomas.  Walker's recreational interests include cooking, soccer, running, weight training, flying, camping, and travel.

Shannon Walker (born 4 June 1965 in Houston, Texas) is an American physicist and a NASA astronaut selected in 2004. She launched on her first mission into space on 25 June 2010 onboard Soyuz TMA-19 and has currently logged 163 days in space over one long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Shannon Baker Walkerová (* 4. června 1965 Houston, Texas, USA) je od roku 1987 zaměstnankyní NASA, od května 2004 je členkou oddílu astronautů NASA. Od roku 2008 se připravovala na svůj první vesmírný let jako členka Expedice 24 a 25 na Mezinárodní vesmírnou stanici (ISS). Do vesmíru vzlétla 15. června 2010, přistála 26. listopadu po 163 dnech, 7 hodinách a 11 minutách letu. Dne 31. března 2020 byla vybrána na let USCV-1.


Overview.

The tower was built between 1979 and 1981 as the Texas Commerce Tower. It was designed by noted architects I. M. Pei & Partners. Architect of Record was 3D/International Inc. In some early plans, the building reached up to 80 stories; however, the FAA expressed concerns that additional height was a risk for aircraft going into and out of nearby William P. Hobby Airport. Nonetheless, when it was completed, it was the sixth-tallest building in the United States and the eighth-tallest building in the world. The building was developed as part of a partnership between Texas Commerce Bank and Khalid bin Mahfouz. It was built on the site where the Uptown Theatre, demolished in 1965, once stood.  Upon its completion, the building surpassed Aon Center in Los Angeles to become the tallest building in the United States west of the Mississippi River, a title it held until Los Angeles's Library Tower, now known as the U.S. Bank Tower, was built in 1990.  JPMorgan Chase Tower is not currently connected to the Houston Downtown Tunnel System. This system forms a network of subterranean, climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways that link twenty-five full city blocks. The lobby of JPMorgan Chase Tower has been designed to harmonize not only with the height of the structure but also with the portico of Jones Hall, home of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and which occupies the city block immediately to the west. For that reason, a five-story glass wall supported by a stainless steel space frame spans the entire 85-foot width of the front entrance, making the lobby area light and airy, and opening up the space to the plaza outside.. The Tower also includes of retail space.  The sky lobby observation deck is located on the 60th floor. The sky lobby acts as a transfer point for persons traveling to the upper (61–75) floors, but also as an observation deck for the building tenants. The sky lobby is now permanently closed to the public and is only accessible by tenants. In the large plaza area at the entrance of the building is a multi-colored sculpture entitled "Personage with Birds", which was designed by painter and sculptor Joan Miró, and which was installed in the plaza in early 1982.  While the tower's name reflects the bank JPMorgan Chase, the only space designated to Chase is a single branch office on the bottom floor. The tower is owned by Prime Asset Management and managed by its original owner, Hines Interests.

Hurricane Ike.

On September 13, 2008, many of the tower's windows were blown out as Hurricane Ike struck the city, leaving desks exposed, metal blinds hanging in twisted heaps, and smoky black glass covering the streets below. Police were forced to cordon off the area due to the amount of debris in the streets.  At first, it was speculated that the glass came off the building due to impact from debris or due to high-speed winds in the confined spaces. However, flying glass debris must be entirely governed by drag and lift forces that overcome gravity for a considerable time period. Also, the high-wind-speed-in-confined-spaces theory is not entirely justified since the height of damage seen in the tower exceeded too significantly the height of the Chase Center parking garage next to the tower. This theory was proposed because an increase in wind speed produces a drop in external pressure. This drop in pressure at the side and leeward walls, combined with the normal, higher pressure inside the building would result in a force that could possibly overcome design pressures causing the window to separate. Other theories included those of ABS Consulting Engineers, who suggested that glazing damage may have been produced by "organized" vortices produced by the upwind Calpine Center and steady vortices between the Tower and the Chase Center parking garage.  The NatHaz Modeling Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame is currently conducting an investigation of the flow field around the structure, modeling the tower and the immediate area surrounding it using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Preliminary findings suggest that the localized damage is the result of a confluence of multiple mechanisms arising from the arrangement of nearby buildings, critical flow directionality and the possible entrapment of debris within evolving flow structures.

The JPMorgan Chase Tower, formerly Texas Commerce Tower, is a,, 75-story skyscraper at 600 Travis Street in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. It is currently the tallest building in the city, the tallest building in Texas, the tallest five-sided building in the world, the 22nd-tallest building in the United States, and the 107th-tallest building in the world.

JPMorgan Chase Tower (dříve Texas Commerce Tower) je mrakodrap sídlící na adrese 600 Travis Street texaského velkoměsta Houston. Postaven byl v letech 1978-1982 a má 75 pater, do nichž můžete vystoupat v jednom z 50 výtahů. Slouží pro komerční účely (kanceláře, sídla společností), kde nabízí prostor v celkové výměře přes 120 tisíc m2. Budovu navrhla společnost I.M. Pei and Partners a realizaci provedli CBM Engineers Inc. a Hines Interests Geralda D. Hinese.


Origin.

There are two theories about I "Germanica" recruitment. The most favored is that it was raised by Julius Caesar in 48 BC to fight in the civil war against Pompey. In that case it would have fought in the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC.  A second theory attributes its recruitment to Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus, a partisan of Caesar, who died in the Battle of Forum Gallorum against Mark Antony in 43 BC. Legio I would have been recruited in that year for that campaign.  However recruited, Legio I was inherited by Augustus and therefore ought to have been entitled to the "cognomen" "Augusta" after distinguished service under his eyes; however, there was no Legio I Augusta. That title was stripped after a defeat in the Cantabrian wars and the loss of its standard to the Astur and Cantabrian peoples.

Hispania disgrace.

The career of Legio I subsequent to the civil wars remains somewhat unclear. It is believed to be identical to the Legio I that took part in the HIspania campaign against the Cantabri conducted for Augustus by Marcus Agrippa and was disgraced there. Inscriptions on coins from Hispania indicate that between 30 and 16 BC, some Legio I was stationed in Hispania Tarraconensis, where they would have fought in the war against the Cantabrians and Asturians. Dio Cassius (54.11.5) says that one legion was stripped of its title, Augusta, after suffering reverses in that campaign. The two references are believed to be to the same legion, accounting for its early missing title and emblem.

Distinguished service in Germania.

Around the turn of the century, Legio I appears on the Rhine frontier. The "Annales" of Tacitus state (1.42.6) that they received standards from Tiberius, but when that was is not clear. This statement is problematic because only new or reconstituted legions received standards. The legion could have been reconstituted after Spain "aquila" (which was lost during the Cantabrian wars when the Legio I was obliterated down to the last fighting man against the Astur and Cantabri) and received new "vexillae", or manipular standards, which would indicate a reorganization with perhaps replacements.  The legion soon redeemed itself, winning the title "Germanica" for distinguished service in Germania. Exactly when they won it is not known. They were initially stationed at Oppidum Ubiorum (Cologne) in the jurisdiction that was to become Germania Inferior. For the time being, the province contained five legions and was under Publius Quinctilius Varus.  In AD 9, Varus and three legions were lured away to the north to suffer extinction in the Battle of Teutoburg forest. Fortunately for Legio I he had not taken his entire command but left two legions in camp under "legati" or junior officers, Legio I being commanded by a nephew of Varus, Lucius Asprenas.  Most likely, the title "Germanica" was granted for service in Drusus' subsequent punitive and exploratory campaigns against the Germanic tribes. Drusus was extremely popular. It was an honor to be in his service and he made sure that his men were honored properly.

Mutiny on the Limes Germanicus.

After the defeat of Varus, Augustus' adoptive son Tiberius (brother of Drusus) assumed command of the army on the Rhine, which was reinforced to eight legions. When Tiberius returned to Italy in 13 AD, Augustus appointed Drusus' son, Germanicus, commander of the eight legions on the Rhine. In the following year Augustus died, Tiberius being his successor.  Subsequently Junius Blaesus, commander of three legions in summer camp in Pannonia, gave the men a holiday. A soldier who had been a claqueur, Percennius, addressed the men on that occasion on the subject of soldier's rights. They needed a fixed contract, he said, a term of service of 16 seasons instead of 25 or 30, and a pay raise. The speech was far from comic. The men as he spoke began raise a dais of earth around him and brought the standards and that attracted the attention of the Praetor, Blaesus. Unable to dissuade the men, he agreed to send his son, a tribune, to Tiberius with the demands. The men settled down to await the reply.  Word of the mutiny spread to construction crews of the legions in nearby Nauportus. Arresting their commander, Aufidienus Rufus, they forced him to march at the head of the return column carrying heavy baggage and asking him all the while how he liked it. They plundered "vici" as they went. Arriving in camp they raised a riot. Attempting to quell it, Blaesus had loyal troops throw the rioters in the guardhouse, but they were set free, the tribunes were ejected from camp, and a harsh centurion murdered.  The soldiers were on the point of killing each other when Tiberius' own son, Drusus Julius Caesar arrived in camp with some troops, sealed the gates and proceeded to investigate and settle the mutiny in tribunal. The men rejecting his proposals, he sent them to their tents and sent men to speak to them personally. Gradually the men were recalled to duty. Drusus had the leaders executed and returned to Rome. No action yet was taken on the issues.  The XXI "Rapax", V "Alaudae", I "Germanica" and XX "Valeria Victrix" of the army of "Germania Inferior" heard of the mutiny at their summer camp among the Ubii. Aroused by new recruits from the city of Rome, the men attacked the centurions by surprise, beating many to death and throwing the bodies into the Rhine. The main command was isolated and the men ran the camp. Hearing of the mutiny, Germanicus left his tax-collecting duties in Gaul and hastened to the camp with a small retinue. He was just as popular as his father had been.  After mingling with the men and hearing their complaints, Germanicus persuaded them into formation, had the standards brought out and began a dialogue with them. At one point they bared their backs to show Germanicus the scars from lashing. At another Germanicus drew his sword and offered to commit suicide, but was restrained. Another soldier offered him a sharper sword. He withdrew to his tent.  There he received word that the mutiny was about to become a state issue. Mutinous envoys were being sent to Cologne, there were plans to burn the city and sack Gaul. The enemy on the other side of the border was watching with interest, waiting to intervene. In realization of the common danger the men settled for immunity, double pay (which Germanicus gladly paid from his own funds on the spot) and an enlistment of sixteen years. I "Germanica" and the XX "Valeria Victrix" retired to Cologne, while Germanicus went to seek senatorial confirmation and approval by Tiberius.  Germanicus returned to Cologne with envoys from the Senate, arriving at night, which was misinterpreted by the men as signifying the agreement was off. They dragged Germanicus from his bed, but the matter was clarified next day. Upset, Germanicus tried to send his pregnant wife and young son off to safety, but the soldiers heard them weeping and came out to detain them. Aroused, Germanicus delivered one of the great orations in history, upholding the tradition of his family's ability in that area, saying, for example:  Moved and stung to the quick, the soldiers settled the mutiny on the spot by general court martial conducted by the tribunes. The leaders were put in chains and brought to the dais, where they went before the troops one by one. The soldiers voted for guilt or innocence by voice. The guilty were thrown off the dais to be executed by the men. Each centurion then passed before the tribunal to be approved or disapproved. The approved kept their rank. The disapproved were discharged from the service. The terms of the agreement were faithfully kept. Germanicus returned to Rome.  I "Germanica" went back to duty, but not exactly with honor. It remained in Germania Inferior fighting in all the major campaigns along the Rhine and the Danube.

Final disgrace and disbandment.

Finally the death of Nero and the year 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, arrived. The "Senatus populusque Romanus" could not decide on a suitable replacement for Nero. The various candidates fought for the distinction, introducing confusion on the Rhine frontier. The result was a general breakaway of the Celtic and Germanic tribes along the Rhine. They were categorically known as the Belgae at that time. Historians styled it the Batavian rebellion of 70.  In essence the tribes along the Rhine believed that the Roman empire was finished and decided to set up a rump state in Gaul ruled from Triers by Gaius Julius Civilis. They managed to convince two legions and most of Gaul to swear allegiance to it. I "Germanica" was one of them. Units that tried to hold out against changing allegiance were attacked.  The victor of that infamous year of contention was Emperor Vespasian. He sent eight legions under Quintus Petillius Cerialis to the Rhine to clarify matters. On his approach, the two renegade legions repented and sought refuge in the future Alsace-Lorraine region on the left bank of the Rhine. Gaul repudiated the government at Triers, which begged finally for terms.  Legio I did not return to station. After the pacification was complete, Vespasian himself came to the Rhine and disbanded I "Germanica". Remnants of the legion were possibly merged with Legio VII Gemina.

Legio I Germanica, the 1st Germanic Legion, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army, possibly founded in 48 BC by Julius Caesar to fight for him in the civil war against Pompey. The title "germanic" is a reference to its service in Germany, rather than the place of origin of its soldiers. After the Revolt of the Batavi (AD 70), the remaining men of the "Germanica" were added to Galba's seventh legion, which became VII "Gemina". The emblem of Legio I is unknown, but it was probably Taurus, like all the other legions levied by Caesar (except the V "Alaudae").

Legio I Germanica (Legio prima "Germanica") byla legie starověkého Říma, kterou údajně naverboval Julius Caesar v roce 48 př. n. l. aby mohl zaútočit na Pompeia. V roce 70 po povstání Batavů se zbývající vojáci přidali do Galbovy sedmé legie VII "Gemina". Znak Legio I Germanica není znám, možná Býk.


History.

The etymology of the word "equal" is from the Latin word ""æqualis"" as meaning "uniform", "identical", or "equal", from "aequus" ("level", "even", or "just").  The symbol, now universally accepted in mathematics for equality, was first recorded by Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde in "The Whetstone of Witte" (1557). The original form of the symbol was much wider than the present form. In his book Recorde explains his design of the "Gemowe lines" (meaning "twin" lines, from the Latin "gemellus"  "The symbol was not immediately popular. The symbol was used by some and (or ), from the Latin word meaning equal, was widely used into the 1700s" ("History of Mathematics", University of St Andrews).

Usage in mathematics and computer programming.

In mathematics, the equals sign can be used as a simple statement of fact in a specific case, or to create definitions (), conditional statements (), or to express a universal equivalence ().  The first important computer programming language to use the equals sign was the original version of Fortran, FORTRAN I, designed in 1954 and implemented in 1957. In Fortran, serves as an assignment operator: sets the value of to 2. This somewhat resembles the use of in a mathematical definition, but with different semantics: the expression following is evaluated first and may refer to a previous value of. For example, the assignment increases the value of by 2.  A rival programming-language usage was pioneered by the original version of ALGOL, which was designed in 1958 and implemented in 1960. ALGOL included a relational operator that tested for equality, allowing constructions like with essentially the same meaning of as the conditional usage in mathematics. The equals sign was reserved for this usage.  Both usages have remained common in different programming languages into the early 21st century. As well as Fortran, is used for assignment in such languages as C, Perl, Python, awk, and their descendants. But is used for equality and not assignment in the Pascal family, Ada, Eiffel, APL, and other languages.  A few languages, such as BASIC and PL/I, have used the equals sign to mean both assignment and equality, distinguished by context. However, in most languages where has one of these meanings, a different character or, more often, a sequence of characters is used for the other meaning. Following ALGOL, most languages that use for equality use for assignment, although APL, with its special character set, uses a left-pointing arrow.  Fortran did not have an equality operator (it was only possible to compare an expression to zero, using the arithmetic IF statement) until FORTRANIV was released in 1962, since when it has used the four characters to test for equality. The language B introduced the use of with this meaning, which has been copied by its descendant C and most later languages where means assignment.  The equals sign is also used in defining attribute–value pairs, in which an attribute is assigned a value.

Usage of several equals signs.

In PHP, the triple equals sign,, denotes value and type equality, meaning that not only do the two expressions evaluate to equal values, but they are also of the same data type. For instance, the expression is true, but is not, because the number 0 is an integer value whereas false is a Boolean value.  JavaScript has the same semantics for, referred to as "equality without type coercion". However, in JavaScript the behavior of cannot be described by any simple consistent rules. The expression is true, but is false, even though both sides of the act the same in Boolean context. For this reason it is sometimes recommended to avoid the operator in JavaScript in favor of.  In Ruby, equality under requires both operands to be of identical type, e.g. is false. The operator is flexible and may be defined arbitrarily for any given type. For example, a value of type is a range of integers, such as. is false, since the types are different (Range vs. Integer); however is true, since on values means "inclusion in the range". Under these semantics, codice_1 is non-symmetric; e.g. codice_2 is false, since it is interpreted to mean codice_3 rather than codice_4.

Other uses.

Spelling.

Tone letter.

The equals sign is also used as a grammatical tone letter in the orthographies of Budu in the Congo-Kinshasa, in Krumen, Mwan and Dan in the Ivory Coast. The Unicode character used for the tone letter (U+A78A) is different from the mathematical symbol (U+003D).

Personal names.

A possibly unique case of the equals sign of European usage in a person's name, specifically in a double-barreled name, was by pioneer aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, as he is also known not only to have often used a double hyphen resembling an equals sign between his two surnames in place of a hyphen, but also seems to have personally preferred that practice, to display equal respect for his father's French ethnicity and the Brazilian ethnicity of his mother.  Instead of a double hyphen, the equals sign is sometimes used in Japanese as a separator between names. In Ojibwe, the readily available equal sign on a keyboard is used as a substitute for a double hyphen.

Linguistics.

In linguistic interlinear glosses, an equals sign is conventionally used to mark clitic boundaries: the equals sign is placed between the clitic and the word that the clitic is attached to.

Chemistry.

In chemical formulas, the two parallel lines denoting a double bond are commonly rendered using an equals sign.

LGBT symbol.

In recent years, the equals sign has been used to symbolize LGBT rights. The symbol has been used since 1995 by the Human Rights Campaign, which lobbies for marriage equality, and subsequently by the United Nations Free & Equal, which promotes LGBT rights at the United Nations.

Related symbols.

Approximately equal.

Symbols used to denote items that are approximately equal include the following:

Not equal.

The symbol used to denote inequation (when items are not equal) is a slashed equals sign (U+2260). In LaTeX, this is done with the "\neq" command.  Most programming languages, limiting themselves to the 7-bit ASCII character set and typeable characters, use,,, or to represent their Boolean inequality operator.

Identity.

The triple bar symbol (U+2261, LaTeX "\equiv") is often used to indicate an identity, a definition (which can also be represented by or ), or a congruence relation in modular arithmetic.

Isomorphism.

The symbol is often used to indicate isomorphic algebraic structures or congruent geometric figures.

In logic.

Equality of truth values, i.e. bi-implication or logical equivalence, may be denoted by various symbols including,, and.

Other related symbols.

Additional symbols in Unicode related to the equals sign include:

Incorrect usage.

The equals sign is sometimes used incorrectly within a mathematical argument to connect math steps in a non-standard way, rather than to show equality (especially by early mathematics students).  For example, if one were finding the sum, step by step, of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, one might incorrectly write Structurally, this is shorthand for but the notation is incorrect, because each part of the equality has a different value. If interpreted strictly as it says, it implies A correct version of the argument would be  This difficulty results from subtly different uses of the sign in education. In early, arithmetic-focused grades, the equals sign may be "operational"; like the equals button on an electronic calculator, it demands the result of a calculation. Starting in algebra courses, the sign takes on a "relational" meaning of equality between two calculations. Confusion between the two uses of the sign sometimes persists at the university level.

Encodings.

Related:

The equals sign or equality sign,, is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. It was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde. In an equation, the equals sign is placed between two expressions that have the same value, or for which one studies the conditions under which they have the same value. In Unicode and ASCII, it has the code point, 3D.

Rovnítko (=) je matematický symbol značící rovnost dvou objektů. Bylo zavedeno Velšanem Robertem Recordem v roce 1557. Používá se tam, kde je potřeba vyjádřit rovnost dvou objektů, například v rovnicích. Je obsaženo v sadách znaků Unicode i ASCII, v obou s hexadecimálním pořadovým číslem 003D.


Early life and first exile.

Meir Henoch Wallach was born into a wealthy Polish Jewish banking family in Białystok, Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire, formerly part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, he was the second son of Moses and Anna Wallach. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) in 1898 at which time the party was considered an illegal organization, and it was customary for its members to use pseudonyms. He changed his name to Maxim Litvinov (a common Litvak surname), but was also known as "Papasha" and "Maximovich". Litvinov also wrote articles under the names "M.G. Harrison" and "David Mordecai Finkelstein".  His early responsibilities included carrying out propaganda work in the Chernigov Governorate. In 1900, Litvinov became a member of Kiev party committee, but the entire committee was arrested in 1901. After 18 months of captivity, he led an escape of 11 inmates from Lukyanovskaya prison and lived in exile in Switzerland, where he was an editor for the revolutionary newspaper "Iskra".  In 1903, he joined the Bolshevik faction and returned to Russia. However, the most important event in 1903 for the advancement of Litvinov's political career was meeting Lenin in the British Library.  Lenin and Litvinov went to Hyde Park to hear some of the speeches, and continued to remain in touch during this pre-revolutionary period.  After the 1905 Revolution, he became editor of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP)'s first legal newspaper, Novaya Zhizn (New Life), in St. Petersburg.

Second emigration.

When the Russian government began arresting Bolsheviks in 1906, Litvinov left the country and spent the next ten years as an émigré and arms dealer for the party. Based in Paris, he travelled throughout Europe, sometimes posing as a procurement officer from Ecuador, buying rifles in Belgium, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire. Despite some notable disasters, such as the wrecking of a gun running yacht on the Romanian coast, he had some success in smuggling these arms into Russia via Finland and the Black Sea.  In 1907, he attended the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in London. Initially he had to rely on the charity of the Rowton Houses for accommodation in London. However, the party eventually arranged a rented house for him that he shared with Joseph Stalin, who had also been anxious to find more comfortable housing than the Rowton poor hostels. In 1908, he was arrested under the name Meer Wallach by French police while carrying twelve 500-ruble banknotes that had been stolen from a bank in Tiflis during the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery that took place on 26 June 1907. Litvinov was deported from France and he went to Belfast in Ireland where he joined his sister Rifka and her family. There, he taught foreign languages in the Jewish Jaffe Public Elementary School until 1910. He then moved to England and lived in London, where he was active in the International Socialist Bureau.  When war broke out in 1914, the Tsar requested that all Russian émigrés who were in England and liable for Russian military service be returned to fight in the Russian army. However Litvinov did not return as he was able to convince the English officer who interviewed him that if he returned to Russia he would be tried rather than fight in the army.  Litvinov regularly spoke in public opposing the war, but failed to face up to the fact that if Britain had not declared war, it would have broken a treaty to defend Belgium. At the pinnacle of his power in the 1930s, Litvinov constantly stressed the importance of abiding by the terms of treaties.  He addressed the conference of the Entente Labour Parties but they were not persuaded to change course:  While holding the olive branch in one hand, we have to hold the sword in the other. We have been forced to take up the sword as the only means of defence. We must not forget we are able to assemble here because the Royal Navy hold the high seas and millions of Allied troops hold the line. If Germany was to succeed, the resolutions we pass would be a mere scrap of paper and of no more value than the Russian bank notes of the Russian state bank.  Later, a mutiny took place on a Russian ship in the Mersey. The police having been warned of possible trouble had the ship under surveillance, and when shouts were heard that the crew were threatening to kill their officers, the ship was boarded and the crew were arrested. Shortly before the mutiny a police report confirmed that Litvinov had received the sailors very well. Therefore, at best, Litvinov had failed to try to dissuade the sailors from carrying out the mutiny or condemn it, and at worst, encouraged it.  Litvinov was also seeking interview with British, American, Australian and Canadian soldiers and inculcating them with Bolshevik ideas, as well as inducing British and American soldiers of Jewish descent to carry on propaganda in their regiments. There was an occasion in which thirty Royal Engineers, along with some American and Canadian soldiers, were received in Litvinov’s office. It was assumed that Litvinov was similarly encouraging them to state their grievances.  In England, Litvinov met and in 1916 married Ivy Low, the daughter of a Jewish university professor.

Diplomat of the 1920s.

On the day after the October Revolution of 1917, Litvinov was appointed by the Council of People's Commissars "(Sovnarkom)" as the Soviet government's plenipotentiary representative in Great Britain. His accreditation was never officially formalised, and his position as an unofficial diplomatic contact was analogous to that of Bruce Lockhart, Britain's unofficial agent in Soviet Russia.  Litvinov was still allowed to speak freely even after the treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Germany and Russia which took Russia out of the war.  In January 1918, Litvinov addressed the Labour Party Conference by praising the achievements of the Revolution:  The land has been given to the peasants. The factories are under the supervision of their shop steward committees. Superfluous apartments of the rich have been made available to provide shelter for the homeless. The banks have been nationalised, and in short, a nationalisation policy has been carried out in all the services of the community. The Army has been democratised and self-determination has been guaranteed to all nationalities of Russia.  He then appealed to the Conference with these words:  The Russian worker has been fighting an unequal battle against the imperialists of all the world for democratic principles honestly applied. They have begun the proceedings for a general peace, but it is obvious they cannot finish it alone. I would say to the representatives of British Labour, 'Speed up your peace.'  Kerensky, the Russian leader of the democratic Government that replaced the Tsar and was overthrown by Lenin, was welcomed by the British Government on a visit to London and addressed the Labour Party Conference by criticising the dictatorship of Lenin’s government:  They have dispersed the Constituent Assembly, abolished freedom of speech, have made human life the easy prey of every red guardsman, have destroyed the liberty of the elections, even in the Councils of the Workmen, that have made an end of all institutions of self-government that have been elected by universal suffrage. The Bolsheviks claim that the present state of Russia is a dictatorship of the proletariat, although the most ruthless repression is applied against the democratic and socialist parties. War has been organised against the helpless population and every Russian citizen who refuses to recognise this method of government as perfect is declared counter-revolutionary.  In the left-wing English press, Litvinov criticised Kerensky with these words:  The continuance of the government in time of Revolution, for eight months without a standing army, except voluntary detachments, without police and press censorship and indeed with greater freedom of speech and the press than exists in any other country immediately disproves allegations to the contrary. Kerensky and his friends, having convinced themselves of the futility of any counter-revolutionary revolts in Russia, are now coming abroad to seek foreign military intervention for the overthrow of the Soviets under the pretext of fighting Germany. Further, if Kerensky is successful in overthrowing the Bolshevik regime, it will not be replaced by a socialist or even a democratic government but by the most brutal and barbaric military dictatorship resting on foreign bayonets, with the inevitable restoration of Tsarism. Clearly, the reception given to Kerensky indicated that the vast majority of the British Labour movement believed that a safer route to improve the prosperity of the working class was through the parliamentary route rather than by revolution."  Later in 1918, Litvinov was arrested by the British government, ostensibly on a charge of having addressed public gatherings held in opposition to British intervention in the ongoing Russian Civil War. Litvinov was held until exchanged for Lockhart, who had been imprisoned similarly in Russia.  Following his release, Litvinov returned to Moscow, arriving there at the end of 1918. There, he was appointed to the governing collegium of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs "(Narkomindel)" and immediately dispatched on an official mission to Stockholm, Sweden, where he presented a Soviet peace appeal. Litvinov was subsequently deported from Sweden, but spent the next months as a roving diplomat for the Soviet government, helping to broker a multilateral agreement allowing the exchange of prisoners of war from a range of combatants, including Russia, Great Britain, and France. This successful negotiation amounted to "de facto" recognition of the new revolutionary Russian government by the other signatories to the agreement and established Litvinov's importance in Soviet diplomacy.  However, Litvinov undoubtedly tried to intervene in Britain's internal politics agreeing at the request of the "Daily Herald", a newspaper supporting the Labour Party, to ask the Soviet government to give it financial assistance saying:  If we do not support the "Daily Herald", which is now passing through a fresh crisis, the paper will have to turn to a Right trade union. On Russian questions it acts as if it is our organ. After Lansbury’s journey to Moscow earlier in the year, the "Herald" has moved considerably to the Left and decidedly advocates direct action in support of the Soviet regime. It needed £50,000 in six months, after which once again it hoped to be on firm ground. I beg for an early and favourable answer because there is no hope of establishing a purely Communist newspaper at this time.  In view of the publicity caused by the leak, the money was never accepted by the "Daily Herald".  In March 1921, a trade agreement was negotiated between the Soviet Government and British Government permitting trade between the two countries making trade lawful so that gold sent to Britain to pay for goods could not be confiscated. However, immediately after the agreement was signed, the British Government and even more the British press began to complain about Communist propaganda. Finally, the British Foreign Secretary sent a note of protest to the Soviet Government, charging it with responsibility for intrigues against the British Government. Litvinov replied:  The British Foreign Office has been misled by a gang of professional forgers and swindlers, and had it known the dubious sources of its information, its note of 7 September would never have been produced. The British Government's complaints of anti-British activities in India, Persia, Turkistan, Angora and Afghanistan to a certain extent are based on the above-mentioned fictitious reports and speeches, but the Russian Government wishes to state most emphatically that, after the conclusion of the Anglo-Russian agreement, it had given strict instructions to its representatives in the East to abstain from any anti-British propaganda. True to the principle of self-determination, the Soviet Government and its representatives exercise the greatest respect for the independence of the Eastern countries in giving up the privileges and concessions forcibly extorted from them by the Tsarist Government.  The Russian Government, on its part, feels compelled to place on record that the attitude of the British Government has lately been far from friendly towards Russia.  The imprisonment by British authorities in Constantinople of a number of Russian trade agents and their expulsion without any charge having been preferred against them, the co-operation with the French Government in the so-called ‘Russian question’, the continued support given to French schemes tending to frustrate every effort on behalf of various countries and international bodies to bring some help to the famine-stricken population of Russia, and lastly the presentation of the British note itself of 7 September with its grave charges based merely on imaginary facts and unchecked loose information obtained from dubious sources at a time when France was inciting Poland and Rumania to make war on Russia, do not belong to the category of facts that would induce the Russian Government to believe that it is the sincere desire of the British Government to foster friendly relations between the governments and peoples of the two countries.  In 1921, Litvinov was appointed First Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs, second in command to People's Commissar Georgy Chicherin (1872–1936). Although both were unflinchingly loyal to the Soviet regime, Litvinov and Chicherin proved to be temperamental opposites and ultimately emerged as rivals. Chicherin was cultivated and polished in personal style and taste, but held a strongly anti-Western political orientation. He sought to hold Soviet Russia aloof from diplomatic dealmaking with capitalist powers. As diplomatic historian Jonathan Haslam has observed, Litvinov was precisely the reverse: less erudite and more coarse, but willing to deal in good faith with the West for peace and a breathing space for Soviet Russia to pursue its own internal development.  In 1924, full diplomatic relations had been restored under the Macdonald Labour Government. The Conservative Party and the business community continued to be hostile to the Soviet Union partly because the Soviet Union had not honoured the Tsarist Debts and partly because of the fear of Bolshevism spreading to Britain, and considered that therefore the Bolshevist Government should be militarily overthrown. This was exacerbated by the Soviet Government supporting the 1926 General Strike and criticising the British TUC for calling off the strike. The Soviet Government offered a gift of £25,000 to the TUC which was refused and £200,000 to the Cooperative movement which was accepted.  However, Litvinov was still anxious to prevent this deterioration of relations and suggested that he should have talks with Hodgson; Britain's "chargé d'affaires" in Moscow. Hodgson who privately was sympathetic to some of Litvinov’s complaints communicated with the Foreign Office in the following terms. He gave four reasons for criticising Britain's position:  In the first place we had signed a trade agreement as long ago as 1921 and in 1923 we went a step further by conferring on the Soviet Government "de jure" recognition.  Secondly, it be known upon several occasions in the past six months that HM Government have every intention of maintaining its relationship with the Soviet Government unless the latter do something quite intolerably offensive.  Third, the outbursts of enthusiasts carried away by their legitimate emotions are liable to prejudice our position in dealing with problems which, being in relation with the Soviet Government, we have to solve by discussion with that Government.  Fourth, the Soviet Union whatever her political complexion, is a market and we badly need markets. The red bandit battle cry may conceivably serve a useful purpose in the political warfare at home. On this question I can offer no opinion. I can, however, lay it down as a proposition that in so far as our relations with Russia are concerned, the expressions of resentment which it epitomises are definitely detrimental to our essential interest. That we should be alarmed at the activity of Soviet agitators is an admission of weakness which is hailed with delight over here.  Yet the most pressing aspect is the commercial one and here the anti-red campaign does positive and immediate harm which it is impossible to calculate in Pounds Sterling. It creates a policy of insecurity which makes the Soviet Government hesitant about placing orders in Britain, causes British firms to fight shy of Russian orders and frightens British banks from financing them.  Nevertheless, under pressure from Conservative MP's on the uncorroborated evidence of a dismissed employee that the Soviet Trade Mission had stolen a missing war office document the Conservative Government successfully asked Parliament to sever diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.  Although Chicherin advocated caution, the British Government and the Narkomindel have responded to Britain in a conciliatory manner to mollify the moderate Conservatives in the Cabinet. Litvinov, presumably with Stalin’s support, decided to go on the attack:  The decision was no surprise to the Soviet Government. It had already for long been aware that a rupture of diplomatic relations with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was being prepared by the whole policy of the present British Conservative Government, which has declined all proposals of the Soviet Government for the settlement of mutual relations by means of negotiations. The lack of results of the search of the Trade Delegation premises, which was carried out with utmost thoroughness over several days, is the most convincing proof of the loyalty and correctitude of the official agents of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. The Soviet Government passes over with contempt the insinuations of a British Minister regarding espionage by the Trade Delegation and considers it beneath its dignity to reply to them. The Soviet Government places on record that the British Government had no legitimate ground for a police raid on the extra-territorial premises of the official Soviet agent.  Hodgson, the British "chargé d'affaires", agreed with Litvinov that the Argos Raid was deplorable. He said so in a letter to "the Times" fourteen years later in 1941 showing his pleasure at Litvinov’s appointment as ambassador of the United States.  When the Labour Party were the largest party in the 1929 British General election, Macdonald who became Prime Minister set about restoring relations with the Soviet Union provided the Soviet Union refrained from initiating propaganda in Britain. Whereas Litvinov was in favour of being conciliatory we now know from published letters between Stalin and Molotov, that Stalin decided to overrule Litvinov’s conciliatory attitude having the result that British Foreign Secretary Henderson, instead of trying to come to an effective agreement on propaganda, papered over the cracks so in effect achieved unconditional recognition.  Litvinov was a strong supporter of the principle of disarmament and favored Soviet participation in the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which pledged signatories to the elimination of the use of war as a tool of foreign policy—a position directly at odds with that advocated by his nominal superior, Chicherin. He was frustrated by the failure of the Kellogg Pact's signatories to ratify the treaty. So he proposed the Litvinov Protocol, in which signatories formally proclaimed themselves in mutual compliance with the pacifistic goals of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. It was signed in Moscow in February 1929 by the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Latvia, and Estonia, and later by several other countries.  He was also an enthusiastic supporter and actively attended the Preparatory Commission of the Disarmament Conference from 30 November 1927 until it was replaced by the actual disarmament Conference in 1932 advocating total Disarmament.  Boncour, the French politician criticised such proposals saying;  Supposing you had total disarmament; if there was no international organisation taking charge of security, if you had no international force to ensure the maintenance of this security, if you had no international law such as we are endeavouring to lay down here, a powerful and populous nation would always have the power when it wished to do so on a small nation equally disarmed, less populous and less well equipped to resist an attack which might be made upon it.  Litvinov’s answer was;  Would small nations be less insecure after their powerful neighbours who have disarmed than they are now when, in addition to economic, financial, territorial and other superiorities possessed by the great powers, the latter also enjoy the immense advantage of greater armaments.  However, the proposals despised by most of the delegates to the Disarmament Conference won Litvinov favourable publicity in radical circles in the Western countries eager for disarmament and which were already impatient at the slow progress of the commission.  The national joint Council of the Labour Party, the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress passed a resolution expressing their sense of great importance of the proposals of general and simultaneous disarmament which was put forward by the USSR delegation at the Preparatory Disarmament Commission in Geneva on 30 November 1927.

People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs.

In 1930, Joseph Stalin appointed Litvinov People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. A firm believer in collective security, Litvinov worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and the United Kingdom, a policy seemingly at odds with the "class against class" line of the so-called Third Period being advocated by the Communist International. Litvinov remained the only leading official of Narkomindel in the mid-1930s who had direct personal access to Stalin and who could deal with Stalin's inner circle on terms approaching equality, in marked contrast to other top foreign affairs officials such as Litvinov's protégé Boris Stomonyakov and rival Nikolay Krestinsky, for whom access was limited to the level of occasional supplication.  Stalin was largely detached from and uninterested in foreign policy throughout the first half of the 1930s, largely leaving the general operations of Narkomindel and the Comintern to their designated chiefs. This left Litvinov with fairly wide latitude to pursue policy objectives subject only to broad review and approval from the centre, with Stalin frequently delegating even that aspect of leadership to members of his personal secretariat, including Karl Radek, until the summer of 1936. As a result, Litvinov's Narkomindel was able to pursue a moderate foreign policy line, emphasising stable relations between governments leading towards general disarmament, which was, as one historian has called it, a "curious mismatch" with the revolutionary militance then vocalised by the Comintern.  In 1933, Litvinov was instrumental in winning a long-sought diplomatic plum: formal diplomatic recognition by the United States of the Soviet government. US President Franklin Roosevelt sent comedian Harpo Marx to the Soviet Union as a goodwill ambassador. Litvinov and Marx became friends and even performed a routine on stage together. Litvinov also actively facilitated the acceptance of the Soviet Unuin into the League of Nations, where he represented his country from 1934 to 1938.  In 1935, Litvinov negotiated treaties of mutual assistance with France and with Czechoslovakia with the aim of containing Nazi Germany's aggression.

Negotiations regarding Germany and dismissal.

After the Munich Agreement, German media derided Litvinov about his Jewish ancestry, referring to him as "Finkelstein-Litvinov." The Western democracies’ policy of appeasement led the Soviet Union to reorient its foreign policy towards a rapprochement with Germany.  On 3 May 1939, Stalin replaced Litvinov, who was closely identified with the anti-German position, with Vyacheslav Molotov. That night, NKVD troops surrounded the offices of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. The phone at Litvinov's dacha was disconnected and, the following morning, Molotov, Georgy Malenkov, and Lavrenty Beria arrived at the commissariat to inform Litvinov of his dismissal. After Litvinov's dismissal, many of his aides were arrested and beaten, evidently in an attempt to extract compromising information.  The replacement of Litvinov with Molotov significantly increased Stalin's freedom to maneuver in foreign policy. The dismissal of Litvinov, whose Jewish ethnicity was viewed disfavorably by Nazi Germany, removed an obstacle to negotiations with Germany. Stalin immediately directed Molotov to "purge the ministry of Jews." Recalling Stalin's order, Molotov commented, "Thank God for these words! Jews formed an absolute majority in the leadership and among the ambassadors. It wasn't good."  Given Litvinov's prior attempts to create an anti-fascist coalition, association with the doctrine of collective security with France and Britain, and pro-Western orientation by Kremlin standards, his dismissal indicated the existence of a Soviet option of rapprochement with Germany. Likewise, Molotov's appointment was a signal to Germany that the USSR was open to offers. The dismissal also signaled to France and Britain the existence of a potential negotiation option with Germany. One British official wrote that Litvinov's disappearance also meant the loss of an admirable technician or shock-absorber, while Molotov's "modus operandi" was "more truly Bolshevik than diplomatic or cosmopolitan."  With regard to the signing of a German-Soviet nonaggression pact with secret protocols dividing eastern Europe three months later, Hitler remarked to military commanders that "Litvinov's replacement was decisive." A German official told the Soviet Ambassador that Hitler was also pleased that Litvinov's replacement, Molotov, was not Jewish. Hitler also wrote to Mussolini that Litvinov's dismissal demonstrated the Kremlin's readiness to alter relations with Berlin, which led to "the most extensive nonaggression pact in existence." When Litvinov was later asked about the reasons for his dismissal, he replied by asking, "Do you really think that I was the right person to sign a treaty with Hitler?"  American historian Jeffrey Herf views Litvinov's dismissal and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact as conclusive proof that the Nazi belief in a Jewish conspiracy that supposedly controlled the governments of the Soviet Union and other allied powers was completely false.

Ambassador to the United States and latter.

Following his dismissal as head of Narkomindel, Litvinov was dispatched to Washington, D.C., to serve as the Soviet Union's Ambassador to the United States.  Like Churchill, Litvinov had misgivings about the Munich Agreement. Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Litvinov said on a radio broadcast to Britain and the United States: "We always realized the danger which a Hitler victory in the West could constitute for us."  After returning to Soviet Union, Litvinov became deputy minister for foreign affairs. He was dismissed from his post after an interview given to Richard C. Hottelet on June 18, 1946 in which he expressed a belief that war between the West and the Soviet Union was inevitable.

Death and legacy.

There have been rumours indicating Litvinov was murdered on Stalin's personal instructions to the MVD. According to Anastas Mikoyan, a truck deliberately collided with Litvinov's car as it rounded a bend near to the Litvinov dacha on New Year's Eve 1951, and he later died of his injuries. British television journalist Tim Tzouliadis stated: "The assassination of Litvinov marked an intensification of Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign.". However, according to Litvinov's wife and daughter, Stalin was still on good terms with him at the time of his death. He had serious heart problems and was given the best treatment available during the final weeks of his life, which ended in a heart attack on 31 December 1951.  After Litvinov's death, his widow remained in the Soviet Union until she returned to live in Britain in 1972.  In his reminiscences dictated to a supporter when he was an old man, Litvinov's replacement as chief of foreign affairs and right-hand man of Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, remembered Litvinov as "intelligent" and "first rate" but declared that Stalin and he "didn't trust him" and consequently "left him out of negotiations" with the United States during the whole war.  Molotov declared Litvinov "not a bad diplomat—a good one" but proclaimed him "quite an opportunist" who "greatly sympathized with Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev. "Litvinov remained among the living [in the Great Purge] only by chance," Molotov declared.  Litvinov's grandson Pavel Litvinov, a physicist, writer and Soviet-era dissident, resides in the United States.

Maxim Maximovich Litvinov, ; born Meir Henoch Wallach-Finkelstein (17 July 1876 – 31 December 1951) was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet Bolshevik politician.

Maxim Maximovič Litvinov (rusky Максим Максимович Литвинов, rodným jménem Meir Henoch Mojsejevič Vallach-Finkelstein) (17. července 1876 – 31. prosince 1951, Moskva) byl ruský židovský revolucionář a třetí sovětský lidový komisař pro zahraniční věci v letech 1930–1939.


Pathophysiology.

The lesions of the Baló's sclerosis belong to the MS lesion pattern III (distal oligodendrogliopathy). Balo concentric sclerosis is now believed to be a variant of pattern III multiple sclerosis and probably due to metabolic problems.  The Baló lesions show veins at their center, like those of MS, some suggestive of microhemorrhages or small ectatic venules. Unlike MS, no cortical gray matter lesions appear.

Theoretical models.

According with Dr. Lucchinetti investigations, in Baló's concentric sclerosis, the rings may be caused by a physiological hypoxia (similar to that caused by some toxins or viruses) in the lesion, which is in turn countered by expression of stress proteins at the border. This expression and counter-expression forms rings of preserved tissue within the lesion and rings of demyelinated tissue just beyond where the previous attack had induced the protective stress proteins. Hence, subsequent attacks form concentric rings.  Some other researchers maintain that, as in pattern III MS, the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex IV activity is reduced and this could be the culprit of glutamate-mediated axonal injury.  Ultimately, this expanding lesion causes the progressive picture typically seen. However, in some patients, the pathology underlying the disease appears to burn out and hence the disease may halt, hence the patients who spontaneously recover. The mechanisms triggering attacks and recovery remain uncertain.  Nevertheless, this model is questioned by recent reports that found astrocyte damage, similar to the one found in aquaporin-seropositive neuromyelitis optica. Though no anti-NMO antibodies have been found, the damage is similar, pointing to problems in the water channel of the astrocytes  It presents three clinical subtypes: Monophasic, relapsing-remitting and primary rapidly progressive. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is either normal or shows mild mononuclear inflammatory reaction. CSF-restricted oligoclonal bands are present only in a minority of cases

Other models.

A mathematical model for concentric sclerosis has been proposed. Authors review the previous pathogenic theories, discuss the link between concentric sclerosis and Liesegang's periodic precipitation phenomenon and propose a new mechanism based on self-organization.

Diagnosis.

Lesions under MRI are distinctive due to their natural concentric shape.  Under a lumbar puncture CSF test, with Baló's concentric sclerosis, as well as patients with pattern III lesions, were recently shown to be mostly negative for CSF-restricted oligoclonal bands. Also pattern III patients tend to be negative under the MRZ-reaction (measles, rubeola and zoster viruses)

Paediatric cases.

Baló's concentric sclerosis in children has been reported to behave different from adults

Lesions in autopsy and biopsy.

A report comparing 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy, magnetization transfer and diffusion tensor imaging with histopathology in a patient with Baló's concentric sclerosis, found that inflammation was traced by fractional anisotropy and increased lactate. In contrast, magnetization transfer ratio and the diffusion coefficient show a loss of tissue in the rings of the lesion.

Lesions under MRI.

The features of the MRI and the characteristics of the lesion can be correlated when a biopsy has been taken, providing a way to standardize the future MRI diagnosis  Baló's concentric sclerosis lesions can be distinguished from normal lesions on MRI showing alternative hypotensive and hypertensive layers  Baló's concentric lesions can be viewed using the myelin water imaging techniques. This is a special MRI sequence that shows the myelin's percentage of water content.  Pattern III lesions, including Baló lesions, have a specific initiation pattern under MRI (MRILIP) consisting in showing Gadolinium enhancement before FLAIR MRI appearance.  Under 7-Tesla MRI Ball lesions show a center vein, like in MS.

Treatment.

Treatment with corticosteroids is usual to relieve inflammation.

Epidemiology and causes.

The disease is more common in Chinese and Filipino populations (both Asiatic) than in caucasoids.  Balo-like lesions have been reported to appear also in Tumefactive inflammatory leukoencephalopathy

Associations.

A possible association with psoriasis and autoimmune thyroiditis has been reported

Clinical courses.

It that the clinical course is primary progressive, but a relapsing-remitting course has been reported. It seems that the course gets better with prednisone therapy, although evidence of this is anecdotal and such conclusions are difficult to accept given that there are cases where patients spontaneously recover whether the patient was on steroid therapy or not.  Baló lesions can disappear over time, but it has also been reported that the disease can convert to RRMS  The clinical course of Balo-like lesions also depends to the context in which they appear. Balo-like lesions have been reported in aquaporin-4 seropositive and seronegative NMOSD, and also in children, as part of an ADEM-like presentation

Pattern III (Baló-like) demyelinating spectrum.

Baló-like lesions were classified as MS lesion pattern III in the MS spectrum. They have been reported alone, but also associated to standard multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica, CADASIL and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy  There is an overlap between what is considered Baló concentric sclerosis and some atypical cases of multiple sclerosis. A special subtype of multiple sclerosis presents Baló-like lesions (pattern III lesions) creating an intersection between these two conditions.  Some patients with BCS present oligoclonal bands while others do not. It has been proposed that BCS lesions may not denote a single disease, but a final pathway of various demyelinating diseases, reflecting the presence of intralesional hypoxia as recently proposed  Recently it has been reported that pattern III lesions are responsive to Mitoxantrone. On the other hand, this pattern is the less responsive to plasmapheresis  Pattern III lesions can be diagnosed without a biopsy because these patients show a high reactivity to AQP1 (without antibody) and varicella zoster virus (VZV).

Origin of the lesions.

Pattern III lesions were for sometime thought to be a MS nascent lesion, though it is not likely anymore. A strain of bacterium Clostridium perfringens has been found in Pattern III lesions. Tests in mice found that a toxin made by a rare strain of "C. perfringens" caused MS-like damage in the brain, and earlier work had identified this strain of "C. perfringens" in a human with MS. MS patients were found to be 10 times more immune-reactive to the epsilon toxin than healthy people.  Later reports state that Baló's patients showed loss of AQP1 and AQP4 in demyelinating lesions without binding auto-antibodies but with high reactivities to AQP1 peptides, which probably reflect astrocytic damage

History.

Though the disease carries the name of József Baló, it was first described by Otto Marburg in 1906 Later, in 1928, József Baló studied the encephalitis periaxialis concentrica in a Hungarian patient, showing also demyelination of the peripheral nervous system.

Baló's concentric sclerosis is a disease in which the white matter of the brain appears damaged in concentric layers, leaving the axis cylinder intact. It was described by József Mátyás Baló who initially named it "leuko-encephalitis periaxialis concentrica" from the previous definition, and it is currently considered one of the borderline forms of multiple sclerosis.

(Balóova) koncentrická skleróza je jednou z hraničních forem roztroušené sklerózy (RS). Jedná se o demyelinizační onemocnění podobné klasické RS, které se však liší v tom, že demyelinizované tkáně tvoří soustředné (koncentrické) vrstvy. Dříve se lékaři domnívali, že u Balóovy koncentrické sklerózy je prognóza podobná Margburské roztroušené skleróze, ale dnes jsou známy případy, kdy pacienti s touto nemocí přežili, či takové případy, kdy u nich dokonce nastala spontánní remise, případně asymptomatické případy.


Biography.

Origins.

He was born either in Alcalá de Henares or Alcalá la Real, still unknown today. Little is known about him today, save that he was a cleric and probably studied in Toledo. Though his birth name is known to be Juan Ruiz, he is widely referred to by his title of "archpriest of Hita."

Imprisonment.

According to his own book, he was imprisoned for years, thought to be between 1337 and 1350, as punishment for some of his deeds (if the poem is any guide, they were quite inconsistent with his position as priest). However, the poem has long been considered as pseudo-autobiography and the verses that mention his imprisonment appear at the end of the book and are generally thought to have been added after the fact. One of his poems states that he was imprisoned on the order of Gil Albornoz, An Archbishop of Toledo. It is not known whether he was sentenced for his irregularities of conduct, or on account of his satirical reflections on his ecclesiastical superiors. Nor is it possible to fix the precise date of his imprisonment. Albornoz nominally occupied the see of Toledo from 1337 to 1368, but he fell into disgrace in 1351 and fled to Avignon. A consideration of these circumstances points to the probable conclusion that Ruiz was in prison from 1337 to 1350, but this is conjecture. What seems established is that he finished the "Libro de buen amor" in 1343. Indeed, almost nothing is known about the author(s) of the poem or if he was even named Juan Ruiz. One scholarly study found hundreds of clerics in mid-fourteenth-century Castile named Juan Ruiz. The name appears to be the equivalent of John Smith and may have been chosen to represent everyman.

Death.

It has been estimated that he died around 1350 (presumably in prison); by 1351, he no longer held the title of archpriest of Hita.

The Book of Good Love.

"Libro de Buen Amor" ("Book of Good Love") is a massive and episodic work that combines poems to Jesus and Mary; Ruiz's unrequited love, and fables. The poem itself is 1,728 stanzas long). The breadth of the writer's scope, and the exuberance of his style have caused some to term him "the Castilian Chaucer." Speculation regarding whether or not the book was actually an autobiography is incessant.  His language is characterized by its richness and its sermon-like tendency to repeat the same concept in several different ways. Noted for being very creative and alive, his work utilizes colloquial, popular vocabulary. His natural gifts were supplemented by his varied culture; he clearly had a considerable knowledge of the colloquial (and perhaps also of literary) Arabic widely spoken in the Spain of his time; his classical reading was apparently not extensive, but he knew by heart the "Disticha" of Dionysius Cato, and admits his indebtedness to Ovid and to the "De Amore" ascribed to Pamphilus; his references to Blanchefleur, to Tristan and to Yseult, indicate an acquaintance with French literature, and he utilizes the "fabliaux" with remarkable deftness; lastly, he adapts fables and apologues from Aesop, from Pedro Alfonso's "Disciplina clericalis", and from medieval bestiaries.  All these heterogeneous materials are fused in the substance of his versified autobiography, into which he intercalates devout songs, parodies of epic or forensic formulae, and lyrical digressions on every aspect of life. He shows a profound knowledge of human emotion and is able to strike a balance between gentleness and brazenness in his shrewd and frequently ironic writing. Ruiz, in fact, offers a complete picture of picaresque society in the most complex and rich cultural geography of Europe during the first half of the 14th century, and his impartial irony lends a deeper tone to his rich coloring. He knows the weaknesses of both clergy and laity, and he dwells with equal complacency on the amorous adventures of great ladies, on the perverse intrigues arranged by demure nuns behind their convent walls, and on the simpler instinctive animalism of country lasses and Moorish dancing-girls.  In addition to the faculty of genial observation Ruiz has the gift of creating characters and presenting types of human nature: from his Don Furón is derived the hungry gentleman in "Lazarillo de Tormes", in Don Melón and Doña Endrina he anticipates Calisto and Melibea in the "Celestina", and Celestina herself is developed from the Trotaconventos of Ruiz. Moreover, Ruiz was justly proud of his metrical innovations: the "Libro de buen amor" is mainly written in the "cuaderna via" modelled on the French alexandrine, but he imparts to the measure a variety and rapidity previously unknown in Castilian, and he experiments by introducing internal rhymes or by shortening the fourth line into an octosyllabic verse; or he boldly recasts the form of the stanza, extending it to six or seven lines with alternate verses of eight and five syllables. But his technical skill never sinks to triviality. All his writing bears the stamp of a unique personality, and, if he never attempts a sublime flight, he conveys with contagious force his enthusiasm for life under any conditions — in town, country, vagabondage or gaol.  Johan Ruys (original spelling), arcipreste de la Hita, was imprisoned by the Inquisition for a few years due to his one-sided love affair with a lady of the nobility. In our modern society, he would have been charged with "harassment". He is said to have died 7 or 8 years after his release from the Inquisition's holding facility.  There are today three manuscripts of the "Libro de Buen Amor". The Salamanca version, denoted S, resides in Madrid's Biblioteca Real and is considered the best of the three codices. The other two are the Academia Española version, known as Gayoso (G), and the Toledo (T) manuscript.

Legacy.

Ruiz's influence is visible in "El Corbacho", the work of another jovial goliard, Alphonso Martinez de Toledo, arch-priest of Talavera, who wrote more than half a century before the "Libro" "de buen amor" was imitated by the author of the "Celestina". Ruiz is mentioned with respect by Santillana, and that his reputation extended beyond Spain is proved by the surviving fragments of a Portuguese version of the "Libro de buen amor". By some strange accident he was neglected, and apparently forgotten, till 1790, when an expurgated edition of his poems was published by Tomás Antonio Sanchez; from that date his fame has steadily increased, and by the unanimous verdict of all competent judges he is now ranked as the greatest Castilian poet of his century.  Paul Heyse (18301914) published a translation into German of a poem by Ruiz in the 1852 collection "Spanisches Liederbuch", with the first line ""Nun bin ich dein, du aller Blumen Blume"". The translation was set to music for voice and piano by Hugo Wolf (18601903), and published in his 1891 Lieder collection also called "Spanisches Liederbuch".

Juan Ruiz (), known as the Archpriest of Hita ("Arcipreste de Hita"), was a medieval Castilian poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, "Libro de buen amor" ("The Book of Good Love").

Juan Ruiz (známý jako Arcikněz Hitský, kolem 1283, Alcalá de Henares – kolem 1350) byl kastilský básník první poloviny 14. století. Je autorem jednoho z nejdůležitějších literárních děl středověké španělské literatury: "Kniha pravé lásky" ("Libro de buen amor").